Psalm 16: 5-11 NKJV

O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
You maintain my lot.
The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Yes, I have a good inheritance.

I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel;
My heart also instructs me in the night seasons.
I have set the Lord always before me;
Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will rest in hope.
 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
 You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore

 Every man and woman awake on our planet has the opportunity to walk in the presence of God and live in the fullness of joy.  He offers Himself freely and with no walls of separation.  The altar of God is open for us.  In His presence there is fullness of joy.  In His presence there is fullness of peace.  In His presence is life and life more abundant than we can imagine.  In His presence is healing and restoration for mental strength, emotional comfort, physical wholeness, spiritual power, and relational unity.

In Psalm 16, the psalmist describes a great and balanced life before God and man.  It is full of hope, faith, provision, joy, life, gladness, restoration, pleasure, and the presence of God.   Wow. Who would not want that?  Over the next few sessions, I’ll take these verses apart in regards to healing.

What is healing?  Healing is the full establishment of body, soul, spirit, and relationships to the point of design.  Whatever has taken a portion of our wholeness away from the center point of destined design by the crafted love of God is not health.  Whenever we wander of our own volition into wrong decisions that harm any portion of our lives, we are not in health.    Push from the enemy of our soul to disturb us with disease, discomfort, disenchantment, discouragement, or drain on endurance takes us away from full health.  Interaction with the world and people can result in strife and discord in relationship and take us away from wholesome health. 

Healing is a normal process of taking us in any and all areas to God’s place of destined design and balance for us. 

Healing is also a supernatural process of allowing God to reach through our pains and problems and restore us with the same power that He raised Christ from the dead. 

Whether reached with normal process or supernatural process, we want to be healed, right? We want to be at the place of destined and created balance. For the balanced and healthy Believer health is daily maintained by living in the presence and instruction of God and supernaturally and daily restored by the same.  Life happens.  It interrupts wholesome healthy living.  God has made provision.

Healing is the real experience of walking with God that was originally designed for mankind.  Adam and Eve lived in that place where disease and curse and pain was absent.  They walked with God.  Enoch walked with God.  Moses walked with God.  Elijah walked with God. They moved in and out.  Jesus walks with God.  He never moved out.   We have opportunity to live in Jesus.  In Jesus, we can walk with God.  He sent His Holy Spirit to live in us and through us and never leave us.  He is available.

Prayer:  Father, it is evident by Your history with us and Your words to us that You are committed to health and healing.  You are the Creator of Life and the Lover of Mankind.  You are the God of Healing as You reveal Yourself to us throughout Your history before Christ became man with Israel and through Christ, both God and man, to all mankind.  You are committed to healing through establishing means of dispensing Your healing and restorative grace in prayer through men cooperating with You. 

Be a healer to me and to my friends today, Father.  Our world is tumultuous.  It is out of balance.  We need You.  We need You to be with us.  Walk with us.  Talk with us.  Bring us into balance in all areas of our life that we might give the praise and honor and glory back to you.

Guilt stops health. That is just a reality. When we have either false or real guilt, we block the hand of God from moving fully in out lives and throughout the balance of our mind, will, and emotions. That is fact not fiction. Deal with it. Yes, deal with guilt.

A friend used to tell me how he lived with shameless guilt. To me that is an enigma. Maybe he had a formula for living that allowed him to remain guilty and be unashamed of his status. Sounds a little sociopathic to me.

Guilt for mistakes and missed connections in living is a healing agent. Just like pain, guilt can lead us to full and balanced health in our physical bodies, mind, will, emotions, spirit, and relationships. These are all interconnected. You must deal will all for full balanced healing. Guilt lives in the soul and affects all other areas.

Is guilt an emotion? No, guilt is a condition and a perception. Guilt occurs when we offend someone. That someone can be your spouse or best friend. That someone can be God. That someone can be yourself. If you are eating what you know is bad for you physically, you are guilty of a sin against the temple of your body. Don’t discount or laugh about it. Remove the guilt by removing the behavior.

Does guilt elicit emotion? Exactly and always. Anyone that is emotionless toward guilt has developed a spurious conscience seared to lack of feeling. I would argue the absence of emotion is an emotion. That seeming absence is apathy and most often rooted in anger and rejection. All of that is intensely emotional, just not as visibly expressed. In fact, that person will find themselves doing horrid acts against themselves and others that have no business expressed in living.

Get angry at your guilt. It can block full freedom and liberty of mind and emotion and body. Get resolute to rid yourself of the reason for the guilt. Let it heal through addressing the issue and resolving it.

Who is the primary person offended in our mistakes? Of course, God is the primary one offended. In Psalm 51 David cries out that it is God and God alone against whom he has sinned. David committed adultery with a faithful friend’s wife. Then he killed the friend. He made other friends be the hand of murder. He sinned against the nation through evil leadership. He sinned against himself through adultery. He sinned against the woman, the husband, the family, his armies, and many others. Yet, he focused all of his prayer to his sin against God. David knew all that he did was wrong.

Are we bound to guilt for our mistakes forever? NO.. NO.. NO.. Later in life David wrote that he had never sinned. He was not denying reality. He was declaring his present condition. He was guiltless before God and man. His sins were forgiven and forgotten and no longer in the remembrance of God. Sure, they are still written for us to read. But in the accounting of David’s life before God, they never existed. This was even before the shedding of the blood of Chirst. David looked to the mercy of God and the promise of redemption and declared himself free of guilt before God.

Peter had been abused as a child in his father’s congregation. The youth minister was the offender. At a campout, Peter was raped by the youth minister. Horrified, he took the guilt of the incident on himself. It was not his to bear. Yet, he took it on himself. Over time, he had become increasingly disturbed and distraught. As a 50 year old adult he showed up on my doorstep. He was unable to hold a job, live in a building, or have simple loving relationships with other humans. But he came to me looking for the healing grace of God.

There were many sessions of listening and learning about Peter and his life. He had lived from that point with a pain the resulted in many mistakes and disconnects. Sorting through all of that took time before we found the root of bitterness and source of guilt that misguided his actions and thoughts.

Once we found that event and removed the undue guilt, we could focus on the due guilt. Last time I saw Peter he was living a simple and loving existence with his wife and dog. They both had jobs and the tormenting life he had been living was over. There were smiles again. He stood straight again. He had friends again. That is health.

Ways to Avoid Guilt and Stay Healthy:

Psalm 1:1

Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

Get good friends. Listen to them. Stay in the counsel of the scripture. You can avoid a lot of mistakes if you concentrate on right directions.

Psalm 19:13

Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression

Be aware of areas into which you fall easily. Don’t buy in to, “Well that is just the way I am.” as an excuse for sinful behavior. Change. Change. Seek out the voice of God to correct ill conceived habits and premises and presumptions that rule your life. These result in mistakes and offenses and guilt.

Psalm 25:7

Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; According to Your mercy remember me, For Your goodness’ sake, O LORD

Ask forgiveness. Put away your silly pride. Get real. Let God forgive you.

Psalm 32:5

I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

Be bluntly honest with yourself and with God. Open up and admit your errors. Let guilt show you where you need to admit failures and where you need to apply correction.

Pray: Father, this is the life that we are meant to live in Christ. You want us free of guilt. That comes through right relationship with You and with others. We come to You, Father. Forgive us our sins, mistakes, and offenses to You and others. Bring us to the place of mercy not justice. Justice means we must be punished. But mercy means we can stay alive and alert in You and be stronger for our mistakes not denigrated and cast down or removed from fellowship with You. In our greatest guilt we need to find ourselves at Your feet seeking love and grace and mercy. Take us to Your side, Father, when we feel the least accepted. You are our loving and comforting God.

Live prayer;  http://youtu.be/MCdvP0Imvms

Philippians 4: 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus

Anxiety deep in the heart of an individual causes an oppressive weight and strain on physical ability and resiliency. In Proverbs we are told, Anxiety in the heart of a man weighs it down. A heavy heart is the opposite of what is needed for healing. A joyful heart is good for a long life.

Proverbs 17:22 A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones.

What is anxiety? What causes anxiety?

A workable definition for anxiety that allows for healing and removal of the unneeded stressors in life goes like this. Anxiety is fear and attraction to the same person, place, or thing. That thing could even be a certain emotion. Some feel anxiety when love rises in their hearts. That is a sad condition and will end in ill health. No one can be healthy without a free expression of love.

So why are we attracted to an item (love) and repulsed by it (fear) at the same time? That really is anxiety. We are unsure if we want to go toward or run away. Do we hug that person or hit them? That is anxiety. Do we get up and go to work in the morning or stay in bed and call in sick? We love our job, but the manager is a tyrant. Anxiety.

Health at work means productivity and joy. Illness means shuffling and complaining.

Health at home means happiness and contentment and gratefulness. Illness means discontent and looking to other families for example and comparison. There is no perfect home or dysfunctional standard of family. There is contentedness and satisfaction and acceptance and enjoyment. Each has a different experience of those. When anxiety exists, no environment can work wellness in us.

Health in the community means safety and security and freedom to move about. There is a liberty of expression and confidence in acceptance from most people. Illness means prejudices and presuppositions and class divisions rule.

Health in government means justice and mercy mixed in right measure. The rules and regulations are understood and achievable and build the common good while protecting the weak. There is no anxiety in that condition. People thrive and concur. When government protects the strong and makes it hard for the weak, anxiety and discontent rule.

Health in the business economy means a profitable fair return for a productive and ingenuity driven enterprise. Whether an individual or corporation of many executes the business there is chance to succeed and accountability for failure. Men and women can thrive and be attracted to success in that environment.

Events in our environment build anxieties. The constant berating of an father that cannot be satisfied with our efforts as a child builds anxiety. A woman shared with me once that since her father only would help her when she absolutely had a need in life, she was anxious every time she wanted to do something fun or enjoyable. The impact of her father’s emphasis on Spartan need above all created an anxiety that took away her joy of living. She overcame with the blood of the Lamb and refresh the thoughts of her mind with acceptance and realizing that in Jesus, He came that her joy might be full.

Misconception can build anxiety. When working with an outreach for children in a large multi-cultural congregation, it became evident many of the Caucasian parents were upset at leaving their children in services. After listening to them and watching the children worship and play together freely, I was struggling to understand their anxiety. The freedom of worship and receiving of healing and presence of God was being affected. Over and over parents would tell me how out of control the children were becoming. Observing the children I could not see any problems. They were children being children. Then it became evident that their cultural definitions had been skewed. They simply equated being black or brown with being disruptive and out of control. Skin color brought out anxiety in the parents. By involving the parents on a personal basis with the children, their prejudices could be removed with reality of experience and we went forward with full inclusiveness and acceptance. Mercy and truth brought healing and power. The ministry moved on to experience powerful moves of the presence of God and healing among the children.

These are just a few examples and explanations. Anxiety is a killer of health and healing and balance. You must root it out. Find the cause. Apply scriptural solution. Enjoy the blessing of health and joy that results.

Pray:

Father, show us the cause of anxiety in our heart. Give us guidance in Your word to remove and apply the healing salve of Your Holy Spirit to each situation. Let us not be weary in seeking out issues and resolving them with the love and power of Jesus, the Christ. The enemy comes to kill, steal, and destroy. Jesus comes that we might have life and have that life more abundantly in arenas of our life. Balance, Father. Balance our lives.

“Men by the action of the will, take themselves out of the control of the power of the law of sin and death, and by the action of their will place themselves consciously in union and in touch with the law of the Spirit of Life.” John G. Lake

For the new spiritual principle of life in Chirst Jesus lifts me out of the old vicious circle of sin and death. Romans 8:2 Phillips

Health for my mind, will, emotions, body, spirit, and relationships is available as a blessing. There are many ways of looking at the provisions of God for our lives. One of those is through the eyes of a compassionate Father full of grace to give. Grace is a blessing of enablement given in response to love.

Health is a grace blessing. When we live and move and have our being in Christ, we are blessed and full of grace. Grace enables. Grace empowers. Grace inspires. Grace activates all the divinity of God available through Christ into us. Grace is blessing.

When you go to God for health today, go from the position of a child looking for a blessing from your Father. Our earthly fathers sometimes give blessing and sometimes do not. Our heavenly Father is only full of blessing. Sure, there are times we need discipline. Yet, discipline is only for a moment. Sure, there are times we should get punishment. Is it not wonderful that perfect love has cast out the fear of punishment? Is it not a blessing that the punishment for all the sins of mankind past, present, and coming was meeted out on Jesus on the cross? Get rid of that thought of punishment. Replace it with the thought of blessing.

Blessing corrects our actions. When sin is involved, blessing forgives and empowers us to live a more sinless life on this planet. In the land of the living, we are built stronger to live stronger to give greater witness. However, these are not reasons for health.
God wants you healthy because He loves you and has extended blessing freely your direction. Place yourself in the font of blessing. Go to Him. Seek Him. Find Him. Find His love and His blessing and His grace and His full and complete health body, soul, spirit, and social.

In the font of blessing be sensitive to allow God to work in all four areas. Don’t force His hand or demand timing be on your clock and calendar. Submit to God. Resist the influence of the devil, the world, and your flesh nature that desires the wrong result. Let Him have your heart and soul and mind and actions and words and, yes, let Him have the very desires of your heart.
He will reshape your desires and bend them to the right direction that leads you to full blessing and full grace and full health. Give Him your self.

Pray: Father, I speak blessing over my life and the life of all those around me. Grace us with the full power of the Holy Spirit to correct our thoughts and intents and actions and words. Grace us with full health that can restore the dead and dis-eased portions of our bodies and minds and relationships to be full of life and living touched by Your Holy Spirit.

Full live prayer available at http://youtu.be/EwfrUeqLdrQ

After some intense instruction concerning the cost of discipleship in Pauls second letter to the Corinthians, he speaks a blessing. “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” These are the closing words of the letter.

In prior notes, Paul had talked about the toughness of ministry entrusted to him. Prison, flog, left for dead, reputation challenge, multiple times lashed with whip and beat with rod. Paul’s life regularly included an exposure to death. Paul’s life regularly included dangers from countryman, friend, foe. Paul’s life was threatened in the city, on the road travelling, and in the country. This was not an easy call.

Yet, before Paul talks about the challenges, he makes a strong faith reference. In chapter 4 the first verse he states, “Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.” Some versions declare, “we are undaunted.” The next few sentences talk about his commitment and the commitment of those that work with him to stay clear and concise with teaching and not resort to trickery or fancy methods of speech. No, this needs to be simple clear message and demonstration of the power of God.
Pressed and not crushed. Perplexed but not despair. Persecuted but not abandoned. Struck down but not destroyed. Carrying death for Christ that others would life in Him.

The pain and antagonism and death that plagued Paul all had one purpose. Let others see the light and life of Christ that they might live a better existence. Bring grace and love and fellowship to another person, another home, another neighborhood, another community, another city, and another nation. Paul would let every pain attack for the release of full healing salvation and balance in Christ.

These were not days of doctors and dentists. A stone against a tooth, meant a broken tooth for life. Lashes cut deeply into the skin and scars would be left only to opened with the next beating and scars widened. Paul had to have a certain pained look about him from so many attacks physically and emotionally and mentally. How did he do it? Paul’s ministry after 17 years of training lasted 16 years. For 16 years he took beating after beating after beating physically, emotionally, and mentally. How did he do it? Why did he do it?

The beginning and end of this section of letter gives us a clue. By the mercy of God, he knew he would be empowered to endure. For the joy of seeing grace and love and fellowship with God in other people, he endured all. The compassion of Christ poured through him over and over and over to ensure others would meet the Christ that was so gracious and loving and kind and present in his life.

The pain of Paul brought healing for others. In fact, the pain of Paul brings healing for us. This pain provoked great writings which today give us strength through that grace and love and fellowship in God. This persistence to preach and demonstrate the gospel exposes truth for a full healthful life for us.

It is also a challenge. Maybe it is our pain that brings healing for another. Maybe from the suffering we endure and from which we learn, another is made whole and finds joy in life. No maybe. It is certain. When we comfort others with the same comforts we receive of God in our pains and trials, we are built. Others are built. Healing pours out in grace in Christ, love in God, and the ointment of fellowship with the Holy Spirit.

Pray: Father, that is life. Life is meant to be lived and experienced and engaged. Not all is beautiful as we go through. Yet, all becomes a source of healing and love and grace on the other side of pain. Teach us. Engage us. Help us to lay aside our worries and fretting when life is tough. Help us to learn and get ready to offer health and joy to others from our experience.

Genesis 15: After these things the word of The Lord, the Great I Am,  came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. 

 And Abram said, O Lord, the Great I Am,  what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and he that shall be possessor of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?

³ And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.

⁴ And, behold, the word of The Lord, the Great I Am,  came unto him, saying, This man shall not be thine heir; But he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.

⁵ And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and number the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.

⁶ And he believed in The Lord, the Great I Am; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness.

Exodus 15:2-3 The Lord, the Great I Am, is my strength and song, And he is become my salvation: This is my God, and I will praise him; My father’s God, and I will exalt him.  The Lord, the Great I Am, is a man of war: The Lord, the Great I Am,is his name.

Psalm 84:11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

There are three stories of great health and balance in relationship and provision here.  Each shows us a people being sustained and promises being fulfilled.

In Genesis, the Father, promises Abram to be his shield and his exceeding great reward.  He promises to make him prosperous and as immense as the stars of the sky.  In Exodus, Moses walks among millions of people that have been birthed and sustained and delivered of this very promise.  In Psalm 84, David rejoices in the continuance of the blessing as it is being lived in the nation in great prosperity and victory over enemies.

Abram had believed for years and seen great works of God.  This was turning point of faith.  Even at a later point, he would father a child at 99 years old and live to see him grow to adulthood.  That is health.

Moses started in the house of the enemy of the people.  Next he spent 40 years in the desert learning the heart of God.  Next he spent 40 years leading a nation to the future chapter of their lives.  At 120 years old it is written that his eyes did not dim and his natural strength remained.

David was born to a mother that was not his father’s wife.  This embarrassment meant being place away from the rest in his daily chores.  He conquered any depression or lack of esteem that would accompany such treatment through faith in the Father.  Through many wars, he conquered in the name of the Lord, the Great I Am.  At a healthy old age, he had much prosperity.

The song of Moses starts with the promises given to Abram, later to be named, Abraham.  In Exodus 15 Moses is singing of the greatness of his Lord, the Great I Am. Even as you read through this chapter of Genesis 15, you will find that The Father tells Abram of the captivity and release of his future generations.  David represents a full national status for the heirs of Abram’s promise and Moses’ deliverance under a faithful and Godly king.  The three stories that are separated by hundreds of years are one and the same.  They are a single thread of the Father’s faithfulness to provide balance and protection and healing in our lives.  Yet, it is only in Jesus that the fullness of the promises are met.

That is the strength and provision and protection of a healthy relationship with the Father.  All three of these men had incredible challenges to face on a moment by moment basis.  All three faced disease, discomfort, war, famine, threats, disunity and a myriad of other disruptions of grace and peace.  All three kept coming back to the Lord, the Great I Am, and find restoration, healing, victory, provision.  They lead us to the full release of the promise in Jesus, the Christ.

Paul, the great writer and minister of the Greatest Promise, refers to this shield as The Shield of Faith.

⁶ And he believed in The Lord, the Great I Am; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness….. Abram

Hebrews 11:29 By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned..   Moses and the people

Hebrews 11:32-35  And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again.  …..David and others

This faith, trust in the Lord, The Great I Am, belief that brings right standing before Him and restoration even of the dead to life again is a key element of the walk of full health in Christ.

This shield is for you.  Under the banner of faith in Jesus, the Christ, who was promised at the beginning to Adam then Abram and others and given to us through the faithful persistence of these and other men, you can walk in confidence and surety of protection and provision and restoration and a graceful and peaceful life .  No matter the conflict, He is there.  He promises.  He shields.

Ephesians 2:13 ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus, you, who some time were afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

Okay, so admit it.  There are some times where you feel incredibly distant from God.  He does not feel like a loving Father, but some distant Creator, who spun the world into motion and retreated to watch you flounder around trying to figure it all out.

Of course, those times are permanent for those who are outside the kingdom of Christ. If you have never entered into the initial relationship with Him, you continually feel like that.  He is there, but the barrier of separation keeps you from connecting at heart level with His love and graciousness and compassionate involvement.

For those that are in relationship with Christ, there are still times we do not feel near.  So the words of instruction here are for us.  You need to draw near.  You need to take active steps to realize the relationship.

Over some time my wife and I took a trip through Oklahoma, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, and Kansas.  During that time, we would read scripture aloud, pray aloud, and talk with God and with each other.  We drew near.  Busyness takes us away from those closest.  The refreshing invigoration of our closeness with each other and with the Father is important.  Even though we have been married for over 30 years, we can lose the nearness.  Event though I have been connected with Christ to the family of God for over 30 years, the closeness can feel distant.  Draw near.

Health is stimulated with closeness.  Studies abound that tell us a healthy long-term marriage will go through testing times.  Yet, the ones that hold and develop closeness tend to live longer and happier lives all around.  On the other hand, an unhappy and divisive relationship will shorten our lifespan on earth.

Health is stimulated with closeness to our Father.  Spending time with Him with honest and open communication brings healing to our emotions, thoughts, plans, actions, bodies, and relationships.  We must draw near.

The way is open in Christ through His sacrifice.  Yes, that bloody event of His suffering brought a peace for us with God.  We who were separated by the chasm of a disconnected relationship (sin), became bridged and adopted into a close family tie.  Jesus prayed right before the big event, “Father, let them be one even as we are one.”  His focus was to draw us into an intimate relationship with the Godhead as close as His.  Wow….

No sin, no sickness, no disease, no poverty, no depression, no lack can exist when we are near to the heart of God.  Nothing matters but that relationship.  His presence dissipates  the problems and gets us focused.  Our thoughts become established and focused and sure.  Our actions and words move from the direction of our changed heart.       Our changed heart happens when we draw near to Him.

Be whole.  Be well.  Draw near.

http://youtu.be/QVntGJELnB4 — 3 minute live prayer