Last week we began a series on healing of a broken heart. And for most of you who are readers here at Thrive Ministries with Lynn Donovan have submitted yourself to the hard work of prayer and study to find healing.

I’m so proud of you. Healing takes effort, time and persistence. For more on the spiritual principle of persistence, I’m writing about that at SpirituallyUnequalMarriage.com. Click here for the first in that series.

However, how do you know if the healing efforts have been enough? Let’s look at our lives and consider seven aspects of our behavior that indicated we might have some more work to do.

1. Anger: Is there a slow burning resident of anger under the surface? If you are set off by triggering events and people, and rage manifests, there is some more spiritual work to be accomplished. And there can be a demonic oppressor that is contributing to your torment.
2. Are you overly insecure? Shame, blame and guilt seem to be your constant companions and you never feel good enough or worthy of love or acceptance? You feel the constant need for affirmation and encouragement. You are uncertain of your decisions.
3. Pride: This is the other side of insecurity. You may have thoughts such as: Because of my pain I’m going to show the world I’m better. I’ll take care of me. No one will hurt me again.
4. Are you overly independent? Do you refuse to accept help? This often manifest in inner statements such as: Because of my wounding, I can’t trust anyone. I don’t need anybody. I don’t trust God. Side note: Ahem, yep, this was me. Praise God He was so patient to help me unwind all this pain and wounding. Hallelujah!
5. Overly Sensitive: This is where we are offended easily. No one can say anything to me because I’m sensitive. Our culture today is in a constant state of offense. I’ll share this with you. A few years ago, the Lord said to me, “Lynn, the second you are in offense. You are in sin.” Ouch!
6. Excessively shy: This will manifest in avoidance. Because of the emotional bruises and feeling beat up, you won’t risk relationships.
7. Excessive need to control: Controlling of relationships, time, emotions and others. This is born from living and/or a childhood where there was no control. This is where we manipulate our circumstances to our optimal best because we cannot face uncertainty. I’ll admit, this one I still battle with. Lord help me!

My friend, if you just read through all of this, then you are a prime candidate for healing. And God is filled with love, mercy and forgiveness. And if you are breathing, there is always hope for healing and a better tomorrow.

Take the time to do the hard work of healing. I promise, as a child of God, who has done so much work in prayer and practice myself, it’s worth it. The peace, the truth and the reality of our loving God and Kingdom family is worth all your efforts.

To schedule a Healing Prayer session with me, Lynn Donovan, visit: HEALING PRAYER

Have a blessed day. Lynn

On Sunday my pastor took on a very difficult topic that is rarely addressed to a congregation on a Sunday morning. Pastor Hector provided specifics and talked about the reality of why people are broken, how they find healing and how the determine if they need more healing.

It was so good.

I thought I would share some of my notes with all of you.

First the most important truth every person needs to know is this: Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted. 

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Luke 4:18-19

So let's first discuss what is broken? Well the Hebrew word broken is Shabar. It means to shatter. Like a glass dropped upon a tile floor. A heart can be shattered in so many ways. But what is crucial is knowing what happens is that we actually have a breaking of our soul. The soul realm of an individual is their emotions, their will, their mind and this is the realm that the demonic can occupy. 

This is why I preach so much about taking thoughts captive. It's our thought-life that the demonic works to influence. It's int he soul that the enemy preaches lies that corrupt our identity and God's identity. The lies keep us in bondage and in broken pain. 

The demonic gains legal rights and will continually reenforce the core lies and erroneous belief systems we hold. The keeps us in pain and unhealed. These wounds can then carry forward to the next generation. Eventually becoming generational curses.

BUT, Jesu came to see the captives free. He came to heal the Shabar and to set us from the pain of our past. However, we also have a significant part to play in this process. And in future posts we will talk about some of the steps of healing.

Today, let's look at three signs we are moving toward healing. 

1. Awareness
2. Prayer
3. Wise counsel

If you have become aware of brokenness, issues and have prayed and asked for healing, that's the first steps of healing. And for some, this is all a person may require. But if you are like 99% of the human race, you need more. And we will discuss this in future posts.

Next week we will look at seven signs you need more healing. 

So, where do you see yourself in your healing journey? How can I pray for you? See you in the comments. 

You are deeply loved, Lynn Donovan

*Pastor Hector Gutierrez

Hi Friends, Jeanne here. I have a question for you:

“Who is Elon Musk? What is he like?” 

If you asked a hundred people, you would get a variety of answers, including several, “I have no idea.” You’d probably form some concept of Elon Musk based on what you’d heard and read.  But unless you know Elon Musk personally, you’d have no way of knowing what he’s really like. 

“Who is God? What is he like?”  If you asked a hundred people, you’d a variety of different answers, again including several “No idea.”  But God is who he is, regardless of what people believe about him.

What is God really like?  Unless you know him, you’re going to take someone else’s word for it, just like you would with Elon Musk.  I was raised in a family that believed in God, that went to church regularly, that participated in “religious education.”  I had a concept of God that was influenced by what people said about him and by what I read. 

As a kid I was taught the Ten Commandments (and thanks to all that “Religious Education,” I can probably still recite them.)  Jesus even referred to the greatest commandment:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strength.”

My line of thought went something like this: How do you love God, an invisible being so far away? And who would know whether or not I obeyed this commandment?  In my mind, love was a warm fuzzy feeling.  Thinking about God didn’t give me a warm fuzzy feeling, but I could say it did and no one would know the difference. So, I could “check off” the first commandment and move on to worrying about the easier commandments like “Thou shalt not steal.” Is it stealing if you sneak a cream puff out of the refrigerator when you’re supposed to wait until after dinner?

When I became a follower of Jesus, I realized there is a whole lot more to the Christian life than going to church and trying to obey the commandments.  The question remained: how do I love God with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul, and with all my strength? I understood that this all-out love is much more than admiration, or general gratitude for a wealth of blessings.  But to be honest, I still didn’t love God this way right off the bat.  Rather, I spent years getting to know who he is and how he feels about me.  There is nothing that describes this process better than the phrase “falling in love.”

When you meet someone special, you think about them a lot.  You want to spend time with them, getting to know them, and sharing yourself with them. As time passes you become closer and closer until you can’t imagine doing life without them.  This has been my experience with God. 

The process is different than human romantic love, of course.  God is not going to keep you on the phone for hours or send you twenty texts a day.  His love-gifts won’t be delivered by a florist or UPS driver. I fell in love through the Word of God and the Spirit of God.  I read the Bible to learn what God says about himself.  I also learned prayer as a conversation, not a monologue.  The best part of my relationship with God is that he both listens and speaks to me. Often his voice is a gentle whisper; but occasionally he rocks my world with a virtual shout!

When people fall in love, sooner or later they realize that their beloved isn’t quite perfect, but I’ve never experienced that with God.  Not only does he never hurt me, but he always forgives me when I hurt him.  He doesn’t hold grudges, and if I run away from him, he follows me and welcomes me back the moment I turn around.  He only wants what is good for me, no matter what it costs him.

There were plenty of times in my past that I thought God was being unfair or unloving, but I was wrong. The evil that’s in this world is not from God at all, but from our enemy. The devil and his minions attack us and try to make us think that it’s God doing it.  He’s so good at it that even many Christians don’t realize that God is essentially being framed, but that’s a topic for another day.

I have come to know that God can be absolutely trusted; that his plans for me are far better than anything I could think of for myself.  I have begun to experience the joy of his kingdom right here, right now. 

I can’t give you a shortcut to this place, but I can assure you that if you honestly seek him, you will find him.  It will be worth everything you have to know and experience how much he loves you.  There was a time when truly loving God seemed impossible to me.  But now I can say without reservation that the more I know him, the more I love him, and want to know him more.

How about you?  How have you experienced the love of God?  As always, your comments and questions are welcome!

Hi Friends,

Yesterday, I purchased two tickets to the movie, Jesus Revolution. Mike rarely will accompany me to church, so I was surprised that he went with me. Perhaps his miserly ways were tweaked because I'd already spent the money on two tickets?? 

We were early and after 30 minutes of commercials, the theater was mostly full. Say what? Do these people know this is a movie about Christians?

The timing of this movie that highlights the Jesus People movement in the 60's with the self-described hippies, is uncanny. Truly, it was a recap of a revival with disenfranchised people. And how us normies, those of us who are regular attenders or lifers, created a church that loves and follows Jesus. 

I'm blown away that we are positioned, right on the edge of an unprecedented NEW REVIVAL. The Asbury movement has spread to other campuses, as far as other countries. 

I believe we are going to push out all the divides and cling together with those whom we may not normally hang with to welcome the Holy Spirit into our world and that we would experience Holy Spirit and Jesus in a unifying and healing manner.

For me, I don't want to be left out. I want more. I want the miracles. I want the unexplainable. I want people you wouldn't expect to go to Christian movies, attend church and find that.....

JESUS SAVES!

Let's pray this movement forward. Jesus is moving. Be the new wine in new wine skins.

Blessings and hugs, Lynn

Jesus, we bow and humble ourselves. Your will be done. We live to love you. We live to bring you and the Kingdom of our Father great glory!!!  In Your Mighty name, Jesus. AMEN

Have you ever wondered how we can partner with God. Listen in. Hugs, Lynn