Greetings dear people of God.

Change,  though constant, is never easy.

Leaving the warmth of the tropics for a place with cooler temperatures, is life changing.

I’m so thankful that the change gave me the opportunity to be more observant of my environment, and to appreciate God more.

As scripture says, “He who has ears to hear, let him be listening and let him consider and perceive and comprehend by hearing.” Matthew 11:15 AMPC

As my husband showed me the sights and took me on tours, the landscape was so beautiful with greenery everywhere!

The trees were so tall and luxurious. I could not help but plant a garden to transform my back and front yards. 

Then the leaves on trees started changing to red, golden, brown,  etc. Such beautiful colors and so inspiring!

Then suddenly, the weather reports said that there was going to be frost! 

Then I remembered that I was told to protect some of my plants from frost!  I sure did.

My first trip after the first frost,  provoked deep meditations! It was as if overnight,  the leaves were burnt off some of the trees!

As I looked at the trees and shrubs, I learned some lasting things. 

The bigger the trees, the worst  off they were after the first frost! They lost their leaves and looked burnt out!

Whereas, there were some frail looking trees who had luxurious leaves and still stood strong, even after the second frost attack. 

The strongest were the evergreens 🌲. They stood strong, and weathered the worst of the frost, snow, sleet, rains, etc. The inclement weather did not affect them so visibly as the others.  There were even shrubs who still survived and had beautiful leaves, through it all! 

Armed with these personal observations,  I began to consider why some Christians easily fall apart at the first signs of trouble.

Even though they may appear old in the faith and speak Christianese,  their roots may not be deeply rooted and grounded in the Word of God. 

Which leaves them bereft when troubles strike.

Do you know that unresolved root issues in life are the bane of the Christian?

When you deal with issues on the surface, without confronting the root causes of the problems,  you leave doors open for evil spirits to plague you continuously, in a never ending circle!

Therefore, If you really desire to weather the storms of life,  and stand strong like the evergreens 🌲,  you must learn how not to solve your problems with medication or behavior modifications alone! 

You must engage in Spiritual warfare and Spiritual Therapy!

Casting out evil spirits only solves a part of the problem.

For effective therapy, you must dig out the corrupt root systems in your life, and replace them with the everliving, incorruptible and indestructible Word of God. Which will effectively change your belief system and your fruits will be good.

Simply,  you must  live as light and salt in this world. Which means, you must live according to the Book- the Bible! 

Spiritual Warfare plus lifestyle changes will empower you to withstand adversities or prosperity!

As the Bible rightly states, “A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. 18 A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. 19 So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. 20 Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions  Matthew 7:17-20.

Even though the leaves fell off the trees, they will come on again. It’s a vicious circle! 😫 

Just like how  problems keep making circles in the life of some people, literally  stopping them from making progressions in life. 

Ask yourself, for how long do you plan on having the vicious circles of life torment you ?

I remember how someone said to me,”it’s flu season, allergies are part of life here,  go, get a flu shot to protect yourself ”.

And I’m like,  naaah! I’m not part of that equation. I am not of this world,  and the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Divine health is my normal and not sicknesses, under any guise or disguise!

However, the allergies got to me! And some old ailment tried to resurrect!

But I fought them! 

That’s what spiritual warfare is all about- enforcing the victory of the Cross- by confronting forces of darkness and making lifestyle changes.

I dug into the root causes, confronted the forces of darkness who were taking advantage of the seasons to do wicked things, I built up my immunity, ate right, observed health laws, and I overcame it and drew the battle line!

 Enough is Enough!

I choose not to give the devil a foothold and I am victorious and remain so!. 

Many of us Christians are so accepting of the normal- just comfortable with  the usual  and the natural!

Noway! You are peculiar, now that you are born again! You are a supernatural and an extraordinary Being, recreated in Christ Jesus to display the excellent greatness of God in this ordinary, natural world!

Affirmations:

The seasons and everything in Creation works for my good 👍.  That is my belief and I’m holding to it!. No matter what is going on around me, I am confident that He who began a good work in me will be able to complete it! Hallelujah!

Let us pray:

Father God,  thank you that the righteous are like a tree planted by the riverside and we produce evidence of our faith in You.

Thank you for working in us, both to will and to do of your good pleasure. And therefore, everything we do, including our health, relationships, career, etc continually prosper well. 

 We stand against all the forces of evils who are trying to enforce evil standards and cyclical issues in our lives. 

We thank You for the grace to identify root issues,  the tactics of eliminating all, and the enabling grace of restorative healings, in the matchless name of Jesus Christ. 

Shalom from Hephzibah Christly, TheSpiritualWarrior,  Jan. 17th, 2024.