I wrote a blog last year about being God’s Iron Man and recently received the following comment.
We all want to be physically fit to enable us live a healthy and smart life, spent some time, money and energy on sports. We never taught of being SPIRITUALLY FIT that has everything to do with our Spiritual, physical and mental well-being. I want to say a very big thank you to Darrell Creswell for remind and encouraging US to be an IRON MAN in the LORD.
This comment got me to thinking about the need to exercise our spiritual man. There is a lack of physical fitness in today’s society and great benefits for those who exercise and stay physically fit.
The Center For Disease Control reports that only an estimated 31.9% of adults, 18 and over in the United States, participate in regular leisure time physical fitness exercise. With all the scientific research to back the benefits of physical fitness, why do we not take a greater personal responsibility for staying healthy?
A follow-up to that study showed lack of physical fitness exercise accounted for about 16% of all deaths. It was even greater when accounting for high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, and smoking. It was noted in that study those who maintained physical fitness lived on average 6 years longer than who didn’t.
The same principle applies to our spirit. When it comes to our spiritual health, fitness, well-being, and quality of life, now is the time to take some personal responsibility for our spiritual man/woman that we have been blessed with.
The Phillips translation translates 1 Timothy 4:7 accordingly “’Take the time and trouble to keep yourself spiritually fit”.
There are all kinds of commercials and infomercials on TV regarding staying physically fit. There is the Thigh Master, The Ab Cruncher, Bowflex, 6 Second Abs…But wait, there’s more. There is Body by Jake, Fitness Trainer, Jack Lalanne’s Power Juicer, or “Sweatin’ to the Oldies” with Richard Simmons. This society is obsessed with physical fitness. We in the body of Christ should be obsessed with our spiritual fitness we should be concerned with the Prayer Master, The Sin Cruncher, or perhaps Men/Women of Iron by God.
We read in Timothy 4:8 Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”
When we love God, serve God, and exercise our spirit in Him, we will receive the blessings of God in our life. The lack our spiritual fitness will sap the very foundations of our life, and reduce our spiritual heath to a mere existence make even living itself sometimes a burden. When we exercise our spirit we are filled with the peace and love of God in our lives. His Spirit working in our spirit produces a serenity and calm in our lives which cause the fire of a godly life to burn clear, and strong in us, giving us power to live in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 6:10 tells us Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
We must have strength, and strength of a spiritual kind, we can become Iron Men and Women in God with powerful strong spirits. This kind of strength only Lord himself can furnish as we exercise our spirits and gain this strength through an indwelling God, the power of his might working in us.
Sampson was God’s Iron Man in the Old Testament. I encourage all to exercise your spirit and become more powerful in the Lord and His might like Samson. Remember Samson was only powerful as he exercised his “spiritual man”, and as the Spirit of God came upon him. We now as born again believers in Christ Jesus and have that same Spirit living inside us giving us unlimited power in Christ There is no physical description of Samson in the Bible. His strength was derived from the power of the Holy Spirit. I personally believe that he was just a normal sized man, or even small in stature. This is the way God usually works. We read in 1 Corinthians 1:27
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
The rest of this blog is from last years- God’s Iron Man Part 1
As I have grown older, I have gained a serious workout program. I love lifting weights, hitting the gym, the whole male testosterone thing. If I could I would want to be as physically as strong as Sampson, the Bible’s “Iron Man”. The Word of God tells me that the Spirit of the LORD moved on Sampson, and when that happened, Samson was able to slay a lion with his bare hands, slay 30 men with his hands at one time, he could snap robes like they were pieces of thread, he slew a thousand Philistines with the jaw bone of an ass, he carried away of the gates of the city Gaza to Hebron,(he carried them over 20 miles) and he pulled down of the pillars of the Philistine temple. In the Bible we read that he was one strong guy, but there is one point in the story that becomes the essence of this piece. Samson himself was not strong, in fact he himself never did any spectacular feat of strength, not one thing at all. It was only under the influence of the Spirit of God he became an “Iron Man”.
Now wanting to be physically strong myself, is a Darrell thing, my physical man, not necessarily my spiritual side or my spiritual ambition which is the most important fitness of all. The one thing that all Sampson’s great acts of strength had in common is that he did them when the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. Samson was not a giant or an extraordinary human being. He was like any one of us. But he did mighty things when the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. Without the Spirit of the Lord being upon him, he was just an ordinary guy, not an “Iron Man”. Yet as he stood in battle and faced 1000 men, not even a knife, sword or spear could pierce his skin, God’s Spirit made him an“Iron Man”. No human muscle can ever be developed into spiritual power no matter how much we exercise. Only His spirit can do that kind of miracle. So on that note, as God is my priority in life, I am constantly working on my spiritual man to make him the spiritual Samson, for it is only the spiritual Sampson that is remembered in the Word as the man of legend. The Sampson that the Spirit of the Lord moved upon is the one of our Christian lore, the Bible’s “Iron Man”.
That same Spirit that moved on Sampson, The Spirit of Lord that made him an “Iron Man”, is available to you and I. As a matter of fact we have been given it as a gift, all we have to do is receive it. Jesus said “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you”. All power belongs to God. God is God; and power belongs to him. He gives It to us, yet still It is HIS power, the power of the Holy Spirit living, breathing, and working inside of you. When we read “The power of the Holy Ghost” in Romans 15:13, just what kind of power are we talking about? Job 26:13 by his Spirit the heavens are adorned. In the 2nd verse of the first chapter of Genesis, we read, “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Earth was created by His Spirit, now that’s power. 1 Peter 3:18 Tells us that it was the Spirit of God that raised Jesus from the dead.
The power of the Holy Spirit is your protection, and all His omnipotence defends you. Can your enemies overcome Him? You alone can be conquered… His Spirit in you cannot…That is the awesome power of His Spirit. For the power of the Spirit is our power; the power of the Spirit is our might. Romans 8:11 He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Ephesians 6…Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. Take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. We can all be “Iron Men and Women” for God, by HIS SPIRIT.
We have the Spirit of the Lord in us, with us, and on us…
Jer 1:18-19(The Mess)Stand at attention while I prepare you for your work. ‘making you as impregnable as a castle, Immovable as a steel post, solid as a concrete block wall. You’re a one-man defense system. They’ll fight you, but they won’t even scratch you. I’ll back you up every inch of the way.” This is God’s Decree.
Jere 15: 19-21 I’ll turn you into a steel wall, a thick steel wall, impregnable. They’ll attack you but won’t put a dent in you, because I’m at your side, defending and delivering.”This is God’s Decree.
Doesn’t that sound like an “IRON MAN to you?
So this is my prayer, please pray it with me today. God create in me by your Spirit a spiritual man (woman) of steel; give me the spiritual lungs of a human oxygen tank to speak forth the truth, the Gospel and blessings by your Spirit. Most importantly I will use my head and heart, and all that I am, to learn to submit my will to yours and let the Spirit of God move in my life. From this point forward, I will NEVER settle for “just being” I want to be more, more!! I will be more!! Lord create in me all of YOU, help me be all I can…. By Your Spirit I want to be Your “IRON MAN”.
Categories: Bible, God, Power of Prayer, Renewed Strength, Spiritual Power
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Inspiring! I want to be an Ironman . . . and this was powerfully motivating! Thank you for this wonderfully well written truth.
Bro.Darrell, Amen on becoming an Iron Man/ or woman for the Lord. I thought about Solomon . The word of God says there was none that was clothed like Solomon, His greatest attribute was the wisdom he so spoke about. I was thinking that if we as God’s sheep could just put upon us that whole armor of God and walk through this life redeeming the time that we could stand up to any obstacle that old sleuth foot satan tries to put in our path. In order to get wisdom, we get virtue, in getting virtue we get understanding and in getting understanding we receive knowledge . Think about it please if we get all of these things then we have the attributes of our Lord Jesus Christ. The word says that there are seven spirits of God, seven eyes of God walking too and fro in the world. they are [1] Wisdom, [2] Knowledge [3] Understanding [4] Cancel [5[ Might [6] Fear of the Lord [7] Judgement . satan gets scared when he sees God’s Iron Man coming because he knows that he cannot stand under the Mighty Name Of Jesus. Blessings