SOZO Salvation, Healing and Wholeness Lesson One – Healing and Maturity

If we are going to stop “medicating” to regulate our emotions then we need to learn how to return to Joy from emotional stress. Being able to share authentic stories with a loving caring group is one way we can learn this. You will not make your sobriety stick in isolation. You need a group you can trust. This blog will give you things you can do together to help you all heal and be whole.

 When we share with a caring group we are able to articulate our history. There is a sense that our story is significant, and it is! To you, to God and to this group. It is also a way to develop insight. As we share our story in a authentic way we are able to see others reactions. We pick up on thier happiness to be with us, even as we share a deeply personal story. This helps us to see our self worth. When we listen to other people’s stories, we can create authentic bonds by looking intently into their face and listen with our ears and eyes. This is called “mindfulness”. We are in the moment, focused on the other person. We are “mindful” of them and their story. As they share emotions and visceral body reactions, we can actually get into their experience. As we watch and listen, our mirror neurons start to fire, allowing us to mimic their feelings. They in turn can see we are truly listening and are attuned with them. This begins the social “dance” of attachment and creates true fellowship. Tonight, think of a story when you were sad and were able to return to joy. Make the story of a above moderate level but not over bearing to those listening. Instead of telling a story, open up your right brain by drawing your experience. It could be literal picture of the person or thing you are thinking of. It could be part of the story. It could be a symbolic drawing that reminds you of the object of your sorrow. Express it in drawing and then share with the group.

Sharing authentic stories with others will help you build joy and peace.

SOZO is a one year small group recovery program with phenomenal results.

I remember working at a Homeless shelter. I was working on a holistic program that would include helping our client become self sufficient. The trend then was to go for job readiness. It was exciting to see programs start up and classes become formed. I was for training for jobs but it became apparent that this was falling short of self-sufficiency. It was true, you could get ten people to complete training. Then, with the help of sponsoring companies you could get the people jobs. What I found out though over time was that many of those that I followed up on lost their job within six months. Many returning to the streets. Job readiness training was great but it fell short on accomplishing long term goals. The person needed to learn about job retention. Then, if it was really going to stick there would need to be job advancement.

I write about the plight of the homeless because for many in the grips of addiction I have seen a similar situation. We offer people 28 day programs, perhaps a follow-up 10 day training on relapse and then out the door. For the homeless it was more than job readiness it was job retention. I believe for the addicted it is more than sobriety, it is preventing relapse that is the key to longevity.

SOZO is the greek word for healing, wholeness, recovery and salvation. When Jesus used the word He was not talking about short-term solutions but long-term restorations. Christ offers a new life. A new start. But this is the beginning of a wonderful journey. When we start afresh with Christ we are committing ourself to a process of santification.

It is this way with relapse. When we first become sober we are only in the begginning of the journey. We need to correct addictive thinking, addictive feeling, addictive behavior and addictive relationships if we are going to make lasting change. We need to examine ourselves and search for what Terence Gorski calls “hidden warning signs.” As we become aware of our thinking, feelings, behavior and relationships we can begin t make changes that will enable us to live in longterm sobriety. This is what Paul was referring to when he referenced the process of renewing our mind. You can live a life of sobriety. Indeed SOZO is yours. If this is something you want to know more about e-mail today (ron@calvaryop.org) and ask for our phamphet, Relapse No More! 

The book of James in the New Testament is one of the mostdown-to-earth books in the Bible. If James was alive today, he would have probably said, “Keep it real!” His letter is very practical and pulls no punches on how we should be about SOZO.  
      
James was a brother to Jesus (Really half brother, God not Joseph was Jesus’ father!) From what we know he did not believe in Jesus when he was young. Instead it was after the resurrection of Christ that he really gave his life to the cause of Christ.  He became a prominent Pastor in Jerusalem and ended his life as a martyr.

James writing style was very abrupt and to the point. James was concerned about real issues and did not mix words. Here is an example, one that plays in the way we would see circumstances.

“Count it all joy when you have trials.”

Why would he write this? The key is in the greeting of the letter. It reads, “To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations.” 
      
There was persecution of the early church. The result was that they were scattered throughout the region. This also meant that there was much hardship. But to this persecution and poverty James writes something very strange! he says to have joy in sorrow? What could he mean? We know that it is natural to be disappointed, sad, mourn and even angry at some situations.

THE SECRET IS IN WORDS “CONSIDER” AND “JOY”
Consider means “count”. It was an accounting term for “an arithmetical computation” or “to reckon with pebbles”. The word implies that we need to “account” for our joy amid these dire circumstances. We need to reconcile the accounting books “our reality” in light of eternity. Accounting is an exact science where every item is placed in the specific column and within the correct category. These figures are not isolated, but rather each one is given the precise weight of negative or positive and all reconciled together to present a balanced accurate picture of a total condition.

The word “joy” in the Greek  is “chara”. This is not the word for “uproarious laughter” or “exuberance” that would be the Greek word “agalliasis”. Rather, “Chara” defined as a “calm delight”. This is more like a quiet, inner peaceful joy, the abiding, deep-seated current that flows from within. This type of joy was exemplified in the life and character of Jesus and set forth in His teaching.

Jame writes, “Count it all joy”. The word “joy” is preceded “it all”. This implies that the total of our experience should result in a deep, abiding and “calm” joy.

Jesus is good example of this. The Bible says, “For the Joy before Him He suffered the shame.” In His suffering He knew the end result would be JOY

This is like a woman giving birth – There is pain but the outcome is JOY.

Here is another example. It is in the Old Testament book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk wrote a complaint in the first chapter.

“How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.”

He continues:

I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity 
to come on the nation invading us.”

And then Habakkuk has a “count it all joy” moment! Look at what he writes:

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”

Faith Develops Perseverance

James continues in chapter 1 verse: 3 – 4, where he writes, ”Count it all joy because you know that the testing of your  faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. “

James says that joy is the result of faith which developes perserverance and this perserverance has a job to do in us. 
Perserverance gives us the tools to “do the math”—to count it all joy!
It gives us experience to draw on and faith to believe.

Jesus persevered— Habakkuk persevered -
We must persevere – BUT HOW??? James answers this question:

“If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.”

This is what Habakkuk did—He cried out to God for wisdom and peace-

This is what the Bible means that he will give us a peace that passes all understanding!!! Only God can give this kind of peace.

My brother Rod wrote this following explanation after losing a son in a car accident and a few years later, losing a business becaus of embezlement. Rod writes,

“The psalmist writes it this way in Psalms 37:7

“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.”

The phrase “wait patiently for Him” is this word which means, “one who is in deep suffering, in a torturous situation, who is distressed and seems to be writhing in pain.” to spiral or twist in the wind.

It pictures a seemingly hopeless situation. You are waiting in pain. But there is more. The first part of the verse says  to “Be still.”  The “be still” part of the verse is from the word “da mam”.

THIS MEANS “to be silent, to grow dumb or be silent, to be very still, to wait” It also means “going limp and falling.”
The picture here is one giving up and falling to the ground, becoming limp—“to let go” is another translation, to “let go of your grip.” We see this of Jesus in the Garden. He fell over and over—yet for the joy before Him—HE COUNTED IT ALL FOR JOY—HE DID THE MATH

Rather than an answer (as in reason for my suffering), I discovered what it is that God wants me to do. As I twist in the wind, as I writhe, as I flap in the breeze, I am to “let go.” I am to be silent, fall limp and let God take me to the next place.When I was young my friends and I discovered our first wrestling move. It was called the “full nelson”. This is where you take both arms, run them behind your component, lock your hands together behind their head and press down. The result is a pretty severe hold, one that is very difficult to get out of. The automatic response is to panic, stiffen up, and fight. The more you struggle, the more futile it becomes. In fact, when you first encounter it, you can’t get out of it. Then my dad showed me the secret to escaping the full nelson. He explained that when someone comes from behind you and puts this death grip on you, the way to get out is to raise your arms and simply go limp! You let go! You totally give in, and you will slide out of that hold every time. A few nights ago as that came to me, I said, “Father…God…that’s it! That is what you are talking about! And that is what applies to this scenario.”

When we are flat up against a wall, when the pain is intense, there is nothing in sight—the only kind of praying we can do is to in faith, let go. We are to go limp, we are to fall and wait. He will take us to safety.”

You add it up and deep inside you let God finish the math -He will HOLD YOU  – When our life is over, the math will be done and the end results will equal joy!  

James is not talking about a phony joy that ignores injustice, hurt and pain but rather in all of our suffering we can come to a God who will help us see the whole grand scheme, and create within us a peace that passes all understanding. This results in joy – a calm delight .

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The mother plays a crucial role in our development.

We are created in the mother’s womb and we aren’t even close to understanding the symbiotic relationship created their.

From our earliest moments in this earth we get nourishment
and nurturing from our mother.

Who can refute the maternal instinct and the protection and love that a mother normally feels toward their child.

MOTHERS hold us, love us, clean us, hug us, watch out for us, feed us, tell us stories, make us feel special and assure us that we are suppose to be. We get a sense that all is well and we are a very important part of the world. It is from the mother that we get our sense of being and “well-being” in this world.

Mother’s give your children a sense of well being through attention, unconditional love touch, praise and catching them doing good.

But no mother is perfect. We do not live in a perfect world. Each one of us have varying degrees of experience with our mothers.

Our parents try to be the best parents they can, but who hasn’t fallen from the mark? As we grow up we try to compensate for the lack of well-being we may have received .

Rick Richardson in his book, Healing Prayer, shares the results of lack of well being from the mother.

Separation anxiety
Anxiety, that feeling of unease without any real focus, worried, uncomfortable. Often the root of such constant anxiety and lack of peace is early separation from one’s mother. Mom wasn’t there to give a sense of security, peace and well-being. Needs for her presence, comfort and nurture went unmet, leading to a life of anxiety.

Deep fear of rejection
When there is a deep sense of anxiety over losing mother’s nurture and  presence the result can often be an intense fear of rejection.
Sometimes we cling to people other times we may reject before we are rejected. We are terrified of being unloved and yet at the same time we feel unworthy of love. Worst we feel that we cannot be loved.

Comfort seeking
When we feel anxious we long to be comforted. We want the uneasiness to go away. At a deep level we are wracked with pain from the loss of mother’s nurture and sense of rejection. We want to forget the pain or escape it for a while. So we seek comfort, sometimes in healthy ways, sometimes in unhealthy ways.
Unhealthy ways include addictions, excessive adrenaline rush , sexual release or some sort of escapism. For others of us the way we seek comfort is by becoming emotionally emeshed or dependent on others. Comfort is a good thing, but what we choose to comfort us is crucial.
 
What are we to do?

1. Separate our mother‘s inert love from their behavior. Seek to understand and forgive our mother’s action.
  
2. Re-correct your experience
With visualization and meditation you can re-experience your mother’s love and approval. You can experience her saying, “I love you.” “I am so sorry for how AI hurt you.” “I am so glad that you were born.” “You are very special.” “I’m so proud of you.” Can you see your mother saying that? By relating to your mother’s inert love you can see her relating to you in this way. The fact is you are loved by God and deserved to have your mother’s praise and unconditional love whether or not you received it.

3. Appropriate God’s nurturing and caring through being born again
Appropriate means “To take exclusive possession of something.”
We can complete the nurturing and care that we need through our born-again experience.

HERE IS THE KEY:
Jesus said, “You must be born again?” It is a spiritual rebirth. As we become children of God, He becomes our mother and father! We can receive from God a more complete nurturing, caring and sense of well being than any parent could ever give us. In Isaiah 49 the prophet writes, “Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.”

Have you ever considered what you receive when you are born again?
When we are born-again we appropriate:

God’s forgiveness
I John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

God’s grace
Ephesians 2:4-9
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressins—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

God’s blessing
Psalms 1:-3
Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

God’s mission
Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
 
God’s approval
Leviticus 26:9
I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you.

God’s attention
Psalms 139:1-10
O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

God’s touch
Matthew 8:3
Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.
Matthew 8:15
He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.
Matthew 9:29
Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you”;
Matthew 17:7
But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.”
Matthew 20:34
Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him.

Mark 1:41
Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!”

Start to believe and accept all that God has for you as a BORN-AGAIN Child of God

4. Substitute lack of nurturing with God’s love and sense of well-being
We do this by experiencing the presence of God. Having God living in us, is what makes Christianity different than other religions. I’m not talking about some “new age” concept of high power or energy. I am talking about the abiding presence of God in the person of the Holy Spirit. When is the last time you really sensed that God lives in you?

We can experience the love of God and His nurturing presence.
Ephesians 2: 15-19
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

Ephesians 3:16-21
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Romans 8:35-39
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I pray that each of us will be able to accept from God a sense of well being , a deep understanding of His love for us.  We can do this by visualizing God saying:

I am so sorry that you were not able to completely understand how loved you are.
You are my child and very special to me
I am so glad that I created you.
I am so proud of you.
I love you so much.
I will never abandon you.
AMEN!

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Do-Over

How many times have you wanted to do something over?

“If I could just take back what I said”.

“If I could take the test again.”

HERE’S MY FAVORITE – “If I had ONE MORE CHANCE!”

In Golf it is the MULIGAN!

In monopoly it is the “GET OUT JAIL FREE” card.

On Wheel of fortune it is the “FREE SPIN”

I think my favorite was the Omega 13 from the movie Galaxy Quest. It was a space movie with Tim Allen where in the end of the movie he uses the Omega 13 machine which transports the users back in time 13 seconds — enough to change one mistake!

How many times would we use that?

I REMEMBER IN BASEBALL
We would play for hours. But sometimes the play was too close to call. Each team thought they had the right opinion and all kinds of arguing would bust out. Anger, bantering, name calling, even shoving would take place over the next five minutes. However the game must go on. The future of other games was in the balance.

So when the right amount of time had passes someone would shout out, “Do OVER!” Now you couldn’t call it too early! IT would only result in more arguing, BUT AT THE RIGHT TIME IT WAS one of childhood’s most powerful rites.

Do OVER’S rule over the laws of space and time.

DO OVER’s allow you to live beyond the redundant “Ground Hog” Day the Bill Murray found himself in. You don’t have to live the same day over and over again. Take a new spin, step out of the reality you find yourself trapped in. 

My sons would relate “DO OVER” more with VIDEO GAMES that baseball games.
 I would watch my boys rent a VIDEO game and play non-stop for two days until they could beat the game. The way they did it was trial and error and 3000 DO OVERS!

This is so different from the “give me the instructions manual” generation.

In the movie City Slickers, Billy Crystal says to his pal Bruno Kirby,  ”Your life is a do-over,” “You’ve got a clean slate.”

Crystal is addressing his pal who, nearing 40, feels he is at a dead-end. “I’ve wasted my life.” Brunno Kirby’s character laments over poor choices and the consequences he is living with. Crystal tells him that he can start over again. His life can be a do-over.

EVER FEEL LIKE YOU NEED A DO OVER?
You don’t have to be in a life stage to feel that way. The need of a DO OVER can be the result of poor choices that everyone of us make.

A Do OVER is about the Grace that God has available for each of us everyday of our life!

YOU CAN EXPERIENCE A DO OVER!

YOU SEE THERE ARE TWO PRINCIPLES THAT ARE KEY TO DO OVERS: UNCONDITIONAL LOVE and REPENTANCE.

Unconditional Love
David, whom the Bible calls “A man after God’s own heart” had committed some horrible sins.

He committed adultery and in effect murder. He is convicted by Nathan the Prophet and repents of his sins. We see this recorder in , Psalms 51:1-2

Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.

God’s unfailing love can make all the difference in the world!

God’s great compassion allows Him to love YOU unconditionally. LISTEN TO THIS SCRIPTURE:

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:21-23

God’s Unconditional Love is then TEAMED UP WITH Repentance

David continues:
Psalms 51:16-17
You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.

WHAT IS IT THAT GOD DESIRES?
He desires that we come to Him with an attitude of repentance!

Isaiah 59:1-2
Listen! The LORD’s arm is not too weak to save you, nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call. It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.

We say we know God but in reality MANY TIMES we are far, far, FAR away. We have isolated ourself from HIM by our own choices. God longs to have a relationship with each of us but He will not violate our free will.

WE MUST COME TO GOD WITH AN ATTITUDE OF REPENTANCE.

CONSIDER I John 1:8-9
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

LISTEN TO PSALMS 130 and learn how to get right with God.

From the depths of despair, O LORD, I call for your help. Hear my cry, O Lord. Pay attention to my prayer. 

LORD, if you kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive? But you offer forgiveness that we might learn to fear you. I am counting on the LORD; yes, I am counting on him. I have put my hope in his word…for with the LORD there is unfailing love.

Paul the Apostle learned the real secret of the DO OVER!

Look at what he says in Philippians 3:13
 
“I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead”

So what is the secret to the DO OVER?

IT IS ALL IN THE WAY WE NAVIGATE!

You see we think of life as a highway. We think all we need to do is go in one direction full speed and we will reach our destination.

NEWSFLASH – LIFE IS NOT A HIGHWAY.
There are too many variables. It is more like sailing a boat, orienteering our way across the wilderness or sending a rocket to the moon.

FIRST TIME I HEARD THIS WAS READING Charles Garfield’s book, PEAK PERFORMERS

Garfield was a “fresh out of Grad school” psychologist working at NASA, during the moon launch. He was amazed at their ability to put together this UNBELIVABLE TASK. They could keep working at this PEAK PERFORMANCE LEVEL. He talked about the incredible LET DOWN after the moon launch was over. All those YEARS of work were gone, now what. He pointed out that they did not know how to Re-CORRECT their course. He gave an example straight from NASA itself.

He shared that a rocket going to the moon doesn’t go on just one trajectory. It would never make it. It would get way off course. One degree off over thousands upon thousands of miles could be a horrific miss at the other end. The weightlessness of space, the gravitational forces, all of this plays into affect.

Instead A TRUE TRIP TO THE MOON was a series of re-corrections. Garfield went on to say that PEAK PERFORMERS re-correct their course over and over again.

In wilderness training class we would be given a compass and a map and have to trek for two days and reach our destination. Miles of mountains, forest, rivers, gorges all made a straight line impossible. The best way was to get your bearings on the map, pick the place you want to go and go sections at a time. You would get your fix on an object not to far away and zigzag your way their.

Sailing you are subject to the waves and wind. Either could send you off track but working together, watch out! Instead you pick an landmark on the shore and start to go toward it. When you are off course, you find it again, adjust the rudder and go for it again.
LIFE IS LIKE THAT!
Paul shows us how to re-correct our course. LOOK AT II TIMOTHY 3:16 

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”

Here we see a good analogy to the orienteering. Life is like going on the trail. There are kinds of variables.

First, Paul is saying that God’s word was given to us FOR TEACHING. It shows us where the trail is. “HERE IS MY WAY, WALK IN IT!” “Your word is like a LAMP UNTO MY FEET!”

NEXT we see that the word of God is for REBUKING – It is there to help us when we get off the trail. It is shouting DO OVER!!!

Third the Bible is good for CORRECTING –  It is for showing us how to get back on the trail.
This is where God shows us HOW TO DO EVERYTHING OVER.

I’m amazed in counseling how many times someone married to an alcoholic or abusive spouse will get divorced and DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN! That is not the kind of DO OVER WE ARE TALKING ABOUT.

FINALLY, the Bible is for TRAINING. It is for showing us how to stay on the trail. We learn from our DO OVERS. God is busy working in our life showing us how to mature in Him.

THERE IS ONE MORE KIND OF DO OVER

SOMETIMES WE ARE FORCED INTO A DO OVER THAT WAS NOT OF OUR DOING LIKE SICKNESS, DEATH, CASTATROPHE AND ACTS OF VIOLENCE

What do we do then? How can we survive such circumstances?
I received a call from my brother on a particular Saturday morning.
I have never heard a groan like I heard that morning. “He’s dead! My Paul is dead, he cried on the other end of the phone. That morning Paul, Rod’s 13 year old son was in the back seat of a car next to his brother Philip. His mother was driving, Paul was reading out loud from the Bible. A truck going northbound on I-75 hit a patch of ice, lost control slid across the medium and collided with there car. It was a side impact. Everyone was alright but Paul. The impact broke his neck, killing him instantly.

In Hebrews 11 is a famous chapter on faith. It is a glorious chapter. The author gives a long litany of object lessons of faith from the Bible with names of people we have all heard of; Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jacob, Joseph. He ends the chapter writing this:

And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again.

But then the author changes right in the middle of the paragraph. Doesn’t even miss a beat and shares a sobering portion for those who have received HORIFFIC DO OVERS. The author of Hebrew writes:

Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

Paul himself was plagued by what he called a “thorn in his flesh.” Three times he asked God to remove it but instead, Paul writes:

God said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
II Corinthians 12:9 

Nine years after Paul died I was speaking in Detroit. My brother Rod came. He had been struggling with God ever since his son died. That particular evening, as I was finishing my brother got up and left the sanctuary. He later told me that he went downstairs to cry. He called out to God and said, “I want back, I don’t understand but I want back.

God had taken my brother from a going through a horrific time to a DO OVER.

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

What DO OVER do you need?
Is it freedom from an addiction?

Is it forgiveness for something that has bothered your conscience?

Is it strength to undo something you have done or to recommit yourself to what you know you need to do?

Is it the need to accept God’s FORGIVENESS and UNCONDITIONAL LOVE?

Is it time to come to grips from that horrible situation you went through, to forgive, let go, to TRUST AGAIN!

Whatever YOUR SITUATION IS – HE IS THE GOD OF THE DO OVER. Come to Him today!

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Have you ever noticed that in our lives some truths that seem to grab us more than others. It becomes a passion, a cause, a crusade in our life. For me one of those truths is the personal ministry of the each Christian. I deeply believe that each of us has been called as a minister of Jesus Christ. Now you may be wondering, when I say the word “minister” what do I mean? In the Biblical language the word “minister” means servant. Each of us is called to be a minister or to serve God out of our own uniqueness. Unfortunately the term has been lost in today’s church. We no longer think of “minister” in the terms of everyone’s role as a “servant” of Christ but instead relegate the role of Minister to that of a Pastor. That is a person who has a “special call’ who has been to seminary and oversees a church. But this is far from what God intended. Now certainly God has called Pastors to ministry. We all know and deeply believe that God has ordained Pastor Howard to be the shepherd of this church. In fact Paul says in Ephesians 4: 11-12

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,

Here is the interesting point, the verse says; to prepare God’s people for works of service,

Paul is saying that a Pastor has the role of helping equip members of the church to be ministers! Yes, God created you and I to be His representatives here on earth. In Romans 12:1-8, Paul again is writing about that fact that each of us should be ministering in the unique way that God has wired us. He writes:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

IN  VERSE SIX Paul continues:

We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

God has created each of us to minister differently. Let me ask YOU… Have you come to a point in your life where you really believe that God has called you to be a minister or servant of His?

The fact is that most of those attending Sunday services in churches across America do not really grasp this fact. Yet the secular world understands it. As more and more people do not attend church people are doing good deeds through their work. A group of us went to the Greater Chicago Food Depository and had a wonderful time. It was interesting, we worked side by side with a group from the Chicago Tribune. Max Dupree, Chairman Emeritus of Herman Miller, Board Member of Hope College and author encourages secular people to get involved doing good. In his book, Leading Without Power Max Dupree writes:

Make the choice to serve others, for it is truly is a choice we all have. Make the choice to subordinate personal desires to a common good. Make room for spiritual matters, for more and more people in the United States are realizing just how necessary a spiritual dimension is to becoming a complete person. Nonprofit organizations and their spirit-lifting work have become a vital source of understanding. Non-profits and their commitment to moral purpose are strategic instruments of hope in our society and our world.

Having been in secular fundraising I have seen this non-profit rhetoric become more and more prevalent. The world is becoming of the mindset that it doesn’t need the church. In their eyes we aren’t making a difference. Many times when the world sees a problem the church is not their first choice in looking for a solution. It is ironic that the world looks to service as a way to get in touch with their spirituality while many who have true spirituality in Jesus Christ will not serve!

Part of the trouble is that we aren’t sure what we should do, so today I want to share one easy way that each of us can get involved in life-giving ministry. Each of us can minister to others by being God’s messenger. We can simply share with those around us how God has helped us in our life circumstances. God wants you and I to bear witness that He is real, that He helps us with real problems and has real answers to our needs. This is reaching out and helping others in need in the same way God reached out and helped us.

Look at today’s passage in Psalms 71. In this chapter we read about the real problems that the Psalmist is having; yet there is hope given in the middle of all the turmoil in life.

In verses 10 and 11 he writes;
 For my enemies speak against me; those who wait to kill me conspire together. They say, “God has forsaken him;
 
And yet listen as the Psalmist shares about God’s faithfulness.
But as for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more.

He continues by writing:
 
My mouth will tell of your righteousness, of your salvation all day long,
though I know not its measure. I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, O Sovereign LORD; I will proclaim your righteousness, yours alone. Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.
Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come.

This is our call. This is the quest that God has for us,  that we might be that life giving community that gives the next generation that chance to know, grow, serve and share Christ.

Here is the question: Are we reaching to the new generation with the story of God’s love? Are we sharing like the Psalmist, about the wonderful relationship we have with Jesus?
The fact is that most of us struggle with sharing with others. It’s not because we don’t know how to share.

We know how to share and express ourselves.
We can share all about sports.
We can talk about business.
If you want us to share, just ask us about our children or grandchildren.
We can recommend automobiles to complete strangers with confidence.
We can defend our political view and please don’t even get us started about our favorite foods.

We can share about all kinds of topics but when it comes to talking about Jesus we don’t know what to say. We aren’t experiencing the freedom that we should in sharing about the love of Christ.

I have struggled with this for many years. Part of the problem is that we have made witnessing so complicated. I believe it is because we are trying to be something we are not. We feel we have to be “perfect” in order to share. We think, “Who am I?” or we think, “I’m not moral enough, they would think that I am a hypocrite.”  The problem is that we have this image that in order to “share” about Christ we have to be on a pedestal. A Christian without flaw, imperfections or struggles. Where did this come from?  We come to God as a sinner and get gloriously saved but over time something happens. We forget about God’s grace and start to live a life of an imposter. For many of us we were raised in the faith and we often take God’s grace for granted. Instead we have an internal scorekeeper. We keep track of our life using the distorted belief that real Christians don’t sin or have any troubles. We have illusions that everything must go the way we plan and that nothing will ever go wrong. Worst yet we try to live up to what we believe are other people’s expectations. We know that our salvation was by grace but when we do sin, or when something does go wrong in our life we end up feeling defeated. We die to the daily joy that Christ has for us. We begin to harbor deep dark secrets. We put on a false self not just toward others but soon toward God himself. Week after week we come to services with our “church face” on. We smile and pretend that all is well in our life and don’t dare share about our struggles. Well if we have a hard time sharing here at church how would we ever share to our neighbors or people we work with?
The truth is, there are no perfect people in the church! No you, not I! We are not and never will be perfect, so let’s quit pretending. Instead we need to be authentic.
What do we need to do to be an authentic witness and minister of Christ? There are at least three things. First we must recognize and embrace our brokenness. Second we must accept and apply God’s grace to every one of the wounds in our life.  Finally, we must then go forth as wounded healers into the world ministering to those around us.

The first thing that we need to do to become an authentic witness and minister of Christ is to recognize and embrace our brokenness.
 
In Romans 7:21 – 25  Paul shares his own struggles between living in his broken carnal state and the Spirit-filled life. Paul writes:

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Paul recognized the struggle with his carnal sinful nature, but he did not stop there. In the very next verse Paul shouts out his marvelous declaration of independence. He writes:

There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Notice that Paul didn’t say victory came in sinless perfection.” There are no perfect people in the church. No he admits his struggles. Instead He shares about the solution He finds in Christ. Paul writes that there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus.
 He explains why He can say this in verse 15: Paul writes:

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

You see Paul could accept his brokenness, because He embraced His belovedness.

Paul did not shrink from writing about his struggles. Instead he shared about them and then described how he gets victory. This is the model of ministry that we see over and over in Paul’s writing.

Brennan Manning in his book, Abba’s Child shares a story of Mike Yaco-nelli, the cofounder of Youth Specialties, who struggled with this very issue.

Mike Yaco-nelli went on a retreat to come to grips with his spiritual staleness. After time spent in solitude Yaco-nelli writes of his soul’s realization of his brokenness. He writes;

God had been trying to shout over the noisiness of my life and I couldn’t hear Him, but in the silence of solitude I heard Him and my slumbering soul was filled with the joy of the prodigal son. My soul was awakened by a loving father who had been looking and waiting for me. Finally, I had accepted my brokenness. – I had never come to terms with that. Let me explain. I knew that I was broken. I knew I was a sinner. I knew I continually disappointed God, but I could never accept that part of me. It was a part of me that embarrassed me, I continually felt the need to apologize, to run from my weakness to deny who I was and concentrate on what I should be. I was broken, yes, but I was continually trying never to be broken again – or at least to get to the place where I was seldom broken.
Now it has become clear to me that I had totally misunderstood the Christian faith. I came to see that it was in my brokenness, in my powerlessness, in my weakness that Jesus was made strong. It was in the acceptance of my lack of faith that God could give me faith. In was in the embracing of my brokenness that I could identify with other people’s brokenness. It was my role to identify with others’ pain, not relieve it. Ministry is sharing, not dominating; understanding, not theologizing; caring, not fixing.

To be effective ministers of Christ we must recognize our brokenness. Paul was a real example of this. Throughout his ministry he suffered and faced many struggles. In writing in I Corinthian church he writes:

I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I have received from the Jews thirty nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea., I have been in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city , in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep, I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.

Paul certainly knew what it was like to be broken; to live a life that was less than pristine, yet this did not negate him from the ministry. All the more he was able to identify with others and witness to them.

In Hebrews 11 we read of all the victorious living as a result of faith. Noah, Moses, Abraham, Joseph and others trusted God for great things and yet when we read the accounts of their lives we see hardships, difficulties and often times sin. You see God did not promise that this life was going to be perfect, that we would be without sin or any difficulties. What he did promise is that he would never leave us or forsake us. In Romans 8: 34 – 39 Paul writes:

If God is for us, who can be against us?- Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The fact is – all of us have struggles, non of us are perfect.

When I think of those who will be reading this I know that some of us will represent unimaginable suffering, pain, and heartbreak. The death of loved ones, personal illnesses, bankruptcies, divorce, addictions. How many of us have cried over our children, have had nights of terror or wrestled with anxiety and depression? In the midst of all of this, many of us have experienced the Peace of God that passes all understanding. And yet we ask,

How can I minister, how can I be a witness?
 
To answer that question all we have to do is to look around us.
In every street we passed, every house that we saw from the road on our way here this morning there were people looking for the same answers that you have. They have similar struggles that you and I have struggled with. At work we have fellow employees who are looking for the peace that we have. At our children’s soccer games the bleachers are full of parents who are suffering with many of the same problems that we have. Yet we do not share. Why is this?

Perhaps it is because we have not really made our peace with God. We have not embraced that in this life we will be broken. Instead of peace there is shame, guilt, anger, or remorse. We have not come fully back to Christ.

It was early on a Saturday morning that my twin brother called me. I will never forget the pain in his voice. “He’s gone” he screamed. “My Paul is gone.” In an instant Paul who was thirteen was swept away from this earth in a car accident. The pain that my brother experienced only a few of you in this audience can understand. For almost ten years my bother wrestled with God. He could function. He went to Church; he still prayed and even read the Bible. But deep in his heart he was broken and wounded. Year by year the pain was more bearable. When my own boy was hit by a car it was Rod who was the first to come to my comfort. He was able to enter into my fears.

I was speaking about a year ago in Detroit on Every Christian is a Minister and my brother Rod was there. He got up in the middle of the message and came back in about five minutes. Later that night he told me what happened. He explained that he was moved deep in his heart and that he had to get up. He went downstairs to the bathroom and cried out to God. “Finally He looked up to God and said, “I want back, I want to serve you again. It is time.” Rod allowed God to work deep in his heart and he is once again involved in live-giving ministry. He embraced his woundedness and moved toward his belovedness.
 
Not only must we embrace our brokenness, the second thing that we need to do in order to become the kind of witness that will reach out in the community around us is to accept and apply God’s grace for every one of the wounds in our life.

Brennan Manning has written a wonderful book on this very subject. It is called Abba’s Child. In his chapter called, Beloved, Brennan Manning shares the reflections of a teacher from Milwaukie who kept a marvelous journal on his walk with Christ. In his journal the teacher Eagen writes,

“The basis of my personal worth is not my processions, my talents, not esteem of others, reputation…not kudos of appreciation from parents and kids, not applause, and everyone telling you how important you are to the place -  I stand anchored now in God before whom I stand naked, this God who tells me, “you are my son, my beloved one!”
Brennan continues with his own commentary. He writes:

The ordinary self is the extraordinary self – the inconspicuous nobody who shivers in the cold of winter and sweats in the heat of summer, who wakes up unreconciled to the new day, who sits before a stack of pancakes, weaves through traffic, bangs around the basement, shops in the supermarket, pulls weeds and rakes up the leaves, makes snowballs, flies kites and listens to the sound of rain in the roof.
While the imposter draws his identity from past achievements and the adulation of others, the true self claims identity in it’s belovedness.”

The trouble is that many of us have a hard time believing that God loves us. I mean really loves us.

Oh we believe that God so loved the world that He gave His son that whosoever believes has eternal life. We believe God can love us enough to die for our sins, but once we become a Christian we soon forget about His unconditional love. We know nothing of the everyday celebration of being a broken, sinful, human who is loved by God in spite of our imperfection.  Brennan Manning continues in his chapter by writing:

“Our controlled frenzy creates the illusion of a well-ordered existence. We move from crisis to crisis, responding to the urgent and neglecting the essential. We still walk around. We still perform all the gestures and actions identified as human, but we resemble people carried along on the mechanical sidewalk of an airport. The fire in the belly dies. We no longer hear the inward music of our belovedness.

My friends, this is not the way Jesus wants us to live. Instead He says to us
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
We need to come to Jesus knowing our woundedness and accept His daily love and assistance in our lives.

Paul shares another example of this in I Corinthians 5:5, 7 – 9. He writes;

For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 

Paul admits that he has struggles. He admits that he is suffering, but he doesn’t leave it there. He also experience the grace and love of Christ in his life. He shares of God’s power that even though he is pressed in on every side he is not crushed. Even though he admits he is perplexed, Christ helps him overcome being despaired. Finally, he shares that he is persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed. This is what people are looking for. They are looking for a God who helps us in the nitty-gritty of life.

The author of Hebrews shares in chapter 4: 14 – 16 how we can accept our brokenness and belovedness:

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Paul goes farther and shares how the struggles that you and I face, the brokenness that we experience in this life can actually allow us to minister more effectively for Christ.
Paul writes in Romans 5: 3-5
We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Again Paul shares in II Corinthians 12: 7 – 10
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Paul also warns us that our struggle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Paul then admonishes us to put on the full armor of God. Two of the best books I have read on this subject is Victory over Darkness and Bondage Breaker by Neil Anderson. These books can help you walk with Christ and experience freedom in many of the difficulties that we experience. We are looking forward to doing some indebt study of these books. If you are interested please let us know.

This brings up our third point. We are to share with others as Wounded Healers

Yes we are broken and sinful even as Christians, but it is Christ’ love, the fact that we are His beloved that gives us hope. It is His love that moves us into this point number three. Christ sends us forth, not as perfect, pious, holier than thou crusaders but rather as wounded healers showing others who are wounded how to be healed. It is one beggar showing another beggar where the bread is.

Again, Brennan Manning in his book, Abba’s Child. He writes:
In a futile attempt to erase our past, (or I would add our presence) we deprive our community of our healing gift. If we conceal our wounds out of fear and shame, our inner darkness can neither be illuminated nor become a light for others. Instead we need to become what Henri Nouwen calls Wounded Healers. The wounded healer implies that grace and healing are communicated through the vuneralibility of men and women who have been fractured and heartbroken by life. In Love’s service only wounded soldiers can serve.

The Holy Spirit gives each of us the ability to be wounded healers. Paul shares in
Romans 8: 26 – 28

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. – And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, whohave been called according to his purpose.

This passage give us comfort. God wants us to share this comfort with others. In
II Corth. 1: 3 –5 Paul shares:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in our troubles, so we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

Again Brennan Manning shares:
 Our impulse to tell the salvation story arises from listening to the heartbeat of the risen Jesus within us. Telling the story does not require that we become ordained ministers or flamboyant street corner preachers. It does not demand that we try to convert people by concussion with one sledgehammer blow of the Bible after another. It simply means we share with others what our lives used to be like, what happened when we met Jesus, and how Jesus is affecting our lives now.

In I Peter 3:15 Peter writes;
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

One of the best wounded healers I have ever know was Mr. Van. I was fifteen when I first met him. I was speaking at a church and he asked if we wanted to bring our Christian Club to come and help him with a children’s mission. I was overwhelmed by this man’s love, can do attitude. For two years I took ten to thirty-five young people to minister there every Wednesday and Thursday evening. When I started at Wayne State University I decided to live at the mission and work for my room and board.  This is when I really saw him in action. I also learned about his life. He was a successful accountant but had become an alcoholic. He caused his whole family to suffer. One day he became gloriously saved and was free from the pain of alcoholism. Unfortunately he had so severely alienated his family he was not able to win them back.  He lived along and ministered to all the hurting and suffering children in one of the most destitute sections of Detroit. God had taken his woundedness and allowed Gil to see his belovedness. In this realization he went out and ministered to hundreds of families in the same way God had helped him.
When we would lead singing at the children’s mission we would often ask them to shout our their favorite song. I remember so many times that Mr. Van would compete with the children shouting “ No One Ever Cared For Me Like Jesus” 
The author of that song, Charles Weigle was an itinerant evangelist.  One day after preaching at a gospel crusade, he came home to find a note from his wife.  She did not care for the life she led because of being an evangelist’s wife and she was leaving him.  The next few years were a time of despair for Weigle.  He wondered if anyone really cared for him, let alone God.  After a time, his faith was again restored and he became active for the Lord again.  During this time he wanted to put to paper a song that would share the feelings he had experienced while during his despondent days.  From his heart came the words and the tune for this hymn. It goes like this:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I would love to tell you what I think of Jesus
Since I found in Him a friend so strong and true;
I would tell you how He changed my life completely -
He did something that no other friend could do.
chorus:
No one ever cared for me like Jesus;
There’s no other friend so kind as He;
No one else could take the sin and darkness from me -
O how much He cared for me!

Let me ask you, are you willing to be a wounded healer? Are you willing to share with others the way God has helped you? Today, surrender yourself to Jesus to be His minister. All you need to be is a wounded healer!

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 I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection!

 Can you imagine such a statement? Here Paul is sharing with us the secret of his tremendous walk with God. He said it was because he desired more than anything else to know Christ. But he wasn’t just talking about an intellectual knowledge. He wasn’t talking about simply recognizing that Jesus lived and claimed to be the Son of God. In fact, in James 2:19, one of Paul’s contemporaries, cautions against mere head knowledge in James 2:19:

 You believe that there is a God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shutter.

 There is more to claiming God’s power than knowing about Christ. Paul wanted to know and experience the power of God in his life. The great news is that He wants the same for you and me! That means it is possible for you and me to have the same experience as Paul. We can pray the same prayer. Paul prayed it for us in Ephesians 1:18-20:

 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know…his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

In this passage Paul uses four words for the power.
1. The first word for power is “power”. In the Greek the word is dunamis. This is used 119 times in the New Testament. 23 times it is used for the word miracles or workers of miracles. Over 87 times it is used for  power, strength and might. The actual meaning is “a natural power that is inherent in the object.” This is the same Greek word we get our word “dynamite” from. Paul wants us to know that we can have his incomparably great power for us who believe.

2. The second word for power is “working” which is the Greek word energeia. It is used 8 times referring to power, energy, working, work and powerful. This is the word we get “energy” from. This is more than inherent power, it is operative power. It is the “bang” as a result of setting off the dynamite! The power isn’t inherent any longer. It is the active result of the power. Here Paul wants us to experience God’s power which is the working of his mighty strength.

3. The third word for power is “mighty”. This is from the Greek word kratos, which means manifested strength. This word is used 12 times in the New Testament. It is used as power, might, strength and mighty deeds. The word actually means the overwhelming evidence as a result of the “working of His strength.” It is the experience of the “dynamite” blowing near you! It is what the dynamite “does” when it blows up. It is a “mighty overwhelming” explosion. Here Paul want us to experience God’s power that is his mighty strength.

4. The fourth word for power is “strength” which is the Greek word ischuos. This refers to a power that is inherent, part of its natural capacity. Paul is saying that he wants us to know and understand that this power is God’s strength, it is His natural inherent attribute. God is all powerful. He is stronger than any other force! Paul wants us to know God’s strength.

Put it all together and we see that God’s power is inherent in His nature. As a result of that, His power is stronger that any other power and is manifested in the awesome energy poured out through His mighty deeds. Best of all, Paul wants us to really know, believe and experience this power.

How do we begin to pray with power? By partnering with God even before we pray. Ask Him for wisdom and discernment. Ask Him to reveal His will to you. What does the Word say? What is the inner voice of the Holy Spirit saying to you? All of these together can give you the confidence, faith and hope you need in praying. Then praying is agreeing with God. It is joining God in His work in this world. It is working for God in this life while receiving our orders and directions from our headquarters in Heaven. We conference at headquarters first, then we go work in the field. This results in us possessing the full authority and power of God.

How do we begin to pray with power? By partnering with God even before we pray. Ask Him for wisdom and discernment. Ask Him to reveal His will to you. What does the Word say? What is the inner voice of the Holy Spirit saying to you? All of these together can give you the confidence, faith and hope you need in praying. Then praying is agreeing with God. It is joining God in His work in this world. It is working for God in this life while receiving our orders and directions from our headquarters in Heaven. We conference at headquarters first, then we go work in the field. This results in us possessing the full authority and power of God.
 Praying for and with the power of God is foreign to much of what we have learned. We are accustomed to others praying for us, or to praying simply for our needs and for the general blessing of God in our lives. Most of our prayers are emergency prayers. Partnering with God brings us to a whole new level of prayer. It requires the discipline of spending time with God in meditation and prayer until we learn to be in a constant communion with Him. This is what Paul talks about when he uses the phrases: “praying in the Spirit” and “pray without ceasing”. It requires living in the constant awareness of Christ in our life and having a continual relationship with Him. One way to have this relationship is through meditative prayer. This is not an eastern mediation where we are asked to “empty” our minds. Actually, this is the very opposite. We come to God in meditation in order to fill ourselves up with the presence of Christ. We are not trying to empty ourselves in order to reach some unconscious state but rather to develop a more heightened awareness of God.  This opens us up to the living presence of the triune God. The goal of meditation for the Christian is to sense His presence and hear His voice. The result is a more intimate and meaningful worship experience.
Most of us have been exposed to prayer all our lives. However, at times we take those things that are close to us for granted. Praying is similar to a marriage. You can love someone with all your heart and live with them every day and yet be distant, cold and even unkind. Why is that? We find the same thing in our relationship with God. It can become mechanical, motivated out of guilt and legalism and be the furthest thing from a love relationship. It’s like the song says, “Where is the love?” Another way to say it is ,“Where is the romance?” Meditative prayer will introduce you to a deeper, quieter love relationship with Jesus Christ. This is a form of adoration and worship and yet God can use this time with Him to give you great insight and direction. We come to God desiring to give Him our adoration, but we come away from this time of worship receiving much more from Him that we could ever bring to Him!

Here are four ways to practice Meditative Prayer

1.Praying the Scriptures

 There are two ways that you can pray the Scriptures. One is by affirming God’s truth. You pray when you are afraid, “Dear Lord, I come to you who said, ‘Nothing can separate me from the Love of Christ.’”  By recalling a promise from God you are affirming His truth.  This is a wonderful way to pray, but this is NOT MEDITATIVE praying.  I want to introduce you to a second way of praying the Scriptures. It has been taught by many believers throughout the centuries. Perhaps one of the best known is Madame Guyon. Guyon was a famous French Christian writer in the early 1700’s. Her book, Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ, is one of the best read classics in Christian history. It has been read and recommended by Hudson Taylor, Watchman Nee, Fenelon and Count Zinzendorf, among others. I personally count it as one of the most influential books I have read on prayer. Madame Guyon’s writing also appears in the new book, The Contemporaries Meet the Classics On Prayer.
 Meditative scripture reading is simply coming to the Word as a way to meditate on the Lord. Imagine David in the field as he was singing to the Lord. He didn’t have the Psalms to read, he wrote them! In a way you are not reading the verses. It is more like you are writing them. Meditative prayer is a creative praying more than a devotional reading. You are reading to give to God not to get from God. You are pondering the verses.  This is hard for Americans. We are used to productivity and results. We are goal driven. Here the goal is not quantity, you are not trying to read a whole chapter. This is not academic or even searching for direction. It is more of a worship experience. Let’s use Psalms 23.

 Picture yourself like David when he wrote this Psalm. You are out in the field. It is quiet and you have turned your heart to God. Are you comfortable sitting in the field yet? Go ahead, I’ll wait.
 Okay, now turn your heart to the first part of the first verse. This is as far as we will get today:

The Lord is my shepherd…
 
 Read this very slowly until your mind lands on something and then wait there. For example, there are at least three places you could have landed.

The Lord…
 This partial phrase could be enough to spend a half an hour on. You could slowly whisper to God… “Lord, you are my Lord”, then pause …wait.  Then you could say… “thank you, God, for being my Lord.”  Pause and wait. Picture yourself before God. Let your thoughts continue, 
“You are Lord of the entire universe! I praise you, God!”
 You would continue to meditate on the word “Lord”  until no other thoughts come. There is no need to  force anything. This is a slow rhythm, there is no hurry here. When you have exhausted the reflection, read to the next point that strikes you. It could be…

The Lord is my…
 The word “my” could hit you like a lightening bolt and set off another meditation. For example, “Thank you Lord that you are MY shepherd!” Pause and wait as you picture yourself like a lamb before the shepherd, thankful and full of adoration. “My shepherd,” you softly whisper as tears fill your eyes. “Oh Jesus, thank you for being my savior. I love you Lord.” Slow down. No rush. This is slow motion.  Chew on every word, savoring each one like a morsel of food with a taste you are trying to distinguish. This is a deliberate focus. Focus on the Lord and what you really mean when you talk to Him. Pray only a few words, with pauses between. This meditation of the heart comes from the Holy Spirit and goes back to God.
 When this is exhausted, you could turn to…

The Lord is my shepherd…
 You could start all over with something like, “Shepherd, you are my Good Shepherd. Thank you, Lord, for holding me like a precious lamb.” Pause and wait.  Emote for a moment with the Lord. This is not analysis; it is emoting, thinking with your emotion, not your intellect. By now you probably understand what I am talking about so I will leave you to practice more meditative, contemplative form of prayer for the next two weeks.
 Reserve a few moments daily to come to Christ and tell Him your intentions. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you when you meditate on a small portion of His Word.  Continue to use Psalms 23. Follow this pattern but make it your own. There is no right or wrong here; it is your expression from God going back to God. Meditative prayer  is a partnership between you and the Lord.
2. Beholding The Lord

 This type of meditative prayer is best described by Paul in Ephesians 3:16-21:

 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

 This describes how we grasp how wide and long and high and deep the love of Christ is. We want to “behold Him and His love.” We approach the word of God expecting to be filled with His presence. We are not merely reading it or even meditating on it. Rather, we will allow God’s word to be our escort. The word will bring us into the presence of God and there we will meditate on God without going back to the verse. Phrases from the scripture help us link with God in a meditative way and now we don’t want to be confined to the verse. We lay our Bible down and meditate more “free-style” . Enjoy the Lord, praise Him, ponder who He is. Be silent and wonder about God. This is what Paul suggests when he expresses his desire for us to “grasp” the love of God. Once reading the Bible brings us into a thoughtful, worshipful state, we want to reach out and “grasp” the Lord.

 We will again use Psalm 23 for this exercise.

 “The Lord is my shepherd…”

 This time you approach the phrase differently. Repeat the phrase as you allow the words to pull you into the presence of God. Our purpose it to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of God.
 Use the following visualization as an example:

 Imagine yourself in Arizona making a visit to the Grand Canyon. As you approach the famous landmark you begin to observe the surroundings. You look around and see the green grasses, native plants, Pine trees, colorful rock formations and a path leading to a small rise ahead of you. As you look toward the top of the hill you can see that it is a viewing area. Curious about the view you begin to walk up the path leading to the viewing area on the top of the hill. As you get to the top you see a railing at the edge of the cliff. You walk across the viewing deck toward the railing. You want to see the entire view. As you approach the rail you notice the vast horizon in the distance. There is a beautiful purple, red and orange sunset. As you work your way closer to the top of the viewing area you discover a breath-taking view. You are impacted by the enormity as you stand at the top of the Grand Canyon! You move slowly, gazing in every direction.
 
 Stand quietly at the railing. Really try to focus and imagine the view…

Look at the wide expanse … (pause)

Smell the fresh air… (pause)

Feel the warmth of the sun… (pause)

See how high the sky is above, how blue is its color… (pause)

Hear the trickling sounds of the river below, the rustling of the leaves, the chatter of the birds…(pause)

Notice an eagle soaring overhead… (pause)

Gaze into the depth of the canyon far below… (pause)

Capture the reds and  browns of the canyon walls against the sunset… (pause)

Quiet your mind and picture, smell, hear and see the canyon in every direction.
 This is how Paul desires for us to “grasp” the power and largeness of our God.  He wants us to see “how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”  He wants  us to grasp God’s largeness to the point that we may be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” This is not simply an intellectual knowledge. Paul said that this grasping will “surpasses all knowledge”. Paul wrote that Christ would give us the POWER, together with ALL the saints, to “grasp”. This is the power of meditative prayer. This kind of prayer helps us to grasp his love that surpasses knowledge.

 Let’s use the same canyon illustration and combine it with God’s word.
 We will use the same phrase that we did in our last exercise “the Lord is my shepherd.” This time, instead of approaching a canyon, you approach the Word of God. The reading of the Word will take you into a place of worship, your inner sanctuary. You approach the scripture as you did in the first meditation exercise, quiet, and expectant.

 You want to be in wonder just as if you are seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time. You are beholding the Lord. This is a worshipful, peaceful exercise. When you feel yourself starting to be distracted go back to the phrase again. “The Lord…is my…Shepherd” As the phrase brings you back into your inner sanctuary, worship the Lord again. The goal of this quiet, visual exercise is to sense the Lord. Bask in His glory and power.

 Are you relaxed and ready to go?  

(Begin with a broad, general impression of God. Who is this Lord shepherd? What is he like)

Begin by saying…
“The Lord” …As you close your eyes behold the Almighty God! Sense His vastness… (pause)… 
Do it again… “The Lord”… think of His power… His majesty… Most Holy God… (pause) 
Behold Him…
 
(When you feel the you exhausted “The Lord” move into who is the shepherd to you, personally. What does God mean to you. How does His existence impact your life? Get more specific as you contemplate who God is.)

Continue by saying,…
“is my” … let it sink in…  behold He is mine… (pause)… breathe deep and whisper, “He is my”…  feel the acceptance… the love… the closeness… (pause) 
Behold Him…

(When you have exhausted “is my” move into who the shepherd is. Now you begin to see His vastness. You begin to contemplate the almighty-ness of the shepherd. You are awed by Him.)
Continue by saying…
“shepherd” … He is my shepherd… behold the loving shepherd (pause) …

slowly, very slowly “grasp” how wide His love is…  (pause) … 
The lord… is my… shepherd… close your eyes and ask God to help you feel how wide is His love…
Sense how vast and how long is His love for you… (pause)
Slowly, barely whisper… “the Lord”…(pause)… “is my”…(pause)… “shepherd”…
“grasp” how high His love is… (pause) … how deep is God’s love for you—Praise Him for that love
In praying the scriptures you come to God from many different verses, letting Him guide you through the inferences of His word. In beholding the Lord you can use a verse or phrase to quiet you so you can meet with the Lord and behold Him. Next we will continue this theme of  simply being still before the Lord and listening to Him.

3. Palms Down – Palms Up

 By now you can see that we are advocating something different than coming to God with a shopping list of requests. In the first two types of meditative prayer there was a worship aspect to the meditation. Our goal was to clear a space in our “inner sanctuary”, become aware of God and reflect on Him. We did this by using the Word of God as a catalyst, triggering a thought about God that would allow us to focus on Him. Today we want to try to “be still and know that He is God.” This is being silent before the Lord. The spiritual discipline is called “solitude.” This is harder than it seems. That is why we spent the first four weeks practicing the other two exercises. Our goal was to stop the mind from fluttering from one thought to another and settle on thinking about God. Today we want to try to quiet the mind and let God speak to our heart.
 Now I love “praying the scriptures” and “beholding the Lord.” It is so deeply rewarding to come to the Lord and give Him my deep utterances of worship. But what we will practice today is just as rewarding. We are going to come by faith and approach God to see what He wants to do in our life. Because we come by faith we can trust this exercise. We are coming to our Heavenly Father and asking Him, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to commune, to fellowship with us.
 Solitude and silence before God is often confused with being alone. Nothing could be farther from the truth. As I pointed out in the first exercise, we are not emptying the mind in some new age sort of manner, but filling our mind with God. We are not detaching ourselves from life but attaching ourselves to God. We are not seeking solitude to be alone but we are coming to God in silence in order to listen to Him and be in fellowship or communion with Him.
 Jesus practiced this discipline many times. He went into the desert for forty days. He often went away from his disciples to be alone and pray. The good news about solitude of the mind and heart is that you do not have to be in a desert to practice it. Throughout the day I can snatch little moments of time and go away into my inner sanctuary to experience quietness before the Lord. With practice you will find that you can get to that place of rest before the Lord more easily. It becomes a familiar and trusted place and your mind will begin to cooperate.
 The hardest part of this exercise is to shut the mind down. A technique that really helps is called “palms down, palms up.” It is amazing how our body movements are tied into our cognitive processes. Have you ever tried to remember something and looked up to the ceiling for the answer? I had a teacher who once said, “Quit looking up, you won’t find the answers up on the ceiling.” What the teacher did not know was that looking up can indeed be a trigger for certain types of recall. In order to quiet ourselves we can use the palms.
 Let’s try a ten minute exercise. Set a timer so you won’t have to watch a clock. Find a comfortable chair and sit in it. Place your palms down. The palms down is a symbolic trigger mechanism to your mind to settle into the chair, to let go of any distracting thoughts. Your shoulders slump down and you start to relax. As you put your palms down it will be natural to let out a cleansing breath. When you do, what worries or concerns come to your mind? Give them to God. Often this will become the inward work that God will want to work on in the background of your thinking. Often at the end of the exercise, when you put your palms back up, you will have a solution to the worries and concerns that you will talk to God about. For example:

  Once you are comfortable start with prayer… “Lord I want to spend the next ten minutes quiet before you. Help me surrender for these few moments all those thoughts that would hinder me from meeting with you.”  Then wait…Turn your Palms Down – As your concerns come to mind, give them to God… “Lord, I am worried about John who I offended yesterday. I give this situation to You and trust You will help me work toward  a good resolution.” (Release it to God. Say, “Lord I give it to You”). You may continue, “ Lord, I am worried about my son’s test in school today. I give him to You. (Release it. Give it to the Lord.) Or, you may say, “ Lord, I am upset about our money situation and I give this problem to You.”
 I know you are thinking, “Who could meditate with all that on their mind”? That is the point! We often don’t meditate. Instead all we ever do is bring a list of concerns to God. This is good but it doesn’t take us into that deeper relationship with God that our soul longs for. This exercise allows you to begin by bringing your list to the Lord, but then you switch to …
 
Palms Up – This is symbolic of receiving from God. Don’t be surprised if, after a moment, you have a sense of peace and might say, “Lord, I receive from You the power to love John and make peace with him. (Pause) Lord, I receive peace from You about my money situation. I receive the courage to go and ask for help with my finances.” (Pause)
 The beauty of this exercise is this…If another problem pops into your to mind, you simply  turn you hands over and pray palms down. Release the problem back to God, relax and be still. After a moment turn your palms back up. Don’t force anything. Your hands are simply open to receive. Receive God’s peace, breathe it in… receive His calming presence, breathe it in… When you feel comfortable, lift your hands up with the palms still turned upward. Now your raised palms represent an offering to God. Offer yourself to Him … “Here I am Lord… I love You Lord… I worship You…  I now quiet myself before You simply to enjoy Your fellowship and presence. I want to be still and know You.” When you are quiet and enjoying His presence, put your hands down next to you and enjoy the silence. Allow the Lord to commune with you. Impressions or thoughts may come, they may not.  It doesn’t matter. You only want to enjoy the solitude and experience God’s peace.
 The alarm will go off way before you want it to. When it does, turn it off and then come back and thank God for this quiet time. Tell Him that you love Him. Take some paper and write down what happened. What did you feel? What did your mind see? Where were you?  What were your impressions? What were your thoughts? Next time, add 5 more minutes to the timer and see how it goes. See if by the next session you can put 30 minutes or more on the timer. When you start to get that much time, you may want to combine the first exercise into this. Your meditation on God’s word could last a few minutes and then you could enter into solitude for the remainder of the worship time. I trust that you will enjoy the peace of God that passes all our understanding during these exercises.

4. Practicing the Presence of Christ

As you begin to experience becoming quiet before the Lord in your inner sanctuary you learn to get to that quiet place more easily. You are more in touch with your inner life. This will help you begin to help you understand how to be more in tune with your  inner relationship with God while living your normal active outward life. It is the practice of being conscious of and interacting with God all the time. God is in the person of the Holy Spirit to guide, comfort, convict, instruct and encourage you. Practicing the presence of God is being sensitive to your inner dialog and then use mental whispers to talk to God at all times. Have you ever had to do something when your supervisor, teacher, parent or other judging official was watching? What was it like? Were you conscious of them being there? Wasn’t an inner dialog going on? If you couldn’t do something, didn’t you communicate with them to resolve your situation? The principle of “peer pressure” works this way. It is the awareness of an inner voice that says everyone is judging you, they will laugh at you or reject you unless you conform to their standards. We all have an inner dialog going on. What we are encouraging is to become more involved with an inner dialog with God.
 In Praying the Scriptures, Beholding the Lord and Palms Down-Palms Up we learned to develop a better inner relationship with God; to  encourage the use of your inner faculties to help you know God better and better. As you fall more and more in love with Jesus and visit with Him in prayer and meditation, the more real your inner relationship with Him will become. All we are doing now isa suggesting is that you use that inner relationship and be conscious of it throughout the day.
 There are many opportunities to partner with God throughout the day. You can commit various activities to the Lord. You can ask for wisdom on many occasions. Giving thanks for many blessings is another natural occasion to address the Lord during your day.  This is exemplified in I Thessalonians 5:16-19. Paul wrote:

 Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the  Spirit’s fire.

 Notice Paul’s insistence on taking our relationship with Christ into every second of our life. He used the words always, continually, all circumstances. Paul is leading us to understand that we should be conscious of God through every situation. God is the cause of our joy no matter what the circumstances. That is why Paul could say for us to be joyful always. God is the one we pray to continually. God is the one that we give thanks to in all circumstances. The Holy Spirit’s fire is to be burning continually, we are not to put it out.   
 Paul knew of this inward dialog when he wrote:

 We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.  II Corinthians 10:6

 Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers…
 Ephesians 6: 18 LBT

 We get a picture of Paul very much in touch with his feelings, thoughts and even day-dreams. He disciplines himself to make sure that He doesn’t allow negative self-talk to ruin his walk with the Lord.
But, practicing the presence of Christ is more than being aware of your thoughts and correcting them. It is more than making requests or even stopping to give thanks throughout the day. These are part of it but there is more. The emphasis is on the word “presence.” It is practicing the “beholding the Lord” exercise until you are able to “behold the Lord” quietly anywhere at any time. When that happens, you will be equipped to enter in and out of His court all day long. 
 By being able to “behold the Lord” in a moments’ notice you can ask God to then give you assistance, impressions, guidance. You can visualize God helping others as you whisper prayers of blessing upon them. There is no limit to what you and God can do together as you become more and more aware of His presence 24/7. In the passage we looked at earlier, how do you think Elisha’s servant felt after he saw the army of angels?

 And Elisha prayed, “O LORD, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw  the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. II Kings 6:15-17

 As we ask the Lord to open our eyes to the reality of His presence all around us, we will do more than gaze at the army of God, we will experience His power in our life.

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Do You Know What Your Spiritual Gifts Are?
Now You Can. CLICK HERE to Get your FREE Spiritual GIfts Test and Workbook
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In Romans 12 Paul the Apostle say that we are to present our self to God as a living sacrifice. This is a once for all act – sacrifice yourself. It means submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in your life. This starts a process of transformation into a fully dedicated follower of Jesus Christ!

Romans 12:2

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but
be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Be transformed by the renewing of your mind

WEBSTER: 
RENEW = to change in character or nature, or function

God wants to transform each of us.

God wants to transform us from:
Worrier to courageous
Broken to renewed
Bondage to freedom
Depression to optimistic
Angry to forgiveness
Defeated to victorious
Selfish to selfless
Worldly to Godly

When you think of it, growth is in a constant form of transforming. God wants us to be transformed but HOW?

BY THE RENEWING OF YOUR MIND –
This was not some psychobabble. This was 1900 years before Freud.
Jesus knew the way humans function.

We are told to be “transformed”!
What does that mean? Paul uses the Greek word, that  we get our word “metamorphosis” from. Such as in the caterpillar that changes into a butterfly. In this text it is translated “transformed” and is in the passive voice, which indicates that this process is being performed by an outside force, in our case, the Holy Spirit. In addition “be transformed” is in the imperative mood (command), which suggests human responsibility. We are to allow the Spirit to do His work within our hearts and lives.

How does this transformation take place?

Paul says “by the renewing of your mind”. Stated another way this renewal depicts an essential change in character of your thinking – you can now think a way that wasn’t possible before. This renewal is the gradual conforming more and more to that new spiritual world into which we have been introduced & in which we now live and move.

We need to change our SELF TALK

Thoughts cause feelings. Many emotions you feel are preceded and caused by a thought, however abbreviated, fleeting, or unnoticed that thought may be!

It is this early thought process, this self talk  that we need to be renewed.

What is self talk?

The inner man, the inner voice, the real way you feel, what you mutter under your breath, those thoughts that cause moods and behavior that sit underneath the service – We know seven things about self-talk

Self talk is: Subtle – in shorthand. Listen to the emotion that these short phrases have – emotionally laden words – “getting sick” – “can’t stand it” – “lonely” – “ won’t be loved”  – “no good” “rejected”  – “should have”  “could have”

Self talk is: Almost always believed! This is where jumping to conclusions comes from, mind-reading, over generalization, polarized B& W thinking. This is where chronic anger, grudges, prejudices, bitterness comes from here. – grudges, unforgiveness

Self talk is: Spontaneous – Our self talk is believable because they come out of nowhere. So they are not challenged.

Self talk is: Often negative – We tend to awfully. This is where ungratefulness, pessimism, complaining, whining comes from. Over generalized, mind-reading

Self talk is: Different than our public speech - We come and put on our Sunday talk and then later we talk to others in a different way. Our self talk often flies in the face of what we say we. This is why we can be one way on Sunday and a different person at work, home or alone in front of the computer.

Self talk is: Persistent and self-perpetuating – Hard to turn off.

Self talk is: Learned – This is the part that gives me the greatest hope! If indeed our self talk isare learned then it can be unlearned and new thoughts can replace them. THIS IS WHAT PAUL MEANT WHEN HE SAID, By the Renewing of your mind!

WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT YOUR SELF TALK?
Start listening to your self-talk and bring all your thoughts into line with what God’s word says.

Start renewing your thoughts by praying scriptures.

Renounce negative thinking as sin and ask God to help you believe the truth.

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In spite of what they say, 90% of the chronic patients who see today’s physicians have one common symptom. Their trouble did not start with cough or chest pain or hyperacidity. In 90% of the cases, the first symptom was fear. 

This is the opinion of a well-known American internist as expressed in a roundtable discussion on psychosomatic medicine. This is also the consensus of a growing body of specialists. Fear of losing a job, of old age, of being exposed—sooner or later this fear manifests itself as “a clinical symptom.” Diseases with a link to fear include cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, digestive-tract diseases, crohn’s disease, bowel syndromes, ulcers, headaches, skin disorders, immune dysfunctions.

Clinicians recognize about 12 relatively distinct subtypes of anxiety disorder.

Anxiety disorders have surpassed depression and alcoholism as the number-one mental-health problem in
America. At sometime during their lives, nearly a quarter (24.9%) of the adult population in the
United States will suffer with an anxiety disorder.

One of the best descriptions I have read of someone who suffers with anxiety disorder was on a website for Phobias. It read:

If you suffer from phobia and fear, you probably don’t want to talk about it or want people to know that you have this disorder. Why? We both know the answer to that question.First, deep down inside you may feel that there is something “wrong” with you – that you’re different. And out of control at times. That’s because you experienced phobia or fear that you may be defective in some way that can never be fixed. Second, somewhere inside you may feel that no one really understands you and how you feel. No matter how compassionate, understanding or competent a friend or therapist may be, you know that they haven’t experienced the feeling and terror that you experience in your body.  Third–and this may be the toughest part, just talking about your phobia and fear symptoms brings on the symptoms themselves. You are in a kind of “Catch-22″ situation. Perhaps the most tragic part of phobia and fear is that they prevent you from living life to the fullest. You may not want to go to certain places or experience certain events for fear it may trigger your phobia or fear. Regardless, phobia and fear prevent us from living a joyful, vibrant life. The good news is that there is  a way out!

Fear is something that I studied all my life. I thank God that he is able to help us conquer this enemy of our soul.

I remember being a child and when I started fearing.

Fear of the dark, fear of mugging, fear of Abandonment, fear of traveling, fear of water.

fear of rejection and fear of failure.

Later this would blow up into a fear of traveling and eventually a bad case of claustrophobia. It got so bad that I was afraid to go to sleep, because I was afraid to get up and start fearing all over again.

The best thing that happened in my life was the Lord. At a young age I had to learn to lean on him. I knew more about cognitive psychology by the age twelve than most therapists. I had to. It was the way I learned to survive. Later in my Master’s study in Psychology I learned that I had been practicing crude methods of cognitive restructuring, stop thought techniques, systematic desensitizing that I learned from trial and error.

Over time the Lord has helped me with all my fears. His abiding presence. The power of His word, His promises and the Holy Spirit that has groaned on my behalf, far more than He has for others, has made all the difference in my life. Faith was no trite word for me. My whole life was either fear or faith. My friend, if the Lord has helped me, I know He can help you.

Let’s look at worry, anxiety and fear and how God can set you free. 

Worry

The first form of fear is worry. This is different from concern. “Concern” means to “have an interest in, give attention to, be engaged by a situation, as a matter of consideration or responsibility” BUT “worry” is a disquieted uneasiness of mind, an anxious apprehension concerning an impending or anticipated situation; fretting about a foreboding misfortune or failure.

“Concern” becomes “worry” when we fail to relate the situation that confronts us to the source of sufficiency in God. To worry is to assume a responsibility that is not necessarily ours to assume; failing to recognize that God is bigger than any problem we might have, and loves us enough to seek our highest good in the midst of every situation.

Worry is a form of humanistic self-orientation that thinks, “It’s up to me to take care of this situation,” and is thus a form of practical atheism, acting as if there is no God to deal with the situation, or that God doesn’t know or care about the situation.

When I worry, what are the lies I believe?

God does not care

God does not make a difference

I must do everything myself

Things must go my way

I can’t trust God with any outcomes

Faith – The Cure for Worry

Believing God is in charge of all things and that we can rely on Him to do what is eternally best for us.

Romans 8:35—39

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

Nothing can separate us from His love but the trouble is that worry doesn’t believe it! Soon worry becomes a habit. The good news is that most habits can be broken. When I first realized this, I felt real hope. What joy flooded my soul when I finally understood that I was not a victim of something outside of me but that I was making a choice to worry and that faith was a choice too!

The question is “WHAT DO WE CHOOSE?”

Jesus said in John 14:1, “Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me.” 

Jesus said it best in Matt 6—“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life! Do not worry about tomorrow!”

HERE IS A CHOICE:I Peter 5:7 Cast all your care on Him for He cares for you!

When we come up against something and start to worry we need to take a hold of fear and call it what it is, a “SIN”. We need to renounce it, repent of it and substitute faith for it.

Anxiety

The second form of fear is “anxiety”. This is an abnormal, overwhelming apprehension; anguished uncertainty and self-doubt about one’s ability to cope with the situation, to the point of becoming distressed, distraught, panicky or tormented.

Anxiety is different than fear in that fear has an object that it is fearful of BUT anxiety lacks an object or adequate cause. People are anxious because they are uncertain about a  specific outcome. Consider these scripture verses:

         Ps. 38:18 – “I am full of anxiety because of my sin”

         Ps. 94:19 – “my anxious thoughts multiply within me”

         Prov. 12:25 – “anxiety in the heart of man weighs it down”

What I am full of anxiety, what are the lies I believe?

God is not in charge

Things have to go my way

I will not be loved

Something is going to go wrong

I cannot make a mistake

It’s all about me

TRUST is a Biblical Cure for Anxiety

Ps. 37:3-7

Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;  

We trust God when we pray to Him about our situations and leave it with Him. Paul tells us how to handle anxiety:

Philippians 4:6-7

Be anxious for nothing! But in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God; and the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 

Fear

We have considered worry and anxiety, but what about fear? Fear is an emotion experienced in anticipation of some specific pain or danger (usually accompanied by a feeling of fright or flight) It is a painful emotion or passion excited by the expectation of evil, or the apprehension of impending danger;

Fear can range from a healthy fear to phobias that are irrational fears.

When we are fearful, what are the lies we believe?

I am alone

No one loves me

God is not able to help me

God is not in control

I’m a victim

Cure for Fear—Truth 

Dr. Edmund Bourne is a famous cognitive psychologist in the field of anxiety disorders. He wrote the classic book, The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook. Yet because of his own reoccurrence of anxiety, he was forced to say that there are limits on his own theories. He concluded,

In my own experience, spirituality has been important and I believe it will come to play an increasingly role in the psychology of the future.

While there is no evidence of Bourne being a believer in Jesus Christ, he does acknowledge the Spirit/emotional link.

Two ways to let truth permeate our mind and heart is through prayer and meditation

Look at what the Bible says about this:

Joshua 1:7-9

Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” 

II Tim 1:7

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. 

We need these to help tear down the strongholds.

II Corinthians 10:3-5

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.  

What are STRONGHOLDS?

As we look at the passage we just read we see that strongholds are “arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God,”

It is anything that takes occupies our mind and will and holds us captive keeping us from choosing to do the will of God.  Addictions, poor habits, bitterness and yes fear.

This is why Paul told us to take every thought “captive.” These negative thoughts of fear are the enemy and we need to capture them and replace them.

But we need to be careful. Unfortunately, we often see Spiritual warfare portrayed as a shouting match, a power struggle. But the truth is that true Spiritual warfare is not a power struggle it is a TRUTH encounter. We need the truth of the word.

Ephesians 6:10-18

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.   

Paul talks of the battle we have. We need all the spiritual armor, but if we are going to conquer strongholds we need offensive weapons—Paul writes about two,  the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God and praying in the Spirit!

First the word of God

Hebrews 4:12 says

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 

I firmly believe that the Bible is able to is able to change our minds imprint to our very cellular being. He can heal us through His word and power!

Second, prayer

The practice of praying scripture changed my life. Praying the word is my favorite type of Meditation. There is nothing short of doing it. I am producing some guided meditations praying scriptures. You can listen to these and enjoy time with God.

God is able to help us with fear. When we acknowledge our negative attitudes, renounce them, truly repent and then replace them with the truth we will see victory. Pray His word and you will find that fear will dissipate and God will give victory over this stronghold!

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“God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”
II Corinthians 1:3-4
I love the term “wounded healer.” It was coined by Henri Nouwen, in his book by the same name. It conjures up the image of a person that comes along side of someone and shares “healing” with great understanding, compassion and empathy. Why? Because they have been in the same situation. They share the same wounds and scars. They know the other person’s pain. But Paul is going a step farther than just being a wounded healer. He is suggesting that we be a “healed healer!”  There is great empathy and compassion in being wounded and helping another with their wound, but besides empathy and compassion there is hope, health and wholeness offered by a healed healer. Paul states that God is the merciful father and the source of all comfort. As we come to Him and receive comfort we are to go and give this same comfort to others. As God heals us we share that healing. Should we be full of empathy? Yes, much so. Should we be compassionate? Yes, we of all people. Should we be patient, kind and understanding? If we are not, then we have forgotten that it was by His grace that we were healed. When God comforts us, we are grateful, humbled and full of joy. Make His comfort complete, by going and comfort others in the same way. May we never forget His mercy. May we never forget to treat others in the same way He has treated us.

Prayer to be a healer
Dear Father, God of all comfort. Thank you for the many times you have comforted me. Forgive me for not being as compassionate and patient as I should toward others. Forgive me for forgetting how much you have done for me. Help me today to extend that same comfort to others that you have given to me. Help me love those that you bring into my path today in the same way that you love me. 
AMEN

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Now You Can. CLICK HERE to Get your FREE Spiritual GIfts Test and Workbook
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