If
a person has been involved in addictive behaviors such as alcohol and drugs a
long time, there is a process of allowing God’s healing of our minds. It
can be more of an emotional healing at times than a physical addiction. I
was blessed in that I gave my life to the Lord at the young age of 17 years old
and I was raised in church so there was only a period of four years where I was
out sowing wild oats. But even that four years of sowing death and the
things I meditated on as a child, I found I needed God’s restoration of my
soul.
he restores my soul. He guides me
in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Psalm 23:3
With
my husband Mike, he never had those type of addictions in his life. When
you are sorting through a person’s baggage, it can be different types of
baggage, besides addiction. It can be baggage with a broken home (broken
children), broken relationship, broken heart, etc. For my husband, his
baggage was walking away from God and church for 13 years and I found as a
young Christian at times he tended to lean to his natural understanding
(Proverbs 3:5). It says to not lean to our own understanding. In
other words, he wanted to use his own mind to get us out of difficult problems,
and there are just some problems that are not fixable. Even for an
engineer! Engineers are like prophets, they just want to fix the
problem. Well, God sent his engineers and most of them got
killed/stoned. So he sent his son and he was crucified. Jesus was
beat and crucified in our place.
One
of the attributes of getting into God’s word is peace. I know the more I fill
my mind with God’s word the more peace I have and I found it’s the only counter
force I could find in going through the early death of a loved one. As
the forerunner of widows (everyone else will also go through this process in the
future). I found God’s word is my peace of mind. I chose not to
take anti-depressants.
Those who love your instructions have
great peace and do not stumble. Psalm 119:165
You will keep in perfect peace him whose
mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. Isaiah 26:3
A
forerunner is a like the pilgrims or Christopher Columbus in exploring the
world ahead of other people. One who cuts down the brush ahead and
removes the snakes. They go ahead of other people in life in their
experiences and most everyone as a couple is headed for a separate road in the
future.
1.
A
person or thing that precedes the coming or development of someone or something
else.
2.
A
sign or warning of something to come: "overcast mornings are the sure
forerunners of steady rain"
If
you were brought up a hardened criminal than there is some renewing of your
mind through the word of God to free up some cobwebs in your thinking. If
you are used to stabbing people to get your food, that is a different mindset
when it comes to getting along with people. This one person was telling
me he calls them sandpaper Christians – very abrasive! The Bible warns
about unclean spirits leave and they want to come back and I remember how when
I gave up smoking cigarettes and marijuana, I still had temptation in my flesh
to want it at times. It’s like how I gave up drinking soda pop five
years ago, I still had the temptation to want it, but finally broke free from it
after a while.
"When an evil spirit comes out of a
man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. when it
says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house
unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. when it goes and takes with it seven
other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the
final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be
with this wicked generation." Matthew 12:43-45
I
loved reading the first chapter of John and I remember as a young Christian
that the words just jumped off the page at me. That Jesus Christ is the
living word and that word became flesh. Jesus said his words are spirit
and life. So God sent his word to heal us.
He sent out his word and healed them,
snatching them from the door of death. Psalm 107:20
The Word became flesh and made his
dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who
came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
When
it talks about the “renewing” of the mind – I believe this is a healing of our
minds by the word of God. It’s letting the spirit of God take
captive our thoughts to God’s ways and his word.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern
of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you
will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and
perfect will. Romans 12:2
We demolish arguments and every
pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take
captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Cor. 10:5
Our
bodies have a natural process of healing, but miracles are not in the natural
process, they are supernatural. They are in the realm of the spirit that
touches our soul and body. God is a spirit and it says that “he that is
joined to the Lord is one spirit.” There are many things that cause death
in this world (or sin), but when I look into God’s word, it’s the perfect law
of liberty and it causes life. James 1:25
If
we have our minds set after the flesh, it causes death, but the mind after the
spirit causes life and the word “peace” again.
Those who live according to the sinful
nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in
accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The
mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life
and peace; Romans 8:5-6
For the kingdom of God is not a matter
of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy
Spirit, Romans 14:17
Many
people are trying to find a counterfeit peace in this life by other things in
this world outside the peace that passes understanding that comes from God.
And the peace of God, which transcends
all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philip 4:7
Sarah
was passed child bearing age (her womb was dead) and yet she conceived a
son. Abraham in hope believed against hope (Roman 4:18) for Sarah
to conceive. Abraham believed God’s word. Sometimes we just need to say,
“Thank you God that your word is true. Let every man be a liar, but your word
is true." (Romans 3:4). Abraham’s faith gave life to Sarah’s dead
womb. Sarah was a “skeptic” and laughed at the angel that came to tell her she
was going to have a child.
Many
people remind me of physicians as far as they look at the symptoms of the
problem. What many fail to realize is that you are just treating a
symptom. i.e. if your son is doing a number of rebellious things is that
you are just looking at the branches of the problem, not the root. Physicians
can’t cure arthritis so they treat the symptoms. They can only encourage
you to exercise your joints, keep excess weight off, and take pain medicine,
but they can’t cure the root of the problem. That is the way a lot of
Christians remind me of they look at a person’s branches (actions) and you have
to recognize if they are unbeliever you have to go to the root of the problem
and axe the tree and change the root.
The ax is already at the root of the
trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and
thrown into the fire." Luke 3:9
It’s
the same way when it comes to healing, it’s a spiritual touch we receive from
the Lord. Our bodies natural immune system can fight some sicknesses, but
there are many things our bodies can’t cure on its own, and that is where we
can ask God for a supernatural touch (manifestation) of his glory.
For the Lord God is our sun and our
shield. He gives us grace and glory. Psalm 84:11
In
the absence of having people lay hands on me, most of the time I follow God’s
word when it says, “Lay hands on the sick and they will recover.” I just lay my
own hands on myself and pray for myself. I lay it on the part of my body
that is afflicted. One problem I have found in the body of Christ is that
they lean too much on goose bumps and good feeling prayer. I thank the
Lord he hears me when I pray, and then I do what Jesus told them to do in the New
Testament, “Take up our bed and walk” and I act on my faith, by getting
up. When I had problems with knee pain there were times I had to take
breaks, but I kept going, and finally after a year I’ve been free from knee
arthritis pain.
When
I first became a Christian, I spent hours and hours in God’s word saturating my
mind with God’s word and I know that is very important to grow at those early
stages of development. What a lot of Christians do is they are not
growing – they are starving their spiritual man. They remind me of my
grandson who had a gland blocking his intestine and he was not gaining weight
and he was becoming a “failure to thrive” baby from not getting enough
nourishment. Many people don’t get enough spiritual nourishment of God’s
word. They are “failure to thrive” spiritually.
Like newborn babies, you must crave pure
spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry
out for this nourishment, 1 Peter 2:2
Or
they go to these churches where all they hear about it what they do wrong and
how they have to repent over and over and they don’t get the meat (good
teaching) of the word to continue the nourishment of growing. Part of the
five-fold ministry of the Body of Christ to perfecting God's people, is the gift of
teacher.
In fact, though by this time you ought
to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's
word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Hebrews 5:12
It was he who gave some to be apostles,
some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and
teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of
Christ may be built up. Ephesians 4:11-12
Next,
if we fail to “apply” the word to our life as far as acting on it. It
says we become self-deluded if we do not act on it. James said we are
self-deluded if we don’t act on the word, and if we don’t keep a rein on what
comes out of our mouth---as far as we are to give blessings not cursing.
If you claim to be religious but don't
control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.
James 1:26
Do not merely listen to the word, and so
deceive yourselves. Do what it says. James 1:22
Part
of my acting on the word is laying hands on myself and then taking up my bed
and walking (acting my faith) and going even in the midst of knee pain at times
to not let the enemy keep me down. I find the same thing comes to grief
is that I refused to let the enemy keep me down in despair at times, and when I
did not feel like picking up my guitar and praising God, helping other people
or having a single’s social --- I acted my faith to keep praising the Lord. It
doesn’t matter what I feel like, we can praise God whether we feel like
praising him or not.
It’s an act of faith to praise God when the skies
are gray in our life. It is called the sacrifice of praise.
It started the day after my husband passed away at church, but the real
sacrifice came about six months later after I came out of shock and started
picking up my guitar out of faith (not my feelings) to praise God.
Through Jesus, therefore, let us
continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that confess
his name. Hebrews 13:5
Sacrifice thank offerings to God,
fulfill your vows to the Most High, Psalm 50:14
You also, like living stones, are being
built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:5
Keep
praising the Lord
When
the skies above are gray
Keep
praising the Lord
For
the answer on its way
Never
despair
For
the Lord He answers prayer
His
promise is true to those endure
Keep
praising the Lord.
Scott Wesley Brown: I Wish You
Jesus
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