Why I Focus on Healing Fragments and Alters

Some people have a serious misconception about healing fragments and alters that creates a significant barrier to the healing process. In the past I have had a few different people approach me online to point out they believe that my “focus” on trying to tell everyone their souls are broken into pieces is creating more brokenness, and giving the enemy greater room to afflict people by speaking death over them. I believe inner healing is incredibly important, and I take it quite seriously, both in my own life and that of others, so I feel it is important to clear up some misunderstanding, and to explain why I focus on healing fragments and alters.

Let me ask you this: if, as a nurse, I educate a diabetic patient about their diabetes, informing them of the risks and problems associated with their condition, am I making their diabetes worse? Of course not. On the contrary, by educating the patient about his or her pre-existing condition, I set up conditions to help manage and even help heal the problem (And yes, Type II Diabetes can be reversed).

If someone is unaware of a preexisting problem, he or she cannot fix it. People die from unexpected heart attacks every day because they were unaware they were in danger. Educating the public about the risks of a diet and lifestyle that promotes poor cardiac health does not, again, exacerbate the problem. It gives people room to turn things around before a fatal problem rears its ugly head.

Healing fragments and alters is no different. If someone has struggled much of his or her life with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) the problem of multiple fractured parts is readily apparent. But what about everyone else? Abuse is a common cause of DID, but what about all of those people who have suffered abuse but haven’t manifested the symptoms? Did they somehow escape the problem, or are they still suffering from a more covert version of the same issue?

I personally believe that every adult human has these fractured parts that need healing and integration into the core self. Some don’t share that belief, and that is okay. There is no rule that says we have to agree on everything. Nevertheless, disagreeing with me that everyone has the problem doesn’t negate the fact that some people verifiably do have this problem. If you don’t feel this subject speaks to you, that’s fine, but it doesn’t make the problem go away for those who are affected by it—and people are affected by it.

What about the accusation that pushing this view is only creating more brokenness, and is speaking death over people instead of life? Again, it comes back to the goal. I don’t talk about this subject to afflict people any more than someone who teaches about the problem of sin does so to add more sin. No, we educate about the problem so we can connect people with a solution. When I share that we have inner brokenness, the goal is to help connect people with resources to become whole. For those who regularly follow my blog, you will observe that it is very rare that I discuss some type of problem without providing possible solutions or at least a direction to help move forward at the end of the article. I have written a lengthy 9-part blog on physical healing to point out the reasons why people don’t heal, all in order to connect people with solutions.

We all want answers to life’s problems, and I firmly believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only lasting solution to those problems. However, in spite of the fact that this gospel has been preached for 2,000 years, we rarely see the level of results that the Body of Christ ought to be seeing for what we teach and preach. I personally am not content to continue to rehash the same teachings that haven’t borne significant fruit before and expect that repeating them enough times will somehow gain better results in the future. Thus, I start asking intelligent questions to uncover hidden problems. Why hidden problems? Because if they were obvious, we would have fixed them already.

God has been giving healing ministers revelation on this subject for decades, possibly even centuries, but it has taken time to become more mainstream. My personal goal with this is not just to see those “difficult cases” receive healing, but to accelerate the healing process for everyone. What if methods that work with healing fragments and alters were able to condense decades of prayer counseling and professional therapy into just a few years of work? What if we could get people healed from significant issues such as lifelong Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) or even lesser problems, in such a way and with a speed that they don’t pass these issues on to their children? Wouldn’t it be great if, when we prayed and asked God to accelerate the healing process, we actually expected God to give us wisdom and revelation to make that occur?

I am convinced that is what we are seeing now in this new wave of inner healing that focuses on restoring and integrating broken parts of the soul and spirit. It is not and has never been about creating more brokenness—that would be stupid and counterproductive. It is about identifying pre-existing problems and connecting individuals with the resources they need to become whole. This is why I have such a focus on healing fragments and alters—to help usher in greater healing and freedom for every single person.

As with every other blog post I write on these types of subjects, here is the part where you can find help if this subject speaks to you:

1) Check out my coauthored book Broken To Whole: Inner Healing for the Fragmented Soul. I and my coauthors discuss this subject, and others, in significant depth, providing practical solutions for those struggling in this area, and education for those who aren’t sure if they have this problem or not—and if you aren’t sure, get the book and let it help you find out! This could be an answer to your prayers for solutions.

2) For those who are concerned that this view is not scriptural, I encourage you to read another article featured on my blog titled Healing Fragments and Alters: From Genesis to Jesus by Matt Evans, healing minister, guest author, and one of the other coauthors of our book Broken To Whole: Inner Healing for the Fragmented Soul. It is mentioned in a number of places in scripture; the book goes into more detail than the article, but the article is a great starting point.

3) Pick up a bottle of Fragment Finder flower essence from Freedom Flowers, specifically designed to help accelerate the healing and integration process.

4) If you want to pick up both the book and the essences, you can get the Broken To Whole Essence Kit, which includes both the book and a five-essence combination that should help address the most significant aspects of this process of soul healing.

5) Connect with a prayer counselor and/or inner healing minister to jump-start your journey to wholeness. Check out our Resources Page for contact information.

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But You Forgot To Ask Me – A Lesson about Worry

This past week and a half my hospital increased staffing due to an expected increase in admissions from over a million additional people traveling through our state to view the eclipse in the Zone of Totality. Portland is a major highway hub for part of the state, and I work for one of the main trauma hospitals for the surrounding three states. I work night shift and had packed a bag to stay with a coworker who lived close so I could avoid extra traffic the days pre-and-post eclipse. During that Sunday night, the Lord spoke to me and said, “You’re concerned about what is going to happen later, but you forgot to ask Me.”

I realized how silly it was for me to worry about this entire ordeal when God already knows the outcome, and all I needed to do was ask Him. We can make the best plans, but if God has something else in mind it would all be for nothing. I’m not against advanced-planning, and as a former Boy Scout I am all over emergency preparedness, but as a follower of Jesus Christ I have some advantages that aren’t included in the Boy Scout Manual—a Divine Guide who lives with me and in me (John 14:17).

The end result was that I drove home with sub-normal traffic, enjoyed the near-totality eclipse with my family, and then drove back to work later that evening with no traffic problems either. While we did have some gnarly traumas come through the hospital, none of the other potential issues I was worried about and planning to abate came to pass.

The Bible talks about this in a number of places. Two that come to mind are Matthew 6:34 and Philippians 4:6-7. Matthew 6:34 says, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” I guess we all need those simple reminders from time to time.

Healing Fragments and Alters: From Genesis To Jesus

The following guest post was authored by Matt Evans, a man who focuses his ministry on inner healing, and who coauthored a book with me and four other authors, Broken to Whole: Inner Healing for the Fragmented Soul. His article is as follows:

Since authoring our new book on healing fragments/fractured parts through the work of the Spirit (Broken to Whole: Inner Healing for the Fragmented Soul), we’ve been asked by a few people for a biblical basis. We even ran into one keyboard crusader of orthodoxy who was publicly demanding more Bible verses.

As much as we would love to quote the verse, “Yea, verily, thus saith the Lord, thou shalt integrate thine fragments and thine alters and then thou shalt be every whit whole saith your God,” we also are having trouble finding the verse that says, “Thou shalt turn on thine computer when thou wakest, and thou shalt readeth thy brother’s blog post, and when thy brother publisheth his book on Amazon, thou shalt download it unto thy Kindle, and then thou shalt demand more Bible verses before thou readest, because surely thus saith the Lord, thou shalt do nothing unless it is expressly written in thine Bible.” Or, how about the verse that says, “Thou shalt getteth thee into thine car, and driveth unto Five Guys to buyeth thee a cheesburger with fries, then thou shalt come home and crusadeth against heretics on the internet unto the glory of the Mighty One of Israel?”

The truth is, if we could only do things that are explicitly mentioned in scripture, we would all need to smash our computers as instruments of the devil, then join the Amish for the rest of our days. I’ll share a bit more later about how the New Testament leaves things wide open for continual revelation beyond what is written, but I want to share various places where scripture does speak to the issue of fragmentation and integration, even in some exceptionally clear ways.

First, an excerpt from my own (Matt’s) writing in the book itself:

Ministry to fractured parts was a basic element of Jesus’ mission statement in Luke 4:18. There, he quoted Isaiah 61, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, he has sent me to bind up/heal the broken hearted…” The word for “broken hearted” there in the Hebrew is “shabar,” which means to be shattered into many pieces. Jesus came to heal and to bind together those who have been shattered into many pieces. We’ve found this to be literally true; most, if not all, people have been shattered into many fractured parts, and these parts need to be healed and joined back together for the person to experience wholeness.

Then, Diane Moyer wrote:

I started praying and seeking the Lord about it, and he showed me the Scriptures about double-mindedness in James 1:8 that says, “being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” I looked up ‘double-minded,’ and the root of ‘minded’ is ‘psyche,’ which means soul. ‘Double’ means twice, so being double minded means you have two souls. Hmmm… how can that be? Two souls?

The Lord showed me that what I had been taught before about double-mindedness—one foot in him, one foot in the world—was not correct. ‘Double-mindedness’ means two souls or two minds. What I felt the Lord was revealing to me was that many people have a part or parts of their soul that was stuck in trauma while they were a child. This fractured-off part of ourselves speaks within us—an internal voice that wants its own way.

Also:

More recently, the Lord gave me a picture of what fragments/fractured parts are. He has been showing me that although our body is one, it has many parts—fingers, toes, arms, head, eyes, etc. Each part has its function and job (1 Corinthians 12:14-26). Our soul functions in a similar manner—it is one but has many parts, each with its own function. If you break an arm, you find ways to compensate, doing what you normally would do without using that arm. If you lose your eye-sight, then your other senses become more enhanced to help you function. Although this works to some degree, it is never the same or as effective as if you were not injured.

The soul works the same way. When we are wounded emotionally, a part of our soul is crippled. We developed defense and coping mechanisms to overcome the crippling in that part of the soul. These mechanisms remain in place until that part of the soul is healed.

You cannot talk or decide your way out of this kind of problem, and self-control only works for a short while. The Lord ministering to the wounded part of the soul is the best solution.

We can look a bit deeper into the major themes of scripture as a whole, the overall story of redemption, and the basic nature of God and man revealed throughout the Bible to get even more insight into fragmentation and integration:

From the beginning, God was a plurality within one person. Genesis 1:1 says that God(Elohim) created the heavens and the earth. That Hebrew word, “elohim,” is plural, and is translated elsewhere in scripture as “gods,” as in “you shall not worship other gods(elohim) or bow down before them.” Man was created in the image of this plural being. Could it be that from the very beginning of Genesis, we are being shown that our nature, in the image of God, is to contain multiple identities within one person? One might even think the ancient Israelites were polytheistic if it weren’t for verses such as Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear O Israel, the LORD (adonai) our God (Eloheinu/Gods) is one,” used often to support the doctrine of the Trinity. According to the Old Testament, “The Lord our Gods is one.” Does this mean God has fractured parts? No, but he has various individual identities operating in unity (syncronization). This is different than fragmentation created through trauma, which is a survival mechanism with negative consequences until it’s healed, but speaks of our basic nature of being capable of forming more than one identity in healthy and unhealthy ways.

Jesus not only clarified some of how God is multiple persons in one (Father, Son, Spirit), but he was given to bring us into unity once again in Him. His prayer in John 17 was that “they may be one, Father, as you and I are one, that they may be one in us, that the world may know that you have sent me.” Jesus came to bring “many sons to glory” as the author of Hebrews writes, revealing that our design from the beginning was to be sons like Jesus, to be joined into the family of the Trinity, one with the Father like Jesus.

In Romans 5, Paul explains how all of mankind fell in Adam but was to be restored in Christ. Basically, the Father lost his son (Adam/mankind) who was created in his own image, meant to partake in oneness with the Trinity. God became alienated from parts of his own image and identity through broken relationship (division) and lost/separated identity (dissociation). Jesus, the exact image of God and the core identity of humanity, would be born on earth to restore all the fractured parts of mankind (individual people dissociated from their original source and purpose) back into one again.

Jesus came to heal us, to deliver us, and to restore us into, not only relationship with the Trinity, but oneness with the Trinity. When scripture says that we are “in Christ” and that he is in us, what could this mean but that we are one with him? Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, “he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him,” relating that to the union between a man and a woman, where the two are tied together in spirit, soul, and flesh, becoming one. We are the body of Christ on earth, meaning that even our flesh has been joined to him through redemption. We have been given the mind of Christ as well.

The work of redemption is not only restoring mankind from fragmentation on this macro-scale, but is restoring God’s fragmented parts back to himself, since he identifies so intimately with us, declaring our experiences to be his experiences when he said, “as you have done it to the least of these, you have done it unto me.” On a micro-scale, the individual person made in his image, why would this be any different? We have found that, just as Isaiah 61 tells us that messiah would come to heal and bind together those who have been fractured into many pieces, restoration of fragmentation within individuals is a huge key to healing.

Finally, I want to share an excerpt of my writing from an upcoming book Diane and I are nearly ready to publish, which covers a more broad array of healing topics, focusing on the heart behind it all, “Divine Healing for Spirit, Soul, and Body”:

A common objection to this sort of ministry is that there isn’t a model for every part of it in scripture. I mean, where do you see Jesus having someone revisit their memories and hand over their emotions, or ministering to their fractured parts? Although we will be including scripture references and sometimes scriptural examples, it is true that more of what you typically see in the Bible are stories of someone saying, “Be healed!” and that’s all there is to it.

My response to this objection is that scripture was never meant to contain examples of everything we are to do. John 21:25 tells us “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.” The gospel accounts of Jesus’ healing ministry are only generalized representations; they don’t reveal everything he did. They say he healed multitudes in this place and that. They usually don’t say how.

Jesus commissioned his disciples to teach people to do everything he had done and taught (Matthew 28:20). He also said in John 16:12, near the end of his earthly ministry, that he had many more things to teach them which they weren’t yet ready for. He said that Holy Spirit would continue to lead them into all truth, to teach them beyond what Jesus himself had taught them. This means we can expect Holy Spirit to lead us into things beyond what is in the book.

Jesus said in John 14:12 that believers would do greater works than he. What if that means doing more complete healing than he did?

In Matthew 12:43, Jesus spoke of the generation of people he had healed and delivered in large numbers, saying that when an unclean spirit departs from a man it searches through dry places seeking rest and finding none, returns to the person it came out of with seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and so the last state of the man is worse than at first. He then said, “So shall it also be with this wicked generation” (KJV). His prediction came true about many of those he had healed and delivered. The same multitudes who Jesus had healed and delivered on a surface level soon turned on him and participated in the murderous work of the principalities and powers of darkness, shouting as one, “Crucify him!”

Even those Jesus poured into most during his time on earth (Peter and the other apostles) failed miserably in his final hours, revealing that they still had much healing and transformation to receive. Apparently, Jesus didn’t “totally heal and deliver” anybody in a five-second prayer, nor even through three years of discipleship.

What if one of the promised “greater works” is leading people into deeper healing, not just temporary relief of an issue on the surface such as a demon or a disease? What if literally removing the sins and driving woundedness from the hearts of the masses was one of the things Jesus had in mind for us, but which he didn’t have time to thoroughly accomplish in his own mission?

He was just getting the ball rolling in the right direction, showing a taste of what was possible, but not showing everything. It would then be our job to search out the wisdom of God and move into progressive revelation and experience over the ages. We have a living relationship with God, not just a closed book.

All these things we are talking about, healing emotions in memories, healing fractured parts, etc., are really only a matter of allowing the Lord access to the authentic content of our hearts so that he can help us where we truly are.

-Matt Evans-

Keys to Healing and Transformation

“I’m in my late 30’s, and possibly not what you expect a “minister” to be. I’m not interested in having a ceremonial hat or fancy title. I’m very much into organic relationships and not so much into big organizations. I relate to people in a low-key manner and on equal footing. I’m not obsessed with “avoiding the appearance of evil.” (That’s an inaccurate translation anyway.) I’m most at home with those who religion ostracizes, who don’t buy into every last line of the doctrine statements, who may be a little rough around the edges, who can be comfortable in their own skin, who aren’t paranoid of going to hell if they hear a cuss word or if they give someone “license” to stumble through a journey of discovery. Actually, I call that love.

Jesus has been very real in my life since a young age, and I could never be satisfied with a “normal” life that would make sense to most people. After all I’ve seen and been a part of, I must spend my life in his presence and for his cause. Nothing else compares. God has shown me that he IS love (as opposed to being that sometimes but becoming something else if his kids misbehave). He has met me and worked in my life despite my not having it all together in so many ways, so I also meet people where they are and simply bring life to them, without requiring them to conform to a standard. I’ve always been a bit outside the box, and have struggled sometimes with not fitting into church and ministry crowds. While feeling like the unlikely one and the misfit far too often, I’ve found the Lord faithful to miraculously open doors for me and to accomplish many significant things beyond my wildest expectations. I’ve come to love being a part of this journey.”

Overcoming The Fear Of Death

Back in 2002, shortly after the movie A Walk To Remember came out, I was a freshman in college and it was playing at some evening campus event. Having nothing to do, I decided to watch it, and was in tears toward the end when ***spoiler alert*** one of the main characters, played by Mandy Moore, dies. It was a sad ending to a movie but it had that sweet, angsty relationship drama that seems to be so big among teenagers, of which I was one at the time. For whatever reason, I have always been able to identify with that movie–the desire to get married at a young age, and the fear that my spouse would die many years before me.

I don’t recall when either the desire to be married young or the fear of early spousal death took hold within my heart, but both conditions certainly have been set up in my life. At age 23, my wife and I got married, and she was (and remains) 24 years older than I am. I find it interesting that both my deep desire to be married young and my potential fear of my spouse dying early have been all wrapped up into one. Certainly I don’t hope for that, but given our significant age difference, that possibility certainly exists, at least in a normal life where people believe that we are all fated to die.

If we fast forward to now, where I am 33, I don’t actually believe in death and dying, preferring to simply live forever like Jesus promised us so many times in scripture. Yet, at the same time I still find myself getting sick every winter, and my wife experiences chronic pain and a host of other issues from long-term mercury poisoning from dental amalgam fillings (if you have them, get them out of your mouth–they are slowly killing you). Neither of these look very much like the abundant life Jesus promised us.

I found myself the other day thinking about the fact that my wife is in pain every day, and it’s really just a question of how much pain she is going to be in. I was talking to God about the situation, and A Walk to Remember came to mind. I realized that the fears I harbor regarding my spouse dying an early death are a contributing factor to attracting death and disease in her life. God reminded me that in the same way that Job’s fears were largely responsible for the calamity he experienced (Job 3:25 says, “What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me.”) that I influence my wife’s health to some immeasurable degree through my fear.

After I was prompted about this, I began to repent in prayer and renounce those fears and the beliefs underlying them. I asked the Lord to bring healing into every place in my heart that is hurt and has given room for those fears. I asked Him to touch every fragmented and fractured part of my soul that is not part of my core self that may hold this fear of spousal death and of the pain and loss associated with it, ministering to them and bringing them into greater freedom. Shortly after that, I began to get nauseous, which is often indicative to me of demons manifesting if it occurs during or after a time of prayer. I began to address the demons associated with those hurts and fears and erroneous beliefs. I do not believe I am finished with this fear and the underlying beliefs, but I do feel I have made a step forward, both in correcting my own thoughts and emotions that are tied into death, and in altering the attraction I bring by my beliefs into my life and subsequently into my wife’s.

Some of the techniques I used are similar to those found in my new coauthored book Broken to Whole: Inner Healing for the Fragmented Soul which we have just launched this week. In this book you will learn not only how to identify fragmented parts of your soul and spirit that need healing and integration, but you will uncover why and how they got broken to begin with, as well as what problems they have been causing in your life. I believe that many readers will find a light-bulb goes on in their minds as they read this book. You will begin to uncover contributing spiritual factors behind frustrating life patterns, physical ailments, and more, as well as techniques and solutions on how to fix them. I encourage you to pick up a copy of Broken To Whole today to kick-start and accelerate your healing journey.

For those interested in additional help, you can use the “Fragment Finder” flower essence alongside the book to help move your emotional healing journey forward even faster.

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Learning To Rest In God

A week ago Monday I helped a friend pack up to move out of her house. My wife and I had driven two hours south with our new puppy (who gets carsick) and the grandkids a few days prior, but this time I went by myself, taking my truck with an 8-foot bed, planning to arrive early in the day and come home late to get a ton of work done. On the ride down I listened to a message titled The Body of A God Part 1 by Silas Valentine of Ekstasis Culture. He covered a number of things in this message, but the main point I took out of it at that time was to learn to rest in God—that I can do work without it being toil, and that as I focus on remaining in communion with God and let Him help me perform tasks with joy, I can live in peace. Well, this day was a great day to put it into practice.

The day started out well, with a very enjoyable and peaceful drive. I arrived at my friend’s and got to see another old friend who had come up from California, and that was great. I loaded up my truck with recycling, drove to the local dump . . . and it was closed. Because apparently they are closed every Monday, opting (wisely) to be open on Saturday instead. Well, I asked in the office and the only place open was a dump just shy of an hour away. I drove back to the house, unloaded the recycling, loaded the Goodwill donations and dropped them off, rented a Uhaul trailer, hooked it up and drove back to the house, loaded the trash, recycling, old tires, and some more Goodwill donations, and headed off to make my rounds once more.

This entire time I was enjoying resting in God. Things could have gotten stressful at a number of points, but I found I was not only doing quite well, but was free to encourage others as well. I dropped off the donations and tires, then realized I forgot some trash, so headed back to the house to pick it up before driving to the dump. It was around 4pm when I made it back to the house, and while the dump was an hour away, it closed at six. I walked in the house, asked for a hand loading something, and one of the women asked “How are you going to make it to the dump in time?”

“It closes at six, so I’ve got lots of time.”

“No, it closes at five.”

Silence. . .

Problem!

I turned and ran out of the house as I yelled something like “If I go quickly maybe I can make it!” I didn’t come close. I even had someone call the dump and ask them to stay open late on a mercy-mission to help us since I was on the way. No-go. I stopped partway at an always-open recycling center to at least offload the recycling, then planned to take the rest of the trash back to Portland with me to dump on Tuesday. I was still doing okay, and remaining in rest. However, the things I picked up at the house on that last trip back made the trailer just full enough that when I offloaded the recycling I didn’t have enough room in my truck (which has a cap on the bed). I spent the next hour or so rifling through the bags of trash in my truck, pulling out every recyclable item I could find and tossing it in order to make room. I kind of lost it at this point. I called my wife, not knowing what to do since I was supposed to come home that evening, it was already almost 7pm. I had borrowed an adapter for the electrical system on the Uhaul and had to return it to the rental location, so couldn’t come home with the trailer.

My wife is one of the most caring people I know. She could tell I was super-stressed at this point (and that whole “rest in God thing was totally out the window by now), and just told me to stay the night. I stopped at a store and picked up a cheap t-shirt on my way to get some pizzas and meet everyone else back at the house to continue working and eventually go to sleep.

I dumped the trash the next morning and returned the Uhaul before it was due and everything worked out, but I learned a valuable lesson. Life was SO much easier when I remained in God’s rest. And a day or two later I was stressing about chores we needed to do at home, and again reflected on how I was living completely outside of that rest yet again. By no means do I pretend to have arrived, but I have had some pretty clear object lessons this past week or so that have taught me the importance of learning this. As we learn to enter into God’s rest, living in His peace and joy even while we work, we will never live under the curse which forces us to toil. This is a reality that God has for us here and now. I saw a glimpse of what Paul said in Philippians 4:11, “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.”

I pray God teaches each of us to enter into His rest in a deeper way on a daily basis, that we may enjoy His presence and peace always.

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How My New Puppy Healed My Heart

This past Thursday my wife, grandkids and I drove about 3 hours north to get a puppy—a nine-week-old German Shepherd/Great Pyrenees mix. We have been looking at dogs for a while and have been discussing it for years, but held off for various reasons. My wife had dogs much of her adult life and my family had a few different dogs when I was growing up. My wife and I have wanted a dog for a while but have held off for a variety of reasons. We have had rabbits and chickens, but this would be our first dog as a couple. All of us were excited.

The event itself took all day. Between six hours of driving to this farm, helping the wife of the couple deliver a baby goat, and meeting the litter and picking a puppy, the hours flew by. The ride home was stressful as well, as the dog got carsick early on and we still had a long drive ahead of us. It all worked out, the puppy arrived at our home safe and sound, and we have been having a both enjoyable-yet-stressful first week with the puppy. What surprised me the most about this entire process was the inner healing I have received during this past week—all from getting a new dog.

To back the story up a bit, when I was younger, all of our dogs were SPCA rescues. The first was Mosby, a golden lab who we ended up having to give away years later. I was probably eight or nine at the time. We had Jeb for a few months, a pitbull puppy who we took back because he was a biter, and at some point we found Ginger. She is the only dog my parents have had in the past thirty years who was not given some sort of South-related Civil War name—and I named her. 🙂

Ginger was a total sweetheart, and I loved that dog. I think our family pretty unanimously agrees that she was the best dog we have ever had, and I remember the day we had her put to sleep. She was old, and I forget all the details, but I was in my teens and I was very sad—we all were. I remember her laying on the table on the right-hand side of our vet’s office as he injected a blue-colored substance into her, and she closed her eyes and passed away. I will never forget that moment; I loved that dog.

Fast forward again to this past week, and this new dog (whom we named Rowan Bronx Delta the I) has helped bring me inner healing I didn’t know I needed–grieving over Ginger’s death. I have found myself thinking of my favorite childhood dog multiple times this past week—when I haven’t thought of her in years. It’s amazing how something so simple—and what would usually be thought of as a good thing, can bring about such painful memories. And while this might not sound like a good thing, it’s actually quite wonderful.

You see, grief, and all other painful emotions are stored in the body, and over time they contribute to physical disease. Even when they don’t cause disease, they remain behind the scenes and negatively impact our ability to make good decisions. When situations arise that feel similar to the one that caused our pain, we naturally and unconsciously react to protect ourselves from further pain. This means that we aren’t actually free to make good decisions because we tend to choose whatever will keep us from the pain we don’t realize we are carrying.

I am thrilled to have added Rowan to our family. I am blessed that I had the opportunity to have Ginger as a pet. And I am very thankful that God has used this encounter to help set me free. How has God been bringing about healing in your life?

For those who need or want help with inner healing, check out the following:

Flower Essences — these are designed to help release the negative emotions stored in our bodies and make it easier to receive inner healing. Freedom Flowers is the company I recommend to everyone, and if you are new to essences there is a free introductory course you can sign up for on the main page .
Emotional Healing Prayer — there are a number of great books out there, but two in particular come to mind: Praying Medic’s book Emotional Healing in 3 Easy Steps and Karol Truman’s book Feelings Buried Alive Never Die. The first is a quick and easy method to receive simple healing and is very effective; I use it regularly. The latter delves a good bit deeper, and can help identify hidden emotions as well as help heal them.
Prayer Counseling: There are a number of prayer counselors out there who can help you, but a few I recommend are Emotional And Spiritual Healing and Debalm Ministries.
I have written a few other blog posts on this subject including The Weight of Sorrows, Five Steps To Emotional Healing, and Divine Healing That Works
Check out my new coauthored book Broken to Whole: Inner Healing for the Fragmented Soul. In this book you will learn not only how to identify fragmented parts of your soul and spirit that need healing and integration, but you will uncover why and how they got broken to begin with, as well as what problems they have been causing in your life. You can use the “Fragment Finder” flower essence from Freedom flowers alongside the book to help move your fragment-healing journey forward even faster.
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Cussing Versus Cursing

I was riding in a vehicle with a friend last week when a driver cut her off and she said something like “I hope you get stuck in the mud.” I was surprised to hear her say this and said “You literally just cursed that man.” She disagreed, which led to a conversation about the difference between cussing versus cursing.

The Bible is very clear about the fact that curses are powerful and do actually work. They are not made-up and imaginary things that don’t actually work. Anyone who practices any form of sorcery or black magic is well accustomed with curses, as they are a key component in the arsenal. Bless those who pay you, curse those you do you wrong. Curses are basically a pronouncement of some kind with an expected end-result that is stated in the curse. It could be something like “You will never birth a child” resulting in being unable to carry any children to term and/or as has happened in some places in Africa, women who have been cursed remain pregnant for even years at a time with a single child, unable to actually birth it. It could be much more immediate than that, such as “May you fall and hurt yourself today”, and sure enough you take a spill during your afternoon bike ride. These are good examples of curses, albeit rather basic ones. Some have entire rituals surrounding them to enhance the power of the curse while others are as simple as something spoken, something done.

Cussing, on the other hand, is mentioned elsewhere in the Bible where it speaks of not using vulgar language. The interesting thing about cussing is that in many ways this is highly subjective. What might be a cuss word to one person is simply a term to someone else. Some people prefer to use certain cuss words and other “dirty” language during sex, and I suggest the level of appropriateness in those circumstances entirely depends on the parties involved. What one person might find acceptable is cussing to someone else. This can cause some embarrassing situations when one person believes something is a bad word and another person does not—I have been accused of cussing on more than one occasion for words that I simply don’t see as cussing. Hell is a perfect example. I see it as a location; some people see it is a cuss word. Opinions vary, which is what makes this confusing at times. Most cultures have at least some generally-accepted words that most people recognize which simplifies this only a little.

While cussing is rude, it is not spiritually damaging to other people who hear it. Some might disagree with me on this, but that is really an issue of being offended at hearing cuss words, but simply hearing bad words does not cause psychic damage. The confusing thing about cussing is that we often refer to cuss words as curse words which confuses the conversation. Even I tend to refer to cuss words as such, but for the sake of clarity in this article I am using separate terms to delineate the two. Cuss words are something we try not to teach to children, and may slip out of our mouths when we stub a toe, get stung by a bee, or have some other kind of painful mishap. For some it may be normal and meaningful while for others that might be considered profanity. Curses, on the other hand are usually intentional, have a designated outcome associated with them, and are damaging to the person on the receiving end. If we had to rank the two from a “badness” perspective on a zero to ten scale, cursing is a ten and cussing is somewhere far below it.

Generally try to steer away from cussing, but never NEVER curse anyone. When we curse, we have to remember that we reap what we sow. While we might not receive a curse for every one that we speak, what goes around eventually comes around, and no one wants to reap that kind of harvest. In the same way that Matthew 26:52 basically says “Those who live by the sword die by the sword”, those who live their lives cursing others will eventually receive many curses themselves. When we curse others we partner with the demonic realms to draw death, loss, and destruction to the lives of others.

It is an evil practice.

The problem is that we sometimes curse people without realizing it. If in conversation I talk about a coworker who is struggling with the job, saying, “He is never going to get good at this job. He really should try a different career,” I have just cursed him. This sort of casual curse is actually moderately common, which is why we might not even notice we are doing it. The words themselves are a declaration of failure over that individual, and if we thought he was having trouble before, it isn’t likely to get better after the fact.

Cussing is largely a cut-and-dry issue. Many people find it rude while other people pepper almost every single sentence with cuss words of some kind. Often this is a product of one’s socialization environment, as people who use coarse speech regularly will find those around them mirroring that speech and likewise they will continue their speech patterns. Cursing is another animal altogether.

I know from past conversations that many seem to not distinguish between the two, so I hope this article has helped you grasp the differences. Furthermore I encourage you to find new methods of conversation that remove all cursing, and find alternatives to cussing if this is something that speaks to you.

Word of the Week – May 22, 2017 – Wild!

I stumbled upon a band this weekend: WorshipMob. Blew me away. I listened for an hour. I do not know much about them except that a couple out of Denver, Colorado wanted to gather worshipers together to create jams where the entire focus is to Worship God, but even more, to let God love on them. The recorded sessions are with varying musicians, dancers, artists, believers. The particular one I heard was labeled Venture Worship 3—LionHearted, Build My Life, Spontaneous. You can find it on YouTube along with others.

Here are the lyrics that grabbed me….

“How astonishing
How bewildering
The Ruler of the Universe wants me
and He loves me
He’s wild about me
Oh,
He’s wild about me.”

Is there anyone you can say in your life that feels that way about you? I can say it about my hubby. Maybe there are some people who are fond of me…but Wild about me?

Really….how many of us actually think, let alone believe, that GOD…the Ruler of the Universe, cares about us? Of even considers us?

But Wild About?

That HE loves and wants US…

So that is the Word for today and for this week: Stop right now. Let yourself feel this. God is Wild about YOU! You do not need to perform. You do not need to accomplish your To Do list. You do not have to do anything. God, the Ruler of the Universe, is Wild about you.

Let yourself feel it. Sit with it. Dance with it (at least try tapping your toes to it!).

“Don’t give up
Just keep going
Heaven is dancing over you and cheering you forward…
Keep the faith.”

If this reality permeated our existence, our lives could change. Even in the hardship, our realities could harness hope. We would find strength and maybe even joy for putting one foot in front of the other in the journey. We would have a purpose that is not there when we live in doubt of just how much God really wants us. He wants US, something different but born out of love. He WANTS us.

Remind yourself today: The Ruler of the Universe is WILD about you! XOXO

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_code admin_label=”Code”]https://app.getresponse.com/view_webform_v2.js?u=B40ZB&webforms_id=6653905[/et_pb_code][et_pb_comments admin_label=”Comments” show_avatar=”on” show_reply=”on” show_count=”on” background_layout=”light” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_button=”off” button_letter_spacing=”0″ button_use_icon=”default” button_icon_placement=”right” button_on_hover=”on” button_letter_spacing_hover=”0″] [/et_pb_comments][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

When Spiritual Beliefs Work

[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” text_font_size=”16″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] I had a fairly challenging night the other night at work. When I got home, I found myself wondering if I had done the right things—not because I had said or done anything wrong, but because the situation itself was so incredibly bizarre that there was a lot of room for reflection, introspection, and generally being conflicted about the entire matter. I struggled with societal beliefs and ideas about judgment versus the immeasurable and boundless nature of God’s love in the face of really unpleasant circumstances. I wrestled with the various roles and responsibilities I have, along with moral, ethical, and spiritual values that I hold, and looked at how to best mesh them in the situation. And while I cannot go into details on the subject itself, I had a very meaningful conversation with one of the chaplains where I realized that times like this are when spiritual beliefs work. After all, if they don’t work when the going gets rough, what good are they? In the conversation with this chaplain she asked me how I dealt with stress, and how I felt my beliefs helped me to deal with this situation the way I had. I shared how I had grown up in the Episcopal Church but now loosely define as a Nondenominational Charismatic Christian, and that as my beliefs have drastically changed over the course of my adult life, my views about God, love, judgment, heaven, and hell have changed as well. I explained how the core foundation of my spiritual beliefs now begins with the premise that we have a God whose nature and essence is, above all else, pure love. I spoke of how this God of immeasurable love does not send us to hell or whatever one believes is a negative afterlife, but that we in our own limited thinking choose our own inner darkness over the surpassing love He constantly extends toward us, but that even our own ability to choose darkness in the face of God’s love is like pitting an ice cube against a forest fire. The ice might last for a few brief moments, but ultimately it doesn’t stand a chance. I heard myself saying that in this situation I had a choice to make, whether to choose to sit in judgement in a situation where that wasn’t my job to begin with, or to choose to walk forward in love and compassion regardless of the outward circumstances, and that it is this undergirding belief in the immeasurable goodness of God that provided the encouragement for me to do so. As I replied, I found my own words to be somehow very therapeutic, and they seemed to touch the chaplain as well. She literally thanked me for being the person to deal with the problem, and for being someone who could share love in that way in a scenario that needed it. I realized that while the situation itself was taxing in a hard-to-describe way, I felt blessed that I had the opportunity to manifest the love of God there. I began to gain a broader perspective on how God had orchestrated things, positioning me in a unique way to become the solution to the problem.

I was reminded that THIS is when spiritual beliefs work.

Jesus instructed the people in Matthew 5:14 saying that we are the light of this world. When darkness threatens to close in and doubts, fears, and uncertainty seek to steal the life from a circumstance, the love of Jesus Christ that has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit IS the means by which we light up this world with the ever-burning flame within us. In any situation, God has prepared us to become the solution to the problem. He has positioned us to carry His love into dark circumstances, and even as we do this, like a holy virus that love spreads out in ever-widening circles, transforming those we come in contact with. I don’t know that I will ever know the true extent of the impact I had on this situation. I know that I am blessed to have been a part of it, and my wife pointed out it was almost as if I passed a test. I believe that my words, much less my actions, touched this chaplain in a profound way—and not because I even meant to. She was helping me, and in doing so, I believe I ended up encouraging her in turn. It is humbling to know that this hope we have in Jesus Christ works even in those times we aren’t meaning for it to. That His transformative power works in us whether we work on ourselves or not. That in the same way that water wears down a rock over time, the river of God’s love flows through us whether we are paying attention or not. In the end, this is the true test of whether spiritual beliefs work or not—when in our weakness, God is strong through us. Go be the light of the world, but don’t try so hard. Just go and be, and watch the God of Wonders do His thing. [/et_pb_text][et_pb_code admin_label=”Code”]<script type=”text/javascript” src=”https://app.getresponse.com/view_webform_v2.js?u=B40ZB&webforms_id=6653905″></script>[/et_pb_code][et_pb_comments admin_label=”Comments” show_avatar=”on” show_reply=”on” show_count=”on” background_layout=”light” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_button=”off” button_letter_spacing=”0″ button_use_icon=”default” button_icon_placement=”right” button_on_hover=”on” button_letter_spacing_hover=”0″] [/et_pb_comments][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

Sin Limits, Without Limits

As I was driving into work last night, I passed a bus with a sign on the side which said “Sin Limites”. For those of you who don’t speak Spanish it means “Without Limits”, but the first thing that struck me wasn’t the interpretation, but what it appears to actually say: Sin Limits.

The version of the Gospel I grew up with as a child was that we shouldn’t sin because it hurts God’s feelings and makes it so He can’t be with us. What I have discovered as an adult is that sin does limit, but not God—it limits us. In the Garden of Eden, Adam had no limitations save one—to not eat of the fruit of the tree that would bring death. After consuming that fruit, Adam had nothing BUT limitations—limits on where he could live, what he could do with his time, and even how LONG he would live. Sin is the ultimate limiting factor, preventing us from receiving the fullness and goodness that God has for us.

Jesus came as a man and modeled what it was like to live WITHOUT limits, then died on the cross and rose again so that we all could share in that experience. Roman 8:29 says, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” God foreknew everyone—and His version of predestination is that you and I have been predestined to become like Jesus, able to live without the limits that sin places on us.

God is far more interested in living with us than He is in policing us to make sure we are sin-free.

In fact, He isn’t worried about our sin at all, nor is he threatened by it. Jesus already solved the sin problem from God’s perspective, so we simply have to continue to walk out our lives filled with the Holy Spirit, and we will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. We don’t need to work really hard not to sin, we simply have to walk alongside God and He will remove the limitations that sin places upon us.

If you are struggling today with any thought, action, desire, or anything else that is sin or a temptation leading to it, be reminded that in this moment you can walk by the Spirit and cease to worry about how to stay away from those other things that will place limitations and controls on your life.

It is for freedom that Jesus has set us free— go and live without limits!