ESTEEM THYSELF

CHAPTER SIX

The road to my recovery was not easy but totally worth it. I took good care of myself with the ever present help of my parents and brother. At thirty two I was still hopeful for a better future. I was devoted to esteeming thyself this time around, by taking care of myself, His temple, my body, soul and spirit which I figured had to do with more of the Lord and less of me.

I had made my body a habitat for demons and evil spirits because of my poor choices and now the goal was to make it a habitat for the Lord which is something that even today's Christians may not be. Most Christians are used to just the temporary visitation of God and are yet to shift from visitation to habitation. I wanted to be beyond a place of temporary visitation and I was intentional about it.

As I was recovering both body, soul and spirit, I learnt how to move to a place where I became God's habitation. One scripture that helped me was 1 John 1:1
It helped me understand that all I had to do was live the Word, to make it real in my life and then I'll automatically be His habitation because He is the Word. I had to speak the Word in and for everything with the starting point being my healing and understanding that He only could make it a reality. I had been healed already but the healing had to manifest through His Word which resulted in His manifest presence and then permanent habitation in me.
The shift was not easy but it was possible.

Obviously it began with repentance recommitment to God and being born again for real this time and it worked out well for me. One thing that made me strong and helped me rise again was the love that was showered around me which made it easier for me to embrace the love of God.

My dad especially portrayed my heavenly Father and that is when I noticed how the father child relationship is really important and the shoes our earthly fathers get to fill in bringing us up the godly way. My dad was so loving throughout and the heavenly Father wanted to reason things out with me...Isaiah 1:18 when I thought I was too far gone for redemption...i mean...what love is that.

Just thinking about that made me cry so hard and thank Him even more for everything. God wants to stay within us to make us His habitation. (Revelation 21:3). We are members of His household. (Ephesians 2:19-22).

Esteeming thyself not only means we become God's sanctuary, pure and holy and the Lord will definitely dwell within us. ( Exodus 25:8 ) and when we are His sanctuary, we do what pleases only Him. We run after what God is after and seek to please Him with our lives and we need to create an environment which the the Lord inhabits. (1 Peter 1:15 - 16), but also that we cease to be prisoners or captives of sin, evil spirits, demons and the enemy.

We become free and the righteousness of God, marked by His presence. No longer are we robbed of this freedom by sinful acts but we start living victoriously in freedom esteeming the temples of God that we are and when this happens, there are celebrations in heaven.
Luke 15:7 "I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

I decided to esteem myself for His glory and the day when we met up with Dawn was a reunion of a kind.

"The way you are glowing my friend," Dawn said as she sat opposite myself on the mahogany table in our favourite restaurant.

"Did you not look inthe mirror today?" I chuckled and she smiled.
"I'm no were near this beauty queen you've become , what did you do with my skinny friend," she teased and I laughed.

"The right question is what happened to us," I scolded her and she laughed.

"We've been set free bruh," she whispered with dancing eyes," not only physically but spiritually too," she smiled.

"Hallelujah! I sung and we both laughed, "You do look amazing Dawn," I then said seriously as she rolled her eyes

"I know," she giggled.

A waitress then came and we ordered a hearty meal. To be frank, I had always fantasized about this day and never really saw it coming any time soon.

What a mighty God we serve.

The end!!