Reach out for My hand. I am right beside you. Open your heart to Me. I see the pain. I know it is there even though it feels like no one understands. Let me reset all those places of hurt. I know it is not easy to forget but I want to build new memories for you. I want to pull you forward and show you what lies ahead. Take one step with Me today. Listen to My words. They are faithful promises of My care for you. I know it feels lonely but I have never left your side. Yield to My Spirit and you will see the reality of who you were created to be. As your heavenly Father, you were created to be loved by Me. Let Me love you and show you My love day by day. Let us walk through this together.
_______
Extiende tu mano hacia la mía. Estoy justo a tu lado. Abreme tu corazón. Veo el dolor. Sé que está ahí aunque parezca que nadie lo entiende. Déjame restablecer todos esos lugares de dolor. Sé que no es fácil olvidar pero quiero crear nuevos recuerdos para ti. Quiero impulsarte hacia adelante y mostrarte lo que te espera. Da un paso conmigo hoy. Escucha Mis palabras. Son promesas fieles de Mi cuidado por ti. Sé que te sientes solo pero nunca Me he alejado de tu lado. Ríndete a Mi Espíritu y verás la realidad para que fuiste creado. Como tu Padre celestial, fuiste creado para ser amado por Mí. Déjame amarte y mostrarte Mi amor día a día. Recorramos esto juntos.
Cover, cover yourself with the warmth of My embrace. The winds of this world can be cold and bitter. But My embrace and words are a sweetness and a comfort for you. Come alongside Me and walk with Me. The fire from My blazing love for you will ignite your spirit and restore your soul. Deep in My heart I will cover you. In the secret place you are safe. Under the shadow of My wings you are protected. It is here that our intimacy is established. Let Us heal your heart of all its wounds. I will provide the healing balm to the wounds of your past. I have such a glorious plan for your future. Trust Me to heal you and guide you every step of the way. All your days are being used to tell the story of your overcoming victory through this life because you placed your heart in My care. _______
Cúbrete, cúbrete con el calor de Mi abrazo. Los vientos de este mundo pueden ser fríos y amargos. Pero Mi abrazo y palabras son una dulzura y un consuelo para ti. Ven a Mí y camina Conmigo. El fuego de Mi ardiente amor por ti encenderá tu espíritu y restaurará tu alma. En lo profundo de Mi corazón te cubriré. En el lugar secreto estás a salvo. Bajo la sombra de Mis alas estás protegido. Es aquí donde se establece nuestra intimidad. Sanemos tu corazón de todas sus heridas. Proporcionaré el bálsamo curativo a las heridas de tu pasado. Tengo un plan tan glorioso para tu futuro. Confía en Mí para sanarte y guiarte en cada paso del camino. Todos tus días se utilizan para contar la historia de tu victoria superadora en esta vida porque pusiste tu corazón a Mi cuidado.
I am opening the windows of heaven to pour down blessings to all My faithful children. Just believe and stretch forth your hands and fill all your baskets with My love. Fill all your baskets to overflow and feed the nations the manna from heaven. Go forth with healing words to ignite power and faith and provision and joy and peace. Fill your baskets with the abundance of heaven. Take your baskets of bounty to the valleys and to the mountain tops. The bread of heaven is for the rich and for the poor. This bread cannot be fabricated on earth, but it will be on earth as it is in heaven. Open your arms wide and I will continue to fill you. Open your heart to Me and you will walk on earth with the treasures of heaven to distribute to the poor, the humble, the downcast, the sick, and the blind. _______
Estoy abriendo las ventanas de los cielos para derramar bendiciones sobre todos Mis hijos fieles. Simplemente crean y extiendan sus manos y llenen todas sus cestas con Mi amor. Llenen todas sus cestas hasta que rebosen y alimenten a las naciones con el maná del cielo. Avanzen con palabras curativas para encender el poder, la fe, la provisión, el gozo y la paz. Llenen sus cestas con la abundancia del cielo. Lleven sus cestas de generosidad a los valles y a las cimas de las montañas. El pan del cielo es para ricos y para pobres. Este pan no podrá fabricarse en la tierra, pero será en la tierra como en el cielo. Abran bien sus brazos y seguiré llenándolos. Abran sus corazónes y caminen por la tierra con los tesoros del cielo para distribuirlos a los pobres, a los humildes, a los abatidos, a los enfermos y a los ciegos.
I’ve realized
that sometimes when you’re doing a good thing, the enemy throws a monkey wrench
to mess things up, and sometimes it just feels like he throws a torpedo at us,
right? Like it comes out of left field and we’re blindsided.
So for me,
fear was thrown into the mix when I was taking care of my loving grandparents
years ago. At the same time I was taking care of them, I experienced emotional
abuse from someone close to me and the torment I felt was relentless. The
person inflicting the abuse was also experiencing fear of their own and fear
breeds torment.
The fear
felt like my feet were petrified in cement and I didn’t see a way out of it.
Fear had
become the silent dictator in my life. I was literally walking on eggshells
every day for years, bowing to fear.
And even
after my grandparents went to be with the Lord, and my caretaking years were
over, and I was set free from the emotional abuse, I didn’t know how to live in
freedom because I had grown accustomed to living as a prisoner.
After
fifteen years of being a caretaker at home, I was thrust into the workforce. I
began working with federal prisoners at a halfway house and I was still
grieving all my losses.
At the
same time, this new season in my life was like a three-year exhale for me. It
was as if God was allowing the eye of the storm to hover over me. When a
hurricane initially passes over land, the eye of the storm brings calm but when
the back end of the storm reaches you, you’re caught up in some terrifying,
strong winds.
And then
it happened! The tail end of the storm came. I experienced my first panic
attack at work. And the torment was back. That experience had me face to face
with the fears and emotional pain I had stuffed into the depths of my soul.
The
anxiety attacks, as difficult as they were, served the purpose of testing my faith and to show ME, not God, what I was made of. Because
God already knew.
God is
concerned that we know so that we can confront our struggles and not repress
them, so that we can hand them over to Him for transformational healing.
God can
allow and use a difficult experience to ruffle our feathers so to speak, to
make us uncomfortable so that we don’t stay where we are in complacency, whether
it’s habitual negative behaviors, feelings or thoughts.
He
doesn’t want any of us to be a captive to our feelings, despite our
circumstances. And He works with us, and He’s patient, and He knows exactly
when enough is enough.
Some of
us cry, punch a pillow, or scream to release our feelings. And sometimes we try
to release them in ways that harm ourselves and others or both, through sex,
addictions or violence. But as much as we try to get rid of them, sometimes
they just linger, and fester, and root themselves in our souls and sometimes
they paralyze us and don’t let us move forward in our relationship with God, in
our relationships with each other and in our callings.
When we
stay in a comfort zone it keeps us stagnant and it doesn’t increase our faith. Looking
back, I can thankfully say that the anxiety I experienced was used as a
catalyst for freedom. It challenged me to step outside of my comfort zone, to
move forward in my spiritual journey.
I
believe that God is calling us out of our settlements, our comfort zones, our
fears, our pain, and even our
security, if it is anything or anyone beside God. And sometimes He does that
through divine interruptions.
Some of you may feel like you’re stuck in your feelings or in your circumstances, like there’s no way out, like you can’t control them, or make them go away?
MIRACLE AT THE POOL OF BETHESDA
In the beginning
of chapter five in the Gospel of John, we find a story of people gathered at
the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem. They were by the pool because they were
sick, they were blind, they were lame, they were withered, but most
importantly, they were WAITING to be healed!
2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. 3 In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [waiting for the moving of the waters; 4 for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.] 5 A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, “Do you wish to get well?” 7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.”9 Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk.
According
to the biblical text, it says that an angel of the Lord went down at certain
seasons into the pool and stirred up the water and whoever got in first was
made well.
Many of
the old Greek manuscripts that our English version was translated from don’t have
verses 3-5. And some biblical commentators propose that those pools were
associated with pagan temples nearby and that the expectation for healing wasn’t
from the God of Israel but other gods.
And it
made me think about how we are quick to dip into the pool of this world for
answers to our problems, for healing for our conditions. The world offers scores of ideas, tips, tricks, and methods
for emotional healing but do they really hold the keys to our healing?
There
was one particular man there at the pool who had been ill for 38 years. Verse 6
says, When Jesus saw him lying there and
knew that he had been a long time in that condition, He said to him, “Do you
wish to get well?”
The sick
man answered, “Sir, I have no man to put
me in the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another
steps down before me.”
Some of
us are scratching our heads and saying, wrong answer. The sick man didn’t
exactly answer the way we would have expected, right?! He was supposed to say, YES! I want to be made well!
But
that’s easy for us to say when it wasn’t us in that situation.
But guess
what, he is us.
Can we
honestly say we haven’t waved away God’s offer for healing because we were
stuck in believing that our deliverance, our wholeness comes from something or
someone other than Jesus?
How many
times have we made excuses to God because we really didn’t have a full
revelation of who Jesus really is? Jesus introduced Himself and His authority
to the sick man but the sick man didn’t know who he was!
12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to
you, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk’?” 13 But the man who was healed did not know who it
was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place.
We look
to exercises and breathing techniques and therapy for relief and all that can
help temporarily but it isn’t the answer.
It’s not how we breathe but what we breathe.
It’s not about physical posture but where we stand.
It’s not what we say, but what He says.
It’s not how we feel, but what He reveals.
Jesus
simply said to the sick man…
Get up.
Pick up your mat.
And walk.
Get up.
Notice
that Jesus didn’t respond to what the sick man said to him about not having
someone to put him in the pool at the stirring of the waters. The sick man was
stuck in his past thinking and believing. He didn’t realize that his wholeness
was standing right in front of Him. Jesus refused to leave Him there. He simply
commanded freedom for the sick man.
Pick up your mat.
Don’t
settle into your toxic emotions. Don’t accept it! “This is just the way I am, this is my personality, this is my lot in
life.” No! Jesus has something better for you. He has a new land for you to
abide in.
And walk.
This
wasn’t really about walking physically. Jesus is way more concerned with us
walking in faith. He’s concerned with setting the captives FREE, free from the
clutches of sin, the torment of fear, our fiery anger, an unforgiving heart,
the control of our emotions.
That’s
why He tells us to walk. So that we can know that we’re FREE. That spiritual
walk is done in faith. You can be in a wheelchair and be the FREEST person
alive and you can be trotting the globe and be a prisoner spiritually.
Jesus
asks us to walk. Why? Because He’s taking us toward our destination—into His
presence.
OUT OF OUR SETTLEMENTS, INTO HIS PROMISED LAND
Jesus is
saying to us, these toxic, incarcerating emotions, isn’t where I want you
settled. LOVE, HOPE, FAITH that is our inheritance! That is the promised land
and its treasures! That is what we’re walking toward in faith. If Jesus is not
there, that is not your promised land!
The
promised land is not a place, it’s a person! It’s God’s presence. God Himself
is your promised land. It isn’t about an earthly plot of land, or a spouse, or
success, or fortune, or homes, or children. He is your treasure and your great
reward!
Jesus
isn’t settling for you being a captive to your emotions and neither should you!
He has so much more. But we have to be willing to do our part and walk away
from the lies, our past, our fears.
And when
we walk away from all that in faith, we may walk away with scars from our
battles but we’re given a treasure that doesn’t compare to what we lost.
And you
know what? The sick man’s healing wasn’t the best God had for him.
The best
God has for you and me is the revelation of knowing Jesus and that only happens
when we get up, pick up our mats, and walk into a deeper relationship with the
God who offers us the keys to freedom from the grip of our emotions.
LOVE, HOPE, FAITH
Cognitive
Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is based on the idea that thoughts, feelings and
behaviors are connected and influence each other. So you can’t deal with your
emotions without assessing what you’re thinking about, what you believe, and
what you’re doing.
Feelings
are usually driven by three thoughts:
What you think about yourself.
What you think about what someone else said/did
or didn’t do for or to you.
What you think about what God did/didn’t do for
you?
I think
its safe to say that toxic feelings usually stem from a relational issue. And I
believe that it’s a relational issue that will solve it!
So the first key to freedom that God offers us from the grip of toxic or controlling emotions is relational and it involves our relationship with God.
The 1st key is love.
We’re
all going to feel angry, lonely, sad, and scared sometimes. But I’m persuaded
that the root of our emotional imbalances, meaning, feeling too much anger, too
much fear, too much sadness, too much loneliness, is not knowing we are LOVED!
There’s
ONE relationship that can fix that. God’s love is perfect. There are no holes
in it, no lack, no fickleness. It’s faithful, it’s sacrificial, it’s always thinking
about what’s best for us.
If God
is for you, WHO can be against you? It may feel like the world is against you, out
to get you but God is there. He is the ONLY CONSTANT in your life and the one
that can meet all of your emotional needs and then some.
So why
not get to know the person that knows us better than ourselves? Why do we run
to others for healing, why do we listen to half-truths instead of what God
says?
God
wants you to know Him as your
Father—the One who loves you, protects you, provides for you, withholds no good
thing from you and has your best interest at heart.
Ask Him to reveal Himself to your heart. Prioritize spending time with Him alone. That’s been a huge key in my freedom. Knowing that I’m His dear daughter has been a game changer! I’ve learned to trust Him as I’ve gotten to know Him deeper.
The 2nd key is hope.
The 2nd key is hope because hope fuels faith. One of the ways I continue to get to know my Father is through His word. Saturate your mind with the truth of who God is and who He says you are. And intentionally turn of all the other negative voices in your life.
Without good news, what do people have to hope in? God offers you good news to give you hope; to shine a light in the midst of your darkness. That good news is found in His word. Make a habit to be in His word!
The 3rd key is faith.
The
struggle over your emotions ends when you choose to BELIEVE the Truth found in
His word—what Jesus did for you and how much He loves you.
The
fight of faith isn’t to fight your emotions but to BELIEVE! Position yourself to believe by knowing the
Truth, because faith comes by hearing and hearing WHAT? The word of God!
When you
find yourself in the chaos of human weakness and the whirlwind of emotions, remember
this, God is constant! God is faithful! God never leaves you! God loves YOU! Find
your safe space in Him! Settle into His truth and the mind of Christ will
influence your emotions and set you free.
I want you to become a prisoner with me, but
this time we’re not held captive by fear, or depression, or pain, or our past
but by hope.
… prisoners of hope is what we’ll be.
This post was adapted from a talk I gave for the first time at a women’s brunch in Chicago this past December after years of the enemy trying to silence my voice through fear.
