With Wings as Eagles: receiving a renewal of your body

In my role as a life coach, one of the common battles that I help Warriors deal with is when they have stayed up late and still need to finish parts of their PoWeR goals or Border Patrol before they go to bed. The tactic Satan uses is to pit something "good" against something that is "better." He whispers to these Warriors about how late it is, how tired they are, how important sleep is, he'll draw to their attention just how few hours of sleep they will get before they need to wake up in the morning. Then the scumbag will tell them that finishing their Border Patrol activities will take more time, time that they could be sleeping, sleep that they need to function properly. This is the general pattern that Satan follows with this tactic, but the details of each situation vary from person to person. I work with the warriors to help them learn from and prepare for these battles, then I teach them this powerful principle.

There are several places in scripture that talk about a renewal of the body. While that sounds like the resurrection, the verses I found related to this blessing all refer to the renewal of our mortal bodies in this life. I'm sure that this blessing has many facets to it, but the one I typically tell warriors about is how it seems like God can give you the equivalent of 8 hours of good sleep in 4 hours or less.

The verse that began to help me understand what it takes to qualify for this blessing is Doctrine and Covenants 84:31 "For whoso is faithful unto the obtaining these two priesthoods of which I have spoken, and the magnifying their calling, are sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies."

Faithful unto obtaining the two priesthoods, Aaronic and Melchizedek, is fairly clear. A man must be worthy to have these authorities conferred upon him. Magnifying a calling means to increase it, or make it greater. The parable of the talents comes to mind, the Lord gave the servants certain authority and responsibility and the righteous servants used what they were given to increase the Lord's property. The servant who was called wicked returned to Lord exactly what he had been entrusted with. In whatever role you are called to, use that authority to draw people close to Christ.

As I pondered this verse I thought about God's daughters and how it didn't seem to fit with my understanding of His justice. Heavenly Father offers all of the same blessings to His righteous daughters as His righteous sons. They hold different kinds of authority, but no blessings are withheld. Trying to understand how women qualify for receiving a renewal of the body led me to other scriptures.

The second verse I found that helped me understand this gift was Romans 8:11 "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." What I learned from this verse is that you have to have the Holy Ghost dwelling within you, being your companion. All those who have been baptized and received the gift of the Holy Ghost are promised that they can have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost if they will live in righteousness according to God's commandments, and heed the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

I found another verse that helped me understand how to qualify for a renewal of the body.  It is Isaiah 40:31 "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." In older English, the concept of "waiting upon" was much more familiar than it is today. This isn't just sitting tight while the Lord does what He needs to do. This is serving intently and faithfully the way an excellent waiter would at a restaurant or how an 18th Century lady's maid would help her mistress to dress and meet other needs.

As I understand it, the requirements to qualify for receiving a renewal of the body are: to obtain the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods if eligible, to magnify your calling (to increase or make greater), to have the Spirit dwelling in you, and to serve God with the faithfulness of one who is intently looking for an opportunity to help.

In addition to qualifying to receive this blessing I think that it is appropriate, and sometimes necessary, to ask for it. While God can give someone a renewal of their body without them asking for it, it also seems like there are often blessings that He wants us to ask for before he gives them. That seems to be the case with personal revelation. All the common scriptures that I am familiar with that discuss receiving revelation have asking as an integral part of the process. I think that is also true for receiving a renewal of your body.

As I speak to the people I work with as a life coach about this principle, we explore how they can qualify for this blessing and how it will help them.  As I mentioned earlier, for many of these warriors that includes the miracle of receiving more rest with fewer hours of sleep.  In other circumstances I think it may have more to do with energy levels, health, and youthfulness than with sleep.  One clear example is President Russel M. Nelson.  Right now he is 95 years old, but he looks, acts, and works like someone decades younger.  In an interview for Church News, his wife Wendy spoke about how as President Nelson is doing the work he came to Earth to do, that he is getting younger.

I don't think you need to be a prophet or apostle to receive a renewal of your physical body, it is just easier to see this blessing in many of their lives.  I think that if you are trying to do the work your Father in Heaven has for you to do, and if you ask to be blessed with a renewal of your body, that God will give you what you need to press forward and "mount up with wings as eagles."

To hire me as your life coach where we can create a plan to put the above principles into practice for you, follow this link.  Fighting Like a Dragon - Life Coaching