God’s Master Key to Wholeness (part 2)
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In part one of Carol’s guest post, we opened up the discussion into “God’s Master Key to Wholeness.”
It begs the questions:
- Do we really know how to walk in the fullness God has for us?
- Do we really understand what abundant life is?
- Are we aware of the impact unforgiveness plays in our life’s experience?
- What is wholeness exactly and how can we live in it?
If you haven’t already done so, please go back and read part 1 of this powerful teaching by clicking here. It is sure to open your eyes and bless your heart, just as it did mine!
Oh hey! Please don’t forget to support and follow Carol on Twitter!
How do we experience freedom? This is God’s master key to wholeness! @LadyCee4Christ #God #Christ #wholeness #Christianliving #hope #freedom #encouragement #mindset #Scripture #Jesus #GodisGood #writerslift
Now, let’s continue…shall we?
“God’s Master Key to Wholeness”:
Body Issues
Why should ye be stricken anymore? Ye will revolt more and more; the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
Isaiah 1:5-6 KJV
The above Bible reference refers to the nation of Israel. We can however, apply it to ourselves as individuals and also to the corporate Body of Christ.
It occurred to me that whilst we often seek healing and deliverance for ourselves, little thought and attention is given to the health of the entire body, whether that is on a local, national or international level.
In the natural sense, it would be irresponsible of us as individuals, if our foot became infected with gangrene but we chose not to do anything about it because well, our main concern is that we have all our faculties about us. The fact that my foot is separate to my brain does not mean my entire body will not be affected!
The Bible reveals that we are individual members of a body, so I believe we should be just as concerned for the spiritual health and vitality, even the physical and emotional health of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ (both as individuals and corporately).
We can assume and fulfill that responsibility through compassionate prayer, intercession, and encouragement.
So, let me ask you, how active are you in doing your part to promote wholeness in the body of Christ?
How Can We Move Towards Wholeness?
Returning now to discuss our health and wholeness concerns as individuals, everything we need to receive and maintain our healing can be obtained through our relationship with God.
If you’ve walked this Christian pathway long enough, you’ll be aware that access to our Father’s generous resources, is through prayer and faith in His Word.
However, the question is:
- Do we truly trust God?
- Do we believe his Word?
- Do we qualify for the manifestation of his promises?
John the Baptist recognised that he needed to decrease and allow Christ (the Anointed One and his anointing), to increase. In other words, Jesus’s words and the principles of God’s kingdom, were to take priority.
In Isaiah 10:27 we learn that it is the anointing that breaks the yoke of the Enemy from off our lives.
However, when we fail to obey God’s Word, we place ourselves outside of His grace and Kingdom protection, the place where Christ’s anointing can address those troubling issues in our lives.
Dear friend, when we allow our desires and feelings to take precedence over God’s Word, when instead of complying with God’s commandment to love and forgive one another, we allow our hurts and offences to call the shots, we unwittingly place ourselves within the Enemy’s territory and we make ourselves vulnerable to his attacks upon our minds and bodies.
Don’t get me wrong. Satan’s objective is to attack us anyway. However, we can either sustain such attacks as vulnerable and defeated victims, or face and resist him as Jesus did, as victorious overcomers!
Going back to John the Baptist’s statement about decreasing and allowing Christ to increase in our lives (John 3:30), let me flag up to you that the last thing the Enemy wants is for his yoke to be broken off our lives.
The last thing he wants is for our negative, self-absorbed inclinations to take a back seat, whilst the wisdom, knowledge, and power of God takes centre stage in our lives… whilst our submission to the Word ushers in and establishes peace, healing, and restoration.
If we truly believe and understand God’s Word when it says our battles are not with flesh and blood (i.e. with those who oppose or offend us), but with evil spirits of darkness, does it not seem futile to persist in a fight with people, who are not the true enemy?
It was Alexander Pope who declared: To err is human, to forgive is divine. I very much agree. However, we do have a divine being living inside of us, in the person of the Holy Spirit and he has poured out God’s unconditional love within our hearts (Romans 5:5).
We, therefore, have the capacity to love the unlovable and forgive the unforgivable. Our choice is: do we decrease and allow Christ to increase in our lives, or do we continue to do our own thing and go our own way? (Isaiah 53:6)
Jesus Is Our Role Model
Why do I believe that forgiveness is God’s master key to miraculous healing and deliverance? Why am I so sure that genuine forgiveness will open the door to wholeness?
Because I see a precedent for this clearly portrayed in God’s Word and the person who models this, the person God desires us to emulate, is none other than His beloved Son and our precious Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ!
Let me explain.
As Jesus hung dying on the cross, he was heard to say: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
Consider for a moment: Jesus was put there by lying, envious religious leaders of his day, who whipped up a crowd to turn against him and demand his crucifixion.
Furthermore, these religious leaders orchestrated the release of a murderous thief, in preference to Jesus, who hadn’t committed any crimes.
Imagine how you would feel. Particularly, if you’d created these beings who are now despising you, who are now shouting at you in hatred, who have rejected you as their long-awaited Messiah and who jeer, as you hang half-naked for all the world to witness your shame.
Humanly speaking, would you (could you) feel love and forgiveness for such folks?
And now consider this.
When the prophet Isaiah spoke about the nature of Jesus’ death, he described Christ’s appearance in the following terms:
…his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness.
Isaiah 52:14 NIV
To my mind, this means Jesus’s face and body was disfigured beyond recognition.
Even though he was not immediately recognised following his resurrection, I don’t believe Jesus had appeared as a marred and misshapen mess.
He was seen by Mary. He was seen by two men on the road to Emmaus and he was seen by his own disciples on various occasions. No one seemed to react with shock, recoil from, or comment unfavourably about his appearance. Why?
Because He had been made whole!
Now if God was able to heal his Son from a barely recognisable human to a wholesome being, could not he also have healed Jesus, so that those wounds in his hands and feet were no longer visible?
Of course he could!
I believe it was a decision of the Godhead to leave in place those prominent features as a part of Christ’s resurrected body. It is a perpetual reminder to us that Jesus suffered wounds, bruises, and injustice on our behalf, so we could enjoy the full benefits of our salvation.
If Jesus suffered all that he did for us, yet willingly forgave, how much more should we as his followers, as those who endure far less in comparison, forgive those who have trespassed against us?
And if we were to gaze long enough and hard enough upon those telling wounds and allow the depth of Jesus’s love and forgiveness to both challenge and convict us, how could we not likewise, utterly and wholeheartedly, forgive our debtors?
Dear friends, Jesus’ question to the infirm man at the beginning of this message implies that wholeness is a choice.
What are you choosing by your habitual thoughts and behaviour?
If this post has touched your life, please share it with your friends and family, will you? It means so much to us!
We’d also really love to hear your thoughts and questions. Carol and I both will be looking forward to hearing from you in the comments section below!
Thank You!
© Carol Hind
https://womenofwarfare.wordpress.com/about-2/
https://apurposedrivenachiever.wordpress.com/about/
https://apurposedrivenachiever.wordpress.com/2015/11/05/who-i-am-and-why-here/
Author of: Petitions From My Heart
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God’s master key to wholeness unlocks our hearts in ways we never could have dreamed possible. In my own life (Holly), I have seen God do what I just knew was impossible! My friends, believe this: There is NOTHING too hard for God! Absolutely nothing. (Jeremiah 32:27)
No matter how big the mountain in front of you looks, it is no match for the love and power of your Father God showing up in your life and your circumstances.
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