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A Strong Spirit Will Sustain You
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First Timothy 4:7-8 says, “But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself rather
unto godliness. For bodily exercise profits little: but godliness is profitable unto all things,
having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”
Is he comparing natural nourishment to spiritual nourishment? Is he comparing bodily exercise
to spiritual exercise? Yes, he is. The body is patterned after the spirit. The things you and I see
and know are patterned after spiritual realities, not the other way around. Just like you can feed
and exercise your body, and it will become stronger, you can feed and exercise your spirit, and it
will become stronger. It’s no wonder so many folks’ spirit is so weak. They don’t even know
they are spirit, so they make no effort to feed their spirit, much less exercise it, and they are
weak.
But you can become very strong on the inside. In Matthew 4:4, Jesus said, “Man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” His words feed your
spirit. When you read the Bible every day, it feeds your spirit. When you go to church, it feeds
your spirit. You’re hearing His words. Is it nourishing you? If it’s the Word of God, if it’s
revelation of His Word, if it’s in and of faith, it does something to you. It nourishes you. It feeds
you—and not just your body. It affects your body, but it feeds your spirit.
I will never forget the first time I heard a message that had faith in it, back in the 1970s. I had
gone to church for years, but I didn’t know anything like this. I heard a man teaching on faith,
and I listened to the whole tape. I didn’t even know anyone else who listened to tapes; I had
never heard of such a thing. I listened to it, and I didn’t understand half of what the man said, but
I knew it fed something inside of me, and I became an addict to this day. I’ve got to have my
“Word fix,” because it’s life to me. It’s life to me and health to all my flesh.
Have you ever noticed that you can listen to some people read a scripture, and it’s just kind of
flat and boring, but other people can read a scripture, and you say, “Read another one, Brother!
Read some more!” Why? It is because there is life coming out of it.
It was that way when I listened to Brother Hagin’s teaching. He would just read the chapter, and
I would get revelation while he was reading it. I’d think, “Glory to God!” Why? Because he was
reading with faith.
People can just say things or just be reading, and it’s off the top of their head. But people can be
saying something out of their spirit, with faith and anointing and life, and what does that do? It
goes out of spirit into spirit—spirit to spirit, flesh to flesh, head to head.
We don’t want to just be intellectual and mental. The Bible warns us about genealogies, and
words, and disputing of words, and dissecting things into the wee hours of the morning to
impress someone with our in-depth knowledge. (Titus 3:9) The spirit of a person is more
important than their doctrine. Your spirit is more important than your head and what you
think
you know. You can believe God and get healed and never know what was wrong with you. You
may never know what it would have taken to find a cure, because nobody ever found out what
was wrong. You could still be healed, because no matter what it is, the power of God is bigger
and stronger. The life of God is greater.