Beloved, many of us are stagnated in our spirit, soul, and body; we have adapted a sedentary lifestyle that is stripping us of many blessings from God. As stated before, there is no such a thing as a healthy spirit but an unhealthy soul, or a healthy body but unhealthy spirit and so on. If one part of us is unhealthy we are unhealthy in our totality. We can’t compartmentalize ourselves!

God wants us to be passionate about his power to transform us. There will be cases where the miracle does not take place; don’t let your heart be trouble. The Apostle Paul was facing a torn in his flesh that was so irritated that he prayed three times for God to heal him. Nevertheless, God did not. God told Paul “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV) God still manifest His power despite whatever limitation gets on our way; He still gets the glory in our wickedness. With God, stagnation is not allowed!

I ended the previous article by stating, “there is an attitude that we all as believer, MUST adapt… that is what is missing.” The Apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 2:12,

“… work out your salvation with fear and trembling…”  (NIV)

First, let me point out that every translation that uses the word Salvation is horribly translating this Bible verse. The Complete Jewish Study Bible has this verse translated correctly, “…keep working out your deliverancewith fear and trembling.” The word Salvation here is the Greek word sōtēría meaning, “…Safety, deliverance, preservation from danger or destruction.”^[1] Folks are literally in dangerous grounds because they keep playing with God’s grace. They see Jesus as one who can save us from hell but has no power to change us. 

We are called to work out our deliverance; work out our issues… work on us and, not in a passive and lazy way, but with fear and trembling. The word Fear is the Greek word phóbos meaning “To flee from. Fear, terror, reverence, respect, honor.”^[2] The word Trembling is the Greek word trómos; meaning “To tremble. A trembling from fear, terror (Mark 16:8; Sept.: Ex. 15:15; Job 4:14; Is. 33:14). Coupled with phóbos (5401), fear and trembling, expressing great timidity (1 Cor. 2:3) or profound reverence, respect, dread.”^[3] Judging by these definitions there is certain peculiar passion and reverence for the Lord that is almost not existence today in our anemic approach to life, morality and even physical fitness.

In conclusion, what do we do? 

1. Start praying and study His Word: Be discipline about; take it serious as if our lives depend on it because it does. Matthew 4:4 tells us, “…Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (NIV)
2. Get some Christian Counseling or Pastoral Guidance and deal with your issues: Real pastors watch over your soul, that’s our job (Hebrews 13:7), start seeking for help there. 
3. Take care of your body: Thessalonians 5:23 does not only addresses the spirit and the soul, but it also addresses the body, “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (NIV) Get that Gym membership going; take walks, eat better, get moving!!!

As I looked at the series The Last Dance with Michael Jordan and as I look at the story of folks such as Koby Bryan and even Lebron James, the way he invests over a million dollars on his body to look as good and as strong as he does after 19 years in the NBA, it is hard to identify with that kind of passion for winning. Many of us can’t relate with that kind of dedication for anything. That should not be, we as believers should be even more passionate than these guys in working on ourselves… we are called to do so with fear and trembling. 

Christians should be, by far, the best people on this world. Nobody should outshine or outwork us. Jesus describes us as the light and the salt of this world (Matthew 5:13-16). Think about that for a minute! Nobody should have more peace and joy than us (Philippians 4:4-7). Our motivation should never be vain ambition, but a passion for God (1 Corinthians 10:31) that move us to be the very best He has called us to be. Because we love Him and we have a passion to obey Him (John 14:15)

I want you guys to know that our ministry is available for you, write us and let us set a FaceTime, Zoom or whatever way you have available, to get you started in the right direction. Don’t feel pressured about money, we do ministry the way Jesus told us to do ministry… free of charge! We accept donations, but don’t minimize what we are able to do because you are not paying hundreds of dollars. Stop embracing an anemic and powerless faith and let’s work on ourselves. with God’s help we will witness our own deliverance; it is what God demands… God demands perfection. 

^[1] Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2000).

^[2] Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2000).

^[3] Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2000).