You Are What You Feed On

I’m told that the proverbial statement, You are what you eat, is attributed to a French lawyer who penned these words in 1826.  “Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es.” For those like myself, whose French is almost non-existent, here is the translation. “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.”

Later, these sentiments were filtered down in most conventional and unconventional ways into the English language, where we now know this proverb as, “You are what you eat.” Whatever the meaning, as it literally applies to the food a person eats, these two connecting and interwoven facts are understood. You are what you eat depends on the frequency of the food ingested as well as the consistency of that food.

Let me make it clear at this point that food, in this context, includes drink. For example. John drinks rum twenty-four seven and he never ever dilutes or changes the vintage of the rum. In other words, he is always drinking rum – he never takes holidays from rum, rum is never on his fasting agenda, he is always with rum – rum is his constant companion at any time of night or day. He will never be caught dead adulterating his rum. He has one brand and strength and that is what he sticks to. Regardless of how others try to incite and excite him with other brands, newer and more modern brands, he is never persuaded. Unmoved, John simply sticks to his brand, even if others call him silly and foolish, as he is missing out on most of his life, by not trying more up-to-date tastes.

Yes, you know exactly where we are going with this. So here are the questions. Are you like John, when it comes to the Holy Spirit and you?  The spirit of rum so lives in John that he is no longer his own, but he is controlled and ruled by the spirit of alcohol. Are you so controlled by the Holy Spirit that you are no longer your own, for you are controlled and ruled by God’s Holy Spirit? John, without effort or pretence, bears the perfect fruit of one who is under the full influence of alcohol. As he goes by, without even saying a word to anyone, people see him and say, there goes a man under the influence of alcohol or there goes a drunk man. No one has to ask him whether or not he is in the spirit, for they can see and hear. He does and says things he never would even dream of doing and saying, if he were not controlled by the alcoholic spirit.

Do you, without trying, and trying your best at that, do the works of the Spirit, as a result of Him abiding in you? As you live your ordinary life, do people see you and say, there goes a person under the influence of the Holy Ghost or there goes a Spirit-indwelt person? No one has to ask whether or not the Spirit of the Risen Lord lives in you, because He will be obviously seen and heard. You will do and say things you never would even dream of doing and saying, if you were not controlled by the Holy Spirit.

As true and as natural as it is for John, who lives this fact in every way, that he is what he eats, so it is with a person who only knows the feeding and fuelling of the Holy Ghost.