With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold about 11 kilograms or 24 pounds of seed (or 3 gallons of water) (1 Kings 18:32).
In our previous conversation—Hold Onto the Cross and Explode in Pentecost—we talked about escaping the snare of the fowler, or pushing past our insecurities and expressing your true self as the image of God. It takes you to hold onto the Cross, the point where you met Jesus, and exploding in Pentecost—the point where He answered you with overcoming power.
But escaping the snare of the fowler—those deadly traps Satan erects in your mind to arrest your soul and throw you back in bondage—makes you a target of satanic anger; and the devil will not stop trying to ensnare you again. How do you remain outside of these snares?
Approximately 900 years before the birth of Jesus, Prophet Elijah called all the people of Israel and all the prophets of Baal to Mountain Carmel to challenge the power of Jehovah verses the power of Baal, a pagan god whose lust-filled influence had ensnared the souls of Jehovah God’s chosen people. The “influence” of this god caused its worshippers to act out aggressively in lustful desires to gain wealth, dominance, and extreme sexual satisfaction through tendencies that all go against the beauty of holiness thereby trapping the soul in bondage to Baal.
Prophet Elijah rebuilt the demolished Altar of Jehovah, a sacred place for sacrifices and gifts offered up to the One true God as he reminded the people: “Your name shall be Israel” and called upon the name of the Lord—YHWH—to answer the challenge by fire. The Altar was a Type of the coming Cross. Israel no longer believed in the Altar of Jehovah and what it represented—the proof of the existence, the truth, and validity of the One true God.
Why did the people have to be reminded of their name ISRAEL? Prophet Elijah had to take them 1000 years back in time to recall how they got that name. To avoid being ensnared after receiving your freedom, you’ve got to keep remembering who you are in Christ, the sacrifice upon that old rugged Cross Altar.
Yes, salvation in Christ sets your soul free to live in the beauty and power of His holiness. Yet, the influence of Baal still hoovers in the atmosphere of this world we live in because Satan still presides in this world we live in. And there are times when you may get downright angry in the middle of this tug-of-war crisis and have to “wrestle with God” because of the weariness you feel in this spiritual warfare.
TRENCHES symbolize “separation from the world” which the Cross will always bring about. Your separation makes you a target for satanic attacks.
TRENCHES can represent:
FIGHTING AGAINST DARKNESS: a place where you are actively battling against spiritual negativity, temptations, satanic lies about who you are, or inner demons.
DEEP INTROSPECTION: facing difficult truths about yourself and needing to dig deep into your inner self to find strength and resolve.
ENDURANCE & PERSEVERENCE: Just like soldiers in a trench, navigating through spiritual challenges requires staying steadfast and enduring through difficult circumstances.
CONNECTION WITH GOD: In times of spiritual struggle, “trench warfare” can also signify a deep call to prayer and resilience on divine guidance to overcome adversity—and enter into a place of peace (rest) and Be-in-Love.
Healing, or wellness, is the state of peace your soul needs to stay strengthened to live above the set traps ever-ready for you to fall into. To claim this permanent healing—wholeness, wellness—you must sometimes wrestle with God and your inner man. Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day (Genesis 32:24).
Jacob was going through troubled waters in his soul. He got the gumption to leave his father-in-law’s house after twenty years of unfair treatment and take his entire family and property across dangerous kilometers of desert land back to his own homeland. This return would also mean having to meet his worst fear: His twin brother, whom he deceived and took his birthright, was waiting for him with 400 ‘men’ ready to pay him back in revenge for the pain he laid on Esau (Read Genesis 27:30-45).
So Jacob was sorely troubled in his soul. Do you feel like that? Is there something troubling the waters of your soul? The Bible promises us in Psalm 23:2b: He leads me beside the still waters. But you ask: “If I am lead by the still waters, then why am I not calm, relaxed, feeling good—at peace?” It’s because You lust and do not have. You murder and covet, and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures (James 4:2-3).
What can you do to overcome the power of satanic bondage in the acts, works, and lust of the flesh; and get out of the trenches!?
John Travis, M.D., in his The Wellness Workbook, identifies key areas where we maintain our health. From personal experience, I have added others to list 14 benchmarks of health. I introduced this Wellness Series in the previous three blogs, “I Want to be Whole!”, “Is the Cross Relevant Today?”, and “Hold Onto the Cross and Explode in Pentecost!” Today we are tackling Health is knowing what your real needs are and how to get them met1.
For the most part, women internalize their troubled souls and become depressed. Men, on the other hand, express their stress outwardly through sports, including wrestling. No matter how we decide to wade through our waters, we must get right with God—that means pouring out all the bad stuff we feel He’s doing to us. Argue with God, and shout and have tantrums over how unfair “my life is”. Do you want to accuse God that it’s His fault why you’re in this turmoil, after being saved, in the first place?
Right now, get alone into a quiet place, and tell God all that is troubling you. And tell Him what’s real in your heart. God cannot be mocked (Galatians 6:7). He knows what’s happening to you before you even utter one word, but the only way to heal and is to talk to God and lay down all your burdens at His feet, because He cares for you (1 Peter 5:7).
Tell God your needs and ask Him to show you the way to get them met. Don’t sit down and fret over things you can control. Take a step and push boldly to that which gives you peace. “Well, Lord, I need money for …. I need a this or a that. I need for my . . . to love me. I need for my children to get back on tract. I need …. Examine your needs. Are they in line with God’s will and plan for your life; or are you asking for things that satisfy your pleasures?
We can imagine what Jacob wrestled with: “My Lord, I deceived my brother and took his birthright. My mother put me up to it. But I can’t blame her. I also wanted it so that I’d inherit my father’s blessing and property. I fled from home. But there, I was tricked by my uncle into marrying a woman I didn’t love. I stayed with his first daughter, but was deceived again by him after marrying his second daughter. Now Esau is out to kill me. I hope he accepts my gifts and forgives me. I need to change my character so that I will stop all this pain! Bingo! That’s what gets God’s attention.
Change the way you do things to get what you want and humble yourself and tell God what it is you truly need: a change in the way you think—how you jealous what others have and how they are succeeding. Get on your knees and ask God, “What can I do to increase Your Kingdom with the talent(s) You’ve given me?”
When you seek FIRST the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, He will give you everything you need to complete your God-given assignment on earth (Matthew 6:33). And He will give it to you exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us (Ephesians 3:20). What power is that? Resurrection-Pentecostal power! When you give to do the Lord’s good will, it will be given back to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you (Luke 6:38).
How much are you giving to the Lord?
Allow the Lord to make you to lie down in green pastures and to restore your soul (Read Psalm 23). He will show you the way to get your needs met if only you will listen. He talks to His children in various ways. Get personal with God. Wrestle with God as Jacob did, all night.
© 2020, 2025 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.
The artwork depicted in the blog article is carefully selected to draw out the points made for healing of the soul, and by no means promote any ideologies from the various artists unless they are found in the center of God's perfect will.
1. Travis, J. (1977). The Wellness Workbook. Mill Valley, CA, USA: Wellness Resource Center.
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