Resurrect from the Stroke of the Lord

Beloved family, hear this with an open heart.

The stroke of the Lord is not a light thing. David cried, “Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand” (Psalm 39:10). The blow of His hand can consume a man. It can leave the body weakened, the soul exhausted, and the spirit pressed down.

Yet the same God who strikes is the God who raises. Healing, in its deepest sense, is not merely the easing of a symptom. It is a resurrection from the stroke.

The power of His resurrection

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

Philippians 3:10-11 · KJV

Paul did not seek relief alone. He sought knowledge of a Person. The power that raised Christ from the dead is the same power that lifts a man from the consuming blow. Fellowship with His sufferings is not an end in itself. It is the path by which we are made conformable unto His death, so that resurrection life may be formed in us.

The stroke is not denied. It is passed through in Him until life swallows up what the blow consumed.

The sign He has given

How does one come to know that He is the Lord in the midst of such a blow? He has given a sign.

And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God.

Ezekiel 20:20 · KJV

That sign is seventh-day stillness, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. The Sabbath is not an accessory to healing. It is the appointed place in which healing is received.

Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.

Jeremiah 17:14 · KJV

Immediately the word turns to the Sabbath: “Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction” (Jeremiah 17:21-23).

Healing by the Sabbath was set before them. Stiff-necked motion refused it.

Stay in place

See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.

Exodus 16:29 · KJV

The perpetual covenant requires a man to stay in place. Disobedience to that covenant — to stay in place on the seventh day — has ruined generations. Let the healing from obedience to stay in place on the seventh day start from your generation.

But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day.

Matthew 24:20 · KJV

Even in the hour of greatest pressure the instruction remains. The Sabbath is not the hour to abandon rest. It is the hour to remain in seventh-day stillness.

Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.

Psalm 4:4 · KJV

Stillness is not inactivity of the spirit. It is the holy refusal to carry burdens, to flee, and to repeat the unbelief of the fathers.

Labor to enter that rest

Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

Hebrews 4:11 · KJV

The labor is not the striving of the flesh. It is the diligent refusal to leave one’s place from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Unbelief leaves a man under the stroke. Faith enters the rest where the stroke is lifted and life is restored.

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 4:16 · KJV

The time of need is the hour when the blow has consumed. Mercy is obtained there. Grace to help is found there. The throne of grace is not approached in presumption, nor in despair, but in the boldness that belongs to those who know Him, who honor His Sabbaths as the sign between Him and them, and who seek the power of His resurrection rather than mere escape from pain.

Resurrection from the stroke of the Lord is therefore not a private technique. It is the fruit of knowing Him, of being made conformable unto His death, of hallowing seventh-day stillness as the sign He has given, and of coming boldly to the throne of grace when the hand of the Lord has been heavy.

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is not withheld from those who will labor to enter that rest. The stroke may consume for a season. Resurrection power is greater still.

Remain in the rest. Stay in place on the seventh day. Know Him. Come boldly to the throne of grace. Rise.

Shabbat Shalom.

Immanuel Nwobu