Stephanie Okafor - Jesus: Wholeness in Him

Most people, including myself, We all have things that we have experienced, but we have to believe that God, you can heal this. And in believing that God can heal it, there are ways that the Holy Spirit will begin to lead you and guide you, and you would it's the healing you're looking for is in your submission to His instructions. Today's episode wraps up season one, and this has been such a beautiful, beautiful journey. And as I was just praying and reflecting on how to wrap up the season, you know, what was really on my heart to share with you is about the wholeness that is possible and available for us in Christ Jesus. You see, this season was themed or is themed back to basics. And sometimes we don't even realize that even when we are when we're walking with the Lord, we forget the fact that it's not just a spiritual journey. Right. We have a soul, we have a body, you know, and the Lord desires us to be whole in every area. Right. Look at the scripture in First Tessalonia's five, verse twenty three, it says, now, may the God of Peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul and body preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, what I'm learning is that God is not trying to have us. You know, have this level of like compartmentalization when it comes to Christianity, right, that they are parts of our life that is good and there are parts that is broken. You know, as a minister, I'll be honest with you, there have been time in ministry that I know that, okay, yes, the hand of the Lord is upon me. I know that He has anointed me, but that in my soul I was broken. Right. I will have moments where you know while you because literally what we do in ministry is when you read, it's the grace of God. Right, No human being has the power to heal, has the power to deliver, even to preach the gospel. Right, the power in the Gospel is not just because I'm teaching. It is because of that partnership and fellowship of the Holy Spirit. And so sometimes as believers we tend to settle for being anointed, but we're broken. And this is part of the basics of Christianity because that if you feel like you know, serving God means you have to be bleeding every day. You know you that's not the God we serve. He desires for you to be whole in every area of your life. That in your spirit, your whole in your soul, your whole in your body, your whole wholeness is God's intention for you. And I'm saying this because again, you know, if you have been watching, you know this podcast, you will know that I put a lot of emphasis on what you believe. If you don't believe that Jesus can restore your soul, if you don't believe that Jesus can heal your brokenness, if you don't believe you know that your body is a temple for the Lord. If you don't really believe these things, then you will you will treat the abuse of it as normal. Because you're anointed. You can speak the word, you can encourage your friends. Have you ever you know experienced where the same When someone is going through something, you know exacts exactly what to say, you know the scriptures to pull out, you know how to affirm them in the Lord. But if you go through the same thing, you are moving in the opposite of actually your own exhortation. Why because in your spirit you're fieled. You're anointed, but in your soul you're broken, and you normalize it because it's like, I just want to do the work of the Lord. But doing the work of the Lord does not mean that you have to bleed out. It doesn't mean that your soul, you know, there's just all this, it is fragmented. It's not that. And I wanted to wrap up this with that charge because look in John ten ten, the Lord says that I have come that you may have life, and that you may have it more abundantly. This is God's desire for you, that you may have life and have it more abundantly. He's not just asking you to survive. He's asking you to walk in restoration, to walk in healing, to walk in alignment with every dimension, every aspect, every fiber of your being, not just to survive, not just to know what to say and how to say it, but that every part of you begins to reflect His wholeness. You know, we are the year twenty twenty six. One of the things that the Lord just began to really, you know, emphasize in my spirit is the whole you. God is after the whole you. He's not just after for you to you know, reveal his power and reveal his authority. He's after for you to have a sound mind. You see, isn't it interesting that when the scripture talks about how you know, I have not given you a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind, you would think that, okay, it could just stop at power. You know, power could just speak to everything, But he starts to deal with even elements in the soul. The Lord is coming after the whole you. He doesn't. It's not just for you to walk with him so that you you know how to pray better, you know how to study the word better, because if you're actually doing it effectively, it transforms the whole you. But if you you see, for many they have many live in a default of what has been passed down, what they've seen, what they you know, what they've engaged with, you know, they've seeing how you know, we think that spiritual growth and maturity, you know, only has to do with how we sound when we pray, or you know how many scriptures we can recide, or you know this idea that surrender, surrendering to the Lord and submission, you know, comes with this concept of you know, I'm just gonna the cross is my brokenness, and I'm just I'm just this defeated person and I'm a victim, and I'm living with all this trauma. That is not the cross that Jesus is asking you to carry. The trauma you experienced in life is not the cross Jesus is telling you to carry and follow him because that trauma is what He already destroyed on the cross so that you may be whole. The cross he's asking you to carry are things that have to do with the works of the flesh. Right. These are the things that are actually, you know, are against the ways of the life that reveal the life of Jesus. The things that he's saying that, you know what, take your cross and take it carry it daily. When you know the apostle Paul will talk about I die daily. He's talking about, you know what, there is a will that I have in my flesh that is not always in alignment with the will of God. That is the cross you carry that, you know what, I surrender my will for the will of God, for the purpose of God, for the mission of the Lord to be advanced on the earth. But that cross is not that Jesus is telling you carry your trauma everywhere, just bleed until you're exhausted and you can't serve me anymore. No, the Lord desires for you to be whole. Let's start wholeness in the body. Right. Your body matters to God. One Corinthians six nineteen to twenty talks about how do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? Right? And then it goes into that therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are gods. It's Him, So don't just glorify Him in your spirit, glorify Him in your body. You see, you're going to some of the things that the Lord has just been showing me is it's gonna be a lot of I'll just use the word warfare, but there's gonna be a lot of attack against people's health through food. There's gonna be many things. You see right now, we're living, you know, in a in the age of Ai. But you're gonna see a lot of artificial food. Worready seeing it, right. I remember a couple of years ago, I think this that was shocking to me, where I went out with a friend and she literally ordered for She was like, oh, I want real eggs. I was like, what do you mean real eggs? And on the receipt it wrote real eggs and I'm like, wait, so there's fake eggs, Like what do you mean real eggs? And there's fake eggs. There's going to be a lot of artificial, you know, replacements for things, and one of it is food. And if you are not mindful, you know of some of the things. If you're just like you know, eating anywhere, you're not you're not paying attention to what it is you're eating, well, how they're cooking it. Is it even real food? Right? And so you want to be mindful one what you are consuming in your body. Treat your treat, treat how you eat. I know this might sound weird, but to some degree you treat it with reverence. Right. I'm not saying that you don't snack or you don't do X, Y and Z, but be mindful about what you physically consume. It's so beautiful. There's so much research and a lot of study and the results are coming out now about how to reverse a lot of infirmity and sickness, and it's through food and it's also revealing to us how there's certain things that people eat that can cause the body to be so inflamed and literally an environment for diseases to be attracted to and to grow. And it's all boiling down to what we eat, right, And so if this vessel, this body, if this body is literally a temple of the Lord, and so I need this body to function in a way that is healthy, in the way that it sound. Because if you carry all this anointing, but then you're experiencing brain fog every other day, you can't think clearly, you're always exhausted, you're always tired, then are you really as effective as you could be. So one be mindful of what you start to consume in your physical body now apart from food. You know, it's interesting how like you know, many times you meet people who they're like, oh, I just you know, do this occasionally do this drug or you know, drink this or drink that, and X, Y and Z. Listen, you have to treat your body with some level of reverence, some level of dignity. I'm not just going to put anything in there, especially when it stains, that can alter your perception. The only thing that should have influence over your perception. Is the Holy Spirit, not alcohol, not drugs, none of it, no matter the excuse you give, like it helps you calm down. If it's altering how you perceive things, it should not be in your body because what that will begin to produce is dependence on it. And if you actually do the study and the research, these things are damaging to your physical body. And so be mindful to what you consume and also be mindful of who you're connecting with. You see a lot of times when we talk about sexual purity, we think of it only in the context of women. But the Bible doesn't talk about it in regards to a gender. Who are you, what lifestyle are you living? And you're just making excuses for it because sex is not just physical. Sex is actually first spiritual. The physical side of it is like the cherry on top, but sex in its true nature is a spiritual thing. And so I want to urge you if you're listening to this podcast, if you're watching this and you say you are a follower of Jesus Christ, if you are not married, you have no business being sexually active none, because you don't even realize that you are exposing you are. You are letting your guards down spiritually for all kinds of strange activity, and you would not even know what was the source, how did this happen, What was the root? What came in? Where? None? And it's unfortunate because the enemy has so invaded the culture that we think that okay, especially for men, okay, it's normal, like you're a man, you know, like that's no, it's not. That was never God's original design And you don't realize that there are certain things you do. Remember when we talk about authority, you know, if you're going to be a person that would command obedience out of people, out of things when you're praying for the sick, when you're believing God for something that your prayers begin to have it are effective and are powerful. If you're going to believe that you can do that because of your authority in Christ, then he must have authority over you. So having an excuse of just being a man and you're single and you're doing whatever, if you being sexually promiscuous, is almost like leaving parts of you with different people, just depositing parts of you and just here there and there and just and so you're not even one with yourself, because you've just put pieces of yourself all over the place, you know. I remember this story. This was years ago and there was a friend of mine. She was dating this guy, and she's talked about how she will have this dream where she would just see herself drowning and something is trying to like bring her even further down in the water, like some weird spirit. And she was just like, I don't understand that she's been praying about this dream, that nothing has changed, nothing like she doesn't understand it. And I remember I was like, and like, literally was I just had this knowing that this dream is connected to her boyfriend? And I asked him, like, hey, wait, are you like, are you guys like sexually intimate? They were, I said, ask him about this dream? I said, have you talked to him about this? She said, oh, she she hasn't brought it up. Do you know that when she asked him about the dream, he used he actually was having those dreams from childhood. So when she gave herself to him in a context that is outside of covenant, that same thing accessed her. Behold in your body. Don't feed into the hype of culture because there is a spirit promoting this idea that we just call like man, it's you know, you're a guy, so you know this is what guys do. No, this is not what kingdom men do. It's not what women of the kingdom do. There's no excuse for it. And if you're going to say that, no one has ever told you. I'm telling you now, if maybe everyone around you, no one wants to hurt your feelings, no one wants to offend you. I'm telling you now, this is not to offend you. This is to protect you. If you're going to be effective for the Kingdom of God, if you're going to be used mightily for the things of God. Also, have some dignity with your body. Don't just make room for the enemy just randomly to bring perversion. Have some dignity with how you carry yourself. Have you know, have reverence for the things you not just from a food perspective, not just from an alcohol perspective, not just from a drug perspective, but also what are you opening yourself to even from a place of who are you being sexually involved with? You should be celibate, You should shut shut that door closed closed, and the right person will honor it. Listen. I want to tell you something for women out there and you feel like, you know, you're worried about like, oh, but you know what. They want to try it before they buy it. This language that comes from the womb of the demonic. If you are with a man that would leave you because he didn't try it before he bought it, he is not worthy of you. He You know something that I understood recently. You know men, Men are intrigued by the chase. Right when a man meets a woman, he would he he will sell furniture if it would win you over. They're intrigued, and then the moment they have her, it's like their eyes are clear. Now it's like do I really want to be with her? Or I'm over this. When they're chasing you, it's like you are the only thing in the world that matters. But the moment they get you, now they are able to really make a valid decision of like wait, do I really like her? Or no, she's actually annoying. That's why women can be so confused, because when he was pursuing you, he I mean, he moved mountains. Then the moment he had you, it's like you keep wondering like, where is that guy? He lost interest because now he's like, oh, I'm done with the chase. But here is something I learned about us as women that dawned on me. We think that men are the only ones that chase or that hunt. Women do in a subther way. And what I mean by that, when you're chasing something you're not you don't have full clarity because everything in you is like energized to capture what you're chasing, and then when you catch it, then you cannot observe it. You can't observe and chase at the same time. I can't observe something intently while I'm chasing it because my focus in that moment is to capture it. So when a man is chasing after a woman, he's not observing her fully, but the moment he knows that she's interested in him, the moment he knows that, oh, I've gotten her to you know, have feelings for me, or she likes me. Now she's calling me. Have you ever seen how the tide shift all of a sudden. He was calling all the time. Now it's like you're begging him to call you, because then he already knew oh, now I know she's interested. The moment he has you, now he observes you like, wait, do I really want to be with this person? But women have a chase that they may not even be aware of, and that chase ends in marriage. Why am I saying this? Many women? And this is why many women feel like they made it. They make mistakes. That is also why a majority of divorces are actually done by women. Many women. You when you're when you're you know, dating a guy, it's like the goal is marriage, Like you just want you want to get to the altar, like when is he gonna marry me? Even though he might it's toxic, it's whatever. The goal of that relationship is marriage. And then when they get married, it's like, wait, what just happened? Who am I with? That's when women start to question, like wait, do I really like him? Like what is going on here? Because the reality of the matter is that men, You see why the goal for women is marriage because men are the ones that per you know, pursue right. A woman is not a woman's role to see a guy and be like, hey, I like you. It's it doesn't always go down well, you know, she might share something and interest or whatever I'm talking about. I'm talking about this from the perspective of the culture of the world. Okay, it's not. The idea is a man pursues, he shares his intent, and if the woman is interested, then it's like, okay, let's see how this works. So a woman never knows how often she's going to get those approaches. So then when someone approaches her and it fits some of the things that she likes on the surface, that's when women start to compromise on other areas. But this is why I'm saying this. Many women will compromise themselves. You would give your body over to a man because you think that's what's going to keep him. If a man will not respect your choice of celibacy, that selfishness will show up in marriage, and in marriage you will begin to question what did I do? Just because you question it does not mean that you have an you know, an easy out, just to say, well, God, this is not working. No, no, no, you married that man. You married him before God, before your family. But I'm sharing this because you want someone who is self less. You want a man who will be patient with you. You want a man who is kind, you want a man who would understand that there is your your Your nakedness is not just something he can he can demand just because he likes you that you put some you put. You have dignity over sudden areas in your life. If no one has told you, I'm telling you this, wrap it up. If the man will not respect the decision, trust me, he is not for you. Because marriage reveals real life where you're going to need someone who can be patient and kind and moments where they have to be selfless. Because people always talk about how like marriage is fifty to fifty. Not really, sometimes it's ninety ten and you're the one who is ten and you need your partner to be ninety. That only happens when a partner can really really seize you, really values you. And so if you're gonna start in a way where they cannot even show up as selfless to honor your body, trust me. Getting married. When your eyes are open, you're like, wait, what just happened? So what am I saying? Slow down? The men with the chase take a moment to observe. Women in relationships that you know are not going anywhere, but you stay in it because you're waiting for that that moment. It's so interesting how women can be in something toxic and unless the man ends it, she will stay, She will keep going unless something tragic happens. Then she's like, oh man, this is terrible. This no, no, no, You've always known this about him. But it's because of the subtle chase, the chase no one talks about that happens with a woman. What I'm saying, observe, look intently. Does this speak to my future? Does this speak to where I'm going? Does it speak to what the Lord has spoken over my life? And trust God with your future. Many times we compromise because we don't try us God in that area of our lives. We trust what we see, not who we know. God desires you to be whole in your body. One of the questions that people often ask me is, Stephanie, how do I actually study the Bible? When we desire to go deeper, sometimes it can feel a little intimidating. And I'm here to tell you about an amazing Bible study too, and it's called Logos. It's an incredible app that helps you engage with scripture in a more meaningful way. So, for example, you can type in what does the Bible say about holiness? And it will give you scripture, scholarly insights, historical background, and so much more. Logos helps you to understand what you're reading and why it matters. So, whether you're new to the faith or you've been following Jesus for some time, this is going to help you study the world with so much confidence. And we have received such an incredible gift for every plog pod listener. You can use lagus today for free for the next sixty days. All you have to do is go to lagas dot com backside Stephanie to get started. Now, let's go back into the episode number two, Wholeness in the soul. That is your mind, your will, your emotions. You know Psalms twenty three, verse three. Will talk about He restores my soul later on in season two. There are things we're gonna unpack, even when it comes to the soul and just when it comes to healing the soul and different things. But you it starts with belief. You have to know that you are not this mighty woman or man of God. Just because you can stay bleeding and serve the Lord, you can be in trauma and serve the Lord. No, the Lord wants you hold because trauma is actually, you know, when we are dealing with unresolved trauma, that trauma is like a puppet string in the hands of the enemy. He knows what to pull to get you the act out of character. He knows what to pull to get you to move in unbelief. That string is still there. He knows what to pull to cause you to abort seasons of life, seasons of destiny, seasons of transition. He knows the string to pull. He knows what to whisper to your mind that in a moment that the Lord is calling you to to he's calling you higher. All of a sudden, the enemy knows you have still not healed from rejection, and he knows the string to pull to make you just literally go in your shell and reject what the Lord is saying about you. It's so subtle or that you start doing you're doing things and you're walking in the Lord, and the enemy knows the string to pull for you. The question is God, even good trauma gives him a hold. So it's not that there are things, Listen, there's some things that we you know, everybody has things that they just may being never shared or things like that. Every most people, including myself, we all have things that we have experienced, but we have to believe that God, you can heal this. And in believing that God can heal it, there are ways that the Holy Spirit will begin to lead you and guide you, and you would it's the healing you're looking for is in your submission to His instructions where you have to believe it. You know, I have been the person that would literally I remember one time, like I was on a zoom meeting and you know, they were talking about some it was some ministration and they're literally talking about men the way God moved us so powerful. And my camera was off And what was my camera off? Because I was emotional about something else. And what was that emotion? It was the enemy knew the string to pull or you're not you're not fully healed in this area, so they think my camera is off for another reason. But my camera is off because in that moment, I just felt broken. But I'm anointed and you and the deception is this is just how it's supposed to be. This is just how God wants this. You know what, even with my brokenness, Lord, I'm still gonna serve you absolutely. But Lord, you can heal it, you can touch it, you can. I believe this that you desire for me to behole even in my soul. If the Holy Spirit starts leading you to have a you know, to to share things with people. There is healing in the instruction when you study how the Lord Jesus would heal even physical things. Some of the things didn't make sense. Then what he did is not like some medical solution, but there is healing when you submit to his way. You could be a believer and you're struggling in certain areas of your life and nobody knows. The Lord wants that mask because he's after the real thing, the mask that you hide behind. He's after that. And if you believe he can heal the wounds in your soul, then whatever the Spirit of God leads you to do, surrender to it. For some of you, there are people that the Lord will tell you reach out to this person and you know acts that you know what. Look there, maybe I need some mentorship and be honest with them about where you are. There are things you don't want to share with anyone, but there is going to be healing in the instruction right, and so be sensitive to that. And lastly, wholeness in the spirit. This is the one where most Christians don't have a problem, right, because what does the scripture say two Corinthians five point seventeen. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. When you receive Christ, your spirit is made anew. So when we say yes to Jesus, we know that there is a transformation that has happened in our spirit. But why I'm sharing this is that don't just settle for your spirit to be made anew. Believe for wholeness in every fiber of who you are, spirit, soul, and body. And the beautiful thing is that Jesus is the source of that wholeness. And when you're in Him and you can cry out to him and you can present different things, there are things that the Lord will lead you to do. Be sensitive to it. There's some of you that you're like, oh, no, I would never go for counseling. That is for whatever people, if the Holy Spirit tells you to go for counseling, go for counseling. It might be the thing that saves your marriage because maybe you need a third party to examine what is going on, and the issue might be so little, it might be something so small. Lord is after your wholeness. He's after every mask that you have been hiding behind. He is after that. He wants to hold you because when you are one with your the the authority that can easily flow through and break out of you. Oh my goodness, because every part of you is at once is in oneness. What you're saying with from your spirit has impacted your soul, is has impacted your but every part of you is in agreement with the word of God. This bring brings us to a place in Jesus that we begin to see his authority released effortlessly because all of us is in submission into his word, not just me saying okay, yes, God, I'll follow you. Do this, do that. I've seen where literally people would you know, someone will literally worship the Lord, lead a conference in worship, and lead the people in praise and worship, and people are crying and repenting and seeking the Lord. And after that what they do next? The person who just let everybody in worship and praise and all of that, after that gives themselves over to just acts that are I mean, just ungodly. God does not need to listen. The Lord is so mighty he could put the voice their voices. You know, they're they're people. We just we hear them, minister, and they're like, wow, what a voice. There are things that we that don't even exist on the earth that the Lord could literally created combination and put in the toad. The toad can start singing. He can put in in a child in a four year old. A four year old would would do a better job as a worship leader. The Lord is not lacking people. So this idea that I'm just gonna say yes to God and you just think you're supposed to just keep struggling in that area. No God wants desires wholeness out of you. It's a beautiful thing that you're gonna say yes to the Lord. But say yes with all of you, all of you. Let your body, let your soul, let your spirit be in submission to the lordship of Christ Jesus, and we're gonna see, we're gonna see some mighty things in the earth. You know, I'll end it with this. Why believe this is so key? It is because there are there are mantles that the time for them to be released is now. And mantles, in a simple understanding is what brings us to supernatural possibilities in God without effort, because we've been entrusted. Is when God and trust, you know, on a person to have authority to show a dimension of God. Right. For some it's a dimension of God in healing. For some it's a dimension of God, you know, in miracles and signs and wonders. They are mantles that would accompany the assignment that God has given people. But those mantles, it's like, what what the Lord showed me is that they're hanging because they're not just going to fall on your spirit, It's going to fall on the whole you. And so if there is if you're, if you don't have oneness with yourself, if you're your whole self is not in submission to the Lord, it's hanging and the enemy is trying to keep you in a cycle so that the time would pass and that mantle would need to find another to rest upon. It's time. It's time. It's time for you to be whole. And wholeness is not this idea of I'm just gonna be I'm just gonna live my truth. You know what is your truth? Truth is a person. The real version of living your truth is living in submission to the person because he is truth. This cultural idea of what we think wholeness means I'm just gonna live my truth and do me no, no no, That is also part of deception. Because truth is a person Jesus. If you're gonna live your truth, that means every part of you is going to live in submission to His lordship. That is living truth, not what we see in culture. And so I just want to encourage you believe that wholeness is possible, and the spirit of the Lord will begin to walk with you. He will fellowship with you, he will guide you, he will instruct you. Some things are going to feel so uncomfortable, but listen and obey until season two. If you have not given your life to the Lord Jesus, I want to pray with you, and so stick around. If you're watching this, then I believe that there is a hunger in your heart. There is something that has moved you with a desire to want to make Jesus Christ your Lord and savior. Now This is not just a decision that we make out of being convinced by something, but there is a conviction of the whole spirit that ministers to us that I need to be saved from this path of destruction that my life has been on. I need to be saved from this sinful nature to come into life, to receive the life of God. Salvation is about an exchange that the Lord has put that sinful nature on the cross when we believe what Jesus did, when we believe that he died and he was raised up with all victory and all power. You see on the cross. Jesus took captivity, captive. That's what the Word of God says. And what is that captivity Everything that has tried to keep you bound, including that sinful nature that we have received as from the fallen man. You see, when man fell, he took on the nature of sin. And that is the image that every other man has been born into. But in Jesus you have righteousness. You can be made righteous in Christ. And salvation is to be saved from death into life, to come out of bondage into freedom. And so I want to pray with you, but I want you to know that as you say yes to the Lord, you are saying yes to his life. You are saying yes to the ways of Jesus. You are saying yes for Jesus to live in and through you. Your body, your life becomes a home for the Holy Spirit, and he wants to express the nature of Jesus through your life. And so just join with me in prayer, because this will be the start. But salvation is a journey and we're gonna have There's gonna be a link in the description, especially if you are listening to this or you're watching this from YouTube, You're gonna see this in the description, and I want you to click on that because it's going to help guide you into things about what comes next, how to study the Bible, just little things that are going to be very beneficial to your walk with the Lord. And so I just want you to pray with me, Lord Jesus, and just repeat after me. And when I say repeat after me, it's not just for you to just use words and they're empty before you after this prayer, meditate on those words and just really have a moment of personal prayer with the Lord and let the Holy Spirit minister to you beyond what I could do. And so just repeat after me, Lord Jesus, I confess with my mouth as I have believed in my heart in this moment, that indeed you are the son of God, that when you came to the earth and you were crucified on the cross, that you put to death my sinful nature. And as I receive you, I receive your life. I receive the righteousness, the righteous nature that you have brought to give me. I exchange the sinful nature for the righteous nature. And so, Lord, come into my life and make my life your home. Have your way in and through me. Whatever is in me that is not pleasing to you. Convict me of these things. Lord, that I will not identify with the way of the flesh, but I will come in agreement with the way of life. I choose life. I choose you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen,