So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32 ESV)
I don’t really have time for an epic novel this week, so I’m going to
stay away from a full account of the week and stick to writing about a few
things that I think God wants me to share. Honestly, it’s difficult to narrow
down a week and leave things out because God tends to do so many noteworthy
things every week on a DTS. But I don’t have unlimited time to write, and you
don’t have unlimited time to read, so I think I’ll make it a bit (yes, just a
bit) shorter this week. Suffice it to say that overall we had another very good
week, and many students are already different than they were just seven days
ago.
This week’s topic was relationships, and what a timely subject it was.
God really knew what He was doing when He led the leadership team in creating
the schedule. Basically every student came into this DTS with a background that
involved some degree of relationship problem, whether with friends, family, or
member(s) of the opposite sex. That being the case, this topic was really
foundational and good to have near the beginning of the school. This week’s
incredibly capable speakers were Matt and Cora Dawson, YWAM leaders who live
just up the hill from the base (they taught worship and evangelism on my school
last year). They are able to build instant rapport with people and easily gain
the trust and respect of the students, and they are experts at conveying truths
through storytelling. The story of their own relationship is a great example of
putting God first and waiting for His timing (they liked each other for two
years before finally getting together), and it is a testament to the fact that our
God is a hopeless romantic.
I could write so much about their teaching, but I think one concept really
stands out to me: that God is a healer. He is not an accuser; that is, He doesn’t ask us to expose our faults and
hurts so that He can punish or condemn us. Instead, He requests that we bare
our broken places to Him only so that He can ever so gently clean them out and
heal them properly. He asks that we bring our lives into the light and approach
Him in complete truthfulness because He is a God of truth and his healing power
works in the light. God wants truth in our lives because truth is what sets us
free – truth about God, truth about ourselves, and truth about the world around
us. The enemy, on the other hand, has power only in the darkness. He is a
deceiver, the father of lies.
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:5-9 ESV)
Unlike God, Satan is an accuser. He takes advantage of our wounds, using
them to plant the seeds of lies that can color the way we think for the rest of
our lives if left hidden and unhealed. When people hurt and mistreat us,
especially as children, we are thrown into confusion because that was not the
way we were made to be treated. We were made to receive unconditional love from
our Creator. The enemy uses the confusion brought on by the wounds to lead us
astray, planting lies about who we are, how we deserve to be treated, what the
world is like, and ultimately who God is and what we can expect from Him. Then,
as we continue to experience life these seeds of deception grow and eventually
produce bad fruit (sin, brokenness, more hurts). Then the enemy, who happily
planted the seeds to begin with, pulls a fast one and blames us for the bad results! He tells us
there must be something wrong with us, something we should be ashamed of and
keep hidden in the darkness (where it conveniently remains in his power, keeping
us in bondage). God’s will is that those original seeds of deception would be
exposed and the initial wound brought to light, in order that we can be set
free to know Him as He is. And the definition of eternal life is to know
God as He is (John 17:3).
That’s a relatively abstract
illustration, but the point is that our past hurts, if left unhealed by God,
can have some major results later in life. In fact, they often lead to more
wounds and more wrong thinking. For example, a child whose parents never show
or express affection is left with a confusing deficit of love (remember, we
were made for complete unconditional love) and could begin to believe all sorts
of lies about himself – that he is somehow unworthy of love, or that he has to
spend his life constantly trying to earn
love from those around him, or that the void he feels in his heart is meant to
be filled with all sorts of things it wasn’t made for. This might send him
headlong into destructive habits or relationships that will only result in more
hurts and lies.
Now, for most of us it isn’t quite that dramatic, but the concept
remains true. There are lies of various sizes that we believe (and which keep
us in bondage) that God wants to replace with truth (and freedom). Coming to
God and finding this kind of freedom was the purpose of the amazing ministry
time we had with Matt and Cora on Friday. They started by teaching us how to
come to God with these issues and let the Holy Spirit do His work. They laid it
out simply in 6 steps:
- Ask God to speak to you. Ask, “Is there is a lie that I believe to be truth? When I first start believing this? What hurt led to this lie?” The Holy Spirit will reveal these things to you if they are there.
- Hear from God. If you can’t hear Him, ask Him why. He’ll get to the root of the issue.
- Forgive the person that wounded you.
- Renounce the lie that you believed.
- Ask God for the truth. Ask where He was when you were hurt.
- Declare the truth over yourself. It is very important in this whole process to actually speak things out – we have incredible power in our tongues (James 3, Proverbs 18:21). Speaking lies over ourselves throws confusion into our souls, while speaking truth fights those lies and solidifies truth in our hearts.
The rest of the time was left for the students to go through this
process with the support of Matt, Cora, and the staff. They could go to
different areas of the room to focus on problems with different types of
relationships – one corner was for father/male authority figure problems,
another for mother/female authority problems, and one more for sibling/friend
problems. Over the course of this time, the Holy Spirit really made an
appearance and started working, bringing up tears, nearly-forgotten memories, revelations,
and ultimately a generous dose of joy and freedom. The staff moved around
praying and speaking with students who needed some support and guidance. Matt was
playing the guitar the whole time and basically being an open faucet for God’s
spirit of love, intimacy, trust, and joy. I remember at one point as joy and
laughter were kind of sweeping through the room that he was singing something about
“releasing the Spirit of giggly Jesus” (If you know Matt Dawson, you’ll know
what I’m talking about). Cora moved around praying and talking with people as
well as prophesying over them. It was a time of a lot of different things for
different students, but I think a lot of truth and freedom were found overall.
Wow, God is good.
Dan
P.S. I’m not going to say anything about applying this to your life,
but really, what’s stopping you? As Matt Dawson would say, who’s ready for a
nice, tall glass of freedom? God’s ready to give it to you. You just have to be
willing to bring everything into the
light, withholding nothing from Him. You can’t have any “no-go zones” with God
if you want to have the life abundant that Jesus offers.
