Woman Thou Art Loosed! 20th Anniversary Expanded Edition (5 page)

What is wrong with these disciples that they became angry at some nameless person who aimed these little arrows at the only answer they might ever have gotten to see? Who told them they were too busy to heal their own children? Jesus stopped teaching on the cause of divorce and marital abuse to touch the victim, to minister to the effect of the abuse. He told them to suffer the little children to come. Suffer the suffering to come! It is hard to work with hurting people, but the time has come for us to suffer the suffering to come. Anything, whether an injured animal or a hospital patient, if it is hurt, is unhappy. We cannot get a wounded lion to jump through hoops! Hurting children as well as hurting adults can carry the unpleasant aroma of bitterness. In spite of the challenge, it is foolish to give up on your own. So they brought the “ouch” to the Band-Aid, and He stopped His message for His mission. Imagine tiny hands outstretched, little faces upturned, perching like sparrows on His knee. They came to get a touch, but He always gives us more than we expected. He held them with His loving arms. He touched with His sensitive hands. But most of all, He blessed them with His compassionate heart!

G
od always gives us more than we expected.

I am concerned that we maintain our compassion. How can we be in the presence of a loving God and then not love little ones? When Jesus blessed the children, He challenged the adults to become as children. Oh, to be a child again, to allow ourselves the kind of relationship with God that we may have missed as a child. Sometimes we need to allow the Lord to adjust the damaged places of our past. I am glad to say that God provides arms that allow grown children to climb up like children and be nurtured through the tragedies of early days. Isn’t it nice to toddle into the presence of God and let Him hold you in His arms? In God, we can become children again. Salvation is God giving us a chance to start over again. He will not abuse the children that come to Him. Through praise, I approach Him like a toddler on unskillful legs. In worship, I kiss His face and am held by the caress of His anointing. He has no ulterior motive, for His caress is safe and wholesome. It is so important that we learn how to worship and adore Him. There is no better way to climb into His arms. Even if you were exposed to grown-up situations when you were a child, God can reverse what you’ve been through. He’ll let the grown-up person experience the joy of being a child in the presence of God!

I
n God, we can become children again.

Because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away: and thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning. And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yea, thou shalt dig about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety. Also thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid; yea, many shall make suit unto thee.
Job 11:16-19

It is inconceivable to the injured that the injury can be forgotten. However, as I mentioned in the first chapter, to forget isn’t to develop amnesia. It is to reach a place where the misery is pulled from the memory as a stinger is pulled out of an insect bite. Once the stinger is gone, healing is inevitable. This passage points out so eloquently that the memory is as “waters that pass away.” Stand in a stream with waters around your ankles. The waters that pass by you at that moment, you will never see again. So it is with the misery that has challenged your life: Let it go, let it pass away. The brilliance of morning is in sharp contrast to the darkness of night; simply stated, it was night, but now it is day. Perhaps David understood the aftereffects of traumatic deliverance when he said, “
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning
” (Ps. 30:5b).

L
et it go, let it pass away.

There is such a security that comes when we are safe in the arms of God. It is when we become secure in our relationship with God that we begin to allow the past to fall from us as a garment. We remember it, but choose not to wear it! I am convinced that resting in the relationship that we have with God heals us from the feelings of vulnerability. It is a shame that many Christians have not yet rested in the promise of God. Everyone needs reassurance. Little girls as well as grown women need that sense of security. In the process of creating Eve, the mother of all living, His timing was crucial. In fact, God did not unveil her until everything she needed was provided. From establishment to relationship, all things were in order. Innately the woman tends to need stability. She wants no sudden changes that disrupt or compromise her security.

She was meant to be covered, and originally Adam was her covering, to nurture and protect her. My sister, you were made to be covered even as a child. If someone “uncovered” you, there is a feeling of being violated. Even when these feelings are suppressed, and they often are, they are still powerful. I think it is interesting that when the Bible talks about incest, it uses the word
uncover
. Sexual abuse violates the covering of the family and the responsible persons whom we looked to for guidance. This stripping away of right relation leaves us exposed to the infinite reality of corrupt, lustful imaginations. Like fruit peeled too soon, it is damaging to uncover what God had wanted to remain protected! Who among us can repeel a banana once it has been peeled? The Bible says, “
With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible
” (Mk. 10:27).

None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the Lord.
Leviticus 18:6

To molest a child is to uncover them. It leaves them feeling unprotected. Do you realize that one of the things the blood of Jesus Christ does is cover us? Like Noah’s sons who covered their father’s nakedness, the blood of Jesus will cover the uncovered. He will not allow you to spend the rest of your life exposed and violated. In Ezekiel, He speaks a message to the nation of Israel with an illustration of an abused woman. He speaks about how, as a child, this little girl was not cared for properly. But the Lord passed by her and salted, swaddled and cared for her as a baby. He says the baby would have bled to death if He hadn’t stopped the bleeding. Did you know that God can stop the bleeding of an abused child? Even as you grow older, He still watches out for you! He will cover your nakedness.

T
he blood of Jesus will cover the uncovered.

Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!” I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew up and developed and became the most beautiful of jewels. Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, you who were naked and bare.

Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of My garment over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you My solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign Lord, and you became Mine. I bathed you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you. I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put leather sandals on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments.
Ezekiel 16:6-10 (NIV)

Reach out and embrace the fact that God has been watching over you all of your life. My sister, He covers you, He clothes you, and He blesses you! Rejoice in Him in spite of the broken places. God’s grace is sufficient for your needs and your scars. He will anoint you with oil. The anointing of the Lord be upon you now! May it bathe, heal and strengthen you as never before.

R
ejoice in Him in spite of the broken places.

For the hurting, God has intensive care. There will be a time in your life when God nurtures you through crisis situations. You may not even realize how many times God has intervened to relieve the tensions and stresses of day-to-day living. Every now and then He does us a favor. Yes, a favor, something we didn’t earn or can’t even explain, except as the loving hand of God. He knows when the load is overwhelming. Many times He moves (it seems to us) just in the knick of time.

The Bible instructs the men to dwell with women according to knowledge (1 Pet. 3:7). It will pay every husband to understand that many, many women do not deal easily with such stress as unpaid bills and financial disorder. A feeling of security is a plus, especially in reference to the home. That same principle is important when it comes to your relationship with God. He is constantly reassuring us that we might have a consolation and a hope for the soul, the mind and emotions, steadfast and unmovable. He gives us security and assurance.

Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, He confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.
Hebrews 6:17-18 (NIV)

“
Also thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid
” (Job 11:19a), is the word of God to you. God wants to bring you to a place of rest, where there is no pacing the floor, no glaring at those with whom you are involved, through frightened eyes. Like a frightened animal backed into a corner, we can become fearful and angry because we don’t feel safe. Christ says, “Woman, thou art loosed!”

H
ow can you run from yourself?

There is no torment like inner torment. How can you run from yourself? No matter what you achieve in life, if the clanging, rattling chains of old ghosts are not laid to rest, you will not have any real sense of peace and inner joy. God says, “None shall make thee afraid.” A perfect love casts out fear (1 Jn. 4:18)! It is a miserable feeling to spend your life in fear. Many grown women live in a fear that resulted from broken arrow experiences. This kind of fear can manifest itself in jealousy, depression and many other distresses. As you allow the past to pass over you as waters moving in the sea, you will begin to live and rest in a new assurance. God loves you so much that He is even concerned about your rest. Take authority over every flashback and every dream that keeps you linked to the past. Even as we share together here, the peace of God will do a new thing in your life. I encourage you to claim Job 11:16-19 as yours.

T
ake authority over every flashback that keeps you linked to the past.

I was raised in the rich, robust Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia where the plush greenery accentuates the majestic peaks of the rugged mountainous terrain. The hills sit around the river’s edge like court stenographers, recording the events of the ages without expression or interference. I learned as a child how to entertain myself by running up and down the trails and scenic paths of our community, splashing in the creek beds and singing songs to the wind. This kind of simplistic joy is, to me, characteristic of that time when children were not as complex as they are now.

If you know much about the Appalachian Mountains, you know they were the backyard for many, many Native Americans in days gone by. There are many large, man-made hills, which the Indians called mounds, that served as cemeteries for the more affluent members of the tribes. During my childhood, occasionally either my classmates or myself would find old Native American memorabilia in the rocks and creek beds in the hills. The most common thing to find would be discarded arrowheads carved to a point and beaten flat. Perhaps an Indian brave from the pages of history had thrown away the arrow, assuming he had gotten out of it all the possible use he could. Though worthless to him, it was priceless to us as we retrieved it from its hiding place and saved it in a safe and sacred place. I believe that God gathers discarded children who, like arrows, have been thrown away from the quiver of vain and ruthless people. If children are like arrows in the quiver of a mighty man, then broken arrows who are thrown away by that man belong to God, who is forever finding treasure in the discarded refuse of our confused society.

And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
Malachi 3:17

Please, Holy Spirit, translate these meager words into a deluge of cleansing and renewal. I pray that you who have been marred would allow the reconstructive hand of the Potter to mend the broken places in your lives. Amidst affairs and struggles, needs and incidents, may the peace and calmness of knowing God cause the birth of fresh dreams. But most of all, may it lay to rest old fears.