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REVIEW & FURTHER APPLICATIONS

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Some people have had incredibly debilitating experiences in their lives. With some, their affliction is gigantic and far-reaching, permeating every aspect of their life with an overwhelming darkness that becomes so all encompassing that it seems to neutralize many aspects of the new birth. When I compare my life to some of the people I've met I basically feel that I had a very sheltered and blessed upbringing. We get to the places where we are in our lives because of a lot of different reasons. However, through the new birth in Jesus Christ we have a way to start all thing anew and receive redemption and healing from the hindrances and chains that have held us back.


MAKING PROGRESS DOWN THE TRANSFORMATION ROAD

I believe there's a transformation road for each one of you to travel in Christ. It's the path that God prepared for you to go all the way to a compete transformation. But how many Christians stop or get waylaid along the way before they reach their final transformational destination? Perhaps they break down on the road. Or they're too loaded down with old baggage to go on. Or they're intimidated into stopping by resistance that stands boldly against them, blocking their way forward. Maybe they've chained themselves to gigantic blockages such as addiction. They are confused, frustrated and confounded. Some may stop where they are and live out the rest of their life without further significant change. They've seen others go a lot farther but they seem to be permanently stuck.


HELP, NOT CONDEMNATION

This class has not been about condemning people for their lack of progress, but rather, sincerely, genuinely, thoroughly and sometimes heroically wading into their lives with some proven chain cutters or some healing balm, whichever is required; and releasing them to move forward again. And it's also about seeing the same accomplished in your own life. We need God's anointed servants to show up on the transformation road with some holy bulldozers and tow trucks to get people going again and back on the road.


"ALL THINGS BECOME NEW"

A local church sign near here reads: "God can make all things new… even you". The Bible says: "If any man be in Christ he is a new creation, behold all things become new" — 2CO 5:17. Can you picture the finished person God intends you to be? For all of us there are still areas that need processing and actualized transformation.

The soul of man is referred to in Greek as the "psuche"; which means our life, soul or spiritual part in contrast to our material body. It's the seat of our desires, feelings, passions, appetites, and emotions. Jesus came to fully and completely save and transform our souls; as the scripture says "May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" — 1TH 5:23 NASB.


TWO COMMON TRANSFORMATION ROAD HAZARDS

1. A Lack of Shepherding and Discipleship: I have a concern about the modern church; that in our zeal to convert the entire world we've gotten haphazard and careless about truly shepherding the flock. There can be a tendency to deal with people superficially without really giving them what they need to overcome in their lives.
2. Willful and Stubborn Ignorance: Some people just don't care to put any effort into growing in their Christian lives. You can bring a horse to water but you can't force it to drink. This is true with Living Water as well. Jesus said to the Pharisees in John 8:43: "Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say." I think the Pharisees participated in a willful ignorance and a stopping up of their ears to the truth that stood right before them.

HOPE FOR THOSE WHO ARE READY TO CHANGE

This has been a class for those who are honest or frustrated enough to look at their own lives and ask some tough questions. You sincerely want all that God has for you. And perhaps you want to help your friends walk out of their darkness and oppression. These are not things that can be codified and formulated to a standard handling… however; there are similar aspects that you will commonly encounter on a regular basis as well as major principles for spiritual warfare and inner healing.

"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." — 2 Cor 3:18 NASB. If you continue to say yes to God, He will lead you on a progressive path of revelation regarding specific personal aspects of your journey on the transformation road.


COURAGE TO MOVE FORWARD

At some junctures you may have to take radical actions to keep moving forward. Perhaps you are so dependent upon someone's approval that you are not free to say yes or no of your own accord. If that is so you need to become rooted enough in the Fathers approval and love that you can say no to that person. It is not your job to keep everyone in this world happy by kowtowing to their every demand. He who the Son sets free is “free indeed”. You are not free when you are being regularly forced into doing something that is against your will. You need to be released from unrealistic expectations placed upon you by other people, which are also a form of oppression. We need to have the courage to fight these battles by severing co-dependencies and establishing healthy boundaries for our individual personhood under God. The process of the dismantling of these things will shake things up in your life and is often much easier said than done. But embedded dysfunctional coping systems, which are really strongholds, need to be torn down and demolished.

God is faithful and will make it clear and continue to confirm, reassure and give grace to fill you with the courage to take that next step or cross that bridge or make that turn. So many of us are averse to change. God knows all these things and he knows that we are like the flowering grass and cannot withstand too much so he handles us delicately and with gloves of tenderness to guide us into our right paths and pastures. Ultimately, He is our good shepherd. We want to fully and completely belong to God with Him ruling on the throne of our hearts in all areas. “…You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." — Mat 22:37b NASB. Jesus declared this to be the greatest commandment.


THE SERVICES DEMONS PERFORM

We need to be spiritually discerning enough to know what is driving us as well as what is driving those who have an impact on our lives. The Lord means to cause you to be aware and sensitive, and to recognize potential strongholds. And also to recognize when a disruptive or harassing or other type of spirit is invisibly at work.

I once had a boss in the printing industry who was sometimes tyrannical. A rage could rise up in him that was very extreme. He was a muscular and intimidating looking man as well. Those around him tried to just keep him happy. I imagine at some point in his life he realized: "Oh look! I can control people and situations with this anger!" Perhaps he learned it from his father. The scripture tells us "He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, And he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city." — Pro 16:32 NASB. So we see that something else is at work here and sometimes it's a spirit of rage, which can be used to bully and control people through fear and intimidation.

Many people tacitly permit dark spirits to operate in their lives because the spirits provide services for them. There can be an unholy and unconscious partnership and synergy between the person and the spirit. Like Ahab and Jezebel: Ahab wanted a field. Jezebel did the dirty work to get the field and had Ahab’s neighbor murdered in the process. We see that sometimes, the spirit is accomplishing something for the person. Some are protectors that rise up to surround a wounded area so that genuine healing from God cannot take place. Many people are content to obtain dark spiritual services. It could be a spirit of anger, intimidation, lust, or harassment. But spirits always exact a precious cost in the long run and they are linked to physical illness as well.


CAN A CHRISTIAN HAVE A DEMON?

I want to establish by the following scriptures, that deliverance is principally for believers rather than non-believers. In the district of Tyre and Sidon Jesus encountered a Canaanite woman asking Him to heal her daughter who was “cruelly demon possessed”. "But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs." — Matt 15:23-28 (excerpts). This woman was not a Jew. These scriptures illustrate that the ministry of deliverance was meant for those in covenant with God. In Matthew 12:43-45 Jesus says "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation." — (KJV). By this passage we see that it can actually be counter-productive and dangerous to cast a spirit out of an unsaved person.

In the account recorded in Luke 13:10-16, Jesus encountered a woman in the Hebrew synagogue: “And there was a woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent double, and could not straighten up at all.” When Jesus was rebuked by the synagogue official for healing her on the Sabbath he responded: “And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years, should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day?” By this we can see that she was clearly referred to as one under the covenant of God as “a daughter of Abraham”. Greatbiblestudy.com has a very succinct teaching on this subject.


CLASS SUMMARY

In Lesson 1 we considered the overall subject of Removing Blockages to Transformation and the problem of so many Christians who find themselves stymied in the progression of their Christian transformation.

In Lesson 2 we looked at various forms of Emotional Oppression and its effects in hindering or stopping the Christian maturing process.

Lesson 3 was studying Spiritual Oppression; it’s reality and nature as a transformational blockage.

Lesson 4 explored Removing Emotional Blockages through inner healing in its various forms.

Lesson 5 looked at Removing Spiritual Blockages through Personal Spiritual Warfare.

In Lesson 6 we are looking at further Applications, Review and Conclusions.


SOME CAUTIONS

Following are some things to carefully avoid that can be a wrong interpretation or a misapplication of what I have communicated in “Removing Blockages to Transformation”:

1. The "Omni-Devil": It is a big mistake to consider the Devil as big and powerful as God in your thinking. Colossians 2:15 says that Jesus, through the cross: “… spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them…” —KJV.
2. Self-Obsession: On the one hand, the Christian life is about others, NOT you. There is an "it's all about me" consumer mentality that is present in the church today. We must realize that we are not personally the center of the universe. Our worldview and life-view must be Christ-centered. On the other hand, YOU alone are the one responsible to choose to submit yourself to transformation… so in that sense it IS about you when it comes to removing blockages to transformation.
3. Blame-shifting Excuses: "It’s not my fault because the devil made me do it." This is a strong delusional scheme that the enemy would love for you to get bogged down in. It's a way of losing a balanced biblical perspective regarding spiritual warfare. This teaching is not meant to take the onus of blame off the individual. Many have been tempted through their own disobedience or lusts to become involved in sin and thereby been drawn into powerful and destructive bondages with no one to blame but themselves.
4. Self-Pity: You may find those who have had the same problem all their life, and yet when you try to touch that area you quickly find out they don't really want to change. They often only want attention, and have no intention of taking responsibility for themselves and try to figure out the reason why they're stuck. With some, their affliction has become their closest friend and their identity is tied up in it. Such a person does not need our pity. They need the right scriptural medicine and they need to be willing to take it, and swallow it, and be able to digest it. They have to take ownership of their own Christian life.

COMMON CHALLENGES FOR ALL BELIEVERS

Removing Blockages to Transformation is for those who are willing to bear the scrutiny of the Word as applied to their whole self: spirit, soul, body, mind, will, and emotions. We need to understand that these are common challenges encountered by anyone who wants to grow in Christ. This class has been an equipping tool to help you begin to accomplish this process in your life. If you earnestly continue down this path it can lead you to a place of continual living water: “And the Lord will continually guide you, And satisfy your desire in scorched places, And give strength to your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail" — Isaiah 58:9-11.

I believe that deliverance and inner healing should be commonplace aspects of normal Christian ministry, not something that we are embarrassed about and attempting to hide. Many are in dire need of this type of help. The church should be a clinic where those who are bound up and confounded in their lives with various a sundry oppressions can receive ministry that can set them free in deed and not just in word.


GETTING IN POSITION TO HELP

Long ago up north, I was driving home from school through an icy snowstorm. Coming over the crest of a hill, I started down the incline where I would turn right onto my street. To my alarm, I saw a multiple car pileup at the bottom of the hill. Trying to avoid joining the pileup I turned the steering wheel to the right but because of the momentum and lack of traction, my car didn't respond, and began to slide down the hill toward the crash scene at the bottom. Somehow I coaxed the car to the right-hand curb and brought it to a halt using the curb as a wheel block. Shortly thereafter another car came over the crest of hill. This one used my rear bumper as a parking stanchion to halt their descent. About this time my little brother ran up to me, so I sent him over the crest of the hill to stop more cars from joining the "carnage". He bolstered his young courage and became a 14-year-old traffic cop, keeping any other cars from becoming part of the crash site.

I relate this personal experience as a type and illustration of what the church should be doing – taking the initiative to juxtaposition itself in the path of a culture that is careening toward the ramp of destruction at full speed. We should not be blithely watching human vehicles slide helplessly to their demise because of the mass and momentum of their emotional tonnage. We should care enough about the suffering people around us to step out of the vehicle of our lives and interpose ourselves into their path if necessary to head off their destruction. For this to genuinely happen in the body of Christ there will need to be a great an increase of the implementation of the various types of ministry we have looked at through this course.

 

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