To me, it's ultimately stewardship. Yes I love
being healthy. I love being pain free in my body. I love having no meds that I take. I love that.
I have a commission. I have a calling. I want to be able to give and run and serve until it's time
for me to go home not that I cut it short because I like peanut M&M's too much. We know we have to
fight battle for sexual purity. So many other ways we're careful about, we're conscious of but the
thing that's going to kill most of us more than tobacco, more than alcohol, more than drug use
overall as bad food habits and yet that's the thing that we just never talk about. We've got
to warn. We've got to speak the truth because it is life and death and something I learned
early on like when God set me free from drugs and other ways where He's intervened in my
life. I've learned when He's carrying you, don't play with it. When you're flying, don't play
with it. When He's giving you supernatural grace, don't play with it because you don't want,
you don't get it all the time and when you do, you don't want to abuse it. Welcome everyone to
this episode. I believe today's topic is going to challenge many of you. It's also going to plant
a seed of God's truth hopefully leading to change in your habits and in your lifestyle. Here at
our ministry, we have a group that we call Fast Forward challenge group. We regularly take time to
fast. Every year, we start with a 21-day fast and many of you have been exposed to the teaching
on fasting but fasting is not the only method to living healthy because the benefit of fasting
is really the spiritual more than physical. When it comes to the rest of the time that we don't
fast, we have to have a Biblical perspective and have a proper view on food. We know that food
is a gift from God. We know that it gives us strength and also gives us satisfaction. We know
that gluttony is bad. It's an excessive ongoing act of eating or drinking. It abuses our natural
desire for nourishment. It's overindulgence and over consumption of food and as I like to mention
a lot of times that many people have made stomach into a god, their god is their belly. Their glory
is their shame like Paul says in the Philippians chapter 3:19 and they set their minds on earthly
things and today I have the pleasure of having Dr Michael Brown who wrote a book. This is not a
recent book but I do believe this message is very relevant to everyone on breaking the stronghold
of food, conquering your food addiction and he not only wrote this book but he has a powerful
testimony about this and so I'm really excited to dive into this conversation. So Dr Michael
Brown, I'm so glad that you wrote this book and I'm so glad that you're sharing this message.
Oh I'm so glad you want to talk about it and you better believe, it's absolutely relevant. My wife
Nancy and I wrote the book and every single day, it's a conversation we have with people
asking us questions and wanting to know what we were able to do that brought about such
a radical transformation. And I see your stories, sometimes you're doing push-ups. At your age,
how busy you are and you're showing off doing push-ups and I mean seeing how you look and how
you are, there has to be a secret. You were not always like that. What was your life like before
you broke the stronghold of food? All right so I weighed about a 100 pounds more than what I weigh
right now. I'm in the mid to high 170s now. I was in the mid to high 270s then at my worst. I loved
the Lord passionately, served Him earnestly, worked out intensely and traveled around the
world, did two hours of live radio five days a week, normally wrote about five op-ed pieces
a week, always working on one or two books, traveling internationally and nationally,
pushing, going forward and yet all these years, I was a food addict. All these years, I was
a chocoholic. All these years, I was putting stuff into my body that was gradually killing
me. I can't get into details but in the years now of eating healthily, as different things came
up, kidney stone because of which I got an MRI, we discovered that problems in my arteries, if I
had continued eating the way I was 10 years ago, I would have been dead not long after that.
I would not be alive today talking about it. That's how destructive it was but I didn't know I
was willfully ignorant. So I had several headaches a week. I just thought whatever, just pushing
hard. Maybe not sleeping enough. I had constant lower back pain. My cholesterol was as high as
240 but the bad was way up, the good was way low. My blood pressure was now high, it was as high as
149 over 103 and I had sleep apnea at that point, severe, had to travel everywhere I went around
the world with a breathing machine, a cpap machine for sleeping. So I was committed, running hard,
loving the Lord but food addicted. My favorite meal was pizza, grew up in New York, used to have
pizza every day. Sometimes twice a day. Chocolate always and I would try to break this at times, did
a 21 day water fast just surrendering to the Lord, would sometimes only have sweets one day a month
and kept that up for months but always fall back. You know we give up fried foods, whatever so I was
always fighting but always losing and ultimately every few years, I put on a little more weight and
didn't take it off and I finally got to the point of tiredness that I said to Nancy, I don't think
I can keep up this schedule. I was only 59. I say only 59. I'm about to turn 69 and feel like I'm a
20-year-old but I was only 59 and I said to her, I don't think I can keep up this schedule any
longer and she had never heard me talk like that and it deeply concerned her. Now before we talk
about a little bit about the theology of food and the importance of why this is spiritual. We're not
just talking about here looking better, feeling better. There's actually a theology behind that
so if you can give us a teaser of so there's a big shift that happened which we're going to mention
that in just a moment. How are you doing now? Oh wonderful, thriving. I have not had a headache for
nine and a half years, lower back pain 100% gone. My blood pressure average is about 100 over 65.
My cholesterol is about 135 the good is way up, the bad is way down. You don't travel with the
sleeping machine. I don't need a breathing machine anymore at home or on the road and I was working
out with some 20-year-olds not long ago and one of them just was a bit overwhelmed, he hadn't slept
right the night before and hadn't eaten and so he was a bit overwhelmed and he was struggling at
the end of the workout and my wife said to me, afterward she said, honey, you can't work out
with guys in their 20s. It's not safe for them. So I'm thriving. I feel like I'm getting younger
every year. I thought she'll say, it's not safe for you. It's not safe for them. No seriously,
I'm thriving. I'm blessed. I'm full of life, overflowing. It's amazing. So it's not just
and here's the thing. To me, it's ultimately stewardship. Yes, I love being healthy. I love
being pain free in my body. I love having no meds that I take. I love that and I love being
here for my wife Nancy and our kids and our grand kids but to me ultimately Vlad, it's a matter
of stewardship. I have a commission. I have a calling. I have a mission from God. I have more to
give now than ever as I'm older hopefully wiser, more mature, I want to be able to give and run and
serve until it's time for me to go home not that I cut it short because I like peanut M&M's too much.
So to me, it's ultimately a matter of stewardship. Wow. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. That's
so encouraging for young people like myself and as well as other people that are watching. Take
us into that season and you alluded to this that you were exercising and you actually would try
fasting not for this but you would fast and then you would actually try to go for a while without
you know consuming junk food, talk about the sense of impossibility, the feeling like it's just too
hard to change the food that you eat. Yeah so, this is the deal. I would just tell Nancy I
can't take any more pressure like I'm under enough pressure it is. I'm constantly under attack
on social media, tackling controversies, going day and night, constant deadlines. I can't take any
more pressure. I'm great within this bubble that God's called me to live in but you add one extra
thing, can't have it or on the road, don't eat this. Skip this. That's like I can't do it and
plus what am I going to do? I'm flying around the world. I'm traveling 40 plus hours to India.
What am I supposed to do for food? What do I do when I get somewhere? I'm at the airport. It's the
only thing. So I could not take the sense of extra pressure on me. Plus when you've tried, people say
to me, Dr Brown, you're so disciplined. On the one hand by God's grace, I am super dis disciplined
like a machine. On the other hand I tell them, if I was so disciplined, why was I a chocoholic
at the age of 59? If I was so disciplined, why couldn't I give up simple foods that I knew
were destructive because you got to eat every day. We're in a fast food society and my body
was addicted to it. It's that simple and I just certain point, you think you're fooling yourself.
However here's my self-deception, I'm Mr positive. I'm Mr Optimist. Today's good. Tomorrow's going to
be better. So every day I would do the same things and expect different results. I'd get on the scale
in the morning frustrated like oh why didn't I lose... you didn't lose weight stupid because
you did the same thing every day but I would live in this kind of self deception that it's
gonna fix itself and when Nancy would tell me, you got to do something radical. I wasn't willing.
What does 1 Corinthians chapter 6:18 to 20 which deals with sexual immorality have to do with how I
eat? It's about purity but you're also referencing about that in your book to food. Yeah, it's 100%
in context about sexual immorality and purity, flee sexual immorality Etc but it ends in verse 20
by saying, you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and some translations in
your spirit which are God's. So this body does not belong to me. My whole life does not belong to me.
I've been bought with a price. I belong to Him, to God. Jesus paid for us. That's one. Two,
I'm to glorify God in my body. So let's say you had a very expensive car that was going to
be involved in races and you know that is an official race car for Ferrari and you put that in
my care, I'm not going to put cheap fuel in that, that destroys the engine. I'm not going to forget
the oil change. So there's a responsibility that we have as stewards. So, am I honoring God with
my body if I'm a glutton? Am I honoring God with my body if I'm willfully, knowingly eating things
that are going to cut my life short or inhibit my ability to serve Him? Am I doing my will or His
because I'm bought with a price so we live to do His will or we doing His will with our diet or
our will? Wow. That is so important because many of us would take that verse and only apply it to
sexual immorality but when it comes to gluttony or overeating you know sometimes Dr Brown I you know
look to Christians and I say you know we make fun of or we convict, condemn people who go to the
bar when they are overwhelmed and when they deal with stress but we somehow justify that we run to
the fridge and you know we look to the Taco to be our friend, to be our comfort food and we have
this unhealthy relationship with food where we use it to comfort ourselves especially when we're
stressed out and anxious and not realizing that we are hurting the temple of the Holy Spirit. Now you
mention also in your book in 1 Corinthians chapter 9:4-27 where Paul deals with spiritual discipline
and though that's about spiritual discipline, it's not about food but how does that apply to
our eating as well? Oh it's really so verses 24 to 27 in 1 Corinthians 9 are about discipline
in all things. So Paul says, don't you know that those who run in a race all run but only one
receives the prize. So run so as to receive the prize then he says, those who compete in the
games. So in Corinth they didn't have the Olympic Games but similar kind of games there. Those who
compete in the games go into strict training, so you know how an athlete lives and the self-denial
and the pushing themselves because they're Olympic athletes and they know every little millisecond
or bit of strength, it's all going to make a difference in the race. So they do it, what, for
an earthly crown but then he says but we meaning, we do it for a heavenly crown. Now we often
just emphasize the difference between the earthly crown and the heavenly crown but Paul's
saying, they are disciplined in all things, why, to win an earthly crown. We are disciplined
in all things to win a heavenly crown. That's why he says I subdue my body because I don't want
to be a cast away after I've preached to others. So this is about discipline and in every way.
It's not saying you need to be a weightlifter, a bodybuilder. It's not saying that but it's
saying just as an athlete to win their race, to win the prize is disciplined in all things so
also are we disciplined in all things so we know we have to fight battle for sexual purity,
massive battle in our culture with porn and everything else. We have to fight the battle
for discipline in other areas of our lives, not wasting time, watching the words that we
say. So many other ways we're careful about, conscious of but the thing that's going to kill
most of us more than tobacco, more than alcohol, more than drug use overall. The thing that's going
to hurt most of us, cause most diseases, problems is bad food habits and yet that's the thing that
we just never talk about and it's important I say this. I have no condemnation for those who
struggle because I struggled 59 years and I loved Jesus during that time and He used me and I know
how hard it can be and how many are frustrated. So there is no self-righteousness, compassion. Truly,
I live with this deep sense of gratitude. God, you just help me. Nancy really really prayed and
cried out to God for me. I prayed as well but she really felt this burden. She knew my life was
being threatened, really prayed. All I can say is God had mercy. So I have no condemnation
to others but we've got to warn. We've got to speak the truth because it is life and death. You
mentioned eight things that we have to realize and accept where we have to shift our mind about food.
What are those eight things? All right so the list in our book breaking the stronghold of food. One,
overeating is sin. Jesus forgives that. Jesus died for it but recognize it's sin. I don't mean one
time in you know in 10 years you had a special family meal and you overate a little. I'm talking
about the habit of overeating or overindulging the flesh. It's a sin. Jesus died for it but it's a
sin. Do you have a measurement Dr Brown where you would know that it's like where it's overeating?
For me, it's really never an issue anymore because I only eat certain amounts of food and when I have
massive salads, it's hard to overeat a salad but I would say this, if the way we're eating is keeping
unnecessary weight on us. If the way we're eating is producing health related problems, if the
way we're eating is causing weight gain above our ideal weight then that eating is sinful. Along
with if you're stuffing yourself just because it's so good and you know that you're about to fall
over, that's the obvious but eating that's not healthy. I don't just mean the nature of the foods
but the amount of the foods that would be sinful. Then yeah, so fat does not define you. Many times
we just get so much into a body image and we get stuck in that and we can't get out of it. So maybe
you're a glutton, maybe you're fat, maybe you struggled for decades. I was not a glutton as much
as an unhealthy eater. Nancy was self-confessed glutton but that doesn't define who you are in
God. So get a healthy view of who you are in God and then that can help change the habits and
exterior. Third critically important, understand you're an overcomer in Christ. Yes, this is a
stronghold but Jesus in you is greater. When Jesus instantly set me free from drugs December 17th of
1971 and I said, Lord I'll never put a needle in my arm again which was shooting heroin and speed
and cocaine and any other drug I could put in my arm. When I said Lord I'll never put a needle in
my arm again, I was instantly set free from that moment on. When it came to foods, I went through
three miserable days of withdrawal. Miserable. The third night I cried out and said God you set
me free instantly from drugs, surely the power, Your spirit is more powerful than a chocolate
glazed dunkin' donut you know so help. So we are overcomers. Four, grace empowers you to live
above sin. The same grace that helps you say no to adultery, the same grace that helps you say no
to gossip and lying, the same grace can help you say no to unhealthy eating. Next, freedom through
obedience is a choice that it's not just going to happen one day I'll feel. No, no, you have to make
a choice. Once you are convicted this is wrong, you have to make a choice. That's how freedom
comes. Spiritual warfare over food is real. I had a caller the other day Vlad and he said, I'm
trying to witness the power of the Holy Spirit in my life but sometimes I don't have enough will
to say no to a cookie. I said well, that's not the easiest one you know discipline over food
is very challenging. There is real spiritual battle and aside from you know strongholds where
there could be demonic warfare just the physical mental emotional addictions very intense with God
all things are possible. I'm living look... we're not talking a day here. We're talking almost
10 years now. Well over nine and a half years, thriving by God's grace and here's the deal, no
exceptions in nine and a half years, I've not had an M&M. I've not had a doughnut. I've not had a
slice of pizza. I've not had a french fry. It's just... I've been free. I'm talking about clean
eating living by God's grace and then lastly, healthy eating is cooperating with the Lord you
know I had heart conditions that came to light after I got hit with covid, right towards the end
of covid, I got hit with it. Found out that I had serious Afib and had been having it for some years
didn't realize that when they did all the checkups on me, when I was in the hospital for a night,
they found that you know one part of the heart was badly developed so that was all the result
of decades of unhealthy eating and probably the sleep apnea also. So I had this procedure called
an ablation like oh over a year and a half ago so everything's been perfect since then. I felt
God gave me a brand new restart but I regularly check for Afib. I don't believe I'll ever have it
again but in being conscious before God because by doctor's recommendation I don't need to take any
meds or anything you know I'm good and clean. My lifestyle is great but out of conscience before
God, I check most days and every day I see just that even heartbeat and I think, what a miracle.
This thing that God created. I have very little medical knowledge. Nancy's much deeper in it than
I am but the way He made the body, the intricacy, it's so extraordinary and you put the right things
in, you get the right results. You put the wrong things in, you mess it up. It's like no, cooperate
with the Lord. Your life will be so much more enjoyable. You'll bear so much more fruit. You'll
honor the Lord so much more. So we're cooperating with Him as we do this. You know it's interesting
that a lot of us especially in the Charismatic Pentecostal circles we believe in the power of
healing and divine healing but so many people have not discovered divine health. Yes. Obeying God's
word, obeying some of the common sense things we're not just talking about something super
complicated, common sense things and seeing how believers live today even myself included in this
area I need a lot more improvement ever since this fast we just came out of... there's been a lot
of conviction in my own heart, my wife is the one that's a lot more healthy and I come from a family
that we lived healthy but now living in the United States in the last 23 years, the kind of food that
we have and quickly, you develop an appetite for that and then, you just begin to pack weight. I
remember one time when I was still a youth pastor. My pastor, my uncle, he rebuked me. He said
you're growing fat and I'm like, what kind of a correction is that? I'm like, he should be talking
about my heart not about my weight and he's like, you're supposed to be a soldier in the army of
God and he's like, your belly is you know the king is becoming too exalted, the king's stomach
and my pastor kind of gracefully but he said Vlad, he's like you have to get your weight under
control. He's like you're very young and he's like once it starts accumulating, it's very difficult
to stop and he's like stop it now and he's like, do whatever you need to do, live a disciplined
life and so what you just shared these things and I love how almost in every reference, you
highlight the of depending on God because I know quite a few people who are struggling with this
and they've done you know everything under the sun and they just seem to not be able to break this
stronghold. You mentioned and you go in detail about the whole idea of get thin quick schemes,
weight loss gimmicks, have they helped you? Are there any shortcuts to good health? There are no
shortcuts but I tried them and Nancy really wanted me to put them in the book. So it's embarrassing
you know but I get these new pills if you just eat these every day then you don't need fruit because
you're getting all the fruit that you need because I never had fruit. I have no idea, a tiny little
salad each day most days and then almost no fruit and but if you take these pills, it'll supplement
that or eat what you want and as you sleep, this will like increase your metabolism. The most
embarrassing, remember this is Dr Michael Brown doing world ministry. I'm flying one day and I
see this ad, this anti-fat cream that you just you put it on like your fat legs, you slime it
on there and it'll help reduce fat. So I bought it but I hid it in part of the bathroom where I
thought Nancy wouldn't see it because I was too embarrassed even to tell her about this scheme and
I remember putting on the first time is like this greasy goop so it sticks to your pajamas or it
sticks to your bed. It's like so I used it a few times and so but I tried this stuff. It doesn't
work. Here's the miracle, you get rid of the bad foods, you eat only healthy foods, join that with
exercise and your whole life will change, doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter what your
background is, it just works and you know probably from what I understand, 95% of most of the
diseases that we battle with in America would go away if we ate healthily and there was a colleague
a friend of Nancy's that worked with someone who wrote Dr Joel Fuhrman, this doctor she worked
with him and we follow his guidelines, his eat to live guidelines and she said, I would be in these
diabetes work groups where people would come with type two diabetes and with doctors controlling
things you know checking their levels and all this, over a period of days by eating healthy
food, getting rid of the unhealthy, they would be weaned off insulin and by the end of this retreat
that they were at, they were insulin free and could be insulin free for the rest of their lives.
She said, I saw more people healed of diabetes during that, than I saw in my entire life being
prayed for in charismatic churches. We're talking about type two diabetes. In other words it's 100%
diet related. We may have genetic issues but if the dietary changes are made, these things go away
and it feels like a miracle but it's really not. You see your blood pressure drop. You see your
cholesterol level out. You see all these aches and pains disappearing and it's like how'd that
happen because God made the body the certain way and when you put the right things in it and get
rid of the wrong things, you get results that seem miraculous. There are no shortcuts. Give it up.
Give up the idea forever. I used to think reading a book about dieting would change things just as
if reading it, something magical would happen and it's just it's a myth. We live in self- delusion
because we love our food and in your book, you talk about the diet mentality versus permanent
life change. Yeah and now what triggered that life change? It's a radical life change. You've tried
this before but on Sunday August 24th, 2014, was it just one thing or was it serious of events that
led up to this key decision that happened on that August 24th? It a series of things but it happened
suddenly. What happened was on the one hand, Nancy really got burdened. She had changed her own life
prior to that. She was different than me. For her, being fat paralyzed her. She didn't want to leave
the house. She didn't want to be around people. She didn't want to do stuff it just paralyzed her
and she was just achy from head to toe. For me, it didn't stop me from anything except I was
killing myself but it didn't stop me from doing anything. God helped her. She had been for decades
reading about nutrition, different things. She'd go on these binge diets. She'd lose a lot of
weight and then gain it back and each time, you gain back more and it would be worse the
next time and when she read Dr Fuhrman stuff, the lifestyle change, the logic behind it,
the nutritional strategies. She knew it was the right path. She made the radical change and
then she got really burdened for me. She began to pray earnestly and cry out to God and asked
God to give her creative ideas because my other problem was I'm bold. I've literally preached
to crowds where my life was being threatened and I've done it without hesitation but if you
put new foods before... no, I was like a wimp. I was terrified of new foods. So I was really
weak in this way. She was praying. I didn't even know how earnestly she was praying and she
knew I'm a walking time bomb. I'm a walking time bomb. I have high blood pressure. It's the quiet
killer and I'm a walking time bomb. On my end, I was embarrassed by being overweight. Nobody
talked to me about it because I'm almost 63. I carried it a bit better but the fact was, I was
obese and it bothered me. Now, it was only little by little as the years got on that I got as heavy
but I was always 20 lbs 30 lbs 40, 50 pounds high and then it got higher so I preached a message
to myself about Acharit which is the Hebrew word talking about the final consequences that the end
and I said what if the end result of your life is you just get some stroke and you're paralyzed for
years, you can't communicate because if you abused your body or where is this going. What happens
if you hit 300 or you know where does this end? So I had prayed about this on and off for decades
because it bothered me but I was never willing to make the radical changes that I needed to make and
I always thought I'll just cut back on this. I'll cut back on this. I'll cut back on this and it
never worked and so what happened was when I got to that point of weariness and I said, I don't
know that I can keep up this kind of schedule, that really concerned Nancy and something else
happened. So I believe was the accumulation especially of her prayers and mine added in where
I just sat down with her and I said to her, my plan is not working. That was a code for us. Quick
story. Maybe 15 years earlier, she had said to me one day, Hey honey I think you put some weight on.
She's just concerned about my health, that was it, not a vanity thing and I said yeah, I have but
don't worry. I have a plan. She goes oh okay, well six months go by and she said hun, I don't think
you lost any weight. I said no, no, I haven't but I have a plan and she said oh okay, maybe six
months a year goes by and she said hun, I think you've put weight on and I said no, no, you're
right I have but I have a plan and she said to me, your plan is not working. So I sat her down that
night and I said to her, my plan is not working and she said okay, I'm taking control of your
diet. No food passes through your lips without my permission and that was the beginning. Wow because
she's already been on that journey before you and she's a total realist. She's a total truth teller.
She hates excuses and she knew the path I needed to take and I encourage everybody though, be
honest with God, said, I can't do it. I'm weak. I can't do it. I can't do without my steaks every...
I can't do without my milkshake. I can't... I have to have be honest and say, God I need... I need
help and did you have that moment I can't moment where you broke down and cried and a realization
that you had to make a radical decision? Was it that night? No, no. It was not that night. Here's
what happened and Nancy also urged me to put the I can't story in the book and for all the readers,
her parts, her contributions are by far the best but anyway. So initially, I had to renew my
mind. So first thing was break the addictions. That was three days and then after that, the
addictions were broken, the deep craving, you have to have it and feeling weak and sick. So
that disappeared. That's number one. Number two, I had to change my mindset. I was not a comfort
food eater. I was not a glutton. For example, if I was going to have a Dairy Queen chocolate blizzard
extreme, I always have the largest, of course, that was maybe 1,500 calories just for that. So
I would skip lunch that day to make up for it you know I was disciplined in my bad eating but what
happened was this. I processed that food was my reward. I push hard. I'm going day and night as
I'm sitting writing for hours at night. I'm going to munch on jelly beans and pretzels. When I'm on
this flight overseas, I love the pretzel rolls. I'm going to get as many as they have. When I'm at
the airport of course, I can eat what I want. I'm at the airport so I realized you know you preach
all day, maybe a busy Sunday, morning service, night service. You go back to the hotel. Well I'm
not going to watch something unclean, not going to do drugs or drink but I can eat. So I realized
food was the reward built in to everything that I had and one day, it dawned on me as I processed
this I thought as our grand kids were little. Why would I want to take them to a family-friendly
movie if I can't have chocolate nonpareils and butter popcorn and I said to myself you don't go
to the movies with the grand kids for the food, you go to have fun with the grand kids. I realized
no, food reward is built into everything. So I had to change my thinking that food is the fuel for
a healthy life and the healthy life is the reward because after all in the course of a day, in
terms of actual hours, how much time do you spend eating? Even your favorite restaurant, your
favorite meal, how long is that? But you live 24/7 so that was the first change. Food is the fuel
for a healthy life and the healthy life is the reward and then my coming to the end of myself
moment, it's about three weeks into this. Now remember this lifestyle is no dairy, no flour, no
sugar. Those days, I would have a little grilled meat once a week. Now I hardly ever have it even
for months but anyway so we don't have any bad stuff in the house. I come home, do my radio show,
take a nap and I got to teach a night class at our ministry school and I wake up with a craving
for something sweet. I remembered Dr Fuhrman says sweet tooth, that's good, for fruits, natural
sugars that you have in fruits and things. I just need some fruit. I can't find any fruit in the
house somehow we just out. So I think okay wait I got to get to class. I don't have time to go
to the grocery store and walk. Oh wait. There's a convenience store I'm going to pass on the way
to class. Maybe they have some fruit. Now I had never once gone into a convenience store looking
for fruit in my life. Maybe they got like little pieces of watermelon or something. So I go in,
they don't have. It's like oh gosh, I got to eat something. I need to... I got to teach a class.
I thought like there's one more convenience store on the way. I go in there, I can't find anything.
I remember Nancy said don't get juices, they've got all kinds of other sugars and you don't want
them. So I see Naked Juice. I think maybe this is better. Maybe this is healthier so I get one of
those. I drink half the bottle and I hit bottom. Now literally I'm sitting in my car. I'm literally
five feet from the building where I'm going to go in and teach my class on Jesus Revolution, right
and I come to the end of myself and I thought, I can't do this. You're going to live the rest of
your life and never have a slice of pizza. You're going to live the rest of your life and never
have a bowl of chocolate ice cream. You're going to live the rest of your life trying to find
a convenience store with some fruit or living on some juice. Suddenly, I broke down in the car
this is literally two minutes before class. I am in the car sitting outside crying God, I can't. I
can't. I can't. At the same time in my mind's eye, I saw myself looking down, laughing at me, at
the pathetic weakness that I was expressing and realizing this is healthy, you're coming to the
end of yourself. God's strength manifest in your weakness. You need to come to the end, I can't and
then His grace will rise, that was it. I never had a crisis like that ever to this day. I had one or
two times. I was like oh man, I'm at this airport seven hours and there's nothing here at the whole
airport that I can eat and I didn't plan. I didn't bring my healthy snacks with me and so on and like
a little frustrated but that's it. That one crisis was it but sometimes we have to go through that,
we hit bottom, we come to the end of ourselves and then God's grace rises and I'm telling you.
I've ridden that supernatural wave and something I learned early on like when God set me free from
drugs or maybe 20 years ago, set me free from diet coke. I became a diet coke addict and He set me
free from that instantly and other ways where He's intervened in my life. I've learned when He's
carrying, you don't play with it. When you're flying, don't play with it. When He's giving you
supernatural grace, don't play with it because you don't want, you don't get it all the time and
when you do, you don't want to abuse it. Wow, I'm already getting convicted thinking about... I just
came from Florida last weekend what I just ate on the airplane. Lord have mercy. If we can go to
the Esau mentality . So you talked about that in your book about the Esau mentality and what do you
mean by this Hebrew concept of final consequences? Yeah so I alluded to it very briefly, Acharit.
So I'll talk about that and then come to Esau. The most famous message I've preached around the
world where people will come up to me 20 years later. They can't speak a word of English but
they come up to me and they go Acharit, Acharit. It's something God opened up to me in the early
80s when I was teaching a class on Proverbs for the adult Sunday school in our church and I was
reading through the book of Proverbs in Hebrew and I was struck by the fact that this word Acharit
occurred a disproportionately high amount of times there. About one out of every five occurrences of
Acharit in the Hebrew Bible is found in Proverbs, which is disproportionate because Proverbs is
small size of the whole of the Hebrew Bible. I knew it for example Isaiah 2, the Acharit
Hayamim and the end of days. It can mean that but the word, the root comes from a Hebrew word
having to do with back, that which is behind, that which comes after and the concept is it's
that which you cannot see from this perspective. It's in the distance, it's in the future, it's
the end, it's the final consequences. It's the final result so throughout Proverbs you have these
warnings like Proverbs 19:20 Listen to counsel so you can be wise in your Aharit or the man in
Proverbs 5 who's seduced by the smooth talking woman and he doesn't realize her Aharit is death.
He doesn't and now in his Aharit, he's groaning as he's dying of some sexually transmitted disease
and thinking, what I destroyed everything. I lost my wife. I lost my reputation. I lost everything
I had. For what, so I've preached that to myself over the decades. I've preached it around the
world especially in the context of warning about sexual sin but it's the same with drink you know
Proverbs 23 the wine in the cup looks s. Sgood, goes down. Oh I need that or you know there's that
ad on TV. Oh I want that but it says it's Aharit but it's like a snake so that mentality was the
very thing Esau didn't have and he thought look, what's the good of a birthright in the future when
I'm dying of hunger now. I need to eat this now. So Satan's thing is always the pleasure of the
moment. You need this now. Yeah you're married but she's pretty and she likes your jokes. Yeah,
you're trying to walk into sexual purity but look, you need that release now just one website,
one time. It's the same with us with food. We know it's destructive or we put it out of our
minds it's unhealthy, many of us are willfully ignorant. I was willfully ignorant. Nancy would
want me to read nutrition books. I said, look, who do you listen to? One day butter's healthy.
Now it's margarine healthy. Now this is good. Now that's good. Here's a vegan guy, he dies of
cancer at 30 who knows. It's just everybody's got a theory. So I was willfully ignorant but for
many of us, we know that eating that cheeseburger and large fries and milkshake is not healthy. It's
not contributing to our well-being but we want it now. We don't think about the Aharit. We don't...
here's a guy eating unhealthily into his 40s and 50s. He's not thinking about the fact that he'll
never see his grand kids because he killed himself with unhealthy eating. He's not thinking about the
fact that a week before his daughter's wedding, he dies of a massive heart attack that could
have been prevented and instead of celebrating the wedding, they're all at a funeral. We don't
think about that because we live in the moment. God's perspective is always wisdom looks at
the Aharit and our perspective is always the pleasure and gratification of the moment, it's
deadly. It's destructive and we always live to regret it. That's so powerful, that right there
is so powerful. You mention also in your book and I think it's important to allude to this about
Song of Solomon chapter 2:15 where it talks about, yeah, the little foxes that spoil the vines you
know and now you mentioned about the naked juice, you know the little foxes that spoil the vine.
Can you speak about that in terms of food. What are some of those little foxes you stayed away at
first in the beginning from and what does it mean in the regards to overcoming the stronghold
of food? Yeah what you have to do is first, anywhere there's a stronghold, anywhere there's an
unhealthy habit, you have to cut it out. You have to cut it off, not cut it back you know the diet
mentality is basically you keep cutting back so you're always frustrated. You're always not having
enough. You're having enough of the bad to keep the appetite for it alive. You know think of any
wrong habit you have. Let's say you're addicted to watching some soap operas if they still have
them on TV or you know something that's totally addictive to you. You're addicted to sports and
gambling or I'm gonna cut way back. I'm gonna cut way back on gambling. I'm gonna cut way no no
no you got to cut it out entirely. Otherwise, you leave that thing alive. It's going to come
back and bite. That's why Jesus doesn't say if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it back
some. No, it's cut it off metaphorically speaking. So wherever the strongholds are, you have to
deal with it radically and then you have to ask yourself okay, what opens the door to a wrong
habit. So maybe it's just snacking. Ideally, you don't snack. You eat when your body needs
food and then you learn to just go without it. Sometimes even healthy snacks like years ago, I
ended up putting on about 20s something pounds over a period of years just by eating too many raw
nuts and by eating things instead of chocolate, some healthy stuff I eat that tastes like
chocolate to me but it's just all healthy, just eating too much of that and I realized I
did not violate any of the principles. I did not eat a single bad food but too much of stuff so
I just had to make that adjustment by God's grace you know and so I realized okay, just walk within
these parameters and anything that takes you out of that, look at that as my enemy and then here's
the other thing I'd say to this and look Vlad, we are a Holy Spirit people so your audience
knows that they know you. Some of them know me. I'm not saying this in an empty way but Vlad
I feel the Holy Spirit on this interview. I feel supernaturally animated by God to talk about these
things. What we're saying is true without the Holy Spirit's animation or anointing but I sense God
on it meaning, it's really important that you're bringing this up and that by God's grace, many
are going to be helped by it but when I got saved, I was instantly set free from drugs as I said.
Before that, I'd given up drinking but I was not addicted to drinking. I would hear people share
their story and say, I'm a recovering alcoholic. I'm a recovering drug addict and I judge them.
I judge them as weak and not fully understanding the liberty that we have in Jesus and that's not
who we are. We are transformed I still believe ultimately we should not think of ourselves as
recovering but as redeemed and transformed but I realized especially in the early days, I needed
to have the attitude of a recovering food addict. In other words, a recovering alcoholic does not
go in a bar, period. You don't go in a bar. You understand that. You don't well, I'm just to have
a drink for my birthday. No, you don't even have a drink ever under any circumstance. When you're
at the wedding and they toast the bride and groom, you put it to your mouth and you put it down or
you stay away from the table entirely because you can't drink it. So I knew I had to have that
mentality at least at the beginning and now it's lifestyle. Under no circumstances do I ever cross
that line. Why? Well what if just eating that one bad thing one time reopens the desire for it. Big
problem, that's number one. Number two, if I eat the bad stuff and this is what Nancy discovered,
she fell back and then had to regain her ground. Once you eat the bad stuff, the good stuff doesn't
taste good anymore because your taste change. I love having salad. I love having fruit. I love
eating healthy food. Stuff I would have gagged on before, I love eating now but that can undo it
and then here's the big one for me. If I can find an excuse to eat something unhealthy today, grand
kids birthday, in this country only today you know just published another book, whatever. I could
find an excuse to eat bad any day so it had to be this radical rigid line and not everyone has
to live by this but most people that Nancy and I have encouraged in counsel, the great majority
that have to live with the either or mentality because the part way most of the time just doesn't
work. Wow. You're just that's so strong and I think this is so important what you just shared
and in your book and something that I think you just already alluded to this. You mentioned about
10 recommendations for healthy lifestyle. Would you go through them? Yeah and maybe how does that
apply in your life. So don't diet, get a lifestyle change. I do not diet. I eat differently. I live
differently. The dieting mentality, it's yo-yo, it's up and down and then each time you end up
with more fat cells in your body, you end up more unhealthy, more discouraged. Secondly, don't
cut back on bad foods. Cut them out entirely. Replace them with good foods. So I alluded to that
briefly but it's not a matter of me having less M&M's or less milkshakes or less french fries
or less burgers and buns, whatever. No, no, it's a matter of don't have, don't have the things
that weren't healthy at all you know for example, I'm married to Nancy, going on 48 years, that's
it. I'm married to her. I'm not married to anyone else. I don't have sexual relations with anyone
else. I don't have emotional connection to any other woman because I'm married to her, right, I
don't share that so and you know someone said to me, Jesus is the first of many lovers. He said,
my wife wouldn't like that mentality, right. So we have to cut the other loves out and then if you
want to get free, that's the only way you're going to get free. Otherwise like a porn addict saying,
I'm just going to only watch porn once a week and for less time. No no no by God's grace, you cut
it out then then you experience freedom. Number three, recognize that food addiction is real and
deadly. The vast majority of us in America are food addicts in one way or another. Joel Fuhrman
had one of his books you know do this little survey to see if you're a food addict and you
know you hide food secretly. You do this you know went through all the... you have to have certain
things and maybe there were eight items and I was like three out of eight. I thought that's pretty
good and he said, if you have any one of these, you're an addict. It's like oops so, it's real and
it'll kill you and then it'll lead to all kinds of unnecessary diseases and pain and suffering
and the younger you are, the less you feel it but the older you are, you now reap the results of
what you did in your younger years. So if you can get it right when you're young, if I'm thriving
like this going on 69, thriving by God's grace in every way. What would have happen if I made
these changes 40 years earlier? Who can imagine. Then next, learn the difference between toxic
hunger and true hunger. This is something I only learned through Nancy and Dr Fuhrman but a lot of
our cravings when I need to eat, I want to eat, I feel weak. That's toxic hunger. That's the food
addictions. That's the bad stuff crying out for more and again I know very little about nutrition
but I knew enough to realize when I fast, I only realized this 10 years ago when I fasted,
I'd always have misery the opening days and headaches and it's terrible. When I did 21 days
on water, the first week was miserable, every day, all day. I didn't realized that was because of
toxins leaving my body. So when I went through the withdrawal getting rid of the bad foods,
I realized okay all this bad feeling, yucky, that's the bad stuff leaving my body. So a lot
of our hunger, it's not real hunger, it's toxic hunger. Don't snack between meals, bad habit, bad
habit. I've fallen into it with healthy stuff and you end up again, it's a lack of discipline and
it opens the door and your body will get used to it. Once you with God's grace get in the good
habit of eating the meals as you need each day, you get used to it. It becomes a lifestyle.
Recognize unhealthy eating may be a sin to you, that once you see these things and hear them,
you may have to think differently. And I was at a pastor's breakfast in Queens New York one time
and I was talking to one of the pastors. I said it's like we made a deal with the devil to kill
everybody young. You just look at what's being served here, every kind of unhealthy pork thing
and greasy this and greasy that and heavy calorie. It's like no wonder we're so ineffective you know
too fat to fly, right. So for many once you become clear on it, unhealthy eating is sin. Identify the
main psychological reasons you overeat. For me, as I said food is my reward. For others, it's
what you do for comfort. For others you know aside from gluttony, there can be other psychological
emotional reasons that helps to understand that, understand food. Food is the fuel for your
life, it's not the reward of your life, it's the fuel for your life. Realize exercise
is not a substitute for changing your food habits. I worked out heavily. I worked out
very intensely when I was fat and I could compete with guys younger than me but still you
know Nancy used to say, you're crazy doing that, you're going to hurt yourself doing that so
exercise is important but it's way down the list of what matters and then lastly resolve to change
today because tomorrow never comes. Maybe the change starts with honest confession to God. I'm
weak. I'm a food wimp. Look you may be a pastor with a ministry that reaches millions every month
and you're a food wimp, could we... I was in the eyes of many powerful man of God and I was a slave
to my stomach, a slave to sweet, a chocoholic, man of God preaching the gospel, preaching
purity, seeing people set free and I myself was a chocoholic. So that's the reality but God knows.
He's incredibly merciful, incredibly kind. He used me in my fat days. He uses me in my thin days.
It's all His grace but start today. Realize okay, my plan's not working, forget the new diet. I'm
gonna have to do something radical and I'm not willing, start there. God but I'm not willing
or I need help or I don't know the way. Start today then our book, breaking the stronghold of
food, we have lots of other recommendations here, free websites to go to or YouTube channels where
people will talk about it, healthy recipes here. Here are other guidelines. Here's Dr Fuhrman's
literature and then hopefully with our inspiration and armed with these practical steps, folks can
make it and boy, when I run into people. I was out preaching the other day and a woman came up to me,
she said, my husband read your book it changed his life. He's lost 50 pounds. He's a new man. I was
preaching another day, just a couple weeks ago, pastor says to me, there was a golf pro, heard
your message a year ago or two years ago where I happened to speak about food one message. He said,
he got so convicted, he was 75 pounds overweight, he's lost the weight, he's a new man so it's
awesome and then I was a type two diabetic. I thought I'm going to die and leave my kids behind
and now I'm healthy and thriving and yeah so it's gratifying. I'm really believing that this is
going to create a shift in people's lives. You have a way of shifting things. I remember I was
recalling my vacation few years ago reading your book on I'm not afraid of antichrist and that
changed my perspective on tribulation and that just kind of reworked that and after that when I
interviewed you so many people's lives after that, their perspective changed because a lot of this is
also a shift in their mind about food and what is just personal question. What does your eating look
like now? What do you eat now? So I normally start late morning cuz I'm a late night person but I
will either have some fruits so some berries, an apple maybe a couple of nuts so I'm very exact
in terms of what I have with raw nuts and then a day like that, I'll have a chocolate protein
shake. I mean tastes like chocolate, it's not chocolate, protein shake. Other days, I may have
overnight oats which I only started doing the last few months. These overnight brownie oats again,
tastes like chocolate brownie to me but it's not chocolate in it. So I'll have that and then some
fruit and then late afternoon is my biggest meal so I have a giant salad. I take like five and a
half 6 ounces of greens say romaine lettuce put that in. Nancy makes cruciferous so that's like
broccoli and kale and you know cabbages and things like that. I put that in and then you know tons
of tomatoes and cucumber and peppers and onions and flax seed, things like that. Some some raw
pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds but all you know very exact amounts but it's in a four. I
take a four quart bowl and I fill the bowl and then a healthy salad dressing. I also have no oil
in my diet. Either that's a more recent step that I taken to eliminate any oils even from dressings.
So super healthy dressing. In the early days, Nancy would make them and then after that,
some more fruit and then like early evening, then I'll have maybe a veggie burger. So no oil
on Ezekiel bread and then something it tastes like a chocolate bar to me but it's like one of
Dr Fuhrman it's just... it's super healthy content you know sweetened by dates and other things or I
might make myself a pseudo pizza which is like on eco bread pizza with a healthy red sauce, almost
no sodium in it and then I used to use a certain type of fake cheese called dye but it had oil in
it so I use something else. I think it's called table tasty, it's a powder that tastes like
cheese. I may have that and then maybe a few more nuts and when you travel, do you just bring
some food with you? Yeah yeah so we tell everyone, I'm on a special diet so everyone knows that. I'll
also have like a certain amount of these healthy crackers but a limited amount you know mixed in
with some of the meals Etc so that I mean that's the basic life flow. so we tell them I'm on a
special diet. we used to tell them to stock my room with literally peanut M&M's pretzels and diet
coke. so now the room is stocked with fruits and some vegetables and then sparkling water or water.
That's all I drink. It's either sparkling water or water and then for meals, they'll just have giant
salads ready for me. So I travel with my organic raw beans I forgot to mention that, that I get a
lot of protein from that, organic raw beans with no sodium. I travel with those. I travel with
a little strainer that I strain things with and then I may bring the healthy crackers with me
and some of the healthy nuts and then you know the vitamins and things like that, that I take you
know the supplements. Yeah so that's what I travel with and when I go on a long trip like multi-day,
then I'll have my.. take a dry salad with me the healthy snacks and then maybe one of those days,
I may have a little meat you know grilled meat if that's what I can get you know one day on the road
and it's been you know 9 and a half years done. It literally around the world. In fact, when I first
started traveling when God convicted me to make this lifestyle change. In the months immediately
afterwards, I had to go to Singapore to Hungary to India and Malaysia within the next four months,
along with all over America and Nancy would just pack, she made special meals, she freeze oh she
made these unbelievably healthy soups, that's the other thing, freezes them and then I'll have
you know a couple of those a week. So I travel with some frozen stuff sometimes if it's overseas
in like a container with little freezer things in it and then just put it in the fridge when I get
where I'm going. So yeah I have to make choices but it's easy. It's total, it's like packing my
bags and think of this, you put a little extra time, a little extra time and effort into your
diet ,the energy you have, the life you have, the strength you have, the vitality, your day
is so much more vigorous so much more energized, so much more healthy that you get all that time
back 10 times over. Wow wow Dr Michael Brown would you just say a prayer for people who are
convicted right now but they are not in that place right now where they don't feel that they have any
strength to make those changes. Yeah so father, I'm so thankful for the mercy you've given me.
My only boast is in you. My only boast is in you. You intervened in my life and you help me and it's
that simple. So I'm asking you to do the same for others, to intervene in their lives, the mental
switch that has to happen, the emotional switch that has to happen, the support that they need,
the conviction that they need, the guidance that they need, intervene so that every single one
that says, I want to live differently. I want to be healthy. I want to be a good steward of my
body that you would give a path for every single one and that you would not stop convicting them in
your loving way and reminding them until they get on that healthy path. God we need your grace. The
same grace you gave me, the same grace you gave Nancy, I'm asking you to give to every single one.
Give them a spirit of honesty with themselves and with you and may you set them free for life in
Jesus name. Amen. Amen. ,Thank you sir for your time and guys, we will attach links to the book
of Dr Michael Brown as well as some of the links that he made reference to. Some of the tests,
we will attach them below this video but if you got convicted, if you got touched by the Lord, by
the things you've heard, I want to encourage you to get the book. The reason being is that you need
to feed that fuel right now this knowledge so that the Lord can bring a deeper conviction as what
you've heard right now this is not done in our own strength. This is a stronghold. That's why
we call this not for YouTube clickbait purpose but it's really a stronghold for many people.
You have to do spiritual warfare. You have to know the truth and rely on God. So thank you sir
for joining with me and for writing this book and speaking this message to the rest of the world.
I really thank you for hosting me. For asking the right questions, for really preparing for
this and for everyone out there, we send out inspiration encouragement every week. If you don't
get my newsletter and our information every week, go to the lineo fire.org the lineoffire.org our
front line newsletter. We'd love to pour into you, be a blessing to you and know that even though I
don't know you that are watching, we carry you in our hearts. We're rooting for you by God's grace
that you can do it, you can make it and really thank you Vlad for taking the time to do this
and giving us this platform together. Thank you.
