speech – Ad Crucem Christi – The Cross of Christ

Living a Life in the Kingdom of God – Continued

Utilizing all the Faculties God has given us.

As we discussed in the previous chapter, management of the thoughts in our minds and the resultant habits that these thoughts create, is the very foundation upon which we build our lives in the Kingdom of God on this earth.

Yet, our minds do not operate independently of our souls, bodies and spirits. God created us as compound beings with three interdependent parts:

Body – Our physical being.
Soul – Intellect, emotion and will.
Spirit – Our spiritual wireless link to God.

First and foremost our body is the ‘home’ of the Spirit of God.

This being the case, we can never neglect or ill treat the body. In short, the body must be properly nourished and exercised. Each of us is responsible to maintain this state; no one else is responsible for the well-being of our bodies, but us. “If you abuse your body, God will allow your body to abuse you, even to death”.

For the most part, we are inclined to seek for pleasure with our bodies. We eat and drink to enjoy taste and consider this practise to be quite acceptable, providing we do not overindulge ourselves. Sadly, there are many who do overindulge and either medicate to deal with this condition, or embark upon food and drink diets. Mostly we favour those diets that lose weight in very short periods, not having reasoned that the overindulgence process probably took place over some months or years and that quick-fix diets will often result in a detriment to our health.

The process of eating and drinking, whilst giving us pleasure, must essentially be a healthy lifestyle diet.

There are many other activities that we use to give pleasure to our bodies that in turn have a negative effect on our health and well being. A common example is spending hours in front a TV set, where both our bodies and minds are in a subjective state. Long periods of sitting, especially if we fall asleep in the process are very negative to our well being.

I’m sure you all know how to take care of your bodies; what is equally vital is to know however, is that your body is home to the Spirit of God. If you neglect your body or treat it with disrespect, you cannot fail to neglect His home.

Apart from obvious good care of our bodies, we need to maintain God’s home as well. The way we accomplish this is to daily express our gratitude for the function and well being of our bodies.

I say daily, but what you will find is that after a daily practice of expressing you gratitude when you enter your prayer/meditation/quiet time, at whatever time you do that; you will begin expressing your gratitude throughout the day.

You will find yourself expressing your gratitude as you perform activities during the day, because you become aware that your sight, hearing, speech, body mobility are all gifts from God, these and many, many more.

Three times a week, during the course of my daily prayer and meditation, I practice what I call my ‘body meditation’.

Starting at the top of my head and extending to the soles of my feet, I tell God how grateful I am for the fact that He has restored my skin to a place of divine health. Next I offer gratitude for my scalp and the new hair follicles’ that He has restored (quite a few of them have vanished over time). Then I go onto that most wonderful of all my organs, my brain, to my skull and skeletal structure and so on, covering every part of this wonderful body He has given to me.

I am a person that enjoys a great state of health and I know this is a result of caring for God’s home. It is a result of conveying my gratitude for my body, all through my day.

In the next chapter, I will illustrate what is scripturally recommended for the successful function of our other faculties.

Please share this with your friends – you can never tell whose life might change, eternally, by your obedience to this request.

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