When God set me free from Rejection I thought everyone enjoyed the same release. I thought it came along with the experience of being Filled with God’s Holy Spirit. It all happened to me around the same time and I assumed it was all part of the same package.

I remember talking with my older brother toward the end of God’s major work in my life, and realising that what God was doing in me was not common to everyone. I said to him, “You know how God gets in and messes with your inner life and totally sets you free and transforms you ….” He looked at me blankly and said, “No”. So I tried to explain it to him differently. I finally realised that what I was going through was not a standard procedure, but a wonderful personal journey.

Challenged to Explain

Several years later, when I gave testimony of God’s wonderful healing in my inner life I was challenged to explain how God had done it. I couldn’t explain it and simply announced that it was God’s wonderful work, for which I am very glad.

Those who heard my testimony told me I had no right to share such a wonderful thing if I couldn’t also tell my audience how God did it, so they too could experience the same transformation.

That put me on my back feet, so to speak, and I went to prayer to ask God what it was that He had done to set me free.

Mileposts on My Journey

The Lord enabled me to reconstruct the journey which He had led me along in order to bring me to the release which I enjoyed. I realised that I did not take these steps quickly, but laboured over several of them for extended periods of time.

I had no mentor on my journey and so I stumbled along, bogging down, drawing back and resisting the Lord’s work along the way. Yet, I gradually recognised the mileposts which I had passed along the way.

I wrote down the list of major steps God had me take. As I did, I realised that when I had prayed for others and given them godly advice, I was unconsciously directing others to follow the same path that I knew had worked for me.

I called the steps My Steps to Release. I have taught them around the world and used them in many diverse situations to help people young and old for a wide range of backgrounds. So I confidently teach them to others.

Widely Applied

As I saw the path which the Lord led me along I recognised that He asked very similar things of me for a variety of issues which He dealt with in my life. These were the steps God used to lead me out of Rejection, but He also used them to release me from masturbation, and from fear, and to deal with my pride, and to release my faith, and so on.

As you come to appreciate these steps I commend their use in the many challenges you have to work through, but also in your efforts to bless and help others.

A Road Not A Map

The problem with a distilled list of steps is that the “map” becomes an object of worship for those who learn them. Bookshops abound with texts espousing the “Six Steps” to this or that. “Become a better YOU in five simple steps!”

However you need to keep in mind that my Steps to Release describe a Road. They involve a “journey”, not a seminar session. They are about you stepping into freedom, not about you having a new trick routine to try out.

The steps are not magical. They do not teleport you to some destination. Instead, they are the steps upon which you must place your foot. If you really want to be free you must walk with the Lord, not just read about the road.

Milestones on the Journey

This is the journey which God took me along and taught me to use to bring others into wholeness and release. This is the journey which I have led many rejection sufferers along and seen them walk into complete healing and restoration.

It begins with the step of Admitting you have a need. This challenges you to be humble.

It helps to identify the real problem and the initiating events, if possible. The right medicine will only be given if the right diagnosis is made. Is your problem rejection, or fear, or shame, or something else? Where did it come from?

Repent of any wrong you have done to create the problem. Be honest with yourself and God. If you have initiated or perpetuated the problem in any way you need to ask God to forgive you.

Forgive all those who have been a part of the problem, including its initiation and continuation.

Renounce all of the evil associated with the problem. This is the process of breaking the spiritual connection between you and the problem. Break your link to all the elements of the problem, from its initiation and development in your life.

Now, resist the evil. Break the power of those things you have already prayed about. This is spiritual warfare against the evil spirits associated with your problem.

Then throw yourself at God’s feet, spiritually. Give God all of your problem, garbage, fears, sins, and so on. Let God take what is left of you and make of you what He wants.

Now bask in and receive God’s love and healing in your life.

More Clarity

I have discussed these Steps To Release in several of my books, in videos on YouTube and in articles on the ChrisFieldBlog.com site. If you would like to learn more about these steps then check out those resources.

What we have seen in recent lessons is that people who suffer rejection can develop in various ways into different and even contrasting personality types. There is no one stereotype of a “Reject”. Rejected people are all unique individuals and they will respond differently, based on personality, things that influence them, their ambitions and the manner and degree to which their rejection has impacted them.

Motley Crew

A group of highly rejected people can contain quite diverse personalities and lifestyle characteristics. There will be leaders, followers, loners, negotiators, carers, retaliators, aggressors, crumplers, jokers, performers, high achievers, and everything else.

So, from a ministry point of view, I always have in mind that any person I meet, no matter what their appearance of success or wholeness, may be carrying some rejection baggage which needs to be cleared away. I don’t go looking for rejection, but I recognise that it can be present in unexpected places.

Pity Please Punch

Three of the main characters I tend to notice the most are those who give in to the Pity party, those who seek to Please others (such as the extrovert performer), and those who give in to aggression (that’s where the word “punch” fits in).

The crumpled ‘hopeless case’ type person may well be a rejection sufferer. But so too might be the ‘life of the party’ person who is always seeking to amuse and impress others. And so too might be the hardened aggressor who stands up to others and does his own thing.

We have also seen that rejection addicts and users are not uncommon types of people to emerge from a rejection background.

Outsiders

Many years ago I was speaking at a Christian meeting in Kings Cross, back when it was the ‘bad’ part of Sydney. Drugs, prostitution and all manner of vices could be readily accessed in Kings Cross at the time.

After the meeting, my host called me to the shop window and pointed out two youths walking up the street. They were kitted out in the most extreme punk rocker garb of the day. Everything about them shouted that they were outsiders to normal society.

My host, converted from the ugly side of life, asked me what I thought those kids were doing dressed like that. I had no answer. I had never thought it necessary to play the part of a misfit.

He advised me, from his own personal journey, that people who dress and act as those boys did were addicted to the pain of rejection. He claimed that they actually wanted people to scowl at them, be afraid of them, and reject them from normal society. These, then, were rejection addicts, in an extreme version.

No Good in Rejection

I know that some people are able to rise above their circumstances and use their challenges as stepping stones for personal success. This is true of those who have been rejected. Their experience of rejection motivates them to achieve, to prove themselves, to outperform others, and so on.

I think of a highly successful businessman who seems to run on high-octane (so to speak), since he is a high achiever in everything he does. He has risen above the pain of his past and the tragic loss of his parents when he was young.

So, some people might tend to think of hardship and pain as possibly a good thing in places.

However, rejection is an evil experience. It brings pain and harm. It is not good, even if people are able to rise above it in some way.

Do Not Use Rejection

I have seen parents, teachers and even peers, use rejection as a tool for manipulation or to motivate people. “You don’t want people to think you are STUPID, do you?” “If you don’t lift your grades then you are not one of us!” “We won’t be your friend any more, unless you do what we tell you.”

Humiliation was a tool some teachers resorted to in years gone by, sitting a child in a corner with a dunce hat on their head. The hope may have been that the child would be motivated by the experience to work harder, so as never to suffer that again.

But, even if you appear to create a positive outcome, rejection is toxic and is not a tool to use. Toying with people’s being, by using rejection, can bring untold damage.

Win and Lose

While rejection may appear to produce a desired result, it leaves deep scars which will not go away. Money, fame and success do not remove the pain of rejection.

The businessman I referred to earlier, who is a high achiever and highly successful man, is locked up on the inside. He is unable to relate to people with ease or with self-confidence. He is highly committed to performance and achievement, rather than relationship. He only understands “doing”, not “being”.

Those who could have helped him work through his pain and loss did not do so. He ended up relying on his personal abilities and living his life to compensate for what he lost. But he cannot have the warmth and depth of relationship that his heart was made for and which he is seeking at a deeper level.

Nothing Like Freedom

There is nothing like freedom. The Bible talks about the “glorious liberty of the children of God” and being “free indeed”. We are told to stand firm in the liberty which Christ has liberated us into.

“Creation itself will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” Romans 8:21

“If the Son (Jesus) makes you free, you will be free indeed (truly free).” John 8:36

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty with which Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Galatians 5:1

Do not become attached to your rejection. Do not think of it as a gift or a blessing in your life. Do not use rejection on others. Do not live with your rejection any longer.

Be healed, by receiving the Love that comes from God. I will explain how God’s love impacts on rejection in the coming lessons.

I have already opened the subject of contingency plans with you. I have shown that if we go with the flow and follow the broad way we will head to destruction. We must that the road less travelled in order to be prepared for the challenges which will come our way.

Wise people check things out and are ready for the evil ahead. Foolish people just blunder on and end up in pain and trouble. King Solomon said that in Proverbs 22:3.

Not Equal

Not all people are equal. Communism and socialism seek to equalise everyone, but people are different not only in terms of age and strength. People generate different outputs and have different levels of protection around them.

The rabble is made up of simple people. They rush to the left and the right and end up in the ditch. Often they will be resistant to the help they need, because they will not respect or receive the wisdom that is offered to them.

The wise accept instruction and correction and even love those who rebuke them. Fools become angry and incensed when they are told their faults or given good advice.

Be Prepared

I often hear people discuss situations they are in and I quickly see that they are no prepared. Many people have never looked into the information given them. They blindly accept the populist ideas and have no protection from the inevitable tide of trouble coming their way.

How many times have you skipped reading the paperwork? How often do you simply get a quick summary of the facts from one of your friends? When you do that you are accepting the cultural notions, and not necessarily the facts of the situation. You may be the blind one being led by the blind!

But being prepared is not always easy. It can be costly in terms of money, time, energy and attention. Choosing the right selection, making the right plans and taking the correct precautions can be challenging tasks.

Setting up the right insurance, investments, course of study, career path, health program, exercise regime, information on key social processes, etc do not happen easily overnight.

So the challenge is to “be prepared”. Stop playing “follow the leader” and running with all the sheep. Step out of the path of ignorance and start climbing the hill of responsibility.

No Easy Ride

I love the idea of an easy ride. I’m an Aussie. I have been raised in a culture where our motto is “She’ll be alright mate!” This is to say that if we don’t do anything it won’t really matter. We are not culturally trained to be responsible or well informed. Aussies are just as likely to espouse empty opinions as anyone else on the planet.

So it is not easy for me to admit that life is not an easy ride. Malcolm Fraser, an Australian Prime Minister, once quoted George Bernard Shaw’s saying that “Life wasn’t meant to be easy!” He was ridiculed for saying so, but it happens to be true.

And remember that Jesus points us to the narrow and restricted path, not the easy, “go with the flow” path that everyone else is on.

That does not mean that life is meant to be downright impossible. But it does mean that we cannot be too complacent or casual about proper preparation for the life ahead.

What Will You Do?

Conspiracy theorists have all kinds of concerns about what the world might be in for in the next few decades. Forced injections, implanted identity chips and concentration camps for citizens in America and other first world countries are just some of the ugly spectres found in their materials.

What will you do if any of these things were to come about? Have you made any preparation? Have you investigated any of these things?

Overwhelmed By The Moment

My muslim friend from Boznia fled to Australia during the ethnic and religious warfare late last century. As the trouble spread he talked with his best friend, a non-muslim, and they both agreed that they would never do anything to harm each other.

However just a few weeks later that very friend was part of a vigilante group which expelled the muslim from his home. The friend said, “What else can I do?” He would have been expelled himself if he had stood up for his friend. All the best in intentions in the world were swept away in the crisis.

So, are your preparations disaster-proof? Or will they be overwhelmed in the heat of the moment?

Spiritual Preparations

The most powerful and important preparations are those you make with God. Being a son of God by faith in Jesus Christ is essential. You then access the many blessings that God has for His children, including wisdom, security, grace, blessing, forgiveness, and more.

But even there, keeping a Bible under your pillow won’t help you. Reading it and feasting on God’s words to you will do vastly more than simply owning a Bible.

Shallow, token prayers will never be as helpful and powerful as Spirit-anointed intercessions. Culturally sensitive sermons will be far less helpful than the truth of God’s Word preached fearlessly. Living your life the way it suits you will make you much more vulnerable than to determine to do all that God asks of you, His way.

God promises to give you wisdom if you ask for it. So if you feel incapable of knowing what to do, ask God for the wisdom He has promised you. Commit your ways to Him, cry out to Him and let God be your deliverer.

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally, and does not rebuke; and it will be given to him.” James 1:5
“Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Acts 2:21
“Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.” Psalm 107:6

Ignorance is Your Own Fault

If you remain stupid, foolish and ignorant, then don’t blame anyone else. It is your fault.

If others get through the storms better than you, then don’t resent their foundations, but learn from their example. Don’t build your life on the sand of human opinion and cultural conformity.

Your life is your own. Others will betray you, fool you, and set you up for destruction. But you, and only you, can choose to change all that by stepping into the light of God’s truth and taking responsibility for the rest of your life.