Health checkup

Spiritual health?

Everyone wants to be fit physically. We want our bodies to be sickness-free and healthy. We go for a periodic health checkup to make sure we are fit. Some also follow an exercise routine or go to the gym to keep their bodies fit.

Today, we have also started talking about emotional well-being. The fast-paced life that we are living now has given rise to a lot of stress. This has resulted in a strained relationship with our spouses, children, siblings, relatives, friends, neighbors, and colleagues. We certainly need to remain fit mentally to face our life’s situations. But the challenges are many and our options are limited.

However, mankind is not just a body or body and an emotion-filled soul. We are spirit, soul, and body, and in that order. God created man’s body from the dust of the ground and breathed in him His spirit. It was then that man became a living soul. Without life in the spirit, man would remain dead to God. The spirit in me keeps me in communion with the Creator. The soul makes me conscious of myself. The body makes me aware of my environment. So, I need to be fit in my spirit first before anything else.

Why do you need a Spiritual health checkup?

Spiritual well-being is of foremost importance, more than anything else in our lives. But it is this wellness that takes the backseat for most of us. We spend all our time, money, and efforts to keep our bodies healthy and our minds relaxed. A lot of us do not even know that such a thing as spiritual health exists at all.

First, our spirits must be revived. This is because it is dead to God. Sin brought death to us. Any thought, word, or deed against God displeases Him. God laid down laws for man’s well-being. Any trespass or breaking of these laws hurts man. But first of all, it hurts God, the Lawgiver.

We need life in our spirits so that we start living spiritually. This cannot be done by CPR or by applying an electric shock. The Spirit of God should revive us. This happens when He comes in.

Jesus said that the words He has spoken to us are spirit and life. When the word of God enters our ears, we listen and make a willful decision to believe the word. Faith to believe the word of God is imparted to us by the Spirit of God. We believe that the word of God we hear is truth. It is then that the word brings life to our spirit.

Once we are made alive to God, we must continue to receive life from Him for our survival. Our sustenance comes from Him. He nourishes us with His word. He quenches our thirst with His Spirit. We will yearn for more of God, His word, and His Spirit to live a healthy spiritual life. Jesus said, “I am the true Vine. You are my branches”. As long as we remain attached to Him and draw sap from Him, we will bear much fruit.

Now, the health checkup.

Signs of normal health

· Do you stand for the truth always? Your spiritual bones are healthy.

· Do you work for the expansion of the Kingdom of God? Your spiritual muscles are healthy.

· Do we approach everything in a relaxed manner? Your spiritual nerves are healthy.

· Do you hear the voice of God when the Holy Spirit speaks to you? Your spiritual ears are sharp.

· Do you see the people of the world perishing and rushing to hell? Your spiritual eyes have 20-20 vision.

· Do you smell something fishy when false prophets keep amassing wealth? Your spiritual nostrils are very sensitive indeed.

· Do you speak the truth always and everywhere irrespective of whether you gain or suffer loss? Your spiritual mouth is clean and odor-free.

· Are you ready to run to spread the gospel to the people around you? Your spiritual feet are hale and healthy.

· Is your heart filled with gratitude towards all that God has done for you? Your spiritual heart is perfectly functioning.

· Are you able to receive life from the word of God as you read every day? Your spiritual digestive system is working fine.

· Are you able to understand the purpose of God for your life? Your spiritual brain is up to the mark.

· Does your Bible reading, prayer time, church fellowship, and other spiritual disciplines help you in the right kind of spiritual growth? Your spiritual endocrine system is functioning well.

· Are you able to breathe the breath of God every moment freely as the Spirit of God fills you continually? Your spiritual lungs are superb.

· Does what you read in the Bible and what you experience from it help you in times of challenges and needs? Your spiritual pancreas is working fine.

· Are you able to bend your knees to submit and remain flexible to the bidding of God? Your spiritual joints are fine.

· Are you sensitive to the nudging of the Spirit of God when you tend to commit a sin or make a compromise with the world? Your spiritual skin is responsive indeed.

· Are you able to hold on to your faith amid the temptations that come your way? Undoubtedly, your spiritual fists have a great grip.

· Does your love for others get replenished after it seemingly gets exhausted by the unfaithful and ungrateful people around you? Your spiritual gall bladder and marrows are certainly active.

· Are you able to dismiss the devil upfront when he tempts you with offerings of worldly wealth, passing pleasures, and temporal glory? Your spiritual defense mechanisms are active.

Are you winning souls for Christ by sharing the gospel with others? Has anybody been born gain because of your ministry? Your spiritual reproductive system is healthy.

Do you keep cleaning up your eveyday life by repenting and confessing to God of your sins every day? Your spiritual excretory system is functioning well.

Life-threatening symptoms

· Do you buckle down when you face even tiny challenges in life?

· Do you envy your neighbor if he owns something that you do not have?

· Are you unable to digest when others keep getting what you desire to have?

· Do you rush to defend yourself with a lie to escape from a tight situation?

· Do you become extremely jittery or lose your temper frequently with even small triggers?

· Do you find yourself lethargic and lazy when it comes to practicing spiritual disciplines like reading the Bible, praying, fasting, fellowshipping, serving, and evangelizing?

· Do you read the Bible, pray, and practice spiritual disciplines but they produce little or no spiritual growth even after a long time?

· Are you insensitive and not tormented in seeing and hearing from day to day the lawless deeds and filthy conduct of the wicked around you – neither hot nor cold?

· Are you unable to open your mouth to warn people about the impending judgment of God if they continue in their ungodly ways, words, and deeds?

· Are you choosing for yourselves preachers who keep feeding you very comfortable messages that sound nice to your ears? Do you have itching ears to hear only what pleases you from others or from the pulpit?

· Don’t you have enough vision to perceive the deceptive nets that today’s preachers spread out to trap you into dead works and self-righteous ‘christian’ religious activities?

· Do you keep feeding yourself with spiritual food from various sources- sermons, books, and Christian videos but you are unable to convert them into life experiences?

· Do you read the Bible, pray, and fellowship in a hurry like you consume fast food but don’t get expected spiritual results like growing in love, joy, peace, patience, and self-control?

· Do filthy and sinful thoughts keep crowding your mind not allowing you to focus on spiritual and sanctified matters?

· Are you unable to root out the bitterness in your heart regarding a person or persons such that you have started hating them nowadays?

· Have you been spending time and days with corrupt friends, relatives, or neighbors exposing yourself to the sinful disease they are affected by already?

· Do you walk in the counsel of the ungodly, stand in the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of those who blaspheme God, His name, and His people?

· Do you cause stink to the name of God by your shameful activities, selfish conduct, and filthy abusive language?

Do you tend to stay back even when there is an opportunity for you to share the word of God with others?

Does sin accumulate in you as you keep overlooking or excusing your sins as only weeknesses, not repenting from them and settling accounts to God daily?

Diagnosis

If you have one or more of the deadly symptoms stated above, you are a critical case now. You must rush to the emergency prayer room, seek the face of God, the heavenly Physician, and present your case to Him. Any delay might result in death – the death of your spirit which was revived once upon a time. Come to Him immediately before you become twice dead. Then, it would be impossible to revive you again.

Get well soon!