Jesus said “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise”. Luke 23:43 In the quiet of the evening God laid on my
heart this instruction, “speak truth to healing”, and I wasn’t exactly sure how to proceed. I had just finished writing a piece
describing the greatness of God our Comforter when He revealed to me how I much
physical affection I had I missed as a child. Our God the Comforter comforts
when people in our lives let us down. In the piece I had described the evening,
when in my grief and sadness, I cried out to God with my arms wide open “God
please help me!”, and my prayer was answered by a soft loving being that layed
on top of me head to toe and held me in a maternal embrace. I hadn’t seen the lack of caring in my life
until I had written the article, even though I had reared two children to adulthood
myself. Have you ever found yourself in a
situation, where you really need to forgive but you just can’t bring yourself
to let go of that that bitter fruit? The
Holy Spirit knew I needed to address this mother wound truthfully before I
could heal emotionally and physically. I am sure that many of you also
desire to heal of the soul and the body for some reason. Many of us are trapped in states of
unforgiveness with loved ones. We say that we have moved on, that we no longer
hold a grudge that we get along just fine with that person. That is all very
brave talk, but can we really say that we truly bless that person, that we love
that enemy as Jesus would, that we truly forgive them? The grievances and sadness that we nurse
have the potential to cause long lasting physical health consequences,
depression, high blood pressure, heart disease and more. I was about to ask where I stood on my road
to healing but I stopped dead in my tracks; I confess that I have not forgiven
as I should. I have only gone so far, and my healing has stopped. That is the
truth. I had to stop for a few days with this
topic because it was too profound for me. God told me “Speak truth to healing.”
I turned it over and over in my mind and dropped into a prayer group on Sunday
morning where the subject of denying Satan’s lies came up. Satan is the enemy
of the truth and wishes to keep us in fear for our health and well being. We
must firmly stand in God’s light and put on his armor of righteousness if we
are under attack. There it was... the truth of my
unforgiveness that had cut me off at the knees. I was no longer walking in
God’s light; I was hobbling without feet using denials as crutches and
justifications as truths. Then there
were God’s truth is reflected unmistakably as when he said “Father forgive them,
they do not what they are doing” This passage is from Luke 23:43, Jesus asks
forgiveness for his executioners who crucified him, along with the two other
criminals at He is asking forgiveness for the
executioners causing so much suffering, pain and what will be their ultimately
death and he also excuses them from
their jovial little game of casting lots for his garments. A little bit later, one of the criminals
remarked that they got what they deserved, but Jesus had done nothing to
deserve his fate. Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your
kingdom”. Jesus answered him, “I tell
you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” Jesus prefaces the statement with, “I tell
you the truth”, and then he says “today” (present tense),
“you will be with me in paradise”, (future tense). The implication is that they are already with him
both now and in the future. In his own suffering and by his grace; he tends his flock, his black sheep run astray; by giving them the reassurance of salvation and eternal life. I believe therein lies the truth to both
physical and spiritual healing. What more do we need to know? What more is
there to seek? We are spiritual beings with earthly bodies, however wayward and
wobbly on a homeward journey to our Father. We are already with Him. All praise
to the Father and his son Jesus. |
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