← MarriageToday with Jimmy & Karen Evans
MarriageToday with Jimmy & Karen Evans
From Pain to Promise: Rediscovering God's Plan for Love and Unity
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Welcome back to the Marriage Day Podcast. I'm Jimmy Evans. This special episode today is about how God can heal you not only physically, but also emotionally and spiritually. This is a part of a series I did called the Hurt Pocket. Make sure to stick around until the end to hear the number one lie that the devil uses against your marriage. To watch this entire series on XO now for free, click on the link in the description. Let's watch this together. God bless you. We're talking about hurt and how God heals the hurts of our lives. Isaiah 60:1 says, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. This literally means the spirit of Jesus is upon me. The spirit of God Jesus is upon me. Because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God. Now listen to this statement here. To comfort all who mourn. To comfort all who mourn. To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the Spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. And they shall rebuild the old ruins. They shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations. Now, that's what's called a messianic prophecy. And by messianic prophecy, it means it's an Old Testament scripture talking about Jesus in the New Testament. And so this is talking about Jesus coming, but specifically why Jesus was coming. Jesus was coming to heal hurting people and redeem their lives. That was the purpose of why he came. But this specifically goes into five areas of the people that Jesus wants to heal. So as I'm reading through these, I really want you to listen to these in the context of are these true for you? Because if they are, you can be healed. You need to be healed. The poor. It says, Jesus came to heal the poor. Well, there are several definitions of that. One, obviously, is spiritually spiritual poverty. That Jesus came to heal us of our spiritual poverty. Absolutely. It's our number one problem in life when we don't have Jesus. But also financial poverty. My father lived in abject poverty. My father slept outside every night on a cot in the wintertime. He slept with the horses. My father did not own shoes until he was in the first grade. In a humiliating circumstance of him showing up at school without shoes on and being humiliated. He ran out in the front yard of the school and grabbed a tree and wouldn't let go until his parents came and got him. He had nine siblings. My grandfather was a sharecropper. My dad's dad. They ate meat once a week because they ate vegetables because they couldn't afford meat. And the scars, I didn't know that, by the way, because my dad never talked about it. It was too painful. I didn't know that till my aunts told me that. And when my aunts told me that, I realized how deep the scars were on my father. The humiliation. Just every message that comes through poverty. And there are some people that believe that somehow poverty is blessed. If you believe that poverty is blessed, it's because you've never been there. Poverty is a curse. And Jesus came to break the curse of poverty over. Over mankind. But he says he came to heal the poor, also those who are bound and in prison, to set the captives free. And this is mentally, emotionally, physically, any way that we're living in bondage. I had all kinds of bondage in my life when I got saved. And he came to set us free so that we could live in complete freedom. And I wake up today in my life and I'm free. And it doesn't mean that I never struggle with anything. It just means we. When I look back on 39 years ago, when I got saved versus today, I'm just free. I'm free to think the way I need to think. I'm free to live the way I need to live. But back then I had so many bondages that were fighting me in doing what God wanted me to do. Says he came to heal the brokenhearted. And this just means betrayal, rejection, divorce, loss, all of those kinds of things that not just hurt your heart, but. But break your heart. Jesus came to bind up, to heal our broken hearts. It says the spirit of heaviness, he came to bring a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. That means depression. And it can be a spirit, it's not always a spirit, but it can literally be a demonic spirit of heaviness on our lives. And I was listening to a report this week about a remarkable human being and I really don't know if that individual was saved or. And this is a very accomplished journalist who died recently and they were saying of him, who had a, well, the greatest journalist probably in the history of journalism. And they said he constantly battled deep depression. Rich, famous, gifted and constantly depressed. A spirit of heaviness. And the devil loves to bring us into deep discouragement or even depression because that's where he can whisper his lies to us and just completely disable us. And by the way, when you're living in depression, you're living self absorbed. And here's what I tell people. The Bible says that God gives us a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. And you say, well, why does God battle depression with praise? I defy you to be depressed. While you're praising Jesus, I defy you to do it. Depression comes in an atmosphere of self absorbed. The devil gets us into a self absorbed mindset and in our little world kind of crumbles on us. And some depression can be biogenic, it can be chemical at times, but even that he'll use as an open door to come and smother us with his spirit of heaviness. But Jesus came to defeat that. And then it says mourning to give oil for mourning, the oil of joy for mourning. And mourning just means hopelessness. It's not just grieving because you know, I've done a lot of funerals and there are funerals that are good funerals. You know, when an old saint dies of a ripe old age and you come together as a family. And here's what a Christian funeral is like. You laugh and you cry and you laugh and you cry and you laugh and you cry and it's a sweet grief. You're going to miss them, you hurt for them. But it's a sweet grief because you know they're in heaven and in some ways you're happy for them because they, they went on to be with the Lord. We really cry for ourselves. But I've also done some really, really terrible funerals. And where there was not a sweet grief, it was a terrible circumstance. And there were unbelievers who did not have faith in Christ. And the way they grieve is different than the way we grieve and it says that Jesus came to give the oil of joy for those who are in deep grief like that. So the question that I want to ask you again is, does any of that describe you? It can. I'm saying is a believer. It described me, not all of them, but as a believer in Jesus. I had several of those that were true of my life, that were keeping me from living the way that I wanted to live. But the scripture in Isaiah 61 tells us two very important things. And the first is God cares about every issue in our life. I'm just telling you, your God is madly in love with you and your God cares about every single issue that you're going through in life. The second wonderful truth is Jesus died on the cross and rose again so we could live in absolute blessing and absolute freedom. It's the gospel, it's the good news. We get every blessing that we don't deserve. By the grace of Jesus, we can be healed of anything because of the grace of Jesus. Isaiah 53, 5. Speaking again, this is a messianic prophecy talking about the death of Jesus. It says, the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes were healed. The word peace. There is the word shalom. It doesn't mean a lack of conflict. It means every blessing. When a Jewish person says to you shalom, what they're saying is, I pray God will bless you with every blessing so you can be healthy in living in poverty and you're not blessed. You can be rich, be sick, and you're not blessed. I don't want to be 90% blessed. I want to be 100% blessed. I want every blessing that God came to give me. And that's what the word shalom means. The beating for our shalom was upon Jesus, and by his stripes we've been healed. Healed of what? Fill in the blank. We've been healed of every single thing that the devil would try to put on us or we brought in from our life before we knew Jesus. So this is my question. If this is true, then why aren't people healed? If it's true that Jesus came to heal all of those things, then the question is, why aren't people healed? But more importantly, the question is, why aren't Christians healed? Why aren't we healed of these circumstances? Because I lived for years in my life with some of those things in my life. And, well, the question is why? Well, I want to read a scripture and I want to try to answer this question because I believe this scripture answers this question. Very well. This is John, chapter five, Beginning in verse one, Jesus encounters a man at the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem. Now remember, the word Bethesda means house of mercy. And it was a pool that had five porches around it. And this is the scripture. After this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem, by the sheep gate, a pool which is in Hebrew called Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water. Then whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. Now, a certain man was there who had an infirmity 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had been there, knew that he had been there in that condition a long time, he said to him, do you want to be made well? The sick man answered him, sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. But while I am coming up another steps down before me, Jesus said to him, rise, take up your bed and walk. And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed and walked. Now, I want to talk about the three truths about divine healing. I want to talk about why people are healed and why people are not healed. And I want to use the story of the man at the pool of Bethesda to illustrate this. And the first truth of divine healing is healing isn't simply an act of God. It is a partnership between God and us. The angels stirred up the water. That was God's part. And then they had to step in. That was their part. Now, Jesus asked this question. Jesus is a genius. Okay, so I'm not making fun of Jesus. Never would I make fun of Jesus. You know, isn't that kind of a funny question, though, to ask somebody that's sick? I mean, the guy's been there for 38 years. And Jesus said, do you want to be made well? It's like, duh. And again, Jesus is a genius. I'm not saying duh to him. I'm saying, been there 38 years. What. What answer do you expect? Well, let me tell you why Jesus asked the question. Because there was an issue there. You can become so familiar with your illness or with your problem that you choose the familiarity over change. See, when Jesus walked up to this man. Let me just ask you this question. Is there any record in the New Testament of Jesus Ever healing a person against their will or saving a person against their will, like the two men on the cross next to him. And one man says to him, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said, today you'll be with me in paradise. And the other guy didn't believe. And Jesus turns to the other guy, didn't believe, and says, like it or not, you're going to be in paradise too. Is that Jesus? Now, there's never a record of Jesus ever doing something beneficial to a person against their will, but there's record of him not doing it because they wouldn't believe. But Nazareth, his hometown, said Jesus could do no mighty miracles there because they didn't believe. The rich young rooter, Jesus wanted him to follow him, but the rich young rooter would not divest himself of his wealth that Jesus told him to. There's never a record. It's a partnership. When God comes to heal our lives, it requires a response from us. So Jesus just didn't walk up to the man at the pool of Bethesda and say, hey, I'm so bad. You've been there 38 years, you're healed. Never having a conversation with the guy. Jesus turns to the guy and says, do you want this? Because it's going to require something of you. Three things that healing requires. The first is obedience. Jesus said, rise. Jesus said to the rich young ruler, you've done well. Now go take what you have and sell it and give it to the poor and come and follow me. And he went away sad. Other times that Jesus said something to a person that would have healed them, but they would not believe and they would not obey obedience. If I'm going to be healed, maybe there's something required of me. Let me give you an example of this. When I smoked and I smoked for many years and I enjoyed smoking, I did not. I was a good smoker. I knew how to smoke. I knew when to smoke, and I smoked Marlboros and I liked it. And the Lord said to me one day, I'm not going to be able to do with your life what I would do if you continue to smoke. Well, can you imagine me standing up here saying, well, folks, let me say this. And you know, it wouldn't happen. I would not have been able to fulfill my call in life if I smoked, okay? And God still loves you if you smoke, you know, and all that. So. But I'm saying it was an issue in my life. And the Lord said to me one day, I couldn't stop. I Didn't have the willpower to stop. And I said, the Holy Spirit spoke to me one morning and said, say you're a non smoker from this point forward. I was smoking when he said it. I woke up in the morning, had a quiet time, had four or five cigarettes. Just had a wonderful time with Jesus. Coffee, Marlboro, in my Bible. It was just a wonderful combination. And I'm sitting there smoking and the Lord says to me, say you're a non smoker. I'm thinking, that's so ridiculous. That's how I stopped smoking that day. Every time I was tempted and every time somebody offered me a cigarette, I said, no thanks, I'm a non smoker. And they laughed at me. I was smoking the day before and I went to work that day. You know how it is when people notice you're not smoking. They walk up and say, hey, Evans, you want me a cigarette? I say, I'm a non smoker. They go, I was with you yesterday. You were smoking. Well, I'm not a smoker today. That's how I stopped smoking. It seemed ridiculous, but I had to obey. See, I did. He did the. God did the hard part. He healed me of tobacco addiction. All I had to do was say, I'm a nonsmoker. But I almost didn't do it because it sounded so weird. See, it's a partnership between God and us. And God's going to require something of you. Jesus was going to do the hard part with the man by the pool of Bethesda. But he still required obedience from this man. Get up. Healing is not a lightning bolt from heaven. Healing is a partnership between God and us. And a lot of people are just waiting on this event that's going to set them free. You can be set free, but it's going to require something of you. The first is obedience. The second one's the hard one. It's change. Sickness. Listen. Sickness can become familiar. I'll tell you a story in just a minute. Poverty can become familiar. Addiction and bondage can become familiar. And being set free can be scary because it means I've got to change the way I'm living. I've got to change the way I'm talking. I've got to change. And some people will stay sick because it's familiar and they don't have to change. It's a big issue. And the third is responsibility. I'm gonna have to take responsibility for something. An example is being healed for this man meant he had to go to work. When you're Laying at the pool of Bethesda, people feed you. They walk by with their merciful hearts and they feed you. And so he was living off the goodness of other people, getting up and taking up his bed and walking meant you have to get a job. I'm going to have to take responsibility over my life rather than becoming a professional victim. Before any of us experience the healing Jesus wants to give us, we must deal with this issue and say this to Jesus. I want to be healed, Lord. I'm poor, I want to be healed. I'm in bondage. I want to be healed. I'm hurting, I'm brokenhearted. I. I want to be healed. I'm depressed and I'm hopeless. I want to be healed and I'll be obedient. I'll change, I'll take responsibility. I understand this is a partnership now between you and me, Lord, but I want to be healed. That's why Jesus asked him the question, is this something? I'm not going to give you this if you don't want it. And you know if I give it to you, it's going to mean that some requirements on your part. I'm going to do the hard part, but you're still going to have to be a partner in this process. And I believe that this produces a dilemma for many believers. Now let me tell you a couple of stories here. The first is we had a customer at our store when I worked for my dad. I did not like her. And I didn't like her because she was a fake. And she would come into our store, take up hours at a time and my dad is really the one who took care of her. She found my dad felt sorry for her so he helped her. I did not feel sorry for her. And I'm a merciful person, I'm not hard hearted. But I just didn't like her. She was fake. And she would come in, she'd come into our store and whatever she bought, if it was her refrigerator, it was a two or three day deal. And then my dad would make me deliver it and he'd walk up to me and say, so and so bought a refrigerator. You take it, toucher. And I'd say, daddy, come on. And he'd say, Jimmy, you take it out there. So I just didn't like her. So every time she saw me, and she saw me dozens and dozens of times, she would do this. Who are you? Race the rudders. Raise the sails. Race the sails. Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching, over. Roger. Wait, is that an enterprise sales solution?
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This is the way she acted. Who are you? And I would say, well, we've got a refrigerator bringing in your house. Did I buy a refrigerator? Yes, ma'am, you bought a refrigerator. So anyway, so I came to work. I mean, she came to this church. This has been 30 years ago. And so I saw her in church one day, and, you know, so I didn't say anything to her. So I became pastor here, and one of our pastors helped her. Helped her pay her bills, helped her with some things that she had to do with the government and stuff, because she was indigent and she got money for it. So she. He went to Israel for six months, this pastor did. And he came in my office and said, jimmy, I know you know this lady that I'm helping. I said, I know her. And he said, well, I'm leaving to go to Israel for six months. Will you take care of her while I'm gone? I said, absolutely not. And so he begged me, and I kept telling him no. Then he paid me money, and I said yes. So I said, no, he didn't. Should have. So he finally talks me into helping her. Now, this is horrible. So, you know, so she's gonna come into my office, and I'm gonna go through all of her bills with her and help her pay her bills and help her do all of her government stuff. Okay, this is really terrible. So she comes into my office, and I really can't believe what I said to her. And it just. Something kind of clicked or something. So she walks in my office, you know, the first day we're supposed to meet, and she walks in, takes a step in my office. Who are you? And I said, come on and take a seat right there. So she sat down and. I can't believe I said this, y'all. I mean, I can't believe I said it. I said, you know, it's an amazing thing to me. You remember where the church is, you remember where my office is, but you can't remember who I am. And I said, now, here's what we're gonna do. You're not playing this game with me. I know the other pastor's gone. He'll be back in six months. But in the meantime, you're gonna deal with me if you're honest with me. I'll help you if you play this game. I'm not gonna help you. I couldn't believe I said it. Here's what she did. She went, okay, delightful. Smarter than me. For the next six months, she was a delight. She would come into my office, hey, how are you? Fine, how are you? She'd sit down. She cut the act for six months. She was wonderful. I loved her. I mean, I just look forward to her coming to my office. And so she does this. Six months later, the other pastor comes up, okay. And so I give him all the stuff and I said, she's great, I love her. He said, great. So he took stuff back. Next time I saw her in the hallway, I walked out and I said, hey, how are you? She said, who are you? Get it? And let me tell you, he put up with it. Now, there are people who are truly. They have memory issues. They need mercy. She was an actress who was a professional victim. And she. Do you want to be made? Well, no. She loved everybody taking care of her. She loved everybody feeling sorry for her. And people like my dad and my dad was so good hearted. And this other pastor, they helped her. I guess I'm not as nice, I don't know. She dropped that act immediately. And let me tell you, the world was robbed of a wonderful woman because she was charming and her little. Something probably happened to her back in her past that was horrible that, you know, I should give her more mercy than I do about, you know. But I'm telling you, it made me mad that she robbed the world of her by her victim act. Do you want to be made? Well, she didn't, but she could. We had a man in the church here that came and confessed to me every week his immoralities. He liked the honky tonks, you know, and he. This again was when I was a young pastor and he would come up to me and the first two or three times he came and told me about this, you know, I prayed with him and, you know, I was kind to him. And I don't know, this went on for a while and I can't remember how many times, but maybe eight or ten times that he would come up to me and say, well, I was back in the bars last weekend and I did this and this and I took this gal home and this and this. So one day I was sitting there talking to him and I said, wait, no, I hope you don't think I'm here to make you feel better about being immoral and to pray with you, because I will never pray with you again until you make a decision to forsake that lifestyle. Now, I've been kind to you up to this point, but I'm not here to pray with you so you can take my prayers and back into a honky tonk. Now, when you're ready to live for Jesus, come see me. In the meantime, I'm done praying with you. A couple years went by and he got drugged behind the truck real hard because of his lifestyle. And he came to Jesus and he made a wonderful man of God. And he walked up to me one day and said, I'm ready. I said, you mean it? He said, yes, yes, I'm ready, Pastor Jimmy. And I said, let me pray with you. And he made Jesus Christ the Lord of his life, and he became a man of God. But I had to stare him down and say, do you want to be healed? Because if you want to be healed, I'm more than happy to pray for you. But if you want to keep that up, no deal. No deal. We have a person in this service right here who went through a horrible illness, one of the best men I've ever known. Horrible illness that went on forever. And his wife fought, he fought. And he told me one day, he said, it overcame me. He said, it overwhelmed me. He said, it became my identity, the sickness became my identity. And listen to what he said. I stopped praying because I knew everybody else was praying for me. He said, that's how low I got. He said, I just ran out of energy to pray for myself and other people were praying for me. Listen, he said. But one day I woke up and I knew if I didn't get militant, I would never get well. And I got up and I started praying and I started declaring, I will not live my life this way. I will be healed in Jesus name. He said, I got militant. He's sitting in this service right here, healed. He wanted to be made well. Many, many people are waiting on a healing that just simply isn't going to come because they think it's going to be a lightning bolt. It's a partnership that requires things of us. And the first thing it requires is a response to Jesus. Said, I want to be made well. Whatever that takes. If it means change, if it means obeying something that you tell me to do, if it means response, whatever it means. I don't want to waste my life in bondage. I want my life to be meaningful. The second truth about divine healing is it isn't an event, it's a lifestyle. Again, a lot of people are waiting for just this something to happen that sets them free and they go on with their lives. Now there's miracle versus healing. A miracle is an immediate event, and God certainly can do that. Like for example, the resurrection of Lazarus. It was an immediate event. You don't just kind of resurrect somebody you know. You either resurrect them or you don't resurrect them. But healing is a process. When God heals you, he wants you to learn to live differently. When he heals your marriage, it doesn't happen overnight. It begins overnight. But when Karen and I were on the brink of divorce, and the next morning after I said I was sorry to her for the first time and gave our marriage to God, which I had never done, the next day I had to learn to talk differently and stop being selfish and stop being dominant and stop being a chauvinist and treat my wife with dignity and treat her as my equal and to serve her. And it became a lifestyle that, that 30 something years later is now just a natural thing that we do. Again, you say, God heal my marriage. He will heal your marriage, but the healing of your marriage is learning to live differently than you live right now. The road to recovery is a road, not a couch. It's a road. You walk it. This is John 5. This is the continuation of the story we read earlier. They asked him, the man who got up at the pool. They asked him, who is the man who said to you, take up your bed and walk? This is the Pharisees questioning this man. But the one who was healed did not know who it was. For Jesus had withdrawn a multitude being in that place. Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, see, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you. Now, this man evidently had issues of sin in his life. And Jesus said, I asked you if you wanted to be made well. You said, yes. I told you what to do, you did it. Now you're well. I'm warning you not to go back into that lifestyle again. I have a friend who has a healing ministry. He said 50% of people who get healed in his meetings lose their healing because they go back into the lifestyle that God healed them from. We don't have an angry God in heaven punishing sin. He doesn't have to. It's not like God loves us when we're good and doesn't love us when we're bad. God always loves us. We're just his kids. You can't do Anything not to make God love you. And our sins have been eternally forgiven in heaven. We're eternally forgiven in heaven, but that doesn't mean there aren't consequences in this life. So listen to me about sin. God doesn't have to punish sin. The sin is built in. Here's why God doesn't want you to sin. It'll hurt you. It's just not the right way. When you sin financially, it's just not the right way to live. And so it's not gonna work. When you sin verbally, it's gonna hurt people, it's gonna hurt you. It's just not gonna work. Does God love you when you sin? God will always love you. Jesus eternally forgave your sins in heaven. And that's why we can always go boldly to the throne of grace, regardless of what we've done. But sin destroys our lives and the potential for our lives. And Jesus walks up to this man and says to him, if you keep doing that, you're gonna get into a worse condition. It's a lifestyle change. It's a lifestyle change. I heard this man on TV one day say, tell me what you eat and I'll predict your illnesses. But see, what our society wants is to eat anything we want without consequences, Right? I want to do anything that I want here. In other words, God, I want you to take away the pain. But I don't want to change my lifestyle. But what if my lifestyle caused this problem? See, in other words, God wants to heal your body. You have a disease and God wants to heal your body, but he wants you to begin to treat your body differently. You're abusing your body. You're not eating the right foods. You're not drinking water. You drink soft drinks all day long. You eat processed foods all the time. You don't exercise, you don't do any of those things. And then we accumulate illnesses that God cares about that, that he cares about. We don't have to be perfect for God to heal us, but we need to be responsible for the temple of the Holy Spirit. This is what our bodies are. And so we come to God and say, God, I've got this disease, this disease, this disease, this disease that are caused by my stressful, unhealthy lifestyle. And I'm asking you to heal those diseases. Here's God. Answer. Yes, child, I want to heal you. Now. Will you allow me to change your behavior? Will you allow your lifestyle to change? Will you drink water rather than all those soft drinks? Will you eat healthier Will you get up and exercise a little bit? In other words, we don't have to be perfect and we can still, thank God, eat ice cream. There's ice cream in heaven. I know. I know there's ice cream. God's not legalistic. We don't have to be. We don't have to be perfect. But listen, do you understand what I'm trying to say? Why aren't more people healed? Jesus walked up to the man and said, if you go back into that wrong lifestyle, something worse is going to happen to you. Okay? Because now he's well and he can walk, and now he can go do things he hadn't been able to do for 38 years. And some of that's bad stuff. And Jesus is telling him a warning. It's a lifestyle, not an event in most cases. Here's the third truth about healing. Healing isn't focused on just relieving our pain or problems. It's focused on redeeming God's eternal purpose for our lives. And let me close with this. This is going back to Isaiah to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. Now listen to verse four. And they shall rebuild the old ruins. They shall raise up former desolations. They shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations. Why should I get well? That's the question. If I'm at the pool of Bethesda, if I'm acting like I'm crazy, if I'm in an immoral, unhealthy lifestyle, please, why should I change so that God's purpose for your life can be fulfilled? God didn't create you to live that way. God created you to live in victory. You're not fulfilling God's purpose for your life. And it says that they're going to go rebuild the ancient desolations. Here's what Karen and I say to God. Because he healed our marriage. He healed our minds, he healed our bodies, he healed our emotions. He's healed everything about us. Here's our commitment. God, whatever you do for us, we'll do for other people. They will rebuild the ancient ruins. They will repair the desolations of many generations. This is talking about saved, healed people going and helping other people who aren't saved and healed. And what Karen and I say to God is, if you do it for us, we'll do it for somebody else. Nothing you do for me will be a private event. And I said that when the Lord was healing our marriage. I had absolutely no idea what that statement meant. But I said to the Lord, in one of the darkest moments of our marriage, if you help us, we'll help other people. I help. I get the blessing of helping thousands of pastors all over the world every year. And I was sitting in my office on Bonham Street. I'd come in from the appliance business. I didn't know one preacher. The preachers in our community wouldn't talk to me because they thought we were a cult, because we were charismatics. None of them would be seen publicly with me. I didn't know a preacher. I was desperate. I needed some advice. But I'd never been to seminary. I didn't know one person to call. And I sat in my office over on Bonham street, absolutely terribly lonely, terribly desperate and scared to death. And I said to the Lord, if you help me, I'll help other pastors. The Lord did help me. And I get the blessing today of helping pastors all over the world. It's the most exhilarating feeling in the world to help God to save a marriage. It's the most exhilarating thing in the world to help a pastor who's in crisis or in. Who's in need. It's the most exhilarating thing in the world to give away what God gave you, and it's the reason he created you in your mother's womb. Healing redeems the purpose that God created us in our mother's womb. Your scars. The areas of your life that you've experienced pain. Your scars have the potential to do more than you can imagine. The greatest anointing that'll flow from your life will flow from the areas of your scars just like they do mine. Abortion, prostitution, marriage problems, addictions, alcohol, drugs, sexual problems, weight and health problems, sickness, mental and emotional problems. All of us have been in some of those areas or many of those areas. Jesus has scars. Our Savior has scars. And we're healed by his stripes. We are healed, but by our stripes. Other people are healed also. God works through that. There are heaven scars and hell scars. Heaven scars glorify God. This means our lives, our pain, our hurt, our sickness turned to God and redeemed. It glorifies God. But hell scars glorify the devil. They're a tattoo of his evil in our lives. Heaven scars help and inspire others. Hell scars help no one. They hurt others. Heaven scars Release us for God's destiny. Hell scars trap us in the past and limit our lives. Heaven scars remind us of God's goodness and inspire faith. And hell scars remind us of life's problems and inspire fear. Do you want to be made well? Do you want God to come into your life and set you free on every level and use you to glorify him and rebuild other people's lives? That's the question. It's a partnership. It's a road. And at the end of that road, you will find who God made you to be in your mother's womb. And God will take the scars and defeats and hurts and desolation of your life, and he'll turn it into an anointing that will bless and help and release others. And in that, you will find the most exhilarating life you could ever possibly lead. And some of you know because you're living that life, but some of you aren't. And to some of you, the devil, he's the hurt whisperer. He's come into your circumstances saying, God can't use you. He's a liar and the father of lies. God will use you. And if God wasn't, he wouldn't have spoken that lie to you in the first place. You're precious to God. You're gifted. You're anointed. You've got a great destiny, and God is madly in love with you. And he'll never change his mind. But when we make the decision to lie sick and not get up, we're forsaking that destiny that God has for our lives. He can heal you. He can heal you.
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C
Hey, this is Brent Evans with XO Marriage, and I want to thank you for listening to the Marriage Today podcast. We believe your marriage has a 100% chance of success if you do it God's way. If you enjoy today's teaching and want to keep learning. Hey, subscribe to the Marriage Today podcast and take some time to leave us a review. Your reviews help us spread the word and can encourage someone else in need. For more great marriage content, check out xomarriage.com where you can see all of our marriage building resources, articles and live events.