‘Let Us’ (Lettuce page)
What are the Blockages in my Heart + Mindsets of Wrong Beliefs that Obstructs my Relationship with God ?
Chef’s Menu For Today
Coleslaw Salad – Balsamic Dressing
Check out the Ingredients of the LIES of Defilement
From Thom Gardner’s Book Healing the Wounded Heart ch 13, p 153-164
Spiritual Beliefs – Where was God? I feel shipwrecked – all trust is gone – I’m broken, I’m fragmented, I’m shattered beyond mending – I’m ruined, no one cares, heartbroken, inconsolable, defenseless, alone, cursed.
Soul Beliefs – Loss of purity, honour and dignity. The essence of our ‘self’ has been violated, ‘predatored’, abused, taken advantage of, deceived, robbed of innocence. Someone has taken away our gift of purity that God has given us to steward, simple a prize desired as they forced their darkness and evil on me, and then blamed me. I’m good for nothing, trashed, deemed useless.
Soul Sense – I’m raped, treacherously betrayed, not loved, ruined goods for life, unlovable. I’m bad, unclean, unfit for relationship, it’s my fault, a betrayal of innocence, disregarded as of no value, not cared for, trust taken advantage of – violation of agency or decision making as a person, treated as an object, forsaken, shoved aside, used for another’s lust, not because we were loved, recognised or known- bitter regret, confused.
Symptoms socially – Inconsolable grief, rage, trauma, anger, with-drawl, ruined, discarded, hated, desolate, offendable, hiding away, damaged goods, defiled, secretive, intimidated if overpowered by an abuser, unsure who to trust as so often the defilement has come through a family member who should have been trustworthy.
Emotion Focus – wounded, used and abused, rumination, feel the ‘mud sticks’ – filthy dirty and can’t get clean, self-pity, no future life, love or dignity, can’t ever get free, an innocent helpless victim of another’s lust, manipulation, evil control or aggression without choice. An unforgiving bitter unbelieving heart. People experience the sense of defilement through oppression, abuse of trust, by enforced early retirement, financial corruption, treachery, deception and betrayal of innocent people.
Many Scriptures speak of defilement through words coming from bitterness or impurity.
Green (Let us SEE) Lettuce, Avocado and Artichoke Salad – very nutritious for the heart!
Expels the Lies of Defilement that Blind & Block us seeing the Revelation of the heart of our:
- True Heavenly Father, whose thoughts towards us are of mercy and compassion to bind up our broken hearts and set us free from captivity, to forgive all our sinful reactions and iniquities from our generations, to heal all our diseases, who redeems our lives from destruction and crowns us with loving kindness and satisfies our mouth with good things, so that our youth is renewed like the eagles. Ps 103:3-4
- Jesus Messiah, God’s Beloved Son – understood the Samaritan woman who He met and challenged at Jacob’s well, in John 4:6-24, that she had no husband but had had 5 husbands before and was now living with a man. But He did not shame her. She was amazed that He told her of her deepest secret of a sense of defilement with so many sexual relationships. Had these men died or left her? Was she barren? Jesus knew that she was drawing water in the middle of the day so as not to encounter the other women. Yet Jesus intentionally met with her in love and compassion in obedience to His father’s will.
In v 14 He promised her the Holy Spirit; “whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to everlasting life.” The woman wanted this water, to never thirst again, nor to ever need to come back to draw water publicly at the well. She then talked about the ways of worship she knew of her forefathers. Jesus offered her a different way “for Salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” When the woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am ” John 4:22b-26 (meaning I AM = YHWH) Jesus communicated to this shunned and defiled religious woman the gospel. She was honoured encountering Him as God the Messiah, and she Believed Him. She left her water pot and ran back to her village as the first woman evangelist! Jesus saw the treasure of Faith in her heart (as He does in yours and mine) and called her into her true identity, dignity and purpose. - Holy Spirit’s empowerment energised her, lifted her out of her victim mindset and gave her boldness and courage to testify to her villagers from whom she had been hiding away in shame, with possibly anger and bitterness. The Holy Spirit of wisdom and Truth spoken by Jesus had stirred Faith and revelation in her heart. She was bold and courageous and fearless and brought her villagers to Jesus.
His desire was not to eat lunch, but to do the will of His Father, to reach out to all those who were used, abused, dishonoured and disempowered, to give them the opportunity of Salvation, the Blessing of drinking of the Living Water of the Holy Spirit unto everlasting life. This IS the Good news of the Gospel.
Holy Spirit Salad with fruit bites – God’s Antidote Medicine for His Truth Replacement
- Fruit of the Holy Spirit – Instead of Defilement – Self-control and patience
- Gift of the Spirit – Mercy and ‘Cheerfulness’ (Hilarotes) Rom 12:8 means ‘a sunbeam lighting up a sick – room with warmth and love’ – a divine shaft of Light, a shift from the misery and pain to mercy towards others- reaching out and serving, caring with dignity instead of hiding, extending God’s compassion and grace to others that we have gratefully received.
- Isa 11:2 Holy Spirit Attribute – Spirit of Council of Messiah; to administer God’s forgiveness to those who receive Jesus in faith and repent and forgive others and see Him as Healer, Deliverer, Purifier, Judge, Discipler, Lover of our souls as we overcome the spiritual and flesh battle – to chose Life and enforce Jesus Christ’s Kingdom will and victory through the cross defeating shock, trauma, sorrow, grief and death
- Revelation of Jesus to Church of Thyatira; He has eyes like a flame of fire, His feet like fine brass; He is Holy, the consuming Fire expressing the jealousy and purity of God.
- His Promise to Overcomers – the power to Rule over the Nations and receive from the Father the Morning Star. Those who by God’s power and grace overcome the Jezebel spirit of seduction, drawn into pornography and sexual impurity/immorality and sacrificing to idols, often as a result of being abused and defiled in various ways, there is great reward.
Blessing Dressing from the Lord’s Words of Life to the Desolate, Defiled and Oppressed
Ps 103: 6-14 NKJV
6 The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.
7 He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.
9 He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever.
10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities.
11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;
12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a father pities his children, So the Lord pities those who fear Him.
14 For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.
In His mercy, God has made a way for our being redeemed back into covenant with Him through Jesus’ sacrifice at Calvary and our faith in Repentance, confessing and turning away from our sin He convicts us of. He is so eager to respond to restore relationship with us!
1 Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
This wonderful promise can break the power of the spiritual darkness over us and radically set us free to enter into deep freedom, through repentance of our sinful reactions to the sin that has been done against us. The wonderful Blessing is that Jesus not only forgives us of our negative defiling words and attitudes, but He undertakes to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and to give us His gift of Righteousness as we seek Him and His Kingdom in first place Matt 6:33
So often in our grief, hurt, trauma and confusion when we have been defiled in anyway, including sexual abuse and rape; out of our hearts and mouths come negative bitter words of unforgiveness, anger and blame, often with little self- control. When we have felt defiled, we often speak out of pain, lies we have believed about ourselves or spoken to us by the ‘perpetrator’ who we perceive as the source of all our pain. Or we are hurt by others who seemed to have turned a blind eye and not protected, help or care about us. We need to understand the spiritual battle that Satan has fed us lies, that we’ve agreed with that cause offenses – the ‘bait of Satan – the scandalon’ that can keep us ensnared in self-protection, self-pity, unforgiveness, anger and unbelief against God. Satan plants lies into our hearts at the moment of trauma, from whatever the source, and many times there is deep confusion and we might believe the lie; it was all our fault, we deserved it somehow, in our attempt to somehow make sense of such a devastating traumatic event in our lives.
King David sinned in relation to committing adultery with his friend’s wife Bathsheba and acting treacherously to his friend Uriah, her husband, and had him put on the front line in battle where he died. This sin of defilement although David deeply repented in Ps 51, went down the family line as a generational iniquity and curse, and tragedy hit his house.
His daughter Tamar was sadly defiled and raped by her half brother Amnon who then scorned, hated and abandoned her, leaving her desolate.
Although David was told about it and was angry, he did nothing. Amnon was his first-born son and heir. So Absolom had him killed. 2 Sam 13:6-33
Despite all this family trauma and disfunction, the Bible tells us David was a man after God’s own heart as His worshipping King, who wrote many Psalms and won many victories for the Lord.
In Ps 89 we find God’s mercy and restoration of David after his contrition of heart and deep repentance to God of sinning against him in Ps 51. Here he realised what God required was his broken contrite heart bowing before Him, just as God asks of us today. In Ps 89:3-4 God states that He has sworn and made a covenant with His chosen servant David, and that his seed after him He would establish forever and build up His throne to all generations. In v 20-36 God anointed David as His King and swore 3 times, in v 35 by his Holiness He would not lie to David through whom God would bring Jesus His Messiah to be born, and rule on David’s Throne forever when He returns in Glory. God is Faithful even when we are not faithful.
The Apostle Paul was so grateful to God for saving him from being a murderer of Christians, who defiled so many innocent people with violence. God gave Him many revelatory experiences often as he was sitting in prison, as a result of his preaching the gospel. He wrote the Epistle to the people of Ephesus for them to understand the incredible spiritual Blessings that God has lavished upon His people who believe in Christ’s redeeming sacrifice for all humanity at Calvary. Let us take Ephesians 1: 1-14 to heart and declare these powerful life-giving wonderful promises over our hearts till the revelation of their truth sets us free!
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus:
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Redemption in Christ
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. 11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
Winning the Spiritual War
“Then all this assembly shall know that the LORD does not save with sword or spear, for the battle is the LORD’s, and He will give you into our hands.”
1 Samuel 17:47
Ps Jeff’s Special Today: “New age/Humanism”
Perhaps a story will help show how sin strongholds are false beliefs picked up at some point in our minds which, until removed by the Holy Spirit and our free will decision to repent, still govern our responses to circumstances, still mute or cover up God’s Truth in His Word. This story is from the booklet by Mike and Sue Dowgiewicz, Demolishing Strongholds, God’s Way to Spiritual Freedom, p46,47:
” As the oldest in a large family, Kerry had keenly felt the weight of responsibility, particularly after her father left. As a teenager, she watched her mother struggle to raise the younger children. The devotion that her mother had once expressed toward God turned to bitterness. Kerry’s outlook on life become imprisoned by fear—fear of abandonment, fear of poverty, fear later that she was an inadequate wife and mother. Fear so consumed her that serious illnesses began to take their toll on her body. The myriad of prescription drugs she became dependent on after her many surgeries left her depressed. She felt encompassed by a spirit of heaviness. As she saw these same fears springing up in her children, Kerry despaired. Then a trusted friend shared her own story of freedom from strongholds, and Kerry began to hope. As they went over a list of possible strongholds, Kerry felt condemned because she saw herself in so many categories. Her friend reassured her that God loved her and had given her the power of the name of Jesus and His work on the cross to vanquish these spiritual menaces. As she prayed to renounce her strongholds of fear and heaviness, Kerry sensed a lightness she had forgotten. Joy lit her face as she praised God–her countenance glowed! As she sought God to fill her with the power of His Spirit, her tongue loosened and she boldly began sharing with her friends and family all that God had done for her.“
YES! All your thoughts can be traced back to beliefs based on either the truth of Scripture or on satan’s lies. If that thought is based on satan’s lies, it will lead to fear. God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a strong mind. ( 2 Timothy 1:7) Fear will then lead to some form of idolatry— in the above case, dependence on a health system, on ongoing sickness and prescription drugs. One commentator in the New Spirit Filled Life Bible says: ” Idols are established wherever there exists a failure to trust in the provisions of God that are ours through Jesus Christ.”
“Recall that spiritual strongholds are (1) inherited from past generations; (2) established when you try to meet basic needs that God created in each of us [ dignity, authority, blessing and provision, security, purpose and meaning, freedom and boundary, intimate love and companionship ] through ways that are contrary to His will; (3) maintained when you live in a state of unrepentance. The end result is demonic influence in areas of your mind, will, and emotions. Once a stronghold is established, you provide a “foothold” for the devil, a base of operations for the “strongman”. (Matthew 12:29).
Today’s issue is “new age/humanism.” Much of the current “church” is awash in this erroneous, perverted, “I’m in charge” thinking. BUT: Almighty God speaks in Exodus 20:2-3:” I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me. ”
Both Proverbs 14:12 and Proverbs 16:25 confirm that powerful Truth: ” There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”
2 Timothy 3:1-5 is also on point: ” But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!“
Being candid with yourself and the Holy Spirit, is any remnant of humanism/new age an old issue needing to be confessed? And then repented of ? Do you think His Word is only for the disciples 2,000 years ago? Do you have any residue of a residue of new age and/or humanism as an issue for such a time as this? Was it connected to your upbringing as a child? Was it a family pattern in any way?
God bless you as you seek His Holy Spirit Wisdom on that issue.
May you go forward on His path, “perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1).
