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The Power Of A Sanctified Life
Author : Ann Doupont
As most of you know, I went more than 30 years without Jesus in my life. As a child, I heard about Him at the Catholic church and school I attended. But, there's a vast difference between hearing some things about Him and really knowing Him.
My life became more and more out of control as the years went by. I looked for life's answers in the songs I heard on the radio, but they only helped a little, if at all. I sang out, "sitting by the dock of the bay watching the tide roll away," and "to dream the impossible dream" and "I've never felt more like singing the blues."
I loved to sing and I sang whatever I heard. The problem was that those and other songs took me in the wrong direction for my life. What I didn't know then was that there is the power of death and life in our tongues (Proverbs 18:21). I have had to repent of the many songs I had sung once upon a time, praying that our Father in Heaven break those old tapes from continuing to replay in my mind (2 Corinthians 10:5). I had wept as I sang along with the words to "Mac Arthur Park" about Billy Joe McAllister jumping off that bridge, and that no one seemed to care.
At AA, we learned that we should take what we could use and to leave the rest. Sorting out truth from error takes effort, and time, on our parts. Listening to ourselves speak, we can understand what's in our hearts and needs to be amended. I was so out of control before I gave my life to Jesus that there appeared to be little, or no, hope for me and I was locked up in a mental institution, more than once.
Now, if God can sanctify the mind of someone like that (which He did), He can do likewise for all who give Him their lives. My part in this was to get to know Him – intimately. His part was to restore my mind.
He used many people in that restoration, including several well-known ministers, such as R.W. Schambach, who recently passed on to be with the Lord. Bro. Schambach was known as a power preacher. While I was still sick with the mental disorder now called bipolar, I attended a tent revival meeting as Bro. Schambach came to Oakland, California where I then lived. He said that as he touched us, we would fall backwards onto the sawdust.
As he came to me, he looked at me for a moment and then simply said "the mind of Christ" and touched my forehead. Sure enough, just like he'd said would happen, it did happen. I fell backwards, slain by the power of the Spirit of God, onto the soft sawdust.
God has shown me many things that were instrumental in my healing. I once saw a vision of a brain coming down from Heaven upon my asking for a new one. Also in that season, I saw a vision of Jesus entering into me, taking me first into hell where I saw a lake of fire and then into a quiet place which I assumed was Heaven.
The most important thing in any healing is His Word. It is called the "sword of the Spirit" (Ephesians 6:17) and it will remove the grief, the regrets, the pains of the past and do supernatural surgery in the parts of our being that the doctors of the earth cannot see or reach.
There are many sick and wounded. Physicians give them drugs for their conditions, doing the best they can to treat the symptoms, not knowing what the cure is.
What each one needs is the power that comes from God, and it only comes in fullness to those who are truly His. When a person really wants to get well, and is willing to pray the price for it, God is right there to help them. This can start with a simple prayer, saying "Lord, teach me how to pray," believing that He hears you.
A sanctified life is one that is set apart, no longer conformed to the world's way of thinking, but transformed by the renewing of their minds (Romans 12:2). If we are willing to live radically different from the people of the world, and allow this transformation of our inner being to take place, God is well able to provide all that we need for it to happen.
The answer that we're looking for is often in our hearts. Since it is that out of the abundance of our hearts that our mouths will speak (Matthew 12:34), as we learn to listen to our own words; we'll know what's inside and find the answer to our need.
The Holy Spirit inside of us has the power to heal and deliver us (Romans 8:11), and to put and keep us on the right track continually. Yet, we must tap into that power within and be willing to do whatever it takes to do as He instructs.
If you have not yet given your whole life to Jesus, it's now your time.
Pray (out loud):
Jesus, I've held back from a full surrender of my life. I now give you everything and I ask you, Lord Jesus, to be in control of every thought that I think. I will trust you with my whole heart and not lean on my own understanding.
In all my ways, I will acknowledge you and I trust that you will then direct my paths. I will spend quality time with you daily in prayer and in reading the Bible, exchanging my thoughts for yours and making decisions based on your will for my life. Amen.
Author's Resource Box
Ann Doupont is an author, intercessor, prophetic teacher and evangelist. Please see more about her at www.anndoupont.org.
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