Acknowledging Healing That Hasn't Taken Place

I love God. I love how He gives confirmation. Sometimes it's even comical. I've been dealing with some things (hence no post) and I woke up yesterday determined to sit at Jesus' feet, give him the situation, and just be still to hear from him. Pretty much, some remnants of past struggles tried to become relevant again- not people specifically, but just the "spirit" of past issues manifesting themselves again.

Saturday night, I was catching up on messages from One Church LA that I'd missed, and I just happened to click on a message by my life coach Sarah Jakes- Roberts called "Don't Trust The Cast". It was completely random, and I didn't even try to read into the title like I usually do, but as I listened to what she said, she spoke DIRECTLY to my situation because she's my best friend. WOW. It pretty much brought me to tears because God used that message to pretty much put me on notice that what I was struggling with was something I needed to get right.

That brought me to yesterday, determining to listen to God through the Word of God/my devotions. THEN, just now, I was doing my devotions on She Reads Truth. The title for today was "Godly Grief". I opened the link, unknowing of the topic. As I read, I just stopped in my tracks. Once again, confirmation. I pinned the title of this post last night after my devotion time with God, and today's SRT post was literally on the same topic and acknowledgment of our sin. WOW! Like, WOW. It's not a coincidence.

Here's what the Lord gave me in my devotion time...

Healing of any situation or injury is both a physical process and mental/spiritual process. When you hurt yourself, let's say through a cut, you must first mentally recognize that you're hurt before you will put a band aid, ointment, or anything on it to heal. If you don't realize you're hurt, you won't think to apply a healing aid. This is why some people start with a small injury or ailment that they refuse to acknowledge and then 6 months later, they need major surgery to repair what could have been healed with a quicker fix back when the injury was small and manageable. Ignoring an injury, whether intentional or unintentional, impedes the healing process.

It's the same thing with spiritual healing.

I've written before about the different things God has brought me through, but you know what God brought to my attention- I never fully acknowledged that healing was needed, otherwise you're just as susceptible to being injured again. Yes, I stopped doing some of the things I was tied to, but you know what, a lot of that was due solely to proximity. I stopped drinking alcohol, but aside from realizing it was wrong, I graduated and just wasn't around it anymore. I stopped partying, again aside from realizing it was wrong, but primarily because I left the college lifestyle and no longer had friends who were "party-ers". Here's the thing, behind every physical action is an underlying reason or need that's fulfilled by it.

Most of my dirt that I did was a result of feeding my own selfish desires for years. So, yes, I stopped doing a lot of those things, but I'm realizing I never fully healed because I didn't come to full acknowledgement that healing was needed. I physically removed myself from a lot of harmful situations, but didn't deal with the mental/spiritual aspect of the healing. OK so, I don't drink anymore, but did I deal with the fact that I drank to escape stress or to fit in with others around me? I stopped cursing, but did I deal with whatever reason brought me to cursing in the first place? OK so, sleeping around was because you wanted to fill your loneliness by having a "pretend boyfriend"? So what happens now when you get lonely? What makes you think you won't run back to that same sin?

Healing is a proactive process, I'm learning. It's reactive yet preventative at the same time. We react by acknowledging and treating the injury to heal, but something should click in our minds to help us think about how not to allow ourselves to do the same thing again that caused the injury. If you break your leg, even after you have healed from it, you still think about how you broke your leg in hopes that you don't do it again, right? This is how we need to be with sin. If I don't know how I broke my leg in the first place, I have no clue how to prevent or stop myself from breaking it again.

Being enslaved to sin is a terrible thing. Don't underestimate its impact on your life. It impacts your physical, mental, and spiritual state. It has lasting after effects that you have to acknowledge and be proactive in preventing DAILY. I didn't really fully realize this.

It's great that God has delivered me from being a border-line alcoholic, but if I don't heal mentally/spiritually from the effects of that life, I could be an alcoholic this time next month. We're never too high and mighty to fall back down into the same ol' sins. It's a proactive, preventative thing. God's grace is sufficient. Through the blood of Christ, I don't HAVE to be a slave to sin. I can have the victory, but I have to die daily to my flesh. My corruptible flesh naturally wants to do wrong, so I have to abide in Christ daily and abide in the things of God to not fall back into it.

So check yourself. Ask yourself. Are you ignoring an injury? Walking around with a sprained ankle but completely ignorant of how to be healed from it? Acknowledging that you have hurt that isn't completely healed. Acknowledgement is step 1. Give it to God. Ask Him daily to provide His sovereign diagnosis and plan of treatment and stick to it! Healing WILL come.

1 Peter 2:24 - Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

Seeking the Great Physician DAILY,

Dear God, Thank You for Your revelation that acknowledgment must take place in order to bring about true healing. God, I pray that You will help me and any others struggling with this to truly acknowledge the root of our actions, give it all to You, and be proactive in our walks; moving on and moving forward. You are THE life changer, but we must abide in You for healing and rejuvenation. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.

Healer- Israel Houghton & New Breed