You get really sick. What do you need to become whole and stay whole? You may need to visit the emergency room for some urgent help right now! Perhaps you need some time in the hospital getting surgery or IV medications. You may need some physical therapy to get your strength back. You may need to change your lifestyle so you don’t get sick again. And you’ll need follow-up visits with your doctor for check-ups and prescription refills.
Likewise with your soul. Without God’s miraculous intervention we would be sunk! We need His emergency room when overwhelming troubles come, or His operating room, where He goes under the surface and deals with the roots of our stuff. We need connections with others to help us gain strength and encouragement. Certainly we need to learn to live differently as followers of Jesus. And we need ongoing check-ups and prescriptions from the Holy Spirit and other Christian helpers to maintain wellbeing and continue to grow.
If you want to experience the fulness of what God has for you, you can’t ignore any of these five areas.
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God’s Emergency Room
Stuff happens. You do something that’s really destructive and get a “wake-up call.” You experience a tragedy such as the loss of a loved one or dramatic disruption in some area of your life. An attack from the enemy leaves you internally broken and bleeding. Sometimes just the ongoing onslaught of pressure and opposition becomes overwhelming and you reach the breaking point.
And you end up in God’s ER.
God can show up in amazing ways. You may have your own version of a Damascus Road experience. (Acts 8) Others intercede with God for you, like the church did when Peter was about to be killed. (Acts 12:5) You deploy your spiritual weapons. Something like miraculous deliverance happens. Thank God!
However, as critically helpful as such events are, like most emergency room visits that’s usually only one scene in the story of what God needs and wants to do in you.
Along these lines, one of the things I do is one-on-one coaching. Let me know if I can help in this way.
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God’s Operating Room/Hospital
You almost certainly didn’t come to this point of needing help “cold.” There’s a history behind why you are where you are. You learned things from your family of origin. It’s likely you experienced wounds, trauma, abuse, rejection. You made agreements with the enemy as he leveraged the “stuff” you experienced. You continue to sabotage your own wellbeing.
And the only way to get any better is to get under the surface and allow Jesus to do His healing work deep in your soul.
During Joseph’s time in prison or David’s time hiding out in the wilderness God did work in them to prepare them for their eventual time of leadership. Saul/Paul spent three years alone with God in the desert after his conversion. (Galatians 1:17-18.) God’s most enduring, deep, and important work usually takes time.
Don’t discount the miracle of what God is working out in your soul just because it’s taking time. Healing is a choice. Your soul needs something deep and lasting, and that doesn’t happen in one moment.
Our Powerful Breakthrough Prayers online course will help you take the next steps in that process.
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God’s Plan for Supporting You
God didn’t design you to be in isolation; He designed you to be connected with others to support, encourage, stimulate, and help you. He designed you to grow in community. There are things you can only experience through connecting with others.
A physical therapist (or other therapist) cannot do your work for you. But you need them to help you know what to do, provide you feedback, and help you actually do it.
Similarly, other believers cannot do your fighting, growing, healing for you. But you absolutely need “people fuel” to grow and thrive. Some people tear you down; you may need to walk away. Others build you up; invest significant energy in staying connected with them.
Moses had Aaron and Hur to hold up his hands. (Exodus 17:12) Jesus sent out His disciples two by two. (Luke 10:1) He designed His church to be a place where believers help each other grow. (Ephesians 4:16) Sure, it’s messy! But don’t think you can get “there” without being connected.
Our Fully Alive Group online community is one place to get ongoing input and connection.
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God’s New Lifestyle for You
If you ended up in the emergency room with a heart attack, and perhaps were in the hospital for a season, you’re likely to end up in the same place again six months from now unless you make some serious changes in your lifestyle.
God’s forgiveness is real and all-inclusive. Hallelujah! But if you want a better future, you’ll have to leave your life of sin. Jesus said as much repeatedly. (John 5:14, 8:11) Your behavior will have to change. You will have to grow up. (Ephesians 4:14-15)
Following Jesus is not about going to church on the weekend; it’s about a totally new lifestyle. How you care for your body, what you do with your time and your money, how you relate to other people, how you handle your sexuality, what you invest your energy in, the entertainment you engage in – everything is different.
That doesn’t happen in an instant. It’s not about “trying harder;” it’s about learning to follow Jesus in every way.
Our estore has a number of resources that can help you dig deeper into some of the new lifestyle factors God may be calling you to.
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God’s Outpatient Department
We get affected by the world around us, contaminated in a way. Our own sin nature isn’t yet eliminated. And we are still in a world at war. Until Jesus returns we will need ongoing “medical care” in God’s outpatient department.
Through ongoing growth and care you learn the clues to when you are under spiritual attack. Your attachment to God and to His people deepens. You become actually useful! (And isn’t that a miracle, knowing where you’ve been?)
Periodically the Holy Spirit will put His finger on something in your life and say, “This right here; it needs to change!” And you say, Yes! If you allow Him to do His work in you, He will continue to change you from the inside out until every single aspect of your life is looking like Jesus.
There will be things you continue to learn, “prescriptions” you “take,” rhythms of taking in and giving out. You become a bright advertisement for the kingdom of God.
Our Fully Alive Group online community is one place to get ongoing “prescriptions,” checkups, and support.
So it’s all needed. It’s all worth it. And it’s all part of God’s plan to have you fully restored to who He originally designed you to be.
And how glorious is that?!
Your Turn: Have you been taking full advantage of God’s plan for you to become whole and stay whole? Which of these areas have you tended to rely on most? Which do you need to engage in now? Leave a comment below.
Tweetables: why not share this post?
- God’s plan for you to become whole and stay whole is broad and deep. Like a healthcare system, you need to take advantage of God’s ER, hospital, therapy programs, support, and outpatient department. It’s all important. Tweet that.
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