So many of us avoid seeking out healing from God because of a deep-seated worry that it will involve the pain of reliving the past. We don’t pursue forgiveness and freedom and we don’t allow God to speak to our situations because we are afraid of that pain. But this comes from a place of deep misunderstanding of how God actually works. God offers true healing, and it is a healing which transforms. It doesn’t dwell in the past, and it isn’t painful. It’s not oppressive or difficult. There is a difference between facing our troubles alone, and walking through them hand in hand with the God of the universe. There is a brief moment where you must realize that you are in a broken spot, and turn back to God. But you don’t stay in that spot. Instead, He leads you on into what He has for you—an abundant life of joy, peace, and exceptional living. It’s a hopeful place, not a painful place.
Paul writes that where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17). When you walk with God, you experience this freedom while He is bringing healing, truth, insight, wisdom, and answers to prayer into your life. Healing with Christ is an exciting time as you get to see and experience what He is doing. The spirit is life; it’s not heavy, it’s not death. It’s life!
Deliverance from our patterns.
While much of the chaos we experience in life is real and tangible, we often contribute to the chaos ourselves. The ways in which we operate and the patterns we develop can deepen the chaos and expand it. For example, a lot of people struggle with a pattern of anger. When we experience a pattern of anger, we can find ourselves getting angry at a great host of the things we experience, and when we get angry we are drawn to act it out by treating people harshly. Once we’ve begun to treat people harshly we experience contention—chaos.
With the overwhelming and constant change in our world today, both politically and culturally, it is easy to be mad. We don’t like what is happening in our country and our world, and we want it to change. But it doesn’t change, and so we find ourselves stressed. It can be impossible to talk to some people, and you can’t solve problems in a society that ostracizes each other. Even in our day-to-day, we face tensions, conflicts, and frustrations. In the flesh, these can build up and create an undercurrent of anger. We become frustrated in life, upset by the way things continue to happen, and quick to go to unforgiveness, anger, fear, worry, and anxiety. We tend to think these are the result of all the chaotic stuff that is happening, but underneath it actually lies our personal responses to the chaos we experience, and the patterns that have been created by the woundedness of our hearts.
But the chaos is so prevalent… how are we supposed to handle it? In the flesh, we become bound by frustrations, but God asks you to let Him change your heart and your understanding of the soul, so that you can become free of the burden of frustration. His concern is not about the problem; rather, it is about healing. There is transformation to be found in abiding relationship with Christ. Most of the time, when we experience a release from the chaos, the majority of the change comes from God helping us to deal with our own hearts and to gain perspective on life. When God does this kind of work in us, it frees us so that we can enjoy life, regardless of the things that are going on around us.
As you’re finding truth in the middle of chaos, remember that your patterns only create more chaos. Let Him heal those and start bringing order to your life.
We’ve discussed the healing that can be found in Christ and the transformation He creates in our hearts, but how do we start to find that truth which sets us free? You may be thinking to yourself, “I read my Bible regularly, I pray, and I do life with other Christians, but I don’t experience that kind of freedom in my life. How can I find deliverance from my patterns? How do I find true freedom in Christ?” Let’s dig into it…
Have a heart for truth.
In John 6:35, Jesus says, “I am the bread of life”. At the point when He says this, there were probably two hundred or more people (in addition to the twelve) following Him around. These people would have thought of themselves as being disciples of Christ. They were going with Him from place to place, and they were witnessing Him do fantastic miracles. He was teaching them extraordinary things and they were excited about it. Then He makes a profound statement, telling them that they will have to eat His body and drink His blood. They were confused by this. It sounded strange, complex, and perhaps even wrong to them. It was too hard for them to grasp, and so they all left.
Jesus often makes these kinds of statements to us when we abide with Him. He’ll lead us to something that makes us go, “Wait—what?”. When we find ourselves in that place, it is easy to say, “that’s too hard for me,” and to walk away. God says that His sheep hear His voice (see our previous blog post on this topic: Hearing God’s Voice). For many of us, that is hard to grasp. You may think: my church has told me not to talk to anybody who says you can hear from God. Or perhaps you struggle to believe that everyone can hear from God. Isn’t that just for the hyper-spiritual?
When the people following Christ heard Him make this statement about eating His body and drinking His blood, they suddenly thought they were following someone ungodly; He was saying things that sounded strange, crazy, and maybe even cultish, and they left. Jesus didn’t tell them to come back. He didn’t try to soften His message or help them understand it differently. What did He do? He invited them to leave. He didn’t chase them down. As a receiver in your abiding relationship, this is a critical thing to realize. He will tell you crazy things, but He invites you to stay with Him and have a heart to receive truth. What He is saying to you is not always clear, and it’s not always something you’ve experienced, but don’t reject it. Go the other direction. Realize it is in scripture for a reason, and ask God to help you understand what it looks like in a healthy way. The mistake that the followers of Jesus made was that they walked away without asking any more questions. They didn’t ask for explanation or clarity.
John 6:63, 68
63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,
In these verses, Jesus makes another statement: His words are spirit and life. At this point, the only ones left around Him were the twelve. The others were relying on their own knowledge and experience rather than the Spirit, and that is why they were able to walk away so easily. When you rely on the flesh, your own rationality leads you to consider His words foolishness. The flesh is your intellect, your self, your own determination. The people who walked away from Christ determined that His words didn’t make any sense, and so they left. Jesus says that if you approach Him that way—in the flesh—it counts for nothing. And, unfortunately, so many Christians have approached their faith this way. Even people who do devotions every day are often missing the true depth of a relationship with Christ. Their Bible-reading time becomes a task, and they quickly walk away from believing that any of it can truly help them. This approach is oppressive, because it looks at faith as law. But if you change your approach, and truly seek Christ, the words you find in scripture become spirit and life.
His Words are Spirit and Life.
God has specific things He wants to speak to you. All the Bible is true, and all of it acts as the ultimate source of truth, but God will not speak to you the whole Bible all at once. Rather, He wants you to understand the specific concepts He is presenting to you in the moment. He wants you to dwell on that specific thing, and get it into your heart. The words that are spirit and life are these words—the ones that He is revealing to you.
Okay… what does that mean?
When God speaks to you, it is spirit and life. What is spirit? Spirit is Him. He says that He will activate His words inside of you. He will realize His words within you, because He can change your heart and your circumstances. What do you mean He can change my circumstances? God wants to speak to your questions about your business, family, health, and all the other things that concern you each day. When He speaks into these, you are not learning about something, but are rather experiencing transformation. This transformation is active life. You will experience His words as life, and when you experience this life, you get excited. His words will accomplish what He is asking you to do and you can trust that.
Most Christians wind up learning a lot about God. They know all the truths that Paul wrote, and they have many scriptures memorized. Someone in this position could easily say, “yes, I’ve learned that I should be loving and forgiving. I’ve studied it.” The question to then ask yourself is: are you experiencing it? The difference between the flesh studying it and experiencing the words of spirit and life, is that, rather than learning about forgiveness, you receive forgiveness. This comes through abiding in His word. His words will transform you and when He transforms you, you have forgiveness. He gives it to you.
After the two hundred left, Jesus turns to the twelve, and asks them if they want to leave as well. Peter speaks up and says no. The twelve didn’t have a clue what Jesus had meant, any more than the two hundred. It didn’t make sense to them, but they had already chosen to be with Him because they knew His words were eternal life. So they stayed, and waited for Him to explain it. Ultimately, they came to understand what He spoke to them because they had a heart to hear it.
His Words are Eternal Life
When Jesus makes the statement that His words are eternal life, most of the Christian community understands this to mean that His words lead you to salvation—your ticket to heaven. We hear eternal life and think, “I get to go to heaven and I’m eternally secure in that.” That is, of course, true. But we want to challenge you with a question: is that all there is to eternal life?
How did Jesus define eternal life?
John 17:3
And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Jesus said that eternal life is knowing the Father, and knowing Him. In this context, and in most places in the Bible, the word ‘know’ denotes intimacy. Jesus says that eternal life is not only knowing about God, but experiencing Him, and participating in the life He offers. So when Jesus says that His words are eternal life, He means that His words are going to transform you because they will give you the ability to experience God and gain a greater understanding of who He is. Rather that knowing about Jesus, a person who receives His words knows Jesus.
The flesh counts for nothing. Christ’s words are spirit and life, and these words will lead you to receive Him, experience Him, and find answers to all your life’s questions.
If you would like to know more about experiencing Christ, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at https://abideministries.com/contact-us/. We would love to hear from you!
