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Be
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The
Unprepared,
Disillusioned Christian
by
Rita Bennett
Featured
article in the
In Touch & Emotionally Free Newsletter
Spring 2005 Edition
Click the image for the complete newsletter in Adobe PDF format
On a Thursday night in March, 2005, I went to the "Edmonds Art Walk" which leads you to various shops downtown to see their unique displays. It happens every three weeks. My friend, Realtor Joan Longstaff, invited me to look at a local artist's watercolor paintings she was showing. In the back room was a sing-a-long Christian music group located near the food. A popular location!
I eventually joined the musicians. When I was introduced to them, one began to share that she did not know what to do to help a man she had recently met. A tragic event had occurred just before a wonderful event. His mother died one day, and the very next day his first child was born. Due to the child's birth, he was not there to say "good-bye" to His mother. The grandmother to be was so longing to see her first grandchild. This unfulfilled wish grieved the new father. The whole scenario was painful when having a first child should have been one of his happiest days.
Since these two events happened, the person I will call Joe has become reclusive. He has boarded up the windows of his office, to keep people away. He is blaming God for doing something cruel. He has talked to his minister and told him he doubts that there is a God.
Do you know others who have gone through trials and have been drawn away from God or the idea that there is a God? What would you say to this man? Why doesn't this heart broken man understand anything about spiritual warfare that goes on in the world around him? How can he be victorious when he does not know there is an enemy, who the enemy is, and how he can be defeated?
The answer is that he was not taught by his church leaders the basic truths of the Christian faith. Often church is only a club with the purpose of: Hatching, Matching, and Dispatching.
Services for births, weddings, and funerals are all needed, but are not enough. Often sermons are only fifteen minute homilies that do not say anything that will stir up questions. A "keep everybody happy message." Then the people are sent home unprepared for the spiritual warfare that they can meet&endash;when they stick their big toe outside the church door!
Through inner healing prayer ministry, you and I should know some effective ways to help this man in his time of grieving. It's imperative that he get this help because:
1. His child is going to sense his father's pain and may grow up with the feeling that somehow he's responsible. Question, "Why wasn't I joyfully welcomed into my family? What is wrong with me?"2. The mother will be grieving due to her husband's depression and that can affect the newborn and the mother's relationship. Question, "Why isn't mother happy now that I am here?"
3. The marriage relationship will be suffering from the sadness and confusion.
4. Everyone is going to need emotional healing or inner healing prayer!
Unfortunately, Joe is not ready for prayer: He has some questions that must be addressed first. He is mad at God! He needs to work through this anger with a believing counselor so he won't bury his anger inside. Grieving people need to be made comfortable to tell how it hurts, to release their pain in a loving, healing setting. The counselor also needs to have biblical knowledge to be able to gently lead the wounded person to the right answers . . . when it is time.
He will need to know that:
• This is a fallen world.• There are two kingdoms at work: (a) God our Father's Kingdom (capital K) and (b) The Serpent - Satan's kingdom (small k)
When we are "born again" we change kingdoms, from small "k"to capital "K."
The initial story is told in Genesis, meaning the Book of Beginnings.
Chapter 2:15-18, is where God speaks to His human creation.
"And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat it you shall surely die. And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make a help mate for him."
Chapter 3 is where the beguiling, smooth talking, terrorist arrives. Verse's 1-6 tell the sad story.
"Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field that the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, has God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.
"And the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die: For God knows that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her; and he did eat."
This was the beginning of satan's takeover of the world. Mankind was given dominion by God, but in one moment the keys of this planet were handed over to the enemy of our souls. Spiritual Death began immediately, and physical death followed. Human beings had to leave Paradise. Thistles and thorns appeared. God's first creation had to work hard as they labored for food and shelter by the sweat of their brow.
These conditions of the life of fallen humans will continue until the Kingdom Age. Then Christ will come back to rescue the fallen world and will let reborn human beings rule and reign with Him in His restored peaceable Kingdom.
So what happened to our depressed friend, Joe? He was never taught that even though Jesus died and rose from the grave to save our spirits, souls, and bodies, there is a fierce battle going on between these two kingdoms. It's not a pretend war because God fights fair. He has to let his opponent do his worst or it would not be a fair battle! At the end of the war, God will have won fairly. The Lord God could, of course, destroy all human beings and start over, but fortunately He has decided He loves us too much to do this. He would rather die in our place and take our sin upon Himself. Jesus Christ did just that 2000 years ago.
Meanwhile, we believers are part of the battle plan. An army must be prepared. God wants us to know how to protect ourselves and our families. When bad things happen around us, we have to understand what is going on in the unseen world so we won't be depressed, discouraged, or disillusioned with God.
• We need to know when it's time to get a group of believers to stand with us to pray about the situations challenging us and those we love.• We need to know when we are being tempted so we can "Resist the devil, and he will flee . . ." (James 4:7b).
• We need to put on the Armor of God first thing each morning (Ephesians 6:10-18).
• We should claim the protection of the Blood of the Lamb of God over the door posts of our spirits, souls, and bodies, and our physical dwellings (Exodus 11:7). Teach our families to do these things, too.
• We need empowerment with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5,8; 2:4).
This concept comes from 3,500 years ago when the Children of Israel were super naturally being delivered from Egyptian bondage. God sent the death angel to slay the first born sons as judgment to "let His people go." God's protection for Israel (and those who would join them) was to have them slay a male lamb and to place his blood over the door posts of their homes so the death angel would "pass over" them.
Exodus 12:7 "And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, where you shall eat."
The blood on the Hebrew door posts prefigured the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, who would take away the sin of the world. This was fulfilled about 1,500 years later in Jerusalem.
Verse 13 has a famous phrase where God says: "... When I see the blood, I will pass over you." The blood of Jesus was placed over the door post of our lives when we confessed our sins and invited Christ the Messiah to dwell in us and live His life through us.
In verse 14, Israel is commanded to keep the Feast of Passover throughout all their generations, and keep it forever, even after the Messiah returns to this earth! This promise includes all believers.
Some Christians celebrate the Hebraic Passover as well as Christian Easter services. Why is this Passover Festival important for us today? So that when we celebrate the Easter Resurrection of Jesus, we will understand and appreciate our Hebrew roots and history. We need to see the picture that, 2000 years ago when the rabbinical High Priest was slaying the annual Passover lamb in the Temple in Jerusalem, at the same moment not far away, Jesus Christ, God's Lamb, was being slain on the Cross. The Lord Jesus fulfilled it all. Some Christians have never understood this Passover-Easter connection. There was a time when I hadn't either.
Revelation 12:10 says, "And a loud voice saying from Heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the Kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren [satan] is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night."
Verse 11 "And they overcame him [the enemy] by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto the death." This is how we overcome still today.
Our friend Joe was not ready when the big test hit him. He had no idea that everything would not go smoothly for him. After all, he may have prayed a little prayer that all would be well.
He did not know about putting on the Armor of God or about pleading the blood of Jesus over his life and family. He did not know about being Empowered with the Holy Spirit. He was busy making a living and had not spent much time in the study of the Bible, the most eternally important book he could ever read. He went to church and paid his tithe so his minister could take care of all of his spiritual needs.
Yet God can still get through to the Joes and Janes who need His liberating, healing, truth. The truth can set them free.
God has a calling and purpose for each one of us. Continue in God's Word. Continue to be filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit. Work further on your own inner healing. Journal what you are learning. When you are prepared, get ready to prayer-counsel others, and please pass on the good news.
Thank God we have read the end of the Bible which says, God wins, and that we are on the Winning Team. Meanwhile the battle is real. You can see it on the news every day of your life. You and I need to stay prepared because this world is full of darkness. Humankind is waiting to see the light through you and me, and to hear the good news.
Now may the blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, cover us, and those we love. May He protect our lives and ministries. Amen.
To learn more about the Inner Healing Prayer Ministry, come to some of our Seminars listed in our newsletter, In Touch and Emotionally Free, or visit us on the web at www.EmotionallyFree.org or, contact me or my staff at (425) 775-2965.
Notes: All scripture, unless otherwise noted, is from the KJV mod. version.
The material published in the CRA Newsletter is protected by copyright. Please contact Rita Bennett for permission to use it. Copyright © 2005 by Rita Bennett.
