The world is full of pain and very few of us have been trained on how to deal with it in a Godly way. We all have experienced pain and much of our pain is heart breaking. The psalmist tells us that, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18). While we know this is the truth, there seems to be so few that are truly comforted by this reality. Pain accumulates over time when left undealt with which leads to many mental, emotion, spiritual, and relational problems. It is essential that we be honest before the Lord with our pain in order to be truly healed and restored.
In John 5, Jesus walks into an environment with a multitude of invalids that are blind, lame, and paralyzed. There was a man that had been sick for 38 years that Jesus approached and asked, “Do you want to be healed?” (John 5:6). What a fascinating question to ask a sick person. Was Jesus being insensitive and lacking compassion? On the contrary, Jesus knew something about healing that he was wanting to teach this man and us. Jesus wanted to hear from the man’s own lips that he was READY and WILLING to be changed. The great theologian William Barclay notes, “Jesus is establishing that the first step toward wholeness is always deep desire for it.” In the spiritual realm man’s great problem is that either he does not recognize he is sick or he does not want to be cured.
It is key to understand that healing is more than an act of God. It is a partnership that we enter into. I believe Jesus would ask each of us, “Are you ready to put your sickness behind you? Do you want to be healed?” Reading through the Word, I never see Jesus heal a person against their will. He wanted them to participate in the process. “And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight” (Mark 10:51). We have a part to play in our healing.
I believe there is something prophetic about how we have all been given eyes on the front of our face to look forward and have not been given eyes on the back of our heads to be meditating on our past. Whatever has our attention will have control over our lives. I believe Jesus knew this when He inspired Paul to write, “…seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:1-2). Paul tells us to diligently, actively, with single-mindedness to fix our mind on heavenly things.
The enemy of our soul loves to bind us in regret and condemnation. He is very interested in causing us to look back like Lot’s wife. Remember the angel of the Lord warned Lot and his wife to not look back? “But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” (Genesis 19:26). I believe this is a prophetic picture of what happens to us when we are living in regret and condemnation. We become dehydrated and lifeless. I believe therefore we are warned in Luke 17:32 to, “Remember Lot’s wife!” The kingdom is about fixing our focused attention on what is ahead and not behind.
Regret and condemnation simply means that it is about my past. Restoration means it’s about my future. The blood of Jesus is the most powerful cleansing agent in the universe. Nothing that you and I have ever done is more powerful than Jesus. You can undo anything that you have done or the devil has done. The key is that you must stop looking back.
Regret simply says, “I wish I wouldn’t have gotten out of that marriage, or I wish I wouldn’t have made that financial decision, or I wish I wouldn’t have gotten that abortion.” It is filled with wishing we could go back and change the past. It is when we turn to Jesus with our past that we receive refreshing in our time of need. We all wish things but God is able to make all things work together for the good of those who love him. God can take your worst mistakes and use that scar to bring healing to thousands of people. But not when you’re looking back. God’s not going to go back with you but he will go forward with you.
Grace is the most powerful cleansing reality this world will ever know. The blood of Jesus is enough to take my sins and pour out forgiveness as I lay them before him in confession and repentance. I choose to live by grace and not condemnation. “Therefore, anyone who is in Christ Jesus is a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 5:17, 8;1-2). This is the truth from the mouth of a former Christian killer, Paul.
Choose this day to not allow the enemy to define you by your past failures and sin. Take them to Jesus and receive times of refreshing by His grace. Pray, “Lord, I will no longer be defined by my past. I bind the spirit of condemnation and regret and command it to leave me in the name of Jesus. Lord I pray that from this day forward my eyes would be focused on where you are taking me. I declare that I am gifted, called by God, and anointed for the purposes of God. Lord, I simply tell the you, I want to be made well. In the name of Jesus, Amen.”