IntroductionThe church has found itself in such deep straits because they have not taken God's Word seriously. Jesus told us that we need to teach them 'all that I have commanded you.' We often talk about God's Word generally but not practically. We tell them what God's Word means but not what it means to their lives in particular.
Just think a moment, what have you heard about discipleship in your own church? If you have heard this term, it is most likely only been used in the most basic formation of a Christian's new life. When a person becomes a Christian, then we think about discipleship. The scriptures tell us that this process is done until we have mastered all of Christ's teachings. Biblical Foundations for Freedom recognizes that very little teaching is given to those who are facing real life problems. They are sent off in secret to some psychiatrist so that we as pastors are not ashamed because we do not know what to say to them about their problems.We sense that it is the responsibility of the church elders to be able to cofnidently lead God's people to solutions for their lives. The reason Christians run off to couselors outside the church so quickly is that they have adopted our wrong philosophy that what happens in my life has nothing to do with my relationship with God. This of course is powerfully opposed in scripture. In fact, the scriptures tell us that when people get to think as they now do, then we are backslidden. Our goal is to train you to know how to effectively deal with people with certain problems including this lukewarmness as well as emotional difficulties and physical problems. We might not have all the answers, but we can be trained how to put us in a state where God can pass on His solutions to us and bring specially needed comfort to the people concerned. Let us first go over some of the more basic concepts we need. 1) God is more concerned with helping His people then we are.
2) People's problems are related to their spiritual problems. 3) Spiritual insight comes from praying and fasting before God. 4) Regular meditation in God's Word is needed to hear God. 5) God's people must enter a repentant stage for true healing. 6) Accountability and care in a church is important for God's full healing. 7) All the glory and honor for helping His people must go to God. 1) God is more concerned with helping His people then we are.God is the good shepherd. A brief look at Psalm 23 shows that God has the solutions because He cares for His flock. Different Christians might be under our oversight, but we must remember the larger dynamic, they also are under God's oversight. God has not appointed us separate from Himself, but to work with Him in bringing solutions to the people. This concept frees us from stress, burdens and fears and gives us faith, strength and courage to go to Him for real help from Him. We do not need to show our degrees and boast in our professionalism. They hinder us and them from finding help. Instead we humbly lead them before God so that they have a testimony in the end to give to the Lord.
If our professionalism cloaks our dependence upon God, then why should God answer our prayers?! We serve ourselves rather than Him. We are instead very open to God's help because nothing will be considered done unless He enters the process with us. As priests, we are those that lead others before God. We can be forgotten, but we never want His people to forget the encounter they had with God. From these testimonies of healing, God's people tell others how grreat God is and lead others to trust in Him. 2) People's problems are related to their spiritual problems.Most of the reason people are being passed onto professionals outside the church for counsel is because God's people no longer understand how their personal problems relate to their relationship with God. Just as people do not understand how the troubles of a society are connected to what God is doing with a nation, so it does with a church, a family and with individuals. Secularism has denied any such association and claimed solutions for these problems - at a big cost. They cannot offer any real help though. Those coming out of treatment are sedated with drugs and living in a dumbed-down state of doctor dependence. The scriptures tell us that the way we live and make choices directly affects our relationship with Him. Take a short journey through the Book of Proverbs and see the direct effects of laziness, disobedience to parents, immorality, etc. Actually, the scriptures start off at that point by stating that by sin, death entered the world. And frankly, the more we sin, the quicker we will die. The process of judgment is accelerated. The righteous and obedient ones, however, are promised longer life. Some might say that they know of exceptions. So do I. Some young godly people are taken home early. David Branerd, the early missionary to the American Indians, is loved for his intimacy and passion for God as seen in his journal but his life was taken early on in the thirties. Some wicked people live longer than the righteous. Medicines today are prolonging the lives of those who disobey. This is part of the answer but not the whole. However, the general rule is still true. Wisdom is the connection of life choices with their consequences. Wisdom discerns the best decision in light of all of the different results of varying decisions. Wisdom comes from the fear of the Lord.
3) Spiritual insight comes from praying and fasting before God.God's people need to be in constant dependence on the Lord. The Lord Jesus told the disciples that a certain malady could not be cured because they had not sufficiently prayed and fasted. Praying is the seeking of God's help. It is the asking the Great Almighty God to do something specific in an individual's life. Fasting enables a person to have special focused praying by denying oneself the regular pleasures of life.
Numerous times praying and fasting is combined when seeking special wisdom and healing from God. 4) Regular meditation in God's Word is needed to hear God.The Lord in Joshua 1:8 clearly identifies how Joshua, the new leader of Israel under His own command, will hear God's voice. Victory is promised because He stores God's Word into His mind and thinks on it. As He thinks on it, God spurs him on to the right action. The way God communicates varies, but it most often uses God's Word. I remember once when stumped with this one member who was about to be shipped off to long term institution. The short term hospital staffed with all its psychiatric professionals gave up hope. I cared so much for her and her family. But what could I do? I meditated and prayed. She was in the background of my mind but I had a habit of taking some of my valued afternoon time aside to actually meditate on God's Word. Two passages came into my mind. Messages came from those passages. Then she was connected to those messages. I sensed burdened to tell her those messages. As I went through their secured doors, I told her, though she was duped up with medicine, that God had a message for her. I shared the two passages and she began the quick road to recovery through humbling and repentance. To this day, I was humbled how God spoke to her through my meditation time that one day. 5) God's people must enter a repentant stage for true healing.When a person goes to a psychiatric's office, he probably doesn't know what to expect. He is sure he will not have to repent. That is something you might do when you are confronted by the pastor. What do we really want in our lives? Do we really want healing? What if we have to repent and confess from our sins? Many do not want this. This is why they go on in their stubborn ways and suffer additional pain. God does promise healing but more than often we need to go through a process of confessing and repenting from our sins. Sins are not always the cause of problems, but often are. Nor are we necessarily thinking of what some think as major sins like murder and adultery, but even sins like worry and fears. They all keep us from trusting God wholeheartedly.
Note that the one who is sick should go to the elders of the church and not to the local physician or psychatrist. The phrase "if he has committed sins" is an indication that one who has a physical problem at times also have sin problems that need to be confessed before healing would come. This again reinforces the connection between our life choices and the consequences. If this is true in a physical sense, all the more it is true in an emotional sense which is much more sensitive to unconfessed sin. 6) Accountability and care in a church is important for God's full healing.People like the anonymous nature of seeing somebody they do not know. I believe they secretly know that if they tell someone they know, then they have to get real. So they hide themselves. They can fake it before a psychiatrist. He doesn't really care because he gets paid a good amount of money. But those who serve you in love are more difficult to fake. It would be better not to see them at all. Accountability has the sense of respect for authority that God has put that person in. As long as he stands under that authority, he stands somewhat protected from the evils of society. But when a wife stands apart from her husband, a man to his pastor, then the floodgates are opened and evil can pour in. The church is a body and when she is pure, then she stands well protected by her Lord. But as we see in 1 Corinthians 11, if a church would ignore the Lord's intentions and wander from Him, then the body will suffer sickness and all sorts of problems.
The cure is to confess and go back to the life that they ought to live. This is the spirit that is behind the discipline of a member in 1 Corinthians 5:1-13. The church is responsible to keep herself pure for the Lord.
What are we afraid of unless we have hidden sin? Many of our problems go back to hiding our sin and then pretending we are holy. God hates this and then the Lord allows problems to occur in that individual's life so that he can get clean. 7) All the glory and honor for helping His people must go to God.Pride and secrecy are shields of darkness. Humility and transparency enable a testimony of the Lord to come out and bring honor to the Lord. When others hear of it, God's people start praying and seeking the Lord for a solution. They then upon being answered are all encouraged. The next person with the same problem would be much encouraged to be honest and seek the Lord for cleansing. I remember one couple who committed fornication. She was expecting a child because of it. They were related to others and so it made everything more complicated. We know they had to make some important life decisions as they weighed abortion to confession. In the end, they listened to God's Word and kept the baby. They went to the whole congregation and announced their sin and shame, but also the cleansing of the Lord and inward peace. The congregation then could naturally receive them. Hidden sin is devious and never results in good decisions.
Biblical Foundations for Freedom
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