FREE FROM INNER WOUNDS NO LONGER BOUND Mid Week Instruction Reid Temple AME Church Pastor Washington
And you shall know the Truth The word of God who is Jesus the Christ has come to make us free. Jesus has allowed our wounds to be healed thereby allowing our spirit to be made free. Jesus came to set us free, from death, sin, grave, ourselves and each other. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Since our inner being, mind and soul has been set free, we can minister to others without causing pain or transferring our wounds to them.
The truth will set you free but first it might make you miserable. There are only two mistakes one can make along the road of truth; not going all the way and not starting
Our Need For Healing When any of us continues to deny our need for healing of our sins and refuses to admit our need for forgiveness, we often suffer pain. If we experience pain and continue to ignore the pain it only worsens if we do not tend to it.. Instead of acknowledging our pain often, we continue to hide it or handle it ourselves until someone else notices our behavior. God wants us to know that in His presence we can safely begin to come out of denial and deal with the truth and trust Him to bring us healing and deliverance.
God s Glory is hidden in our pain If we allow God to bring the gift of humility in our experience of the pain.
Are You Still Bound by Wounds When we as believers fail to acknowledge our hurt, and pain we don t get better, we get worse. There are people attending church but they are still hurting. They hear the word but still hurt. They even operate in their gifts but still in pain. They are blessed but still bound. There are people who are a part of every ministry but they are still wounded. In fact, they are even ministering to the sick and shutin but they are still troubled themselves.
Isaiah 1:6 No Soundness in Spirit This illustrates the corruption of the body when the person is in a state of denial, revolt and rebellion. When we are in this state we are sick from head to toe. And not just physically; there is no soundness in our thinking, no logic, no stability. There are only wounds, bruises, and putrefying sores. They are open sores, not cleansed, or bandaged, or soothed with oil. The wounds and bruises are metaphor for problems, hurts, and issues. Unhealed, they fester and died
The Cover Up Everyone begins to notice the wound except the wounded individual. When someone has been in pain a long time, he or she does a good job of covering by acting out in certain ways. If your wounds are deep and long-term, you can be certain that they are affecting your behavior, your life, and the lives of others in concrete ways. Wounds begin to manifest and become out of control when they are exposed. This is happening to the body of Christ. When one of us, is hurt, it spreads to the rest of the congregation until the whole body is contaminated and in pain. When this happens, the people become bound and it is time to be healed.
Transparency and Accountability allows God to truly minister to us by his spirit.
We Must Be Free to Minister If we minister, prophesy, teach or preach, our spiritual and emotional wounds will hinder us from receiving the fullness that God has predestined for our lives. As we minister, we can hinder those we are ministering to, or cause others to lose sight of what they should have received. This happens when we have reached a point where our wounds are not completely healed and we are still bound. God wants us to be completely healed, so life will be unveiled as God has predestined and our purpose in God will reach their full potential.
Freedom is what you do with what has been done to you. There is no such thing as a little freedom, either you are free or you are not. You are free only when you know your are morally responsible for everything you do.
Infliction and Infection Many ministries and churches have evolved from inflicted pain. These ministries were not established because it was the season for the ministry to begin or because God spoke it into existence, but because pain was the driving force to do better or be better than the ministry the individual left. Much of this hurt, is related to our spiritual and emotional state, This causes us to be bound to our present state without having a glimpse of our predestined future. It may be surprising, but because of spiritual and emotional hurt, you can not move from the level of hurt and pain to deliverance, healing and freedom.
Moving into Levels of Denial We move to a level of denial that causes more spiritual and emotional stress when initial inflictions are brought back into our awareness. This hurt has such a physically powerful effect that it makes choices for us, and sometimes the choice of last resort is to leave the ministry or church thinking that will make the pain just disappear. The hurt and pain will not go away because you have not dealt with it properly. You haven t acknowledged the source of your wound. You disregard them, discount their very being because it is too difficult to address them and the situation that cause the hurt.
Delay Is the Deadliest Form of Denial I believe the greatest illusion we have is that denial protects us when denial is actually our biggest distortion and lie.
Psalm 107:20 If you don t allow God s Word to heal you, you will cause your own destruction. The pain that was inflicted upon you and caused your wounds should no longer hinder you if you have allowed the Word to heal them. Now is our time to seek total deliverance and to understand what these wound are and how they have delayed your destiny. Wounds can hinder you and prevent you from receiving the fullness that God has for your life.
What Is Your Wound? A wound is an unresolved issue that you allow to inhabit your being. There are spiritual wounds and emotional wounds. If you show up for church Sunday after Sunday and leave the same way it is because something is blocking the spiritual food that would escort you to freedom and wholeness. Our hearts possess both spiritual and emotional being. You can t grasp the empowered word that comes forth to set you free if you are bound and don t confront your wound. God will define your wound so you can begin accepting what you need to be healed.
Types of Wounds Wound: an injury involving the cutting or tearing of the flesh; an injury or hurt to the feelings; to inflict pain upon; to hurt someone s feelings, pride emotions and/or self esteem. Spiritual wound: an injury involving the cutting or tearing of the soul; an injury to someone s spirit or state of mind; to inflict a pain upon the inner person; to hurt or damage the holy or immaterial frame of mind. Emotional wound: an injury involving the cutting or tearing of someone s feelings or emotions; to hurt or damage someone s emotions, expression or passion. Self-inflicted wound: an injury someone causes to him or herself. Inflicted wound: any injury one person causes or inflicts on someone else.
Early Detection of Your Pain. When wounds are confronted or treated when first inflicted, the pain is not as severe or prolonged. Early healing leads to feeling good, living well, ministering without guilt, and being a more powerful witness in the body of Christ. For example, if you have been rejected in a relationship and you feel useless and unwanted, then you need to admit that to God and yourself. Stop pretending that it does not exist and that you are just fine. Exposing your pain is what you need to do to receive healing. When you confront the fact that rejection has caused wound, you are ready to deal with it head on. Don t wait until you become numb and bitter.
Take Inventory of your Wounds How long can you afford to keep those wounds alive? When a wound is left untreated and persists, issues derive from it and begin to overtake your life. An issue comes from the result of your wound your problem, your hang ups, your vexation, your pain, your flaw, your mistake, your malfunction, your disobedience, your anxiety, your break down, your weakness, and or your hindrance Wounds that are untreated are open wounds, if you walk around for days, weeks, months, and years they become infected and the infection spreads.
Stronghold Wounds that are left untreated and persist become strongholds. 2 Cor. 10:4. A stronghold is anything that exalts itself above the Word of God. Jesus came that we could have an abundant life. If you are not living an abundant life, if your life is just fair, then your situation has exalted itself above the words of Jesus. Phil. 4:13. When a stronghold is in your life it is basically saying that God s Word does not work, but the stronghold does. The wound will affect the issues of your life. The woman with the issue of blood allowed her wound to affect her total life.
Release When people say or do things to hurt your spirit, the effect will last until you release their words or action from your thoughts. The spiritual wound affects or afflicts your mind. Your spirit is your intellect, your conscience, your will. If your will is affected by a wound then you are not in position to make a rational decision. The emotional wound affects or afflicts the soul. These wounds are most difficult to see. You hide them behind a fake smile, new clothes, education or position in the church. These wounds are not visible to the naked eye but in time the wound becomes almost a part of the person and that person becomes comfortable with the pain. Prov. 18:14
Free At Last Know the truth John 8:32 To hear a life changing message does not change your life. To read a life changing story does not change your life. To witness life changing experiences does not change your life. What changes your life and heals our wounds is the truth. Truth, when applied to our lives can change us for the better and forever. If we are bound by certain disconcerting habits, we need to know the truth to help us break the habit. Hidden truth, just like hidden treasure is of no value. If we do not know a truth we can t act on it. If we do not act on a truth, it has no power to bring change in our lives. Truth is not generally on the surface. You must dig for it. Truth is discovered or uncovered-not stumbled upon.
Truth Within The dope addict suffers with compulsive behavior. But the truth is that within the dope addict is a person of worth. The truth is that within every alcoholic, there is a person of sobriety. Within ever overeater, there is a person of moderation. Within every perverted person, there is someone of sound moral values. However if we do not know the truth of what truly lies within we can t change the exterior. Everything is minuscule compared to truth that is realized in your life. For every bondage there is a corresponding truth that delivers freedom from that bondage.
Revelation of Present Truth Despite the negative experiences of your past, present truth can make you free. You are not your past. John 5:6. In spite of the fears of your future, present truth can make you free because lies in you is far more efficacious than what lies behind you or before you. When you realize that truth you will be set free from any thing that binds you. Ignorance is simply disregarding or ignoring what you know to be true.
Practicing the Truth To know the truth, without doing the truth is ignorance. The key is not in knowing the truth; it is in practicing the truth. John 8:31. The key to knowing the truth is holding to or continuing the Word. When you hear truth, do not just get excited and shout all over the place, listen to that truth, write it down, get it down in spirit. Memorize the truth, confess the truth over your life. Determine ways you can put that truth into practice in your life. Too many times, we get so excited when we hear good truth that we just go into a frenzy and drop the truth on the floor.
Experiencing True Freedom It is only when we practice truth that true freedom is experienced. You may have been miraculously healed, delivered or set free, but it takes truth to keep you free. Miracles signs and wonders can get you free, but there is no guarantee you will remain free. If you are set free through a gift of the Holy Spirit or by sovereignty of God, you still need the Word of God in your life to keep you free. Sometimes only God can set you free but only you can keep yourself free by continuing in the truth of the Word of God
Once and For All We love any kind of panacea that can fix us once and for all. We do not want the responsibility of continuing on our shoulders. Continuing is a process that keeps our life in good shape. Continuing and practicing the truth is like taking a bath. If you do not wash yourself, you will begin to stink. If you do not wash yourself, you will give off odors. No matter how good your soap is, I guarantee that it will not last a lifetime. No matter how long you stay in the shower or tub, there will come a time real soon you will need another washing.
Continue In The Word of God Coming to God s Word brings, information, reformation, and transformation. Departing from God s word causes deformation, demoralization and degeneration. So if you want to keep your life fresh and clean, you must stay in the Word. When you leave the church service, continue in the Word! While you are on the job continue in the Word! While in your home, or vacation continue in the Word. Wherever you are continue in the Word, you will know the truth and the truth will make your free.