Even in her first job as a movie theater ticket taker at age 16, author, entrepreneur and business coach Linda Fields says she had a strong interest in business. And that interest, she says, reflects the heart of God.

“I began to be very aware that God was all about [business] because money was sent through a method of exchange; people were receiving value,” she says on The Linda Fields Show on the Charisma Podcast Network. “God is very much about business. And in Deuteronomy 8:18, what the Bible tells us is He gives the power to get wealth, so that there will be a fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant, [which is] basically to bless the other families in the earth.

“You actually have people in the earth assigned to you that will be blessed by your business, by your service, by your writing, by your endeavors, by your trading, by your investments, by what you do in the realm of business,” Fields adds. “It’s going to bless you like crazy, you bet. But there are people way beyond you who are going to be blessed. And God loves to fund a business that is centered on a Deuteronomy 8:18 vision.”

Businesspeople should always strive to go to the next level, Fields says. “I don’t believe we can afford to stay where we are. In fact, nobody ever really does stay where they are; you are either advancing, or you’re sliding back.”

To learn more of Fields’ business wisdom and how you can apply next-level principles to your own business, listen to this podcast.

A friend writes and asks a few questions concerning a family that she has been praying and believing with for deliverance and healing. And it has been a long process. What’s going on with this situation? What might be the delay of their physical healing from manifesting? Let’s discuss this right now.

My friend writes, “Hi Becky, I was just speaking with Alexandria’s mother to find out how she was doing. And I believe we are getting closer to the breakthrough in this situation.”

I respond with a hearty, “Amen! We’ve been standing for a long time for this, but many layers had to be peeled away first.”

My response stirs another question from her: “In [the] Bible, I don’t remember Jesus or the apostles telling people to get their lives in order before they could be healed. He said go and sin no more or your sins are forgiven, so I get confused by comments like layers being peeled away. Please help me to understand. “

I respond, “I agree, but in the situation you mentioned, they have so much baggage in their lives that they have a difficult time to have faith to believe. It’s not God withholding. The issue is with them; there is so much emotional baggage, they struggle to believe. And I am telling you, faith only operates by love.”

She responds, “Aren’t we ‘the ones who believe,’ the ones responsible for casting out/laying hands on? … And as we believe, Jesus is with us, confirming His Word with signs (healing, deliverance and salvation) following?”

Dear friend, this is another great question, and the answer is this: “When it comes to unbelievers, yes, we are the ones who activate our faith. Jesus says the following in Mark 16:15-18: ‘He said to them, “Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved. But he who does not believe will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”‘”

But when it comes to believers in Christ, God expects each one of us to operate by our own faith. That’s why Jesus is recorded in different occasions stating that it is by “your faith” that you are healed, and you are made whole. And even though we are to join our faith together, we are still responsible to strengthen our own faith to obtain our miracles.

Also, we tend to forget that our soul (the mind and emotions) needs to be healed too. And I have often found that until we deal with the root issues of the problem, the healing is hindered. And in the situation mentioned above, this family had many serious issues that had to be peeled away, just like an onion is peeled, (and every layer stings and causes tears to flow) before they could even begin to stand confident in the faith to believe for the physical healing of their son. And to you reading this post, this may be the reason for the delay with the manifestation of your physical healing too.

We sing, “I surrender all,” but what we really mean is, “I surrender some.” The rest of it we’re sure God will never require of us. It’s non-negotiable because we feel we are entitled to be comfortable, or so we think.

Comfortably Uncomfortable

Right now, I’m sitting in my comfortable recliner. The temperature in my office is just the way I like it. The lighting is perfect. I’m in comfortable clothing and my stomach is satisfied because I just ate lunch. I love being comfortable.

However, I so remember when God rocked my comfortably uncomfortable world big-time. I remember when He revealed that I was going to have to change what I ate every single day. I was going to have to give up sugar and breads.

I say comfortably uncomfortable because at the time, I weighed 430 pounds. I was very uncomfortable in my own body. However, I did not want to give up what I considered my only comfort—the desserts, the hot rolls, the breaded meats, the high-carbohydrate-laden casseroles, fast food, junk food and basically whatever I loved to eat.

Entitled

This revelation meant I was going to have to learn an entirely new way to relate to the world around me. In the past, any time I had a problem, food was my drug of choice to help me deal with that problem. On some level, I thought I was entitled to that addiction.

The problems I was trying to avoid could be anything that frustrated, angered, overwhelmed or stressed me. It might be something that made me feel resentful, bitter, ashamed, judged, ridiculed, sad or depressed.

All of those problems I’d learned to make go away by eating sugar and starch-laden foods. Overeating, though, didn’t really make the feelings go away; it just buried them under mountains and mountains of food.

The Cellar of My Life

I threw the bad feelings down to the cellar of my soul and heaped the foods I ate on them to make them be quiet. The difficulty is that even though the problems are down in the cellar, at some point, something will trigger them.

Then they will come back stronger, and I will need more food to keep them quiet. They really are never buried. They are alive and well, just waiting for the opportunity to emerge and ruin my day.

Eating to try to ignore my feelings was something I got really good at as a child. That habit continued into the time that I was working, married, having a family and dealing with life. It seemed that even though I was a Christian, I needed excess food to keep my emotions in check and act like a good Christian.

I didn’t want to get mad and yell at people, cry uncontrollably or sit zombie-like in a corner. All of those seemed not to honor God. So, I overindulged in food to keep myself somewhere near sane, or what I felt like sane looked like.

The Search for Peace

I hadn’t understood the memo where God said my relationship with Him was all I needed to have peace, absence from worry, panic and frustration. Oh, I’d probably read a few scriptures that said that, but I had no idea how to actually access His peace. I just thought I had to manufacture that on my own.

I found out, though, that any peace I try to manufacture is fake. The only real peace is the peace that Jesus brings. Before He went to the cross, He told His disciples that He was leaving them with the gift of peace of mind and heart. “Not the kind of fragile peace given by the world, but My perfect peace” (John 14:27b, TPT). There is nothing else in this world like it.

Even though I knew where to find real peace, I still was not willing to put all my eggs in the God basket. I wasn’t ready to surrender this one part of my life to Him. I was still walking by sight, not faith.

Walking by Faith

I wanted something I could see, feel, smell, taste and touch. I wanted something tangible to comfort me. Sure, the Scripture says the Holy Spirit is comfort, but how does His comfort work better than oatmeal cookies or pecan pie to fill the ache inside me?

Walking by faith requires not seeing, and not knowing how or what will happen when God asks us to do something. It requires the kind of faith Abraham had to just start walking in a direction and let God led. That was a little too ethereal for me. How could I trust God completely when I don’t know what the outcome will be?

Yet that is exactly what God asks of us. It’s pretty simple, really. We are human. God is God. He knows better than we do what we really need that will fulfill the true desires of our hearts.

What Do We Want?

I was always just focused on what I wanted in this moment right now. I didn’t feel that the future was within my grasp, so that was not even in the calculations of what I might do right now.

If I wanted to eat cookies, then I would eat cookies. That might make me feel better for a minute, but then when I realized it has affected my weight and my health, I would be sorry. Then, though, it was always too late.

But God knows exactly what we need in every moment. He will lead us to “prosper in all things and be in health, just as [our] soul prospers” (3 John 2b, NKJV) if we will let Him. First, though, we have to trust Him. We have to have faith that when He directs us in a certain way, it is what is best for us.

Getting to that point is not easy, but it is necessary if we really want to have everything in abundance, more than we expect—”life in its fullness until we overflow,” as it says in John 10:10b (TPT).

However, if we are content to live a mundane, mediocre life of struggle and pain, we can keep eating cookies whenever we want.

The Mystery That Is God

There is this great, vast mystery to who God is and how He works in our lives. He reveals those mysteries to us as we begin to follow Him even in the small things like what we eat and how we move.

It’s more than just going on a diet; it’s following Him for total lifestyle change. Along the way, I lost 250 pounds, but I gained a deeper, more profound relationship with my God.

God, though, always gives us a choice. We can continue to harm the bodies He created for us and placed us in, or we can begin to take care of them by getting so close to Him that we can hardly stand it. When we do that, He begins to reveal more and more of His glory to us.

Glory to Glory

There is power in acknowledging God is God and we are not. There is power in asking Him to be the engine to drive what He wants us to do. His will in our lives can only be performed in tandem with Him. Yoked with Him, we can move from glory to the next level of glory.

“We can all draw close to Him with the veil removed from our faces. And with no veil we all become like mirrors who brightly reflect the glory of the Lord Jesus. We are being transfigured into His very image as we move from one brighter level of glory to another. And this glorious transfiguration comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).

We can decide to wallow in the fleshly pursuits of our humanity, or we can choose the life filled with more and more of what God longs to reveal to us. The choice is always ours.

What will you choose? {eoa}

Teresa Shields Parker is the author of five books and two study guides, including her latest, Sweet Journey to Transformation: Practical Steps to Lose Weight and Live Healthy, and her No. 1 bestseller, Sweet Grace: How I Lost 250 Pounds. She is also a blogger, spiritual weight loss coach (check out her coaching group, Overcomers Academy) and speaker at . Check out her new podcast, Sweet Grace for Your Journey.

This article originally appeared at .

Gina R. Prince is an apostle of the gospel of Jesus Christ. She has a podcast show called The Keys Against the Enemy on . Connect with Gina on Instagram and Twitter @ginarprince as well as Facebook at “The Keys Against the Enemy.” Visit her website at .

The book of Daniel tells us, “The people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits” (Dan. 11:32b, NKJV, author’s emphasis). The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines an exploit as “a notable or heroic act.” I get excited about carrying out notable or heroic acts for God, don’t you?

Notice it doesn’t say that the people who are super spiritual or strong in themselves will do great exploits. No, it’s the people who know their God. Apparently, we can get close enough to God to know Him and to do notable and heroic acts for Him. That sounds like good news to me. It sounds like you and I could qualify!

Daniel knew what he was talking about. He was just a young man when he and the Israelites were taken captive from their homeland to the heathen nation of Babylon and forced to assimilate to a foreign culture. When he and his friends risked their lives by standing up to the king and refusing to eat food that God had outlawed, they ended up looking healthier than anyone else, and they were granted more wisdom than anyone in the kingdom (see Dan. 1:1-20).

When they refused to bow down to an idol and were thrown into a fiery furnace as a result, God rescued them, and they didn’t even smell like smoke afterward (see Dan. 3:8-27)! In his later life, when Daniel refused to stop praying to God three times a day and was thrown into a den of man-eating lions, God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths so that Daniel was completely unharmed (see Dan. 6:1-28).

All of these notable and heroic acts happened because Daniel knew his God. All through the book of Daniel we see him praying and obeying. He showed us a life of closeness to God, consecrated to knowing Him, and the results were great exploits!

I say, let’s get closer and closer to God—let’s get to know Him better and better and do some great exploits of our own that bring Him glory and set people free.

We Have It Even Better

As awesome as Daniel was in doing great exploits, he was an Old Covenant child of God. You and I are new covenant children of God, and according to Hebrews 8:6, we have an even better covenant based on even better promises! Do you suppose that means we can do even greater exploits than Daniel did? Jesus said we could in John 14:12 (author’s emphasis):

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.”

In the New Testament, the apostle Paul said, “[my determined purpose is] that I may know Him” (Phil. 3:10a, AMPC). Now, think about this. Paul didn’t say that his determined purpose was to reach most of the known world with the gospel … though he did that. He didn’t say that his determined purpose was to write half the New Testament … though he did that too. He didn’t say that his determined purpose was to perform miracles in the name of Jesus … even though he did that too!

No, his determined purpose was to know God—to get closer and closer to the Father, and because of that, he did all those other things. It was because he knew God that he reached the known world with the gospel, wrote half the New Testament and did miracles in Jesus’ name. His main focus was getting closer to God—and the result was reaching the world with the gospel, writing half the New Testament and performing miracles in Jesus’ name.

What might happen in your life and sphere of influence if your determined purpose was to know God? He is ready, willing and able to have the closest relationship possible with you, if you want it. He wants to be known—by you! {eoa}

Karen Jensen Salisbury has been in ministry over 30 years. Formerly a lead pastor, then an instructor at Rhema Bible College, she is currently an itinerant minister and author of several books. Connect with her on her website, ; Facebook; Instagram or Twitter.

This article was excerpted and adapted from Karen’s new book, Closer Than You Ever Imagined: Experiencing the Deep Relationship With God You Always Wanted. To read the first part FREE, preorder your copy or join the Launch Team, click here.

Why be a Christian? This question is of utmost importance. Do you have an answer? Some would say, “You should be a Christian because you will be a happier person.” Really? The first person I baptized in London was a Los Angeles Jewish businessman who was converted one Sunday evening at Westminster Chapel. We later became friends—even spent parts of holidays together. He was wonderfully converted, but he said to me one day, “Before I became a Christian, I was a happy man.” He wasn’t complaining; he was admitting that being a Christian was costly—and sometimes painful. None of his family or his friends became Christians.

Some might answer this question, “You should become a Christian because it could help your marriage.” Really? Divorce rates might prove otherwise. I have found that marriages are helped when couples put Jesus Christ first in their lives; they are not only faithful to each other but stop pointing the finger and mutually forgive each other for the other’s faults.

The reason a person should be a Christian, says Paul, is because of the wrath of God (Rom. 1:18, 5:9; 1 Thess. 1:10). Most Christians can quote John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish [meaning that they will not go to hell] but have eternal life” (NIV, emphasis added). Once a person is a Christian, he or she becomes a part of the body of Christ—the church. God wants the church to be the salt of the earth. We become salt and light when we uphold the Scriptures and manifest the power of God with equal force. The last thing we want is for those two to become separated, and yet they have been.

This is about a divorce between the Word and the Spirit. I believe God hates this type of divorce as much as He hates the divorce of a husband and wife (Mal. 2:16, see footnote in ESV)—even more so, if that is possible.

It was a silent divorce. It is impossible to know precisely when it took place. It may have happened many times in the course of church history. Sometime before A.D. 65, Paul wrote of a future “rebellion” (2 Thess. 2:3). The King James version calls it “a falling away.” Between A.D. 90 and 100 , Jesus speaking from the right hand of God in heaven, said that the church in Ephesus had “abandoned the love you had at first” (Rev. 2:4). What was their first love? The gospel. Read the book of Ephesians alongside Acts 19 and 20. The gospel was paramount at Ephesus. So too was the evidence of power.

What is more, when you read the earliest writings of the apostolic fathers (people such as Ignatius and Polycarp from the second and third centuries)—as I show in Whatever Happened to the Gospel?—the gospel seems to have been replaced by moralism and emphasis on good works. The gospel is the “power of God for salvation” (Rom. 1:16). But Paul said that in the last days there would be people “having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power” (2 Tim. 3:5a). That is the Word without the Spirit.

It is a gospel sometimes upheld by cerebral teaching that intentionally rejects the gifts of the Spirit. Often it is good sound doctrine, but it lacks power. Paul calls this quenching the Spirit or putting out the Spirit’s fire (1 Thess. 5:19; see ISV). An example of this is cessationist teaching, as I show in Holy Fire. Such teaching—which has utterly no foundation in Scripture—quenches the Spirit before the Spirit is allowed to manifest His power.

When there is a divorce , sometimes the children stay with the mother, sometimes with the father. In the divorce between the Word and the Spirit, you have those on the Word side and those on the Spirit side.

I believe that revival is coming—an unprecedented outpouring unlike anything our generation has seen. The question is, Are we ready for it? Have we been trained? Have we been taught? The people God will use most are those who have sought His face (getting to know Him and desiring more of Him) rather than His hand (what they can get from Him). He is looking for a people who have searched His Word and stood in awe of it.

This unprecedented awakening, which I believe is coming, will come when the Scriptures and the power of God come together. When these two—the Word and the power of the Spirit—are brought back together, a remarriage will occur. The simultaneous combination will create a spontaneous combustion. The day will come when those who come to see will hear, and those who come to hear will see.

Adapted from Word & Spirit by R.T. Kendall, copyright 2019, published by Charisma House. Are you anticipating the next great move of God? Have you been praying for revival? R.T. Kendall sees it coming once those who live by God’s Word only but oppose demonstrations of the Holy Spirit and those who seek signs and wonders but have not hidden His Word in their hearts unite in the truth of both the Word and the Spirit. This book helps prepare you for what’s coming. To order your copy, click on this link.

Prayer Power for the Week of Jan. 19, 2020

This week, continue to seek God’s face through His Word, praise and adoration. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you in your prayers as you intercede for our nation, its leaders and our military. Remember Israel as you pray for our allies and worldwide revival. Ask the Lord to connect you with those of like faith for unity in prayer and ministry. Read: 2 Chronicles 7:14, Romans 1:16, 2 Timothy 3:5, 1 Thessalonians 5:19.

Christians should expect spiritual warfare, Scripture tells us. Prophetic preacher and ordained minister Dr. Kim Maas says spiritual warfare “is something that we need to deal with, and we shouldn’t shy away from it.”

Because we have an enemy that is roaming the earth, Maas says on the Move Forward With Dr. Kim Maas podcast on the Charisma Podcast Network, we must prepare for warfare, and we can’t ignore it or hide from it, either. “Warfare is just going to be part of the process.”

At the same time, says Maas, “Not everything is the devil. I think sometimes we’re too quick to run to that. Sometimes we automatically think, Well, I’m having a tough time in this one area, so it must be the devil,” she says. “Sometimes it’s not the devil. Sometimes it’s a test from the Lord to see if you’re going to be faithful with something. Did you know that when you get a prophetic word, oftentimes, things will go in the completely opposite direction?”

Dr. Heidi Baker of Iris Global, whom Maas calls “the Mother Teresa of Mozambique,” had an experience that shows us sometimes an encounter is both a test from the Lord and spiritual warfare. Baker once came to a Randy Clark conference as a burned-out missionary. “Randy was speaking, and he called her out and said, ‘Heidi, do you want Mozambique?’ It was a word of the Lord. It was a prophetic word. She said yes,” Maas says. “And then she was wrecked by the Lord for several days, having an encounter with the Holy Spirit where He came upon her in power, and the prophetic word had to do with seeing healings and people being raised from the dead and planting thousands of churches and seeing millions of people come to the Lord. And so when she went back, the first 18 months were just hell.

“And she prayed. She took this word and ran with it, which is what you’re supposed to do, to begin stepping into it already. And she started to lay hands on people and pray for the sick, and nobody was recovering. And as a matter of fact, all their funding dried up. And then … she and [her husband] Roland were sick,” Maas explains. “And she had to push through all of that until the prophecy came to pass. So what was that? Well, it was a test of her faith. First of all, it was a test that God allowed … And then it was also warfare because the enemy wanted her to turn back and not press in to receive it.”

For more about how you can walk in faith and discern true spiritual warfare, listen to this podcast.

During premarital counseling, my husband and I learned many valuable lessons, but the one lesson that carried over to this day, six years later, is one particular piece of advice our pastor gave us.

About seven years ago, my then-fiance and I started premarital counseling with our pastor. We were required to attend biweekly sessions for eight weeks before our pastor would agree to marry us. He wanted to ensure we had the tools to communicate, and he also wanted to assist us in learning new ways to approach topics such as finances, stress, raising children and so forth.

“Counseling” is a word that makes certain folks uneasy, because the idea of opening up to someone can be a bit intimidating, but I love when people realize how productive, healthy and soothing counseling sessions are for couples and individuals.

In fact, I can’t say enough good things about it!

Well, during our last session, our pastor looked at us with a serious expression and said, “There will come a time when you don’t want to talk through your problems. You may feel resentful, angry or hurt, and if those emotions fester, you will find more reasons to not communicate. In knowing this, I want you to promise yourself something—that if and when those circumstances arise, one of you will commit to putting your pride to the side to lead your partner down the path of healthy communication.”

We looked at our pastor and quickly agreed to his request, and then he stopped us.

“I think you are both assuming that this might be easy, that putting your feelings aside will be a walk in the park, but during moments of anger and frustration, putting aside your emotions is anything but simple. Please, keep this advice in the back of your mind. It will come in handy someday.”

After our session, my fiance and I went about our day, yet I couldn’t help but think about our pastor’s advice. I wondered if I would be the one to initiate a conversation or an apology in the midst of an argument or if he would be the one to take the first step.

Well, three months after the day we promised each other forever, my husband and I got into an argument. I can’t remember exactly what happened, but I remember feeling frustrated over a disagreement that went south.

I looked at my husband with disdain, quietly vowing to myself to give my partner the silent treatment until he realized I was right. In that moment, I needed him to know I was right and he was wrong.

That evening, we didn’t speak. We ate dinner in silence. Then we went to bed without saying a word to one another, either.

The next morning, I woke up and no longer felt angry. At that point, I was sad. My partner and I ignored each other for an entire day, something we’ve never done. So, I started to pray. I asked God to remove the fleshly feelings from my heart, and as I prayed, our pastor’s advice flashed in my mind.

I knew what I had to do yet I was reluctant to speak to my husband.

I don’t want to be the one to initiate a conversation, I thought to myself.

I also did not want to let another day go by and not speak to the man I love most in this world.

So, I walked into our living room, took a deep breath and said, “I understand we’re both angry, and we both feel misunderstood. Let’s try to talk this out.”

Admittedly, I was seething inside, but I didn’t want to wait around to see if my partner would initiate a conversation. I cared more about our healing than proving myself right or being a victor. After all, there is no winner when two people are led by their ego.

At first, my husband was a bit cold to my request. So I reminded him about what our pastor had said during our counseling session. Then I noticed a shift in his attitude, as if he suddenly remembered our pastor’s advice and gentle warning that this day might come.

That day, we talked through our problem, and after we exchanged apologies, we put our issue in the past and carried on with life.

To this day, we follow our pastor’s advice, and one of us initiates a conversation during a time when the last thing we want to do is communicate in a healthy way. {eoa}

LightWorkers‘ mission is to create engaging, uplifting and inspirational content that breaks through the clutter, building a community of sharing and igniting a movement in the real world that motivates people to celebrate and share the good all around them. Find them at .

As believers, we need special help to discern the presence of angels, says author and Bible teacher Jennifer Eivaz. The spiritual gift of discerning of spirits can help us, she says, along with a measure of faith.

“The Bible tells us that the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, that’s Psalm 34, verse seven, and I’m trusting that you fear and reverence God,” Eivaz says on the Take 10 With Jenn podcast on the Charisma Podcast Network. “And if that’s the case, then we absolutely know scripturally, whether you deserve them or not, the angels are right here with us.”

Asking for the ability to see angels is biblical, Eivaz explains. The apostle Paul prayed that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened so we would know things about God’s kingdom (Eph. 1:18), she says. “That prayer was not just for the Ephesians; it was for you and me.” She also points to Elisha’s powerful prayer for his servant in 2 Kings 6. “When their lives were threatened, he prayed that his servant’s spiritual eyes would be open to see all the angels that were protecting them when they needed it.”

As she wrote her most recent book, Seeing the Supernatural, Eivaz says, “I asked the Lord to allow me to see His angels. I know from His Word that they are here; they’re nearby. And He was so gracious to me; He was so good to me to open my eyes right then and there. And I saw to the right of me, floating up in the air, an angel. And he was about 6 feet tall. I could feel the light of God, the heat of God—that’s a good experience—radiating off this angel.”

For more about how you can discern angels and their supernatural presence, listen to this podcast. {eoa}

Back when I was super morbidly obese, I was not happy. At 430 pounds, I didn’t have the luxury of thinking I could eradicate my problem by going on another diet. I had figured out that diets were one of the things that had actually helped make me fat!

Why Diets Don’t Work

You might say, “Wait, Teresa. A diet is a good thing. It helps you lose weight. Right?” If all you want to do is lose a few sizes to fit into that dress you want to wear to your daughter’s wedding in six months, a diet might work for that one time. You might be able to fit into the dress on that one day.

However, once you’ve done that, you will more likely than not gain the weight back plus a little more, and that dress will once again be a distant memory.

As a matter of fact, an article on Web MD says that 80% of people who successfully lose at least 10% of their body weight will gradually regain it to end up as large or even larger than they were before they went on a diet.

Fighting Maintenance

After a person goes on a diet, their body fights against the long-term maintenance of that weight. This prompts us to eat more and gain weight. What researchers have found out is that small weight changes don’t prompt those same big jumps in appetite and regain of weight plus even more weight than before.

This points solidly towards the fact that it is better to look at weight loss as a slow and steady lifestyle change process rather than a quick fix diet.

Back when I was super morbidly obese and going on every diet imaginable, it was a constant push-pull of dieting, losing weight, going off the diet, going back to my old eating habits, gaining the weight back plus more and then starting the cycle over again.

Fighting Change

When the cardiac surgeon told me I had five years to live back in 1999, I was smart enough to know I needed to change, but how could I do it? I still was still fighting the idea of making a drastic lifestyle change.

I had five years to lose weight, though, so surely I could figure it out in that time. Had I wrapped my mind around the fact that I needed to commit to the slow, steady change, I could have done it.

Like the crazy person who returns to the scene of their crime, I went back on another diet. It was one I’d used to lose 100 pounds before, so I figured I could do it. I just wasn’t sure how I was going to stay on the diet for the rest of my life.

Long-Term Problem

The problem with diets is that they are not meant to be how we eat for the rest of our lives. They are not long-term solutions. They are short-term fixes for what has become a long-term problem for us. We will need another fix really, really soon. It becomes an endless cycle.

Most of the before and after pictures you see on various websites are true in that moment, but what about a year from then? What have those dieters learned that can help them keep the weight off?

What happens when life throws them a curve ball, which it always does? Any number of things will cause them to ditch their diets. They can be happy events such as weddings, anniversaries, graduations, birthday parties, church carry-in dinners, family reunions, holidays or just going out to eat with friends.

Or they can be sad events such as the loss of a job, loss of a family member, divorce, separation, failing a test, not getting a call-back for that job they wanted, having a bad day at work, succumbing to tempting foods brought to work or even a co-worker, friend or family member who is always bringing a new dessert and won’t relent with trying to get them to try it.

More Than Weight Loss

In all these cases, we will cave in if we are just on a diet. With a diet, we figure we can just start that again tomorrow. Then, tomorrow comes, and we put it off a while longer until we have gained back all the weight we’ve lost plus more. Now we are desperate and feel we have to go full-fledged on that diet again.

What I finally realized is I don’t want to just lose weight. I want to live the life that Christ promised me. I wanted what He came to earth, died and rose again to give me—”everything in abundance, more than [I] expect—life in its fullness until [I] overflow,” as it says in John 10:10 (TPT).

I knew dropping about 20 pants sizes would be great, but what I really wanted was to live a full life.

DIET Is a Bad Word

All the resources I knew about in order to achieve this centered around going on another diet. By this time, though, I considered diet a very bad four-letter word. I didn’t need another short-term fix. I needed a permanent solution. It was going to take changing more than just what I ate. It was going to take changing me completely from the inside out. (See Rom. 12:2, MSG.)

In order to change any problem, we first have to accept that we have a problem. I had always blamed my weight gain on poor genes, diabetes and high blood pressure that runs in our family, loving the delicious foods I ate as I was growing up. And to tell the truth, I also blamed God. I felt He had just made me fat. Why else would I love foods made with sugar and flour so much that I would overeat them constantly?

I knew I had a problem; I just hadn’t accepted that I had created the problem. My first step toward changing my lifestyle and my habits was to accept that I am a sugar and comfort food addict and that I needed to radically change my lifestyle.

When I was able to step into that acceptance and surrender my addiction to God, everything began to change. Not only did I lose over 250 pounds, but I addressed issues that were holding me back emotionally, mentally, spiritually and physically.

Journey to Transformation

In the Journey to Transformation course in Overcomers Academy, I have a test members can take that will help them define what their issues are. It also gives them some pointers about how to develop their own program to help them attack those issues.

Because I am a sugar and comfort food addict, I am driven to overeat those kinds of foods. So I am both a food addict and an overeater.

The next step for me was not to just accept this as a fact, but to begin to face that fact. This involved a time of mourning as I accepted what I had done to myself. I had to have heartfelt repentance for not just gaining weight but allowing my stomach to become my god (see Phil. 3:19).

Surrender Is Key

This is the moment of surrender when we lay everything we’ve done on His altar and ask Him to help us change our habits and our lifestyles. Repentance involves a complete turnaround.

It’s the moment when you are going in a certain direction and all of a sudden you realize that direction will not get you where you really want to go. It won’t get you your heart’s desire.

My intense heart’s desire was to live an everything-in-abundance, more-than-I-can-expect, full-till-it-overflows life.

Diets made me fat, but they don’t have to do that to you. Make this the year you step into total lifestyle change—body, soul and spirit. {eoa}

Teresa Shields Parker is the author of five books and two study guides, including her latest, Sweet Journey to Transformation: Practical Steps to Lose Weight and Live Healthy, and her No. 1 bestseller, Sweet Grace: How I Lost 250 Pounds. She is also a blogger, spiritual weight loss coach (check out her coaching group, Overcomers Academy) and speaker at . Check out her new podcast, Sweet Grace for Your Journey.

This article originally appeared at .