Position Yourself for Your Healing
I like how Henry Wright, who is an expert at inner healing, breaks down the three essentials that are necessary to positioning ourselves to receive healing. Much of what Henry was speaking about concerned physical healing, but I believe it also applies to emotional healing as well. Having a right relationship with God, yourself, and others, is vital when positioning yourself to receive inner healing.
I would like to break down each one of these here, as they are very important to anybody who is seeking healing from emotional wounds.
1. Having the right relationship with God
In order to be healed, you must have a relationship with the healer. I'm not talking about being born again, but actively having a relationship with Him. Many Christians have what we call a religion with God, not a relationship. Religion seeks to earn it's favor with God, whereas relationship accepts what God's Word says about their being made the righteousness of God through their faith in Christ (see Romans 3:22). This doesn't mean that we can live like the world, as that is unacceptable for a member of the royal family in the kingdom of God. But it means that when we're living for Christ, placing our faith in Him, and honoring Him in our life, then we need to stand on what God's Word tells us about how we are justified (made innocent, as if we've never sinned), forgiven our sins, and made right with Him (see Romans 3:24). We need to let God's Word sink into our hearts when it tells us about our conscience being purged from dead works to serve the living God (see Hebrews 9:14), and that through the Blood we can have confidence to enter the holy of holies (see Hebrews 10:19).
Knowing that your sins are forgiven, and you are made right with God, is absolutely necessary or essential to freely receive emotional healing. The only way that you will reach that place is when you put your total and complete trust in the Blood of Jesus, knowing that it was shed for the remission or removal of your sins (see Matthew 26:28). For more information on the Blood of Jesus, and how it is enough to forgive all of your sins, be sure to read my teaching on The Blood is Enough and also The Forgiveness of Sins.
Dead religion is a terrible plague that hinders the healing of many emotional wounds. Religion does not connect you with the healer (the Holy Spirit), but actually hinders His work in our lives. Religion promotes fear, pride, and legalism, which is an enemy to the healing process. Dead religion creates an atmosphere where defense mechanisms thrive. Defense mechanisms such as stubbornness and anger, are there to protect us from further harm, but at the same time, they actively hinder or even block the Holy Spirit's power from healing our wounds. It is important for us to understand and overcome defense mechanisms if a person is going to receive healing to their damaged emotions. I have a teaching just on Defense Mechanisms that I highly recommend reading to learn more about what they are, and what to do about them.
Fear and unforgiveness are the most popular glues that hold together defense mechanisms. Dead religion is fear based, whereas relationship is faith and love based. God's Word tells us that love casts out all fear (see 1 John 4:18). Many today are afraid of God; they are afraid that He is disappointed or even angry with them and may not be eager to forgive them. This is dead religion, and creates fear which brings torment (see 1 John 4:18). How are you supposed to healed, if you're in bondage to fear and being tormented? Through a genuine relationship (not religion) with God, our fears will begin to dissolve as we are made perfect in love (see 1 John 4:18). Unforgiveness is selfish (God will forgive us of even the worse offenses, why can't we do the same?), prideful (that person wronged ME), and is the result of not trusting God (to take care of that person for what they've done). Love is the opposite of these things (see 1 Corinthians 13).
As we allow God's deep and overflowing love and forgiveness towards us to sink into our hearts, our unforgiveness towards others begins to also dissolve. We cannot give something that we're not receiving, and we cannot receive God's love into our hearts, if we do not properly perceive it. It is impossible for you to receive love into your heart from somebody that you perceive hates you, and the same is true with our ability to receive God's love into our hearts. It is therefore vital that we have a non-religious relationship with God, in order to dissolve our defense mechanisms so that we can be healed emotionally. Overcoming the religious mindset is a very important step to position yourself to receive healing to your damaged emotions.
Properly perceiving our relationship with God is very important to positioning ourselves to receive healing for our damaged emotions. The Holy Spirit has shown me that a clean conscience is a fundamental pillar to receive inner healing.
2. Having a right relationship with yourself
Why do I discuss having a right relationship with yourself before having a right relationship with others? Because when you have a right relationship with yourself, having a right relationship with others comes much more naturally. How can you truly love others, if you don't truly love yourself? I have a teaching titled It's Vital to Love Yourself that I highly recommend reading. It is not a loving yourself as in a selfish and prideful manner, but rather a humble acceptance of the person that God has made in you.
Self-hate is one of the most binding emotions that we encounter in the ministry of deliverance. There is no doubt whatsoever that this is one of the most destructive plans of Satan against the children of God. The fact is that when we hate ourselves, we are hating somebody that God made with His own hands, created in His image, and purchased the redemption of with the blood of His dear Son.
I assure you that such hate opens us right up to tormenting evil spirits. It gives them permission to act on our behalf against this person to whom we hate (us). Scores of mental and physical infirmities are rooted in self-hate. Self-hate is when we hate the person in us that God has created and loves dearly. We are hating God's special creation in us, and evil spirits will assuredly team up with us whenever we take on this attitude.
Let's say that you walked into a gallery, and pointed at a painting and said, "That sure is ugly! Who painted THAT?" Let me ask you, would that bring glory and honor to the painter of that painting? Do you think it brings honor and glory to God, when we point at His paintings, and consider them ugly, stupid, worthless, and of little value? One day the Holy Spirit spoke to me very clearly and said, "I want you to love and appreciate the work of my hands, and that includes you, for you were made in my image!" I also heard the words echo in my mind, "When you hate yourself, you are hating somebody that I made."
Having a right relationship with yourself is really a matter of seeing yourself as God sees you, and agreeing with His Word about the person that He has made in us. It is not a prideful or arrogant way of seeing yourself, but rather a humble and thankful expression of the great and wonderful person that God made in you.
I cannot tell you how much freedom and healing that I have received once I grasp the concept of how self-hate is a terrible poison that opens many sincere Christians up to terrible mental and physical infirmities. Being released from self-hate has an enormous affect on the healing process for many who bound with various emotional and physical infirmities.
3. Having a right relationship with others
Are you out of relationship with others in your heart? Are you holding a grudge or failing to love others as Christ has loved you? Then you are not in right relationship with God either. Jesus warned us that if we do not forgive others from our hearts, that our own sins stand between us and the Father (see Matthew 6:15) but we are also giving legal grounds to tormenting spirits to operate in our lives (see Matthew 18:34-35).
For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Matthew 6:14-15
And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.
Matthew 18:34-35
Let me ask you this, how can we expect to receive healing for our damaged emotions, when we are separated from God (our sins stand before us), and we are in the territory of tormenting spirits? If you want to position yourself to receive healing, then you'll want to be in right standing before God. Jesus tells us that if we forgive others, then we ourselves will be forgiven (see Matthew 6:14). That is a promise!
Having our hearts clean from any ungodly feelings towards others is vital to receive healing for our damaged emotions. The root of unforgiveness has to do with a lack of trust in God. The reason that a person holds so tightly to unforgiveness is because they feel like they are the only one who is concerned about justice coming to that person who wronged them. They do not believe that God is going to ensure that justice happens. God's Word tells us to give place to wrath so that He can do something about what was done against us, but if we take it into our own hands, we fail to give place to wrath, and can actually hinder God from doing something about it. Do we want the person off our hook, or God's? Then we need to handle things the way that God has commanded of us in His Word.
One of the keys to living a life of forgiveness, is getting it down into your spirit that God truly cares for you and what is done against you, and will bring justice to those who wrong us as we trust Him with those situations.
-Author Unknown-
