About four years ago, on a Sunday morning, our pastor offered to give anyone in the congregation who requested one, a prophetic word that God had uniquely given him for that person.
Buzz’s word was “cease”. He looked up the word “cease” in his exhaustive concordance, and one verse stood out and that was Psalm 46:10: “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The word “cease” here is the Hebrew raphah, and the primary root meaning is to sink, relax, abandon, become helpless. The King James, NIV & NLT Versions say, “Be still, and know that I am God”
Buzz grew up learning a life of performance-based-acceptance. When you live a life of performance in order to feel and receive love, your current achievement is never enough. Even if you perform well one day, there is always the expectation placed on you by yourself and others of your next performance assignment. It’s like running on a hamster wheel. It never ends and never gets you anywhere. Except if you stop or fail or fall short you feel like a failure. So the word “cease” is a powerful one for me. All my life I had been striving. This verse speaks to me that I needed to stop all my performance-based efforts and striving in an attempt to earn approval and love. I needed to “cease”. And you know what? It feels really good to cease striving. Don’t forget the next six words in the verse- “and know that I am God”. In all my performing I can act like I am God. One way I try to be God is to try to control my life and everyone’s around me instead of letting God be in control, because He already is in control. I’m not.
Carol’s word was “life”. Life is living matter and, as such, matter that shows certain attributes that include responsiveness, growth, metabolism, energy transformation, and reproduction. Although a noun, as with other defined entities, the word life might be better cast as a verb to reflect its essential status as a process. There are two types of life: Physical (living) and Eternal Life (salvation). Let’s talk about physical life. In her journey to find health, I learned that some foods have life and others have more death. In Dr. Fuhrman’s books “Eat to Live” and “Nutritarian Handbook & Andi Food Scoring Guide”, he give scores which he calls the Andi Food Score, to the nutrient values of food based on the levels of life it contains. For instance, kale has the highest Andi score of 1,000 where as air popped popcorn has an Andi score of 14.
In the book “Reference Guide for Essential Oils” by Connie and Alan Higley, they share that everything has an electrical frequency. Bruce Taino of Taino Technology in Cheney, Washington, developed new equipment to measure the bio frequency of humans and foods. He and D. Gary Young used this bio frequency to determine the relationship between frequency and disease. Another very interesting result of these studies was the influence that thoughts have on our frequency as well. Negative thoughts lowered the measured frequency and positive thoughts raised the measured frequency. It was also found that prayer and meditation increased the measured frequency levels. Not only is there life or death in the food we eat but also in the words we speak. In the book “The body keeps the score”, by Bessel Van Der Kolk M.D. shares how recent scientific advances show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. Trauma can happen through the words we speak to one another.
Our belief system is important. We believe in God and His FREE gift of salvation and eternal life. Carol has suffered for many years with depression and suicidal thoughts. God want’s her to choose life so she can live and do great things for Him. When suicidal thoughts come to her, she has learned to stop and say, “Carol that is a lie from the enemy who wants to destroy and deceive you.” She then makes a choice to believe God’s truths (see below):
Proverbs 4:20-22 “My daughter, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your sight; Keep them in the midst of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their whole body.”
Proverbs 4:23 “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.”
Matthew 6:25 “For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing?”
John 3:16 “For God so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son; that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
John 11:25 “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies,”