Has something exhausted your supply?
In the previous blog, we learned that stress is not just emotional craziness or chaos; it is, in any area, “the increased or excessive demand for your resources.”
We also learned that there is no separation between the will and the actions once light is received on the issue. You must supply for the demands you allow or you will experience physical disease.
If, in any area of your life, your supply is not meeting the demand, if you are running short on finances, fitness, fun, family time, faith for the journey, you need to take a fresh look at what it is that you believe. I made the challenge to our readers to…
“Examine what it is that you believe you love most and make your choices in agreement with that belief.”
What you choose to think you “like” or can tolerate every so often, exposes what you really believe. What you believe has the single greatest impact on whether you live long and strong or die early, poorly, or painfully.
What you really believe is what dictates what you do. Period. The End.
I’m going to share a personal healing journey with you to illustrate the power of one choice to BELIEVE.
When our daughter, 41, moved to heaven in December 2010, I knew she went to heaven because she had received Jesus as her Savior and Lord. I believed heaven is real and I would see her again. I believed I didn’t lose her, that she chose to go, because she told me so.
Yet, knowing all these things, I felt as if my lungs, the very breath within me had be ripped out of my chest. The overwhelming spirit of grief was rapidly sucking out every resource from my body. And I cried out for answers as to when, since I believed all these things, would the excruciating pain stop?
My mind seemed in conflict. I was celebrating her life and our reunion one day and also experiencing pain, no, anguish like I have never felt before. Now, most folks right about now, will think, “That’s normal. It’s ok to feel that way, just give it time.” Or, “people all grieve in their own way and you have to just let them.”
Here’s a grief busting, stress-busting tip: that is not Truth. It is common, it is expected, it is well-meant, compassionate, kind, but it is not Truth.
The Bible clearly says that Jesus carried – took upon Himself – our grief and sorrow, along with our sickness and disease, all our sin.
I knew that already. Grief is a cancer that will grow and kill you if it is allowed and entertained. Yet what was I to do with the unfathomable pain that was pressing in upon me?
I asked my Lord in my heart, “When will it quit feeling like my lungs have been ripped from my chest?”
In the great depths of love, He replied, “The problem, my child, the reason it hurts so, is that you do not YET really believe what you say and think you believe.”
Excuse me?? (You’d have to know me to really understand how unlikely that seemed! But if you read many of my blogs, you might have some idea.)
“How is that?” The reply, “If you really believe what you say you do about heaven, that she is here with me and just beyond your reach for now. That you will be rejoined in Glory shortly… then there would be no reason to bear such grief. If she were in Springfield, a hour away, would you grieve? Heaven is not yet a real (physical) location to you.”
I had a choice to make. I was face to face with a choice, to live and die in grief, being paralyzed and prevented from fulfilling my purpose, OR truly BELIEVE and let my beliefs change my heart to operate in the peace that passes understanding.
The rest of my physical testimony is contained in an earlier blog, so I will not repeat it all here. In short, in the months following her death from the second occurrence of breast cancer and while my father was also undergoing chemotherapy, I found myself quickly facing the possibility for a similar diagnosis. Grief was beginning to manifest physically in my own breast. I found one lump with pain, tenderness, swollen Lymph glands. On investigation, there was not one, but two abnormal lumps were found by MRI and ultra sound.
This could not be happening.
Grief, like bitterness or unforgiveness, demands your every resource, your every physical, mental, emotional resource. If you have felt it, you know that is true. God tenderly placed before me Truth and the choice of life or death, real physical life or death, based on the resources used by grief or the unlimited supply available through belief in love that spans the divide between this realm and the heavens.
I chose life, and life everlasting. Because of our calling, knowledge, and professional experience, of course, I knew exactly what to do once I heard His instruction on the matter. I failed to stay in the place of Grace, but once corrected, I immediately made the necessary changes in my heart and in my natural choices, mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And every remnant of the pain and the evidence of sickness left me. Another ultra-sound at the surgeon’s office confirmed… no cancer! Because His Word is true and His Way is Life for whosoever chooses it. It was not natural. I had to choose to let something supernatural trump what is “only natural.”
Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but neither is it measured by what takes your breath away! Life is a result of our choices. I had to choose life. One thousand times a day, I had to choose to live and breathe in the unforced rhythms of healing grace.
And now that my husband, Dr. Ray has moved ahead to heaven, I revisit and come face to face with the life or death choices every moment. I can choose face to face with God or despair. Face to face with my God of Hope, my Redeemer, or face to face with the deadly spirit of grief. That thief, grief, comes only to steal, kill, and destroy.
I’m not saying I know the answer for every question that disease and death brings. I don’t know the why behind every diagnosis. I do know we have a Healer. I do know The Comforter, intimately. I do know I am in the arms of Almighty God who forms the universes. And, I do know there is no condemnation for those who choose Christ. But it is equally true that there still remains our choice in all things to believe and receive, or not and perish.
If what you say you believe is not lining up with the choices in resources – whether it is supply or demand – then either you do not believe what you think you do, or, you need to change your actions to line up with your belief. Because…
The Power of Agreement is where the supply meets the demand.
I do know the struggles, the challenges, and… I do know the path of victory. I am choosing to live courageously and love extravagantly. My voice will not grow fainter… not by a long shot. Doc and I had given our lives to help others who choose to, to walk through the transformation into their best life ever. Spirit, Soul, and Body. And now, the two that became one, we shall continue As One, In Him #OnPurpose.
Is this your day to make a choice for life?
Did you learn anything?
Leave me your comments and questions below!
Dr. Michelle's mission is to educate, activate, challenge and equip others to live a full, satisfying life, ever-growing in the Kingdom of God.
Michelle is a mountain-taker in all expressions of her calling. Sometimes it is on literal mountains leading ladies on spiritual adventures in faith. Other days, it is consulting with Kingdom-minded businesses and ministries to develop professional website platforms and social media strategies. Still other times, you will find her training mountain-takers to possess their physical land - their health, spirit, soul, and body - teaching classes and doing wellness evaluations for churches and corporations large and small, as well as providing "secret service" concierge wellness services for other speakers and ministers.
Wherever the call of God takes her, she firmly believes it is time for Christian businesses, entrepreneurs, and ministry leaders to be diligent to ‘write the vision and post it so plainly upon tablets that everyone who passes may be able to read it easily and quickly as they hasten by.’ And then ACT on the vision.
Read more About and Experience here: http://thepictureofhealth.com/michelle-2
- Great Faith Adventures - August 15, 2020
- Great Faith Adventures – Video Gallery - March 10, 2018
- 2016 Annual Year End Ministry Report - February 4, 2017
When my son died 6 years ago, grief gripped me in such a way that I had major PTSD, lost my ability to concentrate, my ability to read and comprehend left me, and it had taken a toll on my whole body with weight gain as I tried to self comfort and I just grew weaker and weaker. This kind of grief was not something I could conquer myself. The day I turned to Jesus and asked Him to help me was the first day I began to improve. I made many good improvements as I turned to Him more and more. I prayed and asked for Him to show me how to get healthy again and I found The Picture of Health through a church I was visiting. The more you seek Him, the more you will find Him. His strength is being made perfect in my weakness.
I liked this blog …because my choices to respond to truth really do effect my life ,spirit soul and body.I experienced a similar situation this past july when my sister and best friend went home to be with Jesus. It definatly challanged me to what I really believe vs what say I believe. The Lord is so faithful to Himself in me. He brought me through to a safe place of healing…..and boot camp is a continuation of that healing. So thankful for it.