Pondering the Food We Eat

“However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.” 1 Corinthians 15:46

  Years ago in the Carolinas when my wife worked as the assistant kitchen manager at  Morningstar. Her boss Charles Moore drove home a point that I never forgot and has influenced some of our thinking ever since. The thought was that there is a connection between spiritual and physical food. I have pondered this from many different angles over the years from the quality to the direct symbolism of certain foods themselves.

  We human beings do well on a balanced diet, however, depending on your current health and what you have been eating in the past. There is sometimes a need to purge the system until you're in a better place. 

  From a spiritual standpoint, we are seeing this now in the move away from certain teachers of the past. The Charismatic has lived too long on the pasta and the meatless sauce of IHOP as well as others. Now the Body of Christ craves better.

  On the physical side, we see a move towards things like Keto, Carnivore, and Intermittent fasting. These are all things that help the body in various ways.

The Healing of Creation

  God has an understanding of balance and justice that is so far above ours it’s mind-bending. Case in point, when Pharaoh was crushing the Jews in Egypt, the simplest way for the Lord to deal with him was to kill him. But that was not what God decided to do. Pharaoh not only created the problem but he was making everyone think he was God. So the Lord's solution was to display the truth of Pharaoh’s powerlessness before the nations, displaying who held the real power. And in the end, he forced Pharaoh’s own hands open, making him release the Jews. Before the world, he turned Pharaoh into a fool and the world knew that not even Pharaoh’s own strength could save even his firstborn. That was true justice.

  In the Father’s balance, whatever created the problem must fix it. It may not be the actual person, but sometimes it happens generations later in that family line or nation’s history. The best example is what happened to us. The first Adam messed up, and through his actions, all the world became subject to sin and decay. We with the best of intentions are actually powerless to do anything about the mess we made. So the solution was the second Adam, Jesus changed everything through His Blood. The first Adam made the problem, the second Adam fixed it.

  Not only does restoration and redemption come to the human race. But by extension, it has been flowing into creation drip by drip. Many want to see the healing ministry move forward, and that’s a good thing. But has anyone considered that the reason it has not fully exploded (yes it is happening in places) is that it is forcing something else to come forward that can help in the healing of creation?

  We now know more about our food and how our body reacts to what we eat than ever before. This knowledge is forcing people to consider the environment the food needs to grow in. The quality of food security is becoming a big thing and many Christians are quietly at the cutting edge of this. The first Adam messed it up, we are now fixing it through Christ’s redemption.

  Here is a scripture to ponder, “Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” John 5:14. The point here is the man got fixed, but he needed to take action to prevent something worse in the future.

  What if you get healed from some cancer, infection, or something else that can be proven to be the result of your eating habits? But then you go right back and continue eating the same way, or worse? Would it not be more wise to understand what got you into this mess so that when your healing comes you never need to revisit that problem again?

  A Change

  When My wife and I left the East Coast and moved to Wyoming for a few years, we had many decades of eating “somewhat ok.” But with the stress of MorningStar and just eating to make it through the day, we had no idea how badly off we were.

  A friend of ours who has been seeking to move in the gift of healing has been spending a lot of time researching food. I mean she could probably get a master’s degree in it if she pursued it. 

  She encouraged us to try the Carnivore diet for thirty days. In reality, the word “diet” is the wrong name to give to this. It would be far more accurate to say, “the Carnivore elimination program.” This for us was a drastic change to our system, we did thirty days and then continued it for six months losing around sixty pounds each. We both felt better, had more energy, no brain fog, and our sleep was better.

  There is actually a lot of information on this that I will not post as it would make this article very technical. But for all the Jordan Peterson fans out there. I would suggest looking for a YouTube video where he talks on this subject.

  I call this an elimination program because that’s what is really going on in your body. Once your body converts over to just meat, water, and spices then after a period of time you can reintroduce one item at a time. By doing this you find what your body really likes and what it does not. When I was young I thought I could eat anything without problems. Now I know this is not true, I am no longer living the lie. Some things aggravate joint pain, and muscle pain making you feel like an old man. 

  The more dense the meat is, the more value it has to your body. The more nutrient-dense the food the more it can feed you better. Darker meats are definitely dinner food. While lighter meats work well for lunches and even breakfasts. But how does all this apply spiritually?

 Our Hunger Drives Us.

  “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord, when I will send a famine through the land, not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.” Amos 8:11-12

  It could be argued that we are in this famine now. As people get shaken loose from the old system they often start desiring other things. In my case, I went to a full-on diet of meat. “However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.” 1 Corinthians 15:46 It was not until later that I started my deconstruction and then reconstruction of what I believed. That physical hunger for meat was just a pre-shadow of the spiritual reality that was yet to come. We are the sheep of His field and if you know His voice, you will follow this voice out of hunger for more.

  One of the realities of the all-meat diet was that in the first week, you drop a lot of water weight. Spiritually you kind of do the same, you know it as you start to feel more free, more alive. Water weight in the natural often slows people down and some people's things no longer fit. In the spiritual, the way you act or perform changes as the system you have been clothed in no longer fits you.

  Such false attitude that you once felt you needed to be or act like now hangs like an oversized pair of blue jeans, and everyone knows it. It will take time, time for you to become accustomed to what freedom really feels like. But like everyone else who gets free, we often go back and test the system to see if any parts of it exist that we can still engage in.

Old Dreams - Rabbit trail

  When I left my former employer, I tossed in the trash a lot of books. I was fed up, irritated, and a bit angry. I wanted nothing to do with that system. (Now as a quick disclaimer I am not saying this about the people, just the system over them) It’s been five years, and only recently can I dip my toes into any of what Morningstar was. 

  What happened was we had a period of time where I was at home a lot. So for something to do, I started organizing my computer files. As I did I found an old dreams folder. This was a collection of forgotten dreams in the last couple of months before we moved to South Carolina. In one of the dreams the former vice president of Morningstar, Steve Thompson walked into my kitchen and said, “Do you want breakfast or do you want life?”

  “Well since I just finished breakfast I will take life,” I answered.

  “What Rick and I built is worth fighting for. Do not let anyone divert you from your calling. For in your calling is where your life is,” Steve answered back.

  This has caused me to do deep research, and I realize that what there decades ago is not what it should become. I have started to re-accept “some” of the music, but as of yet I still can not stand it if Rick starts speaking. His voice definitely still triggers a reaction, so I don’t go there.

  Why I am saying this here and now? This is for anyone still in the process of becoming free for IHOP or any other place. I want you to see that even after five years there are still issues and your healing will take time. But this is not the main topic of this article with this rabbit trail. I just wanted you to understand and not get impatient, a garden takes time to grow, and so do you.

Water

 Next time you buy gas for your car, if you happen to go into the convince store to pay for it. Then stop and look around at the drinks section. It’s amazing just how many varieties of water now exist. Spring, purified, flavored, carbonated, etc. Could this be a natural representation of the spiritual reality that true living water is so hard to find? And that congregation after congregation is offering you nothing more than flavored substitutes that can not satisfy?

Bread

  Our bread is not what it once was. Yes, there is a multitude of chemicals and other things now in it. But the basic core of it has changed. Thousands of years ago when Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.” People really understood this in a way we do not. That is because genetically wheat is fragile, and almost anything can “bump” its genetic code and change it.

  The ancient seeds they have found clearly display that they were very nutrient-dense in the past. Today wheat is almost the opposite, and some researchers even claim modern wheat now steals nutrients from your body when you eat it.

  In this, we have a sharp comparison between Jesus the Bread of Life, and everything else. Jesus offers everything we need for life. So my question is, do you feel like modern teachers are leaving you hungry or do you feel spiritually full? If you still feeling hungry, then maybe the Amos 8 famine has come to you.