Victims need an encounter with the Holy Spirit:
We live in a broken world due to our sins and shortcomings. As a result, there is rampant abuse and many who carry the pain of it constantly in their life’s journey.
Within the body of Christ, there are several reasons as to why victims continue with the pain and trauma for many years even after the actual events of the abuse as in Cindy’s case and others like her.
Continuing in an (any) abusive spiritual environment prevents inner healing and many a time increases the pain and trauma through the years.
On the other hand, because of God’s faithfulness and His great loving kindness, He provides every one of ‘His’ with many (more than enough) opportunities to overcome the abuse of the past and be healed completely. Our responses to Him in those situations determine whether we find the healing and restoration that is needed, or we continue with the trauma. As there is a spiritual element to almost all kinds of trauma, if we don’t respond as God wants us to when He provides us with opportunities to overcome it, there comes a time where things will take a turn for the worse.
Now, we cannot be the arbiters of that ‘healing and restoration process’ or its timeline in people’s lives, as God is the one who understand the depths of the pain and the wounds of an individual and the pathway they have walked till that point. He understands the victims better than they understand themselves.
There is also that place where victims need someone to walk with them in that journey of healing and restoration and it is a hard one. However, if that is all that can be offered by us His body, it falls short of all that God can do in these kinds of situations.
This brings us to the next important point, which is, whatever happened to the power of His Spirit?
We see a great lack of the powerful workings of the Holy Spirit amongst us today!
It is an insult to the person of the Spirit, if we claim His workings amongst us and victims stay the same without being healed or delivered for years together. He is the Comforter, an aid who is by our side in every situation to help us overcome every and anything that the enemy throws at us. The moment He is introduced in a person’s life; He begins the process of healing and restoration in them.
If so, how can He allow someone who knows Him intimately to continue in trauma for a long time? It goes against His very nature! How can we who have known Him intimately be comfortable in the fact that people around us continue their lives in trauma, not being able to offer them His healing and restoring touch?
He is the very essence of comfort, and His comfort doesn’t just bring temporary solace or partial relief. It is birthed out of His compassion and great love and care for us, and He brings forth complete healing and restoration.
If all our solutions to trauma are only related to counseling and therapy sessions (not against them); it shows how far we have missed the mark because there is that place of a mighty inward working of the Spirit. What can take a long time otherwise can get done by the blessed Spirit’s one touch; one visitation; one encounter.
Counsel led by the Spirit is important but the blessed Spirit’s work when He manifests Himself trumps everything!
Over the years, I have seen too many instances of the beloved Spirit’s healing and restoring work in people’s lives that were totally devastated and my heart burns within me as I am typing this!
A girl was gang raped. She had escaped death by a whisker as they were planning to murder her… She miraculously escaped. An orphan since she was five, she had lost her dad and mom and her whole family in day. Now in her early twenties she was fighting a losing battle for her justice against her predators in the corrupt courts, all alone.
To say that she was greatly traumatized would be an understatement. She was on high medication due to the trauma and its effects. Her medication didn’t help her that much, and she continued to hurt herself during panic attacks. Her hands had to be constantly covered as she bit them during the attacks. She couldn’t recollect the events that transpired during the trauma because of the extent it. She had lost her faith in God.
Just 30 minutes or less under the blessed ‘oh the blessed Spirit’s therapy session. She regained her faith in God, remembered every traumatic incident clearly and immediately proceeded to call the girl who had betrayed her to the goons who raped her, to tell the girl that she had forgiven her… oh, BTW she was off medication the next day!!
At the age of 10 a boy’s Father was killed by a reckless driver. Growing up, he was put in juvenile for attempting to kill his Father’s killer twice. He was in his early twenties when I met him, and his heart was so hard that he couldn’t stand people being happy. If someone irritated him, which was often, he had to beat them till blood flowed from them to be satisfied.
A million thanks to the blessed Spirit! for when He came upon him which was only briefly, the tears started to flow again for the first time after his Father’s death. He was gloriously set free and healed. Afterward, he told me “ I looked at the sky outside, the plants and the trees, they are so beautiful…” “Everything is so beautiful”. ‘I’ve missed so much in my life these years”.
Those are just a few of the many examples.
Dearly Beloved, when we reach out to the hurting with the compassion of Christ, His blessed Spirit can’t but flow through our hands and words bringing healing to people. Victims don’t need to stay as victims. They don’t need to wait for years to be set free and go through all the steps that we think they need to go through to be healed. The great compassionate Healer can heal them in an instant!
They need Him. We need Him! I need Him more than ever!! Now before we ask for this working of His which only flows out of Christ’s heart of compassion; we need to recognize that His workings in general have dwindled down or are absent amongst us!
As said earlier: if it is seen in a person’s lack of repentance when in sin or when sin is exposed; it is also seen in people not knowing where their limits are, when trying to bring things to light… It is also evident when victims continue in their pain and abuse for many years even though they have been in church all the time. Those are just a few instances but instances that relate to our times. They show us that HE is missing in action.
It shows that the Spirit is not close to us as we think He is! When He is near, He can’t but heal, restore, convict and guide powerfully! All we need to do is follow His prompts.
Now, in order to know where we are in our walk with Him, let us answer these questions honestly. These questions are relevant to our times.
When was I last convicted of my mistakes?
Did my repentance meet the Biblical standards when I was convicted?
When was the last time I was convicted when I talked to others about someone’s mistakes?
With a revelation of ‘us’ being His body; over the years, the way the Spirit has led me is that even if I speak a single word wrong about someone (even unknowingly), He will immediately convict! Sometimes, even though my words would be right on the outside, I would still feel convicted for my attitude on the inside. As matter of fact, that is where I have been convicted most!
The way things have taken a turn regarding this in recent times in His body is very concerning as with people not taking full responsibility for their mistakes.
When was the last time, a person with mental and emotional trauma healed and gloriously set free by the Spirit’s manifest presence?
Now, the intention of these questions is not so that we focus so much on our flaws but that through the process we realize how much we need the Spirit and desire His mighty workings amongst us and do whatEVER is necessary to see Him in action again.
Come Blessed Spirit!
Proper light and counsel in situations like this come from looking unto Him who suffered the greatest abuse of all! It comes from knowing that ‘I’ was responsible for that abuse. It comes from seeing how He handled the abuse. Any other solution is incomplete and falls way short of His expectations.
