Week 3, Dealing With the Past

This week our topic was on "Dealing With the Past". If you are like me you probably interpreted it to be about dealing with issues from the past and though we did touch on that, we got much deeper and went much farther back into the past. Back when I was only a thought in God's mind. Back to the time of Adam and the fall. Back to truths and deceptions that cause us now to not understand God in the way that we are meant to.

One quote really struck me on just how true it is:
God has created man in His own image and man has repaid the favour. We make God out to be just a really, really good version of us. We can only comprehend the tiniest, tiniest piece of the puzzle so we just make up a pretty box that we think is right and put our God into it and think everything is perfect.

We think we know God from what we read and what we see or have been taught, but knowing someone doesn't always mean we will understand them.

The Deception of the Flesh

The Bible talks about the "flesh". The flesh may be defined as 'a condition in which a person operates out of their own resources doing things their own way' or in other words, me saying I can do this on my own better than God. However the Bible says we are NOT the flesh and the flesh is NOT us.

Galatians 5:16-17 "But I say, walk and live in the Spirit; then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh . For the desires of the flesh are opposed to the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are opposed to the flesh ; for they are in conflict with each other, so that you are not free but are prevented from doing what you desire to do."

God did not call us to a measured life or a life with information overload. God called us to life. God pursues US! It's not about performing. He is satisfied with us already; if he wasn't how could he have put the Holy Spirit into our lives. This is the transformation. This is exciting!!

Satan uses the flesh to deceive us into untruths. His first deception was with Eve and Adam. He told Adam and Eve that if they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil that they would be like God [deception] BUT God created us in his image! We ALREADY are JUST like God, in his image. As much like God as we were ever going to be. So what happened? They discovered their nakedness, which in original translation actually means empty. They didn't litterly die but they died inside.

So Good does not equal Life?
No, doing the good thing or right thing doesn't mean you are experiencing life. I am living out of a system that I believe will bring me life (by doing good) but it doesn't - Good is under the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil (self-life, independence, bondage, law, death (in speration).
The Tree of life = Spirit-life, dependance, freedom, grace, life.

So obviously man's effort to get to God wasn't working...that's WHY Jesus always had to come to us. God knew that when he created us that we would separate ourselves from him, it was always the plan for Jesus to come to make us alive again.

When Jesus came and died on the cross for us he spoke the words, "It is finished". This was the reason for his coming, to give us life, to bring God down to us so that we may be a part of him. To wipe us clean from all sin and condemnation. We are now completely righteous. He gave us a new identity in God.
Colossions 2:13-14 - "And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made you alive together with Christ, having forgiven you all your trespasses, having wiped out the requirements against us. He has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross".

Romans 2:4 - "Or do you think so little of how riches is his kindness, forbearance, and patience, not realizing that it is God's kindness that is leading you to repent?"
The word for repent in Greek is "metanoia" which means turn around. God's goodness in us yells out "metanoia" to "turn around". There is no condemnation in God when we go the wrong way, just the guidance of "You are going the wrong way child, turn around".

God does not see our sins as Jesus died on the cross for ALL our sins. They have all already been forgiven BUT this doesn't mean we don't need to confess our sins. Not for God but for us. We are already forgiven by Jesus dieing on the cross but if we sin we still need to talk to God about it but we need not fear as we are already forgiven. Sin means now that is puts a wierdness into our relationship with God, it makes it awkward. God is not limited but sin limits us. We do not NEED to confess to God but we do so because it skews our relationship with him.

This was really amazing to hear. So freeing if you really think about it. There is NOTHING we can do to make God love us LESS or More. HE loves us unconditionally. He created us to share relationship with Him (the Trinity). We don't need to be good but we do it because we love him, because of our relationship with him. WE are ALWAYS going to be the fathers children.

So let's go back to Deception and "Dealing With the Past" on a now basis.

I Think...Therefore I Am??? Our self-concept directly affects everything in life.
Our beliefs about ourselves predict behaviour. What I believe about myself will ultimately determine what I do and how I teach others to treat me. For example, If I believe about myself that I am not smart enough and I tell others that I am not smart enough, eventually they will treat me like I am not very smart and then lets say, they will write-off what I have to say as it's probably not very good anyhow.
BUT I AM WORTHY because of Jesus Christ and I shouldn't be treated this way. So when do these deceptions in our mind begin?? We are not born with them but from birth we are "nature-ally" self-focused. Before the age of 5, we have highly developed a self-image, we need others to feed us, pamper us, change us, etc. As we grow if we see parents fighting or other children whispering we automatically think it is about us. We can't see beyond ourselves.

Sin soils, brings deception of how we see ourselves and how others see us. Sin wounds and defiles us. Things of our past, effects from family, friends have created lies in our heads that make us think we are not good enough, not worth it, maybe if I act this way THEN I will have friends, etc. These lies have sown into our hearts. These lies are arrows sticking out of our hearts so that when we meet new people and want to get to know them we can't get close enough because these arrows are in the way. However, we shouldn't blame the past but realize its impact in our lives.

These lies become strongholds in our lives that keep us in bondage of believe the lies are truths.
Four Characteristics of Stronghold Beliefs are:
1) Debilitating - we need to confess it to God so he can take away the lie
2) Controlling - our mind is now telling us what's true
3) Self-protective - put up barriers to keep people from hurting us again
4) Self-destructive - living in lies we are not experiencing Christ in his fullness.

We need to recognize the lies and once we discover them give them up to God so that he can reveal the truths to us. That we are perfect and wonderful in him, that he is well pleased with us.

So what happens if we don't? Our emotions become effected. Emotions are the colour of our soul, they are an indicator of what's going on underneath the surface in our "Emotional Bank Vault". Our fear is that if we let out the emotions we have hidden for so long it is going to destroy us and those around us.

So during this time we had an exercise in class in which we took a look at the messages about ourselves that we have received from people that have had an effect on our lives which then leads us to feel and think a certain way about ourselves and motivates us to build protective layers. Later we wrote down our final thought that summed up how we view ourselves. It was very sad and hard to see how some of us viewed ourselves - Not good enough, not perfect enough, I can't show who I truly am or they won't like me, I can never fail, I have to always win, etc. It was not easy and how strong those were to reveal these lies to everyone.

I want to share with you what I wrote as I want you to fully be able to take part in my spiritual journey and hopefully be blessed by it.

For me I wrote, "I am not worth it". My lie is that "I am not worth holding on to because either I am not pretty enough, funny enough, positive enough, smart enough." But mainly I'm just not worth holding on to, either as a girlfriend or as a friend. Now I will say I don't totally believe this lie, I believe God brings people into our lives to bless us for a short time or a longer time, some are meant to stay shorter than others but we need to see the value in the relationship and enjoy them for the time they are in our lives. However, there are times when I am low or down in the dumps or feeling lonely that Satan brings this untruth back into my mind and fools me into believing this.

The wonderful part about this exercise was that in the end we prayed to the Holy Spirit to reveal us truths to speak upon each other. It was so beautiful and so uplifting. It was such a special moment for us and another bonding time.

So how do we erase these lies or at least begin to work on erasing them?
In "Forgiving One Another as in Christ He Forgave Us".
However, let me note: Forgiveness is NOT for the person that hurt you. It is for yourself to release you from its clutches but we must also note that we can only do this in God, apart from Him it is impossible to forgive on our own.

Moving toward Freedom first 'Face the pain' [identify the person/event/emotion/effect] then Forgive (or cancel the debt), then 'Accept the offender as he/she is without demands for change' and lastly 'life free to engage again in relationships with others'.

To emphasize all that I wrote, I want to leave off with a song that Laurie left off with for us. I encourage you to listen to the song if you are able but for now enjoy the words and be open to them. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this. I really felt that I had to write it all out. I hope that it may have blessed you but if you have any questions or disagreements PLEASE send me a note or email me. I can't promise I'll have answers for everything but I encourage discussion.
Love Stephanie

"Not Guilty Anymore" by Aaron Keyes

It doesn’t matter what You’ve done; It doesn't matter where you're coming from
Doesn’t matter where you’ve been, Hear me tell you I forgive

You’re not guilty anymore, You're not filthy anymore,
I love you, mercy is yours
You're not broken anymore, You're not captive anymore
I love you, mercy is yours

Can you believe that this is true, Grace abundant I am giving you
Cleansing deeper than you know, All was paid for long ago

There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Jesus

You are spotless
You are holy
You are faultless
You are whole
You are righteous
You are blameless
You are pardoned
You are mine

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Ephesians 1:17 - "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better."