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Writer's pictureHCJC Ministries
Feb 16, 202110 min read

Spiritual Injury, February 15, 2021

With: Pastor Jeff


We are going to cover a lot of ground and some hard topics tonight. But these are important things for context. Ultimately we need to look at ourselves and our own spiritual injuries. We need to know how to pray and ask for understanding, how to track that back to the injury, and how to address it with the Holy Spirit's help. The evil one is on the attack because you are made in the image of God. If you are a beliver he works harder to tempt and defile you because you *should* know better.


Those that don't fall into wicked thinking and get hurt too. If we are going to take the Gospel of Christ Jesus to them, we need to deal with ourselves first, get prepared, and be willing to serve Jesus the way He want's us to serve His Kingdom. All too often people in their self-righteouseness end up creating further injury and separation from God.


11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake (to who?) to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15 For it is God’s will (who's will? God's will) that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.


Okay.... Let's grit our teeth and tackle all of this together.


Jump off Video:

by: A & Ω Productions

Watch the whole thing later. We will go to 7:44.


"Keep your behavior excellent, because that's evidence that you are in the Kingdom." (From our kickoff video 20:50 - 20:07).


Our Participation in This Context

We are warriors. But we have injuries. Our enemy follows no rules, and holds no punches. At lest, the punches that aren't restrained by the Lord.


Before we were warriros, we've received injuries. We were created in the image of God, and the evil one hates us.


When you received Jesus the intensity ramped up. A new believer is a baby believer. Paul describes us as such, and explains that we have a love for the milk (1 Corinthians 3:2). But the enemy is patient and clever. Eventually, your enthusiasm waned, and opportunities to tempt came.


The worst day for a believer is when they have the desire to sin, an opportunity to sin, and believe they won't be caught.


The problem is that God sees all sin, which is separation from Him, and dishonors Him. But the sin injurs us further.


When we are in rebellious sin, the enemy will do all they can to to exacerbate that injures. It is like having a cut, and the enemy keeps pushing and grinding their finger in that wound. It's infected, and the wound grows.


How do you know you are rebellious sin? Because it is a struggle to control. The enemy pushes on your injury, and you respond in a way to stop the pain. So you sin. And you sin again.


You think you have a sin problem, but really you have a spiritual injury that needs to heal. Let's do a quick overview of how the enemy uses sin.

 

Types of Sin

43 “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. 45 Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”


The following table comes from teaching I received from Pastor Fred Harbor. I'm not going to do a deep dive on this specifically, but I want you to notice three things:

1) There are probably a lot more sin areas the enemy uses than we normally think about.

2) These sins attack through different parts of who we are.

3) These sins work together, for instance: Lewdness (emotion) with contention (will) and wrath (mind). There are many more combinations, but what Scripture says in Matthew 12:43-45 describes one way that this happens:



Sin Enters the Flesh

Sin enters our flesh through our eye and ear gates. Things also enter the flesh through the senses like touch, smell, and the primary senses. The flesh is vulnerable to these attacks.


In Matthew 5:29 Jesus said:

"If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell."


The goal of sin is to divide us from God. It gets into our flesh and sears our soul. A calloused soul is not sensitive to the Holy Spirit. We need to pray to the Holy Spirit and ask Him to soften our soul, and invite Him to help us understand our sin, address it, and teach us His ways.


Sin Exacerbated

Sin exacerbates itself. It is malignant, and we need to address it.


We have additional things that can manipulate and exacerbate the levels of sin within us. Things like our secondary senses of balance, time, spacial relationships, and perspective for instance. Another thing the enemy uses to manipulate us is our imagination, dreams, visions for the future, desires, and so on.


Once a spiritual wound exists, the enemy will work hard to develop a stronghold within us, and will use us against ourselves. Don't allow the enemy to pit you against yourself. This is exactly the case when we fall into rebellious recurring sin.


A memorable teaching for me was from Pastor Larry Matteson, who explained why we are ourselves the person we believe the most. It is because:


A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.


We believe what we hear. If we speak the truth of God, we hear it from ourselves. The mouth speaks what the heart believes. The ears hear it, and our mind is convinced. This programs our heart, and our mouth speaks what the heart believes. Repeat the cycle, and we are responsible for programming ourselves.


If a person is full of lies, "self truth," or anything false. As they speak it out, they follow this cycle, but the effect is to believe that which is untrue.


Things we speak, or are spoken over us are important. God changed Abram's name to Abraham, meaning "father of many nations" when he was 99 years old. This sounds ridiculous for a 99 year old man, but four generations later the nation of Israel was a multitude. Speaking "father of many nations" over Abraham was critical, because it spoke into this world God's promise.


If we allow the enemy to have control of our tongue, he will use it to speak the kingdom of evil. James 3:8 reads, "but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison."

 

Who Is Your Father?

The Bible tells us that we are in a war that takes place in our mind. The evil one isn't holding anything back. In addition to actually taking someone's life (Genesis 4:5 "...Cain was very angry..." 4:8 "Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.), we murder with our anger (James 1:19-20 "The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God." Matthew 5:22 "But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister[b][c] will be subject to judgment.), insults (Matthew 5:22 "Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’[An Aramaic term of contempt] is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell."), and hatred (1 John 3:15 "Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.").


I'm not saying there is a one size fits all solution, or that we just need to institutionalize people. But I am saying that we are all injured, and we all need the love of Christ Jesus.


HEY!

Before you can deal with other people, YOU have to go to the LORD and deal with YOUR OWN spiritual injuries.

  • When Jesus came to you in your need, was he gentile? Was he kind?

  • The ONLY outreach where Jesus was hard was with the religious leaders of the day.

  • If you think your calling is to attack the leadership of the land, you better be steeped in outreach to the lost FIRST.

  • If the Lord isn't giving you open opportunities to the leaders of the movements, you need to stop and understand that Jesus had a Godly anger. If you don't have that, then leave that fight to Him.

The Point Here is that we are all injured. Extend some grace and mercy to others the way Jesus did with you.


People who are consumed with the lies of the enemy are in spiritual poverty.

Proverbs 14:31: Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.


Matthew 5:3: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Note that Jesus is talking to people who are living in an apostate, defiled, sinful, defiled condition. And when they take the step to receive the free gift of God's salvation through Jesus, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. God wants to reconcile with all people.


Our charter to go preach the Gospel of Christ Jesus is important. But if we are destroyed by sin, we will not be effective the way Jesus wants us to be. When we follow His example, our words come with a kind of truth that is His Truth that chastises the world.

 

Diagnosing OUR OWN Spiritual Injury

I've inadvertently come across some really good teaching lately - which for me tells me that it is:

1) from the Holy Spirit, because

2) it is an answer to my own prayers, and

3) I'd like to share it with you because I think we can all benefit from this.


Ask yourself things like:

  • Where do I struggle?

  • Is it more about me and less about other people?

  • What happens when I don't respond in love?

  • Am I righteous, or have I become self righteous?

  • Are you responding to people with kindness and humility?

  • Do you demonstrate the character of Jesus developed in you?

You may have a spiritual injury if you are demonstrating behaviors that are:

  • Sinful (separate you from God - miss the mark)

  • Rebellious transgressions (openly defiant to God)

  • Iniquity (comfort with and intentionally anti-God, has become part of who you are / your character)

The Holy Spirit can help. It may be another cause, but if you are not sure why it is hard to deal with a recurring sin the reason for that may be a spiritual injury in your past that has not healed yet. The Holy Spirit is your Paraclete, and can help you.


Treating Spiritual Injury

We need to deal with our spiritual injuries first. Jesus has a plan to heal and restore us. That may be something that takes time, and may go on for a long time. Work with Him to build you up through edification.


I recommend a study on Spiritual Armour. I capitalize titles like these because they are divine, coming to us from our Heavenly Father. Notice that all of the Armor is defensive, with the exception of the Word of God, which is our sword. Look at how Jesus employed this in the desert, taking on the satan directly. Jesus is our example.

Personally, I've found the following useful:

  1. Ask Jesus: Express a desire, despite your condition, to heal and grow in Him.

  2. Consider Your Rebellion in Sin: It's like an audit revealing a paper trail going back to the spiritual injury.

  3. Ask the Holy Spirit: He gave me divine guidance, and I'm sure He will help you too.

  4. An attitude of forgiveness: Go in with this because it may lead to some of the most difficult people, circumstances, and offenses - and for our own healing, we need to forgive.

  5. Pray for Healing: You may have forgive others, asked for healing. Do it again. If you are still hurting over this, do it again.

  6. Prioritize Time Spent: Stop spending time with the sin. The more time you give it, the more life you give it. Spend time with Jesus.

  7. Ask for Support: If you can't handle this, or are struggling to take these steps, ask for help. Find someone who will keep this in confidence, and with whom you can pray.


What About The Spirit of Moses and Elijah?

First you need to deal with your injuries. Just like in the physical world, if you are beat up, untrained, and not informed about the battle plan, then you are not ready. It's as simple as that.


2 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

8... They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.


Living Godly Lives in a Pagan Society

11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15 For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. 16 Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. 17 Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.


Resources:

First of all, if you need prayer outside of group, reach out to us and we will pray with you.

Second, I'd highly recommend these teachings. They are good, Jesus led ministries - part of "Team Jesus" - and can help bring good Biblical teaching to you.






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