GOD IS MORE PRACTICAL THAN YOU THINK | Elijah & Mental Health (Part 4) | John Giftah

0:01 Speaker 1: Do you ever look around and think, Wow, the world

0:05 Speaker 1: is a crazy place and it just seems to get

0:08 Speaker 1: crazier and crazier. Ease your mind and take a break.

0:13 Speaker 1: This is Fuel for the Soul with John Gifta. We're

0:17 Speaker 1: a hub for inspirational Christian sermons, practical keys for Christian living,

0:23 Speaker 1: and Christian discussions and interviews. You'll be inspired to live

0:27 Speaker 1: the life that you were created for. Your host is

0:30 Speaker 1: a top ranking podcaster, best selling author, world record holder,

0:35 Speaker 1: aerospace engineer, life coach, evangelist and founder of John Gifta International.

0:41 Speaker 1: Welcome to Fuel for the Soul with John Gifta.

0:46 Speaker 2: Hello everyone, Welcome to this edition of the Fuel for

0:48 Speaker 2: the Soul with John Gifta podcast. All through this week,

0:51 Speaker 2: we're looking at various lessons that we can take away

0:53 Speaker 2: from the life of Elijah found in First King seventy nineteen,

0:57 Speaker 2: revolving around his crisis with depression, so that we can

1:01 Speaker 2: have the best mental health filled life that God has

1:04 Speaker 2: intended for us. And I want you to stay tuned

1:06 Speaker 2: because I'm going to release a special episode with Rannie

1:09 Speaker 2: Jacob on the aspect of mental health so that we

1:12 Speaker 2: can have the best mindset and the best you know

1:17 Speaker 2: life that God wants has to live, especially keeping the

1:20 Speaker 2: mental aspect in mind as well. So one of the

1:22 Speaker 2: things I wanted to understand is that when we look

1:25 Speaker 2: at the moment when Elijah is in a very bad

1:28 Speaker 2: shape mentally and emotionally, he's just got a tread in

1:32 Speaker 2: his life and he's running. He is in isolation. He's

1:36 Speaker 2: spent an old day running into the wilderness over and

1:40 Speaker 2: over again. I really challenge you to go back and

1:42 Speaker 2: check out the recent episodes, and here's a moment. It

1:45 Speaker 2: says that he lay down and slept under the juniper tree,

1:48 Speaker 2: and after a while an angel touched him and said

1:51 Speaker 2: to him get up and eat. He looked and by

1:54 Speaker 2: his head he saw a bread cake baked on hot cold,

1:59 Speaker 2: and a pitchure of water. So he ate and drank

2:02 Speaker 2: and lay down again. And then after a while the

2:05 Speaker 2: angel of the Lord woke him up again, saying, get

2:08 Speaker 2: up and eat, for your journey is too long. And

2:11 Speaker 2: he got up and he ate and drank. So I

2:14 Speaker 2: wanted to understand something very important here when Elijah was

2:18 Speaker 2: not in a good place mentally and emotionally as well,

2:21 Speaker 2: because there's a lord that goes from you when you're

2:24 Speaker 2: going through something like this and also physically right. See,

2:28 Speaker 2: I want you to understand, this is not a moment

2:30 Speaker 2: when the Lord spoke to him or gave a word,

2:32 Speaker 2: or the Angel didn't come and tell him, Oh, Elijah,

2:34 Speaker 2: oh e of little faith, Elijah, Oh Elijah, you you

2:39 Speaker 2: just brought fire from heaven and look at you. Shame

2:42 Speaker 2: on you, Elijah. That's not what the angel said. The

2:46 Speaker 2: Angel did not say, oh, e of little faith. The

2:49 Speaker 2: Angel did not say, you are shameless, Elijah. What did

2:53 Speaker 2: the Angel say? Get up and eat? Get up and eat? See.

2:58 Speaker 2: I wanted to understand. One of the things that is

3:01 Speaker 2: so underrated in our walk with the Lord as a

3:06 Speaker 2: Christian to live the holistic Christian life that we're called

3:09 Speaker 2: to live is the importance of just taking care of ourselves,

3:13 Speaker 2: to make sure that we eat well and sleep sometimes. See,

3:18 Speaker 2: when you are in that trouble, normally, what would people say, Oh,

3:21 Speaker 2: you gotta get up, kneel down and pray. That's what

3:27 Speaker 2: most people would say. You got to pray. Oh you

3:30 Speaker 2: have a mental blockage, pray you. Oh you're not well emotionally, pray.

3:36 Speaker 2: But you see, I'm not denying the power of prayer. Okay,

3:39 Speaker 2: not denying the power of prey. But what I want

3:41 Speaker 2: you to understand is sometimes you see from the scripture

3:43 Speaker 2: that God is more practical than most Christians. God didn't

3:48 Speaker 2: ask Elijah to sit and pray to fast. God provided

3:54 Speaker 2: for him to eat and sleep. Sometimes the message for

3:58 Speaker 2: you and for me to get out of that depression,

4:01 Speaker 2: to get out into the better mental space and emotional

4:05 Speaker 2: stay and a better place in your physical is just

4:08 Speaker 2: to actually get good food and to sleep and take

4:12 Speaker 2: good rest. Because you're worried, you're anxious, you had a

4:18 Speaker 2: long day, you went through so much. You need to

4:22 Speaker 2: take care of your health. You need to take care

4:25 Speaker 2: of your body. Because sometimes when you are able to

4:29 Speaker 2: eat well and when you're able to get good sleep,

4:33 Speaker 2: you actually get into a better place mentally so that

4:37 Speaker 2: you can make a better rational decision that God intends

4:40 Speaker 2: for you to make. The reason why many Christians, though

4:44 Speaker 2: they love the Lord, they want to do the right thing,

4:48 Speaker 2: they're still stuck in depression. They're still stuck in a

4:51 Speaker 2: very bad shape mentally and emotionally, is because they're forcing

4:55 Speaker 2: themselves to do something like let's fast and pray, let's

5:00 Speaker 2: seek the Lord, or they sit in condemnation. Oh why

5:05 Speaker 2: they're not able to pray properly when if you're tired,

5:09 Speaker 2: you can't pray. You need sleep. If you are in

5:14 Speaker 2: a very low place emotionally and mentally, you need to

5:18 Speaker 2: take rest. You need to deal with a burnout. If

5:23 Speaker 2: you're in a place like I often tell people this, Okay,

5:26 Speaker 2: if a person is hungry and you say, don't worry,

5:30 Speaker 2: I'll pray for you, or you know you just should

5:34 Speaker 2: not you mentioned or live by bread alone. If you

5:38 Speaker 2: give those kind of statements, it's not going to help

5:40 Speaker 2: them at that point. If they have a physical need,

5:43 Speaker 2: what should you do? Feed them right? Then they will

5:48 Speaker 2: be in a position to listen to you. But what

5:51 Speaker 2: most Christians do, Oh you're hungry, I'll pray for you,

5:56 Speaker 2: like I'm sorry, or you tell them or you should pray. Man,

6:01 Speaker 2: that person doesn't even have the strength to open their mouth.

6:07 Speaker 1: You.

6:08 Speaker 2: If you are in a position to actually give them

6:10 Speaker 2: some food, it will help them. So when they are

6:13 Speaker 2: in the physical need, giving them an overrated spiritual advice

6:18 Speaker 2: or you need to pray, you need to have faith,

6:20 Speaker 2: it's not going to help. God did not give him

6:25 Speaker 2: just a lecture saying how could you be like this. Elijah,

6:31 Speaker 2: the Angel did not give him a message saying, the

6:34 Speaker 2: Lord is displeased with you. Elijah, the Angel did not

6:37 Speaker 2: give him a word saying I wanted to fast and

6:40 Speaker 2: pray for twenty one days. Elijah, No, the Angel provided

6:46 Speaker 2: for help. Sometimes when you're in a bad place physically, emotionally, mentally,

6:53 Speaker 2: whatever you need to get your physical aspect, they can

6:59 Speaker 2: care of. Half your problems will get solved if you

7:03 Speaker 2: just eat properly and sleep properly. If you are not

7:10 Speaker 2: in a place where you are able to make rational decisions,

7:13 Speaker 2: if you're if you're not in a place where you're

7:16 Speaker 2: not able to pray, you don't have the strength. Don't force.

7:21 Speaker 2: Don't force. In fact, I appreach a lot about the

7:25 Speaker 2: power of prayer, and there is aspects of prayer. I

7:28 Speaker 2: think I'll share about that soon in all the podcast again,

7:32 Speaker 2: but I mentioned about this that you know, even in

7:36 Speaker 2: the book of Exodus, I think Exodus two and Exodus six,

7:39 Speaker 2: it talks about moments where even the grown of the

7:42 Speaker 2: Israelites where prayer in itself. Like imagine, if you're groaning

7:47 Speaker 2: in hunger, that's it, that's a prayer in itself. Guys,

7:52 Speaker 2: if you're in a physical need or whether you're in

7:56 Speaker 2: that maybe in a very bad place emotionally and and

8:00 Speaker 2: your innermost being, your heart is haking and you're in

8:03 Speaker 2: that pain. That's also prayer. And in that moment, what

8:09 Speaker 2: you need is not some superficial act of Oh God,

8:13 Speaker 2: I'm going to pray, I'm going to act like everything

8:15 Speaker 2: is fine. No. Sometimes I love God to just meet

8:20 Speaker 2: your need over there, or take care of yourself so

8:24 Speaker 2: that you will be able to meet the need that

8:26 Speaker 2: you require. Like for example, like I said, if you're

8:30 Speaker 2: hungry physically, you know you need food. If you're hungry emotionally,

8:38 Speaker 2: you need some support. If you're hung if you're hungry

8:42 Speaker 2: mentally for example, like you need some you need the

8:46 Speaker 2: writ intake. So I want to pray in Jesus name,

8:51 Speaker 2: God will give you the discernment to look at your

8:55 Speaker 2: life and say, Okay, I prayed, I did this, I

8:58 Speaker 2: did that. But what is God asking me to do

9:00 Speaker 2: in the season? What is God leading me to do

9:03 Speaker 2: right now? Maybe have that rhythm where you take care

9:07 Speaker 2: of your body. If you're always in that overdrive where

9:10 Speaker 2: your work textral trying to be like a superman, you're

9:13 Speaker 2: like you know what, I can do everything I can.

9:15 Speaker 2: Sometimes people miscot I can do all things through Christ

9:17 Speaker 2: to strengthens me in the sense like oh, you know what,

9:20 Speaker 2: I'm going to sleep for only two hours. I'm going

9:22 Speaker 2: to work like this, I'm going to do that. What

9:24 Speaker 2: is going to happen? You're going to be very cranky.

9:26 Speaker 2: You won't be able to have discernment, you won't be

9:29 Speaker 2: able to make rational decisions. Because God designed for you

9:34 Speaker 2: to have adequate sleep and eat nutritious food. But if

9:39 Speaker 2: you're not doing that, what's going to happen? It will

9:44 Speaker 2: start telling upon your body.

9:47 Speaker 1: You know.

9:47 Speaker 2: There was a time I want to close with this

9:50 Speaker 2: over the pandemic when the podcast started ranking up the

9:53 Speaker 2: charts and all of that. There was a point where

9:56 Speaker 2: it was so obsessed, like oh, you know what, I'm

9:59 Speaker 2: so excited as well, like after a long time seeing

10:02 Speaker 2: something moving in my life. So I was working and

10:06 Speaker 2: I was running the podcast, which I still do even now,

10:09 Speaker 2: but to a point where I was overdoing things. Okay,

10:13 Speaker 2: I was overdoing even in terms of perfection. Now, I'll

10:16 Speaker 2: be honest with you. I'm doing this daily. So sometimes

10:20 Speaker 2: if I stammer or certain things, I just ignore. When

10:24 Speaker 2: I post the podcast, I don't overdo the editing because

10:28 Speaker 2: I know my limits, right. I want to help people

10:30 Speaker 2: with and also those of you watching listening understand the

10:34 Speaker 2: limitations I have. I have a full time corporate job

10:36 Speaker 2: and I'm running the ministry. It's not easy. And what

10:39 Speaker 2: I wanted to understand is that I overdid to a

10:43 Speaker 2: point where I would sleep only for three to four

10:45 Speaker 2: hours a day. It felt like I was doing so

10:48 Speaker 2: much for the lot, but it started showing up on

10:51 Speaker 2: my health where I couldn't think properly I was. I

10:55 Speaker 2: generally became very slow. My whole body became very uptight.

10:59 Speaker 2: I was not will to move. I was putting on

11:02 Speaker 2: weight because everything and ive my work as well as

11:06 Speaker 2: all the content on the ministries on the laptop, everything

11:08 Speaker 2: is sedentary. It affected me and that's when I remember

11:14 Speaker 2: somebody said this to me, John, You're literally burning both

11:18 Speaker 2: sides of a candle in one go. You got better

11:21 Speaker 2: watch out. And I started taking intentional steps. You know.

11:25 Speaker 2: I take care of my physical body. I go for

11:28 Speaker 2: swimming every day. I take care of my mental and

11:32 Speaker 2: emotional and spiritual side. I speak in tongues, I worship,

11:36 Speaker 2: I pray, I read the word. I go for walks

11:40 Speaker 2: with you know, like just worshiping God, looking at nature.

11:44 Speaker 2: I do that so that I can balance my life.

11:48 Speaker 2: And I really challenge you to do that, because maybe

11:52 Speaker 2: the biggest word for you this season is not to

11:55 Speaker 2: pray more or read the Bible more. Maybe it's just

11:59 Speaker 2: that you will eat on time with good nutritious diet

12:03 Speaker 2: and sleep well so that you can fulfill the purpose

12:08 Speaker 2: that God has in store for you. I really challenge

12:10 Speaker 2: you to share this with someone and leave a comment,

12:13 Speaker 2: and I will see you back very soon. God bless you.

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