1. What is inner healing?
2 Peter 1:4
Through this he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused be evil desires.
*Uniqueness of human memory and its influence on thinking*
2. A wounded heart cannot be seen- yet it affects our lives
First: difficulties in human relationships
-----either too controlling or too dependent.
What does the Bible say about the human relationship?
Secondly: Lack of self-esteem
Thirdly: negative words and attitudes on life
Forth: depressions and obsession
Psalm 32:1-5
Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit has no deceit.
When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long,
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD” and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
Fifth: lack of assurance on God’s love
Psalm 119:18
Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.
Sixth: the reality of irregular spiritual life
3. Painful memories from the wounded heart builds distorted character.
Amos 5:19
It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him.
*Why do bad, unhealed memories help build a bad character?*
4. Why can only Jesus heal our heart?
* Four parts of human character*
First: what I know and what others know
Second: what I know, but others do not know
Third: what I don’t know, but others know.
Fourth: what neither I , nor others know
5.Why did Jesus come to this world?
Matthew 9:12-13
On hearing this, Jesus said, “ It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’
Isaiah 61:1-3
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.
1. What is inner healing?
In a broad sense, inner healing means a work of the Holy Spirit throughout a Christian’s whole life.
It is a process of becoming holy through learning about God. It is the Work of the Holy Spirit to heal the whole person.
The perfect Salvation means we become like Jesus; be one of God’s characters.
2 Peter 1:4
Through this he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused be evil desires.
Since we are fallen from the glory of God (corrupted), to participate in God’s divine nature, we need to first heal and then mature.
*Uniqueness of human memory and its influence on thinking*
The Human brain stores all our memory just like how the computer does. Direct or indirect experiences are stored in the conscious level first, and as time goes by most of our memories seem to be lost. However, they went down a deeper level of consciousness and even further down to the sub-conscious level. During this process, the human brain not only keeps the facts about the experiences but also stores the feeling attached to those experiences. Therefore, particular incidents, especially associated with deeply scarring incidents, are stored in the mind with the feeling of pain.
The problem is, these feelings never disappear no matter how much time passes. It is as if a live virus affects other parts of the mind and is transformed into a totally different form, consequently creating bad influences.
The Holy Spirit knows that these malign feelings rooted in our hearts should be removed. The Holy Spirit wants to get rid of it down to the roots.
2. A wounded heart cannot not be seen- yet it affects our lives
First: difficulties in human relationships
The most common symptom of an unhealthy mind is having difficulty in human relationships. They demonstrate two extreme attitudes: either too controlling or too dependent.
For controllers: they try to control and interfere in every situation, like they are a king. They feel safe as long as they can interfere in situations. If this type of person becomes a father, he makes the whole household follow his view and won’t consider any other views from the family members. If children express their own opinion, the father interprets their actions as a rebellion and wouldn’t allow them to think or behave differently.
For dependents: They do not have their own views or ideas. When they are young, they simply follow their parents’ will. Later on, they copy their friends. After they get married, they just obey their spouse passively. If they feel disappointed to their spouse, they fall into a deep despair and feelings of hopelessness. So they have to find someone else to depend on. Even so, they feel afraid and cannot fully trust the person they are depending on.
What does the Bible say about the human relationship?
Consider others better than yourselves. Serve others. Love one another. Tolerate others.
Secondly: Lack of self-esteem
Some people have very low self-esteem. Others, on the contrary, might have a very arrogant attitude. They have a very critical attitude towards others and anyone who seems better than themselves; they even try to find proof that will damage their reputation. And they try so hard to prove themselves to others. And if others show the slightest indifferences to them, they immediately react and say, “You are insulting me”.
Thirdly: negative words and attitudes on life
They never stop blaming others, parents, or circumstances for their life’s misery. They acknowledge God as unfair and unloving. Their hidden anger could be released as cruelty.
Forth: depressions and obsession
Without any particular reason, they are feeling helpless. However, this is certainly a causal relationship.(cause and effect) Obsessive thinking gets worse when you are emotionally weak. If you get weak emotionally, you are consuming lots of energy on your nerves. What causes you to work so hard emotionally? That is guilty conscious. The Bible clearly shows how painful it is when we are filled with guilt.
Psalm 32:1-5
Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit has no deceit.
When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long,
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD” and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
In the end, they become unable to do social activities.
Five: lack of assurance on God’s love
Since their view on God is distorted, unless their view is restored properly, they cannot understand God’s image as it is. They can talk a lot about God, but deep down inside their heart, they have very negative image on God. They understand God as inconsistent, controlling, giving people hardships, enjoying people suffering, cruel, angry at me, resenting a failure like me……etc. This kind of hidden feeling about God result in doubt and spiritual weakness.
Even though they are filled with such negative thoughts about God deep inside their mind, they still try to brain wash themselves. They force themselves to think about all the nice words about God and believe that is the act of faith (religion).
Human feeling is very honest. You cannot be brain washed. Good feelings flowing out from a good relationships.
Positive feelings towards God follow naturally from the healthy relationships with Him. If you have bad feelings about God deep inside you, no matter how hard you try to learn the knowledge of God’s love, it won’t help much. You got to have the right eyes of heart first. Thus, the psalmist prayed like this.
Psalm 119:18
Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.
Six: the reality of irregular spiritual life
Since there are no strong assurances on personal relationships with God, faith moves up and down according to the circumstances. After so many years living as a Christians, when they face the difficulties in life they doubt the very basics. Does God really exist? Does God really love me? …etc.
Always suffering from the conflict. They know God’s grace, yet it doesn’t grow in them.
3. Painful memories from the wounded heart builds distorted character.
Our present character is the product of experiences and its effects we had throughout the whole life. People say, “Personality doesn’t change”. But we must distinguish “nature” and “character(personality)”.
Nature comes from God and each individual has his own nature. That is why people can work harmoniously among others. But character is our own product. If you have a bad character, that is totally your responsibility. We must correct it. We will have to have right attitudes to do the right action and live a right life in the end.
Wrong character could destroy his whole life in any critical moment.
Amos 5:19
It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him.
The Bible(Amos) shows well a man’s journey of life. He was a very wise person. He met a lion in the street but somehow escaped it and went home safely. But he was bitten by the snake which was hiding in his house and living there.
We are facing various hardships as if bears and lions during our lifetimes. If you overcome all these obstacles well with wisdom and strength, you are recognized as a successful person. But even this successful person has something which he cannot escape from. That is the snake hidden inside the wall. What does that mean? The wall stands for the human heart. The wall should be built well with bricks. If there is a hole, a snake can sneak in. When we are unexpected, or having a weak moment, the snake which was living there comes out and bites us. So we can never escape from the attack. The broken wall signifies bad parts in one’s character. Our character is not perfectly healthy because of wounds and sins of our heart and it makes “weak points in our hearts of wall”. That is where the devil sneaks in and works. When our character stands firmly with the truth of Jesus, the devil has no ground to hold on to. But if we allow weak point in us, even though we clean out the devil, they can use our weak point whenever they want to and destroy our life.
*Why do bad, unhealed memories help to build the bad character?*
Unhealed pain brings forth another pain and it gets bigger and bigger and become a person’s character. Distorted character from the wounded heart is leading our whole life to the wrong path and when we face a critical moment during our life, distorted character can be a main cause of destroying a life totally.
When we try to get rid of bad thoughts, memories, or wishes, they get even stronger. The bad memories cannot enter directly to our consciousness, so it disguises itself and comes inside us destructively. Such painful memory is hidden deeply in consciousness and reveals itself as physical sickness, unhappy marriage or spiritual despair. Therefore, it is very important to find out such destroying memories in us and heal them.
Our character can be renewed and changed in God, with God’s love, by the power of Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit promised to make us to “participate in divine nature”. It is definitely necessary for our character to become like Jesus for true salvation.
4. Why only Jesus can heal our heart?
* four parts of human character*
First: what I know and just like what others know
We always try hard to improve ourselves on this part. After receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior, we can be changed mostly in this area.
Second: what I know, but others do not know
We secretly pray to God about this part and try to change ourselves.
We might think this is all there is of our heart.
Third: what I don’t know, but others know.
If you have a faithful friend, they will point this part out to you and you might have a willingness to change it and actually can improve it. But if you are full of pride, no one will dare to talk to you about this part. No one wants to give advice to the arrogant person.
Fourth: what neither I , nor others know
In general, this is the biggest part. Psychologists say more than 70% of the human mind is the subconscious. You could deduce that our subconscious then affects us the most. While we become mature in faith, this area becomes less and less because the character of Jesus replace this part of the mind more and more.
Our subconscious begins to form itself while we are inside the mother’s womb. People say the deepest place in the world is the human heart. It contains everything like the biggest ocean. Even though it is my own heart, I do not know what I have in it. The ocean looks like nothing but calm waves, yet it contains everything from the rivers of the entire world, right from the beginning of the creation up until now. It contains much more than the land can hold. Shipwrecks from hundreds of years ago are still there rotting away, as unknown as the depths of our subconscious. .
The psychiatrist might know the human’s inner being, but he cannot suggest the cure.
Psychiatric remedy: electrical shock. (Disgraced and ineffective) Experiment on Chimpanzee: cut out part of brain to reduce violence. But when it is applied to human, cause much worse side effect.
5.Why did Jesus come to this world?
Matthew 9:12-13
On hearing this, Jesus said, “ It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’
Isaiah 61:1-3
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.
Look upon Jesus who heals your broken heart before the healing of physical sickness. Wounded heart bring forth physical sickness.
Turn from the arrogance that you know everything about yourself. Look upon Lord Jesus, try to meet him personally. Then your spiritual eyes may open and God’s grace will be poured on you.
