canon jim holbeck.1 series title: learning to recognise and remove barriers to healing topic 3...

Canon Jim Holbeck. 1

Series Title: LEARNING TO RECOGNISE AND REMOVE BARRIERS TO HEALING

TOPIC 3

“UNHELPFUL WAYS OF THINKING

ABOUT OURSELVES ”


A). WRONG ATTITUDES TOWARDS ONESELF



A1). A sense of unworthiness

We need to recognise and to keep on affirming who we are “in Christ” according to God’s view of us • Chosen to belong to Him. Eph 1:4• Predestined to be in His family. Eph 1:5• Made alive in Christ and now sitting with Him in the heavenly places. Eph 2:4-6

• Have access to God always as members of His household. Eph 2:13, 18, 19

• The more we affirm these truths the more they become part of us


The difference between true guilt and false guilt

• Our enemy Satan would try to stop us from living in the freedom God has brought us

• He is Satan (diabolos = the accuser) who will attempt to make us feel guilty

• True guilt can be overcome as we confess our sin to God and receive forgiveness in receiving Christ as Saviour

• False guilt can be recognised and rejected when God shows us who we are in His word. He may use a friend or a counsellor to open our eyes to Satan’s deception and lies about us


A2). A Negative self-image

We are the product of all that has been:- - said to us, - done to us - and of attitudes adopted to us since conception.

And of our responses to those things. - We may have had Healthy responses - We have had Unhealthy responses


We are ALSO the product of all we have said, We have done, We have thought, as well as the attitudes we have adopted since

conception.

2). A Negative self-image (continued)


Many of those things have been helpful, releasing and upbuilding for us. Others have been detrimental, binding and destructive for us.

God knows everything about us and all damage we have suffered throughout our lives.

He also knows how to heal us from all the wounds of the past.

He can heal us to give us a healthy self-love and a more positive self-image.

2). A Negative self-image (continued)


B). WRONG ACTIONS OR ATTITUDES IN OUR LIVES.



B1). Unconfessed past sin in our lives

David could not know God’s blessing until he repented of his sin before God.

Ps 32:3-4 The burden of unconfessed sin, For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

The blessing of confessing sin and being forgiven. Ps 32:5, I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.


B2). Present continuing sin

Sin in the believer grieves the Spirit of GodEph 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Jesus can help us overcome any present sin, 1 Jn 2:1-2, My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.


B3). Pride. "Those who are well have no need of a physician”

Too proud to admit they have a problem? Too proud to ask for help? Jas 4:2 You desire and do

not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.

Too proud to want God’s healing to live as He wants them to live? Jas 4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

Humility opens doors to the grace of God!


B4). Fear. It paralyses us into passivity. It may bring on what we fear Job remarked, “For the thing that I fear comes upon me,

and what I dread befalls me”. Job 3:25 Fear of getting an illness may decrease our resistance

to it. We give it power by focussing on it. But fear can be overcome.

Rom 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

2 Tim 1:7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

1 Jn 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.


B5). Ingratitude. Being ungrateful or unthankful is to be out of God’s will

Gratitude is God's will for us. 1Thess 5:18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

A modern saying, “The ungrateful Christian is a contradiction in terms”.

Ingratitude is belittling God’s character and provision. Paul’s example, Php 4:11 Not that I am speaking of

being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.


B6). Covetousness (= idolatry)

Col 3:5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

An old saying, “Whatever takes first place in our affections is indeed our god.”

To whom or to what do we look for meaning or purpose or fulfilment in life?

Whatever or whomever it is, is our god. That possession? That person? That position? That status?


Removing the idols in our lives to be open to the grace of the One True GodWilliam Cowper wanted no idols in his life. He wrote in a

hymn “O For A Closer Walk With Thee “ The dearest idol I have known, Whate’er that idol be Help me to tear it from Thy throne, And worship only Thee.Satan tempted Jesus, Mat 4:8 Again, the devil took him to a

very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me."

Jesus responded, "Be gone, Satan! For it is written, "'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'" Mat 4:10. God alone brings fulfilment and satisfaction to human lives.


C). SUBCONSCIOUS THOUGHTS OR ATTITUDES



C1). An unwillingness to receive healing

Too embarrassed to ask for help. Healing would mean losing control and the

attention being given when one is sick. Unwilling to give up other dependencies. Eg a

Doctor or counsellor. “Healing doesn’t fit in with my theology!” (“I’d

rather die than admit my theology about healing was wrong!”)


C2). Attitude. “ I deserve to be punished for my sins”

A pastoral visit to an MS patient. She did not want to receive prayer for healing. This was her reason.

Sounds spiritual. However it is really unbelief in what God did for us in Jesus. It ignores the cross and the resurrection.

Someone WAS punished for our sins. Jesus. He now offers us the benefits of his death and

resurrection. Kingdom power is now available to the people of God by

His Spirit.


C3). This world is the "vale of suffering" to mature us Sounds spiritual to say that we have to go through

suffering to grow to maturity. However almost all references to suffering in the Bible

have to do with persecution of the people of God rather than sickness.

God Himself has made provision for sickness, Jas 5:14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save (sōzō =heal) the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.


The result of suffering not the purpose of suffering

Note the important difference. People should not say their sickness was for the

PURPOSE of growing to maturity. However they can say that going through difficulty of

any sort with God’s help made them more mature as a RESULT.

In a sense suffering of itself never matured anyone. It is our response to the suffering or difficulties we face

that makes us or breaks us. We can have a healthy response or an unhealthy

reaction to difficult situations and people.


In spite of all these human barriers God still heals individuals today!!!

His provision is perfect Our ability to appropriate His blessings and

healings is imperfect His blessing and healing is part of the “all

things” which are ours in Christ. Rom 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

GOD IS GREATER THAN ANY HUMAN BARRIERS!


FAITH TAKES HOLD OF GOD’S PROMISES TO US

(Mark 11:24 NRSV) So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours

“whatever” . God doesn’t place limits on what He can do. We do.

“have received it” . Past tense. At least from the time of asking (or even eternally in the mind and purpose of God).


(1 John 5:14-15 NRSV) And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him.

A sermon topic, “We ask. He hears. We have”. (Presumption or truth?)

Notice the underlined words above in God’s promise. It is God’s truth.

A reminder and a challenge to us, Eph 3:20Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly

than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us

Faith takes hold of God’s promises to us (continued)


TO REFLECT ON

YAHWEH (Jehovah) is the Omnipotent (all powerful) God.

HE tells us in His word that He can do FAR MORE than we can ever ASK FOR or IMAGINE.

A question to answer, “Is your situation and my situation beyond His power?”


THE END


canon jim holbeck.1 series title: learning to recognise and remove barriers to healing topic 3...

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