Immanuel Prayer – Cleansing a Memory and Healing the Heart Purity 1260

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of large stones on the shore and in the waters of what I believe to be the Tom— Tom Hanek Reservoir in Pittsdown, New York comes to us from yours truly as I reached back in my iPhone's photo archives this morning to share this Monday May Day scene from 2015. This photo was taken by me on the 18th of May in 2015, and even though I didn't intentionally mean to reach back that far, I'm using it because I find it oddly appropriate, as yesterday afternoon's Emmanuel prayer session with a friend took me years back to remind me that the Lord has always been with me, and to clean out my closet and cleanse my heart of some residual grief Sin and Pain. Well, it's Monday, and as I have already gotten to work this morning by clearing my driveway of an inch or two of heavy wet snow and prepare myself for a full workday ahead, I am giving thanks this morning for the path that the Lord has placed me on and for the work he has been doing in continuing to increase my freedom and peace by removing shadows from my past that I didn't even know needed to be dealt with. It should be no surprise that the Lord will surprise you, but even I have to admit that I didn't realize the depths to which God's love can go, uh, to, to unburden our hearts and to lead us into healing and freedom. As part of my development plan for certification as a Deeper Walk prayer minister, the Lord directed my path to make the acquaintance of and become friends with Julaine Kamrath, a certified Emmanuel Prayer Minister. And over the last 3 weeks, Julaine has been assisting me in becoming familiar with Emmanuel Prayer, which is a guided prayer session that calls on the Lord to bring to mind memories of joy from the participant's past. Joyful memories are the foundation on which a relational connection to the Lord is established and from which he can do the work that he wants to do in the participant's life. Forming a deep relational connection with God, emotional healing, and spiritual deliverance from demonic spirits are all possible directions for the Lord to take in an I.P. session. So although the facilitator and the participant have— may have a sense in where an I.P. session may go when they meet, the Lord, the Father, Christ the Son Jesus, or the Holy Spirit is the one driving the bus. And although, although the human parties may have an idea where the journey will start, God is the one who decides on the different places you will stop and when he will bring you home. Yesterday's divinely guided tour took me back to Victoria Falls in Botswana in 2016, to the darkened confines of a movie theater's projectionist hallway in 2002, And back again, as the Lord caused me to remember the joy of seeing one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World at the completion of a two-week mission trip, and how it caused me to silently and joyfully worship the Lord and to come to the realization that God is everywhere and that he has always been with me, even in the darkest hours of my life. As I recall the memory of the joy over the rainbow-producing mist of Victoria Falls and invited the Lord to reveal himself to me in the memory, I was joined by Jesus, who opened up my mind to see that God wasn't just at Victoria Falls, but that he was with me all the days of my life. As I recall the time in my past, a traumatic time of grief, where I paradoxically felt all alone but somehow sensed the pres— a presence that I couldn't explain at the time. Jesus showed me that yes, God was in the light and the glory of his creation at Victoria Falls as I rejoiced and congratulated myself over a job well done and answered the call to go into the mission field. But God was also with me 14 years prior when I had turned my back on my faith and was grieving the death of my infant son. My personal tragedy led to a fog, a fog of depression, a descent into psychedelic drugs and a false godless religion, and a search for meaning and truth. From 2002 to 2010, I looked everywhere but in the direction of Jesus for meaning and purpose and actually thought I was wise because of my rejection of Christianity. But the Lord proved his faithfulness to never leave or forsake me and woke me up to the truth of the gospel and pulled me out of the darkness to experience that moment of over a year sobriety and a Christian mission trip well accomplished on the shores of Victoria Falls in 2016. And yesterday afternoon, God took me back to remind me of it and to cleanse me and to cleanse it and to use it to heal me even more. As holy and righteous and well-intentioned as that mission trip was, and even though I was over a year clean and sober, I still had lust in my heart. And even though I was faithful to my ex-wife back then in my body, my marriage was pretty miserable because I was following the Lord and she wasn't. And so in my loneliness and unhappiness over my marriage, I imagined having another wife, a Christian wife, and during that trip to Africa, I imagined and dwelt on the idea that one of my fellow missionaries, a younger woman, could fulfill that role. So while I was on fire for the Lord during that trip, doing construction projects and preaching at a variety of churches and schools, part of my attention was divided as I lusted after a different life and with a different woman in my heart. So as I was recalling the joy over that mission trip and that concluding visit to Victoria Falls, Jesus led me to confess that sin of heart to renounce it and receive his forgiveness, and to be free of the burden of the emotional adultery that I had in the dark confines of my heart. It's gone now. I have no guilt or shame over those imaginations, and Victory Falls is a pure memory undefiled by my secret lust. It's gone. Well, the Lord also touched my chest and healed my heart over some of the grief over my son Holden's death. Jesus impressed upon me that he, he was the one that fixes the broken and that he is the one who makes all things new. And while he was emphatic in claiming me as his, he touched me to bring more healing and more capacity for freedom, growth, and love to my heart and mind. To say my IP session yesterday was a trip would be an understatement. I didn't know I had anything to be healed of. Those things were water under the bridge, I thought. But Jesus touched and healed me all the same. No guilt, no shame, and no pain remain. Just pure joy and the peace that comes from knowing that God is with me. He has always been with me and is calling me to more healing, more freedom, more growth. To follow him and to teach others what I have come to know about him and about the life that comes to us when we keep walking and talking with God. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on communication, gossip, and lying. Today's verse is Proverbs 15:28 from the New American Standard Bible. The word of God says: The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things. Today's verse is the fourth of five passages of scripture that fall under the fifth point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on communication, gossip, and lying. That fifth point is: Be quick to listen, slow to speak. Today's verse tells us to ponder how we answer and warns us to not let our mouths pour out evil things. As Christians, we represent Jesus, the righteous one. And so let's think before we speak and be careful not to represent the world or the devil by pouring out foul language or hateful or unkind things. That's all the commentary I got on that today. Uh, as always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk Today we continue sharing from According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Alford, a collection of devotionals from 1940 and '41. And, uh, today, um, uh, Alford prompts us to read Matthew 20, and he points to verse 15 in Matthew 20, which says, is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Those are the words of Jesus. And Alford writes, this parable preeminently sets forth the spirit of humility and the sense of unworthiness that should characterize the servant of God. The servant should always remember that even after he has done all, he is unprofitable, for he has only then done his rightful duty. Moreover, shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Genesis 25:18-25. Who is the servant to question his justice? And Alford writes, it is very obvious that the grumbling servants of this parable were more concerned about their pay than about their faithfulness to the landowner who had called them into service for no other reason than the fact that he was full of grace and kindness. Who am I? Why should I be called, let alone chosen, to serve God? When thousands are not. This must be our spirit. And Alford concludes by praying, Lord, I am humbled that you would call me to serve you. Amen. Wow, you know, I, I was called to the mission field, and I feel called to do this blog and podcast, uh, you know, semi-daily. And, uh, yeah, who am I, uh, to be called to serve, uh, the Lord? And, you know, so, you know, this parable is about the, you know, the landowner going out and hiring people throughout the day. And at the end of the day, he paid the people who worked only an hour the same amount that he paid to the people who worked in the heat of the day all day long. Didn't seem fair. But it wasn't about being fair. It was about grace. He gave the— he provided the people who worked for him with a day's wages. Regardless of the amount of time they worked. It may not have seemed fair, but he was, he was true to the people who gave a full day's wage to, and he was true, he was true and graceful to the people who worked less than that. And it wasn't up to the workers to decide on the landowner being kind. And so we shouldn't question the Lord, and when he gives out blessings to people. You know, some people have been walking with the Lord from the day they were a child, and then there's other people like me who didn't come to the Lord until, you know, they were pushing 40. Um, and some will make a deathbed confession, you know, that's what that points to. And we should never, uh, never grumble about what, what, what our Master the Lord is doing, um, in terms of that when we're serving him. You know, we suffer because we serve. Yes, we do. The world will hate us for it, and the work's hard sometimes, but it's good work. It's, it's the, it's the only work that'll last, and it's for the kingdom of God. And so we do it, whether that work is physical labor, you know, helping out your local church, or just speaking kind words and pointing people to Jesus. Uh, it's, it's, it's good work that we should not grumble about but be very very grateful that we get to do. And so today, as we go in and wait— want to grumble that it's Monday, um, and have to work, um, you know, let's give thanks instead for the God who's always with us and the one who heals us of our pain when we ask him. And sometimes when we don't even ask him, he'll come and take things away that we didn't even know were bothering us. But Lord, Um, but we have to follow the Lord to find that, um, for sure. So seek the Lord, as I say, and keep walking and talking with God. And let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, thank you for the, the magnificent work you did, you know, in my heart and mind yesterday, and all the work you've done all the days of my life to, to lead me to the truth of who you are and and to want to, want to serve you wherever you call. Um, it's a good, it's a good, good life you've given me, Lord. And I know this one never ends, as we'll be together forever. And Lord, we just pray for you to bless anyone who's reading or listening to this message, that they'd know this and that they would follow you, and that you would bless them and come alongside them in their prayer request and guide them in the way they should go. And Lord, while we're at it, we pray for you to go before us today. Open our eyes to the things you want us to see for today. Lead us in the things you want us to do, because all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom, Lord. And, uh, we look forward to speaking truth and life into the people, the men who come together tonight at the Freedom in Christ meeting that we do online. We thank you for that opportunity to speak life. And this opportunity through this blog and podcast. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.