“Who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” (Psalm 103:5 NKJV)
“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that immortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.” (2 Corinthians 5:1-5 NKJV)
“But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:9-11 NKJV)
Ready to consider a life changing mind-shift? Maybe this post is for you.
If you have been reading my posts then you know that I have been seriously pondering this thing we call “aging” for about 5 years now. I have been continually asking my Daddy (my Heavenly Abba Father) to reveal to me how He thinks in this critical area of life. Here is what I believe He has revealed so far.
“Time” was an essential element in the Creator’s original design of creation. “Aging” is related to the passing of time. The original design for “aging” was to establish a process for expansion, increase, growth, and maturity in all that was created (that includes you and me) over the course of time. It has always been His desire that creation move toward “perfection” (becoming complete, whole, fully developed, mature) through a progression of time. Jesus (who had no sin within him and never sinned) modeled “aging” as it was intended to be. Over time, he grew (expanded, increased, matured) in “stature” (body) and “wisdom” (mind).
With the entrance of sin and Satan came the corruption of the aging process through death and deterioration. These elements were never intended as characteristics of aging in the Father’s desire or design for His creation. In the Bible we can see examples of lives in which these elements were drastically reduced or even eradicated (Caleb, Moses, Abraham, etc.).
As my mind is being renewed to think more and more in line with the Mind of Christ, I can see more clearly that any thinking that accepts anything that is inferior to Daddy’s original design comes from the inferior thinking of the enemy, and/or my unrenewed mind. Much of what I see when I look around me is NOT His desire or design.
Aging as it is commonly viewed through the “normal” experience of my “natural” life falls far short of my Daddy’s desire and design for me. It is the enemy’s strategy to limit my ability to expand the manifestation of the Kingdom of Heaven in the Earth. It is part of his desire to steal, kill, and destroy the enjoyment, impact, and influence of my life and ministry by getting me to accept (and even expect) limitations that I am told come with aging and inevitable death (if this is true then why did the Holy Spirit include examples of “exceptions” in Scripture?)
Bottom line:
I embrace all of the positive benefits that “aging” brings (expansion, increase, growth, wisdom, knowledge,maturity, etc.) while rejecting what I have been deceived by the enemy to think are the “normal/natural” elements that lead to deterioration and death. As a believer I have no fear of death (to live is Christ, to die is gain). If I were to die today it would be the ultimate victory! However, I stand against it knowing that it is my “last enemy.” In the same way that I take a stand against sin, sickness, lack, and captivity (bondage); I am now standing against death and deterioration (and I have opportunity to fight this “good fight of faith” every day).
My “youth” is being renewed!
My body is being “quickened” (infused with life)!
Mortality is being swallowed up by immortality!
Mind blowing! That’s what I would call…
…Eric’s Life Lesson # 320: Feeling old?