EXPERIENCE INNER HEALING
As children, some of us were given additional duties as part of our punishment for misbehavior. The completion of such tasks “paid” for our disobedience. Unfortunately, some people model this behavior as adults by performing “good works” to atone for their sins by giving to the poor, becoming a leader in the church or community, or paying some official to “atone” for a sin. These acts of the flesh, do not bring inner healing; they do not cleanse the heart: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10) To bring about inner healing, we must be truly sorrow for the transgression, forsake the sin (turn from it and have nothing to do with it), and sincerely ask God to search our inner self: “… the candle of the LORD, [searches] all the inward parts of the belly.” (Proverbs 20:27)
To bring inner healing, we must sincerely ask God to search our inner self.
When we get caught in sin, do we make excuses to transfer the sin to someone or something else?
“The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly” (Proverbs 20:27) means that we take the responsibility for the consequences of our actions. God gives no approval to those who play the “game” Adam and Eve tried to play with God: “And the Lord God called unto Adam … And he said … Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” (Genesis 3:9-13)
God isn’t looking for excuses but accountability for what we do.
God wanted this husband and wife to confess their sin, to repent of the lust at work in their hearts; instead, they lied about it–tried to cover it up. “And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.” (Mark 4:19) Neither Adam nor Eve wanted to take responsibility for his/her actions. They pointed to someone else for their failure, for their rebellion, for their sin.
First No-Fault resolution to problem solving
Adam and Eve modeled for us the first “no-fault” resolution to problem solving. That’s what we have today, a “no-fault” society: we not only have no-fault insurance, but the egregious no-fault divorce law. There’s little black or white; we have removed accountability. Society has replaced:
- truth with ethics;
- ethics with politically correct;
- politically correct with situational ethics,
- right being dependent upon on circumstances which change.
Thus, we have a confused culture looking for the majority rules or the minority exception to find approval for decisions based upon rebellion to Biblical principles of right and wrong.
How we put ourselves in bondage
Like Adam and Eve, our flesh (heart) doesn’t like to take responsibility for negative consequences of our actions so the problem is displaced: “It was her fault”; “He forced me to do it”; “My pastor told me this sin was covered under the blood.”
When we dwell on past hurts; we become imprisoned by our memories, our environmental circumstances, and our current rebellion against the Scriptures. In so doing, we actually become in bondage to the person who hurt us, to the circumstances we want to avoid, to lifestyles God hates. When we refuse to forgive, to stop looking back, to resolve differences, ulcers and other physical and emotional illnesses develop; sleeplessness emerges, depression overtakes our mind. Our thoughts may even dwell on revenge which is forbidden by God. Unforgiveness and displacing responsibility immobilize people. They tie us up–binding us–actually putting us in bondage to those we refuse to forgive and sins we hide.
Those who harbor anger and bitterness (unforgiveness [SIN]) are in serious rebellion and risk becoming hard-hearted. The Word of God clearly warns us to avoid letting our hearts become hardened. Our hearts become hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. “But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” (Hebrews 3:13) Our deceived heart will tell us that we have a “right” to hold on to the bitterness; that it’s okay that we believe it is “Eve’s fault” or “Adam’s fault”; that we are justified in hating one another. We become hardened (in bondage) to the lie that we create within our mind which gives us a hardened heart making it difficult for us to come to true repentance as we become blinded to our own sin. Our sin becomes a lifestyle pattern that we no longer recognize as sin, or we might say, “We become anesthetized to sin.”
Scripture warns that our minds and bodies are affected by hardened hearts. We become “… men of corrupt minds, reprobate [wicked] concerning the faith.” Study carefully some of the manifestations of sin which lead to the dangerous condition of a hardened heart in Second Timothy 3:1-9. “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
- For men shall be lovers of their own selves
- Covetous
- Boasters
- Proud
- Blasphemers
- Disobedient to parents
- Unthankful
- Unholy
- Without natural affection
- Trucebreakers
- False accusers
- Incontinent
- Fierce
- Despisers of those that are good
- Traitors
- Heady
- Highminded
- Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God
- Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof
From such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.”
God uses strong words to describe actions of those who reject His Standards. He calls these people reprobates.
Additional warnings are given in Romans 1:28: “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind.” The body responds to this reprobate mind with some of the following manifestations: “Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication [sexual sin], wickedness … murder … whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God … disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection …” (Study Romans 1:28-32.) Some with reprobate minds make the headlines: Serial Murderer Stalks Neighborhood; Husband Brutally Murders Wife and Children; School Massacre by Teen Students.
These actions are responses of those who at one time in their lives were unable/unwilling to reconcile conflict and/or sin. They, for awhile, internalized their frustration, anger, bitterness and unforgiveness, but eventually sin becomes too much for the mind to handle. That’s when the person acts out against his own body or some else’s. This might be in the form of drugs, physical or mental abuse, or some of the examples God gives as those with reprobate minds.
TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR ACTIONS (REPENTANCE AND FORGIVENESS) CAN BREAK BONDAGE AND BRING INNER HEALING.
Making the decision to take responsibility for our actions, acknowledging our sins through repentance and forgiving others will open the door for the Lord to create in us a clean heart and to renew a right spirit in us. Only then will the “chains of bondage” be broken or loosed from our minds and hearts.
Signs of a clean heart–a renewed heart (inner healing), will include the ability to experience an inner, hard-to-comprehend joy and the peace that passes all understanding even in the midst of our storms of life. This freedom comes as the above decisions and actions are carried out in our lives.
We must realize that unresolved differences, left alone do not disappear. They, instead, become a root of resentfulness, anger, bitterness, and unforgiveness which separates us from God.
Many “reprobates” — so called by God, make headlines:
“Serial Murderer Stalks Neighborhood,”
“Husband Brutally Murders Wife and Children,” “Thieves break into home and steal family heirlooms,”
and millions are listed in the newspapers filing a lawsuit to break their one-flesh marriage (covenantbreakers).
Children of divorce and their parents greatly need inner healing.
Tree represents Deception: Unresolved differences left alone will disappear. This is a lie, the “deceitfulness of sin.” They don’t disappear. They become a root of resentfulness, anger, bitterness and unforgiveness.
“Leaves” gone astray in peoples’ lives are manifested in incompatibility, temper tantrums (adults and children display many forms), affairs, suicide, divorce, murder, etc.
The root system of a tree sustains the tree. The leaves are related to the root system. We don’t see the roots, but they are the key to a healthy tree. Infected, the tree will eventually die. Likewise, if the heart is not purged of resentfulness, anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, these forms of poison will permeate our relationship with others and with God, bringing eventual destruction to our soul.
