Discovering
Spiritual Healing
1 Peter
1:17-21; Daniel 9:7-11
Jim Davis
Dr. Paul Tournier compared life to a man
hanging from a trapeze. The trapeze bar was the man’s security, his
pattern of existence, his lifestyle. Then God swung another trapeze into
the man’s view, and he faced a perplexing dilemma. Should he relinquish
his past? Should he reach for the new bar? The moment of truth came, Dr.
Tournier explained, when the man realized that to grab onto the new bar,
he must release the old one.
We come to Christ to obtain forgiveness,
but often remain shackled to our past. We end up seeking to
build our lives in Christ with the same behavioral patterns we developed
in our past failures. The Hebrews were shackled to their Egyptian
experiences in the wilderness. They always wanted to go back to Egypt.
Israel’s eleven-day journey to Canaan
became a forty-year struggle in the Desert of Sin as the Lord’s anger
burned against them (Numbers 33:11-13). It is hard to understand
how those fed with Manna daily from heaven could make such a choice. God
revealed himself to Israel in a pillar of fire by night and in a cloud
by day. Yet, they lost sight of God. We can hardly imagine losing sight
of the cloud or the pillar of fire at night. They were to move when the
cloud move. They were to rest when it stood still. When the cloud turned
into their night-light they knew it was time to go to bed. God was there
to tuck them in and listen to their prayers. Yet, they mortgaged their
entire future for an eleven-day journey.
Things haven’t changed much since Israel
wandered in the wilderness. I see advertisements encouraging us
to refurnish you house with new furniture, and we want have to pay the
first payment until 2010. When the payments come due you
have to pay all the interest on those years you weren’t making payments.
By paying minimum payments on the furniture debt it takes you another 40
years to pay it off. The furniture fell apart within three years after
you bought it.
Grace is not only given to us to
liberate us from the guilt of past sins; it is also given to us so we
can build a new life in Christ as we deal with the consequences of past
behavior. Grace is given to empower us to honor God with our
lives. Sin robs of our God given potential. Grace is given to us to
build us up in Christ. Liberation doesn’t just stop with forgiveness to
leave us in the slavish shackles of Satan.
Dealing with the
Consequences of Past Sin
We may feel the consequences of past
behavior leave us shackled to the old way of living. We may not
feel very free or victorious as we deal with the consequences of past
behavior while seeking to live a new life in Christ. The consequence of
Israel’s wilderness experience was horrible. Imagine living in the
wilderness for forty years, while realizing you could have been living
in a land flowing with milk and honey.
Spiritual freedom is much like financial
freedom. To be financially free you not only have to manage your
money to pay off old debts. You have to manage to live so as not to
incur more debt. You strive to overcome the consequences of past
behavior—your debt—without repeating the same behavior in the present.
It is the only way to financial freedom.
Satan convinces me that I am what I am,
I cannot change, I am hopeless. Living in the consequences of
past behavior may seem to lend credence to what Satan is saying. Satan
uses all the memories of my past failures and the present consequences
of those behaviors in the present to convince me this is the right way
to think.
We all know more than we want to know
about shame. There is no one who strives to be a Christian who
is completely free of things he or she is ashamed of—not one of us. We
may experience shame each time we seek to claim our new life in Christ.
Satan simply prompts a ghost from the past to rattle the skeletons in
our closet to remind us of what we have done—and what we can’t become
because of them. He says, “Shame on you!” This is all it takes for you
to start thinking I’ve had it, I can’t win, the party is over. We become
driven by our shame of failure.
Our shame will drive us to expect less
of ourselves than we can become. This may be our way of avoiding
future failure. We may convince ourselves we can’t live better because
we are living with the consequences of past behavior. We begin expecting
less and less of ourselves. If we expect little from ourselves we will
seldom be disappointed. It is a way we seek to avoid failure. Simply
living to avoid failure is really not the best way to live.
What makes it even more difficult is
striving to live for God as we seek to hide our shame. We often
fail to deal with our shame in hopes the passing sands of time will
cover them. We inherited this trait from our first parents. They taught
us to run and to hide in our shame. Nothing changes until we confront
our shame. Sin is here to shame us into remaining as we are. Daniel went
to Babylon as a prisoner covered in shame.
Daniel 9:7-11
7 "Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame — the
men of Judah and people of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far,
in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our
unfaithfulness to you. 8 O LORD, we and our kings, our princes and our
fathers are covered with shame because we have sinned against you. 9 The
Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled
against him; 10 we have not obeyed the LORD our God or kept the laws he
gave us through his servants the prophets. 11 All Israel has
transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you. NIV
No doubt it was tough for Daniel
to live for God while suffering the just judgment of God for his sins.
Daniel chose to confront his shame. So let’s do ourselves a favor. Let’s
confront our shame by confessing our sin and shame to God.
This is difficult to do in a world that
has allowed its shame to become its glory.
Psalms 4:2
2 How long, O
men, will you turn my glory into shame?
How long will
you love delusions and seek false gods? NIV
Philippians
3:19-21
19 Their
destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is
in their shame . Their mind is on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship
is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus
Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under
his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like
his glorious body. NIV
You Belong To Christ
Liberation begins with our declaration
that we belong to the Lord. Paul reminded the Corinthians to
whom they belonged. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the
Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not
your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your
body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV). In the context of these verses Paul
was giving them instruction concerning sexual immorality saying, “Flee
from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his
body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body” (1 Corinthians
6:18 NIV).
Throughout the Bible we are taught to
hold ourselves accountable to the one to whom we belong. “Then
Jesus said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God
what is God's" (Mark 12:17NIV). When we give God what belongs to
him we will be surprised what he can do with it.
Israel was forever reminded to whom she
belonged.
Levviticus
26:13
13 I am the
LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer
be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled
you to walk with heads held high. NIV
Deuteronomy
26:16-17
17 You have
declared this day that the LORD is your God and that you will walk in
his ways, that you will keep his decrees, commands and laws, and that
you will obey him. NIV
Deuteronomy
7:6
6 For you are
a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out
of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his
treasured possession. NIV
Christ came to redeem us from an empty
way of life. Failing to realize we belong to him will lead us to
settle for much less than we can become.
1 Peter
1:17-21
17 Since you
call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives
as strangers here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was
not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed
from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19
but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in
these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you believe in God, who
raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope
are in God. NIV
The precious blood of Christ has
redeemed us. The word “redeem” means to buy back. The kids
around here have been selling coupon books. You buy the book for much
less than the value of the coupons contained in the book. Then you take
the coupon down to Whataburger or IHOP or wherever and redeem it for a
free burger or breakfast, etc. The merchant has already predetermined
the value of the coupon is worth a free meal or burger, etc.
General Peter Pace, chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff father was an Italian immigrant. Recently
he visited his father’s hometown in Italy. He met relatives he had never
met. One of his relatives came up to him and said something he will
always remember, “All the sacrifices of your father and your
grandfathers are being redeemed in you.”
Likewise, all the sacrifices made in the
past by all of God’s people are being redeemed in you. The life of
Christ is being redeemed in each of us. My redemption means that
God has given his life for my life. This means that our God has poured
his very existence into salvaging our lives. When you buy merchandise
you are looking at its value in relationship to what you are asked to
pay for the merchandise. You also expect its performance to be worth
what you pay. God bought us with the price of his Son.
We belong to the body of Christ because
we have been called out of the world through the saving power of Christ.
We have been baptized into the body of Christ. “The body is a unit,
though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many,
they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by
one Spirit into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free — and
we were all given the one Spirit to drink” (1 Corinthians 12:12-13 NIV).
We are members of his kingdom. We belong to Christ.
Titus 3:3-8
3 At one time
we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of
passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and
hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior
appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done,
but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and
renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously
through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his
grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. 8 This is
a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so
that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves
to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable
for everyone. NIV
Jesus came to Zaccheus’ house. Zaccheus
was a swindling, loathsome tax collector.
Luke 19:5-10
5 When Jesus
reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down
immediately. I must stay at your house today." 6 So he came down at
once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the
people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a
'sinner.'"
8 But
Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I
give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody
out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."
9 Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because
this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek
and to save what was lost." NIV
Zaccheus not only embraced Christ, he
stepped up to the plate and dealt with the consequences of his past
behavior. Zaccheus turned loose of his past and embraced the
life of Christ. Dealing with the consequences of his sin went beyond
simply paying back those he cheated. It probably took him a long time to
live down his loathsome reputation as a tax collector.
When we become accountable to God he
pours his life and power into us. God stepped out to claim
Abraham as his own. When Abraham followed God poured his blessings into
Abraham’s life.
Genesis 12:1-3
12:1 The LORD
had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's
household and go to the land I will show you.
2 "I will make
you into a great nation
and I will
bless you;
I will make
your name great,
and you will
be a blessing.
3 I will bless
those who bless you,
and whoever
curses you I will curse;
and all
peoples on earth
will be
blessed through you." NIV
God entered his life promising to bless
those who blessed Abraham, and to curse those who cursed him.
The same blessings continue to be available for all who choose to
believe in Christ.
Abraham did
himself a big favor when he chose to follow God.
Belonging to God means that God steps in to take responsibility for your
future. All he asks you to do is obey him. God not only entered
Abraham’s life to bless him. He also entered Abraham’s life to make him
a blessing to others.
