Spiritual Resuscitation
I don’t know about you, but when I think of resuscitation I think of an old person lying in a hospital bed, with some ailment… a sickness or a disease that has caused them to be unable to breathe on their own. The image that appears to me when I think of resuscitation is a swarm of doctors and nurses buzzing about a room, hovering over a lifeless human body, going through the process of which they were trained… “fire up the defibrillator, let’s get this guy breathing and then we can figure it out from there".
Mass commotion going around as they desperately race against the clock to inject an electrical current into the heart of a person to shock that organ into working again.
Without a beating heart, our time in this world has ended; our Spirit and Body will be separated.
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” — 2 Corinthians 12:9–10
Spiritual Death
There’s the physical death (Rom 5:12), and then there’s the spiritual death (Rom 7:9, Eph 2:1, 4:18).
We can be physically well, walking around with a smile on our face unbeknownst to anyone, even within ourselves at times, the anguish and pain that we are going through.
In our societal culture when people see us they generally ask how we’re doing... The automatic social response escapes from our lips without as much of a thought; “not too bad”, “I’m doing okay, how about you?”, “Oh you know me, blessed and highly favored", “alhamdulillah”… etc.
We say that so casually don’t we? Our suspicion is that the people we meet are just asking as a courtesy rather than as a concerning empathetic question. Maybe that’s true but I would ask you have you ever considered what would happen if you were honest?
Have you ever thought about how you would respond to someone who provided you with an honest, sincere, realistic response to what they were actually going through internally?
Deflection is a learned practice.
Why is it that we are taught, almost expected, to deflect how we feel inside?
We could talk about all the ways that people inaccurately project their life to be something it's not. There are hundreds of articles all over the internet contemplating the ways in which we have hidden behind our social profiles as a means to ‘cover up’ our feelings of inadequacy to others. The perfect selfie picture that we upload is a means to justify to ourselves, and to the world that we are OK, that our life is good. For some, it may be an outward display of an in-ward manifestation waiting to come to pass — or they may simply just want to feel included with being …OK. Not to derail too much, I mention it here because the premise is the same.
No one wants to look at their shame, humiliation, or wrong choices. No one wants to believe they are bad. No one wants to admit their shortcomings… so instead, we try and justify ourselves somehow so that we don’t have to take responsibility for our actions. We even go to lengths that deflect our desires and our actions onto other people so that they can look worse than we do... As if that’s really going to make us feel better about ourselves.
If we are to judge ourselves, by what standard do we use? The Bible (1 Thes. 21–23, 2 Tim. 3:16, 2 Tim 2:15, )
Spiritual Resuscitation
I recently had a friend who used the defibrillator on me in a spiritual sense. After months of groaning and complaining about how disconnected from God, I had become I received a message that would prove to be the REVIVAL my heart center needed. In an instant, I received an electric jolt that had shaken me to my core. (John 8, 13–15)
I was forced to take inventory of the thoughts in my mind and the words that I have expressed out into life. (John 16:6)
You might say that I’m drowning in my shame. Unlike a physical resuscitation, where the electric jolt is sent into the heart, and the heart starts to beat again... instinctively going through its creative process. A spiritual resuscitation causes a domino effect with our thoughts, feelings, and expressions. The side effects include ailments into our physical body — burning sensations of the heart-center which floods up as fire or indigestion or heartburn into the throat. Tightness in our chest. Heaviness, depressive-like conditions start to appear, sadness, feeling of being overwhelmed, headaches/migraines, sleep loss, anxiety, muscle tension. Pains throughout our body, arteritis — that knee or hip surgery starts to agitate us. We may even experience more serious conditions such as digestive issues, heart arrhythmia, high blood pressure. These physical side effects are a result of our minds being aware of how far we’ve fallen.
The Spirit which has been inside of you — even when you were paying no mind to Him — has been reunited with your consciousness. He was always there, hence why you needed a resuscitation (1 Cor 3:17). Don’t be alarmed, these side effects will dissipate during your healing process.
For me that shock caused me to pause. I was immediately angry with myself for having let down my friend… I was more concerned with the way they felt than disappointing God. The lessons and instruction that I received from the Word immediately started to flood into my mind as I read and reread the words on the screen. Every day I go back and reread those words so that I can examine myself accurately.
“Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” Prov 28:1
My desire to determine how to ‘get better’ has consumed me. It’s like I’ve been racing against the clock each day, carving out time to read the Word — and not just read, but passionately study to understand. Is their recourse for my behavior? Do I still have a burning desire for God? The judgment has already befallen me, what is next? I’m searching for correction, direction — directly from the Source.
The Truth Will Set You Free
I find myself in a peculiar place these days. As people have asked me how I’m doing — whether that is with casual conversations with colleagues, or with family and friends instead of the usual “okay”… I’m just simply saying “Not well". It has been a relief, to be honest actually. Not that I want to burden anyone with my struggles, but I need to learn to express myself and stop deflecting.
Evolving conversations have pursued with my circle of friends — while I thought that being honest would be scoffed off and drowned in a subtle “I’ll pray for you” quite the opposite happened. Being honest actually led to people opening up about the things, big things, that sought to plague them over the last few years. Things that if kept in the darkness may have very well crushed the soul.
But instead of complaining, the people in my life have been sharing with me the promises of God in their life (their testimonies), their active awareness that He is always faithful.
God uses people as messengers.
“So we are messengers for Christ... So we are standing here for Christ and begging people, ‘Come back to God!’ — 2 Corinthians 5:20 (Worldwide English translation)
Here’s what I can say, when we are lost — we can’t find our way, and we certainly cannot judge the ways of another, even though we want to. We have to remember through our own volition we separated ourselves from the Word. We are not in the habit of obeying It, and we may have forgotten some of It. Even though everything familiar to us makes us want to scream and shout and point the finger to demonstrate their ungodliness (because like we’ve previously discussed no one ever wants to see their inadequacies), we must be mindful that “(God) works all things according to the counsel of His will.” (Eph 1:11)
Allow me to remind you that when we seek God, He will not turn from us — while we may not be able to always understand His ways we can take comfort in a few facts.
Don’t Count Yourself Out
Read through these as you start to heal yourself…
- Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:22,23)
- For You are my hope, O Lord God; You are my trust from my youth.
By You I have been [b]upheld from birth; You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb. My praise shall be continually of You. I have become as a wonder to many, But You are my strong refuge. Let my mouth be filled with Your praise And with Your glory all the day.(Psalm 71:5–8) - “I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me
In righteousness and justice, In lovingkindness and mercy;
I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, And you shall know the Lord. (Hosea 2:19–20) - And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor 12:9–10)
- My soul melts for heaviness: strengthen me according to Your word. (Psalms 119:28)
For additional reading, I would suggest Psalms 119 and recite it aloud at the start of each day as a Morning Mantra.
