Bearing Fruit That Lasts

As I said recently in a social media post, “Inner healing isn’t always fun, but it is always worth it. Sometimes the fruit isn’t instantly evident, but that’s how we’ve been trained to believe and expect things to happen in our microwave Western culture. The question we have to ask ourselves is not “does this look nice and tidy” but “does it bear fruit that lasts? (John 15:16a)”

Inner healing should bear positive results over time, but the unpopular truth is that it doesn’t necessarily mean that at the end of every session someone will feel more peaceful, joyful, or even more hopeful. Certainly one could make the argument (and many do) that if God was in it, then one should leave a session of inner healing with more fruit of the Spirit as a whole, and while that is usually true, it simply isn’t always true. Sometimes part of the inner healing process involves grieving things that you let go of. Grief doesn’t look very much like hope, joy, or peace. So while inner healing may be good, and healthy, and helpful, it is also a process.

One of the struggles of the inner healing movement is that it sometimes looks very counterproductive from the outside. What I mean by that is that if someone goes through deep inner healing and starts uncovering repressed memories of childhood abuse, traumatic circumstances that have caused PTSD, or other painful memories of past events, the long-term result will eventually be wholeness. In the short term, however, there may be an increase in emotional triggers and a grieving process for things that have been lost may occur. Mind you, Holy Spirit is the Counselor and Comforter, and during this process, He is ever-present to give both counsel and comfort, but that doesn’t always mean everything is fixed in ten seconds. To the outside observer, this tends to make things appear like they are making things worse instead of better, but that’s only if the goal is instant results instead of fruit that will last.

On the other hand, sometimes inner healing ministers, coaches, and counselors can be their own worst enemy. Certainly, there are conditions and circumstances that tend to take a lot of time and energy to wade through. At the same time, not every person or situation requires that same level of depth. If there is a high level of Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA), Freemasonry, or other bloodline-related issues in a family line, those can take a good bit of time and energy to unravel, and even moreso if the individual is an SRA survivor as well. While bloodline issues tend to far more prevalent than we wish they were, the good news is that not everyone falls into those categories, and not every situation requires years of inner healing work to unravel.

The best thing we can do for ourselves and our families is to get inner healing early and often. I say early because the sooner one deals with things in his or her family line, the better one’s future will be, and this is also passed down to any children one has as well. If people get inner healing as children or teens, they won’t have the same level of problems as if someone is fifty and just beginning the journey. I say often because life throws things at us on an ongoing basis. Whether it is something as simple as remembering to forgive a coworker who upset us or something more complex such as breaking off occult curses that have recently been sent our way, engaging this process often, even if only to a minimal degree, ensures we not only maintain but continue to progress in our personal journeys to wholeness.

While Jesus is the Healer and Savior and delivers us from our distress, even He went through difficulties and problems. The Bible says in Isaiah 53:3a that, “He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. (NLT)” In Hebrews 12:2b it says of Jesus that, “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus knew that some of the things he would go through would be exceedingly difficult. It was so hard that in Luke 22:42a Jesus even asked “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me . . .” The difficulty Jesus faced at that time was more emotional than anything else. He knew what He was getting Himself into, and He really didn’t want to do it. Yet as Hebrews 12:2 says, Jesus endured all of the pain and difficulty, grief, sorrows, and shame because He recognized that on the other side would be great joy.

At the end of the day, whether the issues in one’s life are simple and easy to move through or extremely complex, highly traumatic, and difficult to deal with, it is important for us to remember that we need to be looking not just for short-term easy solutions, but for long-term fruit.