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). 

The Corinthians were taught to manage their sexuality in light of the fact they belong to Christ. They had been bought with a price. They understood the concept of slaves being bought to serve their masters. A slave was accountable to his master. They were accountable to God.

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.

Conclusion:

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.