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Jesus is the redeemer of your life. Some of us don’t feel like we’re enough. Some of us are grieving what we didn’t have in our lives—but God isn’t done with us yet. Jesus came to restore your purpose! Jesus’ death isn’t an eternal life insurance policy—it’s life now.
Even when you can’t see it or feel it, heartbreak is almost always ushering us to something better.
And not a tear is wasted
In time, you’ll understand
I’m painting beauty with the ashes
Your life is in My hands
—Just be Held lyrics, by Casting Crowns
Jesus asked the man at the well, “Do you want to get well?”
God is interested in making all things new. Ask God, “what’s next?” and “give me the courage to walk out where it is in you are leading.”
Inside of us is the person that we were meant to be. We only need to chip away the parts that keep us in bondage to fear, to addictions, to low self-esteem, to feeling unworthy to be loved by God and others. Change is what happens when we break free from these hindrances. —Scott Reall, Journey to Freedom
Dare to change the behavior it will take to be known by your real name. Pray for courage, belief, boldness.
You’re hiding because your true identity has been lost.
I can see the freedom on the other side of your boldness.
Ironically, living a life of more, comes through surrender.
God’s love woos us to a place of change ; loves you back to health
Submitting to God and healing will be a process: Sometimes we have to put up our hands (of submission) in faith and believe God, even if we’re not sure; and He will meet us just where we are. –Dan Wothke
My weakness is a magnet for God’s power.
—Steve Berger
Cheer up! You’re much worse than you think, but Jesus is a much bigger Savior than you ever dared imagine.
—Jack Miller
Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired?
Jesus, overhearing, shot back, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I’m here inviting the sin-sick, not the spiritually-fit.”—Mark 2:17
We survive when we surrender our life.
Salvation is the power of God, for our rescuing.
The mind, the will, and the emotion, cannot on their own bring about what God wants to bring about—only through His Spirit. As the Spirit is poured out, it makes us more like Jesus—His nature is reproduced in us.
Having self-awareness means you can identify personal issues that contribute to the problem. —Dr. Henry Cloud
Wounds are holes in our soul. We don’t want to have leaky souls like leaky buckets. We need healing so that we can hold God’s love and it doesn’t all leak out.— Margaret Phillips
Wounds cause narcissism, defensiveness, offensiveness.
Fear, shame and guilt bind you and keep you from doing what God calls you to do.
The difference between a wound and a scar: a wound is a hurt place that hasn’t been dealt with and is very painful. A scar is a hurt place that I have dealt with and I remember, but I don’t feel the pain anymore.
We create an unhealthy, neurotic and therefore compulsive and predictable style of relationship as a survival method to overcome our childhood pain.
My life will conform to the story I tell about the world, my life, and what it means. We navigate the world by the stories we tell. A bad story is a kind of prison. A good story is a kind of sanctuary.
Think about who you would have been if you had been born perfect in the garden of Eden. That is WHO you are/who I am! Everything else is but a fig leaf (something covering up who I was originally created to be)!
HOPE
If we have dealt with an issue for years and it hasn’t changed, a lot of times we get to a place where we just say “it will always be this way”. However, the only three things that will remain when Jesus comes back are: faith, hope, and love.
Hope is believing that something good is going to come. Hope is not a wish, because it has a predetermined outcome. Hope is believing in the absolute goodness of God.
Hopelessness is
1.feeling alienated, feeling different, feeling like an outsider;
2. feeling forsaken, abandoned. Jesus felt this in the garden of Gethsemani when He was facing death and his disciples fell asleep.;
3. feeling uninspired, just taking life as it comes
4. feeling powerless; you do no have enough strength to navigate where you need to go
5. feeling oppressed, crushed by circumstances
6. feeling limited, not having enough resources
7. feeling doomed
8. feeling captive, feeling like you’re in a prison; a lot of times we place ourselves in a prison based on curses we have believed
9. feeling exposed to trauma through uncontrolled stresses
There are no hopeless situations; only people who have lost hope.—Brian W. Wade
Romans 15:4 So that through endurance, we might have hope. God gave us the Old Testament to show people as they really are so that we can have hope. Endurance is to persevere through trials. God is faithful. If He was faithful to deliver Joseph, Isaiac, Jacob from themselves—He will also deliver me.
God is the originator of all hope. You do not hope when obstacles are removed. Hope exists in the face of circumstances. —Brian W. Wade
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him that you might overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Rom 5:13 God is the originator of all hope. We do not need hope when obstacles are removed. Hope exists in the face of circumstances. God doesn’t want to barely fill us with hope. He wants to fill us to the full, so that we’re splashing over and filling others that are hopeless.—Brian W. Wade
Hope believes in spite of circumstances. Hope is open to change. It is not dedicated to doing the same things over and over again with the same old results. Hope thinks new thoughts. —Scott Reall, Journey to Freedom
RISK
If Peter had stayed in the boat, he would have been safe. Stepping outside of the boat is risky. In our heart of hearts, we still have our own plan. We use God to control our environment. When Peter gets out of the boat, he is surrendering his reality. We are in a process of letting go of the things we’re clinging to. Men will fiercely cling to what they know.
I surrender that my plan with Christ in an unknown. It’s a mystery because I do not know how it will work out. What am I truly clinging to for hope? We survive when we surrender our life to Christ and His plan.
PRAY
Ask the Holy Spirit to free you of all condemnation or whatever is holding you down. Ask for LIFE. Ask the Holy Spirit to guard your mind. Ask Him to help you KNOW that you are a child of God.
Prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Pray For Healing–Prayer changes things.
When in trouble, pray. James 5:13 God has changed His mind at times in response to prayer. James 5:14 Do you need healing? Call the elders, be anointed with oil, and confess your sins
Elijah was a man just like us. His prayers were powerful and effective. Your prayers are powerful and effective.
He is the redeemer of my life, your life. Some of us don’t feel we’re enough. Some of us are grieving what we didn’t have in our lives–but the truth is that God isn’t done with us yet. There is still hope!
The point where the Enemy is howling the loudest, bringing the most destruction, is the point where God is going to bring about life. With Christ, death is always the precursor to LIFE.
My experiences, my most wounded places were intended to be my strengths —Wild at Heart
We need a new identity in the deepest places of our hearts to replace the identity created by our wounds.
Your wounds, the lies you believe are the Enemy’s way to keep your heart pinned down.
SANCTIFICATION
Sanctification—to make holy. Happens once. He can’t do more for you than what He’s already done for you on the cross. In other words, your healing / your wholeness has already happened! You are in the process of discovering it.
In God’s economy, He turns things of this world on it’s end.
He turns death into life.
He gives beauty for ashes.
Gives us joy for mourning.
You say, “Jesus, I’m wounded. But Jesus says, “I see a warrior!”
You see failure. He sees a new beginning.
You say, “I’m a wreck.” He says, “You’re redeemable”
You say, “I’m Shattered” But Jesus sees you as whole
You see that you’re dirty, But Jesus makes you clean
God makes everything beautiful in its time. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
We get to choose if we hold on to our hurts and let them define our identity or not.
World sees me as
heavy
shame
negative person
lost
destined for hell
discouraged
Dare to be known as
joyful
clean
postive person
found
destined for heaven
an encourager
The world says
Blessed are those with money.
(Wealth has a power to entrance and give us a false sense of security in self.)
Blessed are those that are numb and party.
Blessed are the rebellious
Blessed are those who are satisfied that they’re right about everything
Blessed are the purposefully cruel
Blessed are the gossipers
Blessed are the bullies
Blessed are those who hide and look the other way
God says
Blessed are the poor in Spirit.
Blessed are they that mourn
Blessed are the meek
Blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness
Blessed are the merciful
Blessed are the pure in heart
Blessed are the peacemakers
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness
WHEN GOD IS SILENT
God is always at work despite my circumstances. God’s silence does not equal His absence. Voice does not equal presence.
Be still and know that I am God. Like a boxer who’s been hit, sometimes I just need to stay down on the mat so that I don’t keep getting beat up. I need to rest in God. (Psalm 46:10)
Coming from an awful childhood, we tend to ask — “why did I have to grow up in that family?” Maybe that’s the wrong question. Maybe you will be the one in your family to break a generational Curse that has bound your family for generations. Maybe you can be a pioneer of a brand new day that changes not only your children, but the generations to come.*
There is a big difference between God’s presence and my comfort. Just because I’m uncomfortable (sad, angry, hurt, scared) doesn’t mean God isn’t there.
SIGNS THAT I NEED HEALING
1. I fear pain.
2. I am given to addictions (food, drugs, medicines, sex, pornography, shopping, hoarding, etc.)
3. I tend to be very stubborn and defensive (because I can’t afford to be seen as wrong)
4. I give up easily.
5. I am a perfectionist
5. I live a life sold out for something other than God
6. I am completely surrendered—I have no hope. I secretly know that nothing good will ever really happen to me. Even everything that looks good will turn bad.
7. I am driven.
8. Shame is my default emotion.
9. Anger is my default emotion.
10. I am mentally tormented or confused
11. I am a procrastinator
12. I am indecisive
13. I am unable to stand up for myself
14. I compromise my morals and values
15. I am prone to doubt or rationalization
16. I have speech problems
17. I am physically ill
18. I fear rejection
19. I am depressed or worry a lot
20. I spend a great deal of energy protecting myself
21. I feel inferior
22. I am resentful
23. I am obsessed with someone or something
24. I don’t know how to be happy or joyful
25. I don’t know how to be content
26. My wounds are my identity
27. I feel hopeless (see below)
Hope—believing that something good is going to come
Hopelessness
- feeling alientated, feeling different, feeling like an outsider
- feeling forsaken or abandoned
- Feeling uninspired, just taking life as it comes
- Feeling powerless—you do not have enough strength to navigate where you need to go.
- Feeling oppressed— crushed by circumstances
- Feeling limited—not having enough resources
- Feeling doomed
- Feeling captive—feel like you are in a prison; a lot of time we place ourselves in prison based on curses we believed (see *******)
- Feeling exposed to trauma through uncontrollable circumstances
Thinkers get angry.
Feelers get wounded.
“…new life starts in the dark. Whether it is a seed in the ground, a baby in the womb, or Jesus in the tomb, it starts in the dark.”
– Barbara Brown Taylor
Create a Plan for Change
“Living by vision is to set our eyes on what we want to become, and then we chip away everything that doesn’t get us to our goal. Soon we catch a glimpse of all that we can become, and the fulfillment of that replaces the emptiness and longing that we’ve been trying to fill with unhealthy things and unhealthy relationships.” —Journey to Freedom
Personal Plan of Change (from Journey to Freedom)
- Write out a brief personal assessment of where you are in body, mind, and Spirit.
- Write out your general goals.
- Write out specific steps to meet your goals.
- Find a support team.
- Write a brief description of exactly what your life will be like when this change occurs.
- Write out a daily prayer to use as you walk the journey to freedom.
- Share this plan with at least one person from your support team within the first week.
Change, healing and growth require taking some concrete steps.
In the next 2 sections, we will address how many of our woundings manifest in our feelings, ideas, and impulses and concrete steps to overcome them.