There are so many Christians who love God and who are pressing on toward the goal of their high calling, desiring to stand in the presence of God and hear those words, “Well done thy good and faithful servant”, but if they are ignoring the health of their body, they may not finish their course.

I want you to know how to use exercise to not only benefit the health of your body, but also to train and discipline your senses. As you use physical activity such as aerobic exercise, weight training or walking to exercise your faith and develop the fruit of the Spirit in your life, it will open the door for the anointing of God to help you. It will change exercise from something that may not seem all that valuable into a time of worship and fellowship with God.

As you learn to take physical exercise and turn it into an exercise of your faith, you release the power of God, the anointing of God, to help you work out. That’s what makes the difference. It’s the anointing of God that removes your burdens and destroys your yokes. It’s the anointing of God that will set you free and keep you free.

I’m not sharing this good news simply as a personal trainer, but as a witness of someone who God has supernaturally delivered from the bondage of overeating. It’s good news that Jesus is the Christ – the Anointed One. And as a member of the body of Christ – that same anointing is available to you today. It is God’s will for you to walk in His anointing in every area of your life. It is time for us as Christians to step into the anointing of God in the area of the health of our bodies.

There is an anointing available to help us eat right. There is an anointing available to help us exercise. There is an anointing available to help us live life the way God created us to live it. We are not exercising our bodies just to look good. We are exercising our bodies to be healthy and fulfill the call of God on our lives. We are presenting our bodies a living sacrifice. We are recognizing the fact that our bodies are not our own; they are bought with a price. We are temples of God’s Holy Spirit, and we are called to glorify God in our bodies. We are called to be a witness of God’s nature. We’re supposed to be walking in the fruit of the Spirit. Walking in love, walking in joy, walking in peace, endurance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, walking in self-control. Walking in that wonderful nature of God that was born into us when we were born again. It’s that nature of God that gives us the ability to walk in victory in every area of our lives. That’s why our spiritual development has to be our first priority.

Paul said in I Timothy 4:8, “For bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” We can see that while it is profitable to exercise our bodies,  it profits little, or doesn’t last long. But Paul says it’s more profitable to develop godliness, to exercise our faith.

Can you see why maturing in the nature of God and developing the fruit of the Spirit is so crucial to your victory? Physical exercise affects your body, but godliness affects your spirit, soul and body. It affects every area of your life. Now suppose I told you, “if you want to lose weight, all you have to do is burn more calories than you eat, eat healthy food and exercise for 30 minutes, 3 times a week.” What good would that do you? You probably already know that, and you having that knowledge alone is not the answer. It doesn’t free you from the bondage of overeating.

People are failing at losing weight and keeping it off because it takes the power of God, it takes training and disciplining our senses and developing the fruit of the Spirit in our lives to make permanent changes. You simply can’t get around the fact that it takes self-control to control what you eat and how much you eat, and it takes faithfulness and endurance to keep on eating right and to maintain a healthy lifestyle. It takes all of the fruit of the Spirit working together to live a victorious Christian life, including the area of our health and fitness.

Next time, I’ll share more about God’s anointing  to set you free.