Q: I have tried every diet on the market, and I still can’t seem to lose weight. What do you recommend?

A: It should be no surprise that when believers have tried to win the battle of the bulge through the world’s system, they’ve failed. I know because I have experienced what you’re going through. You can get to the fullness of the Anointing in the area of eating through the knowledge of God. So be encouraged!

Here’s what I suggest you do.

First, get to know Jesus in your quest to lose weight. The spiritual things have to come first because you are a spirit. You live in a body. If you want your spirit to dominate your body, you have to feed your spirit; you have to renew your mind to train your flesh. In other words, you have to have something to fight with.

Second, cast down every imagination and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians 10:5). That knowledge includes life, health, exercise and nutrition.

The reason many of us have missed it in the area of eating right and losing weight is because we haven’t “known God” in weight loss. We’ve known natural man’s wisdom. For example, eat fewer calories than you burn and you will lose weight. That’s a fact, but there’s no power in knowing that. We can only take our thoughts captive with the supernatural power of God. The power to overcome is in the truth of God’s Word. When the temptation to overeat comes, we must immediately cast it down. 

Third, concentrate on the “dos” and not on the “don’ts.” If you do what is right, the don’ts will take care of themselves. This is one of the most successful principles I have seen in my one-on-one counseling. I’ll ask someone, “How many glasses of water do you drink a day?” Often, the answer will be, “One or two.” When I ask, “OK, how many fruits and vegetables do you eat a day?” that person may say, “One or two.”

What I have discovered is that not very much is being done right. So that’s where we begin—doing the dos of what God said is good. While drinking six to eight glasses of water, eating two to three fruits and three to seven servings of vegetables a day may be our ultimate goal, we don’t start there. I will tell that person to begin drinking four or five glasses of water each day as well as eating at least two pieces of fruit and two vegetables each day.

If you will take one step of faith at a time to do something that you are not already doing, you will be one step closer to the kind of perfection the Bible calls us to.