Hello Dear Friend,

I am happy you are here. Our coming together is not by chance; I have been praying for you since 2003 when I became aware of my calling. I am board-certified in holistic nutrition, and my training was in the functional model, but I am also a spiritual mentor. I understand that true wellness encompasses the whole person, mind, body, and spirit. My goal has always been to meet clients’ health challenges with biologically individualized nutritional protocols, but in the past year, clients have been opening up about their struggles with spiritual and emotional health. As individuals struggle to cope with daily uncertainties and painful losses, it makes sense that they would experience fear, anxiety, and depression. As a practicing spiritual mentor, I understand the functional importance of spiritual transformation along with nutritional adaptations to achieve wholeness, so I have made an intentional decision to focus my writing on where I believe people need the most help. I do not charge for my spiritual mentoring; it is free to clients who want the holistic program. Regardless of your spiritual disposition, you are welcome here. You have found a safe place to begin your whole life transformation, be authentic, share your fears, hopes, ask questions, and never be judged. Many voices are offering nutritional advice, but the spiritual guidance I offer comes from my unique voice birthed from my life with Jesus. I freely share spiritual abundance with love, prayer, and gratitude because what Jesus has done for me, he will do for you.

There is only one voice of truth in the world and finding the voice of truth can be daunting. I want to point you to Jesus Christ because he is the voice of truth. I have no expectations regarding your response to Jesus and his spiritual principles for life. My position as an evidence-based functional nutritionist and spiritual mentor relies on my formal education, life experience, and spiritual life to guide clients as they seek spiritual and physical wholeness.

God is spirit; therefore, he communicates with our spirit. As recorded in biblical history, God can use all means to communicate, including the environment and animal kingdom. In both the old and New Testaments God often sent messengers to communicate. But the focus of my writing is to offer guidance in developing an intimate relationship with Jesus so you can know Jesus himself as your high priest. Learning to distinguish the subtle voice of Jesus from our thoughts and emotions takes patience, practice, and intention. 

During the almost 5 years that I managed Bank of the West in Lincoln City, Oregon, I had an hour-long commute. I decided to make that hour my daily time in prayer. At first, it felt awkward, but I was determined to maintain my focused time with Jesus. One morning as I was praying, I spoke words that I was not thinking about. It startled me and I stopped praying. I’d had no intention of praying for what I had just heard myself say. Honestly, I felt a little weird and I spent the rest of my commute that morning thinking about why and how I had prayed for something I was not thinking about at all. I continued my practice of prayer, and it happened again, but this time I was less startled and able to continue praying. I had been asking Jesus to teach me about the armor of God. I wanted to understand it beyond the surface intellectual understanding. I wanted to know its significance for my life in the spiritual realm. The night before, I was focused on the sword of the spirit, and as I prayed for understanding, I immediately thought of Matthew 4:1-11. The discourse between Jesus and Satan was not written, it was spoken. Until this moment, I understood that the sword of the spirit was the word of God, but it had not occurred to me that it was the spoken word. As I prayed, I asked Jesus to give me my sword of the spirit, and immediately the scripture John 10:10 came as my answer. Not knowing the scripture, I asked Siri to search for John 10:10 and read it because I was driving, but Siri refused, and the third time I asked, Siri said, “Teresa you should not ask your assistant to do such things!” No kidding, Siri refused to search scripture for me! John 10:10 says, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly”. I read this verse once and memorized it. It is my God-given ministry verse. Jesus is referring to the human priest that stood in the gap to make atonement for sin on behalf of the people. He, the Good Shepherd, was about to abolish that antiquated and ineffective system through his death and resurrection, thus bridging that gap between humanity and God and restoring direct access to God. Jesus goes on to say in John 10:16, “And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd”. We are the other sheep Jesus speaks of. Jesus is our high priest, and the bible is our doctrine – one shepherd and one flock. These experiences with Jesus during my 1-hour prayer commute taught me how to not only hear his voice but also to discern the difference between his voice and my own emotions. So, with intention and practice, I learned the difference between my voice and his. It is God’s desire for his followers to know his voice, so if you ask for his help this is a prayer that will be answered.

 Suggestions for Grounding: 

Begin a daily practice of meditating on scripture: select a bible scripture and read it three times as you visualize it. Ask Jesus to write the scripture on the tablet of your heart and open your spiritual eyes of understanding. This is an effective way to learn scripture as you meet with Jesus. 

Scripture suggestions:

• Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— John 1:12
• He predestined us for adoption to become God’s children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— Ephesians 1:5
• But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9 
• For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:27-28
• Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 

A good way to view this process is as though you are entering into a foreign land where you do not know the language. The land is the kingdom of heaven, and the language is spiritual. You were created by God, in the image of God, and for fellowship with God, are a spiritual being. Sadly, as children, we are taught very little about the reality of our spiritual and physical identities. We tend to elevate thoughts and emotions while ignoring an important two-thirds of our tripartite selves. As a board-certified holistic nutritionist and spiritual mentor my job is to help you understand how to nourish your spirit, and your body, which is the foundation of your soul (mind & emotions). Many humans live their entire lives unaware or denying the existence of their spirit and the nutritional needs of their body. This ignorance, willful or not, leads to diseases in the body and mind. I invite you to discover how to nourish your spirit and your body as you begin to honor the life principles from our creator, then you will experience wholeness and thrive. 

It is important to acknowledge that Jesus is our high priest, and together we are seeking him for every spiritual gift and all spiritual truth. Without the Bible and Jesus’s participation, we are in spiritual darkness and unable to grasp spiritual truth. Let’s begin with our hearts. The bible tells us that the human heart is desperately wicked. The bible also says that Jesus was the good sower, and he sowed good seed, but depending on the soil conditions of the heart we see different outcomes in the spiritual crop. I can tell you this is a spiritual truth that I see in others and experience in my own life. (Mathew 13:1-23) This parable is the teaching of Jesus about the different conditions of the human heart. We all need to pray for good heart soil. I pray for good loamy heart soil that’s fertile, and I have promised Jesus to be a prolific producer. Jesus tells us that some seed will produce thirty percent, some sixty percent, and some a hundred percent. My target is to be a hundred percent person, but I know I can accomplish nothing without Jesus, so I must fight those heart conditions that will prevent me from finishing well. 

Suggestions for grounding 

Study the parable of heart conditions. Invite Jesus to unfold the meaning behind his teaching. Ask Jesus to make you aware of the areas you are predisposed to sin. Just like you have physical DNA that predisposes you to specific physical diseases, you have spiritual DNA that predisposes you to spiritual diseases. Science has proven with the study of epigenetics that we can pass spiritual traits, such as fear, to our offspring. God’s word warns us about generational curses but offers the hope that when we accept Jesus through faith all generational curses are broken because the spiritual nature of God replaces that of our natural parents. So, if you struggle with fear, it is a spiritual disease that will choke out faith if you do not deal with it. If you struggle with lust, it is a spiritual weed that will turn into disease and choke out true love. 

Early in my journey to find spiritual truth I can see the principle of the birds stealing the seeds that Jesus planted. When I read the bible, I was confused and frustrated, so nothing could take root. I want to encourage you to pray your way through this frustration. Consider biblical truth as a spiritual treasure that has been hidden. Finding this treasure will not be easy, but if you ask Jesus in faith, he is faithful to open the eyes of your spiritual understanding, and teach you all spiritual truth. Remember that your mind is carnal, not spiritual; you have been indoctrinated your entire life in spiritual darkness. Returning to the analogy of being in a foreign country, you can see that regardless of how motivated you are to learn the language and fully participate in spiritual life, you will experience frustrations and resistance from the carnal soul, and those resistant emotions can be strong. 

Spiritual life is a gift that can’t be earned or purchased, but transformation is work, and it only happens with intentionality. All of humanity is under the curse of sin and death. In the spiritual realm, deception is one of sin’s gravitational pulls on humanity, but so is greed, hate, discord, envy, and a host of other spiritually dark dispositions that lead us away from God and the spiritual life he restored through his death and resurrection. We live much of our lives ignorant of our spirit and the spiritual realm, so it will take time, intention, and patience with much prayer to push through the spiritual barriers and discover the treasure. Nowadays, my biggest heart soil struggle is keeping out the thorns. My main spiritual thorn is busyness, so I must be intentional about making time for Jesus every day. Think of your heart as a spiritual garden that must be lovingly tended daily. You’ve probably heard the saying that you are what you eat from your head down to your feet, and this is true for us physically, but also spiritually. When you read a book, watch television, play games, listen to a podcast, even visit with a friend, you are feeding your spirit, and depending on the quality of the materials they are making you spiritually healthy or spiritually sick. Just like physical nutrition, if you pay attention to the feedback from your body, you can feel the difference. I used to work out at a gym where there was a guy who was always angry, and everyone avoided him. One evening as I was driving home in my convertible, after working out, and under a gorgeous sunset listening to my favorite music and feeling amazing; I was stopped at a red light and the car behind me was playing loud gangster rap music. I could not help but hear the angry dehumanizing lyrics. The subsequent effects on me emotionally were anger at the driver, and I wanted to tell him to keep his toxic music to himself. When the light changed the driver pulled around me and guess who it was, it was the angry guy from the gym! If the angry guy was paying attention to what he was feeding his spirit, (anger) and aware of his angry disposition he might have made a different choice. Proverbs 22:34 states, “Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man do not go”. Anger is a spiritual contagion that will make us spiritually sick and manifest destructive behaviors in our soul. We must avoid angry people and deal quickly with our own anger not giving it space in our soul. Ephesians 4:26 states “Be angry, and do not sin, do not let the sun go down on your wrath”. I invite you to pay attention to how these experiences affect your state of mind and emotions. What kind of spiritual diet is your soul on and what kind of spiritual crop are you growing?

I have spent many years allowing Jesus to fine-tune my spirit just like I fine-tune physical intakes, paying close attention to the effects on my mind, body, and spirit after consumption. If I eat something like dairy, I feel unwell, and this unwell feeling is the feedback from my body’s innate intelligence telling me that I should not consume dairy. If I violate this warning, my body will respond with an inflammatory response leading over time to the development of diseases. This same process is at work in our spirit. I have been intentionally selective about what types of spiritual/emotional materials I consume for many years. I want to cultivate love, kindness, patience, faith, goodness, purity, and humility in my spirit and weed out pride, fear, hate, criticism, impatience, lust, and envy. Consuming biblical meals daily and limiting exposure to spiritual darkness has transformed my mind and changed my spiritual appetites.  So, just like eating a clean whole foods diet has transformed my physical health and appetites, eating a clean spiritual diet has transformed me spiritually and changed my spiritual appetite.

Suggestions for Grounding 

As a master gardener and nutritionist, I love the imagery of sowing, nourishing, and the harvest. Thinking of your heart like a garden, what qualities do you want to grow? Seek Jesus through prayer asking for guidance, then make a list of the biblical characteristics you want in the garden of your heart. Some examples are love, peace, mercy, kindness, and patience. These attributes support life. Remember to ask Jesus to search and reveal the weeds that express themselves in negative attributes because they choke out the good seed and hinder spiritual growth. Common spiritual weeds are unforgiveness, pride, anger, hate, and fear. When we give space to these spiritual attributes of death, they are expressed in our attitudes and words causing spiritual death in us, and our relationships. 

Heart Soil Conditions

(Matthew 13:1-23) 

1. Some seed fell along the path and was eaten by birds.

2. Some seed fell on rocky ground where it lacked enough soil but quickly sprang up but was later scorched by the sun because it lacked depth.

3. Some seed fell among the thorns and the thorns grew up and choked it out.

4. Some seed fell among good soil and produced grain. (Notice that the producing seed yielded varying amounts; some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.) 

We need to pause here and talk about the importance and power of prayer. Prayer is the only way to communicate with God. Jesus is the bridge for humanity to approach God after the great separation. There is no way for us to control the soil conditions of our hearts without the direct participation of Jesus. Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. The bible offers prayer guidance for anything you need. The psalms are a great place to start. Find the passage that deals with your concern and pray that to Jesus for yourself. The bible reveals the will of God, and we are promised answers if we ask rightly. James 4:3 “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures”.

 Sample Prayer for faith and good heart soil 

Dear Lord Jesus as the author and finisher of my faith, I thank you for the faith that has led me to you. I now ask you to increase my faith, give me your spiritual life, and transform me into a child of light. Lord Jesus, teach me about my spiritual identity, my calling, and the plans you have for my life. Lord Jesus, I pray believing that it is your will to give me all spiritual knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. Please open my spiritual eyes and ears that I might see the truth and hear your voice. Give me good heart soil so that your seed will grow in me. Protect me from the evil one and all deception. I ask that you plant spiritual hedges of protection around me, my mind, my heart, and my desires so that I will follow your voice and walk in your will. Lord Jesus, I refuse to make space for any evil thing, and I ask you Lord Jesus to search my heart and mind, shining your light of truth, and revealing any wicked thing in me. Lord Jesus, I reject everything evil, and pray this in your holy name. 

Our spiritual Reality 

The spirit is the core of the human. It was once alive and in harmony with God, leading the body and soul towards life. By its nature, the spirit of life was given to humanity by God, and it was good. But when Satan, the father of lies, deceived humanity, they, having freedom of choice, chose to break God’s only rule. By believing the treacherous lie that consuming from the tree of knowledge of good and evil they would not die, they introduced sin into their perfect environment. The spirit of God left them, and humanity became spiritually dead. We were left with the carnal and cursed soul (mind & emotions), which became our only moral compass and darkened our spiritual awareness.

All life is from God. He is only life, and there is no death in him. Spiritual death comes from Satan and sin. Satan rebelled against God, and he hates God’s people. But the miracle of Jesus is that he became our justice and restoration. When we accept that he took our punishment, confess our sinful disposition, and invite him to be our savior, he gives us his Holy Spirit, restoring our spiritual life and fellowship with our creator. 

Relationship between God and Humanity 

It is important to understand that God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one. They are a Holy Trinity. Jesus did not remove the holy law of God; he fulfilled the law. God’s intentions towards humanity were communion and fellowship. Humans were created to be one with God. John 17:21 “That they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you; that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me”.

The God of the Old Testament came to earth in human form, lived in a carnal body in a world under the curse of death, and willingly suffered a horrible death to break sin’s curse on humanity. God loves his creation as much as he hates sin. Sin hurts his beloved creation through natural consequences and breaks our fellowship with God. 

 Life Principle 

All life needs nourishment to survive. Spiritual life is no exception. Jesus is called the Bread of Life and he is called The Word. This is because the Bible, aka “The Word” is the bread of life for the spirit. It alone is life-giving pure spiritual food. Remember that we must seek the Holy Spirit as our teacher because the Holy Spirit is like a digestive aid or the catalyst for digesting and assimilating spiritual food. It is important to know the nature of God so you will not be deceived as you pursue a life with Jesus. Much like knowing someone intimately; if someone attempts to deceive you by defacing their character, you immediately know the truth because of your relationship.

Closing thoughts

Change is difficult. It is much easier to speak our soul’s native language of death and rely on emotional tools we have developed throughout the years. You are pursuing the most important relationship of your life, and you should expect that it will not be easy. Consider the airplane that must defy gravity to fly. It will always struggle to break free of earth’s gravitational pull, but once in the air, it burns fuel to maintain speed and avoid crashing. Likewise, once you break through the carnal conditioning of your past life and Jesus opens the eyes of your understanding, your spiritual meals will nourish robust spiritual life, and you will soar! You can email me at teresa@zoementorministry.com .