A Raging River in my Soul
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Psalm 23
A raging river in my soul
I often think about the lives of Bible characters and then remember messages that I have preached. These thoughts intersect with thoughts that I think about people that I know today.
Maybe you only think about a couple people, but I think about most of the people in the church pretty regularly. I consider the things that I know about each person’s life. I consider where they’ve been and where they are. I consider the trials and circumstances and the battles that they may face.
What happened to Tamar after Amnon threw her out and locked the door?
What could have Absalom done differently that would have prevented his anger and bitterness that resulted in his tragic death?
What made the little girl from Israel stay hopeful even after she was taken captive and forced to served in Naaman’s house? How was she not full of sorrow and heartache over losing her parents and able to witness about God’s power and help Naaman the leper get healed?
What would have happened to Peter after the denial had Jesus not helped him?
Did Paul just conveniently forget Stephen’s stoning? Or was there a time, not mentioned in scripture where his heart was overwhelmed with sorrow for the things that he had done in the past?
Surely, he allowed God to heal his heart and turn his failures into victories instead of letting the devil use them in his life to make him want to quit.
He must have allowed the Holy Spirit to enter in to those deep places of his soul and bring healing? Or do you think that he just buried those thoughts somewhere deep in his heart, in one of those compartments in his soul— you know throw it in a room of the mind, close the door, lock it and forget about it?
I don’t know. The Bible doesn’t speak on that. Sometimes the Bible is either silent or synoptic on things and we can only wonder.
But we do know that in the world there are tribulations: the word means to be pressed. Life is full of trials that cause pressure and pressure that we just try to pretend isn’t there is not really being dealt with properly. These hidden problems can be quiet and peaceful one moment and suddenly swell into raging river the next.
Hurts and pains can occur anytime along the life span. We can be hurt as a child by our parents. Some people have had harsh childhoods. They grow up in an environment where there was either some type of abuse or neglect: verbal, physical, sexual… or maybe it’s not that, maybe it’s just neglect. Sometimes you can just feel like someone doesn’t love you or care much about you and that they are rejecting you and it can be painful. So what do we do about that? What are we supposed to do about that?
I know you people are pretty seasoned in the word. Maybe someone will watch on video and say, “Well, I’m over here waiting to hear preacher, what must I do?” You must, I must, the people in this room must learn how to allow God to heal them.
“Nah, I’m good preacher. I’m a man and now you’re talking about girl stuff. Feelings and all that kind of stuff.” Well, maybe you think right now that you don’t need healing from hurt that has been caused to you, but is it possible that someone else needs healing from hurt that has been caused by you?”
In one of the recent messages I preached, I mentioned that the veil is torn and access has been granted. In His presence there is fullness of joy and where the presence of the Lord is there is free-dom. Would we enter in and let Him minister to these places of hurt in our hearts.
Have we let Him into the deep places of our hearts? To turn on the light, to search the heart to try the reins, not looking for sin alone, but looking for sick spots, disease, infections of the heart, poisonous plants or roots of bitterness that have been placed by other people, or will we let Him reveal the hurts that we have caused others?
No, I like locking it away in a compartment and hiding it. That works for me. No, it really doesn’t because many times this is the weight that besets you. Many times this is the weight that breaks in on you and messes up you race.
Hebrews 12:1
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Weight- a bulky mass, a hindrance, an encumbrance.
I have to be honest, as we move further into the plan of God, I’m realizing that this church isn’t going to be for everyone. This church is for people who want to know what God is really saying to the churches, a church for people who are willing to let Him start with them and from there use them to start on someone else, but don’t be deceived, once He starts, He will never stop because He wants to deal with both the sins and the weights that are trying to beset you. Satan, through sins and weights is trying to wall you off in the race [illustration].
I’m over here running...
But there are weights, burdens and I don’t even realize it but they’re getting in the way. They change the way I treat other people. I’ve been hurt, so I hurt. Oh man you’re talking Psychology. No, I’m talking Psuchology.
The pains that we suppress and refuse to give to God can affect our spirit man? They can cause a heaviness or cause one to become broken, which results in us not handling our business right towards others.
Sometimes we’re the one that caused the pain, but we’re so busy thinking about how we’ve been wronged that we’ve moved past what we did to others and we’re ready for our blessing from God, but He’s got me stuck in a spot and I can’t move. Why can’t I move from here? Why does it seem like I’m stagnant in my walk? Why do I not grow? Maybe He wants to deal with these things in our heart. The issues of the heart. The weights and the sins we caused others or that have been caused towards us. He wants to heal us.
It doesn’t matter whether you use the word soul, heart or mind it doesn’t matter— all these words speak about a certain layer in the inner person that we really don’t know much about. The word has some things to say about it:
1 Thessalonians 5:23
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God wants the entirety of our person to be separated from the world and to be made holy unto Him. We know that this is an ongoing process. We understand that this is an ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. We understand that the Holy Spirit works through the work of the cross and like a surgeon He’s cutting away flesh and planting seeds of fruit that will result in a new harvest of hope that will result in joy for you, your family and others around you.
If you were already wholly sanctified, if your soul was already where it needed to be then He wouldn’t warn you:
Romans 12:2 (a)
And be not conformed to this world…
He wouldn’t tell you that there was work to be done in your mind if it was already completely fixed. I had a conversation with a man of God recently who made the point but the mind is nous and the soul Psuche. Yes, I know that but the mind, nous is a smaller part of a larger compartment called the Psuche or the soul, which is the mind, the will and the emotions. The mind is a smaller part of a larger compartment, but in a sense it’s really the control center of the soul, which is who you are as a person.
In the life of the believer, the Holy Spirit is supposed to be the dominant controlling force in our lives and under that our mind, which influences the soul is supposed to be subject to the Spirit of God and help the Spirit render our soul in its proper order. Once it’s under the domination of the Spirit, then the other two parts of the soul can be in order: the will and the emotions.
Romans 12:2 (b)
…but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
God doesn’t want us hiding the weights and pains from the past in a deep compartment in our soul. He doesn’t want us:
“drugging” it away,
drinking it away,
taking pills it away,
going to therapy it away.
He wants us to bring it to Him.
He wants us to let Him in so He can speak to us, have His way with us and do a deep work in our hearts.