Holy Spirit prompted me to spend the next few posts sharing practical tips on how to care for the whole person – spirit, soul, and biology. Without proper care of ourselves which is based on receiving from our Heavenly Father, then we have absolutely nothing to give – to our family or others – and we have little strength to stand. This is essential care.
Heavenly Father created us in His image – spirit, soul, and biology – as a three-part being. He redeemed us in Christ Jesus our Lord, also as a three-part being.
It has been my experience and observation, that we, humans, attempt to meet needs or address matters from a physical stance first.
Whether or not we realize it, we are spirit beings, first.
Jesus told us to “seek first the Kingdom and His right-ness” (Matthew 6:33). For our own needs, it works best, as per Father’s design, to meet our spiritual needs first.
Our spirit needs connection.
Our spirit needs cleansing.
Our spirit needs nutrition.
Our spirit needs exercise.
Our spirit needs rest.
Connection
For connection, a starting place is to speak your thanks to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — upon waking and falling asleep. Find at least three things and thank Him for them morning and evening. New or different thanks can be added! Early believers called these times morning tide and eventide. They observed those times of prayer.
Thanksgiving and prayer are connection times with Father, Son, and Spirit. Pauses through the day where you stop and “just be” in the Lord’s presence, meditating or conversing or just being are connection times. There is a huge flow of life (which translates to spiritual energy, mental energy, emotional energy, and physical energy) that comes as a result of simply stopping and becoming intentional about connection first with Father, Son, and Spirit. No amount of vitamins, supplements, or caffeine produce this life-flow (which is spiritual energy).
Cleansing
For cleansing, we have spiritual dirtiness and we live in a spiritually dirty world. Every single one of our spirit needs is met in the Lord’s Supper. Personal communion with the bread and juice (or wine) with personal reflection prepare our hearts for the union we are invited to with Christ Jesus our Lord. Reflecting on and speaking that you are taking off the old self which is corrupt (sin nature in the first Adam) and putting on the new self (new creation in the Last Adam) is part of the cleansing.
Nutrition
For nutrition, listen to Scripture in some consistent way. Listening overnight is an easy and powerfully effective way to provide nutrition to your spirit. Listening to Scripture as you’re working or exercising is another way. Reading and reflecting on (journaling) Scripture is getting nutrition into your spirit. Also, listening to spirit-led blessings is nutrition.
Exercise
For exercise, there is strength training. In this exercise, you minister to other people. It may be listening to them, praying for them, taking advantage of the moment to speak life to them, or taking the time to pray consistently for a person, place, generation, nation, etc. Fasting is a spiritual exercise as well.
There is also cardio exercise. That’s when you exercise upward instead of outward. Thanksgiving, praise, and worship are cardio exercises of the spirit to Father, Son, and Spirit. From there and being in His presence, connected with Him, and nourished, He gives specific assignments.
Rest
For rest, the world and the people are in a tumultuous state. Our lives are filled; our families are in various states of need. That’s not to mention social media and the media and entertainment which bombard us with too much information. To say the least, we are over-processed. It is not healthy.
In Christ is everything we need.
He has already provided it.
However, we have to come – and receive.
Even though you may not feel like you can benevolently detach from the pressing needs of the world, the cosmos, the nations, the people, and your family. If you do not, there may not be much left of you (which may be the understatement of the year).
Shabbat shows us that Father will take care of the world – and us – and that we can trust and rest.
In the Old Testament, He said that “even during plowing and harvest season, you must rest” (Exodus 34:21). In the New Testament, Jesus made it clear that it wasn’t about rules and regulations, but that the Shabbat was made for man (Mark 2:27). It is because Father is good and kind to us that He made Shabbat – a regular time of rest and refreshment per week for people.
However, we need rest stops daily.
Some people get rest from motion, others get rest from stillness. All rest is found in Christ. Find out what works for you and do it.
Be observant of yourself, when your nerves are thin or you are about to explode from over-processing and working, stop at the earliest time. Your spirit needs rest. This is a need, not a want.
It is essential to take times of rest and to move to live in a place of peace and rest. It is in that place that we hear from the Lord. Hearing from Him in these days is really a place of life or death.
Intercessors and empaths (people who “feel” and/or discern the states of others) need to experience rest by releasing the burdens they are carrying in whatever place of their being they are carrying it to the Lord.
A helpful prayer is: “Lord, I release all these burdens to Your care, and where I cannot let go of them, I ask Your Holy Spirit to gently remove them from me, and I place them in Your hands in Christ’s name, amen, please replenish me.”
It is essential to meet the needs of your spirit.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Hope Streams
Featured Image by Ildigo from Pixabay
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