Sermon Series: “Triumph Over Death with Long Life”
November 7, 2021
Presenter: Dr. JoAnne P. King
Message: “A Case Study: Living in the Promise of Long Life!”
When you mention the phrase “long life” to many people in the world, they immediately begin to think about feeble, decrepit people on their last leg. They visualize old people with a lot of wrinkles, diseases, and disabilities. Because of this, many people have great fears and anxieties about growing old as they think about their mortality. For them, they think that death maybe just around the corner.
When you say “old age,” what do we really mean? Old age is a relative term. It depends on a person’s perspective. Some people think when they reach the age of 30 and aren’t married, something is wrong with them, and consider themselves old. On the other hand, some people desire to make people think they are the same age of 39 for several years. I believe it was Jack Benny who claimed to be 39 years old for 41 years! Then you have the 50 to 65 year-old crowd, who long to drink from the fountain of youth, and try to live their lives as if they are 30-years old again. They call this the “mid-life crisis.”
Most worldly people are concerned with their physical appearance, and managing their health through modern medicine and science, rather than focusing on cultivating and beautifying their spiritual bodies (inner man) with the Word of God. As such, they spend billions of dollars on such things as pharmaceuticals, Botox treatments, face lifts, plastic surgeon services, breast implants not for medical reasons, buttocks implants, tattoos, body piercings, steroid injections, weight lifting equipment, and much more.
But to live a long and satisfied life requires much more than what our physicians and scientists can prescribe for us. It takes a close and abiding relationship with God, so He can give to you, through the Holy Spirit, wisdom for living a long and full life in Jesus Christ.
Saints, grab your Bibles and turn to Romans 12:1-2. The Apostle Paul admonishes Christians to yield themselves unto God as living sacrifices, holy and well pleasing to God, which is a reasonable and intelligent response to the goodness of God shown toward us!
The second verse gives us two instructions: First, not to be conformed to this world any longer with its superficial values and customs. Second, you are to be transformed by the renewing of your mind by the Word of God so you can test and prove out the good, acceptable and perfect will of God for your life. It is God’s will that you prosper and be in health to the full of your days! (III John 2)
Recently, after one of my sermons in this series, my granddaughter Franciel told me she could not believe my testimony that in my young adult life I used to smoke, drink alcohol and party. But that is what happens when you submit your life as a living sacrifice to God. The Holy Spirit is residing in you. We are the temple of the living God. God said I will dwell in them and walk in them. And they shall be my people. (2 Cor. 5:16)
When we are obedient and separate ourselves from the world, God begins to cleanse us from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit! He takes away the desire for the things of the world! With me it was not an overnight experience, but a process that occurred over time. To this day, I cannot stand the smell of alcohol or smoke from cigarettes, and cannot even imagine that I could be addicted to cigarettes as I was many years ago.
When we were baptized into Jesus Christ we were baptized into his death. Therefore, we were buried with Him by baptism into His death, and as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, even so we should walk in the newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. (Rom. 6:3-5) Saints, we have resurrection power dwelling in us!
The nature of resurrected bodies is compared to a sown seed, that must die before it can become a grain, a tree or whatever. Some want to know, how the dead are raised to life? And with what body they come? It goes through a process to become the body of that seed. God has given each seed a body as it pleased Him. All flesh is not the same flesh: there is one kind of flesh for men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. (1 Cor. 15:35-38)
My message on “A Case Study: Living the Promise of Long Life,” is an examination of my own life to show you how God took the seed (my life) and grew it into the full tree that you see today.
God is not a respecter of people—what He is doing for me, He will also do the same for anyone who will put their complete trust in Him and obey His Word. It is my prayer that your eyes will be opened to remember events and experiences that have happened in the past or present in your life, that God has used to draw you nearer to Him and turn your life around. The events and experiences were all seeds planted in your resurrected spirit to strengthen your inner-man and infuse your physical body and organs with the Anointing of Jesus Christ to give you long-life!
As a natural tree takes many years before it reaches its’ full potential, so does maturing and molding born-again Christians into the image of Jesus Christ. In this case study, I will be demonstrating the following scriptures mentioned above, namely: Rom. 12:2; Rom. 6:5; 3 John 2; and 1 Cor. 15:35-38.
In my earlier sermon on “God the Life Giver,” I gave examples that mostly examined my natural life. I mentioned a few spiritual things, but more about where I worked and how God supernaturally blessed me. This time, we will examine the spiritual side of my life in more depth—how my relationship with Jesus Christ started out small, and gradually increased to the point where now Jesus Christ is “All,” and magnified in my physical body.
When I was 10-years old, I gave my life to Jesus Christ and joined the Bible Way Church where my mother Ida Peters faithfully attended. I received the gift of the Holy Spirit in the summertime after many months of prayer. However, in my teenage years, I left the Church and began living my life as a sinner. But thanks be unto God, even though we may leave God, God never leaves nor forsakes us!
As I look back over my life, and all that I have gone through, I can clearly see God’s divine providence working over and in my life. I married my first husband when I was 19 and had my first son when I was 21. Before my son was born, I had a supernatural encounter with God in the form of a dream, in which the Lord talked to me and showed me my baby.
According to the doctor, my son (Duan) was supposed to be born on 9/29/53. However, the Lord told me that the baby would be born on 10/6/1953. God also showed me what the baby, a boy, would look like—that he would be very fair skinned in complexion with oriental features. You know that was God because my former and deceased husband and I are black Americans with very brown complexions.
Saints to put it bluntly, my pregnancy and delivery of my son was full of danger and drama! For example, I recall as I was leaving work for the day from my Father’s Business College, that was located in Northwest Washington, D.C., I had to pass a pool hall and as I was doing so, I looked to my left and saw a man with a shot-gun pointed out of the window of a taxi-cab. He was obviously looking for someone in the pool hall or on the street to shoot. I was around 7-months pregnant, and too big to be missed, so I took off running from 14th and T, to U Street, N.W—about 3 blocks.
On another occasion, in August, I was taking a nap in the afternoon in a glass enclosed porch at my house. The Holy Spirit awakened me and told me to get up and go into my bedroom. I had barely walked into my bedroom, when suddenly I heard the glass windows in the enclosure shatter, covering the bed I had been sleeping in with glass and even scattering into my bedroom. A freak-golf ball sized hail storm caused the damage. Tell me, whoever heard of a hail storm in August in Washington, D.C.? Truly, the Lord’s angels had taken charge over me!
The next thing that happened was truly bizarre. After giving birth to my son, the attending nurse presented me with the wrong baby! I knew the baby was not mine because God had showed me my son in the dream, and I had seen my child after the delivery. The nurse gave me a baby that belonged to another mother who had not seen her baby after giving birth, and was nursing mine! I immediately demanded of the nurse that my child be given back to me—saying “my son looks oriental and doesn’t have reddish hair!” The staff quickly put name bracelets on the babies and returned my child to me.
Soon after I brought my son home from the hospital. I lifted him up to the Lord and dedicated his life to God. I was serious about it! I was not interested in having him Christened at a church with family all around as some kind of ritual. No, I presented my son to the Lord in my bedroom with tears flowing down my cheeks—thanking God for delivering him and me safely, and vowing to put my child in His service. I never failed to remind Duan how important he must be that God would take time out of His schedule to warn me. I dedicated my second son (Darryl) as well. Looking back on it, I just felt in my heart directed by God to give my boys to Him. As I did, I could feel God’s presence on me and calling me to Him. I want you to understand Saints, that all of these things happened while I was still living in sin—still smoking, still drinking, still partying when I could.
My first marriage ended in divorce. When my sons were around 7 and 4-years old. I took them to a Baptist church with me every Sunday. They were in youth church and I was in adult church. The same Sunday I re-committed my life to the Lord, they gave their lives to the Lord in youth church downstairs. All three of us were baptized on the same day, December 31, 1960, and both of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, respectively at ages 13 and 10 at Bible Way Temple—just as I did! Isn’t God a wonder!
A few years later after re-committing my life to the Lord, I married my second husband. God sent me a man (the late Curley A. King, Jr.) who was more God-centered to lead our family. A man, who although had his struggles, as we all do, was a true believer in Jesus Christ and rendered service unto the Lord. He had a beautiful bass voice and worshipped the Lord by singing in many choirs. As husband and wife together, we read the Bible, prayed, and attended church services. We also travelled all over the country with choirs singing the praises of the Lord.
With our union, we became a blended family, with his two daughters and my two sons. This has truly been a Godly connection between the daughters, sons, their mother and myself. Their mother calls me wife-in-law and we have a relationship like none-other.
From about 1970 to 1990, I began to work in supportive and ministerial positions in churches, in which I fell in love with serving the Lord and studying the Word of God. As I faithfully did the following things, I could feel myself growing deeper and deeper in my relationship with Jesus Christ, and God’s power flowing into my life:
- Taught the Youth Baptist Training Union classes.
- Member of Helping Hand Club & Missionary Board
- Sent “Get Well Cards” to the church’s membership.
- Assisted Head Deacon in giving communion and praying for the sick and shut in.
- Was a devoted member of the Lord’s Prayer Group.
- Led a Bible-study group in my mother’s home.
- Prayer warrior—could call on me anytime.
- Travelled extensively and sang with several choir groups giving God the glory.
- Visited and ministered to sick friends, their relatives, my relatives, etc.
From 1990 to 2000, I joined Miracle Faith Center and since I was retired from Howard University Law School, I volunteered my services as unto the Lord. I learned and was greatly impressed from an earlier visitation from the Lord, that any assignment, task, selection or promotion in the church came from Him! I don’t remember now, how long it was before I was noticed. But I was given assignment after assignment, which I faithfully took care of, such as:
- Cleaning the bathrooms
- Assisting the Pastors’ Secretary
- Typing notes from the prayer meetings
- Working in the bookstore
- Deaconess
- Administrator for the International Executive Women’s Association
- Registrar for the Christian Faith Bible College
- Leadership Counsel
- Director of Women’s Affairs
During this time, the Lord started using me mightily in a healing ministry. While working in the bookstore at the church, I saw this book entitled: “Healed of Cancer” by Doddie Osteen. I picked it up and said I don’t know why I’m reading this book because I am not getting Cancer. (Again, the Lord put the desire in my heart because He knew that I would need it for a healing ministry.)
My heart always goes out to anyone sick and suffering. God had me ministering to people who weren’t even living in my state. I would mail the book to the person in need of healing. With the book, I included instructions for them to read the book to build up their faith for healing and then I would call them on the phone and pray, using scriptures in the book. Many of the sick received their healings—God is a wonder in my soul!
Also, the Lord led me to another book in the bookstore written by the Hunters, “How to Heal the Sick.” They held seminars where they taught Christians how to use the resurrection power of Jesus Christ to heal the sick. I never attended one of their seminars, but through diligent study of the book, I was able to do the things they taught.
On many occasions, starting with family members, I would prove out the healing techniques in the book by growing out their legs and arms right before their eyes, using my faith in the name of Jesus Christ. I would first examine the person’s legs, ankle bones, as well as other joints of the body before praying for them, to see if they had shortened limbs.
A shortened leg, for example, can be indicative of a problem a person is having with their hip or spine. Also, a shortened arm maybe indicative of a person having issues with their spine. In either case, the person has pain and when the leg or arm is grown out properly, the pain stops. In ministering healing to people, the Lord would often give me a word of knowledge of when I needed to grow someone’s legs, arms, or other joints out to increase their faith.
These wonderful miracle techniques were especially helpful for convincing unsaved members of my family and others, who did not believe in God, that the power of God and Jesus Christ is real!
From 2000 to the present, I have been at Exousia Ministries, Inc. supporting and assisting Dr. Darryl in any and every way.
When Exousia Ministries, Inc. was located at Cannon Road Elementary School, I taught the members of our ministry how to grow out legs and arms of people. After now, more than 50-years of walking by faith in Jesus Christ, my seed has grown exponentially. Additionally, I have:
- Been to the Holy Land three times and ministered to our Jewish tour guides from Ephes. 2:14-15 Amp. Bible “For He Himself is our peace and our bond of unity. He who made both groups—[Jews and Gentiles]—into one body and broke down the barrier… so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man,…”
- Recognized and celebrated for my 80th
- Promoted from Evangelist to Pastor.
I thank God that I was able to minister and be of assistance to my mother before she passed. He allowed me to minister to my dying sister who couldn’t see what she had to be thankful for; and my brother before he passed suddenly. I was able to pray and give comfort to my daughter Vernetta and my son Duan, who recommitted his life to the Lord before he passed.
Last but not least, I was able to minister to my husband who passed around 2-years after Exousia Ministries, Inc. came into existence.
Everything that I have gone through has been preparatory for what I am doing at Exousia Ministries, Inc. including obtaining my Master’s and PhD in Theological Studies, to God be the glory! Just look at that seed that was planted many years ago and the tree (flesh) that you see today, as promised in Ps. 92:12-15 Amp. Bible: “The righteous will flourish like the date palm [long-lived, upright and useful]; They will grow like a cedar in Lebanon [majestic and stable]. Planted in the house of the Lord, They will flourish in the courts of our God. [Growing in grace] they will still thrive and bear fruit and prosper in old age; They will flourish and be vital and fresh [rich in trust and love and contentment]; [They are living memorials] to declare that the Lord is upright and faithful [to His promises]; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”
The moral of my story is that as I was growing up from childhood to adulthood and into my senior years—God was conforming me into the image of his dear Son Jesus Christ—like a conveyor belt. He was drawing me closer and deeper in relationship to Him. As I drew nearer to Him, God was healing, fortifying, and strengthening my life to live in divine health, so I can have a long-satisfied life.
Every life is a case story: today’s sermon maybe similar in some respects to your journey in Jesus Christ. Take time out and reflect on your life and you will certainly see how God is maturing the resurrected seed in your life sprouting and growing you more and more in Jesus Christ. Remember: “despise not small beginnings for your latter days shall be greater than your former days!” Let us all now say, Amen!