The Magnet
One day I was praying about faith and about giving people instruction on faith, and God gave me an object lesson that helped me see this truth more clearly. He reminded me of an experiment I did in my eighth grade science class.

In this experiment, I had a little tissue filled with little metal particles that looked like grains of sand. I took all of those particles and spread them out on two big sheets of notebook paper.

Next I put a little magnet on that paper, and it pulled a few of those little particles around it. Then I did the same things with progressively larger magnets, and they pulled increasing numbers of particles. The last one was like a big brick. It started pulling in all of those particles before it was even close to the paper.

After God reminded me of this experiment, He said, Faith is very much like a magnet. The larger and stronger that magnet is, the more it will pull in.

Faith pulls things from the unseen realm into the seen realm. The stronger your faith, the further you can reach into the spirit realm to pull God's gifts into the physical and mental realms.

Big Truck, Little Truck
Strong faith and a strong spirit go hand in hand. You'll never see a person with a weak spirit have strong faith. Why? Little faith doesn't pull big loads. A little truck won't pull nearly as much as an eighteen-wheeler will. The bigger the truck is and the more powerful its engine is, the bigger the load it's going to pull. In the same way, the stronger your spirit is, the further you are going to be able to reach to take hold of what God has for you in your life.

Nourish and Exercise Your Spirit
How do you develop a strong spirit? The writer of 1 Timothy tells us.

If you lay all these instructions before the brethren, you will be a worthy steward and a good minister of Christ Jesus, ever nourishing your own self on the truths of the faith and of the good [Christian] instruction which you have closely followed.

But refuse and avoid irreverent legends (profane and impure and godless fictions, mere grandmothers' tales) and silly myths, and express your disapproval of them. Train yourself toward godliness (piety), [keeping yourself spiritually fit]. For physical training is of some value (useful for a little), but godliness (spiritual training) is useful and of value in everything and in every way, for it holds promise for the present life and also for the life which is to come.
(1 Timothy 4:6-8 AMP)

In this passage, physical development parallels spiritual development. We see that just as you can be physically fit, you can be spiritually fit. We also see that the principles involved in building yourself up physically are the same as those in building yourself up spiritually.

To build yourself up physically, the first thing you must do is to nourish your body. You must eat. But you can't eat just anything; you need to eat good food. Most Americans' diets are made up of grease, salt and sugar, none of which are very nourishing to the body.

Similarly, Christians need to drink the pure, unadulterated milk of the Word of God and eat the strong meat of it to properly nourish their spirits. Unfortunately, however, our spiritual diet is often as bad as our physical diet. All too often, we hear frothy and frivolous preaching that is not very conducive to spiritual nourishment. We feed ourselves the junk food of the world—newspapers, magazines and television—much more than we feed on the Word.

Instead, we need to be filling our bodies with healthy food, and filling our souls with good truths of faith and scriptural instructions. We need to be acting on Proverbs 4:20-23 Amp, which says:

My son, attend to my words; consent and submit to my sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh. Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.

Notice this passage says your heart is the fountain of life for your mind and body. In order to have life flowing through your arms, legs, bones and all the parts of your body, that life from God must flow through your heart—your spirit—into the other parts of you. If you need healing, you need life to manifest in you. And that life is going to flow through your spirit to your flesh.

Now, if life can flow through your spirit, sickness and disease can flow through your spirit as well. Sickness and disease can come from the Devil to your spirit through reports contrary to God's report, then to your flesh. But when you fill your heart with the life of God, it dispels that sickness and disease.

Source: When Healing Doesn't Come Easily by Lynne Hammond
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers