The Quickening Of Our Souls

  
Quicken-To make more rapid

To cause (a body or soul, for example) to become alive; vitalize.

To excite and stimulate; stir

I recently was led to Colossians 2. As I read I got stuck on verse 15. 

He disarmed those who once ruled over us—those who had overpowered us. Like captives of war, He put them on display to the world to show His victory over them by means of the cross.

So why did this verse jump right off the page to me? Well for many reasons, but I think it is so funny how God chose today of all days…..

Today I started implementing a huge lifestyle change. I have felt the Lord speaking to me for months and months…. Ok, probably like years now if I am to be 100% honest. In my denial, I had justified stress and life passing me by at warped speed for becoming very lacked on my exercise and diet. No big surprise for our followers reading this- I have blogged about it before. I have even got psyched up and would have short bouts of progress to only fall back off the wagon …again. 

But in classic recovery terms- I have finally become sick and tired of being sick and tired….again.  

I had to admit Step 1- 

I had become powerless over …… Food.  

It had began to once…again, rule my life.  
I won’t go into my whole back story- but let’s just give the main points:

I have gained almost half of the 65 pounds of what weight I had lost since 2008. So instead of 30 pounds to lose, I have jumped up to a good 60 pounds I need to lose. Although a little mortified and shocked that the days had turned into years and that I had allowed myself to wander in the wilderness and back to the bondage of food. I had no one to blame. I had caused my current state of running my health off into the ditch… Yet, Once again…
I lost my dad suddenly in 2008 and was so upset that he could not come to grips with his food addiction after serious health issues and ultimately he had caused his own premature death after a accident that forced him back to emotional eating and not controlling or even checking his own blood sugar after losing hundreds of pounds and no longer having to take insulin.  
His death was ruled as diabetes and insurance companies recognize diabetes as a preventable death. His insurance policies to pay off his debts and things were all denied.  

I think that knowledge fueled my health journey at first, I did not want to have ruled at my premature death, diabetes or obesity. But just four years after his death I would start my decline and now three more years later here I find myself in horrible shape again. 

 God was speaking to me and letting me know that what I could not grasp or understand was really me judging my earthly father for the exact same thing I was now currently doing. Killing myself and horribly vandalizing my temple. 

God spoke that harsh reality to me through a very loving and dear friend. I am so very grateful for the wake up call and for her boldness and bravery to tell me that she feared for me and feared losing me just like I had lost my dad. 

I would love to say it instantly snapped me out of my addiction cycle …but it didn’t.  
God would still have to keep having me unpack a few things for another couple months.  

I know now that God was aligning all things up. 

I recently started the study Altar’d by Jennifer Kennedy Dean. We started it with Restored Ministries local Divine Connections Bible Study group. And soon my local overeating 12 step support group ministry will be starting it too.

 So I will be doubling up on this life changing study this year.
I think God is wanting me to fully get it this time around. 

My simplified description of this study is learning to say no to living in the flesh and begin living an altered life by learning to live in Christ’s resurrection power by laying at the Altar all the flesh and sins preventing us from living in the Spirit and having a better more abundant life.  

So to now come back around full circle to the reason for this blog post and the discovery I found while unpacking those verses…. 

Within the Commentary is the line – 

Christ’s resurrection is the quickening of our souls.

So with those words I began to recognize that God was downloading something for me- which usually always helps others too. My prayer during this season of fasting and lifestyle change is to have God reveal deeper truths to me.  

So I looked up “quicken” -(which I listed the definition above), and there it was….. 

Rapid, stir, excite, revitalize, become alive….

That’s what I want for me and my soul! 

As I sat and pondered and thought of my new journey to radically change my lifestyle and diet and to stop vandalizing my temple- well, flooding into my spirit -I felt like my Heavenly Father was whispering to me: 

Michelle, when you live outside your flesh, when you fast your emotions and learn to embrace My resurrection power and stop living in bondage to those things I already delivered you from before – you will have a quickening of your soul. Get excited, be stirred, I am doing a new thing. I am the Great Comforter, you don’t need counterfeits anymore. You are dead to sin and alive in Me. With Me, Nothing is impossible for you. You will be able to fully live restored, Mind, Body, and Soul when you live within My Holy Spirit. My resurrection power is already within you, start using it! 

I began to sob tears of joy as I am so thankful to be able to begin this Journey to wholeness once again with fresh mercy and of course not in my strength but in Christ’s.   

Begin to ask God what it is that He may be speaking to your heart on what may need to be Altar’d in your own life.  

And as another awesome friend always tells me- “Give the devil a big ole black eye!”

That is exactly what I intend to do. The enemies lies won’t work on me anymore – I am becoming AltarD! 
                 XXOO – Michelle Bollom 

Here are the amazing promises in Colossians 2 with commentary below.  I have bolded the highlights. 

You see, all that is God, all His fullness, resides in His body. You, too, are being completed in Him, the One who has dominion over all rule, all authority. In Him you were also circumcised, set apart by a spiritual act performed without hands. The Anointed One’s circumcision cut you off from the sinfulness of your flesh. You were buried with Him beneath the waters of the ceremonial washing called baptism and then were raised up with Him by faith in the resurrection power of God, who brought Him back from the dead. And when your flesh was still uncircumcised—dead in transgression and swathed in its sinful nature—it was God who brought us to life with Him, forgave all our sins, and eliminated the massive debt we incurred by the law that stood against us. He took it all away; He nailed it to the cross. But that’s not all.  He disarmed those who once ruled over us—those who had overpowered us. Like captives of war, He put them on display to the world to show His victory over them by means of the cross.

Colossians 2:9-15The Voice (VOICE)

I. Christ’s death is our life: And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, Col. 2:13. A state of sin is a state of spiritual death. Those who are in sin are dead in sin. As the death of the body consists in its separation from the soul, so the death of the soul consists in its separation from God and the divine favour. As the death of the body is the corruption and putrefaction of it, so sin is the corruption or depravation of the soul. As a man who is dead is unable to help himself by any power of his own, so an habitual sinner is morally impotent: though he has a natural power, or the power of a reasonable creature, he has not a spiritual power, till he has the divine life or a renewed nature. It is principally to be understood of the Gentile world, who lay in wickedness. They were dead in the uncircumcision of their flesh, being aliens to the covenant of promise, and without God in the world, Eph. 2:11, 12. By reason of their uncircumcision they were dead in their sins. It may be understood of the spiritual uncircumcision or corruption of nature; and so it shows that we are dead in law, and dead in state. Dead in law, as a condemned malefactor is called a dead man because he is under a sentence of death; so sinners by the guilt of sin are under the sentence of the law and condemned already, John 3:18. And dead in state, by reason of the uncircumcision of our flesh. An unsanctified heart is called an uncircumcised heart: this is our state. Now through Christ we, who were dead in sins, are quickened; that is, effectual provision is made for taking away the guilt of sin, and breaking the power and dominion of it. Quickened together with him—by virtue of our union to him, and in conformity to him. Christ’s death was the death of our sins; Christ’s resurrection is the quickening of our souls.

II. Through him we have the remission of sin: Having forgiven you all trespasses. This is our quickening. The pardon of the crime is the life of the criminal: and this is owing to the resurrection of Christ, as well as his death; for, as he died for our sins, so he rose again for our justification, Rom. 4:25.

III. Whatever was in force against us is taken out of the way. He has obtained for us a legal discharge from the hand-writing of ordinances, which was against us (Col. 2:14), which may be understood, 1. Of that obligation to punishment in which consists the guilt of sin. The curse of the law is the hand-writing against us, like the hand-writing on Belshazzar’s wall. Cursed is every one who continues not in every thing. This was a hand-writing which was against us, and contrary to us; for it threatened our eternal ruin. This was removed when he redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, Gal. 3:13. He cancelled the obligation for all who repent and believe. “Upon me be the curse, my father.” He vacated and disannulled the judgment which was against us. When he was nailed to the cross, the curse was as it were nailed to the cross. And our indwelling corruption is crucified with Christ, and by virtue of his cross. When we remember the dying of the Lord Jesus, and see him nailed to the cross, we should see the hand-writing against us taken out of the way. Or rather, 2. It must be understood of the ceremonial law, the hand-writing of ordinances, the ceremonial institutions or the law of commandments contained in ordinances (Eph. 2:15), which was a yoke to the Jews and a partition-wall to the Gentiles. The Lord Jesus took it out of the way, nailed it to his cross; that is, disannulled the obligation of it, that all might see and be satisfied that it was no more binding. When the substance came, the shadows fled away. It is abolished (2 Cor. 3:13), and that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away, Heb. 8:13. The expressions are in allusion to the ancient methods of cancelling a bond, either by crossing the writing or striking it through with a nail.

IV. He has obtained a glorious victory for us over the powers of darkness: And, having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it, Col. 2:15. As the curse of the law was against us, so the power of Satan was against us. He treated with God as the Judge, and redeemed us out of the hands of his justice by a price; but out of the hands of Satan the executioner he redeemed us by power and with a high hand. He led captivity captive. The devil and all the powers of hell were conquered and disarmed by the dying Redeemer. The first promise pointed at this; the bruising of the heel of Christ in his sufferings was the breaking of the serpent’s head, Gen. 3:15. The expressions are lofty and magnificent: let us turn aside and see this great sight. The Redeemer conquered by dying. See his crown of thorns turned into a crown of laurels. He spoiled them, broke the devil’s power, and conquered and disabled him, and made a show of them openly—exposed them to public shame, and made a show of them to angels and men. Never had the devil’s kingdom such a mortal blow given to it as was given by the Lord Jesus. He tied them to his chariot-wheels, and rode forth conquering and to conquer—alluding to the custom of a general’s triumph, who returned victorious.—Triumphing over them in it; that is, either in his cross and by his death; or, as some read it, in himself, by his own power; for he trod the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with him. ~ Matthew Henry’s Commentary verses 13-15.  

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