BROADCASTS.com

b'

Episode 035--Freedom and Destiny

Six years ago today, July 1, 2014, I began my first Christian weight loss coaching group. It wasn\\u2019t my idea to do Christian weight loss coaching. It was actually the last thing on my mind. I had written my memoir, \\u201cSweet Grace: How I Lost 250 Pounds and Stopped Trying to Earn God\\u2019s Favor.\\u201d\\xa0

It became popular and people who had read the book wanted me to tell them how to lose weight. Then, God called me to begin an online coaching group. I didn\\u2019t want to do it, but when I told God I didn\\u2019t have the compassion I needed to do the job and He gave it to me, I said yes. I started coaching that next month.

When people come into a Christian weight loss coaching program they do it because they want to lose weight. Little do they know what they really want and need is freedom from sugar addiction, carb addiction, overeating, binging or other food issues.\\xa0

They don\\u2019t yet recognize that these issues are holding them captive. However if they can\\u2019t say no to donuts, candy, cookies, brownies, chocolate, french fries, triple cheeseburgers or that fourth helping of lasagna, something is wrong. Likely this started from a lie of some kind that they began to believe in childhood which morphed into a stronghold and then an addiction.

It might be something like desserts comfort me. Then it moves to I need more desserts to feel better about what I\\u2019m going through. After that it morphs into desserts are necessary for me to be civil to others. Then, desserts are all I want to eat.\\xa0 Finally. it becomes even if God Himself asked me to there is no way I could give up desserts and things made with sugar.

We have been taken prisoner and we don\\u2019t even realize it. There is one sure way to know if you are captured or not. Have you been convicted by God that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and you should lose weight? Have you tried to give up certain foods or tried to lose weight and may have done that for a while, but always find yourself going back to it? Have you wanted to change, but no matter how many times you say you are going to, you find yourself right back in the same ruts?

You, my friend, have been taken in by one of Satan\\u2019s destructive schemes. It happens so slowly we don\\u2019t even recognize it until we are so deep into it, we feel we can never get out. God, though, is the one who can lead us out of anything and everything even things that feel impossible to get out of.\\xa0

What I have learned from my own journey and now from coaching many women, and a few men, on their journeys is most all of our food issues aren\\u2019t really issues with food, they are lies we began to believe that resulted in us eating to try to deal with the angst those lies brought us.

That leads to food addiction, plain and simple. But we deny that it is even an issue, just like Sally said. If we don\\u2019t talk about it, it doesn\\u2019t exist. So we just keep eating and pretend it\\u2019s not a problem. We are FREE in Christ, so we can eat whatever we want.

And while that is true, it is also true that we are not living the overflowing abundant life that Jesus has in store for us. Satan has set in motion a scheme designed to kill us, destroy us and steal our destinies in God. Jesus has a different plan for us and it starts with not putting ourselves in an early grave just because we can\\u2019t stop eating ice cream!

If you aren\\u2019t honest with God, He will NOT help you change. Remember, He gave us FREE WILL. We have the freedom to choose. But let me ask you this, why would you willfully choose to be in bondage to a substance rather than being led by an almighty God who has your destiny already figured out?

When we are captive to a substance, we are not free to follow God. We are double-minded and unstable in all our ways as James 1:6 says. That\\u2019s because we are listening to the foods we love more than God. It\\u2019s a subtle thing that the enemy does. We all know we have to eat to live. But overeating certain foods is the first desire the evil one will try to use to get us to stop listening to God.

He did that exact same thing to Eve and then to Adam. They took the bait and look what happened as a result. But when he tried that same thing by tempting a very hungry Jesus to turn stones into bread, Jesus showed us the way out. He answered him with Scripture saying \\u201cPeople do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.\\u201d (Deut. 8:3, Matt 4:4) Then when Jesus had had enough of Satan\\u2019s temptations He ordered Him, \\u201cGet out of here, Satan!\\u201d (Matt 4:10).\\xa0

If God has been talking to you about any area related to food or weight, please listen. When He does this, He\\u2019s not mad at you. He\\u2019s madly in love with you. He wants you to live the sweet life, but that doesn\\u2019t mean eating all the sweets you want. It means living in communion with Him, getting so close to Him you can\\u2019t even stand it, walking with Him and following Him every day for the rest of your life.

Psalm 119:45 TPT says it plainly,\\xa0 \\u201cI will walk with You in complete\\xa0freedom, for I seek to\\xa0follow\\xa0Your every command.\\u201d

We can only do that when we have enthroned Jesus as Lord of our lives. When we finally make the decision to put Jesus in His rightful place in our lives, in order to stay free we must follow what He shows us to do. That means we must be walking and talking with Him every day to guard against being taken prisoner again.

In Galatians 5:1 TPT, Paul says it this way, \\u201cLet me be clear, the Anointed One has set us free\\u2014not partially, but completely and wonderfully free! We must always cherish this truth and stubbornly refuse to go back into the bondage of our past.\\u201d

The same is true for us. If we\\u2019ve given allegiance to certain foods or certain ways of overeating or binging in order to just survive this world, we can\\u2019t continue to do that and follow Jesus completely, too. It just doesn\\u2019t work that way.

I used to stubbornly refuse to give up the foods I thought I couldn\\u2019t live without. Now I stubbornly refuse to go back to eating those foods. I live a fasted lifestyle in that I give up foods made with sugar and flour.\\xa0

Giving up sugar and flour, though, is not a once and done thing. It\\u2019s a process that involves many layers. Giving anything up all at once when we\\u2019ve been eating it constantly for years will only make us crave it all the more. It\\u2019s really a process of habit change.\\xa0

Overcomers Academy: https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/Overcomers-Christian-Weight-Loss -Academy/

Teresa\\u2019s Facebook Business page: https://www.facebook.com/TeresaShieldsParker