Afflictions Of The Soul ~

The Pain that just won’t go away…

Transcript from broadcast February 26, 2020

Good Morning and God Bless each of you – Thank you for joining me on today’s ROF Ministry broadcast as we continue to journey on in our study of Genesis 32 and understanding of rejection in that we are fully delivered from all afflictions and residue, becoming a New Creature in Christ.

I give all glory, honor and praise for what He has done, is doing and will do in our lives.  While we are here on Earth, we are sojourning with Jesus on this divinely orchestrated and anointed path called the narrow way.  The Word teaches us few find this path because it is so narrow – meaning pressing and restricted.  I would say this narrow path is not for the faint at heart – no not at all.  It requires we lay down our lives for the sake of Him, no longer seeking to save our lives we realize we lose our lives only to find Him abiding fully in ours.  It is beautiful and it is taxing, it is freedom and yet being a prisoner for Him and it is so very rewarding – when He is our reward.

This narrow way not a path we can take anyone else with us on.  It is you and me and Jesus alone.  It can get quite lonely at times, I’m not gonna lie.  You also will see others getting away with many things, having fun, living a carnal life (even though they may say they are Christians) and yet you cannot escape or rather get away with anything.  There’s no turning back now… lol…  Time to just roll with it!  I guess that is another reason He tells us to “forget the former things…”  It can grieve your heart a little to glance backward, instead of forward to the promises of our Lord Jesus.

Many right now are on the bridge of being chosen, just as you were – so they will need your comfort, assistance and encouragement to keep crossing over to the other side because Jesus is calling them forth.  Many of you have been anointed for that very purpose, as a matter of fact, you will comfort those with the same words by which you were comforted since He choose you to journey as a forerunner before those who will come behind you.  Honestly, it is very rewarding and exhausting to the flesh at the same time.  But remember, when we pour out – Jesus pours more new wine right into us, like refreshing waters and we are renewed day by day.

Just to recap a bit…  Last week we read a portion of Genesis 32, where Jacob wrestled with himself and the Lord surely taught us well.  We ended just where we will begin today discussing “afflictions of the soul.”

The reason being… If we cling to rejection we’ve suffered by replaying it over and over, speaking in the ways of a victim and refusing to be healed and made whole…  We have very un-Christlike personality traits and bleed on or rather spew words out of our unclean hearts Jesus would never say.  A fractured soul is a hurting soul and it is all connected to our minds.  We are to renew our minds each day, casting down imaginations which are contrary to our Faith in Jesus, having the mind of Christ – for real!  Not by words, but by truth.

You all ready to talk about “Soul Afflictions?”  Or rather…. Characteristic personality traits which do not represent the example of Jesus because as a New Creature – in Him we move and HAVE OUR BEING.

An Afflicted Soul may:

• Be overly timid or fearful
• Easily provoked to anger
• Quickly offended and overly sensitive thinking everyone is against them
• Haughty in spirit – thinking themselves to know everything about everything, having all the answers
• Abrasive, harsh, cold or even indifference
• People pleasers over pleasing God
• Attention seekers or seeking approval by people they know
• Seductive or lustful – openly or hidden – God sees all
• Insincere or dishonest – who often lie to manipulate or seduce others – and this is not always sexually btw

We just described what it looks like to be in a church and yet still being ruled by flesh instead of the Spirit.  It is obvious here that the spirits of the flesh are in complete enmity with the Fruits of the Holy Spirit.

This is not how our Father formed us in His image – but rather, how the World conformed us to its image and we all know who is the ruler of the World… lucifer.

The absolute truth is – our history does not determine our destiny – our destiny was set in place when we were fearfully and wonderfully made by the Creator of all things, Himself.  He knew us then and He knows us now and right now in this moment we are learning to know of Him again. 

The old creature will often get stuck in a mindset of pining after or cursing what was – our history.  While the new creature inside us being reborn has an undeniable thirst for Jesus, to know Him deeply and to be conformed to His Image…  You see the cycle?

At birth we come forth into the World in the Image of Jesus, the World taints us and tries to force us to conform to it – but it is permissible so that we make an honest choice to follow Jesus in truth, as He is the only way to the Father.  The Father does not desire us to worship Him by command, but through only a heart of devoted love.  Through trials, those who are His children instinctively know to call out to their Father and upon doing so – He embraces us with open arms.  It is through the trials of this life His love unto us is forged, perfected and sustained – an unbreakable covenant bond is sealed… the end result is?  We return to our first love Jesus, joined to Him in ways unimaginable and unexplainable really – as you can tell I am struggling very much to articulate this… But eventually being one with Him we return to our first estate (Spiritual condition) – a New Creature in His Image.  This is our Spiritual Life Cycle, if you will.

So in this process, day in and day out, we wrestle to overcome all things which are NOT permissible or profitable in the Kingdom of Heaven.  We can only overcome all things through Jesus, Who gives us strength to conquer all darkness because He really is a consuming fire, burning away all the dross (unfruitful parts) of our existence on Earth as Godly children.

And sadly…  Part of that process is “suffering the affliction of rejection..”  Just like Jacob was rejected by his Earthly father and suffered watching his brother be given preference over himself – so have most of us.  We have been rejected by our own families and those we love deeply too, just like Jacob – I call that friendly fire and it sears the heart the most.

Did you know all rejection is not created equal? 

• Those we value the most can hurt us the most
• Those we trust and believe their words are sincere, so we let our guards down – can shatter your heart to pieces in a second
• The closer we have let someone into our shared lives and truths of us – they have the greatest impact to hurt our hearts the most.

Rejection from them always stings much more than from a stranger.  Right?

• We respond differently and can be tormented deeply from rejection at the hands of someone we have been most vulnerable with.

For example – If a thief on the street stole your purse, you would not take it personally.  But if your confidant and friend stole the same from you, it would likely devastate you.  Because trust was broken.

We often feel like an outcast not because the World doesn’t want us, but because the ones who said they loved us didn’t or the ones who were appointed by the Father to love us abandoned us instead.

You know Jacob was an outcast too, he had to leave his home prematurely at a young age and he really did quite well outwardly…  He married, had children, etc… And yet inside he was still an “orphan.”  Jacob accomplished all the successes a productive man would attain, however…  he too had the residue of lingering rejection from a wound of long ago and it festered within Jacob, robbing him of contentment.  So later on in life in an attempt to reconcile with Esau, his brother, Jacob came up with a plan…  You know what I mean right?  One of those scenarios we play out in our heads which give the perfect ending to a perfect nightmare…  Some of you all know what I am talking about… lol  Jacob, admittedly had no idea how this would go and since he did not consult the Lord on this, he truly was alone.  So he sent his family away and he sent a gift offering to Esau to go before his attempt to reconcile – this is people pleasing at its finest right here.

In order to prepare Jacob set himself in a place of aloneness and he wrestled… 

Note:  ALL ISOLATION IS NOT EVIL!

• There are times God uses isolation for our transformation – he often used Elijah in the same way
• Other times, He will orchestrate alone time with just Him to do a deep spiritual healing work, where we are separated and silenced through some sort of crisis or sickness.

There are times when we are so distracted by the noise of our own plans, the Lord uses something swift to surrender us securely to Himself.  We may even wrestle with Him in the process – but He always wins and never tires.  I’ve noticed a trend we sometimes have… We will call good evil sometimes when the Father is trying to get our attention.  We become devil blamers, like he is roaring around not under the subjection to the Almighty – Lord forgive us.  I must ask you to ask yourself…  Can anything override the covering Sovereignty of the Lord on High?  I used to think my freewill could override Him, but lately He has been showing me quite the contrary… For example, if I started to corrupt myself so much I would be eternally lost – He would take me Home to Heaven with Him, He showed me how nothing can pull us out of His hands – not life or death or angels or principalities – NOT ANYTHING… So just rest in that truth, believe it and walk it out in Faith.

Can you ever remember a time where you called something a curse of evil and then over time it proved to actually be a blessing in disguise?  Or even vice versa… We sometimes will call something good and over time it proved to be evil…  Hindsight truly is 20/20 – well, so is patiently waiting for the Lord to prove all things – because, when God shows up – He often does not look like Himself if our eyesight is not yet healed.  What we think is a curse, could in turn be a blessing but quite often – too many times to count – what we thought was a blessing was actually intended for our demise.  Even the disciples thought Jesus was a ghost one fearful moment in time… Fear skews our vision big time.

If we are not healed… the Lord can show up to protect us and we cast Him away like the enemy.  You all with me on this?  He gives and He takes away and BOTH are purposed to keep us as His child protected and untainted.

Sometimes God shows up opening doors but sometimes He shows up closing them and that is Him too!  How many of you looking back are saying Praise You Lord for closing that door I had propped open for twenty years stiff necked and bullheaded?  It is because when we look back, we no longer see in part, but in fullness.  Here’s the clincher…  The wrestling comes when we still want, what we want!  And after we are done wrestling with ourselves – guess who we wrestle with?  God Himself… Can I get an Amen?  Because some of us are gonna be set free today!  I for one am done trying to author and finish myself!

Aren’t we so very tired of letting man define our worth?  When we place such power into the hands of another we often feel abandoned and weighed in the balance by them.  What I mean is…  Say the payout you are looking to receive is “attention” and if you are not getting enough attention from someone – you feel abandoned because in your mind you feel unworthy of their love.  We would not feel abandoned like this anymore if we believed this one thing, it would be a wholeness moment for us all:  When we understand the Lord opens doors and He closes doors of entry into and out of our lives for others, we will richly be are peace.  Jesus stands at the gates as to what or who can and cannot enter into our lives.  The same power which raised Jesus from the dead is living and active inside us because the no one has authority over us other than that which is granted by the Father.  If we need sifted, then he must gain access to us by the Lord Himself.  Just because the enemy desires us, does not mean he can attain us.  And just because he can sift us, does not mean he can devour us.

We have truly been wrestling with the old nature of ourselves way too much and it is also why we have grown very weary.  Remember, Jesus told us to forget what is behind us and press on towards the higher calling.

Knowing God is a good gatekeeper all the time, we understand the same God that shows up to open doors, closes them too – see…. We have never been abandoned at all and one day we are going to be ever so grateful for His hand of protection upon us – no matter who or what exits our lives.  Oftentimes, the Lord has shown the enemy to the exit and because of our own desires we are clinging onto him with all our might.

Jesus loves us enough to refuse to allow us to corrupt ourselves with wrong choices.  In doing so, He often removes options of death influencing us by His sovereign hand of intervention by closing doors and remember it is a thankful heart that clings to Jesus in plenty and in want.

As a reminder, if we have a soul affliction of unresolved rejection within us, we will not see God working in our lives when an answer to a prayer is no.  Our Father is a good, good Father and therefore saying no is a good, good gift, even if we cannot perceive it as such because we truly are as little children.

Using Jacob again as an example, taken from Genesis 32 verse 28 says, Jacob wrestled with a man (human) and with God and was overcome…  We know from preceding scripture Jacob was alone.  Jacob was the only human present that night.

What is God showing us to glean in this Biblical account?

• Could it be the person Jacob was wrestling with was himself?  His own flesh?  His old nature?  How often is it we too war by the Spirit against the flesh in such a way?
• God is pulling us towards our future destiny by severing our connection to our past.  He is doing this by killing our flesh while drawing us into the likeness of Jesus.  He does not want us to self sabotage His mighty work by refusing to stay an unchanged wineskin.
• Remember in this passage Jacob was indeed in a battle and the one he was wrestling with said to him – let me go and Jacob said, I will not until you bless me.  Jacob was having a mind battle at this time.  What he was really saying here was – I will wrestle until I win or overcome and it went on for hours – Jacob had already made up his mind he would not stop fighting by the Spirit until no flesh was saved or rather, until the past was buried.
• And don’t forget… Jacob suffered a wound when wrestling that night.  It was a painful process, dying to self always is.
• We know Jacob was living a successful and productive life – likely admired by most – however, he still was riddled with past hurts.  Jacob’s request was not to GET SOMETHING but rather to BECOME SOMETHING.  He is a demonstration of us:  A new creature being formed into the image of a mighty God who is seeking first the Kingdom of God so that all things will be added…  All things which are profitable – which requires a purging of those things which we have allowed to remain permissible in our lives and yet they do not reflect the example of Jesus.
• All you deed workers out there…. Listen to me a second, we know wisdom tells us we can be overachievers in everything – knocking ourselves out, even in ministering and serving others – but there is no such thing as enough work to fill and heal an afflicted and wounded soul.  This type of soullessness is a bottomless pit which can never be satisfied and filled – it is why the Lord does not put new wine into an old wineskin.
• The truth is… there are many things we just cannot do on our own – but we sure wrestle with it, don’t we?  We sure try!  Emptiness and deep wounds cannot be filled by works done by us or to us in anyway in the natural – it is only eternal spiritual works at the hand of Jesus that can stop a bleeding heart.
• The Lord uses our rejection to place us on path to commune with Him.  Rejection in this life can shape us into something less than so that God’s hand will be received by us to shape us into who we were appointed to be – formed into the image of His Son Jesus.

The Lord gives us tools, many tools to use and assist us in our overcoming process so that when He sends us out with wisdom by His spirit we may comfort others just like we were comforted.  Therefore, there are a few keys we need to understand regarding overcoming the rejection in the soul.

• Rejection by others is their vision of you – It is not your true value.  Quite often the issue is not us but that the other person is spiritually blind.
• Rejection is sometimes perceived by us due to our own spiritual blindness, as well.
• We were fearfully and wonderfully made, created in His Image – priceless and valuable.  Just because people can’t see value in us or we do not see value in ourselves doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
• Please hear me on this one…  The only one who can assign value to something is the one who created it because others can only RECOGNIZE the value of a thing – they cannot determine it.
• It takes eyesight to recognize something, doesn’t it?  We need to embrace what the Father says about one another and ourselves – and no longer see with flesh eyes which are faulty in nature.  Again, the vessel is not faulty – eyesight is unless it is spiritual in nature.
• The Father makes all things new – this is me and you and all His children, we are in a process – it is time to stop judging before the time of perfection, one another and ourselves.  Some of us are way harder on ourselves than we are other people.  The grace that is sufficient and the mercy which is given is not just for others, but for ourselves as well.
• The Lord is fully aware of His hand upon us and only He knows the end result of His guiding, remember He is not slack concerning His promises towards us so He sees us in a different light than people see us or we see ourselves.  He sees a complete and finished work, knowing the end from the beginning.  Please understand, most of His work is internal anyway and can only be seen by the Spiritual eye.  He has a plan and vision for you – He sees the result of that plan, where others look externally for the fruit of His labors, He sees the inward fruit.
• When we keep handing ourselves over to people to assign value to us we have handed over to others a responsibility that can only be assigned to God and we become compromised in nature.  Like I said, only our Creator knows the plans for our lives of being a living soul, whatever we contain and what we are called to do and even all that we are capable of – the meaning and timing of all things pertaining to us belongs to His charge.  What He says goes and it is final.
• We should not absorb other people’s issues as our own.  Jesus took on the sins of the World, we do not have to.  So as a reminder, rejection is often a result of other’s issues and not ours.  Jesus warned us time and again about making assessments of others without assessing ourselves first.  Once we remove the plank (which is ego) out of our own eye it is then we can see clearly the shortcomings of another.  Frequently, people do reject us because of their own plank, not our splinter because of their own self, pride and ego when they think themselves to be higher than they ought to.  They will overcompensate for their insecurity by focusing on our lack – again, rejection is often not our issue, but theirs.  People pleasers need to let go of the tireless striving to please an unquenched unfulfilled soul which can be satisfied by Jesus Himself.
• Rejection frequently propels us into God’s direction when you are not of this World, those still in the World are naturally going to reject you.  But what is beautiful, when this happens you find yourself firmly implanted inside the church, no longer an onlooker into it.  When God does shut it’s door, we may perceive it as rejection when in truth it is His protection.
• In this process the Lord is breaking us from all entitlement mindsets – like He owes us anything.  He doesn’t owe us anything, because He already gave us everything – found solely in His Son Jesus

Who is our reward.

• There are times we are convinced God exists for us – which is a self-centered, wrestling with the flesh mindset.  The truth is we exist for God’s good pleasure, just as Jesus did, which is a spiritual mindset way of thinking based in a surrendered Christ centered life of walking by the Spirit.  In all situations we are either being led by spirit or flesh and “who” we are focused on in any given moment is the testing point.  Is it Jesus or self and others?  We don’t matter – He does and if walking by Spirit, Jesus matters more than others in our lives and it shows.  But just who is willing to take that stand, knowing in doing so rejection will come upon you like a flood?  You know the Scripture that says… Stand therefore and pray you are worthy to stand before the Son of Man…  This is what it means to stand – it does not mean to fight in the flesh or spirit, but to stand up in truth and faith, placing Jesus as number one, no matter the cost.
• It requires us to have doors closed at times through rejection to fully grasp how far and wide and deep is the Father’s love towards us as His children.  As we mature and grow, what we used to call unfair we call God at work in our lives and give Him the praise He deserves.
• It settles our hearts to know we are in a fight we cannot lose…  And why?  Jesus has already won and the victory is ours in Him.  God often moves us from assignment to assignment by closing doors, just like He does when opening them.  Some of us resist change so much it requires a closed door for us to move anywhere, doesn’t it?
• Rest and trust in the truth that the Lord places us at the right place at the right time every single time.  We may cry for a few nights, but joy always comes in the morning!

Speaking of closing doors, I feel totally released now at this moment to finally put this “rejection” teaching to rest.  He has taught me much and I pray you also benefited from all He showed us the past few weeks.  I am most curious where He will take us next?  So far, He hasn’t laid anything upon my heart for us to study next, but He will, He always does.

Let’s pray ~

Heavenly and glorious Father, I am just overwhelmed by Your love today and every day.  You are the breath and life which sustains us each day and without You we would flounder and perish.  Lately, it seems as if not a moment goes by we are not calling out to You to save us and yet, You are mighty and faithful to save every single time.  We come before Your presence today and say Lord, I cannot do anything a part from You, come abide within us from this day forward.  We repent from questioning you and placing way too much value of others into our lives.  When all is said and done, it will be me and You Jesus and I thank You for giving us an opportunity to make things right before Your eyes.  Thank You Lord for teaching us Your ways and Your truthful intentions towards us as you place the seal of God upon our foreheads and cleanse us of all thoughts which contaminate our souls.  We promise to do our best to refrain from the value to be seen by the eyes of men and to diligently seek Your Kingdom perspective concerning ourselves and others.  Help us to surrender perfectly to Your will each day in peace, without wrestling with our old natures of flesh.  Deliver us oh Lord from all evil, starting with self.  Purge us from all mentalities of works so that we authentically worship You in spirit and in truth.  Help us see ourselves just as You see us covered in the humility of Jesus.  We humbly come before this day Lord with a grateful heart saying may Your will be done in our lives on Earth as it is in Heaven.  In Jesus’s Precious and life giving Name we pray.  Amen.

So I humbly thank you all for joining me today.  Each of you have blessed my life beyond imagination and I pray for, love you and am grateful to serve Jesus with you each day.

I ask that you continue to lift up ROF Ministries and myself in prayer, love and financial support, should the Lord lead you to do so in order that we are sent forth to be a blessing to those the World has rejected by healing hearts His way.  Your prayers keep us covered and your support keeps us going out to the multitudes.  Should the Lord place it upon your heart to give, you may do so by going to ROFministries.com and click on the donation button, not only will we be blessed to continue in the Lord’s work – with your love seeds your joy shall be made full in Him.  If you are so led to join with us in visiting the prisons through joining the Prison Ministry Outreach Team, please email me at:  Markedbyheaven7@gmail.com.  You can also email me anytime at the same address to share or request prayer.

So that is all I have for today.  Thank you for fellowshipping with me and one another today.

Love and Bless each of you.