Beni Johnson, Wednesday January 9, 2013

Health: Keeping the Fire Alive

• Bill and I have been married for almost 40 years and we’ve seen a lot.
• A few years ago, I felt like the Lord spoke “I want you to get strong and well because I want you for the long haul” to me.
• Often times in the body of Christ people get really spiritual and they forget their other parts. We are a triune being and all three parts need to be healthy for you to go the long haul.
• I started noticing that some of our peer were getting really really sick, like deathly sick. And I thought, there must be a way for us to be effective and healthy.
• So I’m going to share some tools for doing that that I’ve discovered since.
• I’m not against medication but I think there are many things that you can do before you have to use them.
• I remember going to the pharmacy and seeing rows and rows and rows of medication and I thought, “this is just wrong” because there are so many stores just like this one.
• One of my passions is to see people walk into health.
• So I’m going to share with you 7 pillars of physical health because I want you to be the healthiest church alive.

The first part is your body.

1. Drink lots of water!

• One cup of coffee requires seven cups of water to balance it out.

2. Sleep and rest.

• 7-8 hours a night and keep resting.

3. Living foods.

• Eat food that is alive, not only dead. A lot of raw (uncooked) food is good.
• I am not a vegetarian and there are lots of vegetarians that are incredibly unhealthy.
• Eat fresh fish, not farmed fish. Farmed fish don’t have any Omega 3s, and those are extremely important.
• Don’t get drug store vitamins, get a fruit and veggie base.

4. Exercise.

• That’s the biggest deal to getting over diabetes.
• Building muscle burns fat.
• Do cardiovascular exercises.

5. Detoxification.

• Get on the internet and look up ways to do that.
• Detox is when you take a period of time and cut things from your diet. Those can include gluten, refined sugars, alcohol.
• A really simple detox is drinking 16-22oz of carrot juice every day for 5 weeks.

6. Nutritional supplements.

• Get the best ones you can. Some are synthetic, avoid those.
• I use Sea Alou (spell?) they are liquid pills. Anything that’s organic is good.

7. Freedom from stress.

• I de-stress by soaking.
• Being with God puts everything in balance and helps me focus on the good things.

This is a little instruction that will seriously take you so far.

 

The next part is your soul.

• Bitterness will destroy your body.
• You are going to get hurt just by living on this planet.
• You do have a choice of what to do with pain. Bitterness will destroy your soul and body.
• My grandmother had some deeply rooted bitterness and it began to show in the way she would talk so my children asked “what’s wrong with granny” and we had an amazing talk about keeping short accounts. Forgiveness will keep you healthy.
• Forgive and forgive quickly.
• For a while lived like a naval gazer and would focus on trying to find what was wrong with me. That lead to a lot of depression.
• After a while we made a deal with God and said “you know me, and when you want to deal with something, bring it to my attention but I’m not gonna go after things for myself”
• We all have our stuff, why keep it. There is so much freedom on the other side when we just give it up. Once we do this our emotions line up.
• Forgive people who hate you.
• “you cannot control what everybody else does, but you can control what you do with it” Joyce Myers
• Know your limitations. And set boundaries for yourself.
• Know when to say “no” and when to say “yes” to things.
• Keep really good people around you. Who love you and encourage you.
• Run from people who want to take you out. I remember when Eric was in high school, he had friends from when he was really little and there was a girl who made it her goal to sleep with all of them. When we found out, it was easy to resolve, Eric just avaoided her.

 

The third part is your spirit.

• Nobody can take care of your spirit, it’s just up to you.
• What does your spiritual relationship look like behind closed doors when nobody is watching? What goes on when you and God are all alone? Can you be alone with God?
• It’s spirit to spirit. Your spirit meeting with the Holy Spirit and staying connected. (Corinthians)
• The more time you spend with the Holy Spirit, the more your spiritual well is grown.
• Spend time soaking, not just begging God for stuff, but spend time building history with Him.
• Do you know why my husband is so strong? Because of that. Things don’t phase him because he knows the wisdom of the secret place, and he’s one of the busiest men on the planet so don’t give me any excuses, keep your spirit alive and well.
• When you spend time with Him, He shows you his love for a broken world and it’s called compassion. One of the things that keeps us going is compassion for other people.
• Yes we get tired, but we love other people and we want them to be touched with God’s love.
• God will give you His love if you ask Him to and it will break your heart for the world.
• One of the things we do for each other (bill and I) is that we let each other be ourselves, do what we need to do and go where we felt called. And we understood the differences in each other’s giftings. We are very different and we need to appreciate each other for that.
• When we went to Toronto for the first time, we bought a whole bunch of books and read all of them. We filled ourselves with wonderful words. The history of revival.
• It’s like playing a piano, the way you get good is through practice.
• The way to stay motivated is to find something that will keep you motivated.
• When I was exercising, I subscribed to a workout magazine.
• Stay connected, because when you leave this place, you are on your own. You have to make a choice to do well and stay connected with the Holy Spirit.
• We keep the main thing the main thing. We love Jesus more than anybody else or anything else.
• A lot of things try to get in the way, don’t let them. Just love Jesus with all of your heart.

When Gabe wanted to marry our daughter, he invited us to dinner and when we got to the restaurant he was so scared and he asked “I’d like to ask your daughter to marry me, do you have any questions for me?” and Bill asked “do you love God with all of your heart more than you love my daughter?”. Gabe said yes. So Bill said yes. That was the only thing Bill ever asked.

• Today I was in the gym and someone hurt his back. So I went to him and I put my hand on his back and said “I speak healing to your back in Jesus name” and one of the ladies asked “is she praying for him in the gym?”. She was surprised.
• We get to shine the light all the time, it’s really fun.

 

Q&A

I’m engaged, and I’m wondering how to start cultivating family life?

• “the family that prays together, stays together” We really spent a lot of time praying together with God.
• Always make God the focus.
• We battled with Bill preaching on Sunday and mondays were always so depressing because he felt he hadn’t preached well. And there were times when I’d say “you need to go spend time with God because you are not a happy person right now”
• We gave each other space to correct one another. We agreed to that and it helped so much that we had permission to speak into each other.

Things like yoga, thai chi … what are your thoughts on that?

• Yoga I don’t do because it’s too spiritual. I have chosen not to do that personally.
• Thai Chi and pilates are ok, but yoga is not.
• I do my own stretching and soaking because I’ve found that spending time with God and stretching is way better.

What are you feeling for 2013?

• There is crazy favor for 2013!
• We are going to release more hope this year than ever before. It’s a focused hope on “I know this is going to happen” We need to be focused releasers, on missions especially when you are in other countries. As you walk the streets lift your hands and just release hope over the nations.

Do you have a vision for changing the food industry and the pharmacy industry?

• There is a group growing in this city that is on board with changing things in this society
• Whenever you buy grass-fed beef, make sure they haven’t corned the beef three months before they were slaughtered.
• Cows are not supposed to eat corn.
• If you can get free-rang eggs, do it.
• There are a lot of people who are bigger into this than I.
• A big thing right now is the GMO being on labels.

Could you comment on what happened during your trip to Washington DC?

• We had an amazing time meeting high spiritual leaders and at the cedar house where ambassadors often stay.
• I was so encouraged to see what God is doing with the church there in the city.
• To be honest, I was discouraged by the election, but I know God is in control. So to be in DC and see that there is such a great move of God growing there.
• The Frosts have been praying over that city for 10 years and their prayers are being answered rapidly right now.
• Many believers are grabbing hold of miracles and the supernatural for the first time right now.

What are some things you are hoping and asking for this year?

• I’m hoping that Eric is healed (his hearing).
• I’m also praying that I’ll get to speak more into women of this city. I’m looking to see an adoption agency open up, because if we are so pro life and anti abortion, we have to provide an alternative.
• I really have a heart for blessing single moms by buying them houses and stuff.

As I learned about mysticism last year, I started seeing things I didn’t want to see and what are some things that I can do to fix that?

• A lot of times, if there is a door open (sometimes it’s emotions or…) there is access for the enemy to come in and counterfeit what God is really doing.
• Or it could be your location. If there is a really high spiritual atmosphere there, you need to be aware of that.
• Have accountability. Have people in your life who after you’ve had a questionable encounter who you really trust who can walk you through why it’s happening.

What does spending time with Bill look like?

• We’ve found that we are really able to connect when we can get away, enjoy cafes and good food.
• We try not to focus on discussing heavy things when we get away, because we are always dealing with heavy things but we need to just spend time enjoying each other.

How do you share the things you are learning about health with Bill?

• He’s really willing to try anything I suggest, except stopping coffee. We tease each other about that.
• One time I made raw chocolate pudding without warning him and it almost made him spit it out. It was so funny!

As men, what are some tips on how to be good husbands?

• Watch them, learn about them and see how you can serve them. Don’t get wrapped in your own little world. It’s really easy to do that when you are dating, but when you have kids it can get harder.
• When Bill came home and spent time with the kids, it meant so much to me.
• And keeping a clean kitchen is one of the best gifts you can give your life.
• Just honour, it works at home.
• Spend special time together.

What do you do when you are dealing with fatigue?

• Eat lots of healthy meat.
• Laugh.
• Do things that are light-hearted.
• Rest.