5 Ways to Feed Your Spirit
I originally wrote this post in 2018 when I was in a season of great difficulty and exploring alternatives that were not in alignment with my Christian faith, but I didn’t know better. I am updating the post today for two reasons: first I want to be transparent that in our pursuit of peace and spiritual connection we can often be misled - especially if the only things we can find to help us in our time of need are things that the world provides and not godly counsel and assistance. That is my second reason for this update, I want to share that there is another, better way and shed some light on that. Rather than take the post down or just change it altogether, I thought it more beneficial to be transparent and share my experience and the evolution of my understanding over time.
So what are my favorite 5 ways to feed our spirit?
Meditate (Biblically)
In my original iteration of this post I shared about meditation as a way to feed your spirit. I want to be clear that if you are a believer in Jesus, the type of meditation I was recommending at that time I no longer recommend. In all transparency, I knew better and had a check in my spirit when I began down that route. I wasn’t even seeking out Christian meditation practices - I was using an app that was created by a Buddhist monk. But, meditation the correct way is definitely a way to feed your spirit that I DO recommend - there are just parameters I want to clarify.
First of all, what would be the problem with meditation as defined by others outside the Christian faith - particularly if you aren’t exploring a faith change? This was the argument I personally used when practicing meditation previously. My thought was well if I’m a believer in Jesus and just using a practice of relaxing that other people use and not looking to change my faith why would this be an issue? Well, let’s look at King Solomon and what the Bible says about him. In 1 Kings 3 we read that Solomon was involved in mixture in his faith. He was still the King over the people of God but he allowed pagan worship in the land instead of stopping it according to God’s laws. Then, he also made an alliance with Pharaoh and married his daughter. Again, this wasn’t in alignment with God’s instructions for him (Deut 7:3 & 1 Kings 11:2) When we observe Solomon at the end of his life we see why these things were not God’s best for his life. After a lifetime of compromise we read in 1 Kings 11:1-13 that he wound up completely falling away from his faith and this is an example to us all. If you read his writings in Ecclesiastes you will see that later in his life he was despondent and depressed. I believe we can see a connection between his life of compromise and how his spiritual life declined. So unless you are meditating on scripture as the Bible teaches I no longer recommend you engage in secular meditation.
How to Meditate on Scripture
There are many verses in the Bible speaking about Biblical meditation. Joshua 1:8 is one of my favorites and completely outlines what Biblical meditation looks like.
“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
Here we see that through the washing of the Word of God through reading and meditation (mulling it over, digging into it and memorization) our spirit is fed. The Word of God is life changing and brings peace, hope, and rest like no other remedy. Biblical meditation I DO highly recommend!
Prayer
Have you every heard of the term “The Secret Place”? In Christian circles this is a term for hiding away in a private place and praying. But it’s not the kind of prayer where you ask a lot of questions, or for help, or even talk to the Lord about your problems. (Although those are all important aspects of prayer - it’s just not this particular type of prayer). The Secret Place is a time of focusing your attention on the Lord. It is a way to turn your attention away from everything else and just encounter Jesus one on one.
Something so powerful happens when we take our eyes off of ourselves, our problems, life in general and instead turn our attention toward Jesus alone. Fixing our spiritual eyes on Jesus makes everything else that was so big in our eyes diminish and He is lifted up instead. This type of prayer has entirely changed my life, and has made Jesus so real to me as I encounter Him in this way. There is no better way to bring perspective to your life than to spend time in The Secret Place.
“You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.”
Tips for Newbies to the Secret Place:
If this is new to you, it may be helpful for you to create an environment that helps you enter in to the presence of God. This can be done by utilizing soaking music, a prayer shawl or anointing oil to help bring your senses away from your everyday environment into a sacred place.
Psalm 100:4 says: “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.” This is a perfect way to initiate your secret place time. Reflect on how good He is to you and thank Him for particular examples of those things. Praise Him and reflect on The Names of God and ways He has introduced himself to us. He is the Prince of Peace, our Healer, our Deliverer and Redeemer. He is Almighty God, Everlasting Father, King of Kings. As you do this you will feel His presence and enjoy His company!
Biblical Confessions
I was introduced to the concept of Biblical confessions a few years ago but it really took me until recently to really understand the power that it has to feed our spirit.
What is a Biblical Confession? It is when we take scripture, personalize it and then confess it out loud. When this is practiced regularly it does a couple of things; first it reminds us and encourages us of what the Word of God says concerning a situation or ourselves and helps us to reorder our thinking in line with His Word. Our thinking on a subject is what determines our faith on that subject so if our thinking isn’t in line with what God says then we have to get it there by agreeing with Him. Second, we build our lives by what we say. The Bible says that we were made in the image of God and the way He created was to speak. When we confess the Word out of our mouth we function as He did. When we begin to confess His Word concerning our life we will begin to create a life in line with His Word. *A quick word on this, although this seems similar to magic or manifestation it isn’t - but this is where the perversion of spell casting and manifestation practices come from. The Biblical concept is this, we say what GOD says about ourselves and our circumstances and we say those things from His Word, not things we make up or want etc. When we confess God’s Word we activate it in the earth and in our lives and the Bible teaches that He (God) follows His Word to perform it. (Jeremiah 1:10-12 & Isaiah 55:11)
What are some examples of Biblical Confessions? You probably know some and possibly even have sung some in hymns or Christian songs. “I am a child of God”, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength”, “I will walk by faith and not by sight” are a few that come to mind.
As we build faith in the areas of the confessions we make we will find our spirit encouraged and become inspired to keep adding to our list and reading them out loud regularly!
Sabbath Rest
I have to admit this was the hardest thing for me to implement and frankly it was both the most important and most beneficial thing I’ve done in recent years to feed my spirit. I think most people are like me in that even as a believing Christian they either don’t realize keeping the sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8-11) or we think it “went away” when the New Covenant came. (That’s a whole different topic to discuss later!) I was under the impression that going to church on Sunday was keeping the Sabbath and I never made the connection that there was more to it than that until I became completely exhausted following the template of the world on how to live life.
I came to realize that the Sabbath was actually a completely different time than going to worship service. If we study it out we find that the early church in Acts still practiced the Sabbath as they were raised. (Meaning from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday) and then they met together on Sunday’s to worship and fellowship. A lot of that was changed through church culture over the years so it’s no wonder that we have to do research to discover that.
As I prayed about this subject realizing both my husband and I were exhausted from never resting, we began to implement this into our lives a few years ago and I felt permission from the Lord to begin practicing it on Sunday. It was less of a shock to the family system and we did this for about two years, learning to take a day of rest away from our labors. I share this because I know some people get very rigid about how and when Sabbath is practiced and I can attest that I had permission from the Lord to ease into this in a way that worked for my family even though it is not in perfect alignment with scripture.
But I will tell you that doing it that way (Sunday) wasn’t God’s BEST which I discovered later and I want to share why. First of all, let’s just establish that doing things the way God instructs is just always the best way. Modifications to what He says can work short term but they aren’t perfect and I did discover this as I went along.
As someone who has a full time job I found that when I switched to Friday night to Saturday Sabbath I enjoyed more benefits and here is why: 1. I was dog tired on Friday nights anyway and I absolutely never did anything productive, but I also did nothing restful. I typically watched TV until I fell asleep, didn’t spend time with my family and I woke up just as tired on Saturday which was full of trying to get everything done before my day off on Sunday. It rarely worked well. 2. On Sunday I did rest but I always knew I had to hit the ground running on Monday and I never felt prepared so even though I technically rested on Sunday I never actually felt rested on Monday.
Here’s what changed when we switched to resting Friday night to Saturday dinner: I was rested at the beginning of the new week!!! Shocker I know!
What We Do Differently
On Friday night we have a nice dinner with desert. We make it special and eat in our dining room, listen to music and stay off screens and phones. We enjoy each others company for a few hours and go to bed; sleeping as long as we want the next day. Saturday is low key. I make a nice breakfast usually, stay in my pajamas late, read as much of my Bible or a book about faith and relax. It’s a great day to walk outside, putz around in my yard just take it easy. Dinner is usually something in the Instant Pot that is dump and go and I truly get a day off. But the best part is Sunday I’m truly rested and I have another day to prepare for the week ahead. I am clearer in my mind, my energy is higher and I utilize that to meal prep, clean my house, pay bills, do all the things I need to do so that when I start work on Monday I am both prepared and rested. It is seriously the best thing EVER! Moral of the story? God’s way is BEST.
There’s something else about this I also want to share. I hear from God regularly, but ever since I started keeping the Sabbath on Saturday the revelation I receive has increased so much. I can only attribute that to the blessing of obedience. (Isaiah 58:13-14) I promise, keeping the Sabbath is the most important way I feed my spirit!
Listen to Biblical Teaching
The final way I feed my spirit is by listening to the Word be preached. The Bible teaches us that faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Romans 10:17. We are so fortunate to live in a time when we have access to great preaching 24/7. There are also amazing podcasts and apps available that we can pull up at a moments notice. Pastors and Teachers are anointed to impart faith, hope, peace, to their audience. A great way to feed our spirit is to follow some of our favorite Bible teachers online and let them pour into us regularly!
Once again, I wanted to be transparent in this post because it’s important to admit growth, increased understanding, a shift in choices and priorities and just learning and doing better. When we first commit our lives to Christ we are often called “babies or children” in the faith. Through discipleship and spiritual maturity we learn better ways of doing things and we move into greater levels of sanctification. The Apostle Paul encourages us to “grow up” in the faith and that is what I’ve done in recent years. My hope in this post is to share both the process of growing along with the ways I’ve learned to feed my spirit.
I pray this post blesses you and encourages you in your faith journey too!
- Tina