Sun am 07 April 2019 – Tes Swart

John 1:1 – TPT, MB; John 1; 14, AMP, MSG; (Matt. 2:16); Matt. 4:1-11; Matt. 26:26, 36-41, TPT; (John 6:54); 1 Cor 6:9-20; Rom. 12:1-2; 1 Cor. 2:9-10; Col. 2:27; 1 John 2:5; Eph. 5:29-30; 2 Cor. 2:15; Rom. 8:22-23; Col. 3:1-3

Today I want to present to you something from a physical point of view, how God looks at our physical being. Our focus as physiotherapists is to rehabilitate, to try to get the body from where it is, broken, diseased or lost its position or function, to align it again to the way it should operate as best as possible. That is my calling that I have been busy with for many years. Our body is a complex system, divinely orchestrated for specific functions; a system so complex that the scientific world is still trying to find out what goes on in the human body. We know we are divinely orchestrated, every one of us – God is our creator. Sadly our bodies are being exposed to the technical and chemical systems of this world. We have become part of the technical and chemical systems trying to manage this body accordingly.

In many ways, we have adapted to what we read on Google and caused our bodies to be under stress because of that, resulting in illnesses. Sometimes we are the cause of our own illnesses; not the evil one. So we must be careful what we do with our bodies. God has orchestrated our body divinely to heal itself. We try to orchestrate our bodies the way the world is telling us, delaying our healing and, causing more problems. How do we walk our daily walk in difficult conditions? How do we align our bodies to fulfill a purpose and walk in our destiny? We are all going through the stresses. I have to understand how to deal with my body before I can even reach out to help somebody else. Although you can reach out, it is much easier if you know how to deal with your own body before you reach out to help somebody else.

We know we are tri-part beings, spirit, soul, and body. We know that God is our Creator and our Source, and we know that after the fall of man, our spirit became disconnected from God. Through the cross and Christ we were reconnected again, we were restored and our spirit was reunited again with God and we have been restored to His original plan.

In the beginning [before all-time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself (John 1:1, AMP). To go back to the very beginning is to find the Word already present there; face to face with God, We were facing God, God was facing us, face-to-face with God, knowing Him, seeing Him, The Word is I am; God’s eloquence echoes and concludes in him. The word equals God (John 1:1, Msg). And the Word (Christ) became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacle (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us… (John 1:14, AMP). Suddenly the invisible, eternal Word takes on visible form – the Incarnation on display in a flesh and blood person…The most accurate tangible display of God’s eternal thought finds expression in human life! (John 1:14, MB). That is who we are; we are tangible people, we have flesh. Flesh means ‘humanity’ or ‘person’. We are spirit, soul, and body and our spirit and the spirit of God through Christ became one. Our soul is our mind, our will and emotions which also becomes subject to the Spirit of God. To express Him through our actions and words includes our flesh, so there is an expression through our soul but also through our flesh.

The question is: how many of us struggle with our bodies? We struggle with the stresses of life and that affect our bodies. How do we lay hold of the promises when our bodies are almost not listening? Let us look at the pattern Son. We know Jesus was as human as we are and He fulfilled the full purpose that He was called for. From the time God commissioned Him on earth His physical being was under attack. When He was a baby, King Herod wanted to kill Him (Matt. 2:16). After the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan when He was commissioned as the Son of God to fulfill and live out the prophetic word that was in the Bible. The Holy Spirit took Him into the desert on a 40-day fast to reveal His strength against the accuser. He was taken there specifically for that. The evil one was not there during the 40 days but after that. Jesus was weak and hungry and in a state not being able to come against the accuser. Then the accuser came to entice Him when His flesh was so weak. Why did he have to go through that? To teach His flesh to submit to God for everything that was still coming because the flesh was the weakest part. He even called upon the angels to come and minister to him (Matt. 4:1-11).

Then Jesus led His disciples to an orchard called ‘The Oil Press’. He told them, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” He knew that Peter was going to be tested in His flesh as well, “You should have learned by now that your spirit is eager enough, but your humanity is weak. So many times we say that our spirit is strong but our flesh is weak (Matt. 26:36 – 41 – TPT). In the Garden of Eden, which means ‘delight’ or ‘pleasure’, the first Adam walked with God and came to a fall because they chose the way of the flesh and their spirit was disconnected from God. Then we come to another garden, the garden of Gethsemane, which meant an ‘oil press’, which was not a delightful place, not a place of pleasure. It is a place where the flesh has to be restored again from where it had fallen. Jesus was in that garden, suffering in the fleshly nature, and the enemy tried to bring death prematurely. The enemy tried to kill Him before the cross. His cry was not to take the cross away. He was calling upon God to help him go through this suffering so he could get to the cross. The enemy was again busy there trying to kill Him prematurely. The first Adam was killed prematurely; he did not fulfil His purpose. Jesus showed that He needed the help of His disciples to pray with Him. He needed the prayers of His disciples, He needed their support, and He needed their comfort. That is what we need; we need one another to strengthen us in the weakness of our flesh in our walk with God.

That is why we need the Body of Christ, our body needs the Body of Christ, our fleshly nature needs to be supported and helped to fulfill our purpose. Jesus needed the ministering angels to come and help him, we need the ministering angels to come and help us to strengthen us to walk out the purposes of God.

Jesus said, “Eat my flesh and drink My blood” (John 6:54). When we partake of the table of the Lord, it is to admit that we know fulfillment has taken place at the cross. Our flesh is so weak that when we partake of it, we can be strengthened in our walk to the fulfillment of our purpose by what Jesus had done on the cross (Matt. 26:26).

So, Jesus, the Pattern Son, showed us how not to let our physical bodies dictate our decisions towards our purposes with God. When we submit to the flesh we actually deprive ourselves of many things that God wants to give to us. Jesus’ body was so one with God that He could go beyond the physical limitations. We are positioned just as He is, in this world. We can go beyond our physical limitations. When He submitted His flesh, He walked on water, He raised the dead, He worked miracles. Are we not also supposed to work in the unlimited part of what God has already given to us?

Our bodies are not self-governing or self-sustaining because the Holy Spirit lives in us (1 Cor. 6:9-20). Many times we live a life that is self-governing or self-sustaining. That is not the way it should be. God gives us ways but they are working from within and not from the external. We have to love our bodies in the manner that God loves us, not in the way of the world (Rom. 12:1-2). We cannot live our lives from the flesh to the spirit in other words external to internal. We are spiritual beings that will flesh out the truth even in our weaknesses. How do we overcome these weaknesses? We know it is by the Word. As born-again children of God we know that we have the Word and have faith in it, but this Word should penetrate the innermost part of our being to bring us to a place of rest.

The Holy Spirit unlocks the mysteries of God and goes deep inside and penetrates our spirit to show us how to walk this way (1 Cor. 2:9-10). So we have the Holy Spirit that will show us, but do we trust Him? Do we have faith in it; do we have faith in the word and all its promises? (Col. 2:27). You have a treasure chest inside of you with all the answers. If you believe that, the Holy Spirit will unlock it in your daily walk, in all your difficult situations. So what needs to change? Our perception of our physical bodies! How do we look at our bodies? Do we love our bodies; do we appreciate and thank God for our bodies? We must love our bodies but not in the way of the world (Eph. 5:29-30). We often reject ourselves in many ways. But the love of God will be perfected within the one who obeys God’s Word (1 John 2:5).

God compares our bodies to His Church and in this relationship we must cherish it and nourish it. If not, we will abuse our bodies and we will allow our bodies to be abused. How do we abuse it? We put the wrong food in your bodies, and by listening to the wrong words on how to live our life. That will cause illnesses, diseases and pain. We have to listen to our bodies, and not let the systems of the world dictate how to live our lives. If we do not get into the Word and make time with the Word, we will not see our bodies as God sees them.

The doorways into our flesh are our five senses. What we see, what we eat and drink, how we walk, what we hear, smell or feel. If our five senses are not trained by the Holy Spirit to see as God, to hear His voice, to speak His truth, to be His fragrance (2 Corinthians 2:15) and to act out His ways we will struggle and always be weak and victims of our circumstances. How do we help our senses to align? It is with the Word of God, by the Holy Spirit and to subject our flesh to the Word of God. That is what Jesus did. He submitted to the Word so that He could fulfill the purpose God had called Him to. He knew His purpose was the cross. Do you know what your purpose is? Do you know where God has called you to be? Maybe He has spoken to you several times but you have just pushed it away.

Our bodies are adaptive to difficult circumstances up to a point and then it can act out abusive behavior. That can be nervous breakdowns and premature death. What Jesus was fighting against was premature death. Many die a premature death because they have not aligned themselves to the truth and the Word of God. That will cause us not to walk in the fullness of God’s purposes and in His love. Some practical examples are: what do you eat, what do you drink, what do you watch, where do you walk?

Some advice: Sitting for hours is harmful to your health irrespective of other lifestyle habits including an excellent exercise program. If you have been sitting for a long period of time and then you get up, a number of molecular cascades (movements) occur. Within 90 seconds of standing up, the muscular and cellular systems that process blood sugar, triglycerides and cholesterol, which are mediated by insulin, are activated. All of these molecular affects are activated simply by carrying your body weight upon your legs. These cellular mechanisms are also responsible for pushing fuels in our cells and if done regularly, it radically decreases risk of diabetes and obesity. At molecular level, the human body was designed to be active and on the move all the day. To stop moving for extended periods of time is like telling your body that it is time to shut down and prepare for death. While we clearly need to rest from time to time, that rest is supposed to break up activity, not the other way around. Inactivity and sitting is not supposed to be the way of life. The very unnatural sitting posture is not only bad for your back, your wrists, your arms and your metabolism but switches off the fundamental fueling systems that integrate what is going on in the blood stream with what is going on with the muscles and tissues. As a consequence of sitting, your blood pressure, blood sugar levels, cholesterol and toxic build up all rises. The solution to these adverse events does not involve a prescription. Get up from your chair, move around and go and sit again. Stand up for at least 10 minutes every hour.

To this day we are aware of the universal agony and groaning of creation as if it were in the contractions of labor for childbirth. And it’s not just creation. We who have already experienced the firstfruits of the Spirit also inwardly groan as we passionately long to experience our full status as God’s sons and daughters—including our physical bodies being transformed (Rom. 8:22-23). Christ’s resurrection is your resurrection too. This is why we are to yearn for all that is above, for that’s where Christ sits enthroned at the place of all power, honor, and authority! Yes, feast on all the treasures of the heavenly realm and fill your thoughts with heavenly realities, and not with the distractions of the natural realm (Col. 3:1-3). It is a challenge for us to live in this world with all that is around us. If we just take time, take the truth, and just listen to our bodies we will fulfill the purpose God has promised us to fulfill. God is going to give us divine enablement to fulfill His promises.