This article deals with some advanced aspects of the journey to wholeness and healing as it relates to the relationship one learns to build with God during this time. It’s from yet another message board post I wrote in the past.
A good friend of mine brought up an interesting point when she spoke of transferring her “co-dependency” traits from mortals to God. That’s how our relationship with God begins, believe it or not. The Bible speaks of us depending on Him, it speaks of Him being there for us, as well as going into battle for us, standing with us, and meeting our true needs (not so much our wants). Most of all, it speaks of a relationship that we develop with Him, and relationships take two people to work within the relationship to make it grow, make it strong, and make it successful.
In order for us to really develop a true “interdependent” relationship with God, we must first become solely DEpendent on Him.
Now, this is a hard one to explain, because we never ‘outgrow’ God–this is the attitude we will grow into, in time. However, before we reach the stage of growth that allows us to move independently of Him within the realm of our free will, we will learn to submit our own will to His Will first.
This is a true process that we will navigate from the beginning to infinity. We start out as “babes in Christ” who are just being “born” into this aspect of spiritual growth that we will continually achieve through Christ our Lord. This begins to sound like the Apostle Paul, as he speaks a lot of dying to self every day, being crucified in Christ, learning to keep our thoughts captive unto the Lord, the battles we fight aren’t all carnal,(in the flesh) some of them are spiritual, some are emotional, some are physical, and some are mental.
However, long before you reach of point of being able to conduct yourself without so much “Heavenly Father” supervision, you would transfer your co-dependency traits from the human and Earthly realm to God Himself.
Now, as an instrument of God, who chooses to use me as He wills, I too, went through this spiritual road, that transformed me from what I was, to what I became, as God “grew” me up into what He needed me to become in Him. I started out as a “babe” in a lot of these areas, and I walked through the processes which, in time, transformed me.
Our co-dependent traits and immature ways represent our “burdens” that we are exhorted (encouraged) to lay upon His shoulders, so He can deal with them. This represents our first attempts to let go of circumstances–and if you think about it, these same traits and ways, are related to our ongoing trial–we must learn to let go of these things, and who best to give them to, but God, who enables us to do all things through Him who will, in turn, strengthen us, and teach us to outgrow these things?
Another friend of mine once said, “I want Him to tell me what to do.” I don’t doubt that one or all of you have already faced this aspect, and if not, you will. I’ve been down that same road because fear is one of the factors that influence our wanting of God to always show us where we must go. However, because our self-confidence, self-esteem, ability to trust ourselves, learning to trust God, so we don’t have to learn to trust others, isn’t that well-developed, we will cling to the Lord with everything we have, and we will beg Him not to leave us.
What we don’t realize is that God is always there, even when we don’t feel Him at times.
He walks us through various situations designed for our growth. As our Intuition develops more, we will find ourselves having a consistent conversation with Him through the aspect of praying constantly as we move through our day, and as time goes on, little by little, we will see ourselves becoming most able to deal better than we ever thought possible in our lives.
However, like the Master Teacher, He is, as we grow forward for ourselves, He will very slowly, “wean” us from our former “co-dependent” ways that we brought to Him at the very beginning of our spiritual growth. This “weaning” is so slight, it almost escapes our notice, and in a way, it needs to. This would be because it’s necessary for us to learn to move forward in confidence, without fear, as He certainly does make us overcomers within our circumstances.
He will teach you, not only to have confidence, faith, belief and dependence on Him, but to also help create a true and correct emotional, mental and spiritually mature balance within you, He will also teach you to have these same things in yourself.
He will teach you these things through the life’s circumstances that you are existing within, in the here and now. If you let Him, He will walk you through all of the deepest valleys, assist you in scaling the highest of mountains, and at the top of each mountain, He will reveal to you, in hindsight, what you need to know, need to learn, and as a result, you will add to your arsenal of spiritual, mental and emotional tools.
This is so you will become most able to head down the mountain, into the next deep valley, with renewed confidence. As you learn to use these tools, you’ve been given, you’ll find that your learning will increase, your confidence will grow to the point that you’ll become even more of an overcomer. In time, you’ll come to understand that though you might think you’re alone, you’re not, because He’s only a spoken word away, if you run into something you’re not sure about. All you have to do is call upon Him, and He will come to help you, as He is that “ever-present help” in time of greatest need.
I still have those times, and I expect I always will. You might see me as a “Master Journeyman”–yes, I know I’m a lady, but the term definitely applies to me at this stage in my own journey. I’m out ahead of you, but I’m still one of you. Why? Because I, too, am still learning the ways of God–at an advanced level, true, but still, I can see that I have a long way to go for myself. Oh, and I won’t learn it all in this life–maybe I’ll get it all in the next one, who knows?
However, long before that same time comes for you, there does come a time when you will feel stuck, scared, and unable to move–and He will nudge you forward, because He believes in you when you can’t even think to believe in yourself. He will know when you’re ready to move forward on your own, but you won’t think so–however, He will know so.
He knows us better than we will ever know ourselves.
God is there to meet our deepest needs, to teach us what we need to know as it comes up to be learned, to teach us what His love looks like, to comfort us when we are upset, to be patient with us, as we are struggling to understand so many things that seem to come at us at one time. Most of all, He is there as our best friend in the whole wide world.
God will take on your co-dependent tendencies, etc., and if you let Him, He will help to transform you into the person you need to be in Him. So, don’t be afraid to lay these things on Him. He will make sure you walk right through the process that leads from this kind of immaturity into a greater maturity for yourself. It all takes time.
Because of fear, and because they really don’t understand how this works, people often say it’s not the same, because you can’t see God, although you can experience His Presence. People say you can’t “hear” God, but that’s because they’re not listening for His Voice.
People often make the mistake of putting their faith and belief in human people, when this same faith and belief belongs to Him.
It’s one thing to follow someone for a while, solely for the purpose of learning, but quite another to engage in a kind of “hero worship” putting a human person on a pedestal that doesn’t belong to anyone, but the Lord, and the person who allows this kind of behavior to go on, is struck down in time, because God brings down the prideful, and lifts up the humble.
When people forget that God is in charge, and God is the one who comes first, they set themselves up for a seriously hard fall.
People think they are “entitled” to have a relationship with God, and also have a sinful life at the same time, but that is not so, because we do serve a God of Boundaries, (God and sin are like oil and water, they don’t mix) who teaches us to develop boundaries of our own through the teachings He gives directly, and through other people whom He uses.
You do have a lot of people who feel more comfortable in experiencing God with “skin-on”, and that’s where people like me come into the picture. However, I will tell you I don’t expect to function in the place of God. I’m sent, and I’m only here because God has chosen for me to do this. If I ever think that I’m at a higher place, than He has chosen to place me, you better believe that God would bring me down in a heartbeat.
Arrogance has no place within His Kingdom, and He really does diminish those who forget that He is truly in charge of all things. I don’t give anyone “mixed messages” I back everything up I say with God, who has given me all things, and most importantly, I never say “I do these things,” because I can’t do one thing without Him who has continued to choose to use me for His Glory.
Everything about me always leads right back in a circle to Him who began this particular circle when He chose me to do this kind of work. Because I’d done this kind of work years ago, and knew how hard going back into it would be, if I had been given a clear choice, I would most certainly not have chosen to come back into this work.
However, because He impressed me so heavily with the necessity of this work, I chose to obey Him, and simply do it. However, because I retain my own right to have the power of choice, per my personal free will, if I had not accepted this assignment He would not have forced me to do it. However, I would not be in the spiritual place that He has brought me to in this day and time, had I disobeyed His directives as He gave them to me.
There have been several earthly costs exacted from me because this isn’t easy work to do–I have paid the highest cost in my health, because the greater the power I have been given, increasing my burden of responsibility, the weaker my body becomes–and it is what it is, and what it shall be. When I need additional strength, He will give it to me when I ask for it. However, all I do, certainly takes a heavy toll on me, and I do adjust myself as needed for these heavy demands on my time, my gifts, my strength, and still seek to balance a life of my own, in spite of it all.
However, I don’t complain, because, if it hadn’t been for someone else that God sent to me when I was at the beginning of this, I would not be here now–so, again, it all comes back to paying it forward–
Well, actually, in my case, and everyone else’s, you’re not paying it forward, you’re paying it backward or back behind, because when you’re helping people behind you, you’re using your learned experience to benefit them, so they can eventually reach the place you’re teaching them from, while you’re continuing to move forward for yourself. Therefore, you are paying back what you have learned.
There’s no way to “pay it forward”, because you can’t help those in front of you–this is because you don’t have that knowledge yet for yourself.
I’ve often called it “turning back” to help those in need, because I had that ability to ‘return back,’ but I don’t live through this experience again on my part. I return back to walk with you, and I know that’s needed, so I can help you move forward. It’s always a good thing to be able to recognize where people are in their journeys because if you can’t, you can’t help them at all.
God can do all things for Himself, and if He so chose, He could do this same work that He has given to me. He wouldn’t even get carpal tunnel from it(incidentally, I’m really surprised I don’t have this disorder, as much time as I’ve spent typing on computers over the years, LOL), but that’s not what He chooses to do.
He chooses to use imperfect people like me to accomplish His work through His usage of them, and since they allow Him to use them, it’s a win-win situation on both sides. He gets His work accomplished, and the person who has come seeking, gets to experience God in the aspect of “skin-on,” until such a time when Intuition takes over, and the person who is used of God to get them started down this Holy Road toward God, backs down, and recedes into the background, as was meant to be.
As He increases, I must decrease, and this is how it works within this aspect.
Let yourself increase, as you learn to move toward Him on your own. I am here, but I am not God. There is only one God, and I work to nudge you toward Him.
Food for thought.
