Monday, March 2, 2009

What is the dream

To establish a pathway of hope to bring liberty to those who are oppressed. Our society in it’s desire to help the brokenhearted, is part of the problem. We provide enough care to maintain a level of survival that I would call the living dead.

The men, women, and youth who continue to live the cycle of hopelessness have levels of success and then great dives back into self medication and delusion.

Together we contribute in different ways, we see the problem in different ways. We need to assess what are the steps to wholeness for our friends who are oppressed. We need to build trust together. We need to be able to communicate the same pathway of hope and liberty to our friends.

This a dream we can discover together. We need the wisdom of those who work with our oppressed friends and the wisdom of those who bring healing and liberty to the broken, with an open heart to what the approach would be from a street mentality.

What if we had a tool of Assessment and a Hospital?

Mental Illness, demonic oppression is it one of the above or both?
Trauma, Abandonment, Lordship, Confession & Renunciation, Forgiveness, Breaking ungodly Soul Ties, Generational Ties, Curses, Bitter Root Judgements, Inner Vows,The Occult, what is the problem?

Therapy is not enough, family and community can fail us. People need people to recover.

What is God’s part and our part to bring healing?
Heart, Soul, and Mind need to work together. Wholeness is not achieved quickly, getting past what is in the past takes time.

If the power of Joy is required to achieve wholeness in a fractured world how do we build joy, recovery and life that is abundant?

Surgery requires a hospital. Jesus is not the great magician but the great physician. The biggest part of healing is not putting a band-aid on a wound. Getting to the root of the disease, operating and then allowing time to rest and recover is why a hospital is needed.

Are we going to perpetrate just putting band-aids on the disease and help maintain the cycle of the living dead?

10 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi I'm new to the running of a blog. But the response has been such that I am wondering if this is a problem people do not want to talk about. Or maybe many have become to busy with the band-aid activity. Has anyone created an assessment tool that would help with the understanding of who to spend our lives on? What are the checks and balances? Spiritual discernment is a plus, but what are the practical things to ask people when we want to lead them into a place of freedom? Do you know Jesus? Do we ask them on our first meeting? Do we suggest that there is a spiritual side to them that could free them up to deal with the emotional and physical pain? Do we wave a carrot? That there is joy to be had that is beyond what the world can give? Maybe these questions could get the ball rolling?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don`t know. It does seem like we spend time on people who don`t get better, or get worse. So I don`t think it`s about fixing them.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Bob, George Schuurman here from Harvest Bible Chapel. I haven't bumped into you for a while; I think the last time was at the Scott Mission. Looking forward to seeing this develop, the need is so great.

    As you know I was a police officer in downtown Toronto for 31 years. God changed me, forgave me and saved me in 2001 using the hurting street people to convict me of my own sin and selfishness. In the middle of all that He also called me to reach out to those very people.

    You ask a lot of questions in this post and that's great. I hope and pray you get a ton of responses. What you say at the end, is the key, getting to the root of the disease. The disease is sin, the sin of others and the sin within. That is true for anyone, rich or poor.

    God changes us from the inside out. It all starts with Him. The starting point is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He died that we might be set free, rich or poor. The change in a person's life begins with salvation. Up until a person is saved in Jesus Christ, there can be nothing but band-aids put on the disease. A person is not truly free until they are free in Jesus Christ. When that happens everything changes because of course then the perspective totally changes. Doesn't make it easier, necessarily, but oh so much better. When a person comes to know why they are here and where they are going, everything in life changes and it is a glorious thing. It's happened in my life and I have now seen enough examples in the lives of others to know it is true.

    I believe with all my heart God is going to do a mighty work in our city. He is drawing people together for His purposes. Those who are truly in Christ and long to see Him do this work in others and especially to those on the margins. To see those who have been in the pit, redeemed for His glory. They will become the trophies of His grace and will testify to the greatness of God and people will take notice because there will be no other explanation other than God. I think that principle is true that says that if you can explain it, God probably didn't do it.

    Have a great day Bob and I'm really looking forward to seeing how this develops and will pray for that.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Karen

    I don't know is a good response. The purpose of the blog is to discover as a community who love our friends are there resources that we have discovered that can help each other. I don't think that we can fix them. We know it is about Jesus he is the healer.

    In Luke 4:18 Jesus communicates this to his world and ours.
    18 “ 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.”
    20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
    (New King James Version)

    Jesus said, this is fulfilled. If it is fulfilled and Jesus said it was. Then we must be missing something that lets us help our friends discover healing, liberty and eyes to see.

    My request is do we have an assessment tool that allows us to love our friends into healing and liberty. If there is no such tool available who has it and if not can we discover together what that tool would look like.

    One of the problems that I see with the friends that I have made over the years is that the message communicated to our friends, is mixed and different with every place they turn to. If they don't like the message they hear they go somewhere else.

    What if in unity the message was the same where ever they turned. Maybe this would be the first step to healing and liberty.

    I like this illustration. Dr. George Sweeting tells a story about the tragedy of addictions. One day he watched several blocks of ice floating down a river at Niagara Falls. Curiously, several birds floated above water looking for fish. One sea gull spotted a fish frozen in one of the blocks of ice that was hurling speedily toward the giant water fall. Without realizing the danger ahead, the bird grabbed the piece of ice with part of the carcass of the dead fish embedded in it. Riding on the block of ice, the bird did not realize that its feet had frozen on to the ice block. As the bird tried to fly away when it sensed its impending doom it was too late. The bird died, stuck to the ice block as it plummeted to its death because of its addiction to fish. Many Christians fail to see how slowly their lusts, secret sins and subtle addictions lead them to self-destructive tendencies. Only the power of the Holy Spirit working through the word of God frees us as Jesus said, "You will know the truth and the truth will set you free." (John 8:31,32)

    Maybe talking about the truth we see in our friends in love, will release the Holy Spirit to bring the revelation they need to move toward healing and liberty. This could be the starting point but I think there would have to be much more.

    Blessings,
    Bob

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi George

    Good to hear from you. I have to agree with you that the root of all disease is sin. My concern about pointing out sin to our friends is are we doing it in love. Grace has to be the key to bringing healing and liberty. Surgery is done with very fine instruments we can not be pushing logs into peoples eyes. Maybe the first instrument or tool to be discovered. Is that our approach to sin is to share that we too have sin that we deal with everyday. If you have any other revelation share it with us.

    Blessings,
    Bob

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Bob,

    My question is ,..Do we love these people enough to love them back to life,...Whenever I think about that I think big project,...but it's all God anyways, I'm sure if he wanted to heal them he will do it without formulas,...People are unique and special so we should treat them accordingly...

    Sometime listening to there pain is kinda feeding fuel to the fire,..but how can we know them without listening???

    Patty

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Patty

    Without love it is a work of the flesh, with the work of the Holy Spirit we join Him in what we see Him doing. The dance of healing is not a formula but there is boundaries for health to happen. Not that we are not in a constant place of forgiveness, because we recognize the grace we have been extended. Nobody wants to be a project but we can come along side people and fight the fight with them. God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit are gentlemen they will not force there themselves on anyone. It is a dance of unity that brings healing sometimes it is waltz and other times it is a war dance. People need people to dance and people need the work of the supernatural to find healing. Listening in love is only productive if people are willing to dance in unity. Sometimes the first step is to find that unity in what is possible.

    Blessings,
    Bob

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Bob,

    It sure is worth talking about, so thanks for creating this blog. I mention to our volunteers all the time that our street outreach is just a bandaid - or like triage - so if there were a better diagnostic tool, or hospital, then real healing could take place. Would like to see how it develops.

    ReplyDelete