The Church Needs An Emotional Healing
Luke 4:17-21 (KJV)
17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Identify
The first thing we need to do is identify the problem, and realize the need for inner healing. I like to deal with some of the symptoms of emotional wound:
1. There's often a sense of inner pain and hurt that doesn't seem to go away.
2. It's easy to become irritable with others, even if they aren't doing anything wrong!
3. There is a low tolerance issue with others, what you expect and demand from them.
4. Feelings always rising up: feelings of anger, hate, resentment, etc. seem to "rise up" within you at the slightest offense from others.
5. Overly sensitive about an event in your past: If there are events in your past which cause you to become very sensitive or angry, or even cause you to lash out, then it is likely revealing a deep emotional wound tied in with that event or memory.
6. Hard to forgive: it becomes very difficult, if not impossible to love and therefore forgive others. It can also be hard to forgive and love yourself. It can even be hard to forgive and love God, even though He has done nothing wrong against you!
7. Hard to feel loved: it is hard to clearly see and realize the love of others and God in your life. You may be surrounded by people who love you, but it can be difficult to fully feel and receive that love. There seems to be a wall up that blocks the flow of love into your life.
8. Lashing out: when there's an inner wound that has festered, it becomes easy to lash out or have sudden outbursts of anger, hate, resentment. You may find it easy to lash out at people who love you, and have done you no harm.
9. Feelings of anger towards God: when a person has been wounded, it becomes easy to blame God for their troubles and hardships. This is the last thing that you want to do when seeking to be healed, because it virtually puts a wall in your mind that can block the healing power of the Holy Spirit to operate. Although the Holy Spirit desires to heal your wound, He will not override your freewill, and if you hold hate in your heart against Holy spirit, it can block His efforts to heal your wounds.
10. Self-hate: many times when a person is hurt from past abuse, they will begin to think that perhaps what happened to them, was deserved because of something they did or the way that they were. This is not true. Abuse is never acceptable, even if a child was being out of order. Parental love disciplines and corrects, but never abuses.
11. Easily frustrated: because an inner turmoil that an inner wound causes, it is easy to become easily frustrated with everyday chores and responsibilities.
12. Escapism: as a result of inner turmoil, it is easy to desire to escape or suppress reality. This can be in the form of overeating, drinking, smoking, porn, spending binges, etc. When a person indulges in escapism, addictions can form, and open the door to spirits of addiction, which makes the addictions virtually impossible to break.
13. Retaliation urges: because of built-up hate and anger as a result of unforgiveness, somebody who has a festering inner wound will find it easy to retaliate or snap back at those who offend them or step on their toes.
14. Irresponsible behavior: inner pain has a way of consuming a person's mind, and eventually this can take on a careless approach to life. It is hard to feel good about yourself if you have an inner wound, and if you don't feel good about yourself, it will begin to show in your lifestyle.
15. Somebody who has been wounded may set high expectations for those around them. They feel that others ought to hold up to unrealistic standards, and are very intolerable to any mistakes made. They find it hard to forbear (put up with) one another as the Bible commands of us.
16. A person who has an emotional wound may also be performance driven. Perhaps they felt like no matter what they did, they could never please a parent or authority figure, and later on in life, that rejection wound causes the person to be a performer to the point where they are never satisfied and burned out by their efforts.
17. Feelings of hopelessness: I believe this is also a common result of unresolved inner wounds. Since the love of God is blocked in your life, it becomes hard to see why He would love or care for you, and therefore you become an easy target for feelings of hopelessness.
18. When you suffer from an emotional wound, it can create a sense of void in your life's meaning, thus driving you to find meaning and purpose and happiness. This could be in the form of college degrees, careers and financial success. Instead of appreciating the person who God has made (YOU!), you find yourself chasing what you think will bring true happiness and purpose to your life.
19. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or OCD: it is my belief that Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) often involves emotional wounds that were never fully healed. This is especially true with people who have bondages to self-hate, self-resentment, self-unforgiveness.
20. Hostility towards God, self, and others: because of bound up emotions, a person can tend to feel hostile towards God, other people in their life, or even themselves. This is usually rooted in a form of bitterness against God for not preventing something from happening to you, bitterness against somebody who has wronged or harmed you emotionally, or bitterness against yourself for failures that you've fallen into yourself.
Be honest with yourself!
1. Who is it that you hate or blame? Be honest with yourself; there's somebody in your past that you are holding something against. Be specific, and go back as far as you can. If you can figure out when this wound began, and who is responsible, it is the first step to receiving healing for the wound. Ask God for healing today.
2. What did they do to you? Think about everything that was done to you, which you still hold against them in your heart. What might it be that you still hold onto in your heart? What things you can't easily forget? I'm not referring to a list of people whom you haven't forgiven, but rather a events where you just cannot seem to release it from your heart. The breakthrough is coming today.
3. Don't try to cover up their mistake and say that it was alright. If they did you wrong, then there's no getting around that. Being honest about what was done to you is very important. God is waiting on you today.
4. What things have you done, that you deeply regret? If you have any feelings of self-hate, self-unforgiveness, then you need to be honest and figure out why you hate yourself.
Is there anything in your past that you feel excessively embarrassed or ashamed of? This is a common cause for self-hate. If there are things which you still haven't forgiven yourself of, then now is a good time to repent, so that you can effectively forgive and release the hate held secretly within your heart against yourself.
Get right down to the roots
It is vital that we get right down to the roots, and lay out the specific reasons why there are wounds that have not yet healed.
Spiritual infections, is like natural infections, it will fester and grow worse when it kept in the dark; it is important to bring the issues to the light, so they can no longer fester, but receive the healing light of Christ into those areas of the mind and emotions. If you cannot be honest with yourself, and bring these things out into the light, then you're only hindering the healing power of the Holy Spirit from ministering to those wounds and bringing about healing in your mind and emotions.
1. The first thing that you want to settle, is any feelings of guilt and shame, especially any feelings that God is somehow disappointed or angry with you.
2. When dealing with a physical wound, what is the first thing you do? Cleanse it from germs so that it can properly heal.
3. When dealing with spiritual or emotional wounds, carrying around baggage (guilt, shame, fear, etc.) makes the healing process much more difficult.
4. Getting yourself to the point where you know that God loves, forgives, and accepts you, is one of the foundations to receive inner healing. Knowing that God isn't angry or disappointed in you creates an atmosphere where you can freely turn your burdens over to Jesus, and trust Him to take care of them.
5. Carrying around a burden of shame is a sure way to hinder the inner healing process because it mentally separates us from the healing work of Jesus. If we want to freely receive healing for our damaged emotions, then we need to settle it in our minds that God is not angry with us, and stand on God's Word about our sins being forgiven and washed from us by the Blood of Christ.
Your perception of God
One of the biggest keys to receive healing for damaged emotions, depends on your perception of God, and how God feels about you and your healing. You must realize that he is the source of your healing, and deliverance... and NOT your problems! Blaming God for your problems will put up an invisible wall, which will hinder His healing power from flowing into your mind and emotions.
Remember, it is not what was done to us that keeps us in bondage, it is our reaction to what was done to us which causes all the spiritual bondage and torment!
Inner healing is tearing down walls that prohibit the healing power and light of the Holy Spirit to reach the wound to bring healing. The Holy Spirit is very eager and ready to heal our wounded emotions, but Holy Spirit also a gentleman and won't override our freewill. He honors our freewill so much, that He would even let us choose to reject Jesus and end up in hell - He won't even force us to go to heaven! Our freewill can choose to take down our emotional walls or to hold them in place. What are these walls that I am referring to? They are our own reactions to what was done to us. When we react in anger, bitterness, resentment, and choose to give place to the devil in our hearts, we are putting up walls around our wounds that will prohibit the light of Christ from healing them. That is why it is vital that we take responsibility for our reactions to what was done to us.
Forgive and Love yourself
It is important to make sure that you have forgiven yourself, and are loving yourself as Christ loves you. It is vital that you see yourself as God sees you, as cleansed, washed with the Blood, and your past failures actually removed from your account. If you continue to walk around beating yourself up as if you haven't been forgiven, then you are actually denying the work that Christ has done for you on the cross! Many times, those who have emotional wounds are in bondage to guilt and condemnation, and coming to the realization that their sins are forgiven AND receive healing from there emotional wounds. Find somebody to talk with about your problem who will love and pray for you. There is tremendous healing power in bringing something out into the open and sharing it with a fellow believer who loves you and will pray for you.
Repent
Only by our repentance and turning away from our sin will the past lose control on our lives. We do not have to live under the load of guilt.
No matter:
· What you have done
· Who you did it with
· How low in sin you may have went
AFTER REPENTANCE IT IS UNDER THE BLOOD, NEVER TO BE REMEMBERED AGAIN!
Peace, hope, and joy in the Holy Ghost can be yours today!
When we look back upon a healed wound, we can see it in a different way, because it has been healed and is no longer painful to look back upon.
Living Word Ministries Church
6230 Nail Rd. Walls, MS. 38680
www.godslivingwordministry.org
