6 Letting Go

Letting Go:

Healing our Heart/Soul

Repentance

Forgiveness

The Love of God and empathy

Emotional Healing 

Matthew 6:9–15

Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Acts 2:38-39

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

1 John 1:7–10

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Psalm 32:1–7

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For 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 dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him. You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance.

What is the soul?  It is our mind, will, and emotions. (our outer and carnal selves which are molded by the carnal world -our personality….until we become born again). 

Galatians 5:25

We Live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things become new.

Ever hear ‘follow your heart’?  Your heart is your carnal soul, not of God, until we renew it.  Jeremiah 17:9 says the heart is deceitful. 

But Romans 8:14-16 says

14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, “Abba,[c] Father!” 16 The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God

We are children, that must grow into sons and daughters of God, or we can immaturely fall back into our carnal ways

1 Corinthians 3: 1-3

My friends, you are acting like the people of this world. That's why I could not speak to you as spiritual people. You are like babies as far as your faith in Christ is concerned. 2  So I had to treat you like babies and feed you milk. You could not take solid food, and you still cannot, 3 because you are not yet spiritual. You are jealous and argue with each other. This proves you are not spiritual and you are acting like the people of this world.

How do we grow our minds and will and heart in God?  Read the Word, and fellowship with Him daily. 

Romans 12:2 ….let God change the way you think….

2 Corinthians 4:16

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

Important WHY we must be born again, and die to our carnal selves, and grow in the Spirit!

1 Corinthians 6:19

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?

If we remain passive,or revert back to old bad ways or habits, our bodies will become lazy and undisciplined, which is not a good temple for Holy Spirit to live in. 

Acts 20: 21

I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. 

Acts 3: 18/19/20

…Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. 19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord…

2 Corinthians 7: 9-10

As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.

10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

When you repent, it does not necessarily resolve what you sowed.  You still may reap it.  God may allow the reaping for correction purposes, like a father would out of love, and also so you don’t forget, and you change for the better.  

This leads to salvation and deliverance from evil (full forgiveness- that is the sin will forever be forgotten by God).  There is no regret when you repent to God. 

Remember David, when he decided to kill a man to take his wife.  They got pregnant, and lost the child.  Throughout the story, David realized he was wrong and spent days fasting and repenting to God, and to save the child, but the child died anyway.  2 Samuel 12

David still worshipped God,and comforted his wife. 

He could have shown anger or turned away from God, or hid from God in shame, but he repented and worshipped regardless.  

And what came of this?  

Better right?  He had Solomon right after.  And Solomon built the first temple in Jerusalem, and was the down line to Jesus. 

Forgiveness and the love of God (empathy)

Unforgiveness is not only considered a sin, but it is an unnecessary burden you carry around. Not only a burden, but the burden of that person’s sin.  You’re carrying around that person’s sin burden.  Why would you let them hurt you again?  More?  By carrying around their sin burden.  Give it to God.  Their burden and sin is already too great for them to handle. Only God can handle it.  In fact He did, by giving His only Son to the cross.  Jesus already carried that burden. 

Unforgiveness can be rooted in fear, also.  The fear that the person who hurt you tried to compromise your securities in life, whether it be health, finances, family, food, etc.  But who is our provider: Matt 6, Psalm 145, 54, 84, 111, 23

So give it to God.  

Matthew 18: 21-22 

Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times

Matthew 6: 12 the Lord’s prayer (see above)

Ephesians 4: 32

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Empathy.  (God’s Love)

Think of a father who was mean or disciplined you too much. Or drank all the time. 

Why? What was he self medicating from?  Why was he so angry? Maybe he was self critical. Maybe he was lost. His father didn’t teach him. He didn’t know God. 

He didn’t want you to see his hurt. His burden. His hardships. 

Look at people driving who are driving dumb. 

Why? Are they super old? Or short. Can’t see. Nervous. Looking at their phone. 

Screaming kids in the back seat. 

Maybe they just worked a 48 h medical shift where they witnessed children dying and elder abuse and cancer. And their brain isn’t on the road but in guilt. In thought. In self doubt. 

These people don’t know the love of God. And maybe they need your prayers. Not your unforgiveness or judgment or condemnation. 

And That goes for yourself!!  

You know to give it to God. Even your own faults. 

You just practice forgiveness in the small to be able to get it for the deep and huge.  

That’s the grace you extend to them. That’s from God 

Ephesians 2:8-9

For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 

Motivated by love

When you give that burden (the unforgiveness), to God, He not only can give you back healing, but He can then give that person who caused your pain correction in His love. Only God can make right what went wrong.  But you have to let Him. Let it go. Tell God what happened, how it made you feel, then let it go.  

If you hold on to it after that, do it again and again until it’s no longer in your mind.  

Remember, trust God to handle it.  

As we go through the changes in life that seem like hardships and trials and we give it to God (just like David when he lost his child), and we ask God to see us through it no matter what it is even if it’s our own fault God can then for us as we are clay to him, and he is the potter making us who he meant us to be when we were knitted in our mother’s womb

When you finally realize and get to know Him. Your heart (soul)changes. Life changes.

Kinda like when you have a child. Suddenly life is different. Your heart changes. 

You think you know what it is to be a parent. Until you’re a parent, and then nothing in life is more important. 

It’s the same when you find God.

Emotions

Not a byproduct of your circumstances. We have authority, and we have to take accountability.  We are not victims, and we have God’s strength to get through them or change them. 

John 14: 1 Do not let your hearts be troubled (Jesus telling his disciples hours before he goes to the cross)

This is an act of FAITH

Health is harvest.  We must plant seeds to help ourselves grow, grow resilience, and practice coping etc.

There was a terrible moment in my life where all things were crashing. My health, marriage, finances, job, family.  Crashing all at once.  

And I had a choice. Get bitter, or get better.  So I made a promise to myself to write out, every morning on social media (to keep myself accountable in my community of friends), 7 great or positive things every single day, for 30 days. They say that’s how long it takes to change a habit, or your mind process.  

You find yourself looking for the great things, even in the small. Like how beautiful the sky looks. The green hillsides. The subtle fog/clouds that are still floating around in the mornings, hiding the tops of the hills. The occasional breeze that cuts through the heat. The tree that is giving just enough shade to be nice.  

Focusing on the good, on the positive, on GOD, praising HIM.  It gives it energy and power.  Versus focusing on the bad and giving that energy and power.  Focusing on the good or bad plants those seeds in your heart.  

The doctor’s diagnosis, like cancer.  What’s your initial emotion about it?  

Curb it!  Fix yourself, and change that emotion of devastation and fear and sorrow and confusion.  

‘Father God I praise you for the blood of your Son and that by His stripes we are healed, including this diagnosis, and therefore I declare that by the Blood of Christ and my authority in Him and Him in me, I declare that this diagnosis to be loosed from me, and I rebuke it in the name of Jesus!  I declare that God has given us perfect healing, and cancer cannot touch me, and in this moment I am already healed and the cancer is death and I choose life. Therefore cancer cannot live in this body.  In the name of Jesus.’

Deut 30:19 choose life, blessing, joy etc

Things will cause emotion, but we choose if it stays there and or let it affect us (negatively). 

John 16: 33 33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Isaiah 26:3 You will keep in perfect peace

    all who trust in you,

    all whose thoughts are fixed on you!

CEV: The Lord gives perfect peace

    to those whose faith is firm.

Amp Classic: You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You.

Philippians 4:13 through Christ I can do all things (not become a victim to emotions or worldly circumstances).

Look to the Lord for comfort and renewed vision for life, instead of being paralyzed by the negative emotion or situation. 

Luke 4: 18-19

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

3 John 2

 Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.

John is linking health and prosperity to the condition and prosperity of the soul.  In other words, the prosperity of the should will impact the harvest in the area of health.  Everything around us is a potential seed to sow, which can carry potential harvest.  What we feed on is the fuel to/in our lives.  We need food and exercise for our body, our mind needs knowledge and information, our soul/heart need events, relationships, and emotions.  Our spirit must feed on the Word. 

Jeremiah 15:16 

Your words were found and I ate them and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. 

Matthew 4:4 Man shall not live on bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. 

Romans 15: 13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit

Matthew 11: 28

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Healing your trauma by giving the burden to Jesus:

1. Recall an event from the past that causes a strong negative emotion, or is intrusive in your life

2. Identify the emotion it causes (it can be more than one)

3. Ask Jesus to take that said emotion from you

4. Ask Jesus to heal the wound in your soul 

5. Thank Jesus and say you received His healing. 

6. Repeat steps until that event no longer has negative emotions attached to it.  Do another event if needed. 

Closing Prayer:

Father, thank You for opening my heart to You and Your Word and Your Spirit.  I will not allow my heart  or emotions to become hardened by the circumstances of life.  I thank You that Your grace has provided for every need in my life.  I will walk in Your promises, and have absolute faith in You.  I will not be passive or allow the weeds of the fallen live in my renewed life in You.   

I ask of you Father to reveal any hidden unforgiveness or emotional trauma so that I may repent and give those burdens to You so that I may receive Your full grace of healing. 

Thank you for healing my heart and listening to my griefs so I can receive your wholeness.

I receive Your finished work in my heart and soul and declare that healing is mine!

In the name of Jesus!  Amen!