The open portals of a soul’s life need closed and the blocks need destroyed. There are so many things we could have done to open a way for the enemy to grab hold, so many unintentional blocks we can put up that keep God at arm’s length. Some of these blocks and portals may seem immense, a lifetime of addiction to sin, living in a deep pit that no matter how hard a soul tried, it simply can’t get out of the slime. Blocks that seem to somehow always drag one back into the pit of sin. And worse yet, sometimes aren’t even known to be the root of the sin/temptation.
I can remember telling Father that I couldn’t think of anything offhand that I could focus on in Unbound because I had just gone through the “Victory through Spiritual Warfare” Workshop. I would have to trust the Holy Spirit to guide me to those blocks. I was totally stunned at some of the things that came into the light. Thank You Holy Ghost for being present in Father and my brothers that night.
There were things I didn’t realize in my past, bags of stones that I was carrying which I didn’t even realize were on my back any longer because I was used to the weight of them. Guilt that was so well hidden by the enemy that it was nearly part of my being, totally ‘known’ by me. Totally binding to my soul. No matter how many times I sought the Divine Mercy of God, these held to me and wouldn’t let me move forward. Ultimately, to trust that He could love and forgive ‘even me’.
One thing that was true for me through both the workshop and Unbound, is that the enemy didn’t have ‘any goods on me’ that God didn’t already know about and that the enemy also didn’t have a claim to me at all. I am a beloved son of my Father in Heaven, the Creator of all things and the King of kings. Nothing trumps that in any way.
With that realization came freedom and trust to a level I have never experienced. I know the God of the universe and more importantly to me, God my Father, Abba, Papa Father, loves me so much…He loves me enough to turn His head away from His Son on the cross, to ‘forsake’ Jesus at His time of need that I may know total forgiveness of all the sins I’ve committed or may ever commit. All I need to do is look Him straight in the eye so to speak. To not try to hide behind a veil and obscure His view of me or mine of Him.
The freedom I felt walking away from the Campbell’s workshop that Saturday afternoon was incredible – doesn’t hurt that God reinforced this feeling by ‘scheduling’ a Festival of Praise that same evening. He showed me His deep and tender love in letting me put down all that I held between He and myself and then let me rejoice in that freedom at the Festival of Praise. And I think that night that my Father was rejoicing as well, because His son who was lost was now found.
So, I guess in all this the biggest thing I learned in both the workshop and Unbound, that I carry forth into the Sacrament of Reconciliation on-going is that God’s forgiveness is total and the power of renouncing those sins that bind. In both those sessions, and an additional workshop I’ve attended, as well as at each Sacrament of Reconciliation there is a point of renouncing the power that sin has over me. In the Holy Name of Jesus and by His precious Blood, I renounce(name the sin) and the ties that it may claim over me.
I wish that each of you could experience the freedom offered by the “Victory through Spiritual Warfare” Workshop. In a sense, the workshop helped me clean the smudges off the lenses that I view God through so that now I see Him more clearly than I’ve ever in my life. A bonus is that the more clearly I see my Father and Jesus Christ, the more I am allowing the Holy Spirit to draw me into His Divine Will and Mercy, to trust totally in Him (someday). The more I permit this movement, the more the world comes into perspective. I start to understand Philippians 1:21 “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” and see Jesus more clearly scripture and my life.
No matter how big the sin, how huge the block, God only desires that we let go and trust in His love for us. His power is huge – as the Vegetales said “God is bigger than the boogie man’.
Remember, David brought a rock to a sword fight, and won! So just let go, seek help and let it go!
“Behold what love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God–and we are!” 1 John 3:1