How to Develop a Strong Spirit
Dear brethren,
Last week we began talking about the importance of developing your inner man or spirit, which is the real you. We found out it begins by recognizing that you are a spirit being and choosing to give more attention to your heart because out of it flows the issues or supply of life to the other parts of your being and life.
If you had a baby at home, and you didn’t feed that baby on a good diet, that baby would not grow. If you don’t recognize you are a spirit and that you need to feed that spirit, then you won’t grow strong.
The most fundamental way to build your inner man is to feed yourself the right diet. The natural parallels the spiritual. Just like in the natural you need to feed and exercise your body, so is the spiritual.
Look at 1 Tim. 4:6-8
If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed. 7 But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness. NKJV
Do you notice the words nourish and exercise? We are supposed to nourish (means provide with food) our spirits with….not old wives fables and gossip …but with the words of faith. By the way if you find yourself so fond of such tales, destructive criticism, sarcasm etc. it’s sure proof that you have a weak spirit. You need to reject such talk and instead exercise your spirit toward godliness. You need to stop feeding yourself soap operas and Nigerian movies etc. and replace that time with hearing words of faith that feed your spirit. A great woman of God once said, “Soap operas are ‘spiritual dog-food.’” Sisters especially, don’t feed your mind and spirit on spiritual dog food. It will keep you spiritually weak and then when trouble comes, you will be overthrown because you won’t have the inner fortitude to withstand or resist it.
Don’t feed yourself on religion and condemnation either. Religion that tells you that the day of miracles is over and that God will make you sick to teach you a lesson – you need to reject that just as you do those old wives’ fables. That is at best destructive to your faith. Religion is loaded with devilish unbelief in the name of Christianity. It can dwarf you and keep you powerless. It has a form of godliness but denies the power thereof. (2Tim. 3:5) Brethren, stay away from it
Just like in the natural, when you’re spiritually healthy, you have a healthy appetite for the Word of God. You love your Bible. When you prayerfully read it, you think about the Words, you mutter them to yourself, you personalize and confess them, you sing them, you shout praise to God with them and before long you find yourself dancing and rejoicing in the goodness of the Lord. You are on your way to becoming a strong Christian, a doer of the Word with an unshakable strong foundation.
