A mobile gym travels around Florida with a mission to advance the kingdom of God through faith and fitness, transforming itself into an instant workout haven that doubles as a ministry hub on the go. Fitness Witness Ministries created this unique evangelistic model to offer a free workout from Spirit-filled, certified personal trainer Steve Miholics in exchange for an opportunity to share the Gospel and speak hope to the world.
Heart, Body & Soul Nutrition
When the Fitness Witness mobile gym rolls up in front of a church, rehab center, park, beach, business or special event—in virtually any location—people are just as likely to do squats, pull-ups or curls to bulk up their bodies’ muscles as they are to sing worship songs, pray or receive a Spirit-led word of encouragement for spiritual growth.
The combination of fitness and faith lowers the barriers to getting more folks engaged. The prospect of building up “spiritual muscles” is a positive message that resonates with physical fitness-loving people.
“I offer a free workout and share Jesus,” says Miholics, the founder of Fitness Witness Ministries. “Rather than waiting for people to come to church—and many of these people who I reach will never step foot into a church building—I bring the gym and the church to them. All fitness levels are welcome. I offer free workout plans and free nutrition plans for people to live a healthy lifestyle, but I also give them free spiritual plans that enable them to live their best, healthiest life now.”
The goal is to inspire others to get fit and healthy—and grow in their faith in Christ. Fitness Witness utilizes fitness as a platform to educate and empower others to pursue a deeper personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
The ministry teaches people to stop allowing physical exercise and their bodies to be their only identity. The message between pumping iron is that their identity should be in Jesus.
“A Christ-centered fitness ministry, like Fitness Witness, is focused on ministering to the whole person—body, mind and spirit. It helps to take care of our temple and to help fulfill our purpose on earth. Humble oneself and do push-ups for Jesus. People’s lives have been transformed,” says Miholics, who operates Fitness Witness out of the Tampa Bay area.
“It’s not just about strengthening the core of your body. It’s also about strengthening your spirit, your inner man or inner woman, your spiritual core, to discover the love of Christ and come to an awakening of your true identity in Christ, and it makes benching 300 pounds look like nothing.”
As a result, thousands of people have traded their alcohol, drugs and unbelief for dumbbells, bench presses, pull-up bars, squat racks and complementary “spiritual workout” strategies.
The Fitness Witness leader is quick to point to the fact that the discipline, which comes with fitness and faith, helps people make better decisions in life and ushers in inner peace and a freedom that surpasses understanding.
The ministry-driven free workouts leverage the Fitness Witness Method through a “Working Out with God” program that Miholics developed from scratch to turn the fitness industry toward positive life-changing things that come from the Lord God.
So far, Fitness Witness has grown a following of more than 5,000 across social media platforms—and the ministry relies on the Holy Spirit to feed them all, spiritually.
One day, while Fitness Witness stopped in what seemed like a random location after being led by the Holy Spirit, a despondent man walked by the full-size mobile gym and, while intrigued, joined in the “working out with God.” It opened up a conversation with him, allowing Fitness Witness to share the hope in Christ with him.
The despondent man later revealed that he was on his way home to end his life. But Fitness Witness disrupted his plan of self-destruction, conveying the Resurrection power of Jesus to change this man’s life for good.
The man, who was ready to give up on life itself, hadn’t been to church in many years, and he assumed that God had abandoned him. He had given up within himself, and the world system did not seem to care.
However, after the Fitness Witness workout and faith-filled talk that breathed new, multi-dimensional life into his body and spirit, he gave his life fully to Christ and acquired a new hope that gave him a real reason to live.
If the mobile gym had not been parked there, like a “Transformer” equipped with biblical Truth and prophetic revelation, the lies of the devil were on track to deceive this despondent man into a hopeless abyss played out in a death wish.
Representing Christ and serving as a role model and a “hope dealer,” Fitness Witness declared, “Not today, Satan.”
A Living Testimony
The story of Fitness Witness founder Steve Miholics makes people put down their weights and sports drinks to listen. Miholics was shot in the chest at point-blank range and heard the medic say about him in the ambulance, “He’s not going to make it.”
But he lived to tell about it. He was an alcoholic and a drug addict at the time, and he was so drunk out of his mind one night that he had a confrontation that led to a misunderstanding with a police officer. One thing led to another, and a shot was fired.
It was the culmination of years of hurts, habits and hangups. Miholics came from a broken home where his father was physically and verbally abusive toward him and his siblings. His father’s fighting in the Vietnam war damaged him severely. He became an alcoholic and would fly into violent rages. His siblings experienced similar challenges to say the least—Miholics and his family were severely broken.
At the age of 22, after being shot in the chest at close range and then being released from the hospital, Miholics was booked into county jail and placed in confinement in a holding cell.
A volunteer walked by his cell, passing out Christian tracts and Bibles. Miholics wanted some more books for a weight bag that he was working out with. God used fitness to reach Miholics at a low point in his life.
He asked the volunteer, “Hey, can I get one of those Bibles?”
That Bible ended up saving Miholics’ life.
“I started reading the Bible for the first time, and it felt like I wasn’t alone anymore. The words were jumping off the pages of the Bible to me. One of the first Scriptures I memorized was Jeremiah 33:3: ‘Call on me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things.’”
He went to trial, hoping and believing that he would be let go. But he was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
“I went back to my prison cell and found myself yelling at God. Questioning, kneeling, begging and pleading for God to fix the situation for me. Overwhelmed, I felt betrayed. But God spoke to me. He said to me, ‘No, son. No… No… No… I’m not fixing this for you. This time, I’m fixing you,’” Miholics says.
Alone in a cell, he cried out, “God, if You’re there, come into my life and make sense of this. I need You now. If You’re real, reveal Yourself to me.”
He explains, “At that moment, I had an encounter with God. I felt eternity. Heaven was flooding my heart. I was swimming in His Glory. Particles of angels were in the room, as God showered His Love on me. His Presence was so thick. The experience was so overwhelming for me that I was weeping uncontrollably. I was touched supernaturally. There is no better feeling, no better sensation. I was never going to be the same.”
“My Training Ground with a Good Security System”
“Before my arrest, God gave me so many warning signs throughout my journey. He offered me chances to get my life together, but I stiff-armed God and drifted away,” says Miholics, who was a star football player in Clearwater, Florida, in his youth.
“I had been chasing after the things I could see—the money, the women, the excitement and the physical. I chased after those things from coast to coast. I didn’t realize it in my teens or 20s, but we have to go after God like that. Pursue God like that! Now, knowing the Truth, I give God my best. Jesus is worth giving up everything to follow Him.”
Prison turned into a “blessing in disguise” for this man who would eventually go on to start Fitness Witness while in prison after receiving a prophetic vision from the Holy Spirit. He turned his life completely over to the Lord in prison.
While incarcerated, Miholics went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in biblical studies from Miami International Seminary. He also has an associate’s degree in fitness and nutrition from Stratford University.
“The prison was transformed,” says Miholics, looking back on his past experience prior to his release in 2022. “God was on the move in that prison, and I asked Him to use me, and He did. I traded beer bottles for dumbbells and a Bible. The Lord changed me from within. Prison was my training ground with a good security system.”
Advancing Faith and Fitness
Today, as the leader of Fitness Witness and an ISSA elite certified personal trainer, Miholics is dedicated full time to helping people through these combined fitness and faith experiences.
He left his “day job” to go full board into ministry. He does not always know where the gas money comes from to keep the mobile gym going, but the Lord keeps providing financial provision for the ministry—and Miholics is “all in.”
Along with his beloved wife Christa Miholics, he is also part of the core team for the forthcoming launch of Celebrate Recovery (CR) at one of the biggest and most impactful churches in Tampa Bay: Countryside Christian.
He calls his wife Christa “the greatest blessing of my life” and credits her with helping him go to the next level of life and ministry because of her unconditional love and staunch support. “Christa is the most amazing woman of God I have ever known. God is using her mightily to impact so many women for the kingdom.”
Putting it all in perspective, Miholics says, “God allowed me to suffer more and wanted people to see my suffering and see my pain and put stigmas on me, and have me go through all my experiences, so that when I have a chance to talk about Jesus and how He saved me, more people relate to my story. For as strong as my body has become, my spirit has grown stronger through my journey. I realize that I am able to use my story to help other people with hurts, habits and hangups, and be a light in someone else’s darkness.”
Fitness Witness is on a path to thrive as a ministry, utilizing fitness as a platform to minister to people’s body and spirit. It starts with working out with God—in more ways than one.
A. B. Petrucci is a contributor to Charisma Media.
