The Mystery of a Healed Heart

Consider Matthew 13:11. Revelation changes our heart! At its core, revelation is not simply a teaching; it includes teaching, but revelation is a mystery revealed to our heart. When revelation comes it changes our perspective because we see and hear with our heart. Let the integrated approach to biblical ministry bring true and lasting healing into your life.

Jesus answered them, “To you it’s been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven ….”

The Integrated Approach

The Four Sources of Our Problems

Rarely can we point to a single cause for problems in our lives. They are usually complicated and can involve many people and events which impact us on a regular basis. Compound these events over a life-time and it is no wonder that we are often at a loss to discern the root causes of such pressing issues. These many facets continually interact to make us who we are.

This is true for the four sources of our problems and their negative effects on our lives. The four sources are: Generational Sins and Curses, Ungodly Beliefs, Life’s hurts, and Demonic Oppression. These sources are integrally intertwined.  There is a fundamental interrelatedness between each one and the other three sources. In order to bring lasting healing and freedom, all four sources must receive ministry in the same general time frame, with the RTF minister understanding how each source relates to the others.

Before we tackle the four sources and the problems that manifest in our lives, let’s breathe in four truths about God’s character and His design. Understanding these truths and how they address the four sources will help us to move closer to the goal of becoming more and more like Jesus and living a life filled with joy and peace regardless of our circumstances.

Our God Has a Generational Perspective

Our God is eternal. While we often focus on our here and now, God has a generational view of life. He is known throughout history as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Down through the ages, God has honored family and heredity. As we love or honor God, He not only blesses us, He brings an inheritance of blessings to our children and grandchildren to a thousand generations. We call this Generational Blessings.

As we hate or dishonor God, our lives and the lives around us suffer immensely. Over time, and unchecked, our character and integrity become warped. That sin or iniquity can bring curses to us, our children, and our grandchildren to three or four generations. We call this Generational Sin.

As we come to understand God’s perspective and His requirements, we can effectively deal with the generational sins and curses that have come into our lives through our family line. We can then intentionally pursue generational blessings not only for us, but also for our children and grandchildren.

Scripture References: (Exodus 3:15; Exodus 20:12; Exodus 20:5b-6)

Our God is the God of Truth

God cannot lie; His loving and holy perspective is always true. Jesus lived out that truth and perspective not only as an example for us to follow, but so that we might know the truth deep in our being. An essential key to our wholeness and freedom is receiving God’s truth and applying it to the beliefs that guide our lives.

From the moment we enter this world, bits and pieces of information and impressions continue to come together to form our beliefs and expectations. We consciously or unconsciously form opinions and make conclusions. Often these opinions and conclusions are wrong. No matter how staunchly we hold to them and relentlessly defend them, they simply are wrong. These ungodly beliefs, developed over time, often seem reasonable to us based upon the facts and experiences of our life. In fact, they affect our expectations and behaviour (and the behaviour of others) which often leads to a cycle of reinforcing the ungodly beliefs, expectations and resulting behaviour.

There is a truth above the facts: God’s truth. Gaining God’s perspective and His truth about our life and experiences is essential. With it, we can understand our identity as God’s beloved child and appropriate His healing and freedom in our life. Our God is a God of truth.

Scripture References: (Hebrews 6:18; Isaiah 55:8)

Our God Heals Life’s Hurts

God is our Healer. He delights to heal us spiritually, emotionally, and physically. In fact, one of God’s name is Jehovah Rapha—Our God who heals.

The pain of past hurt can rule our life. It simmers, it stifles, and sometimes it shuts us completely down. Understanding scriptural principles brings comfort and hope, but it does not necessarily bring healing. Forgiveness releases us from bitterness and from the bondage of negative ties to others, but it does not necessarily heal hurts. Demolishing demonic oppression brings great freedom, but it does not heal hurts.

God heals hurts. He is waiting and ready to touch our deepest pain if we will let Him. In a sense, His healing is another divine exchange, in which we offer to Him our hurt and He offers to us His healing. Most of us do not know how to go about receiving this wonderful gift He has to offer.

Restoring The Foundations leads you to the Father’s gentle touch that brings lasting healing.

Scripture References: (Exodus 15:26; Isaiah 61:1)

Our God Sets His People Free

God is free. It is His eternal character; and, it is His desire for each of us. Our Heavenly Father hates sin because it leads us into bondage and hinders our relationship with Him.

Evil is real. Simply turn on the evening news or ponder the history of mankind and it seems impossible to escape the horrors of sick people and violent cultures. And, evil is real in our personal lives too.

There is a devil and he desires to destroy your life. He desires to steal your joy. If he could get away with it, he would kill you and those you love. Not everything bad in our life is the direct result of demonic exploits, we certainly do sin enough to wreak havoc in our lives. But there is an assault, a bondage, and an oppression—whether in subtle whispers or in screeching fury—that can hold us back from walking in freedom and entering into our destiny. But, just as God delivered His children from Egypt and led them into the Promised Land, He desires to set you free from the wiles of the demonic and usher you into your destiny.

Whom the Son sets free is free indeed!

Scripture References: (Galatians 5:1; 1Peter 5:8; John 8:36)

Foundational Truths

Restoring the Foundations weaves upon foundational truths of the Christian faith. Understanding the Biblical truths which under-gird our ministry will help you more fully understand the ministry process and enable you to fully receive all that your Heavenly Father has prepared for you.

Like you, we desire you to be healed and whole. We want you to be equipped to carry away from the ministry process the tools you will need, not only to retain your freedom and healing but also to continue to grow and mature in your Christian walk.

Understanding how the Cross of Christ, forgiveness, and God’s beautiful design and unchanging laws work together will help prepare you to receive His loving embrace.

The Cross

At the heart of Christian life is the Cross of Jesus Christ. At the heart of our faith is the Cross. At the heart of all effective Christian ministry stands the Cross.

The Cross is the focus of God’s greatest provision for us. Here we can be reconciled with Jesus and with our Abba Father. The Cross declares His incredible love and points the way to an exchanged life, giving Jesus all that we are and receiving in exchange Himself and all that He has done for us. Here lies the doorway to an abundant, joyful life on earth as well as the glorious knowledge of eternal life.

The Cross is powerful. It under-girds all that we do at Restoring the Foundations. As we come to the Cross and lay down sin, we receive forgiveness and experience release from guilt and shame. Because of the Cross, curses are broken. Against the truths of the Cross, we measure and expose ungodly beliefs that have infiltrated our minds and crippled our lives. The love shown through the Cross assures us that Jesus cares about healing our broken hearts and lives. Because satan was defeated at the Cross, Jesus gives us authority over demons and triumph over death itself.

Come to the Cross and feel the heartbeat of God.

Scripture References: (1 Corinthians 1:18)

God’s Loving Design

God’s creation magnificently reflects His person and His character. From the very beginning, God infused His love and provision into laws and principles governing how we are to relate to our surroundings, our neighbors, and especially Himself.

It’s relatively easy to recognize physical laws. The law of gravity keeps our feet on the ground. In the emotional and social realms we intuitively know that focusing on the negative can cause us to become withdrawn or depressed. Perhaps you’ve even heard sayings like, “You catch more flies with honey than vinegar!” or, “You reap what you sow.” These sayings simply recognize God’s laws in operation.

God’s moral laws guide how we relate to God and to our neighbors. From the beginning, long before Moses authored the first five books of the Bible—the Law, Cain and Abel both brought a sacrifice to God. Abraham gave a tithe to Melchizedek. God’s moral law also applies today, to Christians. Understanding how God’s laws apply to us will help us appropriate lasting healing.

God’s laws have not changed because God’s character has not changed. But, how we relate to God’s laws fundamentally changed when Jesus died on the Cross. Jesus Christ fulfilled, not abolished, the law. Our life is found in Christ and our righteousness before the Father is His. As believers, we are not exempt from God’s laws which govern His Creation; but, we relate to these laws through Jesus.

We are under grace. This grace empowers us, through the Holy Spirit, to fulfill the law, to produce the fruit of the Spirit. Our source is not in ourselves in order to earn our way into His presence. Rather, our source is from above so that we can come to our Heavenly Father in confidence based upon the finished work on the Cross.

God’s law and His grace provide us many promises. Quite often, they are conditional. If we do this, then God will do that. If … then. Consider 1 John 1:9; if we, as Christians, confess our sins, God will forgive and purify us. This is an if .. then promise. This promise, filled with the grace of a loving and forgiving Heavenly Father, is available to believers. It is based upon our position in Christ, upon grace. We simply make these promises our own by fulfilling His loving conditions.

Scripture References: (1 John 1:9; 2 Chronicles 7:14)

Four Unchanging Laws

While there are many laws governing God’s creation, several are foundational to Restoring the Foundations ministry.

Sowing and Reaping. Planting a garden can be enjoyable, even predictable. If we plant tomato seeds, we expect to reap tomatoes. God has designed each species so that when their seed is sown into fertile soil, the seed reproduces its own kind. Sowing and reaping also applies in our own lives, our relationships with others, and our relationship with God. We can sow either positive or negative seed in every circumstance.

Law of Multiplication. As we sow and reap, God has designed us to be fruitful and multiply. Whether it is more fruit or more sons, God is the God of multiplication. Unfortunately, we often have more faith for negative seeds than we do for positive seeds. Dwelling on fears and worries makes it easier to expect bad things than good and our harvest from negative seeds is frequently greater than our harvest from good seeds. Ungodly beliefs multiply negative seeds. It is possible to stop the negative planting and multiply positive seeds by renewing our minds with Godly beliefs that reflect His truth.

Time Before Harvest. Every type of seed takes time to bear fruit. A human pregnancy takes about nine months while an elephant takes two years. God has ordained a rhythm, a cycle, an elapse of time between seed time and harvest. As we change our ungodly beliefs into godly beliefs, we need to expect a passage of time before we see evidence of the new harvest. As good seed is planted, things in our life and our relationships will begin to change for the good.

Believing in Your Heart. What we believe in our heart dramatically affects our life for good or for bad. Our belief system impacts our prayers and the answer to those prayers. In fact, the things we believe in our heart tend to come out of our mouths. Restoring the Foundations ministers are trained to identify the ungodly beliefs we have and life’s hurts which negatively impact our heart. We can then apply the law of believing in our heart to further the blessings and promises of God.

Scripture References: (Galatians 6:7-8)

“Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.” (Mark 4:20)

“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” (Genesis 8:22)

“Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:23-24)

Forgiveness

Forgive. The word can strike terror in our heart. How do I? How can I after all that has happened?

Perhaps you have suffered unspeakable harm; perhaps you are the one who inflicted the pain. The events may even seem to justify a lasting resentment—against another or yourself. Justice may cry out from the pain but mercy cries out to our God. And, God requires forgiveness.

Forgiveness is bedrock on the pathway to healing. Biblical forgiveness flows in three essential directions: forgiving others, receiving forgiveness from our Heavenly Father, and forgiving ourselves. As long as unforgiveness is present, God’s hand of protection, mercy, and restoration is hindered at best and, at worst, halted.

While we must make a decision to forgive, forgiveness is more than a decision; it must come from the heart. That takes God’s grace, it takes God’s healing. We can’t always start by forgiving from our heart, but we can begin by making the decision to forgive. Then as we enter onto a healing pathway, our decision to forgive will be more and more from our heart, and the wounds of our heart will be more and more healed.  If we persevere, God can and will bring us to the place of wholehearted forgiveness.

Scripture References: (Colossians 3:13)

Matthew 18:35 (NIV)

“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.” (Matthew 18:35)

Putting  It All Together

When the reality of God’s love and His desire for our freedom and abundant life hits home, something comes alive inside us—hope. And, hope does not disappoint.

Hope leads us to look upward and ask God for help. Together, with the Holy Spirit, we press into making healing a reality, into making it our own.

God can open our eyes and shine light on the very root of any problem, even those hidden by pain and turmoil. As we see more clearly and listen for His still small voice, our loving God strengthens our resolve and reveals our authority to remove the sources behind every problem.

Realizing our authority to tear down strongholds is key to obtaining healing. As we pray in confidence, based upon the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross, difficulties wither and freedom emerges.

As we continue to walk out our healing, armed with the truth of who we are and Whose we are, we are equipped to defend ourselves from temptations, old patterns of thinking and the assault of evil. Your life can be restored.

Scripture References: (Romans 5:5)

Making  It Your Own

Everything we need has been provided for by Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. But, how do we appropriate it? How do we make it real in our lives?

By faith. We received salvation by faith. We receive physical healing by faith. We receive all of the provisions God has for our lives by faith. Our faith is not based upon hype or emotion but on His faithfulness. Our faith is in the fact that Jesus keeps His promises as we meet His conditions.

The great joy of the ministry process finds its essence in the appropriation of God’s freeing, healing, and deliverance provisions into our lives. When we break curses, it is because Jesus became a curse for us. We apply the truth that curses have no legal right to operate in our lives. As we deal with ungodly beliefs, we look to Him and to the truths established in His Cross. As we pray for hurts to be healed, we can take the hurts to Jesus, who (already) has carried our griefs and sorrows. As we break the hold of demons in our lives, we are only reinforcing the victory that Jesus won at the Cross.

God wants us to receive, apply, and own the provisions, the realities, and the victories of the Cross.

Scripture References: (Hebrews 11:6)

Illumination:  Seeing What’s Unseen!

In large part, we are spiritual beings. Our relationship with God is a spiritual relationship. In fact, the Father is seeking those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. Any meaningful relationship with our Heavenly Father and with others that we love, requires that we learn to live in and understand spiritual realities.

Even if we are unaware, we have been given spiritual eyes and spiritual ears to see and hear Jesus. He tells us that His sheep know His voice. This is a spiritual hearing. And, we are to look to Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. This is a spiritual seeing.

Much that binds our minds and thoughts, assails our health and relationships, and wounds our hearts, is spiritual. Our enemy is not flesh and blood. In our own life and the lives of those we love, there is a spiritual enemy attacking from a spiritual realm. We form beliefs and make decisions based upon facts we see with physical eyes or hear with our physical ears. But, there is a truth above the facts. Reality is what God sees, not what we see. He sees the whole picture and desires to share that with us.

As we desire healing and desire to see what God sees, He will illuminate His written Word. Our Heavenly Father will speak to our heart with His “still small voice” and illuminate hurts which He wants to touch. Often God will show us a foothold, or legal basis, that the demonic has gained in our life. Perhaps we need to forgive; or, repent for holding on to hurts or sins. Our experience is that as God reveals, He heals.

Scripture References: (Luke 4:18; Romans 4:17)

Hearing  The One Who Loves You

There is a hunger deep within us to commune with God, to hear Him speak within our hearts. Men and women throughout the Bible heard God’s voice. Men and women throughout history, and today, demonstrate that they hear God’s voice. In any intimate relationship, we long to hear the voice of the one we love.  This is especially true with God.

Often, we are hindered by fear. Perhaps we believe that we are unworthy, or we may have unconfessed sin in our lives. At other times, demonic harassment prevents us from clearly discerning the voice of the One who loves us.

Hearing God’s loving voice and responding in faith is our birthright as sons and daughters. Our Heavenly Father clearly speaks to us today. He speaks not only through His Word, but also through other people, circumstances, and through that wonderful “still small voice” at home inside our hearts. With an open Bible and an open heart, Restoring The Foundations relies upon the living and active God who loves you to gently speak and touch the very heart of any matter.

You can learn to hear God’s voice. His Word is our guide and our safety. Together, we will address the hindrances and acquire keys to opening up our spiritual ears. These keys will become wonderful tools to help you hear the Father’s heartbeat of love for you.

Scripture References: (John 10:2-5; John 10:27)

Prayer  That Wins The Battle

In a very real sense, prayer is our communication link with God. As we choose healing, our loving God illuminates areas in our life which He desires to touch. He illuminates His Word and how we are to apply it to our lives. And, we have a part. We have a choice.

As we come into agreement with God’s Words, we must take a stand and declare that not only are His words truth, but they are true for us. This does not please the kingdom of darkness. You can expect agitation, harassment, and resistance. It can come in relationships, circumstances, physical discomfort, or more likely, in your own mind. The mind is our major battleground.

God loves us. He has given us everything we need. He has declared our position to be with Him in heavenly places. He has given us authority to act and act decisively. And, He has given us His full armor. As we put on the armor of God, we are preparing to fight for His truth, the truth of the Cross and the victory of Jesus over all that troubles our lives.

How do we fight? Prayer. Through prayer the Lord leads us to submit to God and confess our sins. Through prayer we seek forgiveness and repentance. Through prayer we assume our legitimate authority, declare the truth, and strip the enemy of any legal ground to operate in our lives. Through prayer we bind our enemy and loose our victory.

The battle and the victory is the Lord’s. He empowers us and leads us to win each battle through prayer.

Scripture References: (Matthew 18:19-20; James 5:16)