Most Recent Blog Posts
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Post 68 – The Armor of God!
God has not left us helpless and hopeless but has given us weapons and armor to confront the Devil and his attacks upon our minds. Show More
What putting on the armor of God and spiritual warfare is NOT!
- Spiritual warfare is not about empty actions that make us feel like we are accomplishing something when in fact nothing has changed.
- Putting on the armor of God is not some superstitious ritual we do to protect us from the devil. I’ve known individuals that put on the armor of God each morning. They recite the verses and imagine the putting on of the armor. That may be well-intentioned, but if they have to do it every day the question is, “when did they take the armor off?”.
What it means to put on the Armor of God.
Putting on the armor of God IS about taking seriously all that Jesus has provided for you. His salvation, His security, His Holy Spirit and His Word, the Bible. It is about becoming a warrior for Jesus! A warrior understands training, discipline, hardship, sacrifice, and victory. We are called to be soldiers for the Lord!
The Whole Armor of God
Ephesians 6:10 “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil”.
Verse 12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places”.
Verse 13 “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand”.
- You just can’t choose the armor you like or want, you need the whole armor of God for the armor to be effective.
Verse 14 “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth
- Jesus is God in the flesh (Phil 2:5-7).
- Jesus came to save (John 3:17).
- There is no other way to the Father except through Him (John 14:6).
Verse 14b having put on the breastplate of righteousness“,
- Righteousness has to do with doing what is right in God’s eyes, not in your eyes.
- It is living by the spirit of the Ten Commandments. Not the letter of the law but the spirit of the law.
- It is loving unconditionally all people because God has created them.
- It is represented by manifesting the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:22)
Verse 15 “and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace“;
- It means to be ready in season and out to present the testimony that Jesus has given you. That testimony is about what He has done for you. He has saved you, healed you and restored you
Verse 16 “above all, taking the shield of faith with which,
- Faith is seeing the invisible, the spiritual realm.
- Faith has to do with actions and not just words
- Faith is believing what God has said in the Bible even when we don’t understand it.
Verse 16b you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one“.
- Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world (1John 4:4).
- He has not given you the spirit of fear (2Tim 1:7)
- You are bold for Jesus
Verse 17 “And take the helmet of salvation,
- Always remembering that you were bought with a price and you are no longer your own
- Mindful of Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me”.
Verse 17b and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God“;
- The Word of God will stop the enemy of our souls in his tracks. When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness (Luke 4). Jesus responded with the scriptures from the Word of God!
Verse 18 “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints”.
- We pray not only with our minds, but perhaps more importantly in the Spirit (Tongues). The spirit always prays perfectly for our needs because the Spirit knows what to pray for. Romans 8:26, “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God”.
Misguided Spiritual Warfare
One of the church’s greatest challenges is to distinguish between the spiritual struggle and other social, personal, and political struggles. Some believers and even groups become easily distracted, “wrestling” with human adversaries instead of warring against the invisible works of the Devil in the spiritual realm.
Conclusion
2 Timothy, “1 You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 3 You, therefore, must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier”.
- In other words, you can’t be a part-time Christian. Jesus gave all for you and our Lord expects all from you!
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Post 67 – Relationship or Religion?
Knowing the Living Jesus Christ versus the practice of religion.
My hope in presenting the last several posts is to point out that “Spiritual Warfare” is not about yelling into the atmosphere and binding Satan in Jesus’ name. Satan has no power other than that which we give him. Remember Satan is all about deception, he will try to imitate God and then try to distort the truth into a lie. In other words, Satan offers us a counterfeit of the genuine promises found in Jesus Christ. A partial lie is the same as a total lie; Remember, a drop of poison into a cup of pure water poisons the whole cup! Show More
Recall 2 Corinthians 10:3, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds (those things we hold strongly to in our minds), 5 casting down arguments (Satan’s lies) and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God (when you focus on self instead of Christ), bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (transformation)”.
There is a lot of superstition in Christianity.
What I mean is that there are many practices and rituals that have no real power over the enemy. God does not respond to rituals and the traditions of men but responds to genuine prayer and a mind that is being transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Faith, prayer, and righteousness are what moves God.
The Apostle Paul had seen all of the foolishness of rituals and traditions of men before he turned to Jesus. He had grown up as a devout Hebrew and Pharisee. He was exposed to the surrounding heathen practices of the Gentiles of the time. However, when he met Jesus his life was turned around and He saw the true power, authority,
and majesty of his King- Jesus! He went from having a purely religious point of view as a Pharisee to a vibrant relationship with the King of kings and the Lord of lords!The key is relationship not religion.
Religion has to do with how we worship God. Being born-again means you are a son or daughter of God (Galatians 3:26 -4:7)! There is a big difference between relationship and religion.
As I’ve said before Jesus is looking for a relationship which means two-way communication. First, you must be born-again, then you talk to Jesus in a personal way. His Holy Spirit dwells in you so that you can hear His voice, to discern the truth, empowering you to follow Him and to resist the enemy- the Devil.
Relationship vs. Religion in 1 Kings 18:1-40
A good example of this difference between relationship and religion is found in 1 Kings 18:1-40. This is the account of Elijah the man of God and the Baal Priests of Ahab and Jezebel.
The nation of Israel had fallen far from the true worship of one God. Because of the evil King Ahab and his wife Jezebel, Israel had fallen into the worship of other gods. That is why the Prophet Elijah said in 1 Kings 18:21, “And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word”.
What Elijah was saying is that you can’t serve two masters or two Gods. You need to make a decision. If you are going to follow Jesus, you must abandon all the other practices of religion. In Elijah’s time, the people of Israel were giving sacrifices and offerings to Jehovah God, and also to Baal and Asherah. Baal and Asherah were heathen gods that demanded defiled worship as well as
human sacrifice.Elijah’s challenge to false gods.
I am sure you remember the story of Elijah’s challenge to the prophets of Baal. He challenged them to a duel or competition to see whose god would respond with fire. Elijah and the prophets of Baal each were given a bull to sacrifice and wood to place the bull on. However, neither Elijah nor the prophets of Baal were to light the fire. Each would call on their God for the fire.
The Baal worshipers set up their animal sacrifice first. 1 Kings 18:26-29 says, “So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying, “O Baal, hear us!” But there was no voice; no one answered. Then they leaped about the altar which they had made”.
27 “And so it was, at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.”
28 “So they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them. 29 And when midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention”.
Now it is Elijah’s turn.
The first thing he did was to restore the altar of the one true God, Jehovah, or Yahweh as He was known to the Israelites. Then he set up the wood and placed the cut-up pieces of the sacrificial bull on top of the wood. Then he does something amazing, he floods the wood with water, the sacrifice with water, and the trench around the altar with water.
Then beginning in 1 Kings 18:36 “And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, “Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. 37 Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.”
38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. 39 Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!”
Pay special attention to the language of Elijah’s prayer. He doesn’t bring attention to himself but gives all attention, glory and praise to God. He speaks of someone who knows his God and therefore does great exploits (Daniel 11:32b “but the people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits”.
Elijah can ask great things because he knows, on a personal level, how great his God is.
If you want to see great things and do great exploits for God build your relationship with Him. He wants to be known and He wants to know you. Not in a ritualistic or traditional way, but in a personal way! Then you will go from knowing about your God to knowing Him and hearing His voice.
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Post 66 – Spiritual Warfare 3
Jesus is the Healer! He heals physically, spiritually, and emotionally. My focus today is on emotional healing. Emotional healing is important because an emotional wound is an open door for Satan to influence a person. So, if a person is healed emotionally then the door to the Devil’s influence is closed. Show More
In the last post, I used Proverbs 18:14 “The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, But who can bear a broken spirit”? The word broken spirit can be translated as a wounded spirit, or a traumatized spirit. So, a broken spirit is one that has been wounded… and the emotional wound has not healed.
The good news is that Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted! Listen to the mission statement of Jesus Christ found in Luke 4:18-19.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon
Me , Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”Jesus came to heal and deliver those who put their trust in Him to be set free from the Devil’s lies which is at the root of all emotional wounds or trauma.
If we break it down there are clearly 5 steps in the cycle of unresolved emotional wounds or trauma:
- The Trauma – the event it could be sexual abuse, physical abuse, or emotional abuse. It can happen at any age, but when it happens when one is young it is often a deep wounding. When we are young, we are not wise enough to recognize the truth and that opens the door to a lie.
- The Lie – the lie comes from the Father of Lies, Satan. He will try to put the lie in our souls, that we deserved the abuse, or it was our fault it happened. Another lie is that it happened because God didn’t love us or care! This is a common lie that the devil will use when prayer doesn’t seem to be answered in the way we want it to be.
- The Emotional Upheaval – as a result of believing the lie it produces guilt, shame, fear, and bitterness.
- The Dysfunction – the guilt, shame, bitterness, and fear produce behaviors that are not natural or normal. In the last post, we described some of the most common dysfunctional behaviors.
- The Trigger – this is an event that brings back to memory the lie and it starts the cycle again as if it were for the very first time.
The cycle continues round and round until the cycle is broken.
Let’s look at an example or two of how this all works.
- A young person experiences a break-up in the marriage of the parents. That is the trauma– instability, arguments, and fighting in the household. Then one of the parents leave. The child believes that it was their fault, that’s the lie. This happens often in the mind of a child. They begin to feel guilty and shame- that’s the emotional upheaval. They start to pray that the parents will reconcile… and it doesn’t happen. Now the child feels that God doesn’t care about the situation. This leads to distrust of God or outright rejection of God. All of these lies are created by Satan and put into the mind of the child. Now as an adult the child doesn’t trust close relationships, doesn’t trust God – that’s the dysfunction. They may become lonely, depressed, and bitter towards life and God. They make bad choices in their relationships and when it goes bad it brings back, unconsciously, the hurt as a child of the breakup of the parents – that’s the trigger. Then the cycle starts again… pain, lies, emotional upheaval, dysfunction, and on and on.
- A second example would be the case of abuse. It can be sexual, physical, or emotional, usually from a family member a relative, or a close friend. A person who is abused often comes to the wrong conclusion that they are unworthy or deserved the abuse because they are bad (that’s the lie) no one deserves to be abused. Then follows the guilt and shame and trying to hide that they feel worthless (that’s the emotional upheaval). As a result of the lies of the devil, the guilt, and shame they make bad choices to confirm the lie. It may be an addiction, alcohol or drugs, to ease or try to erase the pain (that’s the dysfunctional behavior). They may become angry and hostile as a defense against being hurt again. The kinds of abnormal behavior are endless. They may settle down and be quite normal for a while and then something “triggers” the memory of the trauma and then the dysfunction starts all over again.
How can the cycle be broken?
- Step one is to identify the trauma
- This is the work of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal “what and why” you act the way you do in certain circumstances. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth. He will reveal the truth and the truth will set you free!
- Confront the trauma – you may have been innocent when the wounding took place but accept the fact that you are the one who made bad choices because of the lies of the devil.
- Receive the healing that only Jesus can produce
- Accept Jesus’ love. His love is
Agape love. It is not based upon what you have done His love is unconditional. He has decided to love you. - Accept Jesus’ forgiveness. Jesus died on the cross for our sins. We are forgiven and justified (just if I’d never sinned). When those old painful thoughts come to your mind, remind Satan that you are forgiven and that he can go to hell! Where he belongs. You are a child of God.
- Forgiveness yourself. God has forgiven you, what right do you have to not forgive yourself. This sometimes can be difficult because we sometimes can’t forget. Just remember this point, don’t let your past determine your future in Jesus Christ. He has a glorious plan for your life!
- Forgiveness of others. Forgiving those that hurt you is essential because it allows you to break from the past. Hanging on to bitterness or hate is like “drinking poison hoping that the other person will die!” The only person you hurt is yourself. Not forgiving means that you are letting the person or persons that hurt you still have control over you.
- Accept Jesus’ love. His love is
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Post 65 Spiritual Warfare 2
IN A FALLEN AND SIN FILLED WORLD “HURTING PEOPLE HURT PEOPLE!”.
A Traumatized Spirit (broken hearted, broken spirit, crushed)
Proverbs 18:14 “The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, But who can bear a broken spirit”? The word broken spirit can be translated as a wounded spirit, or a traumatized spirit. So, a broken spirit is one that has been wounded… and the wound has not healed. Show More
Your body has a natural defense system to guard you against attack by harmful bacteria and microorganisms. It is called your skin. Your skin has amazing properties to keep harmful germs out. However, if your skin is “broken” through injury or trauma then your defenses will have been compromised. That’s why we clean wounds, use antibiotics, and cover the wound until it heals. To protect it from attack by harmful germs. The same thing can happen in the spiritual realm.
Distortion of the facts.
Remember what we said in the past, to disobey God is to obey the Devil. There is no grey or middle ground. You are either in or out. When you obey the devil, you become his slave for more evil. As human beings, we have an amazing ability to rationalize, make excuses, put the blame on others for the choices we make. We will even blame the devil, but the devil can’t “make” you do anything. The devil will try to persuade you to do something that ultimately will harm you. He will use the wounds or trauma you experience in life as an opportunity to control you and take away your ability to make sound choices in the future.
My Pastoral Experience
In my experience, as a Pastor, I have tried to counsel many people. What I have found is that getting to the “root” of a problem can be difficult. The deepest roots of trauma are often produced when we are young. The most common are caused by sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and physical abuse. These types of trauma are most difficult to deal with because they lie so deep in the soul! Our minds don’t want to bring them to the surface because the memories are so painful.
The Devil doesn’t want you to know what the source of your emotional pain or trauma is, and it is, therefore, difficult to see the root of the pain in yourself. That is the nature of the Devil’s deception. When you are being deceived you don’t know it! It is much easier for others around you to recognize it. You may experience the symptoms of fear, guilt, shame, remorse, humiliation, or embarrassment and not know why! Others see you as not-normal or as dysfunctional.
Spiritual trauma or injuries are very much like physical injuries. If you have a severe injury you don’t want others poking around the wound. That area becomes very sensitive and we will naturally try to protect the wound site. The same is true for an emotional wound or trauma! We don’t want to “mess” with it and we don’t want others to “mess” with it either. That is the trap that Satan wants us to fall into, “leave it alone and the pain will go away” but it never does.
The devil is like an infection… if you ignore him it will only get worse. The more pain the less likely you want to deal with it. Some will end up trying to hide the wound, act like there is no problem. You may be able to fool some people, but you can’t fool yourself! Something is wrong! While the single most common symptom is – Fear! Fear can come in many forms. Now I am not a mental health expert but here are some examples:
- anxiety or excessive worry
- sleep problems
- irrational fears
- muscle tension
- chronic indigestion
- stage fright
- self-consciousness
- panic attacks
- flashbacks
- perfectionism
- compulsive behavior
- self-doubt
Fear
Fear is defined as “an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain or a threat”. That pretty much says it all… it is an emotion! It can be either a reasonable fear or an unreasonable fear.
Reasonable fear is based on some present danger, you encounter a poisonous snake. An unreasonable fear is based upon some imagined danger or a past experience.
Here is an acronym for the word fear:
False Evidence Appearing Real.Here is what the Bible says:
1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love”.
Unconditional love, Agape love, the decision and commitment to love God will cast out fear. Unconditional love for God is fearless. Love for God is to hate the Devil. It’s deciding to choose a side! You cannot straddle the fence between God and Satan. You are either in or out! You choose to love or fear! Choosing love will cast out fear and the torment that comes with that fear.
You have to trust Dr. Jesus to destroy the source of the infection in your life. Look at 1 John 3:8b,
“For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil”.
Fear produces dysfunction.
The devil will use fear, especially the fear of repeating the pain you have experienced in the past. This produces all kinds of dysfunctional behavior. These behaviors will keep you in bondage.
- He will try to discourage you with fear…
- He will try to create doubt with fear…
- He will lead you into depression with fear…
- He will use guilt and shame to coerce you because of fear!
Perfect love casts out fear produced by trauma or a wound!
- 1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love”.
- 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind”.
Remember what I said earlier, “The devil can’t “make” you do anything, but he can try to persuade you to do something that you really shouldn’t do. However, as a final note, today remember this important fact. “Greater is the Holy Spirit in you than all the demonic forces in Hell”. 1 John 4:4… Jesus came to set you Free! You are free to Love God and to love others unconditionally!
Join me next time to examine more closely a broken spirit and most importantly how Agape love will triumph!
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Post 64 – Spiritual Warfare 1
As I said in my last post, we live in a “fallen world”! This means that we must deal with the consequences of not only our own choices, but we also have to deal with the consequences of the evil choices of others. We can be perfectly innocent and yet be negatively affected. In a fallen world, “Hurting people hurt people!”. Show More
the issue of Free-will
You’ve heard it said that “bad things happen to good people”. It is also true that bad things can happen to God’s people, Christians! How can this be? It has to do with the fact that God has given us free will. That is, the ability to make our own choices.
Free will is important because of the following fact. God loves us with an Agape or unconditional love, God has “decided” to love us. In the same way, God wants us to make the decision to love Him in an Agape- unconditional love as well. This fact alone requires that we have the ability to make a decision or commit to this kind of love.
You have heard and perhaps even thought, “why doesn’t God do something about cruelty, injustice disease, and poverty in the world”? Well think about it, is there anything God can’t do? No, He is omnipotent or all-powerful. Nothing is impossible with God.
However, here is the rub, the only way God can sovereignly right all the wrongs today is to violate or over-ride the will of people! You might think, well that’s not a bad idea, but that would mean taking away someone’s free will. It’s easy to think about violating someone else’s free will, but are you willing to give up your free will to make decisions and choices. You see it is a two-edged sword. It cuts both ways. [it rains on the just and the unjust].
This world system is in the control of Satan
Also, keep in mind who has control over this fallen world. I know that there may be many who don’t believe the following scriptures, but let me present a quote from the mid-1850s by Charles Baudelaire which endures even to this day, “The devil’s finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist.”
- Satan is the ruler of this world in the sense that the world is still characterized by sin. Jesus said. “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over Me” (John 14:30). This title suggests that he is the major influence over our world.
- Scripture teaches that the whole world is in his power. “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the evil one” (1 John 5:19).
- Satan is the authority over this present, evil world-system. “in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient” (Ephesians 2:2).
- Satan is the deceiver of the whole world. This fallen angel deceives the unbelieving world. “And the great dragon was cast down, the old serpent, he that is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world; he was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him” (Revelation 12:9).
I have said all of this to make this point, none of us escape life unscathed. We all bear the scars of making bad choices or suffering the physical/emotional abuse caused by the evil decisions of others.
Satan is a spiritual entity; therefore, his only weapon is to distort God’s truths and insert those lies into our minds. If we obey the lie, then we, in essence, serve him.
Romans 6:16, “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves, slaves, to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness”? this truth makes it even more clear that the battle we fight is a spiritual one.
The Spiritual War- the battlefield is in the mind
2 Cor 10:3-5 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
Let me paraphrase this statement:
Although we live in a physical body, our battle is against spiritual entities. Therefore, we can’t use physical means to battle against a spiritual foe, but Jesus has not left us hopeless or defenseless!
He has given us powerful weapons for pulling down “strongholds”. These strongholds are those false ideas or lies that we “strongly hold on to”. They are mental strongholds. Ideas like, you are not good enough, you are worthless, you are unlovable, you are ugly, you are stupid, you will never amount to anything, you are always wrong, and any other thought that Satan can put into your mind.
The Devil can put these thoughts directly into your mind or through the people you have encountered in life. We have the ability to “cast down those arguments or patterns of thinking that are contrary to what God has said about you and your circumstances.
God has placed His Holy Spirit in you for the purpose of revealing the truth that you are loved, forgiven, accepted, and empowered to resist the lies of the enemy and to accept what is true, but also the spiritual ability to live your life in obedience to your King, Jesus. This is easy to do when you realize that you are a “King’s kid”!
Once you know the truth, the truth will set you free, however, this usually doesn’t happen instantly. Understanding the truth may be instantaneous, but undoing years or a lifetime of lies may take time. It is very much like a physical injury or wound, there is a healing process. The same is true of spiritual wounds.
Next time we will be looking at the process of spiritual healing.
