Soul Care 4

Soul Care 4

“A Healed Soul”

Is. 61:1 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.”

I want to focus primarily on the words, “He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted.”

Broken-hearted means “shattered, crushed, broken in pieces.”

And the word “Heal” means “to bind up, wrap, repair.”

Part of Jesus’s anointing was and is to heal our souls.

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David the Psalmist also wrote of this inner-healing of the soul:

Ps 147:1,3 “Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him! 3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”

The primary thought here is of a healing bandage applied to the heart’s wounds.

In Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan he describes a man who is beaten and left for dead on the side of the road.

But the Good Samaritan came along and, “He went to him and bandaged his wounds…” (Luke 10:34)

That is the picture of what Jesus does for us in the inner healing of our souls…He cleanses, bandages, and binds up our inner wounds.

Our loving Heavenly Father longs to heal these wounds and set us free.

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You see…We’ve all suffered some level of soul-wounding…

Virtually everyone needs some level of inner healing from the wounds and devastation of the past.

Wounds from deep in our past often become festering infections buried in our soul that affect our lives today.

Things like painful rejection, stabbing betrayal, devastating abuse, the damaging consequences of sin…all leave wounds in our soul.

Sometimes those wounds are infected and hurting and we are well aware of them…

When our bodies are hurt it manifests in a visible bruise…

But when our souls are wounded the inner bruises show up in anger, bitterness, rejection issues, lack of confidence, self loathing, a self-destructive lifestyle...

Other times they lie deep beneath, unbeknownst to us, until the Holy Spirit brings them to the top.

We can go through life limping on the inside—saved but hurting, saved but hindered, saved but needing deliverance.

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As we’ve said throughout this series, when we are born-again, our spirits are instantly made alive and whole…

But our souls need to undergo transformation and renewing till the day we see Jesus.

And part of that transformation includes the healing of past wounds in our mind, will, and emotions.

We need the gentle hand of Doctor Jesus to bind up our wounds, and bring healing to our inner man.

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It’s also important to know that…Soul healing doesn’t happen overnight

Healing can be instantaneous, or it can be a process.

FACT: The healing of the soul is almost always a process that happens with time and patience.

It is a long, steady process where the Holy Spirit restores us to soul-health, taking the wounds of our soul one by one and dealing with them.

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It has often reminded me of the way God led the children of Israel to take the Promised Land.

It says they took it city by city, town by town, day by day…

It didn’t happen overnight but was a gradual process.

And God had a reason for that slow process that applies to soul healing today…

Ex. 23: 27, 29-30 “I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run. 29 But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. 30 Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.”

Notice, God said that if He had given it to them all at once, they would not have been strong enough to hold the wild beasts back, so God gave them the land as they were able to handle it.

Likewise, as we grow in the Lord and become stronger spiritually, God restores our souls accordingly.

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The Christian life, including inner healing, is a process of slow, steady spiritual growth.

The Bible says, “And I am sure that God who began the good work within you will keep right on helping you grow in his grace until his task within you is finally finished on that day when Jesus Christ returns” (Phil 1:6).

It is as we grow in grace that our soul experiences restoration and healing.

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Now, the path to inner healing is accomplished three ways, First…

I. Your walk

We must cooperate with God in our healing in the same way the man with the withered hand had to “stretch forth his hand” toward Jesus, or the man at the pool of Bethesda had to “take up his bed and walk.”

The Bible reveals that virtually every time Jesus performed a healing, the recipient was required to cooperate by stepping out on the Word Jesus gave them…

We too must cooperate with Jesus for soul-healing to take place.

First, by our WALK…

Listen to this powerful verse from Hebrews:

“So lift up your hands that have been weak. Stand up on your weak legs. Make straight paths for your feet so the weak leg will not be turned aside, but will be healed” (12:12-13).

Notice, he’s saying, “Walk a straight path, live a true Christian life, so that that part of you that is weak will be healed!”

You can’t live a worldly life and expect a godly healing.

Right living makes crooked things straight.

I’m not saying live perfectly because no one can, but I am saying live sincerely in your walk with God….Obey His word as faithfully as you can!

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Second, cooperate with God by applying…

IV. His Word to the wound

We must apply His Word to the areas of your soul that are wounded…

ILLUS: For instance, a personal testimony:

My soul (my mind) was damaged through drug use as a teenager, and it opened my mind up to irrational, tormenting fears that were crippling me…

I can remember God one day quickening a Psalm to me that said, “The law (Word) of the Lord is perfect restoring the soul” (Ps. 19:7).

The Holy Spirit took that verse and made it alive to me.

The Bible reveals over and over that when God healed, “He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.” (Ps. 107:20).

You hold in your hand God’s healing Word!

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The kind of inner healing I needed required spiritual surgery.

I came to understand that The Holy Spirit, as the Divine surgeon, uses the scalpel of the Word of God to cut right to the core of our inner man, separating our soul and spirit to focus exclusively on our soul.

The Bible says that the Word of God, “…penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart…” (Heb. 4:12)

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ILLUS: We’ve all seen a TV show or movie where a surgeon is in an operating room and the surgeon will hold out his hand and say to a nurse, “Scalpel!” And she places the tool he asked for in his hand.

It’s the same thing with us and the healing of our soul….We must place in the Spirit’s hand the tool he needs, the right verse for our problem.

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I simply found all the Scriptures I could about conquering fear and memorized them.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?” (Ps. 27:1).

“'Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand” (Is. 41:10).

“I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side” (Ps. 3:6).

“God is our refuge and strength, a tested help in times of trouble. 2 And so we need not fear even if the world blows up and the mountains crumble into the sea” (Ps. 46:1-2).

The verses were everywhere, and I found that, over time, I began to experience freedom from tormenting fear, replaced with faith, zeal and fire for God’s plan for my life!

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Our walk, His Word, and one last requirement for inner healing is…

IV. Forgiveness

Soul-healing comes to a halt when we refuse to forgive.

Nothing blocks the work of God in our lives like unforgiveness.

If the Word of God brings healing to our soul, bitterness releases poison into our soul.

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ILLUS: Picture this scene—You’re driving down a highway filled with beautiful scenery, headed for a destination you can’t wait to get to.

The journey has been wonderful except for one bad moment when a man recklessly passed you, pushed you off the road, and caused you to come to an abrupt stop that slammed your head into the steering wheel and hurt you.

You were wounded, bruised, and angry.

How dare he!

But that was then, this is now…

Suddenly in front of you a roadblock appears.

Police cars are in the road with their lights on, a barrier is across the road, and you are brought to a complete halt.

A policeman approaches and you say, “What’s wrong officer?”

He replies, “To continue down this beautiful highway to your destination, you must forgive the man who ran you off the road a few miles back and caused you pain—If you don’t forgive him, you cannot continue.”

You say, “But that’s not fair! He ran me off the road! He doesn’t deserve my forgiveness! I was innocent in the whole thing!”

But the officer replies, “No, he doesn’t deserve your forgiveness. But I ran your tag and got your records…

…I see that you were in court a couple of years back and a judge forgave and released you when you were in far worse trouble.

What would that judge think to learn that you won’t forgive this man his lesser offense?”

You have a choice…do I refuse to forgive and allow the man that hurt me to ruin my journey and stop me from my destination?

The answer is, NO! I forgive him, as I have been forgiven.

“But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matt. 6:15).

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For inner healing remember:

It takes time—be patient

Walk in truth

Apply the Word

Forgive

Soul healing will surely be yours!