In one of our meetings, a woman came forward asking us to pray for a
certain bondage to be broken in her life. As soon as I started to pray for her,
she began to cry. Almost immediately I received a vision of her standing on a
track, as though she were about to run a race. As I watched, I saw that every
time the race would begin, and she would start moving toward the finish line,
she would go about halfway and then turn around and come back to the starting
line.
After a
while, she would repeat the process. This happened time after time. I shared
with her what I was seeing and told her that I believed that God was saying to
her, "This time, you need to go all the way through." As I shared
that message with her, she immediately agreed that God was speaking to her. Her
problem was that although she often made some progress toward emotional
healing, she always gave up under pressure.
Now she was determined to see the process through to complete victory.
It is always much harder to finish than it is to start. There really are no
"quick-fix" methods to emotional healing. In 2 Corinthians 3:18 the
apostle Paul speaks of Christians being
transformed "from one degree of glory to another." If you are
going through the difficult process of emotional healing, I encourage you to
enjoy the degree of "glory" you are currently experiencing as you
move toward the next level.
Many people turn emotional healing or recovery from abuse into such an
ordeal that they never allow themselves to enjoy any aspect of it. Do not allow
yourself to be tempted to focus on how far you have to go. Instead look at how
far you have come!
Remember that you have a life to live while you are being healed!Adopt
this as your attitude: I am not where I need to be, but, thank God, I am not
where I used to be. I'm okay, and I'm on my way!
Going Through
In some
aspects, spiritual growth can be compared to physical growth. There are certain
stages that we have to go through in order to mature. I think it would be safe
to say that many people do not enjoy their children while they are raising
them. At each stage of growth, the parents wish the child were in another
stage. If the child is crawling, they wish he were walking, out of diapers, in
school, graduating, getting married, giving them grandchildren, and on and on.
We should learn to enjoy each stage of life as it comes because each has
joys and trials uniquely its
Make a
decision right now to begin to enjoy yourself while you are striving to reach
each new level of victory. In Deuteronomy 7:22, Moses told the children of
Israel that the Lord would drive out their enemies before them "little by
little." Between each victory in our lives, there is a time of waiting.
During this time the Holy Spirit deals with us, opening to us new revelations,
helping us to face and receive even greater truths. The waiting is usually
difficult for most of us because impatience is always present within us to stir
up dissatisfaction. We want everything now!
Patience Reaps Promises
A lot of
people want blessings, but they do not want to prepare for them. John the
Baptist came out of the wilderness crying, "Prepare ye the way of the
Lord" (Matthew 3:3 Kjv) . He wanted people to know that Jesus was coming
to do a work in their lives, but they needed to be prepared.
The Bible says, "Eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not
entered into the heart of man, [all that] God has prepared (made and keeps
ready) for those who love Him [who hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly
obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed]" (1
Corinthians 2:9).
It requires spiritual maturity to walk through difficulties in faith
that God has something good planned for us. But we need to understand that
going through is usually the only way out. We need faith, patience, and
endurance in order to receive the end result of all that God promises we are to
receive. This passage from Hebrews explains:
Do not, therefore, fling away your fearless confidence, for it carries a
great and glorious compensation of reward.
For you have need of steadfast patience and endurance, so that you may
perform and fully accomplish the will of God, and thus receive and carry away
[and enjoy to the full] what is promised. For still a little while (a very
little while), and the Coming One will come and He will not delay. (Hebrews
10:3537) In Hebrews 6:11 we read: "But we do [strongly and earnestly]
desire for each of you to show the same diligence and sincerity [all the way
through] in realizing and enjoying the full assurance and development of [your]
hope until the end." In Isaiah 43:1-2, the Lord admonishes His people,
saying:
Fear not, for I have redeemed you [ransomed you by
paying a price instead of leaving you captives]; I have called you by your
name; you are Mine.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with
you, and through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk
through the fire, you will not be burned or scorched, nor will the flame kindle
upon you. (Emphasis mine)
David said of the Lord, "Though I walk through the [deep, sunless]
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear or dread no evil, for You are with
me; Your rod [to protect] and Your staff [to guide], they comfort me"
(Psalm 23:4).
Often a person who is rooted in abuse ends up with strongholds in his
mind and flesh that must be allowed to pass through the valley of the shadow of
death if those strongholds are ever to be pulled down and destroyed.
Paul
explains that we war against the enemy by capturing our thoughts that do not
line up with what Christ said, and bringing them into subjection to what the
Word says and believe:For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we are not
carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and using mere human weapons.
For the weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and
blood], but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of
strongholds,
[Inasmuch as we] refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every
proud and lofty thing that sets
itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought
and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the
Anointed One). (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
For
example, as a result of having been abused for so long, I developed an
independent personality. I did not trust anyone. Early in life I came to the
conclusion that if I took care of myself and never asked anyone for anything,
then I would get hurt less. As the Lord began to reveal to me that my
independent attitude was not scriptural, I had to "walk through the valley
of the shadow of death." In other words, I had to let that old nature
(part of the old Joyce) go to the cross and die.
The temptation is to run away from our problems, but the Lord says that
we are to go through them. The good news is that He has promised that we will
never have to go through them alone. He will always be there to help us in
every way. He has said to us, "Fear not, for I am with you."
It is in going through things with the Lord that our faith is built up
in Him. I love the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego found in Daniel,
chapter 3. The king had warned them to bow down and worship him or he would
throw them into a fiery furnace.
They said, "Well, if God can deliver us, He will, but even if He
does not deliver us, we will not bow and
worship you." They knew that God was capable of delivering them,
but if that was not His plan, they were still going to keep their integrity
before the Lord and not give up serving Him. We all need to commit to serving
God with that determination. So the three men were thrown into the furnace, and
the king turned up the heat seven times hotter than it was before. This reminds
me of those times when we make the right decision, but it seems that our
troubles multiply.
I like
this story, because it says that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were bound and
thrown into the fire, but that when the king looked into the fire, they were
loosed. Sometimes we go into problems all bound, but it is in the problem,
going through things, that we get loosed and delivered. The king saw a fourth
man in the fire with them-remember Jesus said, "Fear not, for I am with
you."
When
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were brought out, they did not even smell like
smoke. I relate to these men, because the devil tried to destroy me. I went
through so much pain from the abuse in my life, and when I tried to get free
from it I found more pain that I could not understand. Then God showed me how
we go through things that put us in bondage, but we have to go through the same
things to get back out.
When we begin our journey to wholeness with the Lord, we are usually all
knotted up inside with fear.
Fear is the enemy of confidence.
People can be afraid of many things, of driving cars, of being alone, and of
some deep-seated phobias.
I think of F.E.A.R. as False Evidence Appearing Real. If the devil can
frighten us, then we are putting more faith in what he says than in what God
says. It is one thing to feel fear, but fear will control us if we do not stand
our ground and face our fears.
A woman was sharing how fear was keeping her from doing things that she
needed to do. So her friend said, "Well, do it afraid." That was
life-changing advice for me. Sometimes we have to face our fears and just
"do it afraid."As we allow God to do so, He begins to straighten up
our lives by untying "one knot of fear at a time." He helps us go
through hard things and discover that His promises are true. We cannot spend
our lives running away from everything we fear.
Some
people are so afraid of elevators they will turn down a job that is located on
an upper floor of a building. If they want the job, they need to get on that
elevator, pray, go up a few floors, get off, breathe, and repeat the process
until they overcome their fear. We need to overcome our fears that keep us from
carrying out God's perfect will for our lives.
The Bible
is full of scriptures that say, "Fear not," because God knew that Satan
was going to try to use fear to keep His people from fulfilling their destiny
in
To some
of His first disciples Jesus said, "I am the Way, follow Me." When
you decide to follow Jesus, you will soon learn that He never turns back in
fear. His path is always straightforward to the finish line. Do not be like the
woman in my prayer line who always gave up halfway through the race. As
difficult as it may be, decide to stay in the race and see it through!
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