Dear Friend,

I am so excited to share with you about my experience with the Bible!

When I was getting sober from drug addiction, I was starving for inner healing and spiritual truth. I put my nose in the Bible, hungry for God. Little did I know what I would find.

I FOUND GOD!

Through the Bible, I found an intimate, loving relationship with a living, breathing God. He loves us so much!

Hebrew 4:12 says, “For the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing apart of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

When we read the Bible, it will speak to us. The Bible is alive and it's able to teach you, guide you, instruct you, and train you! (2 Tim. 3:15-17)

I walk through this process daily! I choose to spend time in God's Word every day because it's life giving and I have found a relationship with God's living Word. The Bible gives me hope, encouragement, and instruction on a daily basis, and it feeds me spiritually.

Jesus said in John 6:63, “It is the Spirit that gives life. The flesh profits you nothing. The Words which I speak to you are spirit and are life.”

Did you know that you have a spiritual nature (the new you), and you have a carnal nature (the old you)? Your spiritual nature is the born again part of you - the life of Christ within you, which is the real you.

Your carnal nature, or the flesh, is your five senses (taste, smell, hear, touch, and sight).

When you became born again, your spiritual nature is now the real you, the new you, and who you are in Christ. Your carnal nature is the old you, and who you were before you got born again.

When you feed your spirit with spiritual nourishment (like reading the Bible), you are feeding the life of Christ within you. You are renewing your mind to who you are in Christ and you're strengthening your spirit so it can lead your life.

When you are led by your fives senses, you're feeding your old, carnal nature, which is contrary to who you are in Christ. You're not acknowledging the truth about what Christ did for you and who He is within you!

For example, if I tell you to watch TV all day and eat Twinkie's, you will most likely come to me at the end of the day and say, "Erin! I feel horrible!" Inside and out, you feel like you need to go on a diet and exercise.

Or, if I tell you to read the Bible and talk to God for a couple hours, you will come to me and say, "Erin, I feel so good! I feel full of life, wisdom, and hope!"

Those are two examples of what will happen if you feed your flesh versus your spirit. Following and feeding your carnal nature will actually feel contrary to you compared to following and feeding your spirit. Now that you are born again, it's difficult to follow your flesh, but it feels right to follow and feed your spirit!

It's important that we spend time learning about our new, born again nature because it's different than our old, carnal nature. Think about it...we've lived our entire lives thinking, believing, and living a certain way. But God's ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isa. 55:8-9).

There must be a surrender in the believer's heart that says, "God, I acknowledge that You are God and I'm not. I've lived my whole life thinking that I know everything, but I acknowledge that You know more than I do. I surrender my ways, my will, and my thinking, and I am going to seek You. I am going to seek You until I find You because I want to discover Your will, what You think, and what You believe."

Until we've come to this place, we will not grow spiritually. We will not discover the fullness of God. We will be stuck in our own pride and ignorance. Trust me, I've been there. Thinking that I knew everything didn't get me anywhere in life. But God was patient with me and loved me anyways. Once I opened my heart to understand the truth through His Word, He was quick to lead me and guide me to true freedom.

We, as Christians, can only discover who God is and who we are in Christ through surrender, and an intimate relationship with God and His Word. The Bible is our new spiritual mirror, and it shows us who we are in Christ (James 1:23-24).

Jesus knew the importance of God's Word, and consuming it more than we feed our earthly bodies. He instructed us, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." (Matt. 4:4)

I don't know about you, but I know that I don't read God's Word more than I eat real food! I think this is something I definitely need to grow in.

Thankfully, God knows that we can't pull off the highway to read the Bible everyday! He has shown me several ways that I can feed my spirit without sidelining life.

Here are a few practical, life-giving ways that you can feed your spirit each day:

• Reading the Bible

• Pray, listen, and talk to God throughout the day

• Pray in tongues

• Listen to Biblical teaching

• Worship music

• Thanksgiving for every good thing in your life

• Think healthy, positive thoughts

• Remember what you read in the Bible that morning and ask God how to apply it to your life currently

• Align your actions with God's Word

• Do something nice for someone

These are some simple things that help me keep my eyes on Jesus throughout the day, and feed my spirit when my flesh wants to rule! The more I feed my spirit, the more I renew my mind to who I am in Christ, and it leads my life to God's power and promises.

In this post, I talked about a lot of things that I learned in the Bible and while I was attending Bible college. I recognize that a lot of this can be hard to understand if you're unfamiliar with the Bible or new to the faith.

If you would like to learn more, I encourage you to check out my book "Hello, New You!" In this book, I expound on each of these topics in detail and provide Biblical scripture references for each point. Also, check out my FREE video series "Christ is Alive in You" where I talk about these points in more detail!

I pray that your spirit would be strengthened every day as you increase in the knowledge of God!

Love,
Erin