Do you realize hope is present even in the middle of darkness? Sometimes we face daunting challenges in life – events and situations that cause great distress and disruption. We experience an emotional wound or shock that creates substantial damage to our psychological development. In the middle of difficult times in life, you can find yourself filled with loss, injury, or pain. If you are not vigilant, these feelings can find places to lodge, even in the cells of your body, so that the stress and trauma you experienced has not only psychological consequences but also physiological consequences.
Left unchecked, stress and trauma can leave you stuck in the event, even though the incident has long since passed. You can be living with the effects of traumatic events to such an extent that the event colors how you perceive things moving forward. You begin to shape your world from the standpoint of the event, rather than by the Word of God. You will look at the world through eyes of fear, failure, anxiety, grief, etc.
Moreover, stress and trauma can result in very serious physical maladies. In the book Who Switched Off My Brain, the author, Dr. Caroline Leaf details how traumatic, stressful thoughts can lead to diseases in the physical body, such as: hypertension (high blood pressure), angina, coronary artery disease, strokes, aneurysm, immune system disorders, fatigue, depression, allergies, asthma, type 1 diabetes, fibromyalgia, to name a few.
Thank God for Jesus! Jesus came to deliver us spiritually, emotionally, and physically. “He sent His Word and healed them, and delivered them from their distresses.” Psalm 107:20. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to move in such a way that we are sovereignly delivered. God has made available to us an overcoming anointing! Jesus has delivered us from the power of darkness, according to Colossians 1:12-13.
You may be going through a lot, but there is a way to overcome! There is a way to experience divine deliverance! There is a way to actually reverse the power of the dark event and to move forward into the best that lies before you. With Jesus, the best is yet to come!
How do you move past the trauma and stress? It is one thing to read about the delivering power of God, but it is an entirely different matter to decide to embrace it, walk in it, and live it out in your life. Isn’t it time for you to stop harboring traumatic and stressful feelings? Aren’t you tired of being tired? Why not use today to make a conscious decision to appropriate the deliverance Jesus died for you to enjoy? In this blog, I will provide 5 of 10 suggestions. I'll provide the other 5 in the next blog. Stay tuned.
1. Acknowledge an issue exists. Rather than try to pretend the wounds don’t exist, acknowledge them as a first step. The Bible instructs us to cast every care on Jesus. If you do not acknowledge the care exists, how can you give it to Jesus?
2. Consider what is wrong with it. It is important to agree with God. If you are content with harboring unforgiveness, you will not be delivered from the emotional and physical effects of unforgiveness. If you think it is acceptable, or that you deserve to feel sorry for yourself, then you will have erected self-constructed barriers to your own deliverance. Use the Word of God to show you what is wrong with that thought, that emotion, that temptation, that anxiety.
3. Consciously choose to reject what you now know and acknowledge is negative, debilitating, stifling, and contrary to God’s Word and way. For example, you discover that it is not God’s way for you to dwell in a place of constant worry. You discover that staying up at night rehearsing the awful event is not God’s way. God calls it eating the bread of sorrows (Psalm 127:2). Consciously choose to refuse to accept it. Reject it. Speak the Word of God over it. Say, “I am not going to stay up late or get up early eating the bread of sorrows. I reject it, in the name of Jesus.” By doing this, you will break the feedback loop that keeps stroking your emotions and debilitating your body.
4. Use your God-given weapons of warfare. They are mighty! They have “divine power to demolish strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:4). Say, “In the name of Jesus Christ and by the power of His blood, I rebuke and pull down all aspects of (name the issue, e.g., fear, abuse, rage, hatred, anxiety, grief, etc.). I affirm that You have given me weapons -- divine power sufficient to overcome and eradicate every power of darkness.”
5. Apply the power of the blood of Jesus. Hebrews 9:14 tells us that the blood of Jesus is effective to cleanse and purge your mind of dead works so that you can serve the living God. Say, “I cover all levels of my mind – conscious, subconscious, and unconscious – with the blood of Jesus. My mind is purged of negative thoughts and emotions, by the power of the blood of Jesus. Thank you for the blood of Jesus!”
In the next blog, I will list the remaining five suggestions.
God is able to move you past painful experiences, past failures, injuries, and areas where you missed it. You may have listened to the wrong voice. You may have gone through bankruptcy, divorce, business loss, loss of home, depression, and missed opportunities. God is able to get you back on track to run effectively the race set before you. You do not have to die before your time. You do not have to let any setback keep you back. God is able to lift you up, dust you off, and move you forward into a glorious future. It's time to let Him do just that, isn't it?
Janice Davis Steele
http://www.jdsministries.org/
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