Healing Process for Racing Thoughts: A Pathway to the Truth of the Situation with God's Help

"A famous evangelist told the following incident: I have a friend who in a time of business recession lost his job, a sizable fortune, and his beautiful home. To add to his sorrow, his precious wife died; yet he tenaciously held to his faith -- the only thing he had left. One day when he was out walking in search of employment, he stopped to watch some men who were doing stonework on a large church. One of them was chiseling a triangular piece of rock. 'Where are you going to put that?' he asked. The workman said, 'Do you see that little opening up there near the spire? Well, I'm shaping this stone down here so that it will fit in up there.' Tears filled my friend's eyes as he walked away, for the Lord had spoken to him through that laborer whose words gave new meaning to his troubled situation." -Our Daily Bread.

Last week we talked about the problem of evil and suffering in the world, from a high view perspective, the big overarching philosophical issue. Today we’re going to hone in on that same struggle, but we’re going to see from the perspective of our own lives.

Particularly, one incident in your life, maybe something you’re going through right now. For each person in the room today, it’ll be different. It could be a struggle at work. Or a health problem. It could be someone you loved that you lost recently. It could be issues in your family, with your children, or your wife or husband. It could be an addiction you’re struggling with quietly. It could be a memory that haunts you. Or even something looming in the future.

As we go through the message today, I want you to hone in on that one thing, and consider how God’s word today can speak into that situation, and help you.

We’re going to be in Psalm 13. I’ll be teaching from the NIV. David wrote this Psalm, most likely during a time when he was being pursued by King Saul. His stress must’ve been high. And David writes this psalm to God to express what he’s going through, and how God helped him.

Let’s dive in today, verse 1: “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?”

As soon as a struggle, a tense situation starts in your life, some new health problem, something at work with the boss, loss of a loved one, the first thing I often think is, I can’t stand how I feel right now. How long will this last?

We are waiting in time, as a feeling comes over us that is so strong.

Second part of verse 1, “How long will you hide your face from me?”

It is the perception of David, accurately I believe, that God has hidden his face from him during this struggle.

What does the Bible mean by the face of God? The Hebrew word for the face of God is often translated as "presence." It is the sense of God’s presence in your life.

Very hard to describe this feeling, of sensing God with you at any given moment. I know for me either you sense it or you don’t. But I know when I’m fasting, it will intensify, and I’m more aware of it.

Essentially, you can feel when God is with you. It’s a unique sense, no way I can say how to describe that feeling.

Is it possible that the David is not sensing the presence of God simply because the pain he’s going through is so intense? That’s possible.

I also think it’s just as much true that sometimes God will hide his presence from us for certain periods to teach us something.

As the old saying goes, “The teacher is silent during the test.” So I think this is one of those situations where David is going through it, God masks his presence temporarily, as a form of a test. Will you trust me or not? Your choice. The test begins.

Like David, we experience from time to time a trauma in our lives. Some event that unsettles us. And so the test begins.

I’ll give an example from my own life. When I was in my early teens my dad would make me go to a lot of basketball camps to get better at basketball. I hated these camps. I dreaded it. My dad would let me know ahead of time he had signed me up, and for usually weeks ahead of it, I would worry, and worry, and worry each day, counting down the days until the dreaded day came.

I learned to live in fear, worry, and anxiety.

David describes this in verse 2, “How long must I wrestle with my thoughts…”

Oh, to wrestle with those thoughts. You’ve been there haven’t you? The thoughts just keep repeating in your mind, often charged up with emotion surrounding the thought, over and over and over.

In recovery groups, we’d call that squirrel caging. Or hamster wheel. It’s a funny way to describe it, but it’s actually very serious.

The thought just keeps going and going. We replay the resentment over and over, and each time we replay it we refeel it, the anger, the frustration, the confusion, and at it’s worst it can torment us.

So how do we deal with this the repeating thought? Because it can be bad.

There are several solutions. One of the best is to talk to a friend or your pastor, or your wife or husband, and just express the emotion and the thought, and process it.

Another helpful thing is to write it on paper in a journal.

Going for a walk, and just letting out the physical energy can be helpful. Taking a shower can be helpful.

Talking to God about it in prayer, can be so helpful.

However I’ve found that all of those things may not stop the thought process. Because there is a purpose in the thought process.

So, pray over the thought process. I wish I knew that when I was dreading basketball camp, but I didn’t. I didn’t know God that way.

But, when we pray, and let the Spirit lead, the thought process can begin to be drawn in a good direction.

Often God is bringing up the thought to encourage an action in us, connected with the thought. Not always. Sometimes it’s just our mind expressing emotion. But, as we wrestle with the thought, the praying can help guide the thought toward the right path.

Now, it may not always be that. There may be no action needed. In that case as you pray you’ll sense God saying “Be still and know that I’m god.” No action needed.

But, it may be God is helping us wrestle with the thought toward the truth of the situation.

Often if Chelsey and I have a disagreement in our marriage, we will engage in a conversation. Often once we can get past our upset emotions, and we both hear each other, and say "OK I can see you perspective" we begin to approach the truth. She or I see the past trauma link with the current discussion. And we say "Oh, that’s why! You were hurt in a similar way when you were younger." And we find peace.

The goal in the thought-wrestling many times, is to get past the emotion to the truth.

For that we must accept an important principle: I will be Spirit-led not emotion-led.



Often there is a light path and a dark path in the thought-process. The light path leads to the truth. The dark path can lead to ending up stuck in resentment, or fear or anger or some other emotional state. We take an unproductive course. This is where long term trauma can develop, when something sits unresolved, until it’s a painful memory that we can’t even bear to think about.

These are the thoughts. What about the heart? 

Second part of verse 2, “...and day after day have sorrow in my heart?”

Connected with the racing thoughts is often a sorrow in the heart.

It’s a two-fold punch, when we face suffering. The thoughts race and the heart hurts. It’s no wonder we long for God’s help and want the situation to end as soon as possible.

I would push through basketball camp with such fear, and anxiety. The bad things I feared wouldn’t always happen. But sometimes they did. I would get bullied. Verbally harassed. Every sense in my body felt heightened. Fear was my constant companion. 

I remember one time we were waiting by the buses that took us from the dorms to the gymnasiums. There was another player there, a bully who was also in wrestling. And he and his buddies took great pleasure in cornering me and putting me into wrestling moves. One they loved to do to me was put me in the "Texas cloverleaf." I tried to push through, but I became overwhelmed, and I ran away. I was hiding and crying when a kindly janitor found me. He took me to his dorm where he stayed on campus, and he let me lay down in his daughter's bed, she was away of course, and I laid there and wept. Being in a painful situation long enough leads to heart sorrow. The word of God says, "Fathers do not exasperate your sons, or they will give up" (Colossians 3:21).

Next, David writes, “How long will my enemy triumph over me?”

It can be so hard when we see evil winning in the world, and the good guys in retreat.

Who is this enemy? For David it’s a person, King Saul most likely. Who is it for you? A person maybe? A place, a job, an institution? For me it’s often the devil, demonic forces.

But we do face another enemy, one we must deal with: Ourselves. I’m often my worst enemy. My fallen nature doesn’t want to respond the right way to trauma. It wants to hide it, ignore it, leave it in the past. We as Christians often must combat our own sinful attitudes, and say no, I’m going to do the opposite of what I want to do, I’m going to instead do what God wants me to do.

As Jesus said, "Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:24).

Heavy first few verses, I know. But it’s about to get brighter.

Verse 3, “Look on me and answer, Lord my God.”

David sensed God’s face was turned away from him, he is asking God to come and be present in the situation once again. He has turned to prayer, and to seeking God.

Think about all David was going through. He had been anointed king, but then rejected by Saul, who feared him and was jealous of him.

David and his band of followers were having to run and hide from an entire nation that was following Saul. I can’t imagine the kind of stress he was feeling, I was stressed at basketball camp, David was fearing for his very life day and night. I can’t imagine how that must’ve felt.

But David’s turn here is very important. He turns from looking at his own heart and thoughts, which was good, but better now, he's looking directly at God saying please come and be in this.

Next, he says, “Give light to my eyes…”

This could be David asking for wisdom. I think that’s true. But also I think it means, “God show me your way through this.” Or "God carve a path through the wilderness for me." It’s not just asking for advice, it’s asking God to create a path through the struggle.

God create the path, show me through and I’ll walk it.

When your in a traumatic event, many of you are in them now, wrestle in your thoughts, wrestle in your heart, but then begin to look up toward God. Begin to pray and say: "God, create a path through, and give me the wisdom to walk it."

Verse 3 is the turning point... “Give light Lord.”

Next: “Or I will sleep in death, 4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall."

Sometimes we go to the worst case scenario, David goes there and says God if you don’t show up, my enemies will overcome me and rejoice over my fall.

Our minds often go to the worst possible thing. My mom would often come to me when I was younger, and I was so prone to worry. My mom would say, "What’s the worst thing that could happen?" And it usually wasn’t so bad. Don’t sink into the negative.

Walking by the Spirit I’ve found is a bit like surfing on water. If we ride the waves of the Spirit in faith, we ride high, but when we start to doubt, and become negative, we start to sink in the waters, just like Peter when he walked on the water toward Jesus.

We can acknowledge the worst case scenario, while also not getting stuck on it. Instead stay focused on the scriptures. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. I shall not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea. I will be still and know that you are God!

David is wrestling through to a place of beauty, a place of peace, a beautiful meadow, green and lush, bright, and gentle, a place called trust.

Verse 5: “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.”

I think the pains we go through in life can be so strong that they hit us the way a sudden storm on the waters hits a boat, one moment the waters are clear and the next a storm hits.

I think for that reason, when the trauma first hits, we focus so much on it, that our trust in God is shaken. We are so focused on the struggle, it shakes our trust.

But, as we process the thoughts, feel the sorrow in our hearts, we wrestle toward the truth. We don’t stuff the situation, or hide from it, we boldly face it, and allow the emotions to flow, then we find a pathway that appears, a way out provided by God. We call on God. God delivers us. And we go up to a higher level of trust, because of what we’ve been through.

We dare to say, “God I trust you in this too.”

This is very pleasing to God. I think it’s the ultimate desired outcome for every pain we go through: To wrestle through, to a place of saying, “God I trust you here too.”

But we have a choice. Unfortunately many choose to say to God: "You let me down, I don’t trust you, how could you let this happen?" And the test is not passed.

This doesn’t mean it’s over or anything, we still belong to God, but the test may repeat again in the future, to give us another opportunity to pass into that higher level of trust.

These scenarios are often test cases: Can you come up to a higher level of trust? Once we do, it’s like the living waters open up to us.

We access the gifts in Jesus Christ our savior. We have so many benefits in the cross of Jesus Christ. More than I think we realize! They are all accessed by the key to the door, which is trust, or faith.

Then the living waters flow through the situation. The living waters flow from the Father, through Jesus Christ, and by way of the Holy Spirit. And we find healing.

At the beginning of the message I asked you to identify the situation you connect with current pain in your life. Would you like to dunk that situation in the living waters of Jesus Christ?

We’re going to pray. I challenge you as we pray, to choose trust of your God in that situation, no matter how painful. As you do, you’ll sense those living waters flow in, because by trusting Him, you’re giving it to him.

Note: Remember, unforgiveness can be a barrier to healing. If there is someone you need to forgive for what they did, pray that prayer of forgiveness first, and ask for God's grace to overcome any bitterness. Also, if there is an active sin involved, you'll want to make a prayer of repentance and ask Christ's forgiveness as well. Unrepentant sin can be a barrier for healing as well.  

Prayer: “Father, we show you the situation we’re in. The memory. The past trauma. The current struggle. Father we confess the pain. We confess the confusion. But, today, we choose to say, Father, we put it in your hands, lighten our eyes, or we will sleep in death. We trust you, we trust in your unfailing love. This situation, we surrender it to you, it’s yours. We trust you. Heal our hearts. Heal our minds. Wash us in your living water, in Jesus name, amen.”

Last verse, as we trust it to God, our heart sorrow turns into heart rejoicing.

Verse 6, “I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.”

David went from questioning where God even was in verse 1, to finally saying, I sing God’s praises, for he has been good to me.

We’ve found peace again. We trusted him. The living waters have flowed in. The pain melts away. And it’s replaced by "shalom shalom" the peace of Jesus Christ.

God has been good to me, we declare. And the story of the hurt and healing, becomes part of our testimony. A story of redemption.

Review of Main Points:

1. Waiting in suffering is the challenge
2. In suffering God will sometimes hide his face
3. Wrestling in our thoughts can lead toward the truth
4. Sometimes the enemy we face is ourselves
5. Turn to God, and ask Him to create a path forward
6. Trust leads to the living waters of healing
7. The story of the struggle becomes our testimony

The Problem of Suffering and Evil in the World

I ran away from Him,
Down the nights and down the days;
I ran from Him,
Down the arches of the years;
I ran from Him,
Through the twists of my own mind—
And in the confusion of my fears,
I hid from Him,
And still He followed.

With steady steps and a quiet voice,
He followed after me.
No matter how fast I ran,
Or how far I tried to escape,
I always heard His feet behind me—
Unhurrying, unyielding,
Yet filled with love.

I tried to find comfort
In everything but Him:
In people, in pleasure,
In beauty, in dreams.
I wanted to be free from His presence,
Thinking I would find peace,
If only I could leave Him behind.

But everywhere I turned,
The things I loved failed me.
The light I chased faded,
The joy I wanted turned bitter.
And always, behind it all,
His voice kept calling me:
"Nothing you find can satisfy you,
Unless it comes from Me."

I told myself He was cruel,
That He would rob me of happiness.
But still He followed,
Not with anger,
But with patient love.

When I finally stopped running,
Broken and exhausted,
He was still there—
Not to punish,
But to gently ask,
"Why do you run from the One who loves you most?"

He showed me
That every loss I suffered,
Every door that closed,
Was His mercy in disguise—
Turning me back toward the only joy
That would ever be real.
-Hound of Heaven (modern English)

This is an excerpt from a famous poem called the Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson, published in 1890. It helps us understand our situation as humans. We are often like the man in the poem, in a cloud of anxiety and confusion running away from God, looking around at a dangerous world, with child-like emotions, anger, fear, despair, wondering, why is there all this evil in the world? Even as Christians we often run from God. But like the man in the poem, if we could slow and turn around, we’d see His love is pursuing us.

Lately in our country we’ve seen violence, and we’ve wondered, what is going on? What is the source of this evil?

Today we’re addressing the topic of Why is there suffering and evil in the world. We’re going to look at the origin of evil and suffering, and then discuss how we can respond to these things in the right way.

Here’s our first clue: There is a genealogy in Genesis chapter 5 that goes through the names of all the descendants of Adam, the first man, all the way down to Noah. If you list all the names in order, you find that each name has a meaning, just as any of our names have a meaning. My name is Justin, it means to be justified. The first name Adam, means man.

Second name, Seth means appointed. Enosh means mortal. Kenan means sorrow. Mahalalel means the blessed God. Jared means shall come down. Enoch means teaching. Methusaleh means “his death shall bring.” Lamech means the despairing. Noah means comfort or rest.

If you put all those meanings into a sentence it reads: “Man appointed mortal sorrow, the blessed God shall come down teaching; His death shall bring the despairing rest.”

Man appointed, it says, mortal sorrow. Where did suffering come from? The answer is, it came from humanity. God did not initiate it. Humans did.

We consider the account of the book of Genesis. We see Adam and Eve, the first two humans, and they were innocent, they were holy. They lived with God in the garden. God walked among the garden with them. There was no sin then, no suffering.

We know that Adam and Eve were given authority over the garden, to tend it. They were told there was one rule, do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

But next we see Adam and Eve, and the serpent, this fallen being, tempt Adam and Eve. The serpent tells them, Genesis 3:4-5 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

So began the difficult situation we find ourselves in today. Adam and Eve were innocent and pure. Satan was corrupted with evil, and he used the power of deception to bring in suffering for humanity.

We know God was left with no choice, but in his justice, to send Adam and Eve out of the garden. Creation was cursed. The world became fallen. The entire paradigm shifted.

The cursed creation would exist for one purpose: To provide humanity one more chance to turn back to God before the end. Humans would continue to be born and spread out on the Earth. That was always the plan. But now, they would all be affected by the sin virus that Adam and Eve had allowed in.

Humans had turned against God and joined the rebellion that started with Satan and his demons. But God immediately established a plan to save humanity.

God decided he would come himself, as Jesus into the world, to pay the blood price that we owed, so if we trusted in God’s gift of forgiveness, then we could be delivered from the sin nature we’ve inherited from Adam and eve, and we could become part of the new humanity who is led not by Adam and eve, but by Jesus Christ the messiah.

Our scripture for today is Psalm 10, that deals extensively with the problem of evil and suffering.

Psalm 10 begins like this: “1 Why, Lord, do you stand far off?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?”

This is the cry of the heart when we face suffering. We cry out and say Lord where are you?

Many in our world refuse to believe in God, because of the evil and suffering in the world. They say how can there be a good god if children die of hunger, if people die of cancer, how can there be a good god if hurricanes destroy villages and floods sweep away the impoverished?

This is probably thee reason why many leave behind God, their experience of suffering leads them to reject God.

So it’s vital that we understand how God’s system works. We see that every human being born is born with a gift that many of us aren’t even fully aware of, the gift of free will.

We get to choose. And God has written it into the system that he is not able to force free choices.

If God deleted free will from the system, of course there would be no evil or suffering. But there would also be no love. And love is the most important thing in the universe. If I could force Chelsey my wife to love me, is that really love? No it’s force. But, if Chelsey freely chooses to love me, that’s real love.

Next verses 2-3: “In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the schemes he devises. He boasts about the cravings of his heart; he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord.”

We live in a world where we’re affected by the poor decisions of other humans. I have free will, they have free will. And we’re all on this planet together. So we find situations where the wicked hunt down the weak, plot against the faithful, they celebrate sin, they bless the greedy, and they despise the Lord almighty.

We often look at the evil all around us, in other people, in institutions, and we cry out to God to put an end to evil. But what about the evil in us? If God were to deal with evil right now, he’d have to deal with us. And get rid of that evil too.

Now as we Christians we would say, well we’re righteous because of Jesus, we don’t have evil, because Jesus has covered our sins. This is true. But, what about our unsaved loved ones who we pray for day and night?

God is being patient, waiting for them to come in. And so he is patient with all the evil in the world, waiting and giving time for everyone to have the opportunity to say yes to Jesus.

Why suffering? God’s open door for all.

Next, verses 4-5: “In his pride the wicked man does not seek him;
in all his thoughts there is no room for God.
5 His ways are always prosperous;
your laws are rejected by him;
he sneers at all his enemies.”

In all his thoughts, no room for God. Evil is so terrible, and the evil person, the sinful person is a horror to witness. I think of myself before I was saved, and it was not pretty.

But here we get another key to the truth about suffering. What we are in very important, more important than we realize.

The bible tells us we are made in the image of God. That’s not said of animals, plants, even the angels. We are unique. So much so that we’re told that if we endure to the end with Christ, we will inherit the kingdom of God.

So what we are is very special. This explains why the punishment for rejecting Christ is so severe, eternity in hell. Because we were to be the crown of God’s creation, to share in our God’s authority over all he made. Think about that for a second. To share in his authority, to rule over everything he made. We were made to be given great authority, and with great authority comes great responsibility. That’s why the end game is so serious, heaven or hell, because what we are is so unspeakably incredible and amazing and powerful. We have the spark within us of the creativity of the Creator of all!

Next, verse 6: He says to himself, “Nothing will ever shake me.”
He swears, “No one will ever do me harm.”

We desire a world where nothing will ever shake us, nothing will ever harm us. We were made for a paradise. That’s why death seems so terrible to us, it horrifies us and it should. We struggle to comprehend suffering. It’s a mystery to us.

If we want to understand the mystery of iniquity, we ought to look to two examples, the first is Job. If you want to understand suffering, look at the book of Job. Job was tested and suffered greatly, but he honored God through it, he cried out, he wrestled, but in the end, he trusted His god, and he was greatly rewarded. Job knew horrible suffering. Yet there was a purpose in all of it.

Second example, is of course Jesus himself. Jesus suffered in every way that we do. He suffered pain, despair, and difficulties. He wrestled with God like Job did, in the garden of Gethsemane.

He pleaded with God to take the suffering of the cross away. Father, if it’s possible, take this cup away from me, but your will be done, not mine.

Jesus also desired to be relieved from the suffering. But the cup was not taken from Jesus. Jesus drank that cup of brutal suffering, for us.

Can we then, through all this suffering in our lives, look to the example of Jesus, see that Jesus struggled with it too, but in the end Jesus, drank from that cup, for us. And so can we too, drink from lesser cups of suffering in our lives?

Jesus cried while nailed to the cross, “Father why have you forsaken me?!”

Jesus became suffering for us that day, he became evil for us that day. He was forsaken. And because of what Jesus did, we never have to be forsaken. We are accepted.

Jumping down to verse 14, it says, “But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; you consider their grief and take it in hand.
The victims commit themselves to you;
you are the helper of the fatherless.”

God sees our trouble. He doesn’t ignore. He grieves with us. It says he takes our grief in his hands. Our response then, is to commit ourselves to God. Declare, God is my helper.

Yet so often we have a struggle we’re going through, and we ask God for help, and God doesn’t move right away. He waits, or he doesn’t help us at all. Why?

Sometimes we permit suffering to continue to bring about a greater good. Example, the dentist? We go in and they drill into our teeth and it causes suffering, but, it brings about a greater good of healthy teeth. Sometimes when God waits, or doesn’t move, it is to bring about a greater good.

That isn’t always the case though, sometimes we suffer simply because we live in a fallen world that has been messed up by humans. Sometimes God steps in, sometimes God doesn’t, we have to trust Him in that.

Many philosophers have wondered at the problem of evil, and assumed, if God existed and he’s good, he would defeat evil. So there must not be a god, because evil exists.

Of course this argument is self defeating, because where do you get a rationale to call something evil or good? If evil and good exist, an objective morality exists. If an objective morality exists, you must have a moral law giver, to provide that framework, which can only come from God.

But the argument often goes like this:

If God is all good, He would defeat evil

If God is all powerful, He could defeat evil.

But evil is not defeated. Therefore God doesn’t exist.


Professor Norm Geisler, provided a response to this:

If God is all good, He would defeat evil

If God is all powerful, He could defeat evil.

Therefore evil will one day be defeated.

It is God’s character and ability to do so.

But it still begs the question: Why doesn’t God do it now?

1. He is waiting patiently for the lost to come to Christ.

2. He is allowing suffering to prepare His saints for paradise.

3. He is testing the faith of His saints to prevent any future rebellion. (meaning: Every time your faith is tested and you choose to keep trusting God, it strengthens your commitment to God. God is developing in us such a strong commitment, once we are in heaven, it will prevent any future rebellions.)

4. He is displaying/proving his righteousness in contrast to the mystery of iniquity

So we’ve talked about the Garden of Eden and the fall. We’ve talked about God’s provision of Jesus Christ as the solution to the problem. How does it all end?

We know that after the end times, and the millennial reign of Christ, the enemy is defeated, and there is a great day of judgment for every person on earth. And there are two final destinations: The New heavens and new earth, or hell.

The End game is this: God separates good from evil forever, quarantining evil in a place called hell. And good prospers in a place called paradise.

The end is just what everyone desires, “Lord end the evil and suffering.” If we accept Jesus, and allow him to save us, we will never suffer again. If we reject Jesus, we will suffer for all eternity.

In conclusion today, given all these truths about the problem of evil and suffering, how do we get through these struggles?

The first thing we want to understand is that Jesus Christ is the savior we all need, because until we have him, we are the evil in the world, and we contribute to it. When Jesus enters us, we become part of the solution.

Second thing to understand is that suffering is emotionally devastating. That’s why we get so upset when we see suffering and evil in the world. It goes against everything we’re made for, we’re made for heavenly joy. So understand that the pains you go through in life will shake your world. But also understand there is a solution to this, and it is a concept called wrestling with God.

Whether Job, or Jacob, or Abraham or Moses, or Paul or Peter or James or John, they all had one thing in common: They wrestled with God. When suffering occurred they constantly brought it to God in prayer and talked with Him, read the word, talked to friends and family about it, talked to their spiritual leaders, and through that wrestling with God, God slowly brought them to a place of blessing.

Third, expect suffering, the new testament constantly tells us to expect it, that it will happen, and James even writes that we should count it all joy when we face trials of many kinds, because the trials build and refine our faith. So often the best response to a new trial or problem is to accept it. Believe that suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character.

Fourthly, as we walk through this broken world, in all the ups and downs and triumphs and tragedies, we learn to trust Him more and more. We see him deliver us time and again. We see him answer our prayers time and again. We see trials come and go. We see God mature us through these challenges. We learn to simply trust Him. And we join with Job, when he says, “Thou he slays me, yet will I trust him.”

Fifthly, ask God for healing. After the suffering, we find ourselves covered in wounds from all we’ve been through. And it’s a good thing we serve a healing God. He doesn’t want to leave us wounded from all the pains. He wants to heal us. Ask Him.

Suffering came about through evil, and evil led to deception and deception led to the fall, and the fall led to suffering. But the mighty God came down giving salvation to all who would believe. He met us in our suffering. Jesus became evil and suffering for us, so that we could be healed. Thank you Jesus for your mighty gift! Let us wrestle with God through the sufferings, seeking His wisdom, so we may be at peace despite all the wrongs we see in the world. He is able!

Studying the Evidence for God's Existence: The Telescope, The Microscope, History, and Ancient Manuscripts

“My father’s life was changed right before my eyes [when he trusted Christ]. It was like someone reached down and switched on a light inside him. He touched alcohol only once after that. He got the drink only as far as his lips and that was it—after forty years of drinking! He didn’t need it any more. Fourteen months later, he died from complications of his alcoholism. But in that fourteen-month period over a hundred people in the area around my tiny hometown committed their lives to Jesus Christ because of the change they saw in the town drunk, my dad.”
–Josh McDowell, The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict, xxvii.

One of the most powerful evidences for God’s existence is the testimonies of the people around us, whose lives have been changed by the God they claim saved them.

And I know many of us here have those testimonies ourselves, we heard from God, we saw God move, and thus it built our faith.

Our topic for today is exploring the evidences for God’s existence. But really underneath that, it’s about building our trust in God and His word.

We know ultimately that Jesus said, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And Jesus said, my words bring God’s life giving spirit (John 6:63).

But there is another practice that helps build our faith, and Paul made use of this form of teaching when he spoke to the Greeks at the Mars Hill meeting place in the book of Acts. He gave an explanation for the Christian faith, an apologetic, a reasoned explanation. And it was powerful, it led to people getting saved that day.

We also see in the book of Romans, that the evidence that God is real, is all around us.

“18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” -Romans 1:18-20

The evidence of God is so overwhelming when simply viewing the natural world around us and the skies above us.

Unfortunately as Romans 1 says, humanity suppresses that truth. We hide it. We ignore it. We don’t talk about it. But suppose you were walking along a beach, and you discovered letters written in the sand, what would you think? As Professor John Lennox wrote…

"We have only to see a few letters of the alphabet spelling our name in the sand to recognize at once the work of an intelligent agent. How much more likely, then is the existence of an intelligent Creator behind human DNA, the colossal biological database that contains no fewer than 3.5 billion "letters" - the longest "word" yet discovered?" –John Lennox, God and Stephen Hawking: Whose Design Is It Anyway?, p. 75.

This message today is going to center on Psalm 19, which is a Psalm that celebrates and points to the fact that God is evidenced and glorified through his creation.

And we’re going to explore different evidences for God’s existence based on science and reason, we’re going to explore evidences for the historical Jesus, and we’ll look at manuscript evidence for the biblical documents.

The goal being: To build your faith. In the healing journey, we’ve all suffered, and for some of us, it’s left us with doubts, making us wonder if God is really there. The goal of this message is to arm you with truths that will guard and protect your faith in God.

Psalm 19:1 says, “1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”

The heavens are making a statement. They are declaring something, something about the nature of reality itself.

Last Sunday Chelsey and I were sitting on a bench up on a hill that overlooks part of the city. It was about 8 at night, and we had the amazing opportunity to watch the full moon rise above the city.

One need only look up and a question comes to mind: Where did all this come from?

For many years scientists believed that perhaps the universe itself was infinite, that it had always been there. And this would mean there would be no need for a creator.

But, this possibility was quashed by Edwin Hubble who observed the red shift of galaxies in his telescope. There were numerous other observations by scientists like Arvind Borde, Alan Guth, and Alexander Vilenkin that confirmed that our universe has a definite starting point. This is how the big bang theory was developed.

One of the most powerful evidences that God is really real, is the cosmological argument, which says:

1. Everything that begins to exist has a cause.

2. The universe began to exist

3. Therefore the universe must have a cause

This cause can’t be itself, the universe can’t create itself that illogical, therefore it must be spaceless, timeless, immaterial, uncaused, and incredibly powerful.

Do you know who fits that description? God.

When you look up at the sky, when you look at photos from the Hubble telescope, or the James Web telescope, it reminds us that there is an incredibly complex universe of stars and galaxies out there. It reminds us that these things haven’t always been there, because they are diminishing in energy, so where did it all come from? What’s the original unmoved mover for the entire universe in which we inhabit? Where did it come from?

Many make the case that the big bang, banged from nothing into something. How can nothing become something? It’s not logical.

The most logical explanation of the existence of our universe, is that God designed it and created it.

When talking to someone who doesn’t believe in God, you can always ask them the question, where do you think the universe came from?

Let’s keep going, verse 2, “Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.”

We don’t have to just look at the starting point, to see evidence of God’s handiwork. We can see it throughout the system, not just at it's genesis. I tend to appreciate this evidence for God’s existence even more, because there’s just so much evidence here it’s nearly endless.

You can look into the telescope, and look into the universe again and find what many call examples of the fine tuning of the universe to allow for life.

One of these examples is the gravitation constant, in other words, gravity. That’s the most common, it is tuned to a specific reading that allows for life in our universe, if it was tuned just a little differently, slightly less gravity, slightly more, no life would exist in the universe.

Here is list of twelve of these finely tuned functions of our universe:

Strong nuclear force constant

Weak nuclear force constant

Gravitational force constant

Electromagnetic force constant

Ratio of electromagnetic force constant to gravitational force constant

Ratio of proton to electron mass

Ratio of number of protons to number of electrons

Ratio of proton to electron charge

Expansion rate of the universe

Mass density of the universe

Baryon (proton and neutron) density of the universe

Space energy or dark energy density of the universe

That’s twelve of them, there are actually 140 that we’re aware of.

That’s one angle, through the telescope looking outward at the universe.



A second angle is looking downward through the microscope at DNA. DNA is so incredibly complex, and functions as a code of information within every life form on planet Earth.

It would be like looking at every computer system on our planet and seeing the binary code that was used. Binary is 1s and 0s. That’s it. Of course we know it was designed by humans.

In DNA we find four letters, adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T). A coding system, incredibly more complex than our computer systems, written into our own bodies and every life form on Earth, storing untold amounts of information.

The DNA coding system within all life is such a powerful evidence for God’s existence. When we see all this complexity, we have to inevitably assume, that it was designed.

Next, verses 3-4: (Referring to the heavens still…)
“3 They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.”

The evidence around us isn’t actually speaking to us in English saying look God exists, yet, it does speak in another language, the language of logic. If this humming bird exists, who made it? Where did it come from? If that star exists where did it come from?

But there is another language being spoken in the world constantly. Again it’s not necessarily a language like English or French, but it is something we all instinctually understand, everyone everywhere.

It is the language of morals and principles. And here we find another key explanation of God’s existence.

If we find in the world a universal moral law, things that are always right and always wrong, then we can infer certain things about reality. What do we mean by an objective morality? For example, to kill a child is always wrong. Racism is always wrong. Rape is always wrong.

We all know this in our hearts and in our minds, that we live in a moral universe, where there is right and wrong.

If there is an objective moral law, there must be a moral law giver.

If God does not exist, there is no basis for an objective moral law. Anything goes. Nothing is right or wrong. It's all subjective.

Without God all we have is one person or another persons random view point. But we all know instinctually that moral precepts do exist, they are not subjective but object, whenever we say, “hey that’s not fair!” we are affirming our belief in object right and wrong.

The Moral argument for God’s existence goes like this: If God does not exist, objective moral values and duties do not exist.

Objective moral values and duties do exist.

Therefore, God exists.

Otherwise, there’s no basis for objective morals, without a creator to give them.

Next, Psalm 19: 4-6: “In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun. 5 It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
6 It rises at one end of the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other;
nothing is deprived of its warmth.”

Just as the sun in the sky is something we don’t even think about each day, but it’s up there, and without it we couldn’t see a thing…Similarly, Jesus Christ, the son of God, the word says, holds the universe together by his mighty power.

Jesus during his earthly ministry was a champion rejoicing to run his course. And so we want to look to that course, because it’s little help to simply prove that God exists. Because it doesn’t prove that it’s actually the God of the bible.

So another form of evidence we have to consider is the historical evidence for Jesus Christ of Nazareth.



Every historian aside from those far on the fringes believe that Jesus of Nazareth existed, lived, was a Jewish rabbi, and was crucified. Anyone who tells you that Jesus never existed knows nothing about history. There are 40 historical sources that cite Jesus of Nazareth in some form or fashion, sources include the Babylonian Talmud, Tacitus, Josephus, Pliny the Younger, Thallus, Phlegon, on and on the list goes. These are non-Christian sources.

The emperor of Rome at the time of Jesus was Augustus, but he is only mentioned by 10 historical sources. Jesus is listed by 40.

So it’s historically irrefutable that Jesus lived, was a Jewish rabbi, and died by crucifixion. But the real question is, did Jesus really rise from the dead? If he did, then Christianity is true. Without a doubt.

We know from history that Jesus’ tomb was found to be empty 3 days after he died. We know that Christianity from that moment, rocketed out in the next three hundred years to become the most important religion in the Roman empire. We know that the 12 disciples of Jesus, all faced martyrdom for their declaration that Jesus was alive. And we know that all of them aside from John who was exiled, gave up their lives without ever changing their minds. Why would they die for a lie? If they were lying that Jesus rose from the grave, wouldn’t they admit it to avoid being killed? But none of them changed their story. They were killed for their testimony that Jesus was alive.

The Apostle Paul is also an astonishing case, a man who went from pursuing and arresting Christians, to becoming a leader of the Christians, because he encountered the risen Jesus. Same with Jesus’ brother James, who went from rejecting his brother’s ministry, to a leader of the church, because he encountered the risen Jesus.

We have clear historical evidence from the testimony of history, from biblical and non-biblical sources that tell us Jesus certainly existed, certainly died by crucifixion, and there is clear evidence that he also rose from the dead.

When I learned all this, through many presentations and books and speakers, I was angry. I was angry because the public education system, the university system, and our entire media driven society had conspired to keep this information away from me. Not because there was some underhanded conspiracy necessarily, but, because we as humans suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because we don’t like where it leads.

Lastly, verse 7, “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul.” 

We’ve seen how fine tuning and the first cause explanation prove that God is real. We’ve seen how the historical Jesus is a reality, and the evidence indicates that he really did rise from the dead. Lastly we come to the Bible itself.

Can we trust the Bible? Are the documents reliable? Or have they been changed over time? Here we get so many conspiracy theories, they suggest that certain books of the bible were removed by the catholic church, or that the bible was changed over time, or that the bible is based on pagan myths, all sorts of theories that honestly have very little if any evidence.

So let us look briefly at the manuscript evidence for the Bible, and the attestation of the dead sea scrolls.

Manuscript evidence as a discipline is based around different factors, like how many ancient copies we have of historical documents, and how closely they are dated to the time when the events actually took place. Let’s look at some examples of other ancient manuscripts and then compare them to the Bible.

For Tacitus’s annals we have 36 manuscript copies, dated to about 700 years after the events.

For Plato’s Tetralogies, we have 210 manuscript copies, dated to about 1200 years after the events.

For Homer’s Iliad, we have 643 manuscript copies, dated to about 400 years after Homer lived.

For the New Testament of the Bible, 5,800 manuscripts in Greek, and another 19,000 in other languages, some of the manuscripts within 30-60 years of the actual events. For the Old Testament we have about 14,000 in the Hebrew or Aramaic, and about 17,000 if you count other languages (Greek Septuagint, Latin Vulgate, Syriac Peshitta) as well. 

When considering ancient historical documents, there is no other document with as much manuscript evidence, so close to the actual events, as the Bible. It’s not even close. The Bible is an astonishing document, there is no other document like it in history.

But what if the documents were changed? Since we have manuscripts from within 30-60 years of the actual events of Jesus life, it’s unlikely that they’ve been changed. The reason for that is those involved in the events would've still been alive and could verify the events that took place. Paul mentioned this in 1st Corinthians 15 sharing that a crowd of 500 people had seen Jesus risen from the grave, and many were still alive. He even encouraged those in Corinth to interview the witnesses if they wanted. 

We also have the dead sea scrolls. These sat in a cave for two thousand years. And when they were discovered in 1947, we compared them to the old testament we have now, and it matched. Nothing had been changed. 

We have the ancient manuscripts. We have documents that prove the Old Testament wasn’t changed. The new testament is dated within 30-60 years of the events themselves. The case is clear: The bible can be trusted.

In conclusion today, let all these facts fuel your faith. When you’re tempted to doubt, remember yourself that all of these facts cumulatively built together prove that Christianity is true beyond a reasonable doubt.

And we have just barely scratched the surface as well friends, there are numerous other evidences in archaeology, personal testimonies, fulfilled prophecies, and so much more.

How will all of this help in your healing journey? That’s an excellent question. One of the biggest problems we have in the church is unbelief. We don’t really believe God’s word like we should. We are so surrounded by other influences we struggle to see the world from a biblical perspective. But, when we see the evidence for Christianity, it builds our faith. We begin to see the entire world as an expression of God’s presence and power. And when we start to really believe, we start to really trust. And when we believe God’s word, it becomes activated in our lives. And when it becomes activated and we really believe it, it changes us, and we find healing.

Review of Main Points:
1. Humanity has suppressed the truth in unrighteousness - we must search for it

2. The Cosmological Argument - proves the universe needs a creator at the beginning

3. The Fine Tuning Argument - the evidence for God in DNA and the design of the universe is ongoing evidence He is real

4. The Moral Argument - objective morals is proof God exists

5. The Historical Jesus - 40 sources confirm the historical Jesus

6. Manuscript Evidence - thousands of sources confirm the biblical documents

7. All of this leads to Deep Faith - we can intelligently believe that our God is real and His word is true

Dead Sea Scrolls Isaiah copy

Dead Sea Scrolls in the cave

Growing In the Prayer Journey: 7 Ways to Go Deeper in Prayer

On August 27th 2025 a mass shooter entered the church of the annunciation in Minneapolis Minnesota. This attack took place during morning mass, the transgender shooter, who called himself Robin, killed 2 children, and injured 21 others. I’m sure many of you heard about it on the news.

It was a terrible tragedy, and left the nation in mourning. As is often stated after a tragedy such as this, many were offering prayer for the victims of the terrible event.

But many did not appreciate the concept of prayer, the mayor of Minneapolis Jacob Frey said, "Don't just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying."

And a host on MSNBC, the former chief press secretary Jen Psaki wrote: “Prayer does not bring these kids back,” she said. “Enough with the thoughts and prayers.”

To a brief extent I understand their frustration. They are assuming that prayer is a substitute for action. 

For someone who doesn’t believe in God, which lets be real many of these people don’t, the idea of prayer is like talking to yourself, it means nothing, and it has no affect on anything. Many if not most in our society today view prayer in that way.

But how do you view prayer? Do you view it as something empty that we mouth to each other to make each other feel good?

Or do you believe that prayer is really real? I think we often don’t realize what we really believe about something until we sit down and think about it.

Perhaps you just look at prayer, and think to yourself, well I’m a Christian, but I don’t see much value in prayer, I know it says to do it in the word, but I just don’t understand the value.

There’s a key truth that each of us need to believe today: My prayers have the power to change reality on planet Earth.

Not because my prayers are powerful in themselves, but, because of who those prayers are going to, and how God answers prayers.

Well, if I don’t pray wouldn’t it just happen some other way? Because it’s God’s will? Not necessarily no. Think of the book of Ezekiel, God says that he looked throughout the land during that time to find someone who would stand in the gap in the wall for him, but he found no one, and thus the land was destroyed.

Your actions matter. Your prayers matter. Your witnessing matters. And if it’s not you, there is no guarantee that someone else will do it for you.

Jesus was so emphatic about the power of prayer, he said this, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” -Mark 11:24

We know the power of prayer. We’ve seen our prayers answered by God. We’ve also seen times when God didn’t answer the way we had hoped. It's a good reminder that we aren't God. But maybe we gave up after God didn't answer a prayer we really wanted Him to answer. I challenge you today to continue to trust Him and continue to believe in the power of prayer. Prayer changes the world.

 

But prayer is more than that. It’s a refuge, it’s how you make God your refuge. It’s air to the Christian. It’s like breathing. It’s how we go deep with God. Without prayer, we will certainly fail. With prayer, we will go to depths we couldn’t even imagine.

That is the secret of prayer. It leads us toward God, over and over in our lives. And in that secret place of prayer, we find complete healing.

Today we address the topic of the power of prayer in the healing journey.

Psalm 71 is where we find ourselves today. We know very little of this psalm, we believe it was written by David, and many commentators believe it was written by David latter in life, during the crisis of the rebellion of his son Absalom, but we don’t know that certain, the psalm is unlabeled.

It begins this way, verse 1: “In you, Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame.”

Every time we pray, we are making God our refuge, the safe place we run to in times of need, or in times of plenty. We run to Him again and again, because we believe that he will never let us be put to shame. In other words, we believe God will not disappoint us.

How do we make God our refuge? We run to him in prayer. Over and over. Daily.

But it reminds me of another scripture from the book of Isaiah, “We have made lies our refuge” -Isaiah 28:15

We as humans are able to build a web of lies around ourselves. Think of an alcoholic, someone who believes they don't have a problem, they build a refuge around themselves of lies, to comfort themselves against a reality they don’t want to face. When a truth about their condition from a friend or family member shoots in they are able to block it from their refuge of lies. 

With prayer, we’re expressing that we’ve let go of every false stronghold, every lie, and we’re simply running, uncovered, to the one true God.

So how do we pray? Do we repeat the Our Father, do we list off requests, how does it work?

First point today, every time you pray, you are making God your refuge, a safe place, and when you are in the refuge of God, you are in a place where God is able to heal you.

Prayer: “God you are my refuge.” Making God your refuge of safety is a choice. And when we neglect prayer, we are going out into the world in a vulnerable state.

Start the day in prayer, always. Make the commitment, I’m never leaving the house without praying first.

My morning prayer is this: First, I ask each member of the Trinity to be with me, Father I ask for your presence today, Jesus I ask you to sit on the throne of my heart today, Holy Spirit I ask you to fill me today.

Then my wife and I will speak several scriptures over our day, usually, “This is the day the Lord has made, and I will rejoice and be glad in it” Psalm 118:24, along with "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength" -Philippians 4:13, and "The joy of the Lord is my strength" -Nehemiah 8:10, then we pray on the armor of God onto ourselves (Ephesians 6) Simple, ready for battle.

Let’s see if we can get more guidance on prayer from verse 2, which says, “2 In your righteousness, rescue me and deliver me;
turn your ear to me and save me.”

It’s clear David is in trouble during this prayer. Sometimes we only pray when we’re in trouble, or when something bad is going on. This is not wise. Because we’ve read in verse 1, we must make God our refuge.

But nevertheless, we all face situations throughout the day that require on the spot prayer.

Second form of prayer today, rescue prayer. Lord, please help me. Have you ever prayed this prayer?

It could be that your car just broke down, you whisper a brief prayer. Could be that you’re having an argument with your wife or husband, and you step into the other room, say I need a minute, and you step out and pray for the situation, God please help.

Quick prayers can be very powerful, in the right situation. Sometimes I just pray, Lord, have mercy on me in this situation, whatever I happen to be going through.

Quick prayer tip for the car: When you see an ambulance or fire truck or police car go by with lights lit up, say a pray for them: God, please protect them, have mercy on those in danger, spare their lives, in Jesus name, amen.

Rescue prayers are great for arguments, problems at work, maybe you overhear others in a dispute, pray over them, always keep in your back pocket the idea of quick prayer.

Too often we jump right into panic, or we get lost in our upset emotions, instead, take action, take it up to God, believe he will help you.

Next, verse 3: “Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go;”

Be my rock of refuge, to me I picture flood waters rushing through an area, and sometimes life on Earth is tough like this, it’s uncertain, dangerous, but, God becomes for us a rock of refuge, not just a safe place, but a stable foundation above the storm.

Third form of prayer today, daily dialogue. We’re building a plan here for victorious living. Refuge starting the day with God, rescue calling on God in trouble, third, thankfulness and praise throughout the day.

We slowly build these practices. We pray in the morning, slowly we do that, and it bleeds over into rescue prayers, calls for help, which bleeds over into praying throughout the day.

Soon, as we pray over meals, in the morning, at night, we begin to talk to God in our heads all day. We sometimes say things out loud. We get that package in the mail we’ve been waiting for, “Thank you God.” We pray over our meal, "Thank you for this food."

We talk to God in our minds while we’re at work. Yes, he can hear in there too. Lord, I’m struggling with this today. Lord, please have mercy on my coworker, help him to know you. And slowly, the day becomes a dialogue between you and God. It’s very beautiful.

Emphasize in this thankfulness and praise. We should express our struggles and difficulties, but we don’t want to be complaining to God all day either. Emphasize gratitude. Count your blessings to God.

Why is there value in this? It’s cultivating your relationship with God in a very powerful way.

As we go through these seven areas today, which one, or two or three are you going to work on in the coming weeks?

Second part of verse 3: “give the command to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.”

So we’ve seen David refer to God as his refuge, then his rock, now his fortress. And I think the same is true for us as we implement these prayer tactics throughout our days. God for us goes to a refuge, a safe place, soon he’s our rock too, even safer, soon, he becomes our fortress.

Notice the psalmist also says, "give the command to save me” he puts it entirely in God’s court. God himself is needed. He’s in charge.

Do you know that God is everywhere on the Earth? But more so, he is with you at all times. His presence fills you through the Holy Spirit.

Flowing from talking to God throughout the day, we will eventually come, as we develop it, to a sense of the presence of God with us.

There’s a wonderful book about this by a famed 17th century Carmelite friar named Brother Lawrence, called The Practice the presence of God.

He gives instruction like this, “Turn your thoughts towards God as often as you can. By small steps, get used to this small but holy exercise. Think of God as often as you can.

Make it your habit to maintain an intimate, humble, affectionate conversation with Him.

I may call this the actual presence of God or more appropriately, it is a habitual, silent, and secret conversation of the soul with God.”

Repeating a simple phrase throughout the day can be helpful as well, “Lord, I seek your face.” “Holy One, show me the way.” -Brother Lawrence

Eventually as you develop it, you will sense God’s presence around you throughout the day. This is a great joy.

Next, verse 4: “Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of those who are evil and cruel.”

As we all know unfortunately, it’s not just us and God in the world. We face an enemy. The devil, and his demonic forces, principalities, powers, and authorities.

The devil, the word says, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. It says “resist him, standing firm in the faith.” -1 Peter 5:9

Through learning and practicing these different forms of prayer, we realize we must combat the evil one and his forces. So we discover spiritual warfare prayer. This is also sometimes referred to as deliverance prayer.

Notice the psalmist writes, "Deliver me my God!"

In all spiritual warfare prayer, we are seeking God’s help, and utilizing our authority in Christ, to command and rebuke the enemy and his forces.

But is the concept of spiritual warfare biblical? Look to our savior Jesus who was tempted in the wilderness by the devil. The devil came to him, and attempted to lie to him and tempt him to do evil things. Jesus resisted by quoting the word of God out loud. Then Jesus commanded the devil to "Go!" He didn't say "in the name of Jesus" because he is Jesus. But we must use that powerful name of Jesus, when demons come to tempt and deceive us. 

There is so much here, we can’t get into most of it today. The best application I can tell you, is to use the name of Jesus Christ. If you sense a presence near you, something evil, speak the name. If you wake up at night and sense a presence in the room, use the name. If you wake up from a nightmare and you sense something demonic you say, "In the name of Jesus Christ, get out, I command you to go. Amen."

Sometimes you’ll sense a voice that mimics your own internal voice, attempting to deceive or tempt you, this may be a demon, it’s not possessing you, it’s near, pouring in lies, you can very quickly rebuke this enemy, and cast him out in the name of Jesus.

As you engage in this battle, you can do all sorts of things, bind demons in restaurants, you can help people get delivered from unclean spirits, you can pray against principalities and demonic powers over your city, and target them in prayer. The Lord has used my wife to help deliver women from demons that were perched on them and deceiving them. 

Understand the enemy is defeated by Jesus Christ, we just have to apply that victory, and rebuke him in Jesus name.

Next, verse 5: “For you have been my hope, Sovereign Lord,
my confidence since my youth.”

The sovereign Lord is our hope, and our confidence throughout our whole lives. And he welcomes us into his confidence. He doesn’t just want us to be a servant. He wants us to be a friend of God. It was said of Abraham he was a friend of God. They were so close, that God would invite Abraham into his decisions, into the most intimate parts of his plan. He revealed great mysteries to Abraham.

You can have that same relationship with God. You can be a friend of God. This is how. Through the journey across all these prayer roads, building one upon another, we come to deep prayer.

I like to have deep prayer times at night, but maybe for you it’ll be mornings or midday. This is a long period of time, where we sit quietly with God, and engage with him. He’s our refuge, our rescuer, we’ve learned to speak to him throughout the day, practice his presence, and engage in spiritual warfare. 

Now it all culminates in a long period of time where we’re talking to God, and time begins to slow down, and we begin to seek His face, and we start to get quiet, and soon, we’ve been with him an hour or more, and he’s revealing things to us. He’s whispering back to us. It’s hard to describe really, how this manifests, but you get quiet with God long enough, he answers. He whispers, through thoughts, images, words, memories, ideas and words spoken out loud. He even gives dreams and visions.

This is a great high point for me in my prayer journey. But it started very small. I started back in 2017 barely able to pray. I could do maybe 5-15 minutes at most. And I made a simple request to God, I admitted God I can’t seem to pray I get too distracted. I don’t value it like I should, Lord help me. Maybe you need to make that your prayer today. He will help you if you desire it with all your heart.

Things happen in deep prayer, or you might call it meditative prayer or listening prayer, that are life changing. You are meeting with God. And it’s real and it’s powerful. If you’re not there today, don’t mind it, start building and in time you’ll reach it. You’ll long for more. Begin that journey today toward this goal. 

Yet there is still one more point that I want to address.

Lastly, verse 6, “From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother’s womb. I will ever praise you.”

From a life in which we’ve relied on God, we understand he has all power over our Spirit, Soul, and Body. He brought us forth from our mother’s womb. He made the human race. He placed a soul in us at the moment of fertilization. Has has all power to heal us.

Every one of these seven prayer areas provide some level of healing along the journey. But there is a form of prayer, in which God will become our life coach, our counselor, and in particular Jesus Christ himself will meet with us, and heal us. He will do work in our heart, mind, and soul, and our bodies, to heal us.

Chelsey and I have a day each week, we call it healing Mondays. Each Monday, usually, though sometimes something will disrupt it, we will spend time that day journaling past hurts, praying, reflecting, talking about past traumas, and allowing the emotions to flow.

Usually at the end of this process we enter a time of prayer we’ve come to practice called heart guided prayer. This is a reflective and meditative prayer form, in which we meet with Jesus Christ, and he communes with us. He brings healing to different wounds on our hearts, or minds. God may bring up a particular area, have us address it, and then he’ll bring healing.

But it’s an encounter with Jesus Christ, for the purpose of receiving something from Him. You could call it reception prayer, because he is giving something, he is giving healing.

When I was a new Christian, I knew I had damage to my internal organs from years of alcohol and drug use, and without knowing anything about this form of prayer, God prompted me to invite him to heal my inner organs, and I lifted these things up in prayer, and he healed different parts of my physical body.

You may be sitting there thinking that seems a little out there, so be it. But don’t discount anything that God can do, he is the healer. If God prompts you to enter a time of healing prayer, simply allow the Spirit to lead you and as you pray, God will lead you to past hurts. And if God prompts you to do something, to offer up your heart, or if he brings up a memory, follow His leading. He’s leading you to healing. Trust Him.

Consider developing once a week a time where you pray and ask God to bring healing to your heart wounds. God will certainly guide you. But if you need further guidance, there are healing ministries out there that can help guide you through healing prayers. 

In conclusion, consider the Old Testament temple, consider the pathway to the most holy place. Remember, as you develop these prayer areas, see it as a journey, of slowly getting closer to God. From the outer court of morning prayer, to the inner court of practicing his presence, to the most holy place of deep prayer. Which one will you add to your lifestyle? Or maybe it’s more than one? Let God lead you. He will build your prayer life step by step into the depths of union with God. 

Review of Main Points:
1. Refuge / Morning Prayer

2. Rescue / Quick Prayer

3. Through the Day / Thankfulness Prayer

4. Practice of the Presence Prayer

5. Spiritual Warfare / Deliverance Prayer

6. Deep / Listening Prayer

7. Healing / Reception Prayer

Healing from Past Struggles: Let God take You on a Healing Journey

Ina is a famous Eurasian brown bear who lives in Romania. In 2021 a viral video of Ina lit the internet on fire with many sympathetic of Ina’s struggle.

Ina was held for more than twenty years in a very small cage at a Romanian government operated zoo. The room was so tiny she could only walk in a small circle, brushing up against the metal bars of the cage.

For twenty years Ina was held in captivity, until finally after receiving many complaints, the zoo released Ina to the care of the non-profit animal sanctuary “Millions of Friends” in Zarnesti, Romania.

The video that astonished the world showed Ina the bear freed from her captivity, at the animal sanctuary 7 years later, but still walking in the same circle she walked for twenty years at the zoo.

Trauma is real, abuse is real, and pain is real. And sometimes those pains and traumas that we’ve been through can cause us to get caught in patterns that are harmful.

For Ina the bear, she became trapped in her past traumas and patterns, and they held her captive, in an invisible cage, that no one could see but her, long after the physical cage had been taken away. (Thankfully after 7 years of this behavior, Ina slowly stopped pacing in the circle after being freed)

What traumas and pains have you been through, and how have they shaped who you are today?

Are there patterns you find yourself caught in, things you do but you don’t understand why? Maybe it’s simply pain, a heart shut down, a sense of disconnection from the world around you, a hardness, that you’d like to be free from.

Maybe you know the wound, you’ve carried it for many years, and you long for God to heal the wound and take the pain away, but no healing has come.

Perhaps you’re sitting there thinking, I don’t have any trauma. I’m happy, I’m well adjusted, my heart overflows with love.

If so, that’s wonderful. But don’t underestimate the possibility that there is trauma that God wants to heal in you.

And I know for a fact that every single person on planet Earth has been through a trauma recently. In the last five years in fact. That trauma is the worldwide pandemic known as Covid-19. How do I know it’s left us traumatized? Because the world doesn’t want to talk about it, many pretend like it never happened.

So we understand today that we need healing. And it’s a good thing that we serve a healing God, our savior Jesus Christ, one of his names is the great physician.

As it says in mark 2:17 NKJV “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

Now it is true that Jesus Christ did not come primarily to deal with our pains and traumas, he came to deal with our sins. And his death on the cross secured us forgiveness for those sins. Yet the word repeatedly speaks of healing. So we know Jesus came to heal us as well.

We’ve all been through a traumatic experience. We lost a loved one. Experienced a divorce. Lost a job. Witnessed or experienced abuse. We all know these experiences. But what happens after?

The aftermath of difficulties in our lives can be extended. They can manifest in racing thoughts, depression, anxiety, fear, lack of confidence, and crippling emotional states.

But they can also manifest as changes in our personality itself, and these changes can be very long lasting, they come to define who we are as a person.

Often times we slowly heal over time, as we pray and seek the Lord, but, sometimes when the hurts are deeper, God will take on something I’ve learned to understand as a “healing journey.”

Throughout this new series titled “the healing journey” we’re going to walk through different stages of how God heals us, we will look at how Jesus walks alongside us, and guides by the Holy Spirit toward different forms of contemplation, reflection, processing, deliverance, rock bottoms, and new heights, all different steps along the pathway to renewal.

I’ll tell you that this topic is very near and dear to my heart. I’ve been through many deep traumas in my life, from childhood abuse, to the divorce of my parents when I was 16, to abuse I experienced in my early twenties, to years of depression and anxiety, to many bad decisions I made that compounded and made worse the trauma I had already experienced, to the point that I was walking through life with so many mental and spiritual wounds that I could barely function.

Then, I encountered Jesus Christ, and he changed my life forever. I fundamentally went from broken to healed. I was born again, a new person. And that was the great turning point in my healing journey.

However, even after having come to Christ, I still found myself with so many wounds on my heart. Though Jesus had forgiven my sins and made me a new person, he did not instantly remove all the hurts and pains I’d gone through.

I did many things to attempt to gain healing in those early years of first becoming a Christian in 2012, but my attempts only yielded mixed results. I took many secular approaches to healing, and don’t get me wrong, many of these techniques are helpful. I utilized the twelve steps, I went to secular counselors, EMDR, journaling, workbooks, reading self help books, Christian books, and so on and so forth.

I put in a lot of work to find healing, more than most would, I read dozens of books, worked through several workbooks, attended groups multiple times a week, and healing came, but it was incomplete.

Maybe some of you can relate today, you’ve attempted different methods to experience healing, but all of it seemed to come up just short, and you find yourself feeling like your heart has holes in it, and you’ve accepted it as inevitable.

I felt that way, for years I had attempted healing, but I’d come up short, and there I found myself in my 3rd year of being a minister, realizing, I’m carrying wounds that are making it hard for me to succeed in what I’m doing. These wounds are holding me back from becoming all God has called me to be. But I had tried every method I knew of, and my heart was still badly wounded.

We start with this simple phrase: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want."

That’s the first line of Psalm 23, our foundation scripture for today.

The first point for today is this: Make the Lord your shepherd, in the healing process, and you will not want for healing. He will provide it. But, we must let go of the reins, and allow God to lead this process.

We often say God you’re in charge, then we grab the reins and take over again. That won’t work. We really have to continually look to Him. And we can.

So this first message today is the entry point. We’re getting our supplies ready. We’ve getting our backpack, shoes, canteen, sleeping bag, and we’re getting ready for a long journey. We’re packing, and beginning to look toward the road ahead.

The first hurdle to face today is this: Maybe you think you don’t need healing. Maybe it’s true. But maybe we’re so used to it, that we don’t see it. So if you’re someone sitting there today thinking I don’t need any healing, I want you to consider the possibility that maybe you do. And then ask God to reveal if that is the case.

Don’t let pride get in the way of something that could change your life. I don’t know about the rest of you, but as for me and my house, we will seek the Lord for healing. Will you join us?

Like I said, the first point is to let God be the shepherd. 

Next verse 2, “He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters.”

The Hebrew there for quiet waters, can be translated ‘waters of rest.’

Second point today, the healing journey is going to be an experience of rest for many of you.

When we’ve been through numerous traumas in our lives, we can end up a state of near constant high engagement of our adrenal gland, called fight or flight. It’s also called adrenaline syndrome or acute stress response.

Our body when it senses a dangerous situation, or a tense argument, our bodies begin to push adrenaline into our brain, for the God-given purpose of giving us strength to either fight or flee the situation we’re in. It’s a good thing.

But the problem is, when we’ve experienced long periods of intensity or trauma, we can get caught in fight or flight, where we are constantly in a state of adrenaline hyperarousal. Many are caught in that state long term, and over time it exhausts us, leaving us always fatigued.

God is offering us rest. This is a gift. But it is also a challenge. Rest is a gift. But it also means we have to slow ourselves down, and get out of fight or flight. Otherwise we won’t be able to experience healing.

David wrote this psalm as king, looking back on his life, and how God had provided safe places for him. The green pasture David writes about is our safe place.

We don’t need to be scrambling about like mad men and women, for God is our green pasture, our safe place.

Though I worry some of us, if we were to paint a picture of what it feels like inside our heads, it’s more like a dark stormy plain, than a warm sunny pasture. This series is going to help you heal, to turn that dark stormy place in your heart, to a green pasture of the presence of God.

Let’s pray for rest, and a safe place. (Take a few moments to pray)

Next, verse 3: “He restores my soul”

Ultimately, the goal here is verse 3, to bring portions of our soul before God, and invite Him to restore those areas.

Pray right now and ask God, which area of my soul do you want to restore Lord? And then wait, it may come as an image in your mind or a memory, or a thought. Once you’ve received from God that thing, I want you to pray, and invite God to begin to heal that part of your heart.

Friends I believe God has big plans for His church. Really big plans. But the journey ahead of us will be challenging, there will be many ups and downs. So God is bringing us through this healing series, yes because he loves us and wants us to be at peace, but just as much, he’s getting us ready. We won’t be able to win the battles ahead if we’re covered in past wounds. But if we find healing, we will be ready.

Second part of verse 3, “He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.”

Healing is not a one and done thing. It’s a journey. In my healing journey, which has really turned a corner in the last year, God has brought me to things from my childhood, to bitterness from my first posting in ministry, to bullying during high school, to things from a recent dispute I had with a mentor, to the loss of loved ones, and to forgiveness I needed to offer to those who had hurt me. Step by step, along the road.

If Jesus brings something to mind again and again, don’t ignore it. Follow where he points.

Notice how it says, “He guides me.” I don’t guide Him. He shows me where to look for healing, and I don’t second guess what he’s saying. If he points to an incident I feel I’ve already dealt with, I need to open it up again. Because Jesus is never wrong.

Next, verse 4: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil...”

After a traumatic event takes place, many times what we do is stuff it. It’s a very unhealthy practice, but it’s something I did as a kid. I would stuff it. Ignore it, hide it away, and pretend it didn’t happen.

Here is the hardest thing to understand about healing, and experiencing healing in the Lord:

There is no way around the pain. We can’t ignore it. We can’t hide from it. We can’t pretend it doesn’t bother us.

Part of healing is going back to the original memory, and accessing the emotions attached to the memory. The emotions flow out, often in the form of tears, or anger, or sorrow or regret. And we feel those emotions. And we process them. One of the greatest ways to tell that healing is happening, is because tears are flowing. And it may take time, days, weeks, even months of processing.

So if the process begins, simply embrace it. And you’ll find yourself reframing the events in a new way. You’ll begin to go from anger or sorrow at the loss of your mom, to thanking God for her life, and being grateful for the years you had, and having a desire to honor her memory. The purging of the emotions brings a new way of seeing the outcome, from a higher level, a level God brings you to.

Part of this series will be walking through the valley of the shadow of death. We will walk you to the pain, and through the pain. There’s no way around, the only way is straight through.

But remember also what it says: We will fear no evil. There is nothing to fear here. God is walking us through. So no evil can touch us. 

Prayer: Lord, please grant us courage as we face these sorrows from our past. Help us to walk through the sorrow. Bring us to the emotions. Help us not to give up until we're all the way through.  In Jesus name, amen. 

Second part of verse 4: “for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”

This is the center point of Psalm 23, the simple statement: "You are with me."

God’s presence is the very centerpiece of the healing journey. If we can cultivate times of experiencing God’s presence, we will experience His healing touch.

At the prayer meeting this Thursday, Chelsey, Ilienne and I were praying. Normally we simply do intercession, praying for family, schools, police and firefighters, and so on. But this time, we simply spent time seeking God’s face. And after a few minutes, God showed up, and we were in tears.

That is something every one of us can experience, by spending time with God in prayer, not making endless requests, but by seeking His face, His presence, and quietly waiting upon Him for extended periods. If you want to learn to do this, please attend our prayer meeting, it’s amazing what God is doing.

Prayer: Lord, help me in my prayer times, to simply seek your Face, to incline my heart toward you, to turn my heart toward yours, help me to cultivate quiet times Father, deep quiet times, to seek your presence, in Jesus name, amen. 

Second portion, of this scripture, your rod and staff comfort me.

There is a great deal of comfort that comes through all this. A comforting from God as we go on this journey. God is one who comforts the hurting. He sees your pain and he is with you in it.

He provides both a rod of correction to us in this, and a staff of protection. He won’t bring too many memories at the same time, he protects the healing process, keeping it at the right pace. He also corrects, if I’m trying to ignore something, God will correct me, bring it out and gently ask me to deal with it.

Next, verse 5: "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil;”

This sort of tender hospitality from the Lord, a table prepared before us with all sorts of choice foods, drink and delights, the anointing of the head with oil, shows us the abundant mercies of God in the healing process.

And we are able to say, “My cup overflows.” I am abundantly blessed.

So many times, I’ve walked through the pain with God. I’ve shed the tears. I’ve written down the memories in my journal. I’ve gone into prayer and sought God’s face. God brought such memories, such emotions to the surface. And then I prayed and asked God to heal the heart wound he had just exposed. I would lift up my heart to God, and place it in the hands of Jesus, and he would heal it. And then a few days later, I wake up realizing I feel so much lighter. My heart wound is healed. And I have a new peace, when each day used to be so much anxiety and fear. And I’m able to declare, “My cup overflows.”

Prayer: Lord, bring the overflow in my life. Bring the healing touch. Lord I lift my heart up to you. I put my heart into your hands Lord Jesus, I release my heart into your hands. I ask you to heal it completely. I receive my heart back from you Jesus, healed, in Jesus name, amen. 

Verse 6 says, “Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life…”

So even after the pains of the past have been healed, and I’m walking in shalom, I’m able to know that even into the future, God will be with me.

And as new difficulties occur, he will guide me into healing again and again and again. I won’t be carrying around the past anymore. I’ll be battle ready. God’s goodness will guide me.

Lastly, verse 6b: “And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

Though this verse speaks of heaven, of being in the New Jerusalem, what I want you to notice here, is that the house of the Lord is like the temple.

And there are three parts of the temple, the outer court, the holy place, and the most holy place. And I’ve found in my journey with God, as we develop our relationship, it’s like slowly walking, in intimacy, from the outer court, to the holy place, and into the most holy place. This occurs in our heart, because we are God’s temple now.

Through this healing process, if we seek the Lord and find healing, our hearts will be healed. And our healed hearts will be much more able to love God and love others, because the broken places will be repaired. And our relationship with God, now spurred on by the healing, will prosper, and we will have the opportunity, to dwell in the house of the Lord within our hearts, the most holy place unfettered by past hurts and traumas.

Prayer: Lord, let us always view our lives as a steady journey of walking from the outer court, to the holy place, and into the most holy place. Guide us to always be on a journey to seek you more and more deeply, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.