The Healing Process

Hey everyone! Hope your week has been awesome! It’s been a little crazy over here as my boys are preparing to take their SAT this weekend. There’s been lots of extra studying and praying going on. We’re all looking forward to taking a little break when it’s over. As a homeschool mom, I plan our schedule out a little differently. We’ll still have 1/2 days of school this summer, but it will be nice to have a break from the full school schedule. I love summer!

This week, I want to end this series on soul healing by sharing about “our responsibility” in the healing process; and I’ll be honest with you…this is the point where many people come to a HALT. Why? Because in order to receive deeper healing in our souls, we must take responsibility for our thoughts, our actions, our habit patterns, and our behaviors as the Holy Spirit brings them to the light in our lives. Someone recently asked me, “Why doesn’t everyone get the inner healing they need?” They had received it for themselves and so desperately wanted others to as well. I understand that desire! As pastors, my husband and I have seen many people receive only partial healing and even take steps backward in the healing of their souls. Instead of dealing with the issues, many will blame others, deny the problem, sever relationships, leave a church, change jobs, look for people to agree with them rather than the Word of God, and so on, causing them to never receive complete healing and deliverance.

The Bible is very clear about our responsibility in the transformation of our souls. In 1 Peter 1:7-9, we read about the “salvation of our souls.” When we get saved, our spirits become brand new, but our souls still need to be transformed. The apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 2:12-13 that this happens as we “work out our salvation.” This “working out our salvation” is a daily process, as we crucify the desires of our flesh and choose to walk by the Spirit of God. It’s the everyday choices we make that can either help or hinder the transformation God wants to do in our lives. As we deal with the things in our lives that do not line up with God’s Word, we learn to walk by the spirit and not our flesh. This isn’t easy, because our flesh, which is the unrenewed part of our soul; our thoughts, our desires, and the drive in us to go after what WE want, rather than what God created us for, has often been allowed to rule us. We must learn to say no to our flesh and yes to God’s way of living.

I encourage you to read Romans 8. Many people apply this chapter to “sin” and think they’re ok, but what is sin? Sin is doing the opposite of God’s Word. Often we don’t equate our habits, thoughts, or actions with sin and we make excuses for them. But when God brings something to the light in our lives and we choose NOT to deal with it, that’s sin. Yes, even a bad attitude, or an offense we may have. These are the very things that keep us in the cycle of pain because they affect our relationships, our intimacy with God, the decisions we make, and the thoughts we meditate on daily. If your flesh rules you, you probably won’t read any more of this blog. This is for the person that cries out, “Father, no matter what it takes, I want to be whole!” I pray you keep reading.

Many people never get the deep inner healing they need, because they want to bypass this part of the process. I’ve often spoken to people dealing with soul issues that want a “magic cure” – Just say a prayer over me and make me better! While prayer does bring healing to our lives, we still have a responsibility in the healing process. First, we must cultivate an intimate relationship with the Healer, and second, we must respond to the Holy Spirit daily and walk out the healing process. We have a choice whether we will keep running back to old habit patterns, or allow negative thoughts to run rampant, or stay in ungodly relationships, or allow offense to control us, or refuse to make the changes in our thoughts or behavior that the Holy Spirit is leading us to. God has given us a free will, and so the choice is up to us. Sadly, if we don’t choose life, we’ll stay bound and continue to be controlled by our unrenewed soul. No matter how difficult it may seem, know that choosing life daily, and submitting to God is always the best choice. Deuteronomy 30:15.

When God begins to do a deep inner work in a person, they’ll notice they start to feel different on the inside. This is because as we spend time with God, He begins to transform our desires, open our eyes to truth, remove the veils of deception from our lives and heal the wounded areas that caused us to be influenced and bound BUT…. we still have to choose to walk out in the natural what God is doing supernaturally inside of us. God will begin to “highlight” areas of our life that we need to work on. As things begin to come up, we now have a choice to stop reacting the way we used to, and instead “respond” as the Holy Spirit leads us. When we respond differently, this is where true freedom comes in our lives, because the thoughts, behaviors, and attitudes that tied us to that wound in our soul are now severed and are no longer dictating to us how we live. This is a glorious thing!

You may have noticed, before you began receiving healing in a certain area of your life, responding to the Holy Spirit, instead of having “knee-jerk reactions” may have seemed near impossible! Romans 6:15-19 explains why; saying we were once slaves to sin, but now, however, we’re slaves to righteousness. Jesus Christ broke the power of sin off of our lives and gave us the ability to walk in righteousness, yet that’s still a choice we have to make daily. If we’re still giving into feelings, thoughts, and actions that are not of God, we aren’t really walking in freedom, are we? But when we say no to sin, no to reacting from our hurts, our fleshly desires, or our soul issues, and we instead say yes to the Holy Spirit, we’re making the choice to be that slave to righteousness. THIS Spirit-led response is where TRUE FREEDOM comes. We’ve now begun walking out in the natural what God has done within our lives supernaturally. This new response is like cutting that final cord of entanglement to the soul issues that once ruled our lives. Praise God!!! We now come into complete agreement (spirit, soul, and body) with what God has done and is doing in our lives. Hallelujah!!! We actually say not just with our words, but also with our actions, “I will walk by the spirit and not the flesh. I will not be ruled by fear, by anger, by lust, by selfish desires, or by anything other than the Spirit of God.” The great news is; the more we walk by the Spirit and not the flesh, the more the anointing of God increases in our life, causing us to walk in greater healing and victory! Glory to God!!!

It’s important to remember, this is a process and doesn’t happen overnight. That’s why the Apostle Paul encouraged us to work out the salvation of our souls with fear and trembling, meaning with all diligence and soberness of mind. Because the issues in our soul, have affected us in our relationships, decisions, and responses to life in general for some time, we have to learn a new way of living, with the help of the best teacher ever – the Holy Spirit. So when you fall short, don’t beat yourself up. That’s definitely not God’s will. Rather, repent – turn away from that sin and turn towards God. God is there to help every step of the way. Thank God, His grace is sufficient in our weaknesses!

So what is God doing in your life right now? Is He delivering you from fear? Is He healing you of deep rejection and insecurities? Is He dealing with an area in your life that has caused you to look for fulfillment in things or people and not Him? Keep running into His Presence and allowing Him to do that deep inner work in you. Surrender to what He’s doing in your life and choose to respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit daily, walking it out one decision at a time. If it’s fear, choose to respond in faith, no matter how scary and how impossible it seems. If it’s control and manipulation, then surrender your will to God. If it’s anger, choose to respond in forgiveness and love. If it’s an ungodly habit, flee from that temptation and say no to the flesh and yes to the Spirit of God. You can do it because God says you can!

I wish I could show you a video of where I was years ago so that you could see healing and freedom are possible. I was a broken person and my flesh ruled every area of my life. It was the only way I knew how to live because I lived that way for so long. My relationships were a mess and I was in the pit of despair. When I tried to change on my own, I just made things worse. I thought my life was hopeless. Then I began this healing journey with the Lord, that I’m still on by the way, and as God began to heal my heart through my intimacy with Him, I was soon able to make choices that brought life to me. Yes it was a battle, yes my flesh fought back, yes the enemy told me my life would never really be different, but I stayed the course because God’s Word promised me otherwise. And know this! God is faithful to His Word! Stay the course on this healing process. Don’t come to a HALT like so many others do when God brings things to the light in you that needs to change. Don’t run. Don’t blame. Don’t hide. Face it with God’s help, and watch, as you take each obedient step, no matter how hard it is, how amazingly faithful your Heavenly Father is to transform YOUR life from the inside out.

When you feel the battle against your flesh and the Spirit is raging, run into God’s Presence. Put on some worship music and just let the Holy Spirit minister to you. Keep renewing your mind with the truth of God’s Word, continue casting down those thoughts that want to defeat you, and replacing them with what God says about your life. When you feel weak, allow Him to be your strength. And no matter what it feels like in the process, know that the final outcome is always glorious because God is Faithful!

My hubby created this awesome hand-out. It’s a “Put on/Put Off” Reminder Sheet that will help us to know exactly what things we need to put off and put on as we’re walking out this daily process. Click below to access it. I know you’ll be blessed by it!

Put On/Put Off Reminders