Shrek, Onions, and Deep Level Healing

Note: This brings to a conclusion my series of posts about our Lily journey. There was much, much more that Holy Spirit shared with me during that time, but maybe that will be for a book eventually 🙂 For your enjoyment, one last picture of my sweet princess, all dolled up for her birthday party this past Monday ❤

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“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor. 3:17, ESV).

In the context of my healing journey, God spoke to me through a dream. In this dream, a young man earnestly asked me, “Have you ever heard the Lord say to you, ‘I want you to give Me all your pain’?” I answered him that I have a very intimate relationship with Jesus, and He has already healed me a lot.

When I spent some time in prayer about this dream, Holy Spirit gave me the understanding I needed. He was showing me through this night-time message that I needed more healing. I had been under the mistaken impression that my closeness to Jesus meant that I was finished healing. Nope. He wanted to go deeper with the work He had been so faithfully doing in me.

Have you ever watched the part on Shrek where they talk philosophically about the onion? That’s  actually quite an apt metaphor for the healing process God takes us through. It really does end up being layer after layer, deeper and deeper.

If we let Him, Jesus will gradually, gently move through every layer of our hearts that needs His healing. He has complete restoration available for you and me. However, sometimes we run into blocks when we are trying to heal. There are times in our lives when our wounds keep us from accurately perceiving Daddy God. And, as we talked about yesterday, when we can’t see well with our spiritual eyes, it obstructs the flow of His healing to us.

I’m reminded of how an abused puppy will lash out at anyone trying to approach it. Take a moment and imagine the kindest person you know trying to reach out to this kind of victimized creature. The poor thing will snarl and snap and bark ferociously at that person. The battered animal’s trauma keeps it from perceiving the kindness of the one trying to help it. The trauma becomes the lens through which it sees everything and everyone around it.

In the same way, when we have been through severe wounding, those negative experiences become our lens. They end up acting as a veil over our hearts’ eyes, keeping us from seeing God as He really is. In our heads, we have assented to the statement, “God is love.” However, we have great difficulty connecting our emotions with that truth. Here is a beautiful promise Jesus extends to all of our wounded souls: “But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away” (2 Cor. 3:16, NLT).

Some more precious news follows, a little further down in this passage. “This comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (v. 18, ESV). This healing of our hearts, this removing of the veil — it’s a new covenant provision, a gift. Paid in His blood. Imparted by His Spirit. Dearly beloved child of His, He beckons us to simply ask and receive what is already paid in full. When we do so, He eagerly responds. He breathes new life into the eyes of our hearts, by His Spirit. He removes the veil, so we can look on Him, so we can take in His immense love for us at the deepest levels of our hearts.

This Scripture teaches us that the more we behold Him, perceiving Him truly, the more freedom we enter into. This is the journey He invites us onto: to go from glory to glory, by beholding Him. In doing so, we enjoy ever increasing levels of healing, restoration, and access to the glorious liberty He secured for us with His blood. “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another“ (v. 18, ESV).

I will never forget something my professor said during a class that I took on healing at Fuller Seminary. He simply stated, “When it doesn’t hurt at all anymore, that’s when you know it’s healed.” Jesus’ heart was broken at Calvary so He could fully heal yours and mine. Dear one, let’s not settle for less. Let’s walk forward into the fullness of restoration He holds forth to us today!

Here is a prayer to help you ask Jesus for healing:

Lord Jesus, I realize now that I haven’t been able to really see You with the eyes of my heart. Trauma has marked me and hindered my ability to perceive You as You really are. Right now, I am asking for this gift You died to give me. Please take away the veil and heal my hearts’ eyes. Please wash away every hindrance to beholding You, with Your precious blood.

Cleanse me from any bitterness that has clouded my vision. Empower me to forgive those who have wounded me. Open my eyes, that I might truly gaze on Your beauty. I long to see You! Let Your Spirit of revelation flow through my heart, healing and transforming me. Bring me to the next level of glory You have for me. I don’t want anything less than the complete healing You long to minister to me!”

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Do you think that forgiving those who have hurt us is linked to being able to see clearly with the eyes of our hearts? If so, in what way?