BELOW THE BELT
Life is spiritual—there are forces of good and evil battling for the current lives and the afterlives of mankind. And the most powerful weapon to overcome the dark force is the light of love, yet so few of us master the Art of Love. Many spend millions of minutes on perfecting the martial arts—including karate, taekwondo, judo—for the goal of training the body as a weapon of self-defense.
If those same minutes were spent on perfecting the heart to master the art of love, would there be a need to use the martial arts for defensive skills? What the physical world views as wisdom is opposite in the spiritual realm. Why is it easier to hate, than to love? Hatred is an emotion which soothes the flesh, the carnal part of us. Love, however, takes a lot of effort because it requires you to forgive offences and to reject self-defensiveness. Therefore, Love is an offensive tool against hatred.
Love requires death of the body and life of the soul part of us; and this is a mystery. The human who is perfected in the Art of Love has mastery and dominion over the force of evil because our Creator, the living God is Love.
The souls of those who run far away from God can never deny His existence even though they display their hatred for the Word, Will, and Way of our Creator in the most blazing storms or acts of disobedience to the brink of their own self-destruction. The war is real. But there is only one way to win—by STRIKING BACK BELOW THE BELT.
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds (Read 2 Corinthians 10:3-6). For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood [carnality], but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness . . . (Ephesians 6:12).
Whether you are aware of it or not, young teen, there is a battle going on in the invisible world for your life on earth and for your life after natural death (excluding suicide). If you do not master the Art of Love, then the wiles, the bullets or power, of the evil force will control your life. In war, there are weapons. The mightiest weapon is Love; and love is guarded by another weapon of war called Truth (Ephesians 6:14a). Truth is worn at the center of your body like a belt. As martial artists strive to obtain the highest ranking belt called the “black belt”, you, the adolescent who seeks to live a life of honour, must strive to obtain proper usage of the Belt of Truth.
Truth has several definitions, but as a weapon used against the force of evil, Truth is what balances your whole being. Like a fulcrum that balances weights on its left side and right side, once you learn how to use Truth as a balance, you will be able to stand against demonic warfare whose goal is to knock you down and totally out. Truth is powered by Love. The Truth is: You are special—there is no one like you. You are infinity loved by God who knew you even before you were born. You were made in His awesome image and born on earth in a body uniquely male or female.
This Truth is your truth and can never change. Lies are weapons to torment your soul—what you believe in your heart starts from your mind and concludes in what you do with your body. You are made beautiful. You are God’s creation, therefore perfect. Physical imperfections never change the perfection of your being, your soul, that which makes you like no other human on earth.
Dear adolescent, there is no mistake in you. The Belt of Truth is wrapped around your waist, right above what makes you male or female. Yes, all your genitalia are protected because they are located Below the Belt. That’s where the evil one targets his weapons of lies—hitting below the belt. And to overcome being swept away by the lies, you must blast those evil weapons, not with self-hatred, not with hatred for a society that champions for your greatest good with codes of moral conduct, but with Love for yourself firming rooted in the Truth of who you really are.
Today, take a long look in the mirror at your natural self. You were born a girl. Your pure femininity is your power, is your expression of self-love. You were born a boy. Your pure masculinity is your strength, is your expression of self-love. There is no need to change that for a lie that God has made a mistake in creating you male because you think you “feel” female, or vice versa, a female willing to self-mutilate to become male. Who do you allow to define attributes of femaleness or maleness? Our Creator God is Love, and when you actually stop and listen to what He has to say, you will learn the Truth about being male or female.
Young man and young woman, below the belt lies your most precious attribute, your sexuality, which is meant to reproduce more people in your physical likeness and in God’s image, a loving mixture of flesh and spirit with a unique, one-of-a-kind soul. The hatred generated by the evil one is crushed by loving who you truly, truthfully, are. To master self-love may take a lifetime, or it may take a split second after the stronghold of lies is destroyed. Each of our life’s experiences is different. How do you master self-love?
We will walk together on this journey in the next blog series. For now, growing sexuality mature means taking off the mask that was created by lies and looking at life in a way that achieves acceptance of who you are from the very beginning—male or female. Sexual maturity is taking care of your genitalia by keeping it pure. Our loving Father is a God of a second chance. Once you decide to quit any acts which degrade the precious value of your genitalia, you can start over again to walk in purity. Abstain from anything or anyone which can defile you. Sexual maturity means taking time to think about all the consequences of any action you may take in using your genital parts and refraining from destructive habits. Do not stop growing, keep growing.
For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is [on earth] and of that which is to come [after natural death] (1 Timothy 4:8).
Loving yourself is part of perfecting the Art of Love. This Art, like martial arts, takes time and proper training, and requires the Belt of Truth so that you will be able to stand up when lies try to knock you down and strip your dignity. You are not alone. By deciding to throw away hatred and to prepare for this training in the Art of Love, understand that you are already a winner!
© 2021 by Patience Osei-Anyamesem. All rights reserved. Published by The Light In Me Enterprise. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews or other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Unless otherwise stated, all scripture quotations are from The New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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