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Growing up in Jesus Name!

Please read: How to apply ministry material from Kanaan Ministries if you have not already done so. This course is a follow-up on the Soul Care School, Inner Healing course , Cleansing our Generations and Healing our Wounded Hearts.

This series teaches that relationships are an important part of our lives and that God's plan is that every person must be part of a family. We look at the role the church must fulfill as the family of God. 

Four Models

There are four models that define how people (who believes in Yeshua) will react to circumstances based on “their” definition of God’s Character:

  1. The Sin Model
    The counselor has to find sin and confront the counselee. Confess, repent and sin no more! All problems are a result of one's sin. God is good; You are bad; Stop it.
  2. The Truth Model
    The truth will set you free. If some areas in your life are not successful, it will be attributed to the fact that you lack truth in your life. You are urged to learn more verses, memorize more scripture, and learn more doctrine (particularly your “position in Christ”), and when this truth makes its way from your head to your heart you will ultimately change your behavior and emotions
  3. The Experiential Model
    You have to find the abuse or the hurt – and then somehow “get it out”. “Take the pain to Jesus,” or “give Jesus the pain”. Jesus can be with you in your pain or abuse and can change it. This model emphasizes Jesus’ ability to transcend time.
  4. The Supernatural Model
    This model has many variations. Charismatics seek instant healing and deliverance; others depended on the Holy Spirit to make the change as He lives His life through them.

Our conclusion

There is value in all four models, yet we have seen that many people (lay people and pastors alike) who had walked with God for years, know about God’s truth, had been very diligent about praying, Bible study, and other spiritual disciplines, are still hurting, and for one reason or another, they have been unable to walk out of their valley.

We would teach people about God’s love, but their depression would not go away. We would teach them about the crucified life, and their addictions would remain. We would teach them to focus on their “security in Christ”, yet their panic attacks would be unyielding.

Please do not misunderstand. We have seen people improve, learn about God from the Scriptures, begin to pray, fast and repent, but something remains missing. There had to be more……

Seeing the big picture behind all healing

Spiritual growth is not only about coming back into a relationship with God and each other, and about pursuing a pure life, but it is also about coming back to life (to be fulfilled in all areas) – the life that God created for people to live.

Concepts to help us grow

A relationship with God “grows life”. One of the biggest obstacles to growth is our view of God. We will show you how to put grace and truth together.

Jesus, our example of spiritual growth

Biblical principles tell us how people grow; Jesus shows us how to do this practically with a personal and human example that we can see and internalize in our hearts. We have a living, breathing picture of how God wants us to live.

The role the Body of Christ plays in growth

We expose the false teaching that people don’t need other people at all, that Christ alone is sufficient or that His Word or prayer is enough. God places us in relationships so that we can learn to depend on other people.

Grace and Forgiveness

Grace is something we can’t give ourselves. It comes from outside, as an unmerited favor; we can’t do anything to obtain grace. God’s uses other people to dispense His grace. Grace can be available to us, but we might not be ready to accept it. We can be surrounded by acceptance and grace, but until the hurt and guilty places of our hearts are exposed, and the gap between our heads (understanding) and our hearts (believing) remains, we will not experience grace.

Grieving

God has designed grief (as one of the most important processes in life) to help us get over things. Grief can only be accomplished within the context of a relationship. We need others to hold us as we go through the process of “letting down” and “letting go”.

The power of acceptance

The word “acceptance” means “taking to oneself”. It is an invitation. Acceptance is the state of receiving someone into relationship.

  1. Acceptance Sets us Free to Grow
  2. Acceptance builds Trust and Relationship

The source and resolution of guilt

Resolving guilt and shame helps people to see themselves as fellow strugglers instead of super humans. Guilt focuses on me and is just a symptom of a person who has never grown up, Godly sorrow focuses on the offending party.

Guilt and the resulting fear are not about feeling “bad about oneself” but about being separated from love. Reconciliation to love is the answer for all guilt.

The role of suffering and grief

Jesus modeled the path of suffering for us and how to do it right. He experienced all things without sinning and in total obedience to God. We high-light the difference between those who suffer to a good end and those who suffer to no good end at all.

Bad pain – pain that produces no change

Repeating old patterns and then avoiding the effort / suffering it would take to change these habits, causes many people to suffer consequences because of their own character faults.

Grief: God’s cure for what isn’t right

You will study the steps of Grief namely: The loss itself – Reality; Protest – I don’t want this to be true; Despair or depression – the giving in; Sadness, loss, and grief proper – letting go and saying goodbye; Resolution and resurrection – understanding and becoming available.

You will see that we need two things for grieving: love, support, and comfort; And structure. You will see we also need time and space and structured activities to be able to grieve. Grief is a relational experience.

The fruit of growing – becoming a righteous person

These are the three characteristics of people who do things God’s way:

  1. They put off the old ways of doing things and turn to the ways that God does things (repentance).
  2. They seek more and more to understand and gain insight into what is best (understanding and insight).
  3. They commit to the pain of discipline in order to grow (discipline).

The value of pruning: discipline

The Bible teaches that everyone needs discipline and correction to grow. Discipline in its broadest sense is training for a person to learn self-control in some area of life.

Spiritual poverty

Spiritual poverty is about living in reality. A good way to understand this is to think of spiritual poverty as experiencing our state of incompleteness before God. Brokenheartedness often brings about a sense of our spiritual poverty as it shows us our need. Spiritual poverty is a rich part of the spiritual growth process.

Spiritual poverty helps us endure the pain of growth. Spiritual growth is hard work. It requires sacrifice, suffering, loss, and commitment.

The nature of obedience

Obedience is to look outside ourselves for our purpose, values, and decisions. Obedience has also to do with submitting our values, emotions, and hearts to Christ’s Lordship. God asks for no less than total commitment:

Matt 22 : 37–38 “And He replied to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect). This is the great (most important, principal) and first commandment.”

The nature of obedience

Time is a necessary ingredient of growth! Growth never ends on this earth. People will find new areas of growth as God helps them search their hearts.

Father God, help us to grow up into the Image and likeness of Your Son, Christ Jesus, our Lord!

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