Steps To Release

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Nearly 40 years ago I journeyed through a process of being set free from a variety of personal problems. Insecurity, fear, pride, immorality, attitudes and other things were brought to my attention and graciously dealt with.

The eventual end result of that process is the Steps to Release which I formulated as my ministry tool for helping others and myself step into personal freedom. What I want to do is share those steps with you, as part of the Christian Counselling material that you can apply to yourself or in helping others.

The Steps to Release are taught in my first book, Family Horizons, available from http://familyhorizons.net/html/shop.html

Several things prompted me to define these steps into a workable process which I can apply widely and share with others. While at Bible College in 1978 I shared my testimony of release and inner restoration with some of the students. Two girls, Janet and Jean, asked me to explain how God had set me free. I was unable to do so. They taunted me with the challenge that I had no right to share about my freedom if I couldn’t also show others how to enter into freedom too.

When I reflected on their challenge I remembered a discussion I had with my older brother. We had both encountered the infilling of the Holy Spirit at about the same time. A year or so later I said to my brother, “You know how God gets inside your life and starts dealing with you once you’ve received the Holy Spirit?” He looked at me and told me he had no idea what I was talking about. I tried to explain myself but he could not relate to my descriptions of having God convict me and reveal things to me. Up to that point I had assumed that everyone who received the Holy Spirit had the identical resultant experience.

So, when those fellow students challenged me to define God’s dealings in my life I went to prayer. I asked God to remind me what it was that He had done in me and how He had done it. I had no clear idea at first. I just took it all for granted and expected that everyone else was on the same journey of transformation which I enjoyed. Now that I knew each of us were on uniquely personal journeys and that my journey had produced some fruit others wanted to sample, I looked to the Lord to remind me how He had done His work in my life. There had been about seven years of various impacts, so I had to revisit that journey.

Piece of piece God began to awaken my memory. I began to remember specific preachers and sermons which were part of God’s work. I recalled various Bible verses which touched me at a deep level. I also remembered my responses to what God seemed to be saying deep within me.

My journey had been a deeply personal one. It touched my fears, pride, selfishness, vulnerabilities, inner pains, insecurities, shame, hurts and more. But as I recalled God’s gracious dealings a clear pattern began to emerge. God had taken me on a journey. It was a profound and personal venture that led me through my own personal quagmires and ruins into the glorious light of a new day in His presence.

There are many anecdotes I could share about the various stages of that journey, and in time I may well use them as illustrations here and there. What I think I should do is give you a summary of the overall journey then take the time to give you a more detailed description of the various steps in future posts. So for now, here is a summary of the landmarks that have become my Steps to Release.

1. The first thing I had to do was admit my need. This did not come easy, but I now see it as an essential element of the journey.

2. The second thing I had to do was identify the real problem, not just the symptoms. In the process I found it extremely valuable to uncover the root cause of the problem, such as an initiating event, if at all possible.

3. Once the problem had been identified I was led to take three important steps to deal with it. So the third thing I had to do was to repent of any part I had in bringing the specific problem into my life.

4. The fourth thing I had to do, and so the fourth step in my Steps to Release, was to forgive all those who were part of the problem. This includes those who caused the problem and those who added to it after the fact.

5. Then the fifth thing I was led to do was to renounce the evil of the situation. This is effectively the legal process of breaking the connection between the problem and me.

6. Having attended to those three steps of responsibility, repentance, forgiveness and renouncing, I could then enter into the spiritual warfare process of resisting the evil. This is the sixth step. I would break the power of the evil associated with the problem.

7. The final, seventh step is to fall at the feet of God. Another way to describe it is to cast my cares on Him, because He cares for me. This is the process of giving to God the ruin of my life and all that remains as a consequence of the problem which existed in my life. God is invited to take charge and to heal, restore and re-invigorate my life for His purposes.

8. If, after going through those steps the issue was not completely resolved I would see two things to do. One is to repeat the process, looking for even greater insight into what the problem is and where it came from. I would also be more diligent in working through the related steps. The other thing to do is to join forces with another Christian of strong faith who would add their faith to mine in working through the issue.

Well, that’s an introduction. I’ll elaborate at some time in the future. Meanwhile there is enough in this summary to empower you to tackle some of your problems. So go to it.

God & Genetics

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God is the first one to describe genetic transfer. While geneticists unravel the mysteries of DNA, genes and related genetic machinations they are simply playing with stuff that God first documented about 6,000 years ago.

The original records of the creation, which were later compiled by Moses in about 1500BC clearly document that God created plants and animals to reproduce “after their own kind” (Genesis 1:11,21,24). Natural science has consistently attested to this creative limitation ever since.

I noted in a previous post (Genetics for Dummies) that Gregory Mendel and Charles Darwin both approached the question of heredity. The monk, Mendel, in due reverence for what the Bible clearly taught, was intrigued by how God did it. How was it that the distinctively created kinds could reproduce diversity among their population, while remaining within their distinctive kind?

Darwin chose, probably under the influence of his father who first proposed the theory of evolution, to seek explanation for how the various kinds could emerge differently to what the Bible taught. He settled on natural selection and the survival of the fittest as the mechanism for one kind migrating or transforming into a completely unrelated kind.

In the century and a half since both these men lived we can now compare the impact of these two scientific pursuits. Mendel, thinking consistently with the Bible, has spawned enormous breakthrough in science and technology. Our understanding of the cell and genetic processes has progressed at staggering rate until insights completely unanticipated by Darwin are now taken for granted.

Darwin, on the other hand has contributed nothing to science, except the waste of people’s lives. The century long quest for Darwin’s “missing link” proved to be a waste of the energy, intellect and lives of thousands of brilliant men and women. The gullibility his quest created has been widely exploited with fakes and false science. From Piltdown Man to Peppered Moths, vestigial organs to embryonic recapitulation, Darwin’s vain theory has filled the minds, textbooks and classrooms with nonsense. No technology can be traced to his work, except the industry of extermination employed by Darwin devotees such as Karl Marx, founder of Communism.

God’s revelation about genetics has proven to be the seedbed of good science and positive technology.

Genetics received another Biblical boost in the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mt Sinai in Arabia, in 1491BC. God supernaturally wrote on stone slabs the curse that would come on people who worshipped other gods. Their iniquity would pass on to their descendents for multiple generations. God described Himself as, “visiting the iniquities of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation”, Exodus 20:5.

We see ample evidence of generational transfer of good and adverse social and personal qualities. Some families have been infamous for many generations, while other families have enjoyed happiness and stability for equally as long. The debate about whether these distinctions are based on nature or nurture has been a popular one. However it actually takes place, the fact is that God has already identified a generational transfer process. God is the God of Genetics, and He may well use genetic coding to encode the very things He speaks into existence, be they substance, as animals, or consequences, such as curses.

Science may yet be able to describe exactly what a curse looks like in the genetic code. As I pointed out previously, we now know that genetics involves the substance of the coded options (the DNA) and the switching on of various genes by other proteins (such as RNA). While ‘kinds’ are locked in the DNA, it may be that curses are transmitted through the actions of RNA. God may exercise the right to switch certain things on and off in your life.

Next time I visit this subject I’d like to explore the issue of Nature versus Nurture.

The Holy Spirit as a Dove – Poem

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Last week I posted on the image of a the Holy Spirit being like a dove in our chest, stirring when we worship and seeking to soar into the heavenly places. However we tend to restrain that impulse out of our sensibilities to those around us, not wanting to be out of step or to look foolish. The imagery developed to the picture of a dove being released, soaring into the skies and transforming into a powerful eagle. The sense that came with this imagery is that of the great benefit we can enjoy if we would only get past our self-consciousness and allow the Holy Spirit to be freely expressed through us. We would soon find ourselves mounting up with wings like an eagle and soaring far above the things of earth. 

Some days after capturing the initial imagery I found myself in another poetic frame of mind and so I penned the following verses to encapsulate the concept outlined above. 

A DOVE FLUTTERS IN MY CHEST – stirred by worship and the Word. Chris Field Friday April 18, 2008

A dove came down upon my chest and settled there to make its nest.
How sweet the tune and soft its wing and Oh how sweetly it did sing.
My life transformed by heaven’s dove, who brought me stirrings from above.

At times the dove doth stir and move, as worship lifts me from my groove.
When I embark on heartfelt praise I sense the dove doth lift its gaze.
It warms me so to sense things such, as if refreshed by God’s own touch.

At times I must restrain this dove, which stirs and coos of God’s great love.
I almost feel my chest will burst and so I quell my rising thirst.
My worship held my soul is calmed, yet I wonder if I’m harmed.

Then in a burst of free delight I let the dove take glorious flight.
I did not hold it back again but let it fly at will and then…
The dove transformed before my eyes into an eagle as it flies.

So now I soar in heavens above, since I released this heavenly dove.
With eagle wings I fly alone up to the place of heaven’s throne.
Hold not the stirrings of God’s dove – t’will lift you to God’s arms of love. 

The Holy Spirit as a Dove

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The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus Christ in the form of a Dove. And so the humble dove has become a perennial symbol of the Holy Spirit and peace. It is with that connection in mind that I share the following simple thought with you.

Two weeks ago I was in a staff meeting where one of my fellow pastors brought out a guitar and led us in a few worshipful songs. The experience was sweet and it prompted a couple of images to tumble through my mind. One of those thoughts was about releasing the Holy Spirit within me.

It is wonderful to worship God with abandon, such as David did as he welcomed the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem about 3,000 years ago. David readily put his own decorum aside and did not care if he looked foolish as he praised God. A word which David frequently used in his psalms, telling us to praise the Lord, means to be ‘clamorously foolish’ – so abandoned in adoration that we seem to be ‘over the top’ to others.

In practice, however, most of us are self-conscious and tend to adjust our own worship activity to match that expected or expressed by those around us. In a quiet setting everyone becomes quiet. In a noisy prayer meeting everyone tends to make more noise. If others are being restrained we tend to be restrained too.

During the morning devotion I am talking about there was a sweetness but also a level of polite restraint. As I pondered that I realised that many Christians restrain the work of the Holy Spirit in their life. The ‘dove’ of the Spirit settles in their chest and stirs them from time to time. The Spirit gives us witness and various stirrings that make us sensitive to God’s presence and work. When we worship we can even feel a sense of the dove wanting to spread its wings and soar. But to really let the Spirit soar we must cast off more of our decorum and social restraint.

As these thoughts trickled through my mind an image formed of what could happen when someone allowed the dove out of the cage. I imagined a person abandoning themself in worship and flowing with the impulse of that heavenly dove stirring within them. My imagination observed as the dove, powering upward into the heavenlies, was transformed into a majestic eagle. The verse about mounting up on eagle’s wings jumped into mind as I imagined a person, free in their worship, rising out of their restraint and into the lofty realms to which the Spirit of God could carry them.

The diary note I made after that worship time reads as follows: ‘Our spirit is like a dove inside a cage. If we let it out, let it fly and soar – by giving vent to the Spirit within us, rather than restraining our worship style to suit what those around us would prefer – then that dove takes flight and is transformed into an eagle – we rise up on wings as an eagle and soar in the heavenly places, far above all principalities and powers.’

I encourage you to flow with the Spirit of God and yield to the Spirit. I believe there is much that God has for us to enjoy, that is yet untouched while we are locked in stiff restraint. Some of you may well discover that being ‘clamorously foolish’ is as powerful and rewarding for you as it was for King David three millennia ago.  

Renewing the Mind

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Don’t be conformed to the world but be transformed by having your mind renewed. Romans 12:2

We each need a complete overhaul in our thinking. That’s not just to deal with the “evil” things in our minds, but to change the very basis by which we think. Transformation does not come by tidying up our thoughts, cataloguing them differently, adding some new ones or finding Bible references to give authority to our opinions. The ‘renewed’ mind is not an ‘educated’ mind, a Biblically literate mind or a re-enculturated mind. It is a ‘new’ mind.

One of the challenges we face in allowing God to deal with our thinking is that we have faith in our own opinions, thoughts and conclusions. Solomon pointed out that people think they are right – “Every way of man is right in his own eyes” Proverbs 21:2, “All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes” Proverbs 16:2.

Because we have a high regard for our own mind and thoughts we tend to be protective of long-held beliefs and cherished opinions. We elevate these thoughts as a worthy platform for the rest of our life. Albert Einstein made fun of this tendency when he said, “Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen“.

Attitudes, then, are closely linked to our thoughts. That’s why a “check-up from the neck up” (as Zig Ziglar likes to put it) should really be heart surgery. Oh, there I go again, mentioning the “heart“. Well, this is not the last time, so get used to it. You will never achieve a renewed mind without a transformed heart at the same time.