IT’S FAITH – NOT VITAMIN C
WHAT IS MISSING FROM YOUR NUTRITIONAL PLAN?
Being a nutritionist in private practice for 12 years, I am not suggesting neglecting the thirteen vitamins and seventeen minerals essential to the human body. I have had a career training over ten thousand patients in proper nutrition techniques to manage their weight and health. The secret to controlling your weight lies in three changes in eating behavior. To control your hormonal response to food, you need to eat the right foods, in the right portions, at least four times a day. This will control your blood sugar levels and your insulin response to what you eat. The challenge for some is not learning what to eat and why, but being able to do what they have learned. The question is why? The answer, the condition of our faith.
The biblical definition of faith is found in Hebrews 11:1. “Now, faith is to be sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” I always take my clients through both parts of this. Are you sure you want to be at your ideal weight? Are you sure you will reach your goal? I don’t have many clients who expect something bad. However, I meet many who lack the faith to make it happen. Hope, then, is a weak sister of faith. Most of my ministry is not dedicated to hope, it is dedicated to building faith.
To develop faith, I direct my patients to the truth found in Mark 11:22, when Jesus commanded us to “have faith in God.” This lays the foundation that our faith is not based on our abilities, but on God’s. The rest of this scripture instructs us on what faith can do, where we store it, how we activate it, and how to ensure the outcome of faith.
To begin with, Jesus said in Mark 11:23, “Truly I say to you, if anyone says to this mountain, go and throw yourself into the sea and does not doubt with his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.” So, what can faith do? It can move mountains. Many patients I know make weight control the mountain in their life and cannot move it. This scripture teaches that the only thing that can stop faith from working is disbelief or doubt Doubt is an enemy that steals what the Lord wants us to receive.
So where is faith stored? In are hearts, not in our minds. Faith in what we see or how we feel is mental faith, which operates in our abilities. It operates on natural principles, which are constantly changing. The faith that comes from what you see has no real power. The faith of the heart operates in the spirit, when you take the word of God in your spirit and believe that you will carry it out in the natural. Faith that works in the heart or spirit takes the unseen realm and makes it happen in the natural. The word of God teaches in 2 Corinthians 4:18 “so let us not fix our eyes on what is seen, but on what is not seen.” A common weight management problem is continually weighing yourself to see if your nutritional plan is working. This is building faith in what you see, rather than what you believe. In the middle of a seminar that she was giving, a woman said: “the results that I have will keep me faithful to my eating habits.” A woman at the back of the audience said, “oh, that’ll never work.” She turned around, stunned. With her response, she expounded by saying, “I know many who got great results and didn’t stick with it.” Fidelity is a fruit of the spirit, it manifests itself with a change of heart, not size.
So how do we activate faith? When we speak it with our mouth. Our spoken words are what set our faith in motion. Our words have prophetic power. We speak things into existence. It is governed by a spiritual law that is as real as the natural law of gravity. That is the law of swing and harvest. Galatians 6:7 says, “Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. Man reaps what he sows.” I teach my clients to take control of their words. One time when he was counseling a woman, the Lord stopped me and said, “It’s not what goes into her mouth that causes her trouble, it’s what comes out of her mouth.” Our words are seeds that when planted grow into something good or something bad.
So what is assurance of faith? It will allow us to receive, whatever we are willing to believe for. The only condition to unlock all the promises in God’s word is that we must believe. If I am willing to trust God and believe all that He has promised in His Word, I can enjoy good health. Isaiah 55:11 promises, “so is my word that proceeds from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will do what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I feel it.” Though heaven and earth pass away, the word of our Heavenly Father will never pass away.
Now that we know our faith is in God and what faith can do, where do we get it from? Romans 10:19 tells us “faith is by hearing the message and the message is heard by the word of Christ.” Joshua 1:8 instructs us, “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, that you may be careful to do all that is written in it. Then you will be prosperous and prosperous.” So, for for faith to increase, it must be exercised. As a former Mr. Connecticut bodybuilding champion, my clients are surprised at my response when they ask me what exercise they should use to lose weight and keep it off. I point to a sign in my office that says, “I exercise my FAITH, I walk with the Lord.” Faith must be exercised. James 1:22 says, “Don’t just listen to the word and thus deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” Every time a client says he’s going to try to lose weight, I know he’s setting himself up for failure. As with faith, controlling his weight isn’t something he tries, it’s someone he becomes.
The Lord has blessed me with many prophetic words, which have changed the course of my life. To understand my heart in what is shared below I am going to reveal two. The first prophecy, the Lord woke me up in the middle of the night and told me “prepare my people, so that I do not need to repair my people.” The Lord is saying teach My people.
Obesity is reaching epidemic levels in the United States and is now the second leading cause of preventable death. The medical community used to view obesity simply as the product of poor nutrition or a lack of willpower. Now they are beginning to define obesity as a disease that poses a serious threat to our public health. This has not escaped the Christian community. As children of God we are instructed in Romans 12:2 “do not conform to the standards of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” As Christians we must rise up and break the deceit of the enemy, may this be acceptable to Our Lord. The heart of the Lord for us is well expressed by the Apostle Paul, when he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, who have you received from God? You are not your own; you have been bought with a price; therefore honor God with your body.”
In the second prophecy the Lord said. “My children, now is the time of preparation, soon you will enter a land that I have promised you. I am burning in you all those things that are not Mine. Do not return to the places from which I have freed you. As I draw you closer to Me, the Path of justice narrows. Remember these times that I have set you free.”
In closing, I encourage everyone struggling with obesity or weight-related health issues that true change is only found in the presence of God through faith. By trusting in Our Savior, He will bring purity to our hearts, clarity to our minds, and obedience in our flesh. As we welcome his discipline, he will produce in us the justice and peace our hearts desire. As we surrender our weaknesses, God fills us with his strength and a fearless, courageous spirit that knows no retreat or defeat.
Copyright 2004 by Charles Remington
God bless you,
charles remington
nutritionist
healing minister
http://www.thefatloscoach.com
* All the scriptures of the New International Version of the Bible