Bringing Freedom And Healing

Strength... Beauty... Pursuit... Invitation... Romance... Love...

Sexuality...

It is a symbol of the most beautiful of romance that God designed, the final touch of Creation. The love of a man and woman fully given to each other for the rest of their days. The full image of God. Something so intimate that it bears its fullest goodness in a close whisper between two, a lover and a beloved. The closeness. The emotion. The intimacy... The Lord even dedicated an entire book of the Bible to the celebration of its existence between two in the deepest love. Something that God had thoroughly crafted, with great time and detail... and then declared good.

It's no wonder that over great time, it has been the target of such vicious assault, and what was once the greatest beauty... has become so marred, almost beyond recognition.

This past week, we entered into the place of sexuality. Original design, the deep goodness of it, and the raging defilement of it by the Enemy. One thing I've experienced in my years, is that it is often a place where very few will venture, almost a Shadowlands of the soul. To be honest, several of the young men here were incredibly fearful, almost to the point where they refused to move forward into it because of the fear of what they might find there. Of the deep shame they might find that had been so deeply buried for so long from some great wounding in the past. I'll describe what it was like for us to enter in to each young man's past -the wounds of deep brokenness brought against many of them- so that you will truly feel what each young man must go through, what we must guide them into, the battles they must fight, so that they become whole, strong men who offer what they were made to be.

Imagine a cave, wide and deep in its berth yet is void of light in only a few steps. Mist, or fog really, that seems to bring the coldness directly to one's bones. Dark, dangerous, where it feels as if the ranks of evil dwell, and seem to greatly outnumber anything that is good. Alone. Or at least, for so many, it feels that way. It brings the same feeling that comes when... say you're alone in the house, and the time comes that night when you turn out the lights and begin to head to bed. In that moment, where you're heading down the toward the bedroom, enveloped by the dark hallway, to your sides and to your back. What is that feeling of fear that comes in that moment? Most people I've met feel it in that moment, almost the impulse to dash into the lighted room before whatever may be there behind you (but never is) grabs you at the last moment and pulls you back into the darkness. Imagine this feeling in that place. In this dark place, where hardly any enter, that is the image. What began as the most beautiful of things, has been brought to this by the assault of the Enemy.

I hope I'm not startling or scaring you with these images, for I'm only trying to help you truly understand the feeling of what it is for these young men to enter into this place, which is so often assaulted, whether by abuse, pornography, deception, betrayl, etc. This place, where so many young men need to be guided, where there seem to be few to no guides to take them there. But with Christ, this is one of the deepest of truths...

To find deep, restorative healing for significant wounding... you must enter back in to those places. You cannot receive healing from a distance... you must enter in, and invite Christ into that place.

What we guided these young men through, and what a beautiful piece it became, was to bring them back into those places, under the guarding of Christ... letting them feel the full weight of the wounding and messages they received, and allow them to receive the healing touch of Christ in those areas, to hear the new words that Christ spoke over them regarding everything in that dark place. And it was beautiful. The only way for light to shine in the dark places, is for one to go back in, however dangerous, with companions and a guide... and bring light with him.

What happens here is incredible...