Comments on: Can We Control Spiritual Growth & Emotional Healing?

By: Sergio Hurtado

Sergio Hurtado — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:41:48 +0000

Wow, this is my first time ever reading one of your posts and I must say I was very moved by all the spirituality … I have to admit I’m not much of a religion man. I’m more about GOD. I believe those of which led a good life helping others and showing nothing but love to those around him/her shall be chosen to live in paradise. Maybe I’m wrong to judge a religion by the actions the members take… I’d love to discuss the matter with someone. But for now… I must thank you all for everything I read makes me feel like the world still has many good hearts.

Sergio Hurtado
God Bless you all

By: Miriam @ Christian Stress Management

Miriam @ Christian Stress Management — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:58:48 +0000

Spiritual growth is not involuntary. We have to do a lot of the work by ourselves for example creating time to read the Bible and pray as well as choosing not to sin and to obey God when temptation talks.

By: Benson Agoha

Benson Agoha — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 10:47:22 +0000

Hi Robin, your question ‘Can We Control Spiritual Growth and Emotional Healing?’, makes an interesting read. And I wonder if I can comment.

I do believe we can certainly control spiritual growth and emotional healing if we work on, or have access to, the right psychologist. There are different routes to spiritual growth and if we can identify the paths, we certainly can control it. Spiritual experiences are often caused by physical factors, which is why I have since concluded that, contrary to popular belief, the physical actually controls the physical. And that for this reason also, spiritualists should and must be regulated to stop them from becoming ‘spiritual terrorists’.

By: Dee

Dee — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:07:57 +0000

I’m with Theresa on this. I have received inner healing prayer many times and am blessed to participate with God to pray for others as well. God wants us to call on His love, His power, His mercy and His grace to deliver, heal and free us from a lifetime of wounds and places of bondage. Isaiah 61 speaks of God’s promise to heal the brokenhearted and set captives free and it is a matter of choice. He will trade us beauty for ashes. Sadly, some people choose to hold on to the ashes and are unwillingly to receive the beauty and peace that can only come their Heavenly Father. I have witnessed many who want an instant fix and yet are unwilling to let go of their bitterness, unforgiveness or hard hearts. Sadly, they leave prayer with unchanged hearts and probably are still reliving the same patterns in their life they always have. I had been on antidepressants and my health continued to fail for 18 years. I am now free of depression and medication because I was willing to allow God to come into my heart and forgive me for holding on to anger, rejections, judgment and despair. God is a gentleman, He allows us to say yes or no to the question; “do you want to be well?”
peace
DEE

By: Dolores

Dolores — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 11:02:29 +0000

I don’t believe for a nanosecond that Darin Hufford made that last post. Shame on whoever did that!

By: Darin Hufford

Darin Hufford — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 02:46:35 +0000

I totally agree with Darin. I think he’s brilliant, and he’s extremely good looking. If Theresa and Penney could only see a picture of Darin, they would surely change their opinions and agree with everything he says:-)

By: Penney Douglas

Penney Douglas — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:29:33 +0000

I think I disagree with his premise more than I agree with it. Deliverance has done amazing things in our lives. We have been set free from bondages that we didn’t even know we were under thanks to many experiences of deliverance. God doesn’t sovereignly deliver us of things without our even knowing it, not always. Many times He leads us to a person or to the avenue of deliverance, but we have to follow Him and then we have to do what He tells us to do to attain that deliverance and growth. He leads us by His Spirit into what we need to do to grow more.

We don’t have to strive. I do agree with that. We just need to be open to hear what He’s saying and then obedient to what He tells us to do.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 04:40:11 +0000

Things to think about. I think that the only part we have to play is obedience, not keeping the law type obedience, but walking in the Spirit, moment by moment, being sensitive to what God is asking of us. If we had so much control, we wouldn’t learn things like patience through our trials and build character and faith and hope (Rom. 5:3-4).

By: Theresa

Theresa — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 17:26:03 +0000

Quite honestly, I have to politely disagree. I lived many years of my Christian walk hoping this was true and it is a lie. Sadly, it is even more empty than the psycho-babble that has infiltrated the church….. To just hope that one day all your pain and hurt will disapear. To have to WAIT for the Lord to take them away and stay in bondage till that time is just not God’s character. It is not God’s choice that we stay in bondage but that we surrender our hurts to Him. To imply that you have no part in the surrender? The article seems to omit the fact that we have a free will in our relationship with the Lord. WE get to chose how much the Lord has control over our lives and can thwart many of His plans for the many blessings he has in store for us. We are faced with choices everyday to follow scripture or be flippant about it with the attitude of “whatever will be will be”. God is a very specific and orderly God but he is also a gentleman. He will not override our free will. He will not force his healing upon you. There has to be a yielding of our will to do this. For many years the Isrealites wandered in the wilderness and the Lord LET them do this. I am certain if they would have come to grips with their sin sooner they would not have wandered so long. Moses, a very faithful man, would have been able to SEE the promise land. Our walks with the Lord are very similar. For many years I had been an Isrealite in my walk with the Lord. Did all the right things, spent time with the Lord daily, homeschooled the kids, was involved in children’s ministry at church……. However, God showed me that I there was something missing in my walk with Him. I knew it had to do with my past and the baggage that I carried into my relationship with God as a way of protecting myself. Not realizing or ‘wanting’ God to protect me because it was unknown. Thought I could do a better job but that was hindering our relationship. In order to be healed of something you must know what you are giving to the Lord to surrender to him. You must re-program your brain with scriptures to replace what was formerly there to combat the old man and guard yourself with spiritual armor. If we just pretend that things will heal on their own it is much like living in ignorance. I did this for many years and thought I was fine/healed, however it was when I asked the Lord to search my heart, HE showed me that I still had not surrendered my hurts to Him. I was going to continue in that pattern of wandering, till I gave it over. I went through a study that revealed with scripture, how I hide my hurts with sins that were coming out in other more ‘acceptable’ ways.
Hebrews 12: 15 See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.
Now that I have been shown what was the bitter root, I have asked the Lord to have my “whole heart” and unpack the baggage I carried into our realtionship. It was not fun to ‘unpack’ the bag, but it was necessary for ME to acknowlege what I was surrenduring and willingly not hide anything from the Lord. While nothing is truely hidden from God He will not over-ride our ability to keep what we have. I no longer need to unpack anything from the Lord and have experienced freedom from my hurts for a couple years now. It is not something I dwell on or are adicted to remembering. It is gone! However, seeing others in the same bondage and being told that it will just ‘go away’ is a hopeless solution and a continuation of what the Isrealites did in the WIlderness. TO stay in the wilderness when God has the promise land in store is a sad existence and a fruitless walk with the Lord. Although he gave some great analogies and visuals, none of them deal with application to scripture. So much of the church is absolutely dead and stagnant. There is no desire to yield grow or submit to scripture. His line of thinking seems to encourage stagnancy rather than running the race with endurance and Christ’s strength. God calls us to continually ask Psalm 139: 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
If we do this He will draw/lead us closer to Him and away from our flesh.
Thank you for letting me share my thoughts.
Theresa

By: Joni

Joni — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 02:13:07 +0000

Hi Robin,
I’m glad to read your health update in your blog. I’ve been hearing a still small voice say, “Love God, love others,” and feeling the beckoning to just engage more in life rather than trying to “work on it.”
I think being a visual learner and not being raised in Godly principles draws me to gather wisdom which can happen to a fault. Even our pastor said last week we have to be careful our good ideas or what we’ve learned really are the voice of God.
I think this message is important. I was reminded of something silly. In the movie, What about Bob, Richard Dreyfuss told Bob to take a vacation from his problems. It was very funny how the supposed “mentally sick” person seemed to be more in touch than they psychiatrist.
Another thing that came to my mind from years ago is a book called, Addicted to Recovery by .
And finally, what else comes to my mind is that the Comforter, Jesus, never minds comforting us throughout the day or responding to our frustrations by being that living water pool where we drink and reflect continually. This, to me, is healthy but often I find myself trying to concoct living water on my own I guess.

Joni

Holy God, take my heart, purge with flame and truth, a humble heart, is all I want, that I may live with You, Misty Edwards