Inner Healing & Deliverance
Thank you for joining me for a few thought provoking words…
Inner healing is incomplete without deliverance. There must be a good balance of both. I know that there are some folks who don’t think that a Christian can have an evil spirit within them, because they say that when we invite Jesus into our hearts our spirits are transformed and they would be right, however our minds are not changed even though our spirits are.
The two things that God will not do are #1 override our will and #2 He will not forgive us in areas where we have not forgiven. If you see a tie-dyed shirt dipped in the blood of Jesus all tied up in knots it looks completely covered in the blood, but once the knots are untied you can see all those areas that were not covered in the blood.
The knots represent the unbelieving unregenerate areas of our heart. Those blank spaces where the blood of Jesus couldn’t get to are those areas of our heart where we couldn’t or wouldn’t forgive those who harmed us, because Jesus gave us free will and He said in Matthew 6:14-15 that He will not forgive us in those areas where we have not forgiven. Where ever the Blood of Jesus isn’t anything else can be.
Paul said in I Corinthians 4:4; I am not conscious of anything against myself, and I feel blameless; but I am not vindicated and acquitted before God on that account. It is the Lord [Himself] Who examines and judges me.
Paul said that we are not acquitted for our hidden sin. I thought because I was so analytical that I could know myself better than anyone else. I found out how foolish that kind of thinking can be. We wear so many masks that we can even fool ourselves, or simply justify what we say, do, and think.
When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead He could have commanded his burial clothing to fall off of him, after all if Jesus could waken a dead man after 4 days He could most certainly command his death garb to fall off of him, but instead He said someone remove his burial clothes. Jesus created us to need one another, so that we can help our brother remove the death rags we have become so used to wearing that we are no longer aware that we still have them on. It would be like going to a pig farm, when we first arrive we doubt if we will ever get used to that terrible smell, but once we stay there for an hour or two we are no longer aware that there is a smell, until we leave the farm and re-enter society and watch the noses of the people who’s space we invade. We are no longer aware of the odor, but everyone else is. It’s the same with that hidden sin. An anointed man or woman of God can see in us what we cannot see in ourselves. Put pride aside and let someone you trust take a look.
One more thought…
I pray that you come to a place in your life that people won’t play such a big role. You will love them where ever they are and understand that we all have feet of clay and given the right circumstance and pressure we will all succumb to it, to one degree or another. The consistent thing in this life is the predictable inconsistency of people.
I have learned to smile at it and focus on the perfection and faithfulness of our Lord. If we stay before Him through prayer and praise, everything has a way of working out. When I am the most overwhelmed and apprehensive I can count on laying before the Lord and praising and worshipping to the exclusion of every worry, and the miraculous takes place; I get out of myself, resting in His arms and He fights my battles for me, or gives me the strategy that moves it out of my way.
I know that there is more, simply because my God is fathomless, bottomless and exceedingly abundantly far above whatever I could ask or think, so…I pray and praise and wait to see His Glory.
I am no longer disappointed, because it is not a matter of if it will happen, it is a matter of when. So I am content to stay there until it does. It is like waiting for a bus. If you are not sure if it will come the time seems endless, but if you are positive that it must come, then you simply wait until is does.
Blessings,
Pastor Jack Valentino