03-23-13 Releasing Pain - The Flip Side

Isaiah 61 (Like the whole thing) "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. Strangers will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards. And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God.
You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast. Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours. “For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing.
In my faithfulness I will reward my people and make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed.” I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations."

 

Wow - there just didn't seem to be a good place to break in this chapter.  And yes, I did go a little crazy with the highlighter also, but hey, it's my blog ;)

There's really only one thing I want you to see:  The Lord is a God of ACTION.  When His children hurts, He moves into ACTION.  Now, we may not see it at the time - and wonder where in the heck He is/was.  But when we ask Him where He was when we were hurting, He shows us... look for Him.  He was there. 

Bad people do bad things out of the hurt in their own lives - that's not to excuse them - but it's to say that the Lord gave them free will as well as He's given us free will to do with what we will.  He didn't create us to control our actions or even the actions of others.  But He did promises He would NEVER leave us or forsake us.  He was there... and He was hurting... just like He hurt for us while He was on the Cross.

Look at the highlighted portions. Words, such as; Bind up, Proclaim freedom, Release, Comfort, Provide, Bestow, Rebuild, Restore, Renew, Reward.  Does that sound like a God Who sits idly by and lets us suffer for our own sins or the sins of others?  No. 

Meditate on the highlighted portions above.  Let Him speak to you today.

Beautiful, Beautiful - Francesca Battistelli (one of my faves)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB5BlYsn6nk

 

 

 

03-22-13 Releasing Pain - Anger

Ephesians 4:26-32 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."

 

"In your anger do not sin." Really? No, I mean R-E-A-L-L-Y? 
Now, how in the heck am I supposed to do THAT? I mean, c'mon, I'm really ticked off here.  God's bringing all this 'stuff' up and I can't even get angry?
That's not exactly what it say, it says basically - yeah, we can be angry; but don't harbor resentments, don't become calloused, don't turn away from the Lord and away from all that He's done in us.  Anger is a 'secondary' emotion anyway, so I've heard.  It seems to be the 'primary' emotion that pops up in my life though.  Why is that?  Well, don't you think it's a lot easier to be angry over something that's happened, than to deal with the pain and the wounds underneath.  Ouch!  Yeah, I know. 
We can be angry at the sin against done against us - God is angry over the sin done against us.  He doesn't want to see us hurt.  He doesn't particularly like sin, it's oppose to His holiness.  The Father turned His face from Jesus because of all the sin that was on Jesus.

Jesus, at times was angry because of wrong.  Look at Mark 3:5 or how about Matthew 21:12-13 - I don't think he overturned their tables politely, He was sickened by what they had turned the temple into - it was a place of worship, not making money.  Or Luke 17:1-3 "Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. So watch yourselves. “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them."  It's within our best interest to forgive them anyway, to release our 'hold' on them so we can get on with our own lives. 
But did you see what He said.  "Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come" but He's not very being all that nice and cozy with the ones who cause us to stumble - He goes on to tell us to 'watch ourselves'. 
Does this mean God hates us.  NO! NO! NO! and by the way, NO!  God is a God of love.  He loves the sinner, the sinner is still His child.  If they continue to sin and not turn to Him - ever - and die in their sins, then there are consequences that may seem contrary to His love.  But His desire is to see everyone come to repent of their sin and be restored to Him as Father to Child.  He sent Jesus into the world to die for sinners because He hates the sin clinging to them.  He wants to wash all the sin, the anger, the pain off.  All of that is not from Him.  He hates to see us suffer under all that, even if we don't THINK we're suffering. 
He wants us to be free to love the way He loves - forgive the way He forgives - to comfort the way He comforts.  To do that we need to shed off the anger, allow the pain to flow - 'but you don't know what they did to me'.  Doesn't matter.  Jesus took it upon Himself, so that we can be free.
Let's take a step towards being free today.

The Hurt and the Healer - MercyMe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrPQ-isJnd8

03-21-13 Release Pain - "Wasted" Years

Joel 2:25 “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm—my great army that I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you;
never again will my people be shamed." NIV

 

Joel 2:25 "So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,
The crawling locust, The consuming locust, And the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, And praise the name of the Lord your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you;
And My people shall never be put to shame."

 

I know in my own life that when I looked back a couple years ago, right after the Lord finished a season of healing in my life - I felt a sense of loss for all the years that had been 'wasted'.  The years that had been 'wasted' on my own sin, the years that had been 'wasted' on dealing with the effects of others sin against me.  The years 'wasted' mentally - because I couldn't remember much of the past 15 or so years that I've been on this healing journey - and even less before that.  Spiritually 'wasted' because I could have been doing so much for God IF this didn't happen or that didn't happen.  Emotionally 'wasted' because of all the energy and time it takes to process the wrongs we've done and the wrongs done by others.  Physically 'wasted' because time goes on.  Whether we're in the 'right' frame of mind or not, we do keep getting older.

 

Sometimes, in this case, we do feel a loss and it's real.  We HAVE lost time.  We may feel a loss - a grief that tells us that we'll never get those years back.  That we've wasted 'X' number of years ourselves; dealing with our issues, not dealing with our issues, trying to cover up our issues - and not doing so great a job at that - they always seemed to come back....

 

BUT, what IF those years really WEREN'T wasted?  What IF those years were some sort of 'training ground'.  I'm not saying the Father put us there, because He doesn't do that.  People put us 'there' - WE put us 'there' - the demonic puts us 'there' and sometimes, circumstances beyond our control put us 'there'. 

 

But what IF those years, could be redeemed?  Did you just feel a twinge of hope inside?  Y'know, it's happened before. 

Look at the life of Moses... he started out his life being abandoned float down a river to who knows where.  He was picked up by the Egyptians... and just any Egyptians but Pharoah's household.  Later, He even killed someone.  But look how God used him to bring about a mighty literal deliverance of the people of God. 

Look at the life of Joseph, his brothers threw him in a well and sold him into slavery.  He spent many years in Egypt, slowing rising from slavery to being very important to Pharoah.  God used him to save people from famine and restore his family.

Look at the life of Paul.  He spent years and years studying the laws and went around persecuting- even killing Christians.  Jesus met him when he least expected it and totally transformed his life.  He went around preaching the gospel of Jesus to everyone that the Lord sent him to.

 

1 Corinthians 1:27 "But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty..."  

 

Go ahead, look up some of the 'great' Bible characters... see where they were before God started to use them.  If the years that the locusts had eaten in their lives could be redeemed and redeemed in Power and Authority, then ours can be also! 

 

Let us today, take back what is rightfully ours.  We have an inheritance in Christ.  We are co-heirs with Him.  Everything the Father has is ours.  Will we take hold of it?  Can we take our eyes off of the 'lost' past and put our eyes on what the Lord has for us now?  Knowing that what we have been through He so totally can use for His glory in someone else's life, if we let Him?  Or will we continue to mourn the loss of those years and stay bound up in grief. 

 

Let's shed those 'wasted' year graveclothes and put on the righteousness of God in Jesus; shedding the shame and grief and embracing the here and now.

 

Sharon Daugherty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZxb9oOo-O8

 



03-20-13 Release - Pain Part 3

2 Corinthians 7:10 "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.."

 

So, we left off yesterday putting our faith in the facts (Truth) and not so much in our emotions.  I explained that emotions are good, they let us know when some is wrong and can even be rather pleasant at times. 

 

If we haven't really didn't have that great of an upbringing, we need to be careful that we don't associated ALL emotion as being 'bad' or painful - therefore, we make a 'vow' that we aren't going to 'feel' anymore.  We just walk around in life like little robots - maybe even slipping into apathy.  Apathy is indifference - not feeling one way or another - neither sorrow, nor excitement; neither happy, nor sad.  Doesn't sound like LIFE, does it?  That's not how our lives were designed to be. 

 

That's the thief coming to steal the the joy in Jesus that is rightfully ours, to kill (or deaden) our ability to receive or give love, to destroy (or shred) our minds and hearts towards any sort of sense of peace.  BUT Jesus came to give LIFE and to give LIFE in abundance (to the full) - John 10:10.

 

So, what is the Truth?  We will focus on one today.  When we've done our part with God and man and still 'feel' guilty over what was done in the past - that's the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10).  It's demonic influence whispering in our ears that we're still stained and dirty. 

 

I'm reminded of Isaiah 6, the Word says, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.' At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.  'Woe to me!' I (Isaiah) cried. 'I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.' Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, 'See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.'

 

I thought about why these verses were brought to my attention, and this is what my thoughts turned towards...  Isaiah was repenting of sin.  Having 'seen' the Lord - he came to believe, in a very dramatic experiential way, in The Only Power greater than himself.  Other versions say 'I am undone', which signifies humility and brokenness.

The seraphim to a live coal from the altar.  Altars were for sacrifice - the coal was burnt.  I thought about Jesus on the Cross was The Sacrifice for our sin.  I thought about coal - coal gives heat, fire, power.... Jesus sent us Holy Spirit cleansing fire.  The coal touched his lips.  Matthew 15:11 "What goes into someone's mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them. Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. " When the burning coal - the cleansing fire of Jesus' sacrifice by the Power of the Holy Spirit - touched his lips and made him CLEAN!

 

When we repent and turn our eyes to Jesus and accept His cleansing fire in our hearts and minds, we are clean.  John 8:36 "So if (since)the Son sets you free, YOU ARE FREE INDEED."

The only thing that we need to do is accept that Truth and the lie of the accuser that says we are still 'guilty' is obliterated.

 

Set Me Free - Casting Crowns

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2HwtWLokSc

 

Be free of guilt in the Name of Jesus!

03-19-13 Release - Pain Part 2

2 Corinthians 7:10 "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.."

 

Yeah...yeah, I know... we've already talked about repentance.  What I want to talk about is grief.  Today, particularly grief over our sins that can cause us pain - even after we've repented and turned away from those sins and made amends to whoever we had to, if we had to.

Most times when focusing on this verse I've seen 'ok, if I have sorrow over my sin than that leads me to repentance' - and I get it.  If I feel some discomfort about something, I want to get rid of it.  Sometimes the Lord will let us feel uncomfortable until we do something about it. 

But what I believe the Lord wants us to focus on today is that after we've repented, turned away, removed ourselves from any association with the sin, made amends - it's done.  It leaves no regret... eventually. 

In the Lord's eyes it IS a done deal. Gone - "lock, stock and barrel" -great, now I'll have to look up to see where saying came from ;) 
But in OUR eyes, it's not so completely a done deal.  We may still 'feel' guilty over what we've done in the past - we may see all those years we've 'wasted' and 'feel' saddened by the loss - we may 'feel' like it's still all our fault when we go to make amends and that person doesn't accept our repentance - we may 'feel' sadness over any number of things.  But we do not have to accept those feelings as truth.  I realize at least in my own life... that my emotions sometimes need to catch up with the truth.  They tend to lag behind - like I did on my first marathon ;) - The winner finished and I was 3 1/2 hours behind - but I did finish. That's the kind of 'lag' I'm talking about - just like me in the marathon, our emotions will eventually catch up... if we turn our eyes to the truth.
It is grief and it's real and it feels crummy, but remember that train picture (fact first, faith second, feelings last)?  We don't need to stay in that place of grief!  If we do decide to stay there, we will slowly die inside, emotionally, mentally, spiritually and it can even affect us physically. 
We don't put our faith in our emotions, we put our faith in the facts - The Truth.

Tune in tomorrow.... for the rest of the story....

Blessings to you today!


 

03-18-13 Release - Pain

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 "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 all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God."

 

Sometimes sin is the issue and sometimes sin is the cover for an deeper issue.  So now that the sin has been taken care of by our realization of it, our asking forgiveness by repenting, and our rebuking the enemy - removing the demonic influences from our lives; there may be some pain that the Father wants to remove.  There may be some wounds that He wants to heal.

"Whoa, wait a minute.  The past is the past and I just don't want to go there.  Been there, done that, got the t-shirt, wore out the t-shirt.  I've been through the stuff once, I am not going to go through it again."

 

Ok.  The Lord is gentleman and He is incredibly patient.  He knows that if our desire is to grow in Him, then we will eventually have to let Him into those areas that make us squirm and gives us that sinking feeling inside.  That's fear.  Why do we sense that apprehension, fear or sheer terror whenever we think about getting down into the 'heart' of the matter (pun intended)?

 

I think it's two-fold.  One, the enemy does not want us to be free.  C'mon, he's here to kill, steal and destroy.  That's their job description.  Bring confusion.  Keep us in bondage.  Make every effort they can to block us from receiving more of the Lord's mercy and grace in our lives.  Why?  Because they know our potential once we are free. We have all the Power of Christ at our disposal. When we are truly set free from the pain - the grief - the wounds of the past, we become unstoppable warriors in our Lord's army! 

 

The other reason is it hurts!  Normal people do NOT like pain... and especially the emotional kind.  The kind that after we become defensive and angry with all four walls enclosed around us - the Lord peeks in a crack and soon 'stuff' starts oozing out.... and then the dam breaks.  We feel like it NEVER going to stop - like how can someone cry for almost a solid hour (that seemed like days, by the way)?  Where do all the freaking tears come from?  Is there like some little widget guy in there in our tear ducts with some fire hose looking thing shooting them out?  Seriously!

 

No, it's the pain coming out.  It's all those bottled up emotions that led to the pain or that we felt after being wounded.  IT'S MORE THAN OK TO CRY - IT'S CLEANSING OUR SOULS! Yeah, I was like, 'so?' also.  But you know what, it's worth the pain to get it out... it really is.  Jesus will be right beside you... friends will be right beside you.  Whatever it is you need at that moment, when it's in the Lord's timing... if you let go of the junk you feel, He'll take it away and give you above all you could imagine. 

Ephesians 3:20 "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."

  

^{Worth the Pain - Disciple}

^{http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX0aaYIUSKw}