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Today I'm starting a series on the spiritual component of health. True health and wholeness start with our spiritual condition. We are a spirit, we have a mind, and we live in a body. If our spiritual condition is not where it should be, we're like a three-legged stool with a short leg. We'll be lopsided and unstable. Here's the trouble with talking about the spiritual component of health. Spiritual truths are revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.
If we don't have the indwelling of God's Holy Spirit, our ability to discern spiritual truths will be limited. 2 Corinthians 2, 14 says the things of God, theological truths, are spiritually discerned. It's the Holy Spirit that gives us eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts that understand. So the best place to start a discussion on the spiritual component of health and wholeness is, am I a genuine believer?
Have I had a real conversion experience? Now hang in there with me. Before you say this episode's not from me, and I know I'm a believer, before you start looking for another episode or maybe even another podcast, hear me out on this. If you know you're saved, that's great. I'm rejoicing with you. But you very well may know someone that needs some clarification on this crucial issue. As you listen to me unpack this mystery,
I believe you'll be better prepared to share the truth in love with a friend or neighbor that needs some clarification on this issue. I'm going to share a critical component of the gospel message that often gets minimized or overlooked. Confusion in this area is much more common than you may think. Let's talk about it.
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Welcome to the Christian Healthy Lifestyle Podcast, where I help you navigate natural health so you can stay out of the doctor's office, age gracefully, and live a more purpose-driven life. I'm your host, David Sandstrom. I'm recording this episode shortly after Charlie Kirk's assassination. Now Charlie and I have a similar approach to allowing the Word of God to guide us into timeless truths that transform not only our lives,
but the lives of those within our sphere of influence for the better. That's what expanding the kingdom of God is really all about. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God's kingdom comes to earth when his will is done. It's God's desire that we embrace truth and act accordingly. Charlie Kirk's death is helping me to be more bold in proclaiming truth. None of us are getting any younger
Our days are numbered and we're all called to steward our days well. With that in mind, I'd like to share a few things about the spiritual component of health that, if I'm honest, I've been holding back a bit because I didn't want to offend people. So I'm starting a mini-series on the spiritual component of health and I want to cover some topics that are perhaps a bit controversial. I believe there's a lot of confusion regarding some
key theological teachings. And that confusion is sometimes pushing people away from God instead of towards Him. It's not my intention to stir up controversy for controversy's sake. I want to help you become more whole and experience all the spiritual strength, mental-emotional fortitude, and physical vitality you're capable of. So why is the spiritual component of health so important? Well,
We are a spirit, we have a mind, and we live in a body. And the three parts have a hierarchy. The spirit is the highest and most noble part of who and what we are. Our minds act like a bridge between the spirit and the body. Our bodies are, of course, the tangible part that we see on the outside. A spirit connected to God is healthier. A healthy spirit will animate our minds in healthy ways.
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and a healthy mind will animate our brains in healthy ways and the brain runs the body. So health and wholeness start with our spiritual condition. You see, contrary to popular belief, our brains don't create thoughts. Our brains receive thoughts from our minds. Our brains do perform functions that are not part of our conscious thought process. We call that the autonomic nervous system or the ANS.
The ANS controls things like heart rate, body temperature, hormone regulation, and a whole lot more. The ANS is what makes up our body's God-given built-in intelligence that keeps us alive, and our default setting is health. Now, I know most of you in Natural Nation are Bible-believing Christians, but any discussion on the spiritual component of health will come under attack from the enemy of our souls and
Satan uses lies to create noise or a smoke screen that keeps us from seeing the truth. Those lies believed keep us in darkness and put distance between us and God. 1 Corinthians 2 14 says, the natural person does not accept the things of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. And then we have John 16 13.
When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. So what does this mean? It means that we need the indwelling of God's Holy Spirit to accurately perceive spiritual truths. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit happens when we come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, when we're born again, as Jesus explained to Nicodemus in John chapter 3. God gives each person a measure of spiritual illumination.
Psalm 19 and Romans 1 both address the idea that we can look to nature to learn something about God. So even if someone has never picked up a Bible and never been exposed to Word of God, they can perceive some spiritual truths. God gives each and every person that ability. But it's only when we have a true conversion experience that we're fully capable of comprehending spiritual truths.
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So the first point of confusion that I want to address in this series is that many of our modern churches have watered down the gospel message. They're looking to grow their numbers so they don't want to offend anybody, and unwittingly, they've misled many people into a false understanding of what it takes to be saved. A true salvation experience is not quite as simple as some churches would have us believe. For instance,
Remember Jesus said in Mark 10 25, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. Someone might be saying right now, well, I guess I'm good because I'm not rich. Well, if you're living in the United States, there's a pretty good chance you're rich. If we use a worldwide standard, nearly everyone in the United States is rich. When you take a look around,
In most of the world, you see widespread poverty with pockets of wealth. In the United States of America, you see widespread wealth with pockets of poverty. Since our founding documents embrace the biblical principles of private property ownership, individual liberty, and personal responsibility, our nation has been blessed with incredible wealth. And all that wealth makes us feel more
self-sufficient. Throw in little pride, and as a society, we're ripe to be deceived about the depth of our depravity and how lost we are without God and just how desperate we are to be rescued from our sinful condition. Here's the way many churches share their watered-down gospel. Many of us have heard about the Roman road. We may have been taught this in Sunday school. It goes something like this.
Sin is coming up short of God's standards and everyone has sinned. They'll quote Romans 3 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Then they move on to Romans 6 23, for the wages of sin is death or eternal separation from God. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. And then there's Romans 5 8, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
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And then they'll try to close the deal with Romans 10, 9. If you confess with your mouth, Jesus says, Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Jesus paid the price for your sins. All you have to do is ask Jesus to come into your heart and he'll forgive you of your sins and you'll be on your way to heaven when you die instead of hell. Isn't that good news? Why wouldn't you want this free gift from God? I'll bet
close to everyone listening has heard the gospel presented that way or something very similar, very much like that. Now, none of what I just said is untrue, but I have a lot of problems with that way of sharing the good news with lost people. Here's my main objection. What's missing from that invitation? Repentance. Without real repentance,
There is no forgiveness of sins and there is no salvation. And as a result, no one dwelling of the Holy Spirit. This concept is solidly biblical. Let's start out with Isaiah 30 verse 15. Thus the Lord of God, the Holy One of Israel has said, in repentance you will be saved. And then there's Mark chapter 1 verse 4. John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness
preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Or how about Luke 15, 7, Jesus speaking, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. After Peter was finished preaching the great sermon of Pentecost, where he explained that they, the Jews, were the ones that killed Jesus, the Messiah, we see a clear unfolding of events. Let's pick it up in Acts chapter 2, verse 37.
Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? Peter said to them, Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Do you see the order of things here? Repentance comes first, then baptism, a public declaration of your faith. More on baptism in just a minute.
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and then the forgiveness of sins, and then the Holy Spirit is received. We shouldn't twist the Word of God to align with our beliefs. We should align our beliefs with the Word of God. Repentance is a necessary starting point to a genuine salvation experience. Or how about 2 Corinthians 7-10? The sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation.
And then there is 2 Peter 3, 9, the Lord is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. Now, there's many more passages that I could have quoted here touching on this concept of repentance being essential for a true salvation experience, but I think that's enough for now. So repentance is more than just feeling sorry for what we've done. True repentance is a
deep remorse and contrition that leads to a desire for change. Repentance literally means to turn around and start walking in the opposite direction. Think of it this way. If we're driving on a highway and we discover that we're heading in the wrong direction, we'd get off the next exit and get back on the highway traveling in the opposite direction, wouldn't we? God wants us
to take the off-ramp to our old way of doing things and get on the on-ramp to righteousness and holiness. That's what it means to repent. And that's what God's desire is for us. He wants us to have a radical change of heart that leads to changes in our behavior.
When I was about 13 years old, my folks had a friend over from church, and that friend, an adult man, shared the gospel with me. Now I listened to him present the gospel, and it made sense to me, so I prayed the sinner's prayer with him, and I thought I was saved. But I went on to lead my life really no differently from any other heathen.
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up to the point where I was about, when I was actually 30 years old, I was attending a church that I first heard the idea that God wants more than just to give us a set of rules. He wants a love relationship with us. And when I was 30 years old, I did a little reflection and I said, have I really repented of my sins? Have I really had a true change of heart? And the answer to that was no.
The evidence of that was that my life was not changed one bit. When I share that story with many of my Christian friends, they say, that's OK. You were just in a backslidden state. If you prayed the prayer, you were saved. I don't agree with that. I don't believe I was saved. It's a good thing I didn't meet my maker. Good thing I didn't leave this earth before the age of 30, because I think I would have been in for a big surprise. And I don't want any of you to be fooled like I was for many years.
I'm not advocating legalism or being a slave to a man-made set of rules. Legalism is someone trying to impose their standards of living on other people. For example, it's my personal standard that I'm not going to have lunch or dinner with a woman alone because I'm a married man and I wouldn't want to put myself in that situation. But if someone else wants to do that, that's fine with me.
I'm not going to impose my standard of living on that other person. If I did, that would be legalism. Jesus often called out the religious leaders of his day for practicing legalism because they were trying to enforce man-made laws on people. Now, I'm going to have a lot more to say on God's law versus a man-made law in the next episode in this series. But the main point I'm trying to make here is this. If we've been going to church for years, believing we're saved,
because we prayed a prayer 10 or more years ago and we don't see a radical difference in the way we live our lives, then we've got good reason to believe that we're not saved. Remember Jesus' words in Matthew 7 22. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you.
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Apart from me, you workers of lawlessness." Now this ought to be a sobering verse for all of us. Not everyone that calls themselves a Christian has had a genuine salvation experience. If we're really saved, we'll see a difference in our attitude towards sin, and we'll see that changed attitude translate into changed behavior. There's a bumper sticker that I used to see quite a bit when I was living in South Florida.
And it said this, Christians aren't better, we're just forgiven. And I would suggest that if you're not better, you're not forgiven. You see, we need to make Jesus our Savior and Lord. If He's not your Lord, then He's not your Savior. In Matthew chapter 7, immediately after Jesus says, depart from me, I never knew you, He proceeds to share the parable of the wise man who built His house on solid rock.
he starts out that parable by saying, therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man. If we've really appropriated the life and work of Jesus Christ into our lives and are now partakers of the eternal abundant life he offers, then there will be change. We will think, speak, and act differently. I encourage
everyone listening this episode to pause and do some reflection on this critical issue as I did when I was 30 years old. Our eternal destiny hangs in the balance. If you think you may be a victim of weak biblical teaching and a watered down gospel message, it's time to make things right. Let God know that you truly repent of your sins and your heart's desire is to surrender your life to Him and His way of doing things
Not in perfection, but in a hard attitude towards righteousness. God uses imperfect people. Moses was a murderer. Abraham was a liar and an adulterer. Bible's full stories with imperfect people being used to do powerful things for God were all imperfect, but God can use us too. Here's one more point along those same lines. If you think that your church more closely resembles a social club,
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Instead of a place where real transformation is taking place, maybe it's time to find a new church as well. Now, I'm not saying we have to be perfect. We haven't yet been made perfect. As long as we're living on planet Earth, we will come up short of God's standards. We will sin. The difference is our attitude towards sin. When we realize we've sinned, how do we feel? Do we feel remorse?
Do we feel an appropriate level of guilt or the conviction of the Holy Spirit? Or do we go on our merry way with our conscience seared and feel no remorse whatsoever? Are we eager to confess our sins and be cleansed from all unrighteousness, as in 1 John 1.9? Yes, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But if we're claiming 1 John 1.9 over and over again, thinking it's just fine,
We may have a heart problem. Someone may be saying right about now, Dave, of course we have a heart problem. The Bible teaches that our hearts are bad and desperately wicked. Have you ever read Jeremiah 17, 9? Well, sure I have. And yes, Jeremiah 17, 9 is true. The heart is desperately wicked. Who can know it? But that passage is referring to the unregenerated heart. Born again followers of Jesus Christ get new hearts.
Ezekiel 36 26 says I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh We're not supposed to be managing our sin or learning how to cohabitate with it. We're supposed to be turning from it We don't have sick hearts and God gives us a spiritual bypass surgery and leaves our hearts alone We get a heart transplant that leads to eternal life
I've said before in the show that our hearts are our body, soul, and spirit all rolled into one. The Bible is being literal here. With a genuine salvation experience, we literally become new creatures. Paul really meant it when he said, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things have passed away. Behold, new things have come. That's 2 Corinthians 5 17.
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That's what it means to take up your cross. Taking up our cross doesn't mean that Christianity is nothing but burdensome. Jesus said, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Taking up our cross means we're leaving our old life behind and embracing a new life. We're partaking in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Galatians 2.20, Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me." My family and I attend a Baptist church that practices full immersion baptism. And I always love it when the person performing the baptism says to the person being baptized,
and raised to walk in newness of life. What a beautiful picture of being saved. Not that it's the baptism itself that saves us. Baptism is simply a public declaration of our new life in Jesus Christ. Each person must appropriate that new life or that salvation experience themselves. No ceremony or act of works will do. Ephesians 2, 8, for by grace you have been saved through faith.
and not that of yourselves, it is the gift of God. As genuine followers of Jesus Christ, we're putting off the old man and putting on the new. We're saying goodbye to our old value system that the world gave us and allowing God to fill us with his Holy Spirit and we become transformed. We become new creatures. The news is so good, it almost sounds too good to be true.
That's why the good news often sounds like foolishness to those that are perishing, but it is true. Okay, that was a mouthful. Now I said all that to say this. If we're going to talk about spiritual issues, you'll get a lot more out of it if you've had a genuine salvation experience and you have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It starts with a refusal to accept the watered-down version of the gospel.
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If we put our faith and trust in the life and work of Jesus Christ and experience real repentance, then and only then will God send His Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts. And that's where He can do His work in us. That's how we get eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts that understand. That's what it takes to be saved. And that's the spiritual state that serves as the foundation of true health and wholeness.
I hope this was helpful for you. If you know a friend that may benefit from this conversation, share the podcast with them. This is episode number 197, Christian Healthy Lifestyle podcast. Be sure to tune in next time where I'll be talking about a doctrine that has a lot of people confused and I believe is severely handicapping the Christian church. And this truth has the power to set us free. The doctrine I'm going to be addressing is the correct understanding of God's law.
God's law is nothing like human law, but you'll have to tune in next episode to learn more. That's it for now. Thank you for listening. I appreciate you. Go out there and live abundantly. I'll talk with you next time. Be blessed.
