I have a problem (I know, that opens the door to a variety of comments. I can hear them now). But really. When someone says, ‘Quick! What’s the first word that comes to mind when you hear _____? I don’t get a word, I get an unfolding scenario which leads me to limitless horizons, countless rabbit trails, and a bucket load of emotions. One word? You must be joking! Or, as my darling wife is wont to ask following a conference or days of meetings, ‘What was the best part for you?’ Same. I instantly set out for distant vistas as a quasi-review gradually formulates in my head through colors and emotions and reactions (rather to her consternation). Just imagine with me, OK? When you hear the words, ‘family,’ ‘father,’ ‘mother,’ can you pull up just one single word for each? If you can, I salute you! I think these three words have massive scope of meaning for everyone. They have the ability, depending on your audience, to produce warm smiles, to induce a panic attack, or to stir up dark thoughts and rage.

The Apostle Paul says, in 2 Corinthians 5:17, TPT: “Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new person. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold everything is fresh and new.” At the spirit level, this is fully, unarguably, the case. At the physical level, the memory level, the psyche level, some additional rewiring may still be needed. Again, regarding our three words, ‘family, father, mother,’ some deep healing and restoration may be called for to complete the process of ‘everything fresh and new’ (I’m thinking specifically of my time at Teen Challenge (TC) working with troubled boys 14-17 years of age. The exercise I first mentioned above elicited wildly varying reactions and required some time to restore a measure of calm afterward. I heard some horror stories that required me to calm down, too).

In churches everywhere on a Sunday morning, there may be believers just like those TC young men, still shackled by their past (still choked by lies of the enemy). In particular, concerning their families, their fathers, their mothers. Paul exhorts us to let the mindset of Christ become our motivation. Elsewhere, he talks about bearing with the weakness of our brothers and sisters in Christ. To me, since we all have weaknesses, he means for us to be motivated to be a prayer and support team when a season of weakness arises in one life, knowing one such season may be in our future as well and have us, in turn, in great need of prayer support. By this, we enter our “calling to nurture and prepare all the holy believers to do their own works of ministry, and as they do this they will enlarge and build up the body of Christ . . . until finally we become one into a perfect man with the full dimension of spiritual maturity and fully developed into the abundance of Christ.” Ephesians 4:12,13, TPT.

So, one trouble Jesus was referring to, was the heavy yoke of the lies of the enemy. It is our great privilege to exercise ‘our ministry’ in the lives of the saints. How good God is to include us in the healing He so passionately desires to manifest in the lives of all his kids on their journey home!  PD

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