Jeremiah
received the understanding that healing and salvation are from the Lord, he wasn’t just
speaking about any type of healing like natural bodily healing for the things
which plague us like sickness and aging which are obvious, he was also speaking
of the healing that comes from the Lord for the restoration of the spirit and the soul,
healing that comes from relational interaction with the Lord.
It is this
type of healing which is the most challenging because this type of healing is
unseen and at times is subjective, but is needed all the same and can be the
most important for our growth. Experts have
labeled this type of healing “inner healing”.
We are a
people that have a need for a healer, which is difficult for a prideful heart. Many people have been raised with an understanding
that we should be self-sufficient and not have to rely upon others in our
weakness and our needs, but God designed the Church so that we could be a
support for one another, and as a Church, we could be a corporate voice of the
Lord to speak the heart of Jesus to each other out of His love for us.
When we
consider how Jesus interacts with us, He demonstrates His power and His glory
to us by encountering us in intimate ways, by entering into our mind space and showing us His love and affection in ways that heal and affirm. He takes us into the secret places in our
minds which have been damaged and hurt by others by giving us the knowledge that
He will gently and lovingly enter into those areas of pain and become our
strength and our confidence, He becomes our Mighty Man. He shows us that He can heal us by His mere
presence in those painful memories, He can also utilize those hurts to become
our greatest strengths. Our hurts are never wasted in Christ.
The purpose of Jesus entering into our mind space and healing us is so that our past memories will not control or dictate our future. When He enters in He begins this process of revealing His love, and demonstrates that love can overcome all obstacles which have been our greatest hinderance for maturing in the natural as well as in our spiritual life.
This life
with everything we encounter cannot tell us who we are anymore than a fortune
teller can predict our future, (which they cannot) our past does not define us, only Jesus can define
us. And His definition of us has a glorious present and a brilliant future.
He reminds us that we were with Him
in heaven before we were ever born and we were overjoyed with the opportunity
to live out a life script which He personally gave us in the beginning when the earth was
first formed. We had intimate fellowship
with Him and others who also were given life scripts to walk out as we shared
the joy knowing that we would serve our Master in the complete confidence that
He would see us through all of it. We
were always His children even if we have no memory of it. Jesus reconnects our spirit with His in ways
to remind us of who we are and where we came from when we were with Him
before time began.
We have a
history with Jesus which transcends time and this natural world, when we
connect with Jesus He takes us back to those memories of who we were before
the enemy of our soul brought darkness and confusion into our path to keep us
from our eternal destiny with Him. Jesus reminds us that we were designed to not let anything stand in our way and to walk with Him to fulfill our eternal destiny in Christ.
This is the role of an overcomer, which we are called to become.
“Father, if you are willing, please take this
cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Luke
22:42 (NLT) (emphasis mine)
It is not
that suffering won’t come our way, suffering has a purpose which is to solidify
our resolve to trust Jesus to help us to finish out our life script. Paul also saw this very clearly:
"I have fought the good fight, I have
finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits
me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give
me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who
eagerly look forward to his appearing." 2
Timothy 4:7-8 (NLT)
Paul knew
that the good fight of faith was not in a vacuum of emptiness with no purpose,
but something greater than life itself which was Christ residing in him as the aim. Jesus gave Paul His faith to suffer greatly
for the gospel, and through Paul’s suffering, he developed an unwavering and uncompromised
trust in Jesus to see His work through until the very end and be with Jesus in
glory. It was a singleness of focus with
no fear because fear brings with it doubt and torment.
Jeremiah
continues: “if you save me, I will be truly saved.” Salvation comes from walking out the life
script that we were given and having Jesus embody all that we do to see it to
the end. It was never about us trying to
make our calling happen out of our own efforts, it was always about Christ in
us who is our hope of glory. Jesus is
our salvation, He didn’t die to send it, He died to become it.
So we do
have a calling, each and every one of us which is to let Christ fill us and operate
through us.
“It is through him that we live and
function and have our identity; just as your own poets have said,‘Our lineage
comes from him.’” Acts 17:28 (TPT)
Jeremiah
recognizes that “My praises are for you alone!” There is praise that comes from a yielded
heart that is for Jesus alone, for He alone can accomplish all that He desires to
do through us. Even if it seems like our
work is insignificant, Jesus is significant and all we do is for His glory and for His purposes.
This is why I believe that creativity is our
call and restoration is our purpose! Not just for us, but for others too!
Be Blessed;
Stephen
Barnett
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