Inner Healing 6: Healing the Cup

1. Identification of Wounds

   1. Those you are experiencing at his time

      In your family or work or relational situation surely you are stuck in situations that can hurt you. They are the wounds that you are currently experiencing.

   2. Those you can still remember

      There are wounds of the past that we have well identified, and we can still bring to mind.

   3. The forgotten or ignored

      To enhance memory we have learned the symptoms and detonators.
      1. But recognized by the fruit or the detonator
      2. stories and tales of other persons
      3. Esperiences that God lets you live

   4. Progressive revelation

      1. You bring everything you find to heal ... but will you heal 100%?
      2. It is a process led by the Spirit
      3. The revelation of wounds, will last a lifetime.

2. Actors

   1. Patient (wounded)

      1. It is not the person who is wounded, but the one who recognizes is wounded
      2. Not enough to recognize it, but also wanting  to heal
      3. You want to heal someone by force because their wounds are bugging your life?

   2. God (heals)

      Unlike any other humanistic therapy, the Bible teaches that God is a key character to heal the heart, because you require it:
      1. Pour out the pain:
         You have someone to turn to pour out your pain, no need of any human being. Your relationship with him is enough. You can pour it out with people (hence the rise of psychology), but the ideal is to depend on your relationship with God for this, it is part of maturity in the Christian.
      2. Receive Consolation:
         You have one comforter you do not need any human being for comfort. Yes, you can receive it through people, but, like, ideally, the goal is to Rely on God for it. It is a sign of maturity.
      3. Being filled with His love
         While it is true, that you can use people to pour out your pain, and receive consolation, only God can fill the emotional void that man has and completely satisfy it . He has an absolute monopoly on this. Remember that it is not only about emptying out your pain (healing), but being filled with love (fullness).

   3. Counselor (optional)

      1. Talk-Listen
         There are wounds that you realize that you have until you process the situation we are living while you are talking with another person about such situation. When the counselor asks you questions it helps you assimilate and see what's going on inside of you. Sometimes the counselor just listens to you while you speak to pour out your pain.
      2. Counseling 
         The counselor helps you identify symptoms or detonators that could mean the existence of a wound. There are wounds that you do not realize that others did to you because it was in the midst of intense situations and you had a lot of things going on at the same time.
      3. Teaching
         Teaches the patient the process that has to do to bring about that healing. He frees the patient in the middle of the process and when the person is freed, then he shows them how to do it by themself. 
      4. Consolation
         The counselor may be used to transmit the comfort that the wonded patient requires.
      5. Warning
         The bad advisor generates dependency, the good one, leads you to a healthy independence.

3. Process (Psalm 22)

   1. Pour out your pain

      It is part of the relief where you pour out your heart, you express your pain. The analogy to a physical injury would be "remove the pus"
      1. Scripture:
         1. It is an ordinance
            1. Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. (Psalm 62:8) 
            2. Arise, cry out in the night, as the watches of the night begin; pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. (Lamentations 2:19)
            3. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. (Philippians 4:6)
         2. Case of David
            1. Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! ² Many are saying of me, “God will not deliver him. (Psalm 3:1-2)
            2. Answer me when I call to you, my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; have mercy on me and hear my prayer. (Psalm 4:1)
            3. My tears have been my food day and night,  while people say to me all day long, 'Where is your God? ". (Psalm 42:3)
         3. Case of Ana
            1. “Not so, my Lord” Hannah replied. “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer, I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. (1 Samuel 1:15)
         4. Jesus' case
            1. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? ² My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest...  But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people. ⁷ All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. ⁸ “He trusts in the Lord,” they say, “let the Lord rescue him.
               Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.” (Psalm 22:1-8)    
            2. [The Messiah, at the failure to bring Israel back to God] But I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing at all. Yet what is due me is in the Lord´s hand, and my reward is with my God.” (Isaiah 49:4) 
      2. Prayer can take many forms
         1. It can take the form of a chat (Psalm 62:8)
            1. Talk about the situation you are living. 
               All who see me mock me; they hurl insults (Psalm 22:8) 
            2. Explain how you feel (turn back and see thins as you saw the when you were injured). 
               I am feeble and utterly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart. (Psalm 38:8)
            3. Use analogies, exaggerations, etc. 
               But I am a worm, and not a man (Psalm 22:6)
            4. Do not defend people who hurt you, do not pray for them. 
               It 's not time for that, but to express what you feel, for you to complain and say, even, that you feel the desire to be vindicated. 
               Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand? Take it from the folds of your garment and destroy them! (Psalm 74:11) 
               Let evil recoil on those who slander me; in your faithfulness destroy them.(Psalm 54:5)
         2. It can take the form of request (Ephesians 4:6-7)
            1. Express what is happening to you, what you're living 
               Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! ² Many are saying of me, “God will not deliver him. (Psalm 3:1-2)
            2. Express what you feel. 
               Hear my cry! ...  I'm worried (Psalm 4:1 )
            3. You present your request 
               Turn, Lord, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love.(Psalm 6:4)
         3. It may be without understandable words 
            And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. ²⁷ And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers^[a] in harmony with God’s own will. (Romans 8: 26-27)
            1. Weeping, wailing 
               There are times where the pain is so strong that no words come out but only tears and groans ... The idea is that you don´t do it alone but cry in the presence of God, in his lap.
            2. Languages 
               At other times when pain or distress comes, the spirit begins to pray (in tongues) and start pouring out the pain with God.
      3. What it implies
         1. Reliving the situation 
            What involves the relief is to bring back to the memory that pain, that suffering, is like stepping back in time in your mind and live it all over again.
         2. And if I don't remember? 
            You take what you felt and " you act" ... or go to the step of forgiveness. Many times you forgive by faith based on the fruit (symptom), not on a memory.
      4. The duration
         The time of release or pouring out the pain varies according to the severity of the wound. You know it´s over when you feel vented.
         1. The grieving process that God gives is up to a month
            1. When you go out to war against your enemies and the  Lord  your God delivers them into your hands and you take captives, if you notice among the captives a beautiful woman and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife. Bring her into your home and have her shave her head, trim her nails and put aside the clothes she was wearing when captured. After she has lived in your house and mourned her father and mother for a full month, then you may go to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife.  (Deuteronomy 21:10-13)
               • After she has lived in your house and mourned her father and mother for a full month, then you may go to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife.  (Deuteronomy 21:10-13)
            2. The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over. (Deuteronomy 34:8)
         2. They would dress up to express their pain
            1. “Pretend you are in mourning. Dress in mourning clothes, and don’t use any cosmetic lotions. Act like a woman who has spent many days grieving for the dead. (2 Samuel 14:2)
            2. Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days.(Genesis 37:34)
         3. It has to end
            1. Now the Lord said to Samuel, “You have mourned long enough for Saul. I have rejected him as king of Israel, so fill your flask with olive oil and go to Bethlehem. Find a man named Jesse who lives there, for I have selected one of his sons to be my king.” ( 1 Samuel 16:1)
      5. Scenarios to do it
         1. You can do this at the moment (like Jesus on the cross, Psalm 22)
         2. Or you spend a moment alone with God
         3. Or during your devotional
         4. In the midst of your activities (Praying in tongues)
      6. with counselor
         1. He puts words in your mouth, and guides you in prayer

   2. You forgive

      Cancel the debt you have against the person that hurt you, for example, you forgive. Analogous to physical injury would be like applying antiseptic (Matthew 6:14-15). Implies a decision, for many it is very difficult, but is necessary for the healing process.
      1. Forgiveness for Justice
         This is the forgiveness that is applied by the government or by the responsible for implementing the social or organizational order.
         1. It is conditional upon their repentance. 
            If he does not repent he will pay the penalty. This forgiveness is necessarily this way because that way it safeguards the other members of someone who could harm them, and also because in this way the person can learn the lesson and change.
         2. The people that Jesus forgave, he's going to condemn them as Judge, why? because the forgiveness that he extended on the cross was for their healing. As a judge he can not forgive them and should condemn them because they have not repented.
      2. Forgiveness for Healing 
         Is the kind of forgiveness that Jesus gave: "forgive them for they do not know what they are doing". It is an individual forgiveness that is done to protect your heart, remove any negative feelings that might be stored there "bad treasures"
         1. Characteristics
            1. Unilateral 
               Do not expect them to ask you for forgiveness, you must give it from your own initiative unilaterally. This does not mean that you don't talk the issue and and help the other person see things to improve the relationship, but your should not wait for him to ask you forgiveness in order for you to forgive. Note: When you talk about the issue, you do it after healing, not before.
            2. Unconditional 
               You forgive whether the person changes or not. There is no such thing as "why bother forgiving him if he will not change?" Do not foolishly think you you can inflict pain in him with your lack of forgiveness, because you will only damage yourself. How do you live with someone who does not want to change? You learn to use his sin, his defects for your good. You treat him like a disable person, as handicap who cannot give your his hand to greet you.
            3. Specific 
               One painful act may have many facets, causing many injuries —just like a polygon has many faces. You can forgive your father because he abandoned you, but you have to forgive him for all that that implies: "never showing interest in you," "not being there in special events", "for not providing", etc.
      3. People involved
         1. Forgiveness to the one who offended you
         2. Forgiveness to yourself
         3. Ask God for forgiveness
         4. Forgive God... never!
      4. The reason for your forgiveness
         As you need mercy, you bestow it
         1. You are in debt because your sins are forgiven 
            21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “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.[a]
            23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold[b] was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
            26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
            28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins.[c] He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
            29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’
            30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.
            32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” (Matthew 18: 21-35)
            1. Anything someone does against you will always be a minor offense compared to what you have done against God.
               1. It is not measured by the severity of the action, but against whom it was committed.
            2. The debt that you have with God is infinitely greater than the debt your brother has with you.
         2. If you are not aware of your mistakes in the light of His Holiness, of who He is, it will be very difficult to forgive others. 
            For I know my transgressions, and  my sin is always before me. (Psalm 51:3).
      5. Alone
         1. You can deal with the issue alone in prayer with God, "Father, I forgive that person  for having done this and that, and for making me feel so and so". You do not have to go with the person to "tell" him "I forgave you".
      6. With a Counselor
         1. He can lead you in prayer for forgiveness, or to remind you of things missing to forgive.
         2. You can make the role of the person who hurt you and forgive to his name.
      7. It is not always necessary
         1. There are situations of distress and pain that are not against anyone, but because of the circumstances that God has allowed in your life: scarcity, danger, need, or suffering for God´s cause (as Jesus)

   3. Receive consolation

      This part is typically forgotten in most workshops of emotional health, and yet it is one of the most important components, without it there is no healing. In a physical wound it would be like arranging it and adjust the damaged parts to bring them back to normal. This step also involves a decision: to believe and accept consolation.
      1. Its importance
         1. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation, if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. (2 Corinthians 1:3-5)
         2. 1. Every tribulation, requires comfort (v.4)
            2. The purpose of the consolation received (health), is for spreading it to others. (V.4,6)
            3. Your sufferings on earth complete the sufferings of Christ, but are offset by its abundant consolation (v.5)
            4. Comfort helps you patiently endure suffering
         3. Aware that we were going to have a hard time on earth
            I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take heart! I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)
         4. He left us a Comforter 
            But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. (John 16:7)
      2. What it is
         It is not a cheap positivism that denies our difficult reality.
         1. They are words of encouragement inspired by God to bring a divine perspective to your pain, your difficulty. 
            
            Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ¨Never, Lord!¨ he said. ¨This shall never happen to you!¨ Jesus turned and said to Peter, ¨Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.¨ (Matthew 16:22-23)
         2. Bring a change of mind (repentance) and you stop seeing things as a human, and start seeing them as God sees them  
            Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That you may prove what the will of God, good, acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)
         3. Perspective that lets you see the love, purpose and hope to the painful situation. 
            And we know that in all things God works for good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
         4. It is what changes the pain in joy 
            I will turn their mourning into joy. I will comfort them and turn their sorrow into joy. (Jeremiah 31:3)
         5. It's what puts you above situations 
            take heart! I have overcome the world. (John 16:33) ...  because everyone who is born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that overcomes the world: our faith. (1 John 5:4) ... faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17)
         6. Jesus receiving it
         7. Pablo receiving it
      3. Ways in which consolation comes
         1. Words of God
            1. Direct words, helping you find the purpose for that situation
               We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1:8-9)
            2. Through his written Word 
               But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you. (John 14:26)  Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments. If I had spoken out like that, I would have betrayed your children. When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply till I entered the sanctuary of God. (Psalm 73: 13-17)
            3. Past experiences of other people
               In you our ancestors put their trust, they trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried out and were saved, in you they trusted and were not put to shame. (Psalm 22:4-5)
            4. Your own experiences
               Yet you brought me out of the womb, you made me trust in You, even at my mother´s breast. From birth I was cast on you, from my mother´s womb you have been my God. (Psalm 22:9-10) 
               Men of little faith, why they are talking about having no bread? 9  Do you still not understand? Do not you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you collected? 10  Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? (Matthew 16: 8-10)
            5. Promises of the future But I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing at all. Yet what is due me is in the Lord´s hand, and my reward is with my God. And now the Lord says - he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength - he says: Ït is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.¨This is what the Lord says - the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel - to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation, to the servant of rulers: ¨Kings will see you and stand up, princes will see and bow down, because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.¨ (Isaiah 49:4-7)
         2. Prayer requests with faith (Philippians 4: 6-7) 
            1. That is why I say: Believe that you have received everything you ask for in prayer, and it will be . (Mark 11:24)
            2. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. (James 1:6-8)
            3. They do not worry about anything; rather, everything by prayer and supplication, present your requests to God and give thanks. 7  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4: 6-7) 
            4. Case of Ana 
               "No, sir; I'm not drunk. I have not drunk wine or strong drink. What happens is that I am very discouraged, and came to unburden myself before the Lord ...  And she said, "I hope you see kindly to this servant of yours." And Ana went there and ate, and was no longer sad. (1 Samuel 1:15, 18)
         3. Holy imagination 
            Many times God takes you to visualize where was him in painful episodes, and even takes you to hear the words he told you at that time.
            1. Jesus: "I am with you always , to the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20)
            2. Angels: "Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?" (Hebrews 1:14)
            3. The Holy Spirit: "... the Comforter, who will be with you forever" (John 14:16)
            4. Since when you are with us? ¿Since we got to know him? No, but from our conception
               • For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called, those he called, he also justified, those he justified, he also glorified.(Romans 8:29-30 )
               • Listen to me, coasts and remote villages! The Lord called me from the womb of my mother; He took into account my name before I was born. ( Isaiah 49:1 )
               • ¨Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart, I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.¨ (Jeremiah 1:5)
               • However, God had set me apart from my mother 's womb and called me by his grace. And when he saw fit  16  to reveal his Son so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult with anyone. ( Galatians 1:15-16)
      4. God's comfort may take you to die to yourself
         Consolation is not always the restoration of the dream you want, but it´s death and replacement with God's will and plans for you.
         1. "If anyone wants to follow me , he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. (Matthew 16:24)
         2.   Whoever does not hate his life ... (John 12:25)
         3. Whoever loses because of my ...  (Mark 8:35)
         4. Blessed are you when they revile you (Matthew 5:11)
         5.  Count it all joy when you are in evidence (James 1:2)
         6.   It is better to suffer for doing good (1 Peter 3:13-18)
         7. This present affliction (2 Corinthians 4:17)
         8. The ephemeral nature of this phase: "those who weep as though they wept" (1 Corinthians 7:30)
      5. Examples
         1.      When I was suffering because of my dad: "I'll change you"
            b.         When I was suffering because of the family that was harboring my dad, "I'm working in you the fruits of the spirit"
                c.         Comfort to the offenses of others, "all my wrongdoings" ... "act for my good"
                d.         Comfort to marital problems: "He is sufficient for me to be happy"
               e.         Comfort to my failure "view of a rocket"
                f.         Comfort to my frustration: "I am committed to your purpose"
                g.         Comfort before the rejection of friends: "I am, I'm behind the circumstances"
      6. Ways to receive it with a counselor
         1. Shapes
            1. prophetic word: 
            2. Giving spiritual impressions:
            3. The person praying: "Lord let him see how you were there to teach him ..."
            4. Giving word of the Bible: "God saw you in your mother's womb"
            5. Leading the imagination: if humiliation or trauma.
            6. In the form of counseling, "God wants to build in you ..."
         2. Examples
            1. Rape case
            2. Physical abuse case
            3. If rejection from pregnancy
            4. If death of Dad since childhood.
      7. IS reheated valid? Yes, it is valid.

   4. Thanksgiving, Praise

      1. When you understand, through the consolation that the bad episode in your life "worked for your good" and it was the "good, pleasing and perfect" will of God.
         God all things work together for good to those who love him , who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28)
      2. You give thanks for this painful situation
         in everything give thanks, for this it is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Tessalonians 5:18)
      3. I positions you above the situation, fulfilling this word:
         1. In this world you have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world (John 16:33 )
         2. everyone who is born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that overcomes the world: our faith. (1 John 5:4)
         3. In all these things we are more than conquerors ... (Romans 8:37)
         4. All things work together for good (Romans 8:28)

   5. Cancel judgments and decrees

      1. Use the authority of Christ to "revoke" and declare otherwise.

4. Already you have restored your relationship with God?