Tag Archives: Hartman

Temple Dominion

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Greetings to all the Kingdom Thinking family.  Debbie and I are excited to have another power packed guest post this week from our good friend, Julieann Hartman.  You can read more about Julieann in her bio at the end of this post.  So put on your seat belt and get ready!

“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own”? (1 Cor 6:19 NKJ).

How do you treat your body?  How would you present and keep your house if you knew that a King or Queen was coming to stay in your house?  Heck, when I have a couple of friends over, I clean my house like crazy!  I can’t imagine what it would be like if there was a Royal Priesthood coming to stay at my house and I wasn’t equipped to accommodate them.  What about the Holy Spirit that lives on the inside of you?  Wouldn’t you want to present your body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God which is your reasonable service? (Romans 12:1)  Now please don’t get me wrong, this is not to condemn you at all about how you treat your body!  We already know that “there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit”. (Romans 8:1)

What about exercise?  I know there are a lot of people that don’t like to workout.  Do you like to do it? Is it the first thing on your “to do” list or is it such a low priority that you just keep putting it off for days and then years?  We do need to be good stewards over our bodies.  How do we do that?  How do we steward?  The definition of “stewardship” is the responsible overseeing and protection of something considered worth caring for and preserving. (Dictionary.com)  Do you care about yourself enough to want to preserve yourself for as many years as you feel you want to live on this earth?  For an everyday person who is not an athlete, exercising 3 to 4 times a week – 30 to 40 minutes a day is perfect.  You have only one body.  You can lift, tuck, tan and enhance but you will not be able to replace it.  Think about your future because you will be in this body for the rest of your life!  Whatever you sow now is what you will reap later.  This can be good and bad.  Exercise has SO many positive effects.  It makes you alert.  It makes your heart healthy.  Makes your motor skills more precise.  It gets your blood flowing, it makes you more energized, it makes your brain process quicker.  There is nothing wrong with exercising. The only wrong thing about exercise would be if you have a wrong attitude about it.  When I was a trainer I heard over and over again, “Oh, I don’t like gyms, they’re meat markets!” or “I don’t want to mess up my hair!” or “I’m too embarrassed about my body!” or “I just don’t have the time!”  Nowadays, there are NO excuses.  There is something for everyone.  You can download an app and workout in the comfort of your own home and at any time!  You can join a gym, you can take a class, you can walk, hike, cycle, and the list goes on and on.  There is never a lack in finding something that will benefit your physical body and overall health.  My 78-year-old mother works out 3 times a week in a program called “Silver Sneakers”.  She loves it.  It’s a good workout.  She can do it standing up or sitting down.  It’s a time of fellowship, ministry and just plain fun!  Did you know that the human body is the only machine on earth that gets better and stronger the more you use it?  Every other machine made by man wears out with use!  But our bodies are made by God!

Now over-exercising is a whole other thing.  It can make you feel exhausted all the time and everything you do seems like it’s impossible because you are so tired and your body just won’t work at its full capacity.  It creates brain fog, complete exhaustion, short tempers and body soreness!!  Please take the time to take care of your body – in all ways.  Working out is supposed to help in your body’s overall health, not take away your energy.  I was guilty of that for many years.  The reason I over-exercised was so I could be so exhausted by the end of the day that fear, anxiety or any other negative impulse or thoughts would be overruled by my complete 100% exhaustion.  One thing I see so much of is posting on social media in the form of “look what I’m doing” selfies or “look at my cute workout outfit”.  Do you exercise for the Instagram photo or Facebook?  Or how about Snapchat?  That’s all fine but that kind of reason will definitely fade away in time.  Please do it for the goals and dreams ahead of you that God has put in your heart to do.  It will all be worth it someday when you see the fruit of all your labor for building the Kingdom.  I praise God that I was delivered from that mindset.  You see how something that is meant for good can be damaging to someone who leans on their own flesh to break bad habits or bondage?  We just don’t have that kind of power on the inside of us when we are not in Christ.

Sleep deprivation can be an enemy to our physical bodies.  We have to sleep!  Especially women!!  I don’t know about men because I’ve never been one but I can guarantee that they need sleep as well.  We have to rest our muscles, organs, and minds!!  As women, we have hormones and when we don’t sleep our hormones get all out of whack!!  For me, it all started when I had my first daughter.  I was up all hours of the night, had my second daughter and was up all hours of the night even more!  And then when they started to go to school, drive, have relationships…. need I say more!!  We have to be “hooked up to the vine” constantly to keep our minds from going places that they shouldn’t go in our emotions. (John 15:1)  I know that when I don’t get enough sleep everything I do the following day is with so much more effort.  Be honest about how much sleep you really need and then get it.  There’s no shame in needing 8 to 10 hours of sleep.  That might be what your body requires.  I know how easy it is to stay up and look at all your social media, to look at who’s doing what.  It’s so tempting but you will be the only one who suffers the next day when you’re so tired.  Actually, it will not only be you who suffers – it will also be everyone around you, too!

As I close, I really just want all who read this to know that you have dominion and authority over your life.  It is empowering to know that you can be successful by the choices you make and by some of the sacrifices you make: one being exercise!  You’re never too old to exercise.  There is always something you can do.  Whether you sit in a chair and wiggle your toes or you compete in the Iron Man Triathlon.  It is up to you.

You are not just a conqueror, you are more than a conqueror! (Romans 8:37)

About Julieann:

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Julieann Hartman is a native from Los Angeles. She’s been married for 25 years to an incredibly loving & talented Executive Producer of Television Animation and has 2 adult daughters who love the Lord with all their hearts! She’s had many careers in her life up to this point. She’s been an Actress, Executive Secretary, Material Supervisor on the game show Jeopardy!, Tae Bo instructor and Personal Assistant. She and her husband, Butch, are the Co-Founders of their Non-Profit Foundation “Hartman House” established in 2005.

No matter how exciting these careers might seem, NOTHING takes the place or even comes close to being a wife, a mother and an Ambassador for Jesus Christ!

 

Resolution -vs- Solution

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Greetings to all the Kingdom Thinking family.  Debbie and I are excited to have a guest post this week from our good friend, Julieann Hartman.  You can read more about Julieann in her bio at the end of this post.  So put on your seat belt and get ready!

It’s January 2017 and what do most people do for a new year’s resolution? They all promise, vow & post about how they are going to get into shape! Then about 4 to 6 weeks later, you start to see less and less of the “weight loss” posting and then they’re back to posting pictures of food! I was a trainer for many years and unfortunately, I’ve seen and heard this same pattern over and over and over AND over again. It has always made me feel so much compassion for the ones that start out so gung-ho and then start to lose their steam as the days move forward into the year. I hated to see people feel like they failed. It would affect them negatively in so many areas of their life. Why make this sort of New Year commitment when you can do it at any time? All it takes is a little discipline throughout the year. It’s so self-defeating when you start out the “new year” making a promise to yourself and the whole world (in some cases, thank you social media!) that you probably won’t keep or you won’t pursue to your end goal. Why does it have to be a temporary fix? If you could work on this all year long, it would be so much easier. This would make you feel confident and “on top of the world”. What if you didn’t do it for yourself? What if you did it for the Lord?

“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” (1st Cor 6:19).

Don’t most of us say “I would do anything for you, Lord”? Most of the worship music we listen to usually has a part in the song that says “I will seek you with all my heart”, or “I will shout your name on the mountain tops”? Well why when it comes to our “daily, minute to minute lives” and our “daily consumption” we don’t involve the Lord? I hope this doesn’t sound mean or offensive, but I know that some of you reading this can get very disappointed in yourself for something that you can really learn how to control. This is exactly what the enemy wants us to do. He wants us to create bad habits so he can remind us of them every time we start to make a change. Don’t let him be the Lord of your life! Jesus is the Lord and the love of your life. It’s a choice we have to be serious about making. Remember, it’s not God that makes you feel condemned by your weaknesses. We have awesome scriptures like, “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” (Eph. 6:10) that empower us to know that it’s not by our strength – but His. He loves us so much and knows that if we are not reading, meditating, or hearing the Word of God day and night, not letting this Word depart from our lips,we are going to succumb to the wiles of the devil, the lust of our flesh, the pride of our eyes and every other thing that we know is not good for us.

Exercise can be a tricky one because usually 8 out of 10 people do not like to exercise (unless you live in L.A.) They do it because they feel they have to in order to be healthy! The Bible does not say that being healthy comes from exercise. I have only found one scripture in the Bible that says anything about exercise and it’s “bodily exercise profits you little” (1 Timothy 4:8). That scripture does not say bodily exercise is the key to your health! In fact, the rest of that scripture says but godliness is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come”.

Proverbs 18:21 says “death and life are in the power of the tongue”. So, to me, your health really comes from what you say and what you don’t say. It doesn’t say that death and life are in the power of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, exercise, etc. It says it comes from the power of the tongue! Interesting, huh? The medical experts say that we can benefit from exercise and controlled eating. Yes, in the natural that is true; but please don’t put all your health concerns in the basket of food and exercise. Resting in the finished work on the cross, peace and joy are all ways of staying “healthy”. Heck, even Proverbs 17:22 says, “A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones.” Dry bones can break and dry bones can maybe be what causes arthritis.

One of the biggest reasons why people are not successful in this part of their life, is because they really don’t love or like themselves. It can be a vicious cycle. You don’t like yourself so you won’t be nice to yourself; so you eat out of self-hate and not out of self-love and then you find yourself being mad at yourself because you went out of control when you could have been in control; but now you feel like you want to give up and eat whatever because “Why not? Who cares? It’s my body. I’m not trying to impress anyone”. Do you hear the noise on the inside of our heads? Well, if you are in Christ that’s not true. You were bought with a price. Jesus was the price and His life was the ransom for your freedom. Please think about this. God LOVES you so much that He gave His only begotten son just for you and your freedom. “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed”! (John 8:36) There is no trainer or diet plan that loves you like your Heavenly Father does.

Okay, so now that we know that we’ve exposed some “stuff”, let’s get to the root of the problem. I believe most people have been a victim of identity theft. Who are you? Whose are you? Who do you live for? Where do you live? What’s your inheritance? Who do you trust? What does God say about you? Why are you so important to Him? Who do you say He is?

I know this very well because my identity was stolen. From birth all the way until just recently, I never really understood who I was in Christ. I could see Christ in others, but I felt so bad about myself I didn’t think God even had the time to waste on this girl who didn’t live for Him or even acknowledge Him very often. WRONG! FALSE! LIE! DECEPTION! As I got older, I thought my identity was in who I was to everyone on the outside – my body, my abs, my ability to workout multiple hours a day and the list goes on. That’s what I thought made me who I was. I thought that was my strength. The Word of God says that “the joy of the Lord is my strength”. (Neh. 8:10) What I found out was that no matter how many hours I worked out or how many calories I counted or how many foods that I removed from my diet because they were ‘bad’, I was still in His LOVE. My self -image started to change and I wasn’t afraid anymore. Fear can make you do things you never thought you’d do and it can also make you not do things you’ve always wanted to do. We are free in Him! “Therefore, now there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.” (Romans 8:1)

Spend time cultivating a one on one relationship with the Father. Crawl up in the secret place of the Most High (Psalm 91:1) on a daily, hourly basis. Don’t be hard on yourself. Love yourself. Love the one who takes up residence in your heart: Jesus. If you do, you will find forgiveness, healing, deliverance, protection and provision. It’s the only way to live.

About Julieann:

jheadshot
Julieann Hartman is a native from Los Angeles. She’s been married for 25 years to an incredibly loving & talented Executive Producer of Television Animation and has 2 adult daughters who love the Lord with all their hearts! She’s had many careers in her life up to this point. She’s been an Actress, Executive Secretary, Material Supervisor on the game show Jeopardy!, Tae Bo instructor and Personal Assistant. She and her husband, Butch, are the Co-Founders of their Non-Profit Foundation “Hartman House” established in 2005.

No matter how exciting these careers might seem, NOTHING takes the place or even comes close to being a wife, a mother and an Ambassador for Jesus Christ!