Avoid the shipwreck (spirit, soul and body)

I made a solemn promise to write more notes a year ago. And then the Facebook Notes were discontinued, and eventually wiped off. I had made my Facebook page years ago although with a sole purpose in mind. I wrote my epistles or preaching bits into it. And now it is gone and no more. Some decided to part ways with Facebook after that, but I decided I was not going to do it. But in the absence of the notes I think that this blog shall go on....

I discovered that I have hardly posted anything here since moving in. And that was last June. Time has gone on, and we are in our third lockdown, and apart from a random article about the possible measures for easing it, written, no doubt, at the insistence of the backbencher Tory MPs who have been applying the pressure to do that...nothing has been written in stone.

So, in the meanwhile our year has rolled to the end of 2020, past the 2021 Valentine's Day. I experienced a sudden health challenge, which is something that Jim or James Goll, a known prophet, has been recently suffering from. In my case I could not afford a longer health battle, and took a shortcut. I fasted ten days on water, and stepped on the Word of God. And the month of November turned the situation over, but then came December, and my one and only longer ride all the way to BBC HQ at the end of the Oxford Street, which demonstrated that I was back in walking form (although technically, I took the buses there, three of them). And right on that day, and in the hour I spent at the BBC Cafe waiting for the interviewer, a new lockdown, the second one, was announced. And then came the Christmas, and now we have been in our third lockdown.

And all the above which has been summed up, can explain why I have posted nearly nothing since the time we finally moved to London last June. As it has been going from lockdown to lockdown. And while there have been slight signs of life, there has been next to no actual human interaction accompanying that.

I am an introvert, and I have been pretty much all the time confined to the four walls of my home, or office, due to the nature of the work I have been doing most of my lifetime. And yet, even if I have quite enjoyed the idea of certain solitude, I can chime in and say that similar to the Finns (in a Finnish meme) who are rather introverted and opt for solitary mode of living, when the Government tells us to do that, it makes us crave a different mode of living, with human interaction and everything accompanying it. So, here we are. A day after the Valentine's Day.

As it is a recap, I do not make it (at least knowingly) into a spiritual post. So, it is a personal post, and not a sermon, or similar.

But...

Mark 2:27 King James Version 27 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath

We can see over and over in the Bible how God has been focused on the individual - a human being - instead of the work done for Him. And the latter was never done for the sake of doing the works for the sake of the named works, but for the sake of a human - who is the crown of God's creation where everything revolves around the said human.

Now, it may be a long and somewhat hard-to-follow sentence with its twists and turns, but one is clear. Everything God does - He does for the sake of a human. The human was the temple Jesus promised to build in three days. And when we have sometimes elevated the idea of the Temple of God or the work we have been doing for God above the temple of God which has to do with an individual human being, our focus might benefit of a slight adjustment. * * * And hence, ALL lives matter. Yours matters. And so does mine. * * * The Temple of God has to do with each individual human being - you and I, and hence our lives matter. In God's perspective it is vital that our needs are catered for, and we have what it takes for living our life. For if our life falls apart, or we do not have where to live, and what to eat and clothe ourselves with, then we cannot proceed with our ministry life either. Or, it will be challenged, and we have to deal with the challenges, which can sometimes take our focus off from other things related to the ministry - which is not for us, but something for the benefit of the others. Hence, if we have been doing ministry for any other reason, apart from the calling of God over our life, and a genuine heartfelt love to our neighbours, both in the household of God, and outside of it...we may want to review also this area of true motivation behind our ministry, and see whether we have maybe erected ministry as an idol, by elevating it to a height which is reserved to God only.

A good test of the above happens when every (potential) idol in our life will be removed, and is suddenly no more. It can happen due to above mentioned challenges in our personal, individual walk when we find ourselves in circumstances which force us to focus on what we have seen as of less importance.

A Swedish preacher Johnny Foglander taught in my early days of Christian formation about the balance in our individual walk, highlighting the importance of being together not just spiritually, but also as to our soul, and body. Or, we may otherwise position ourselves to a future potential shipwreck. And as the years have gone on, I have been rediscovering this message in my own walk with God.

This year (January and this month...) I have been reading a book written by Kenneth E. Hagin. It is called "The Triumphant Church" and when I was re-reading it, Holy Spirit highlighted me something vital.

Because we are prophetic, and spiritual people, we have acquired a tendency to see symbolically. And hence the idea of "flesh" has been mainly signifying the soul-related, as to our former thinking patterns and renewing our mind with the Word of God. And then there is our actual flesh. And since we all have a body where we live and move, it is something so familiar to us. But we are supposed to do something also about our body. We are called to "keep it down" or "in subjection". We can call it disciplining our flesh or similar. But time and again, people who have been called into ministry, have as if by-passed this idea by spiritualising the idea of our flesh and not dealing with the physical side, or our natural body.

And yes, our soul needs its due attention. But not only.

It may be a most mundane thought, but our body is important. We should never override its importance just for it is natural flesh. If we do not take care of our natural flesh (and it is not at all condemningly said! and is more of a statement of facts), then we are at risk of a very actual shipwreck, as our body will drag us down.

We may wish for a supernatural solution here. And sometimes this happens too! God is not limited, and supernatural weight loss is something which He has been doing in some instances. But biblically, it is our arena. We are responsible for our temple or physical body. And it is something we are called to take care of. So, whatever might have happened to you and taken you down (whether due to some mental blow and its physical consequences, or just aging, or any other reason...whether objective or subjective, for God helps us on all occasions, and everything about us and our lives matters to Him), our body matters. It is not just a vanity project, although we would hardly mind an attractive body, but more a health consideration. And immediately, when there is something where we are vulnerable, we must bear it in mind that the enemy will see it as a possible place where our walls are down. And when we have such areas in our life, a hit may be all it takes... and we can no longer run with the vision (not as efficiently as before, as we must do something to get it fixed, and it can take time and attention and efforts and money...).

So, let us see to it that we feed our spirit (who is the real "I" or our newly created "self"). But also, let us see to it that we give our soul what it needs (while dealing with the challenges of the spiritualised area of flesh). And last, but not at all least, let us pay due attention to our body, or our physical flesh, by giving it exercise, and feeding it nutritious meals (and yes, it depends on our circumstances, but we can at least make a conscious effort towards it) and keeping it under. (And we are not talking here about obvious things like sexual promiscuity and similar for this is easily understood that no one in Christ would think that this kind of a lifestyle or wilful life choices would be in any way reflective of an exemplary biblical way of life. - We are talking here about having our walls up, and living in a way that the enemy would have nowhere to direct his hit.)

1 Corinthians 9:27 ► King James Version But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

And this is my short message of today. '