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!
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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
⬇ Don’t delay! Get your copy below today! ⬇
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.
[…] Click here to read part 2 […]
Hi Holly,
Once again, I am highly impressed with the way you have presented this post. I particularly love the image with some of my words captured on the page of a book. Wow!
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share my post with your readers. And thanks for all your wonderful efforts in presenting it.
You certainly have a gift!
Have a wonderful weekend 🙂
Hi Carol! I can’t stop smiling knowing how happy you are with the way your posts turned out. I genuinely believe Holy Spirit led me to create that book with an excerpt of your post. It just felt so true to you as an author. Hearing that you love it lights my heart up!
In all sincerity, it is my pleasure to share your gift of writing with the readers here at Wholeness Haven. As time goes on, I guarantee more and more will come to read your words and will be radically blessed. I’ve been praying favor over your post and believe it will bring even more people to your blogs and book. I’m believing for that in Jesus’ name!
Thank you for your encouragement, sis. I can’t tell you how much your love & support means. You are always welcome here! Have an incredibly blessed weekend, dearest Carol! 😘
Thank you dear Holly. I prayed over my post as well after I released it to you, cos I hate Satan our Enemy and long to see God’s daughters (including myself) enjoying the spiritual liberty and richness of relationship with Him that he yearns for us to have.
Hearing you say this nearly brings me to tears, Carol. Amen! I love your mission and sis — well done! God and I are proud of you! (And all these amazing people who left comments to encourage your heart!) ♥️
Thank you Holly! 🙂
I love this – we need to decrease so God can increase. So powerful!! I know I definitely need to do this!
Amen, Michelle! It is powerful, isn’t it? For so many of us, that full surrender and letting go can be scary, right? Yet the more we let go, the more we realize just how held we are by the arms of a God who is SO much bigger than we could ever begin to imagine!
Thank you again Michelle for sharing your thoughts. You have no idea how much we appreciate you! ♥
Thank you Michelle for sharing the specific part of my post that spoke to you.
I pray God’s precious Holy Spirit will remind you of this desire and need to decrease and allow Christ to increase in you, whenever a pertinent scenario in your life comes about, and I pray the Holy Spirit will enable you to make the right choice and follow through.
Bless you! 🙂
Learning to forgive and also to let go is healing to our minds. And yes all of our body needs to be preserved and kept in good health. After all, it’s His temple – His dwelling place. 😊
Hey sis!! It is beautiful to hear from you again. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your love & thoughts with Carol and I. You are appreciated more than you know!
Amen! I love what you said, we are His temple — how we treat the gift of life the Lord has given us — in each aspect of our health (spirit, soul, and body) reveals how much we honor the Giver of Life. I’ve always been concerned that topics such as our physical health and mental health weren’t ‘spiritual’ enough for Wholeness Haven. Yet my thinking is exactly what you just said. Our physical health affects our relationship with God. Our mental health affects how we relate to or see our God. Our spiritual health affects our physical and mental health. Since we are so inter-connected, it felt right to focus on each aspect of how we were brilliantly created. What do you think?
You’re absolutely right – learning to forgive and let go is healing to our minds. God is so faithful to set us free but the willingness to let go isn’t always easy! 😉
Sending you my love. Thank you again for showing Carol & I such love! ♥
Dear sis,
My appreciation to you for reading my post and sharing your response.
As you say, our body is God’s temple. Whenever I think about this, I ask myself how many people would dare to visit a hallowed temple on a trip abroad and leave something there, or do something there that would sully its sanctity. Me thinks hardly anyone!
If we were to apply this ourselves, I think God is so gracious and merciful towards us, in that he allows us to hold onto our toxic thoughts and behaviour.
Best wishes.
Holly, Thanks to you and Carol for this great post! Love you!
Precious Janet, you know I love you too! Hearing from you always makes my heart smile! Thank you with my whole heart for taking the time to send your love to Carol and I. I am thinking of you & praying for you, my sweet friend. I’m always here should you need someone to reach out to! 😘
Thank you for reading Janet. I believe we ‘met’ briefly over at Twitter. Nice to see your friendly face again!
Thank you for sharing about wholeness and finding what makes us, well, us! It’s a faith-filled post that I enjoyed reading, and I can tell this subject is one near and dear to your heart, Holly. Wishing you a blessed rest of the day ♥
Dearest Christy, thank you so much for your kind words! It does my heart good to hear that you enjoyed the read! It is definitely a subject that I hold incredibly near and dear to my heart. Although I genuinely believe none could have written it better than Carol has in these two posts. Sending love to you today and always! ♥️
Dear Christy,
My thanks to you for reading my post and for your kind words. I’m glad to know you enjoyed reading it.
May the remainder of your week be blessed and stress-free! Amen.
GREAT POST! I love that you don’t shy away from things that make some of us uncomfortable!
🙂 You made me smile and I’m 100% sure this will make Carol smile too!
I find, as I’m sure you have, we grow most when we challenge ourselves by uncomfortable thinking! 🙂 It can be a hard pill to swallow sometimes- facing what we need to change or move past. God’s grace and peace is so beautiful that we can grow through to ‘get to’ every single time!
Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment sis!
Now, I’m 😃
Dear friend in Christ
Thank you so much for taking your precious time to read my post and leave your encouraging comment.
Believe me, it is uncomfortable when the Lord leads me this way. Although I know in my heart of hearts that I want to please God more than obtain anyone’s approval, we writers can be super-sensitive, especially as we are putting not just our words out there but the opportunity for those who disagree or take offence, to revile or reject us.
And when you write about unpalatable subjects, particularly as an imperfect being who just happens to be a Christian, I think that risk increases.
I must admit that I did feel concerned about how my words would be received. Hats off to Holly for accepting and publishing my guest post. I’m also grateful to everyone who has commented so far, for their gracious responses.
With best wishes.
I look forward to reading more of your work.
Thank you! 😃
Wow, powerful words with a powerful reminder. God is good! When we choose forgiveness we choose wholeness. God made us to be in His image so the Holy Spirit works through us to empower us to make this choice.
I think I just repeated what you’ve eloquently said in this two part post, so thank you again for this.
Go well into your respective week’s. 😊
Amen Hamish! Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for sharing your encouragement for Carol and I. We genuinely appreciate it! I trust that you are being held in the loving arms of Father God.
Choosing forgiveness is choosing wholeness; powerful truth, isn’t it? 🙂