033 – The Genesis Diet

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The Genesis Diet. Eating for holiness.

In today’s program we’ll be going deeper into the topic of Diet and Spirituality. We’ll see that this topic is important not only for our good health and longevity but also for our salvation. In our previous program on Diet and Spirituality we reviewed the biblical evidence that God’s perfect diet given to us in the Book of Genesis is the same diet that we the end-time generation should live on. We also demonstrated that as we near the end of time our diet can influence whether we take the seal of God or the mark of the beast.

Today we’re going to provide further evidence of the critical link between food and spirituality, and we’ll describe in more detail what we should and shouldn’t be eating. Let’s get started!

Food is the first hurdle on the spiritual path

In our last program we had seen that all of the stories in the Bible were written as examples specifically for the end-time generation: “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples, and were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (1 Corinthians 10:11). This goes back to Adam and Eve and includes Jesus Christ Himself. What truths can we glean from certain key Bible stories that involve food?

• Adam and Eve were given the first obedience test when they were told not to eat of the forbidden fruit. They failed the test by disobeying His commandment and eating, which resulted in them being separated from God and being cast out of the Garden of Eden. This disobedience also introduced death, aging and disease into the world. We find this account in Genesis 3.
• In the Book of Exodus Chapter 15 the children of Israel are praising the Lord and singing the song of the redeemed to celebrate the mighty deliverance from Pharaoh in the crossing of the Red Sea. Immediately afterwards they wander in the wilderness of Shur for three days and had no water, and they start murmuring against Moses. They come to the waters of Marah but they were bitter and they couldn’t drink of it. So Moses cried out to the Lord and the Lord pointed out to Moses a tree. And Moses put the tree into the water and it became sweet. Now listen to what the Bible says the Lord did right afterwards: “There He made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He proved them, and said: If thou will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee” (Exodus 15:25 – 26). In the very next chapter the children of Israel have come to the wilderness of Sin and the whole congregation murmured against Moses and Aaron because they were hungry. “And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for you have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger” (Exodus 16:3). Now the Lord was going to test them: “Then said the Lord unto Moses, behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my way or no” (Exodus 16:4). And the Lord proceeded to explain that He would rain down twice as much manna on the sixth day so that they could rest on the seventh day and wouldn’t need to go out and collect manna on that day. He wanted to test them to see if they would keep the Sabbath holy. So from the moment that they were set free from their Egyptian captivity the Lord linked food to an obedience test, to prove them whether they would follow His commandments or not.
• In Genesis 25 Esau sells his birthright to his brother Jacob for a plate of lentils. This is how Esau lost the privilege of having the Messiah come from his bloodline.
• Because Adam and Eve had fallen through a food temptation, Jesus who is the Second Adam had to overcome there where they had failed. It was indispensable that Jesus prove that man could get that victory over the flesh. First, in order to begin His ministry, Jesus fasted in the desert 40 days. The Bible says: “Being tempted of the devil 40 days. And in those days He did eat nothing; and when they were ended, He afterward hungered” (Luke 4:2). He needed enormous spiritual strength in order to not eat or drink 40 days: this required supernatural strength. Then Satan came disguised as an angel of light to tempt Jesus in His hunger. As Jesus came out of His fast Satan said to Him: “If Thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him saying: It is written, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God” (Luke 4: 3-4). So Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost was able to get the victory over food. Had Jesus not obtained this victory there would have been no cross on Calvary.
• In our previous study we demonstrated that the three young Hebrew boys of the Babylonian captivity, Daniel’s friends, were tested whether they would bow down to worship the statue that Nebuchadnezzar had decreed everyone should worship. Everyone else worshipped the statue. But they, the only ones who were eating a plant-based diet, remained faithful to God and obeyed His law instead of Nebuchadnezzar’s. So once again we see in this story that food is linked to an obedience test where God proves us to see whether we’ll keep His commandments, or not.
• There’s one more important passage of scripture that tells us that food is the first hurdle to overcome on the spiritual path. The “Full Armor of God” described in Ephesians Chapter 6 starts with the belt of truth around our belly. The belt of truth is the first piece of God’s armor that we put on. This fact highlights not only that “we live not by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”, in other words that we live from spiritual food that we should eat every day. But it also means that when we eat physical food we need to obey God’s word, which is truth, and eat that which He prescribed for us as His children. As we believe in His truth and accept the diet He has given us, He’ll put none of those diseases upon us that He brought upon the Egyptians.

So we’ve made the point here that in the Bible food is tied to obedience, it’s tied to keeping God’s law, and it is the first hurdle on our spiritual path. It’s one of the first temptations we’ll need to overcome if we want the victory over Satan. But why is that? Because it’s the battle of the flesh against the spirit:

In the Book of Romans the Bible tells us “those who are in the flesh cannot please God”. “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God … Therefore brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Romans 8:5-8, 12-13).

We need to do everything in our power to bring our flesh under the control of the Holy Spirit and not to indulge its passions and its lusts. If we leave the body to its own appetites it will bring us to perdition: “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:6)

A God-given Diet

What then is the right diet we should be eating? Let’s go back to the Bible. Up until the creation of man, the Book of Genesis records that everything God created was good. But on Day 6 of creation when God created Adam and Eve, He saw that everything He had created was very good. Man was the crowning glory of God’s creation. And this masterpiece created in the image and likeness of God was designed to run on very clean fuel in order to perform at its best.

In Genesis Chapter 2 the Lord is speaking to Adam and Eve: “And God said, Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for seed. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 2:29-31).

As we read here the Lord designed human beings AND the animal kingdom to be vegetarian: we were not designed to eat animal flesh. Even animals were not designed to eat other animals. Meat eating entered the world after the flood, as a result of man’s iniquity. So the Lord created leaves, nuts, seeds and fruit to be the main staples of our diet.

We should eat lots of fresh salad, all varieties of nuts, seeds that we can sprinkle on our salads and soups, and fruit. Remember that God is the creator – He has the user’s manual for the fuel that we need to put in our bodies. The foods He originally designed for us to eat are nutrient-dense. Let’s take the example of salad. I was very surprised to learn that green lettuce (such as romaine lettuce) is nutritionally richer than even broccoli.

Let’s take a look at the nutrition that 1 cup of green lettuce provides:

• 1 gram of protein
• Vitamin A, Vitamin K, Vitamin C, Folate, molybdenum, fiber, manganese, potassium, copper, Vitamin B1, biotin, Vitamin B2, Omega-3 fats, iron, Vitamin B6, chromium, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, pantothenic acid.
• Lettuce is low in calories and saturated fats
• The greener the lettuce, the more nutrition it provides

Nuts are absolutely fantastic for your body. Who doesn’t like nuts? I remember when I was living in France it wasn’t a significant part of the French diet and I really missed that because I love nuts. All varieties of nuts are good for you, to be eaten preferably raw and in moderation of course because of their high fat content. But these are good fats, which lower bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol. They also provide the omega-3 fatty acids, which are anti-inflammatory and therefore help prevent all kinds of diseases. Nuts also contain anti-oxydants, which protect against cancer and certain degenerative diseases. Nuts contribute energy, protein, fatty acids, vitamins (including the B-complex), and anti-oxydant minerals. You have your choice of almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, chestnuts, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, peanuts, pecans, pistachios and walnuts.

Let’s talk about seeds now. Similar to nuts, seeds have become very trendy and for good reason: they’re absolutely packed with good things for your body! You have your choice of chia seed, pumpkin seed, hemp seed, sunflower seed, flax seed, sesame seeds. They’re miniature powerhouses because they’re small but provide so many good things for your body, starting with the fact that they contain a very high concentration of fiber and depending on the type of seed are loaded with protein, good fats, vitamins and minerals.

Leaves, nuts and seeds are things that grow easily on the ground or on trees. This means that when the Lord created us, He had already provided a nutritionally rich environment where we would thrive and where our bodies would perform at their best physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

Then came the fall of man. In Genesis 3 we read the account of Eve yielding to the serpent’s temptation, and the punishment that the Lord gave to Adam and his wife: “Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying: Thou shalt not eat of it: Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shall thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken. For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Genesis 3: 17-19).

Adam would now struggle to control his domain, which would bring forth thorns and thistles. Instead of Adam ruling over the earth, the earth would not submit to him. He would need to labor hard to till the land for harvest, and would have to submit to the rhythm of the land. It’s at this point that bread and vegetables enter our diet. They can’t just be picked off a tree or off the land but require significant labor to be produced. If you’ve ever seen behind the scenes in a bakery you know that baking bread is hard work! Despite that, bread and vegetables are still part of God’s instruction to our first parents. Even though in Genesis 3:21 we read that God clothed the nakedness of Adam and Eve in animal skins, He did not at this point instruct them to eat animals for food.

Man eats animals after the flood

The descendance of Adam and Eve grew and multiplied and did wickedly in the sight of the Lord. Let’s read in Genesis Chapter 6: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth: both man, and beast and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth Me that I have made them” (Genesis 6:5-7).

“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” and commanded him to build an ark for himself and his family. Noah was to bring clean animals into the ark by sevens, and unclean animals by two. So we discover that already in Genesis 7, before the Mosaic law was given to the children of Israel, God had established the distinction between clean and unclean animals. In other words, this distinction was to apply to all mankind and not just the Jews. And the Bible tells us that everything was destroyed on the face of the earth. Before there ever was a Jewish nation, everything that had breath died in the flood including man, and the earth was covered with water for 150 days. When Noah and his family came out of the ark there was very little vegetation on the earth. So once again, something that was not part of God’s original diet, animal flesh, is introduced into people’s diet.

What’s interesting to note here is the dramatic reduction in the life span of people after the flood compared to people before the flood. Let’s take a look at the life spans before the flood:

Adam	930 years
Seth	912 years
Enosh	905 years
Cainan	910
Mahaleal	895
Jared	962 years
Enoch	translated
Methuselah	969 years
Lamech	777 years
Noah	950 years
Average life span	912 years

Before the flood from Adam to Noah the average life span was 912 years. After the flood there’s a dramatic reduction in the average life span. From Noah’s children up to Abraham the average life span fell to 312 years, and continued to decrease over time. So much so that in Psalms 90:10 King David says: “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away”.

What could have contributed to this gradual but nevertheless striking reduction in the life spans of men? Aside from a general enfeeblement of our bodies due to sin, I believe that flesh eating had a lot to do with it. Especially flesh eaten with the blood – we’ll come back to this later. What’s so interesting is that after the children of Israel left their Egyptian captivity and had had their miraculous deliverance through the Red Sea they were still longing for the fleshpots that they left behind! They weren’t satisfied with the manna that the Lord provided for them, so He sent swarms of quail for them to eat. Our fallen flesh is always lusting after things that aren’t good for us.

Clean and Unclean Meats

In the Book of Leviticus Chapter 11, the Bible gives us the list of unclean animals that we shouldn’t eat and the list of clean animals that can be eaten. There are three criteria that the Lord gives to qualify as clean animals. If an animal doesn’t meet all three criteria they don’t qualify and we shouldn’t eat them. The three criteria are given in Leviticus 11:4 and Deuteronomy 14:6. They are:

1. 1^st. Criteria: Part the hoof: means that their hoof is divided.
2. 2^nd. Criteria: Are cloven-footed: means that the hoof is shaped like a clove. I needed to visualize what this meant and the best image is to think of a head of garlic. A head of garlic is split into sections and each one is called a clove of garlic. So a cloven-footed animal is an animal whose hoof is split into sections, usually having two sections in front and two in back.
3. 3^rd. Criteria: Chew the cud, which means to ruminate. Animals that ruminate swallow their food to partially digest it and then chew it again.

Clean animals need to meet all three criteria. If they meet only one or two they’re considered unclean. So let’s list them out to be absolutely clear.

These are some mammals considered clean that we can eat:

• Cow
• Deer
• Lamb

These are the mammals considered UNclean that we canNOT eat:

• Rabbit
• Hare
• Pig
• Horse
• Rabbit
• Camel
• Dog

We can eat all birds except the scavengers. This is the list of birds we can’t eat:

• Eagle
• Vulture and Carrion Vulture
• Buzzard
• Kit
• Falcon
• Raven
• Ostrich
• Owl
• Sea gull
• Cuckow
• Hawk
• Jackdaw
• Stork
• Swan
• Heron
• Bat

From the sea we can eat anything that has fins and scales, meaning that we can eat only fish. Everything else is unclean. Let’s spell that out to be clear – these foods are unclean:

• Crab
• Lobster
• Scallops
• Clams
• Oysters
• Octopus
• Conch

All shellfish is not only unclean, but the Lord says “It’s an abomination unto you” according to Leviticus 11:10, 11 and 12. The Lord feels so strongly about this that He says it three times in these three verses.

Fowls that fly but also creep are considered abominable and are not to be eaten. The only exceptions are the locust, the beetle and the grasshopper. The vast majority of creeping things are unclean:

• Weasel
• Mouse
• Turtle
• Chameleon
• Lizard
• Snail
• Mole
• Eel

Anything that creeps or crawls and goes on its belly is unclean. This includes all kinds of snakes and worms and caterpillars and so forth.

If you’re wondering why I’m being so exhaustive with this list is because the United Nations and eminent scientists have predicted that the world is headed for a serious famine. This is why I want you to be really clear on what things can and cannot be eaten. When regular food supplies dry up and we’re desperate to eat, we still shouldn’t eat anything that the Lord considers unclean and even less the things He calls an abomination.

The Bible says that our heavenly Father knows how to give His children good things (Matthew 7:11), and that He withholds no good thing from the righteous (Psalm 84:11). Why would He be so adamant about what we can and can’t eat? Why would He “deprive” us of certain foods that taste good? There are two main reasons:

1. These unclean foods are bad for us. Scavengers are the trash cans of the animal food chain. They are necessary for the perfect balance of the eco-system and this is why God created them. They were never intended for food. Let me tell you a quick story about some of my travels in Africa. Whenever you stay at a game lodge or nature reserve in any of the African countries and you go on safari, your safari guides will take you to see the lions, the leopards, the giraffe (my favorite!), the elephants, etc. By the end of the week when they’re running out of things to see they may take you to see the hyenas. I used to hate going to see the hyenas! Hyenas are the scavengers of the African jungle. Some scavengers may hunt live prey but they mostly eat carcasses of dead animals that have been dead for a while. So you climb into the jeep and the first-time safari guests are all excited to see the hyenas. Before you even get to the hyenas you know by the stench that you’re getting close. When you drive up close to them the stench is unbearable. If you’ve ever smelled dead animals as you’re driving along a country road you know this smell. It’s horrendous! When you look at the hyenas they’re just plain disgusting, and their bellies are always bloated from the dead flesh that’s rotting in their stomachs. Would you like to eat a hyena? I don’t think so! This same scenario plays out with all of the shellfish and scavenger birds. They’re part of the clean up mechanisms of the eco-system. Have you ever heard the adage “You are what you eat”? If you believe that and I do, then scavengers should be absolutely revolting to any normal human being. Why would you want to eat garbage? I don’t care if the world considers these scavengers a delicacy, such as oysters and lobster, God created them to be trashcans and that’s what they are. God doesn’t want His people eating trash. Psalm 141:4 says: “Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men that work iniquity; and let me not eat of their dainties”.
2. The second main reason why God forbids us to eat unclean and abominable foods is because our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit: “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6: 19-20). The Bible is telling us that our bodies belong to the Lord, He paid the price to buy us back, and His Holy Spirit dwells in us. After the Lord had finished giving Moses the list of clean and unclean foods, He said in Leviticus 11:44-45: “For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy for I am holy … For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. Ye shall therefore be holy for I am holy”. When we eat unclean food this defiles our body and desecrates the temple of the Holy Spirit. We can’t be holy before the Lord while we indiscriminately put anything into our bodies. What we eat and drink has a direct effect on our relationship with God. We read in 1 Corinthians 10:31: “Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God”. God created us to worship Him and give Him glory. Therefore everything we do should be aligned with our reason for being. When we eat abominations and unclean things we don’t glorify God and we violate His temple, bringing illness and disease upon ourselves.

When we’re not familiar with these laws of clean eating or choose to disregard them, we end up eating some pretty disgusting stuff! I lived abroad many years, in Japan, Europe and South Africa. I’m embarrassed to tell you all the abominations I’ve eaten in heathen countries or in the company of non-Christians … When I was just out of college I went sailing in the Caribbean with some German friends. We used to look for conch to eat, I also ate conch at a trendy seafood restaurant owned by a friend in Cape Town in South Africa. A conch filet can be very tender and tasty but the Lord calls it an abomination.

When I lived in France I ate so many abominations! I ate snails several times, tried frog legs once (they taste like chicken), and in my student year at La Sorbonne I ate fresh paté quite a few times because they sold it down the street from where I lived that year. Paté is pure animal fat and the Bible says we shouldn’t eat animal fat (Leviticus 3:17). On a couple of New Year celebrations I gulped down oysters with champagne. All of these are considered very desirable foods in France. I drew the line at the horsemeat though. Most tourists who go to France try at least the paté and the snails.

Let me give you the scoop on snails: they’re rubbery and dry and taste absolutely gross. Usually they’re served with a garlic butter sauce that’s delicious and totally disguises the taste of the snail. But once I was hosting a team of colleagues from a large US corporation who came from the Seattle area and one division president who had flown in to meet our large European accounts. We went to a very exclusive restaurant serving traditional French cuisine because that’s what they wanted to try. Of course I ordered snails to show off but this time they were in a pastry soufflé and not marinated in the garlic butter. They were also not in the shell so I could actually see them. I took just one bite and I nearly threw up in front of my guests. I discreetly spit it out of my mouth into my elegant napkin and didn’t touch it again.

Another unclean food I ate is eel. I was introduced to eel in Japan when I worked there a long time ago. The Japanese have a special way of preparing it, again in order to disguise the taste. I’m sure if you’re a sushi lover you’ve had eel. They prepare it with a sweet sauce and with the sweet sushi rice it tastes wonderful. But it’s one of those unclean water animals that have no scales and very few and sparse fins. It’s slimy and disgusting, it really is a sea serpent. Don’t eat it please! I never liked octopus but again that comes in many sushi menus and if you’re hungry enough you might eat it. Don’t! When you’re trying to be trendy, you can end up eating stuff you’ll later regret. The last thing I’ll mention is a trendy UK life coach who’s on video talking about weasel coffee in a DVD about finding your soul mate. No matter how desperate you are to find your soul mate, please don’t go there!

We can have some fun with this but nevertheless it’s a serious topic. The bottom line is: the Lord wants His people to be holy because He is holy. Let’s round this off with a very sobering scripture in Isaiah 66:15-17 talking about the end of the world and the recompense for those who eat unclean foods: “For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by His sword will the Lord plead with all flesh; and the slain of the Lord shall be many. They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine’s flesh and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the Lord”.

The life is in the blood

There’s a very important detail that we need to mention now regarding meat. The Lord gave this instruction in 7 different verses of scripture. You know it’s important! Let’s read the first time this instruction appears in Genesis 9:4: “But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat”. You guessed it, right? The Lord gave this instruction to Noah when He gave Noah and his family permission to eat meat. Therefore this instruction was given to all mankind, since it was given before there were any Jews.

The other verses where this command is repeated are Leviticus 3:17, Leviticus 17:10-12, Leviticus 19:26, Deuteronomy 12:23, and Acts 15:20 and 29. Notice that the command is given in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, in the New Testament, as an instruction to the gentiles that we all are. Therefore the injunction not to eat flesh with the blood applies to all of us.

Do you remember the incident when Saul imposed a fast on his men who went into battle (and his son Jonathan not knowing it had eaten honey on the way)? After the battle they were so weak and hungry that they threw themselves upon the spoil of the battle and ate meat with the blood, and the Bible says that they sinned against the Lord (1 Samuel 14:32-34).

Why would the Lord forbid us to eat blood? One reason is that blood carries disease. We know of many illnesses that are carried by the blood, with AIDS probably being the most infamous. But there’s another reason. In most of the Bible verses the Lord says that the life of the flesh is in the blood and therefore we shouldn’t eat it. If we ponder that for a moment it means that all the attributes of that animal, including its genetic and DNA blueprint, are in the blood. We’re absorbing into our body the characteristics of that animal. This may sound far-fetched but eating flesh with the blood contributes to the violence and cruelty that pervade the planet and even to bestiality. The only blood or life we should drink is that of Jesus, that we may acquire His attributes of righteousness and holiness.

If you choose to eat meat, assuming of course that it’s clean meat, be sure that you eat it kosher like the Jews. Kosher meat is meat from which the blood has been removed. Jewish people take this very seriously and so should we.

However, in our lives and the decisions we make we need to apply not only Bible words but also biblical principles. If the Lord told us 2000 years ago that He doesn’t want us eating unclean meats we need to take that literally, but we also need to extrapolate the principle behind it. God is telling us not to eat unclean things because they’re bad for us. If in today’s world eating any kind of animal flesh or product is bad for us, then clearly we shouldn’t eat it. The animal species have become toxic because of man’s greed: they’re fed abominations, they’re raised in cruel, unnatural environments, they’re loaded with hormones and antibiotics, and they’re slaughtered without mercy. We simply shouldn’t be putting any of that into our bodies.

The Issue with Caffeine

Regarding drink, we are to avoid drinking caffeine. Caffeine is harmful to our bodies in many ways. But it’s especially harmful to our minds.

Both God and Satan are after our minds. The Lord wants to put His seal on our forehead. Satan wants to give us the mark of the beast. The frontal lobe is where this battle is played out. This is where we make decisions about right or wrong behavior, good or bad choices, loving or hating someone. Caffeine impairs our ability to make right choices. We’ll be preparing an entire program on this important topic.

Eat not to the full

Whatever we choose to eat, it’s very important that we eat in the right quantities. We can eat the right things, but if we overeat or overdrink we’re not honoring God. This is a very touchy subject! You can be godly in every other way, but if you’re not guarding this avenue to your soul and you’re succumbing to the lust of the flesh and letting your appetite get the victory over you then Satan has a hook on you. Remember when Jesus said referring to Satan, “he has nothing on me”. It’s because Jesus didn’t yield to appetite and therefore Satan had no hold on Him. If He hadn’t won that victory there would have been no Calvary.

Temperance is one of the fruits of the Spirit of God. If we’re being intemperate it’s evidence that we’re not allowing the Spirit of God to abide in us as He should. We literally need to decrease so that God can increase. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts” (Galatians 5:22-24). We need to crucify the lusts of the flesh: Jesus’ disciples were very clear about that.

The Bible clearly warns us of the dangers of eating to the full. “Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die: Remove far from me vanity and lies; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me. Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain” (Proverbs 30:7-9). According to the Bible, the danger is that we would deny God. We mentioned earlier the children of Israel, how they cried for the fleshpots they’d left behind in Egypt. The Lord being tired of their complaining sent them huge quantities of quail until they were filled. In Psalm 78 the Bible says that God gave them their own desire: “But while the meat was still in their mouths the wrath of God came down upon them and slew the fattest of them and smote the chosen men of Israel” (Psalm 78:30-31). Then in verse 32 we read: “For all this they sinned still, and believed not for His wondrous works”.

Listen to how Nehemiah described these events in Nehemiah 9:24-26:

“So the children went in and possessed the land, and Thou subduedst before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gavest them into their hands, with their kinds, and the people of the land, that they might do with them as they would. And the took strong cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all goods, wells digged, vineyards, and oliveyards, and fruit trees in abundance: so they did eat, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in Thy great goodness. Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against Thee, and cast Thy law behind their backs, and slew Thy prophets which testified against them to turn them to Thee, and they wrought great provocations”.

Remember: “These things happened unto them for ensamples, and were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the worlds are come”. If it happened to the children of Israel, it can certainly happen to us.

What you need to remember

There is a diet that can bring us closer to God, a diet that can help us to stand in the evil day, a diet that will help us to remain faithful to the Lord despite the trials, a diet that will help us to avoid taking the mark of the beast and to be sealed for God’s Kingdom for all eternity. Before the world was destroyed by water because of its sinfulness the Lord gave us His best recommendation as to what foods to put into our bodies. Let’s return God’s original diet given to mankind in the Garden of Eden: a diet that can make us holy, a diet that can sanctify us. Let us be holy because He is holy.