Shake It Off! and Step Up

 

Paul was amongst prisoner’s being taken to Rome. They had suffered a shipwreck and nearly died. When they were, downcast, depressed, in deep despair on the sea and refused food for long because of the hopeless situation, it was Paul who encouraged them to eat and share a comforting prophetic word with them that there will be no loss of life. Only the ship would be lost.

It happened just as he prophesied and they were forced to abandon the ship run for their lives to the nearest Island- Malta.

 They were very cold and the Islanders were unusually kind to them by making fire for them to warm themselves. Paul went and brought sticks to buttress, fuel and enhance the fire.

 As he put the sticks on the fire, suddenly from nowhere, a huge poisonous snake came out of the fire and fastened itself on his hand. He simply shook it off.  The people around him began to look at him with surprise and disdain, saying, “No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped the sea, yet justice does not allow to live. They were sure he would fall down and die very soon.  But nothing happened to him. They then changed their tune: “He must be a god!”Act28:1-3

 As a child of God, you are the redeemed of the Lord, accepted in the beloved, healed, filled with the Holy Spirit. Greater is He in you than he who is in the world. Although in this world, you do not belong to the world. You belong to Zion. Heaven is your home. You are a child of God, purchased with a great price- the blood of Jesus. You’re the light of the world, salt of the earth, a city on a hill, God’s treasured possession, a royalty, a peculiar person, a living stone, the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and this, regardless of how you feel or what people think or say about you.  

 

You are born of love so live a life of love. You are graced so live a life of grace. As He favoured you, favour others. See them through the eyes of God. Live a supernatural life.

And as you do, no weapon fashioned against you shall prosper. Those who conspire against you will discover to their dismay that they were working in your favour. Why? God will fight for you.

²⁸        And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Ro8:28

³¹        What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

³² He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?³³ Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.³⁴ Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

³⁷   Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.³⁸ For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Ro8:28,31-35,37-39

“Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever.¹⁴ The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”EX14:13

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So be like Paul, when

 Anger wraps itself round you, shake it off!

When malice wraps itself around you, shake it off!

When bitterness wraps itself around you, shake it off!

When disdain wraps itself around you, shake it off!

When unforgiveness wraps itself around you, shake it off!

When mediocrity wraps itself around you, shake it off!

When sickness wraps itself around you, shake it off!

When poverty wraps itself around you, shake it off!

When myopia wraps itself around you, shake it off!

When barrenness wraps itself around you, shake it off!

When your unpleasant past wraps itself around you, shake it off!

There was the story of an old donkey which fell into a disused well. The owner for some reasons, decided to block the well with the donkey in it. In effect he wanted to bury the donkey alive. Could you believe it? How awful!  It is like some people wanting to get rid of you because you are considered a nuisance because of your condition- inherited or not.

 The donkey was not amused when instead of sympathy from its owner he felt debris landing on its back from its owner.

It cried for sympathy but the sand and stones and gravels kept coming in quick succession. So the donkey made a crucial decision to shake it off and step up. It kept shaking it off and stepping up; shaking off and stepping up; shaking off and stepping up and soon to the surprise of the owner, the donkey surfaced and walked off victorious. Glory to God!

That is what you and I must do to anything God has not ordained for you that wraps itself around you.

Shake it off and step up! Shake it off and step up!

Shake it off and step up! Until you walk off in victory.

.¹⁴        Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.2Cor2:14

⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.1Co15:57 He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

⁴ For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith.1John5:4 ³³ These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”John16:33 ⁷  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.⁸ We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed —2Cor4:7-9 ¹² And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.Matt11:12 ¹¹ And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.Rev12:11

He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Shake it off and Step Up!