Healing Spiritual Wounds
1Th 5:23 ¶ Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What is the difference between soul and spirit? Hard to define the scriptures go both ways on it. Some places in the word they are indistinguishable and in other places they are quite different.
Today I hope to show the difference and to talk about the healing of spiritual wounds.
Intro: Several years ago I was asked to conduct a funeral, and the family of the deceased placed me under two injunctions: 1. I was not allowed to talk about God. 2. There would be no prayer allowed at the funeral. As crazy as it may seem I agreed to do the funeral, the main reason of which is that the funeral was for my brother-in-law, my sisters husband. I decided I needed to show my sister my love for her was more important than having a church type funeral. It was the most difficult funeral I have ever done, as you may well imagine. Now for the kicker: the reason my brother-in-law wanted no prayer and no talk of God at his funeral was because he had been sexually abused as a young boy by a priest. This was a spiritual wound he carried with him his whole life, to the point it even defined how his death should be handled.
That preacher put a stumbling block from which he never was able to overcome. That preacher caused a young boy to close his heart to God for the whole of his life. This leads to my next point:
The people we are closest to have the potential to wound us the most spiritually. You see it is the people we let our guard down around that have the greatest ability to hurt us. When you are wary of someone, you close up, when you trust them you open up. That is why pastors, teachers, doctors, policemen, and other "trusted" people can be the best people we ever meet or the worst.
Husbands the person who can hurt you the most is your wife, wives the person who can hurt you the most is your husband. The same is true with kids/parents, cousins, grandparents etc.
Illustrate: Amasa and Joab. 2 Sam 20:9,10 Cousins. Their mothers were sisters, and David was uncle to both of them. Joab greets Amasa and holds his beard, (a custom of intimacy) Amasa did not pay any attention to the sword Joab had. Joab took the sword and smote Amasa under the fifth rib so that he died. He attacked him in his most vulnerable place, because Amasa let his guard down with someone he trusted. These type of wounds go past the soul, and into the spirit part of man.
Some people it seems have a gift of stabbing people where it really hurts, Joab was one of those type of people. 2 Sam 3:27 Just when you let your guard down, is when they let their sword out.
We let our guard down around people we trust, thus they are able to sometimes smite us below the fifth rib, in the deepest part of our being, wounding us spiritually.
David speaks of this truth in Psalms 55:12-14
Ahithophel was someone David really trusted, so his betrayal struck deep into David, and so to speak smote him under the fifth rib.
Pastors, family members, friends, these are the people who have the greatest ability to hurt us in the deepest part of who we are, because we bare our inner souls to them, and often do so letting all our guards down.
Today I want to talk about the fact that spiritual wounds, Hurt, Hinder, and can be Healed.
The spirit can be wounded just like our physical body can be wounded. If you have a broken leg it will impact your comfort level, your mobility, your activity level, many aspects of your life. A spiritual wound will also affect you on a multidimensional level, let me share some scriptures in that regard:
Pr 18:14 ¶ A man’s spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?
Physical body and spirit are different. The spirit will pick you up when the body is down. If the spirit is wounded and you are suffering a serious sickness, you then have a double whammy. Not only are you physically sick, but you don’t have the spiritual side of you properly functioning to "encourage you in the Lord," with your suffering. You may start wishing to die, or think about suicide. It can impact you ability to cope, to trust God, to believe Him for healing, it will affect you in many ways.
I have been amazed in life how such a little wind can sometimes knock some people over so hard, and I have come to realize it is because they have a wounded spirit and don’t have the ability to cope with the smallest of life’s problems.
Pr 15:13 ¶ A joyful heart makes a cheerful face, But when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken.
The soul and spirit are different, but they impact each other, when the soul is down the spirit can be broken. The spirit can be said at times to be in a broken, non-working condition. What exactly does that mean? Prayer will be difficult, faith and reliance on God will diminish, your spiritual immune system will be compromised and you will be subject to spiritual infections, of doubt, unbelief, overbearing temptations, a whole host of spiritual maladies will find it easier to take root in you.
Pr 17:22 ¶ A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
The spirit can impact the physical body.
Lets look at another scripture that shows the difference between soul and spirit:
Ps 43:5 Ps 43:5 Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, The help of my countenance, and my God.
In this passage of scripture, David is speaking to himself. Part of him is telling his soul not to stay sad, or to be discouraged, but to trust God that things will get better. To me this is one of the clearest scriptures in the bible that differentiates between soul and spirit even as Heb. 4:12 said the word would. The spiritual part of David was encouraging the soulish part of David. This is the very reason we are to speak to ourselves is psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
David encouraged himself in the Lord. If your spirit is well you will encourage yourself when things are glum, if your spirit is wounded you will discourage yourself when things are glum!
So then not only are things not going your way, but you find yourself throwing gasoline on the fire. By speaking to yourself in negative, self hurtful ways. Sometimes people say things to themselves that they would have to repent of if they said them to someone else. "You never do anything right." "You always fail." "I hate myself." "Nothing good ever goes your way." We have enough sense to know that we shouldn’t talk to someone else that way, but we don’t have enough sense to not talk to ourselves that way.
It would be like a football team, where the offensive line instead of protecting the quarterback, turns on him and tackles him!
Let’s move on, time is short.
Spiritual wounds hurt
I once met a woman who was going through a divorce that she did not want. She told me that sometimes she would call her husband (he was not living in the home), just to hear his voice and then hang up. There is a depth of pain that woman was walking through that I cannot imagine. That divorce hurt her, and she had an open bleeding spirit. Her whole life was focused on that open bleeding wound. She was in deep deep pain.
In Luke 4:18ff Jesus said that He was anointed to "Set at liberty them that are bruised." (KJV) A bruise is an outer sign inner bleeding. Some wounds we need a spiritual deliverance from, that only Jesus can provide.
He also said He was anointed to preach "Deliverance to the captives" (Greek) Those held captive at the point of a spear. Try to move you are jabbed. Spiritual wounds can hold you captive, Jesus frees captives. That woman growing through the divorce was a captive to her wounds.
Spiritual wounds hinder
She was living life in one dimension. She could not focus on her job, the needs of others, she found no pleasure in food, or any other thing, she was self absorbed with her wound and her pain. It hindered her from enjoying life at all, and from really being any practical benefit to others, because she was bleeding profusely spiritually.
Ex 6:9 And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage. Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and cruel bondage. The things they were going through damaged their ability to hear an encouraging word.
Spiritual hearing was damaged by a wounded spirit. If your spiritual hearing is damaged you will find it very hard to hear from God in a time in your life when you most definitely need to. People often confuse their inability to hear, with God being silent.
Spiritual wounds hurt, spiritual wounds hinder spiritual wounds can be healed.
Keys God gives to spiritual healing:
(1) He acknowledges that He is aware of our suffering, and (2) promises to do something about it.
(1) Ex 3:7-8 And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which [are] in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey;...
Several years ago I was mowing the yard on my lawn tractor and I came across a Killdeer bird which many call a kill dare bird.. A Kill dare for those who don’t know is a small bird that lays its eggs on the ground usually near rocks, and when any other animal approaches it pretends to be injured and lead the other animal away from its eggs, protecting its young. It dare you to kill it, hence the name. I new I needed to mow the lawn but when I say the Kildare and its frantic actions I prayed and asked the Lord what to do. The very instant I prayed the spring that held the tensioner pulley on my mower deck snapped, and I was unable to mow the lawn. I keep that broken spring in my office as a perpetual reminder of God’s care even for birds.
Mt 10:29-31 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.
Sometime just a reminder from God that He knows what I am going through is all I need to keep on keeping on. To hear of His concern for birds out in the middle of nowhere, and that I am of more value than many birds is quite the balm for a wounded soul.
(2) Come unto me all you who are burdened and heavy laden and I will give you rest. (Mt. 11:28) There is no ambiguity in Jesus’ promise to give us rest. The only requirement is that we come, and the sure promise is "I WILL," give you rest. They that wait upon the Lord SHALL renew their strength... The Lord’s will’s and shall’s are a great source of comfort in the believers life.
As we close this service I wonder who is here today and can relate to having a wounded spirit. Who can relate to being smitten under the fifth rib by someone close to them. Were you abused as a child, are you going through a painful divorce, lets bring our burdens to the Lord as we open the altar and close in prayer.
