55: Harness Christ’s Resurrection Power!

Wellness Series

At the 9^th hour biblical time, 3:00 in the afternoon our time, Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit (Luke 23:46) and Jesus died on his own blood-stained cross nailed nakedly for His believers to see.  Today, at Easter-time, and during this COVID-19 lockdown, we ourselves must revive the resurrection power in our hearts—we, the true believers in Jesus Christ.  The Church building may be on lockdown, but the Spirit of the Lord cannot be barred, banned, tied or locked when believers loose it!

“My tears have been my food day and night, while they

continually say to me, ‘Where is your God?’” (Psalm 42:3) As with a breaking of my bones, my enemies reproach me, while they say to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?” (Psalm 42:10).  There are times when even the greatest warriors’ souls break down in distress and sorrow.  

These times are marked when, after riding on the clouds of great victories, we come among the multitudes whom have never experienced that “high” and meet their skepticism, disbelief, anger, and fear. 

King David, one of Israel’s greatest warriors, cried out these scriptures from the depth of his soul.  Prayer warriors in Christ today do the same as the ungodly, and those who are ignorant (not aware or witnessing) of how God has worked in your life up till now, continually challenge us with “Where is your God?”  Look at how much you’re struggling (when they have the means to give).  Your child is off-track (when they have the influence to help).  You see how your family history—your past—is holding you back; you’ll never go forward (when united prayer for you can break every chain in your life).  And, feeling alone, you look up to God in heaven behind that silent glass of tears and bellow from your soul: “Abba Father, deliver me from the snare of the fowler!”

That “snare” wants to trap you in bouts of doubt, causing a wavering of your faith in your bright vision of the future and in God.  You have been “high” in Christ because you have testified to His miraculous power in your life thus far; and you know deep down He will never leave you, nor forsake you.  But the devil hates the anointing on your life; and bombards your soul with strong winds to blow out your light.  LET YOUR LIGHT SO SHINE BEFORE MEN, DEAR CHRISTIAN, THAT ALL EYES MAY SEE AND GIVE GLORY TO GOD. 

Do not let your light blow out just because you cannot walk into the Church.  The Kingdom of Heaven is in you (Luke 17:21). Because Peter confessed who Jesus was, he was given the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven—Resurrection Power!  You, too, can take those keys given to Peter and open up—loose—the flood gates for resurrection power to fill you up, and bind on earth all causes of distress to your soul and body.

Apply this same resurrection power to COVID-19 calling itself Corona to cease its wake of destruction, now!  Bind up fear and socioeconomic paralysis, now!  Bind up past pain and failure to act; and loose your showers of blessing in the flood of resurrection power, now!  You’ve got to believe: “I’ve got the power!” before it can work as miracles in you and around you.

You are not weak.  You are not struggling.  You are not going backward.  Rather, YOU ARE CARRYING YOUR CROSS.  Those who decide not to carry theirs want you to drop yours, too.  DRAW CLOSER TO JESUS AND THE DEVIL WILL FLEE FROM YOU!  Drawing close to Jesus means that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection (Philippians 3:10a).

And from heaven, our Father answers giving us a renewed vision, a remembrance, a strong sign that we are not alone: that He raised his Son on the third day with Resurrection Power!  What can raise the dead to life?  Make the whole world be in total darkness from 12 noon to 3 o’clock?  Tear in two the temple curtain?  Open tombs for the dead in Christ to walk the streets of Jerusalem—the holy city?  Have a Roman (Gentile) soldier confess (along with other Jew and Gentile multitudes) that “Surely, he was the Son of God”?  Disarm principalities and evil powers, making a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in public?  And finally, after all that quick action, wash away all your sins, give back to you what Satan stole from you, and makes my feet like the feet of deer, and sets me on my high places and enlarges those places so that my feet do not slip (Psalm 18:33, 36)?  

CLAIM THIS RESURRECTION POWER AND HOLD IT DEARLY IN YOUR BOSOM.

NO THING AND NO ONE CAN TAKE IT AWAY FROM YOU BECAUSE

JESUS STANDS AT THE DOOR OF YOUR HEART HOLDING THE KEY SUCH THAT NO ONE CAN OPEN IT.

Stop crying, cross-carrying Christian. Through Resurrection Power, our enemies are pushed down and trampled over, no more to rise again strengthening our faith as In God we boast all day long, and praise Your name forever.  Selah! and Amen!

 © 2020 by Patience Osei-Anyamesem. All rights reserved.  Published by Take My Hand Inspirations Mission.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—without the prior written permission of the publisher.  The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews or other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Unless otherwise stated, all scripture quotations are from The New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.  Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Take My Hand Inspirations

54: Is the Cross Relevant Today?

Wellness Series

The Cross is the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15.

We are blessed with a prayer in 1 Thessalonians 5:23: Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The spiritual, emotional-mental (the soul part of you), and physical components that make up the human being are each dependent on the other for balance; each directly affects the other’s strength.  This balance is called Health.  Health is wellness; and wellness brings that state which all mankind is seeking: spiritual strength, peace of mind and physical prosperity (abundance).  The sum total of these three equals wholeness.  So how do we get well—get balanced, get healthy—so that we can achieve wholeness?

Jesus hung on that cross and gave all the world healing: The chastisement for our peace was up on Him.  And by His stripes we are healed (Read Isaiah 53:4-6).  The adage still remains true today: “A sound mind is a sound body.” When you experience the peace that only Christ can give; even though the body may be afflicted with sickness, we overcome the pain by drinking in the joy of the Lord.

Ebenezer had a lot of difficulty learning.  He drew what he saw on the blackboard; to write was a challenge.  His teacher tried his best to help improve Ebenezer’s academic ability, but to no avail.  He called on the Lord: “Dear Jesus, help me to help my pupil (learner).  I just don’t know what to do!”  That night, the teacher had a dream.  In that dream, he saw himself at the board.  He was given the key to how to help struggling Ebenezer to overcome and even progress faster.  The teacher was so excited, hurried to school and met his disgruntled learner in the classroom.  “Today is the beginning of better days ahead of you, my son.”  The pupil (learner) met his teacher’s smile with his own. 

Not all children learn the same way.  And, as different as we all are, not all people look at Jesus the same way.  Based on how life has taught us and how well we’ve learned and are still learning life’s lessons, these experiences paint our picture of who Jesus is.  A woman who has travailed through many disappointments may look at all men skeptically.  But she has a choice to make.  Will she “see” Jesus as just another man whom she’ll place partial trust in?  Or will she embrace Jesus as her Saviour who can deliver her from a pattern of trusting in the wrong men?

Colossians 2:13-15

Words are spirit.  We cannot see them.  But we know they exist because we hear them.  Words—both spoken and unspoken—have the power to create and to destroy.  Our thoughts and what we write or read are words which make a spiritual impact on the soul part of us because the soul contains the mind and emotions (the heart).  Which words do you ingest everyday?  The Word spoken by God and written in the Holy Bible; or words spoken by your own fears outside the Bible?  THE WORD OF GOD IS LIVING AND POWERFUL . . . AND IS A DISCERNER OF THOUGHTS AND INTENTS OF THE HEART [EMOTIONS] (Hebrews 4:12).  God’s Word will always be alive and powerful because it does not change.  It is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).  God’s Word is Jesus Christ (John 1:1-5,14).

THE FIRST STEP TO WELLNESS IS SALVATION.  As words are spirit and Jesus is spirit, so must you be re-born spiritually in order to wield God’s Word and gain a life of healing power which brings spiritual strength, peace of mind and physical prosperity (abundance) (John 1:12-13; 10:10b).  You must guard your heart; or satanic strongholds will tear it apart.  Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for You are my praise (Jeremiah17:14). 

After salvation comes baptism (in water and in the Holy Spirit) to show the world that you belong to the family of Christ.  THEN, YOU MUST TAKE UP YOUR CROSS AND FOLLOW JESUS.  Read Blog #10: My Cross To Bear. That CROSS IS YOUR KEY to help you to overcome your pain and live in joy unspeakable.  Taking your mind off the power of the cross and following earthly things, makes you an enemy of the cross.  The consequence is the unbearable pain (from unspeakable evil) we see in the world today; and individually carry in our hearts.  Don’t you want to replace that pain in your life with joy, those ashes for beauty?

That’s the truth of the matter called life.  It’s so simple that with all the words of “logic” and “philosophy” and “scientific advancement” that go against the knowledge of who Jesus is, it all comes right back to square one:  Take up the cross or put it down.  Here’s the Word: And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me (Matthew 10:38). The choice is yours.  For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal [earthly] but mighty in God for pulling down [satanic] strongholds (Read 2 Corinthians 3-6). 

If we are to uproot the source of our troubles in this series, the first weapon we must pick up is the Cross.  That’s the only way to receive wellness and wholeness.

 © 2020 by Patience Osei-Anyamesem. All rights reserved.  Published by Take My Hand Inspirations Mission.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—without the prior written permission of the publisher.  The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews or other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Unless otherwise stated, all scripture quotations are from The New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.  Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Take My Hand Inspirations

53: “I Want to be Whole!”

Wellness Series

"Winning the Race!"

Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.”  And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other (Matthew 12:13).

The keywords in this scripture are stretched, restored and whole.  A lot of souls are wandering this earth in a state of tightness, damaged and broken.  Souls are searching for a treatment to this condition by submitting to false doctrines and ‘religions’.  These efforts only worsen this soul sickness until, eventually, it takes toll on the mind and the body.  What this kind of soul is really searching for is the right Spirit.

This series is dubbed Wellness because we are going to sink deep (like a well) into issues, draw out the root cause, destroy those roots, replant and grow up well, another keyword which simply means healthy.

An athlete preparing for a race has to stretch beyond his normal or common capability and reach to a higher level of speed or endurance.  She must also restore any lost valuable nutrients while in that stretching process.  And finally mend any parts of the body which may have sprained or torn or broken.  Pulling it all the together, the athlete is now one whole power machine ready to win the race.

Society envisions both the Athlete and the Soldier as men and women who have finely tuned their bodies into power machines to win races and wars. As born-again in Christ, we are men and women (young and old) who must—no doubt about it—be stretched, restored and made whole before we can win the race which ends at the pearly gates of heaven to collect our crown from Jesus.

Apostle Paul explained it all in 1 Corinthians 9:24-26 and concludes in verse 27: But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.  By body, he meant to keep that spirit of lust—for illicit sexual or other sinful pleasure—under lock and key so that it does not alter the purity of his soul; or else he would be disqualified (sacked or removed) from the race.  And further instructed: For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come (1 Timothy 4:8). 

 

Painting by Tim Okamura

It is definitely good to keep the body physically fit, at its top level of health; but to keep the soul godly, pure without blemish, is the goal of the Christian Athlete-Soldier as we run the race and fight the small battles till we ultimately win the spiritual war against darkness, and finally enter into that glorious light of Christ’s kingdom.  This is a promise from God Himself: that as long as we keep pressing toward the goal in godliness, we will have victories here on earth (the life that now is); and we will be victorious as we reach the “coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (of that eternal life which is to come).

The Apostle encouraged Timothy, his son in the Lord: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7).  Christians must run the race on the narrow path (Matthew 7:13-14) and fight the devil—from within and on the outside—getting stronger and better in battle.  The fight is called ‘good’ because it forces us to be stretched beyond human capability; to be restored from our shame at failing so many times; and makes us whole again as we take the hand Jesus extends picking us up off the ground damaged, piecing our brokenness back together and motivating us to keep on running.

And, finally, we are blessed with a prayer in 1 Thessalonians 5:23: Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“I Want to be Whole.”  Do you want to be whole?  It’s going to take a lot of stretching, but you won’t snap.  Let’s work out together, dear brother, dear sister.  We shall meet at the field in the next blog.

Give me peace, O Lord!

© 2020 by Patience Osei-Anyamesem. All rights reserved.  Published by Take My Hand Inspirations Mission.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—without the prior written permission of the publisher.  The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews or other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Unless otherwise stated, all scripture quotations are from The New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.  Used by permission. All rights reserved.

"Winning the Race" Painting by Heidrick & Struggles (heidrick.com)

Paintings with no artists names can be found from Black Art Search Engine.

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