The Healing Journey

Spiritual Maturity

"If you and I need a healing, then something is broken. When something is bringing us discomfort and pain, how do we deal with it? We take that complaint to the doctor and inform him that we feel disjointed or something hurts. The doctor orders an x-ray."

The Healing Journey

Inside my Bible cover are written these words: God does not promise a comfortable journey, only a safe landing. I love those words. Women ask me all the time about the healing journey and where to start for themselves. Let’s talk about it for a moment.

It will require spiritual maturity. When you look up the word “healing” in the dictionary, it means to restore health; make well; cure. The word “journey” means going to a place; a distance. It’s safe to say that any journey that covers a distance is going to take a while. So, pack a lunch because our journey is toward spiritual maturity, it’s going to take a while, and there are no shortcuts. Believe me, I have spent fifty-five years looking for the shortcuts! What I found instead were many examples in the Bible of people who had safe landings even though their journey was anything but comfortable. Noah, Joseph, Moses, Ruth, Ester and Job are just a few. Their lives give a realistic portrait of life with its struggle and tragedies, yet also reveal how the faith and faithfulness of godly people enable God to turn tragedy into triumph and defeat into redemption.

I love the word “redemption” because inside of the word I find rescue and deliverance; release and restoration. To someone like me who lived in bondage, slavery, and brokenness, these are lovely words. When you and I experience adversity on our journey through earth, it becomes God’s opportunity to advance his great purpose in and for your spiritual maturity. I encourage you to take on the attitude of Moses in Deuteronomy 2:7.

“He (God) has watched over your journey through this vast desert. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you and you have not lacked anything.”

I set out on a journey to become a Christian mother, and it took forty years. There were no shortcuts. When you’ve read my book, you’ll know that I now have grandchildren who pray for me in their nighttime prayers. It wasn’t always a comfortable journey, but by the grace of God I experienced a safe landing. In the Bible, the book of Numbers reveals the profound principle that if one generation fails God, he will raise up another one to fulfill his promises and carry out his mission.

If you and I need a healing, then something is broken. When something is bringing us discomfort and pain, how do we deal with it? We take that complaint to the doctor and inform him that we feel disjointed or something hurts. The doctor orders an x-ray.

Under God’s Light First God is going to ask you to hold yourself up to his light. We can’t guess what might be wrong because we need an x-ray to penetrate our flesh and illuminate the source of our pain that is lodged deep inside. The Holy Spirit will penetrate your soul and illuminate the source of your pain. Weather it’s self-inflicted or an injury. God’s illumination will tell us what’s wrong.

• Resentful. Am I holding a grudge?

• Self-absorbed. Am I being selfish?

• Anxious. Am I full of worry?

• Complacent. Am I passive?

• Self-indulgent. Have I become impulsive?

• Unrealistic. Am I denying reality by ignoring problems and hoping they’ll go away?

1 John 1:5-10 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But is we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

When I became a cancer patient, I needed to submit to the doctors who specialized in the illness. After finding a lump, the family doctor told me to get a mammogram. The radiologist told me to see a surgeon. The surgeon said that the breast needed to be removed. The pathologist said it was time to see the oncologist. The oncologist said the ugly word, chemo. To save my life, I submitted to their treatment plan for five years. Now, I must have a cancer checkup once a year for the rest of my life.

Submission is a tough pill to swallow, but there are blessings that cannot be obtained if we cannot accept, submit, and endure suffering. Because I submitted to the doctors’ advice and endured suffering, I’ve had the privilege of watching my three children graduate from high school, I danced at their weddings, and I was there when they held their newborn babies.

When I became a single mother of three teenagers, I needed to submit to God as the authority in my home. The world said I had the right to be angry, depressed, resentful, and vindictive toward my ex-husband. But God asked me to keep my face and my attitude turned toward him, and he would get my family through that sad and terrible time. I was about to travel through a big, mean world that loves to devour single-parent families and ravage children.

Because I accepted and endured the heartache of abandonment years ago, today I enjoy seeing all three of my adult children in ministry and service to their communities. They have learned about the father-heart of God and are raising my grandchildren to love and fear the Lord. Who would have thought the healing lies in the ability to submit?

Job is a great biblical example. His final answer to God was one of absolute humility and submission to his newfound revelation.

“I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:1).

I witnessed the alcoholic who wouldn’t admit he had a problem until he lost his family, friends, health, and job. Unacknowledged sin is like cancer cells. If it’s caught at an early stage of growth, through regular checkups, the prognosis is good. But if it’s left to grow undetected, the prognosis is bad or even deadly. Living in the Lord’s light and holding ourselves accountable to God on a daily basis prevents major spiritual crises.

God wants to show you aspects of your life you have not considered. He wants to reveal things so that you can see yourself in the light of truth. He saw the situations I was in and he saw the rejection, offence, guild, and shame.

Help means the Holy Spirit takes hold of me and my weaknesses instead of leaving me on my own. “. . . the Spirit helps us in our weakness” (Romans 8:26). God has joined me in every situation life has thrown at me to help empower me to be a conqueror instead of a victim of my circumstances. When we are helpless, The Holy Spirit is truly our helper.

Don’t be afraid to look closely at your heart today. He won’t be able to heal what you don’t acknowledge and confess. Call your pain and frustration by its name; hold it up to God’s light and let him shine his truth on the hurtful spot.