Spiritual Movement One

(From the new book Spiritual Movements: How to Heal and Grow in Christ, coming in February 2025)

Spiritual Movement One: We came to believe we were powerless over our sin-disease and that only Jesus could deliver and heal us. 

“The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are." – John Pierpont Morgan

“…Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” – Jesus, Mark 1:14-15 ESV

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” – Jesus, Matthew 11:28 ESV

I have journaled for over forty years. Just last year I decided to destroy most of my journals, but for the ones from the last few years. I kept looking at my journals from the past and seeing I was writing about the same problems and failures with every entry. Imagine that! Being sixty years old, reading something you wrote about your struggles ten, twenty, and thirty years prior and realizing you’re struggling with the same obstacles day after day, year after year. Talk about demoralizing! Nothing had improved in me; in fact, I was worse in some areas. It made me believe that people don’t ever change, and I couldn’t change. It was impossible. But something happened in June of 2019. I decided I wasn’t going to stay where I was. If I did it would kill me. I was experiencing what some call the gift of “incomprehensible demoralization.” What a gift, right? I was at the end and didn’t want to live anymore. Full stop.

The main point of the first movement is that we must stop, figure out where we are and believe in a new path. So, how does a person stop? What does a person do? Quite simply it is pausing to rethink their life, understanding they are powerless over their sin-disease and that only Jesus could deliver and heal them. That’s what I did. Though it was heavy on the powerless. I thought I could overcome my sin-disease with will power. I thought that through my own will power I could stop the negative behaviors that were killing me, inside and out, and hurting others around me.

Your sin-disease may not express itself in serious substance abuse or alcoholism, maybe it does. You maybe struggling with pride, anxiety, worry, overeating, or fear and loneliness. However your sin-disease manifests itself in your life, you will never be able to beat it on your own. The ways you have tried are failing and will fail. The frustration, guilt, and shame will only increase as you continue a futile fight. The ancient Greek word Jesus uses is “metanoia,” translated repent in most Bibles. What it actually means is to rethink your life and change direction. Take an honest look at where you currently are in your life struggles, throw up the white flag, and find a better solution. You see, you don’t have enough power in yourself to profoundly change how you’ve been failing. You cannot control anything or anyone. You know it’s true and the sooner you admit it the faster you can move on to a solution that has the potential and power to really impact your daily life.

Everyday life in America consists of people who may look fine, but on the inside millions upon millions are feeling the effects of their sin-disease and it’s killing them inside. Don’t be mistaken and turned off by the word sin. While many preachers have beat us over the head with it to make us feel guilt and shame, the reality is it is a human disease. You’re born with it. You want to be your own source of life and truth. You want to be God. It comes from deep inside you. It is a subtle disease with some serious side effects, like emotional pain leading to death by various choices. Some ease the pain of sin with drugs. Some with shopping, others with relationships. We all have a hurry-sickness that exacerbates all the other struggles. And most just wake up in survival mode. We see empty eyes walking by us each day at home, work, and school. We are truly a hurting and crazy country, and we’re not alone in the world. Some tragically decide to end the pain of sin with death. Whatever “sin” is it makes us feel alone and far from the love of God and others.

That’s where we are. That is our spot on Google maps. Pain City, Crazyville, located in Lost Lake County. If not technically crazy, then at the least we feel emotionally drained and mentally fatigued. We have good days and weeks, to be sure. But then we are right back in the same patterns that destroy our happiness. Is there a solution? Is it possible to find some level ground to stand on with friends who love us?

Just stop!

Stop and look at your life. What is truly going on in you and around you? How are you really going to move forward if you can’t figure out where you are? If you can’t find your spot on the map of life you are surely not alone. So, just come to a full stop and evaluate how you feel about life and where you are. Maybe you are feeling the previously mentioned incomprehensible demoralization. Or maybe you are just numb. No feelings. No anything. Now what?

You are experiencing the result of letting your sin-disease rule your life. Though you may not realize it or have looked at it from this perspective before, you have made yourself to be your own God. In doing so you have missed the target of how the true God of the universe created us. You have tried to control yourself and those around you and it just doesn’t work. It was a deception from the beginning. A sort of self-deception. You must stop. Right where you are standing, stop. You must decide you are powerless over your sin-disease; this is the starting point.

A whole industry of self-help materials, events, speakers, YouTube channels, and social media has developed to cover up the pain of living in Lost Lake County. The goal of self-help materials is to empower individuals to take control of their lives and make positive changes to enhance their self-image, personal power, status, and production in the world. It sounds good on the surface and the Seven Spiritual Movements might appear to be self-help materials until you realize we are not trying to help people improve their self-image and take control of their lives. The opposite is more the truth. We are hoping to help people become more selfless and humble, gaining stability and peace by giving control of outcomes in their lives over to God. Anyone who thinks they control their lives is simply misled and headed for disaster. And anyone who thinks improving their personal power as a pathway to positive mental health might want to rethink their direction and learn what it means to humbly accept and like who they are, not an image they are trying to create and control.

There is some good news.

With the abundance that has been written and said about Jesus, both positive and negative, how do we become confident in his current ability to deliver, heal, and restore us? This is the question that needs answering before we can trust him with our lives. Let’s review some historical facts about Jesus.

Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus

The fact is, Jesus was a real person who lived from 4 BC to AD 33, this is not questioned by credible historians, both Christian and non-Christian. The first creed of those early followers of Jesus is recorded by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:3-7. In it, Paul lays out what they knew to be true: He lived, was crucified, dead, and buried, and three days later he was alive and seen by his closest friends and then by more than five hundred people. There are four reasons we believe in Jesus’ resurrection:

1.     There was an execution and Jesus died, recorded not only in the Bible in many sources outside of the scriptures.

2.     There was an empty tomb and all Jesus’ detractors would have to do is produce a body. They never did because he was alive.

3.     There were eye-witnesses that saw Him crucified dead and then alive three days later. Eye-witness testimony is crucial in historical events. Since we don’t have pictures or recordings from two thousand years ago, the best and most reliable evidence would be those who witnessed the historical events. Thus, the gospels and other documents written as testimony outside the Bible give us a good knowledge of the actual events. It would be good to read Lee Strobel’s “The Case for Christ” or N.T. Wright’s “The Resurrection of the Son of God” or Richard Bauckham’s “Jesus and the Eyewitnesses” or Josh and Sean McDowell’s “Evidence that Demands a Verdict” if you want to seriously investigate the evidence for the resurrection. There is enough evidence for Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection to convince any thoughtful, open-minded, skeptic. However, apologetics is more than history, and the questions of our day include the nature of God, evolution, creation, justice, pain, and suffering, and so much more. I would recommend Tim Keller’s “Reason for God” for those types of experience-based questions.

4.     There are early records after the fact of Jesus’ resurrection, leaving no time for myth or legend to set in. Myth and legends take generations and the earliest material we have was written in the first generation of those who witnessed the crucifixion and resurrection, some within the first decade following the event. Included in these early records are comments about Jesus and His followers from people like Mara bar Sarapion, Pliny the Younger, Epictetus, Numeus, Josephus, Philo, and Phlagen. It’s estimated that we have over thirty records outside the Bible of people referring to Jesus.

Because Jesus actually rose from the dead, we can be confident of both his veracity and his power. Jesus predicted he would be tortured and killed and that in three days he would be alive again. Then it happened as he said it would. Wouldn’t you have more confidence in a man who predicted his death and resurrection, and it happened versus any other religious or political figure’s ability to know the truth and have the power to change lives?

The Kingdom Message of Jesus

Jesus’ message of the current availability of the Kingdom of the Heavens is recorded in four eye-witness testimonies. The Kingdom of God or Heaven is mentioned over three hundred times in the Bible, 126 times in the Gospels, and thirty-four times in Matthew alone. It seems to be the single most important topic for Jesus, as most of his teachings were about life in the Kingdom or what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. Jesus wanted us to rethink our lives and turn them around to find new life, abundant life, in the Kingdom of the Heavens, here and now. This is the kind of life we were designed for; people who are image bearers of God, living as children of God, in the Kingdom of God.

What does it mean to be delivered?

The reality is we are all flawed image bearers in need of deliverance from the powers that continue to ruin our lives day by day. A flawed image bearer is who we referred to earlier as someone with a sin-disease. All people have this disease which is a distortion of God’s image in their being, made possible through an inherited nature of the original human, Adam:  

“For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:22)” 

“As one trespass led to condemnation for all men… (Romans 5:18a). 

Sin is a power in our bodies that drives us to choices we make that are not what God would want for us. We make these choices assuming we are our own god. That describes all of us. We need a deliverance from, or to be saved from, the self-deception of being our own god, a “god delusion.” While Richard Dawkins presupposed those who believe in God have a “God Delusion,” the truth is he and the rest of us carry a deception we are our own god, thus the term for a sinner being someone with their own “god delusion,”

Jesus rescues us from this grandiose deception of idolatry. Whatever we value more than God, whatever influences our thoughts and actions, becomes an idol. When we value ourselves, our opinion, our desires, our wants, and needs above others and even above God, we are the idol. We worship ourselves. This is the grand deception of our current, postmodern culture. We become the ultimate authority, skeptical of anything and everyone who would challenge our rule. We were on the cross with Christ and died to that deception. Through Christ’s victory on the cross and by virtue of his resurrection, he has smashed all idols and given us the deliverance for which we have longed. Deliverance from ourselves, our sin, our “god-delusion.

Because God has delivered and saved us, we also begin to believe he can heal the pain caused by others or from our self-inflicted torment, and we can now grow to be more like Jesus would be if he were us.

Moving Forward Spiritually

In order to move forward spiritually, we need to get out of the courtroom of our own or others’ opinions of us. Only one truth matters. What does the person who created you think of you? You will be humbled to realize the God of the universe loves you beyond what you could possibly hope for. It’s His will for you, His loving will for you, that will help you through your days to be the person you were designed (by Him) to be. Your picture is on his refrigerator, and He points you out, bragging about you to anyone who will listen.

There is a pathway to peace, rest, and wholeness. Jesus said come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and He would give you rest. He invites you into his Kingdom of the Heavens today. I know. You were hoping for a non-religious, “not-god” type of answer. You’ve tried that. How’s it going for you? Jesus died on the cross for our failures and sin-disease and swallowed them up in His death. You no longer have to live under the curse of guilt, shame, and failure. Your victory is already won and is waiting for you. If you even have a smidgen of belief that it’s true, then you take your first step on the pathway to peace, rest, and wholeness.

The next movement will help you move further in, but for now, could you possibly just ask God for help. Take the tiny amount of belief you have and tell Him you’re tired and can’t fix your life. Ask Him to show you who He is, and how Jesus could really be alive and in control. It’s either true or not true. If true, you have hope. If not, you’re back to the same old thing. Maybe it is time to swallow a little pride and surrender to the lover of your soul. Go ahead. He’s waiting, arms open, and smiling. He knows everything you’ve gone through to get here. He sees you! Just ask Him for a little faith to start afresh.

This isn’t a frothy emotional appeal. Though it may seem that way because emotions can be raw and confusing. This is an appeal to reason. It makes sense that if you realize you can’t fix your life and that Jesus can, then you would check out that possibility. The truth is you’re not alone in this venture. Millions of people over the last two thousand years have found a source of life in Jesus that has given them something you don’t currently possess. Peace and wholeness.

I’m not talking about the tons of dogmatic, fundamentalist, religious wanna-be’s. I’m talking about a guy named Paul who was an angry, conservative, religious zealot, hurting himself and others until he stopped, looked at Jesus, though as skeptical as he was, found in Him the answer to his own pain. Paul became a teacher of Jesus’ love and brought change and the possibility of new life to the western world. I’m talking about my friend Dave who couldn’t stop his meth addiction, was left for dead on a side-walk in Phoenix and miraculously came to new life in a hospital bed. I’m talking about my brother Chuck who after 50 years of wasting his life on drugs and alcohol found peace in the last year of his life, with Jesus. I’m talking about a man named Augustine who tried everything between power and lust before stopping and finding a relationship that not just changed his life but through him changed much of the western world’s view of God. I’m talking about Rob, an average teenager with average struggles at home and school, willing to stop and find a little faith that redirected the rest of his life into teaching others the way of Jesus. I’m talking about Morris who was a pastor that fell apart trying to please God and others in ministry, who stopped, found healing through counseling and a fresh view of an old truth about God’s love. Now he’s a spiritual mentor for those in ministry who are getting to the point of stopping in order to start. I’m talking about the tons of people who stop daily and come to hope in a risen Savior, with just a smidgen of faith. So, why not you?

That’s how it’s done. You stop. Full stop. Establish your inability to fix your life, begin to believe Jesus can deliver and heal you. Stop. Rethink. With just a smidgen of confidence start to believe. Just start.

Then on to Spiritual Movement Two.