Healthy and Whole

God loves you and He is interested in every single part of your life. Many people have trouble believing this because they think God is only concerned about spiritual things. But look at what 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says:

May the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through [separate you from profane things, make you pure and wholly consecrated to God]; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved sound and complete [and found] blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah). (AMPC).

This verse clearly says that we can be “wholly consecrated to God.” God created us as tri-part beings: we are a spirit, we have a soul, and we live in a body. Our spirit is the part of us that receives revelation from God, and our conscience functions through it. Our soul is made up of our mind, will and emotions, and our body is the house we live in.

God wants every part of our lives to be healthy and whole. This is important because if we have one or two areas that are healthy but the third is messed up, we won’t be able to enjoy the life Jesus came to give us. For example, you can be spiritually sound—born again through a personal relationship with Jesus—but if you are emotionally sick with depression, anger, unforgiveness, etc., then you won’t have peace and joy in your soul.

John 10:10 is one of my favorite scriptures because it shows us the kind of life God intends for us to have. It says that Jesus came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows) (AMPC).

I talk about this a lot because I used to be a miserable Christian who looked like I had it all together on the outside but was a big mess on the inside. And I’ve met a lot of other Christians who love God, but they don’t love their lives.

The truth is we don’t have to settle for a miserable life, just hoping we can hold on till Jesus comes back to get us. Luke 19:10 says the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost (AMPC) Notice it doesn’t just say “who” was lost but “that which was lost.” Jesus wants to restore every part of our lives—spirit, soul, and body.

Laying a Good Foundation

If your spirit is not right with God, then the rest of you will never get completely right or be “whole.” And to be spiritually healthy, the first thing we need to do is receive Christ as our Savior.

When you receive Christ, it means that on the inside of you—in your spirit—you are made new, and God comes to live in your spirit, making you the home of God. I love what 1 John 3:9 says: No one born (begotten) of God [deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin, for God’s nature abides in him [His principle of life, the divine sperm, remains permanently within him]…(AMPC).

When we surrender our lives to Christ by acknowledging Him as Lord, confessing our sin and accepting His sacrifice—the blood He shed—as the payment needed to cleanse us of sin, then the “divine sperm,” or life of God, is deposited in our spirit. We get a new nature, a new heart, and we can’t keep doing ungodly, or sinful, things anymore because it’s not in our God-given nature to live this way.

This doesn’t mean we suddenly do everything perfectly, but when people are really born again, they can’t just live in sin—deliberately, knowingly, and habitually—and be happy. You cannot have God’s peace and joy if you continue to live that kind of life.

Developing the new Christ-like nature that’s been planted in seed form in your spirit is a process and it takes time. It’s like a woman who gets pregnant: In the beginning, she’s so excited but she’s not “showing” right away. It takes months for the baby inside to grow so that you see the changes in her body.

In a similar way, it takes time for us to grow spiritually so that the life of God shows in our behavior. We have to spend time with God in prayer, worshiping Him, watering the seed of His life inside us with the Word, and letting the light of His love shine on us.

If we diligently seek God, then eventually people will see God’s characteristics in us—His love, joy, peace, righteousness…and everything else He is. We’ll also be equipped and empowered to change in every other area of our lives so we can be wholly consecrated to God—spirit, soul, and body.