TheeSoulFuel Podcast
Welcome to your essential pitstop, where your soul gets the fuel it needs for life’s journey. In Christ, faith is the vehicle steering us through every twist and turn. Join us as we dive into real conversations about real-life challenges, all viewed through the lens of scripture. Don’t leave empty—come and be filled with the wisdom, strength, and grace to keep going.
TheeSoulFuel Podcast
What Is Your Appetite?
What drives us to eat when we aren't truly hungry? Explore the fascinating interplay between hunger, appetite, and fullness on this episode of the SoulFuel podcast with Pastor Willie Robbins III. We unravel the intricate dance between the stomach and brain, revealing how external stimuli like the sight and smell of food can manipulate our desires. Understand the powerful influence of appetite, compelling us to eat more even after we're satiated or leaving us uninterested in food when we're stressed or unwell.
Gain deeper insight into the natural sensations of hunger and fullness, influenced by our hypothalamus, blood sugar, and hormones. Through personal stories, including Pastor Willie's recent cruise experience, we paint a vivid picture of how fullness can sometimes be overridden by a persistent appetite. Discover the physiological signals that communicate satiety and how they sometimes evoke a strong aversion to further eating. This episode is a comprehensive exploration of how our eating behaviors are shaped, providing valuable knowledge to help manage your appetite and maintain balance in your daily life.
Sometimes they don't get hungry until they see me with something or they see their mom with something. Sometimes they don't even have a taste for food, but because this is even when they're not hungry, you just ate. What do you want with my popcorn? Well, just because they're not hungry doesn't mean they don't have an appetite. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to the SoulFuel podcast, the place for your soul to get fueled up for your journey in life with Christ. Listen, I'm your host, willie Robbins III, with Christ. Listen, I'm your host, willie Robbins III, also known as Pastor Will. I am so delighted, I'm so excited to have you with me on another episode.
Speaker 1:Listen, first of all, let me apologize y'all. I am putting this episode out after the time that it's supposed to come out, which is Mondays at midnight, midnight, early Monday morning, right, and so I don't want you to get used to these late drops. But anyways, with that being said, let's get into today's episode. I want you to think about the time that you're listening to this. I want you to also think about your stomach. I want you to think am I hungry or am I not hungry, right, like? I really want you to stop and think about that. For some of you that are listening to this. You might be stuffing your face right now no judgment, because I'm actually hungry right now and recording this episode, but it's all good.
Speaker 1:You got to be aware of your hunger. You have to be aware of your level of hunger. There's no doubting the fact that we all get hungry. We have moments where we are hungry, right. But at the same time, there's something else that is on the underlying surface of hunger. Once you have understood the fact that your stomach has connected to your brain, or sent a signal to your brain letting you know that it's hungry, then there's a thing called appetite. Right, there's a thing called appetite. And this only comes after we have understood and noticed the fact that we are hungry. Your stomach is like hey bro, it's time to eat out. And so now you have to decide what do I feel like eating? That's the question. What do I feel like eating? And even if I don't feel like eating, and even if I don't feel like eating, I know I have to eat because my stomach is saying that I'm hungry. So it's a fact. And if I do not eat, there are certain things that will happen to me in the process, and some of y'all know how you, you, you, you, you suffer from um hangriness, right. When you are hungry and you don't eat, you get angry, you get upset, you get whiny I mean, you turn into a kid again, right, you're irritable. There's different things that come from not feeding the hunger, right, and then even sometimes you struggle with knowing what the appetite is because you're so hungry and sometimes the attitude gets in the way and you can't really articulate what you need to be articulating because you're so hungry.
Speaker 1:But I want to point to these definitions and I want you to write this down or, in fact, go to the website, because I'm quoting these things off of myhealthalbertaca. Right, and this was interesting as I was researching this topic. The overview says to listen to your body to tell you when you're hungry or full. Listen to your body to tell you when you are hungry or fool. Now I'm going to go out of order.
Speaker 1:Since I was talking about appetite, I want to look at the definition of appetite. The word appetite is, it means a desire for food. Usually after seeing, smelling or thinking about food, even after you feel full, your appetite can make you keep eating. That's crazy. Did you hear that After you are really full, your appetite can make you keep eating. It can also stop you from eating even though you are hungry. This might happen when you are sick or feeling stress. I don't know about y'all, but have you ever not the stress feeling? But it's not even. I don't even think it's just sick. I've been there where I've been sick and I didn't want certain things and when I actually when I was sick, I had a specific appetite, like I had like a taste for some hot wings. I want some pizza, probably the stuff I didn't eat. But I still had that appetite when my body was in a certain condition. So this is interesting, that the takeaway from this definition is that even after you feel full, your appetite can make you keep eating. Not to mention let's go back to the first part of this definition is that appetite is a desire for food, usually after seeing, smelling or thinking about food. So this reminds me of my kids, um, as they are all currently still growing up. They're all small, except for the oldest, but sometimes they're. They don't get hungry until they see me with something or they see their mom with something. Sometimes they don't even have a taste for food, but because even and it's. This is even when they're not hungry. You just ate. What do you want with my popcorn? Well, just because they're not hungry doesn't mean they don't have an appetite. Oh, this is good we getting into the meat and potatoes early. Just because you're not hungry doesn't mean you don't have an appetite. And appetites are dangerous. Appetites are dangerous. This is one of the reasons why you go to a restaurant and they ask you if you want to get started with any appetizers today, because the appetizer is the pregame for the, for the full course, for the main course. Right, the main course is the entree, the, the, the meatloaf, for, uh, the chicken or the salmon with the rice and all these things, and then the dessert comes after. Right, you have all of these things. But watch this regardless of your level of hunger, you're still gonna have an appetite. So appetite is a desire for food, usually after seeing, smelling or thinking about food. It's a desire for food, usually after seeing, smelling or thinking about food, even after you feel full, your appetite can make you keep eating. It can also stop you from eating, even though you are hungry. This is powerful. Even though you are hungry, this is powerful, I believe, since we're about almost 10 minutes into this episode, you already know where this is going. But let me continue, because we said that even though you're hungry, even though you're hungry, it doesn't mean that you do not have an appetite. In other words, appetite is always working, regardless of how hungry you are. So let's look at the word hunger.
Speaker 1:Hunger is a normal sensation that makes you want to eat. Your body tells your brain that your stomach is empty eat. Your body tells your brain that your stomach is empty. Your body tells your brain that your stomach is empty. This makes your stomach growl and gives you hunger pangs. Hunger makes some people feel lightheaded or mean, irritated, grouchy. Everyone is different, right, but we know that there is a bad side effect of not obeying hunger right in the natural. There is a negative side effect of not obeying your hunger Because it's a normal sensation. The human mind, body and soul has a normal sensation that makes us want to eat. Our body tells our brain that our stomach is empty. This makes our stomach growl and gives us hunger pangs. Hunger makes people feel different ways, but either way, it's not a cool feeling, like nobody goes hungry, like willingly, other than when you're fasting right, like willingly, other than when you're fasting.
Speaker 1:Right, and again, not to get into fasting, but your appetite has to be different. Even in fasting, the flesh appetite is always working against the spirit's appetite, but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. So hunger is partly controlled, right, hunger is partly controlled by a part of our brain called the hypothalamus your brain, your blood sugar, glucose level, how empty your stomach and intestines are, and certain hormone levels in your body. Hunger is partly controlled by a part of your brain called the hypothalamus your blood sugar, glucose level and how empty your stomach and intestines are, and certain hormones hormone levels in your body, right. So again, this is a normal sensation. This is what makes us want to eat. This is what makes us want to eat.
Speaker 1:If we eat or if we do not eat, we automatically have a. What? An appetite? Right, we automatically have an appetite. Now, what about? Because appetite, then? The definition of appetite says that appetite after, even after we feel full appetite, can make us keep eating. It can also stop us from eating, even though we are hungry, all right. So your appetite shifts, and there are two different sides to this, and we'll. We'll get to that in just a second.
Speaker 1:But let's go to fullness. What does it mean to be full? Fullness is a feeling of being satisfied. Your stomach tells your brain that it is full. This is interesting, isn't that amazing, how the stomach talks to the brain like you can feel it.
Speaker 1:Have you ever felt full but you were still hungry to continue eating? This just recently happened to me when I was on a cruise, probably last month, two months ago now. When I was on a cruise probably last month, two months ago now, I don't know, it was this year and I felt so full, but yet I was still hungry. I still had an appetite, because some of the things that I was eating it was very specific. I wasn't eating like eggs and different things like that. I was eating like the sugar stuff or the sugar-free stuff. I was eating this kind of stuff, but I realized, okay, I'm full, there is nothing healthy about this situation. So I was doing all that I could to try to relieve my stomach. Y'all know what I'm talking about. I was trying to do whatever it is that I needed to do, but I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it like my, my, my body was not functioning properly, but I knew I couldn't keep on eating because I fell full right.
Speaker 1:So normally this feeling causes us to stop eating and not think about food again for several hours. Fullness is partly controlled by the hypothalamus, blood sugar and having food in our stomach and intestines. Let me say this again Fullness is a feeling of being satisfied. It's a feeling of being satisfied. Your stomach tells your brain that it is full. Normally, this feeling causes us to stop eating and not even think about food for several hours. Have you ever been full and looked at somebody else's food and felt like you were getting ready to throw up? Why? Because of the appetite. Your appetite is turned off, because you are full Now, but your appetite shifts in another way and you have an appetite to not eat. Are you understanding where this is going? I pray that y'all are really, really, really picking up what the Holy Spirit is putting down right now, because this is rich, all right. Fullness is a feeling of being satisfied. Your stomach tells your brain that it is full. Your stomach is always going to tell your brain something. Your stomach is connected to your what your flesh, your stomach is considered flesh. Stomach is always going to desire something and it's going to tell your brain going to desire something and it's going to tell your brain. And then you have the moment between, uh uh, your thought process, your, your thoughts, the, the, the will, your will, in between thoughts and stomach, in between. That is decision. Oh man, let me say that again your will is in the middle between stomach, which is flesh, thought, which is spirit, and you have to make a decision. That is where you are. And, as we're getting ready to talk more spiritual, I want you to understand the natural, because this is how we work. Naturally, everybody, like it, does it doesn't. It doesn't matter where you come from, it doesn't matter what you believe in. The fact remains here's if we want to talk about science, we want to. We want to believe in science. I believe what they studied about the body, and it's amazing because God made this body that we live in, and so, quite naturally, whatever is happening in the body, in the natural, it's also true for the spirit. It can be true for the spirit, right? So fullness is this feeling that causes us to stop eating and not think about food again for several hours. So, again, when we look at other people's food, you look at somebody else eating and you just ate a full meal and then you watch one of these videos or one of these social media people uh, like I mean globs of food on their plates and I mean food plates from seafood restaurants and all these other places and they talking about and they eating and slurping and licking fingers and doing all this like stuff. Watch this. It almost becomes nasty. When you are full and you watch somebody else eat a full plate of food, you'll see somebody else full plate of food. I got to go. It's time to go because you are done. Your appetite is telling you I want to sleep. You have a different appetite for different things, different, a different type of appetite. It's not even related to food. It don't even have to be food related. Now it becomes more, uh, thought-based and and feeling-based, emotion-based, right. So it's important that we understand that the fullness, uh, this feeling of fullness, is partly controlled by the hypothalamus, our blood sugar and having food in our stomach and intestines. They said at the very beginning of this I read what they wrote and they said listen to your body to tell you when you are hungry or full. Listen to your body to tell you when you are hungry or full. Listen to your body to tell you when you are hungry or full Now, when you are living this life in Christ and going about your everyday business. This is not true for you Now. We do this by nature. We already know this. By nature, when we're hungry, we go and get something to eat in the natural. But I really want you to understand and take hold of this and grab this entire concept of all these three things of hunger, fullness and appetite. I want you to grab these three things and think about them in the spirit, think about them in your spiritual walk. While you're living this life in Christ, right, while we are faced with certain temptations, when we are going through these different trials, right, we know that the testing, the testing of our faith, is working patience. Patience is is supposed to have her perfect work. Patience is supposed to do everything that is that, that that it's supposed to do, because that's what we need as we go through this life in Christ. But I want you to understand that you cannot listen to your body to tell you when you are hungry or full. You have to listen to the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is always going to let you know that you are hungry. It's going to speak to the appetite. The Holy Spirit gives you the appetite that you need, as long as you're willing to lean on the Spirit and not lean onto what your stomach is telling you, what your flesh is telling you. Your flesh will tell you I need to get this money. Your stomach may be saying I'm hungry, I'm broke, I need money. I need to get it like this, I need to get it like this, I need to get it like that. All of the people, all of the dope boys, all of everybody who's ever sold drugs in their life, they have told themselves this because their stomach, which is their flesh, the flesh has spoken to them in their hunger, in the condition of their, in what their mindset is, in that they are hungry and that they need to do something about the hunger. And they're never full, even when they've made enough. This is why a lot of drug dealers get caught. Not condoning drug dealing at all is completely wrong, but a lot of people get caught when they don't have the mind to quit because what? They're full and just because they had an appetite for this thing. Again, remember, appetite can make you keep eating when you are full. When their pockets got full, they continue to sell, they continue to sling because the appetite came from the wrong spirit, the wrong desire. They fed a hunger that that was fed in the wrong way. If you are hurting for money, my friend, go get a job. Put in work, work overtime. You not making enough money on that job. Listen, go to a community college or take a workshop. Acquire new skillsire new skills, skill up, bring value to what you already know how to do, and apply for higher paying jobs. This is, this is the way around it. And even, and even in the middle of that, you're acknowledging God in all of your ways and he's directing your path and he's the one that opens up doors that no man can close. But when you go out trying to fulfill a hunger of the stomach, you're always going to run into things that are no good for you. Sin is a food that is no good for you. It's no good for you, and we already know that those who are born of God should not, will not, commit sin. This has been like a strong topic on all of my platforms lately, because there's a lot of people that seem to think that you're going to do it. But that's not how we live our life. We don't live our life thinking we're going to do anything. We live our life, a life that's pleasing to God by faith, because without faith it is impossible to please him. So what happens when you give your life to Christ? There's an appetite change. My appetite for the world is going to automatically cause me to obey my hunger and I'm going to overeat. I'm going to do things that that are not conducive to my salvation. I'm not going to do things If I'm in sin. I'm obeying my stomach until I am full and then, when I have depleted the nutrition that I thought was good for me, when we have depleted, when that waste has gone out, when that waste has gone out, we continue to consume it again because we love bad eating habits and we know what bad eating habits do. We already know that eating too much or too little of certain foods and nutrition can raise the risk of dying of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. More than that, obesity and the increased certain risk and increased certain risk factors for stroke, heart disease and cancer disease and cancer. When you eat too much of the world, when you are eating sin, consuming sin by living in sin in your everyday life and call yourself a believer, first of all, you're disconnected, and it proves that you have been skipping meals. And when we skip meals, we go through these hunger pains. And these hunger pains is the Holy Spirit calling out to us to let us know hey, you're missing the bread. You didn't have your bread today. This is why when we this is why Paul said, I die daily, we have to constantly kill away the flesh. We have to constantly wake up surrender. We have to constantly be, uh, doing things on purpose, calling on the name of the Lord, because he's the only way. He's the only way, he's the only way, he's the only way, he's the only way that we can make it. He's the only way that we can make it. This is why we have to be consistent in the word of God. You got to be consistent in the word of God because if you're not, then your appetite screams sin. You have an appetite for all of the things that we don't need, because we're trying to be full of those things that we should not be full of. I hope that makes sense. Did that make sense? We should not be full of the things that we don't need. Again, these bad eating habits. Bad eating habits are sinful practices or practices that can lead to sin. And again, when you skip meals, it can affect your mood. When we don't eat, we feel the symptoms such as dizziness, irritation, and watch this. When we skip a meal, it makes us more prone to overeat at our next meal or increase cravings for anything. Huh, I hope I'm saying this effectively. I hope I'm saying this effectively because, again, when we skip out on meals, it makes us more prone to overeat at our next meal. And here's what I mean by this, because this is a fact in the natural. But what I'm pointing out to you is that when we skip reading the word of God, when we skip reading the word of God, when we skip taking in scripture like we should, it increases our cravings for the world. It increases our cravings for things that are not of God In the natural. When it says, this is talking about talking about food, is talking about the human stomach or the human experience. Eat at our next meal or increase cravings for anything, such as high fat foods and high sugar foods, because we feel so hungry. Because you feel so hungry, you know it's real easy to overeat. You skip a meal and then you become more hungry and then at the next opportunity to eat. So here's the thing your next opportunity to eat. What are you eating? Is it the word of God? Or are you consuming the high fatty food and high sugar diet snacks and filth of words that are not of God? Are you? Are you consuming, uh, real, sweet, sugar-coated words of of wisdom? Sweet, sugar-coated, uh gospel. Is this what you are consuming? Are you consuming the world? Because? Is this what you are consuming? Are you consuming the world? Because this is what causes you to be obese in the spirit. How do you be obese in the spirit? Well, you become obese when you become obese in the spirit, and this means that you get too big for the word of God. This means you get too big for knowledge and wisdom and understanding from the most high god. You get too big. You're not only on a high horse, you're in the sky. You're high. You're too high to come in low, because we know that the lord resists the proud and he exalts the humble. And when you have built yourself up on on high fat and high sugar foods because you were so hungry, that is what your appetite, your appetite was to obey your stomach, which is your flesh. Please, again, I hope you're connecting these things. I'm bringing spiritual things parallel with the flesh so that you can understand. And you have to know that again, when you fail to take in the word of God, when you fail to take in the scriptures, it is easier for temptation to have its way with you. And temptation does not have to win. I tell people this all the time Tempt, temptation does not have to win. I tell people this all the time. Temptation does not have to win. It may look good, it may sound good, it may even feel good, based on what it sounds like and the feel. And and when I say feel good based on what you've experienced in the past when you did these things in the past, your memory, your memory starts moving and you start going back into the things of old, you start considering the things of old and you forget about the new self, you forget about the new you and the devil successfully resuscitates you, your, your flesh, he resuscitates the ou, he does cpr on the ou again. And between your thought, between your thoughts, which is of the spirit, which is where the spirit speaks, and your stomach, which is what the devil speaks to, you have to make the decision. Am I going to choose what the spirit wants and what the lord wants for me. What is the righteous thing to do, or am I going to choose what the spirit wants and what the Lord wants for me? What is the righteous thing to do, or am I going to choose what the stomach wants? Am I going to choose what the flesh wants? James, chapter 1, verse 13 and 14 one of my favorite verses, and I'm gonna read this from the CSB. It says no one undergoing a trial should say I am being tempted by God, because we understand that temptation is not of God. Temptation is automatically going to come to scream at the flesh and provoke the flesh. This is all what temptation does. Temptation provokes the flesh. So let no one say that I am being tempted by God, since God is not tempted by evil and he himself doesn't tempt anyone. But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desires. Didn't say desires, says evil desires, whatever is not of God, whatever is not of God. When you're enticed, when you're entertained, when you are amused and enjoy what you know is not good for you. That is how temptation is successful. When you've allowed temptation to provoke you to action, when the thought watch this always a thought of the holy spirit is always going to come to bring you the word of god, tell you no. Sometimes the holy spirit will say no, no, get out, get out, get out. And it's so pressing, but the flesh is also pressing as well. But what is what is what is better for you? Let me answer that for you, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit knows what's best, because the Holy Spirit is from God. The Lord doesn't tempt us to do evil y'all. We are tempted because of our own sinful nature. This is why we, we die daily, because the flesh is imperfect, and that's what makes us not perfect in the flesh. That is what makes us uh, uh, uh, we are. We are unavailable to sin by choice, but it doesn't make us be in a state to where we are completely like, where we're not tempted. We will be tempted on every side, right, and it's only a temptation, because we are drawn away by our own evil desires. But here's the thing thank god for the one who delivered us from this death of sin, jesus, and then gave us the power of the holy spirit so that we can overcome the sinful nature. Right, the flesh is automatically sinful hands down, and I've always said this. This is a a reminder. This text uh, james, one is is a great reminder to stay on guard in our battle against temptation. It's easy to, it's easy to pass it. All we got to do is just say no. Somebody offered you a cigarette, you don't smoke. You say no, right, you're not tempted, because that's not what you desire. So, as you go on to follow the lord, it doesn't mean that you won't ever be tempted as you move forward. It just means that you won't obey the appetite and it's easier for you to say no. That's, that's how we move when it comes to loving the Lord and living in the spirit, because it doesn't matter how long we've been believers, we're still susceptible to temptation. We're still susceptible to temptation, and I've always said this, and this is I don't like when people try to use Peter, they say Peter denied him three times during one dark night. Peter was not immune to temptation, and neither are Christians today. That's what some say right, but I differ here, because Peter was not full of the Holy Ghost when he denied Christ three times. He did what he was going to do because he was afraid, although they believed, they didn't have the Holy Spirit. So what does that mean? If Peter had the Holy Spirit while he, if Peter had watch this, they went through the same things that Jesus went through with the Holy Spirit and he wasn't afraid and he didn't deny Christ. And he wasn't afraid and he didn't deny Christ. And there was no sin other than the sin of partiality that Peter showed and Paul had to rebuke him. That was it, the sin of partiality. He got up from the table while he was sitting with Gentiles and Paul had to rebuke him. He called him out on it because the Pharisees came and he was like, oh, I can't be seen sitting with y'all, but that was about it, and we know that there was some. There was where Paul and someone else had a dispute and they didn't agree on everything. They didn't agree on something, so they went their way. Was it sinful? I don't think so. It's not illegal or it's not a sin for you to have a disagreement. It's how you handle the disagreement right. So we need to understand Luke 4 and 13 that I've quoted before many times as we're coming to the close of this episode. It says ESV version says and when the devil had ended every temptation. He departed from him until an opportune time. And he's talking about Jesus here. Right, jesus is tempted by the devil. Right, jesus is tempted by the devil. And so Jesus successfully passed passes, temptation or test, while the devil is trying to tempt the Lord. He says it is written thou shalt not tempt the Lord, that God. And he tells him to bow before him and all this stuff. And then Jesus tells him get behind me, satan. And then he flees. Right, and this is interesting, that it says he departed from him. Luke 4, 13 says he departed from him until an opportune time, and another version would say until. It says until, basically, he comes. He just he comes in seasons. He's waiting for a particular time to come, he's waiting for a particular moment to come back. So there you have it. It's never meant for the devil to just completely leave you alone. It's not true as a believer. No, the devil is always going to be after you. There's going to be seasons where it feels as if it's easy, where the devil ain't bothering you. But he is. But it's just that you got your mind. That's why your mind has to always be in him, because if it's in him, then you're going to be all right If it's in him. You're going to be all right. Right, if you won't even really notice what the devil I mean. You'll notice what the devil is doing, you'll know that the enemy is busy, but there's no need to call him out. We just need to call on jesus. Right, because your appetite, when you call on jesus, your appetite will stay intact, your appetite will remain where it is supposed to be. Right and watch this. The devil does this in the beginning of Jesus's ministry, that he is tempted by the devil, but he was able to resist him because the Lord Jesus was submitted to the Father and because he was submitted to the Father. I want you to see that and understand the fact that Jesus was submitted. When we go to the book of James right James chapter one, the James chapter one of four James says I believe it's chapter four. James says I believe it's chapter four. He says submit yourself to God, resist the devil. This is not saying he might flee from you. It says he will flee from you. And then verse eight says draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts. You double-minded, you of two minds. Again. This tells us that we can't have two minds. We have to stay submitted to God, drawing near to him. Right, this is how we obey the appetite of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is the spirit that was in Jesus and we know that it all comes from God. It's God the Father, god the Son and God the Holy Ghost. These three are one because they agree. And when Jesus ascended, he gave the Holy Ghost to the church, fell upon all men, holy Ghost. He gave the Holy Ghost to the church, fell upon all men. He pours out his spirit upon all flesh so that you have the ability to operate and walk even as he walked. So what's your appetite been lately? What has your appetite been lately? Has it been for the word of God? Has your hunger been for the world or has it been for the word? I'm even asking myself this question daily. What is my appetite for real? What is my appetite All right? So, as you continue, I want you to ask yourself this question. And if it is that your stomach is empty, you need to get to reading, you need to get to studying, you need to get to praying. You need to keep doing all of these things every day. All right, listen. God bless each and every one of you that have listened to this episode. I hope that it has been a blessing to you as it has been a blessing to me. This is the conclusion of this episode. Why do I always do this and I always forget the other segment? They have to be stopped. You got an idea?
