In this episode of Vegan Jesus Followers podcast, it was necessary for us to peel back several layers of dysfunction and address years of pain and lies we had believed beginning in our childhood in order to find recovery and healing in our lives.
We both came to realize that we had believed many lies about God and ourselves, and that we needed to replace each of those lies with truth of God’s Word in order to heal and go forward in our lives. We replaced the lies we were believing with the following truths:
We are loved even when we fail. We are loved even if we don’t read our Bible every day or pray a lot, or go to church, or tithe. God loves us even if we sin. There is nothing we can do or not do to make God love us any more or love us any less than He already does. Our identity is not based on what we do, and it is especially not based on our worst behavior. Our identity is based on what Christ has done for us. Our identity isn’t based on what other people say about us. Our identity comes from what God says about us. Our identity is in Jesus Christ. We are loved unconditionally. We are accepted, secure, and significant.
Those were some very hard years that we walked through. It wasn’t easy for us and it took a long time. But we want to encourage anyone who listens to this podcast that is going through hard times right now or has unresolved physical, emotional and spiritual issues that there is hope. We ended up coming through our difficult times even stronger as a result of acknowledging them, facing them, and dealing with them. Below are links to some of the recovery ministries we went through.
Some of the ministries we attended and became part of:
- “Celebrate Recovery” a biblical and balanced program that helps us overcome our hurts, hang-ups, and habits. https://www.celebraterecovery.com/
- “Healing the Wounded Person” a Christian ministry that helps people understand and heal from past wounds. (Sorry, no link for this)
- “Freedom in Christ” a Christian ministry that helps guide Christians in overcoming their personal and spiritual conflicts so they can live free and fruitful in Christ. https://www.ficm.org/
- “Set Free Ministries” which has a mission of setting captives free to be who they were created to be in Jesus Christ. https://www.setfreemin.org/
- “Transformation Prayer Ministry” (formerly called Theophostic Prayer Ministry) is a ministry of helping emotionally wounded people to acknowledge and the identify the true source of their inner emotional pain and find lasting peace through receiving personalized truth directly from the Lord. https://www.transformationprayer.org/
- Immanuel Prayer (Immanuel Approach) a ministry to deepen intimacy with God, permanently resolve past pain, and discern God’s ongoing guidance https://www.immanuelapproach.com
- Authority Prayer (Hearts Set Free Ministries) https://www.heartssetfree.org
Also, check out the “Different Isn’t Bad” podcast for kids and kids at heart where Miss Robin teaches all of us what it means to be brave, kind and different.