To begin, the world is sinful and humans are the ones committing sin which brings much pain, misery, and destruction in the world. I want to give you a definition of sin to help you maybe look at it differently. Sin is an unloving act that causes harm or wounds a person. This is illustrated in Romans 13:10 "love does no harm to its neighbor." Jesus came to redeem the world from sin, but also from the consequences of it; which is often people who are wounded by being sinned against.
Trauma is a Greek word which means "wound". It mainly meant a physical wound which is seen. When we say someone is dealing with trauma it mainly refers to someone who is dealing with an emotional wound in the soul (heart) which are not seen but their presence is revealed by reactions in thoughts, emotions, and, behaviors. The heart of a person can be defined as the “home of the personal life” innermost, hidden, deepest in anything part of a person (deepest emotions, thoughts, motives, dreams).
A physical bruise is caused by inner bleeding, an emotional wound is caused by bleeding of the heart. When people are wounded a part of them is broken or shattered which can be referred to as "brokenhearted." One of the main ministries of Jesus is to bring healing to the “brokenhearted” or those who are wounded and traumatized in life. (Luke 4:18, Psalm 147:3)
When hurt we usually respond by suppressing the emotions quickly and so that no one can see that we are wounded. If a physical wound is not addressed it will get an infection. An infection means there is an invasion of pathogens. “we say bandage the wound to reduce the risk of infection”. When an emotional wound (trauma) is not dealt with it can also get infected. An emotional wound that is not healed will make a person vulnerable to an infection or invasion of demonic spirits.
We will see this spiritual principle here:
Ephesians 4:26-27 And “don’t sin by letting anger control you” Don’t let the sun go down on your anger. For anger gives a foothold to the devil. Foothold is Greek word “topos” meaning place or opportunity. What this means is that when anger is not dealt with in an appropriate amount of time it allows an invasion by the enemy (demons) to exert their influence or power over us. The trauma is not the issue but more so the reaction to it. When we respond in a sinful way by holding unto anger, hating people, hating self, not forgiving people, etc we are giving an opportunity for demonic spirits to invade.
Here are some examples of trauma (emotional wounds)
Rejection- emotional neglect will create feelings of rejection, abuse, over correction, need to be perfect, feeling abandoned leads to feelings of rejection.
Abandonment- lack of or loss of emotional connection, divorce, death, or given up for adoption, foster care, etc
Fear- a wound is the birthing place of a fear. A traumatic experience that was painful will create the fear of it happening again. Ex. Fear of embarrassment, rejection, abandonment, failure, being assaulted, raped, etc. PTSD is an example.
Shame & guilt- distorted sense of self. Feel guilty for who they are and or what they've done. This will come from verbal abuse, parental expectations, and reactions can affect these.
Anger, hatred, resentment, bitterness- these are responses to being hurt by others. We have right to be angry but not hold unto it as it. We can also hold these feelings towards ourselves.
All of the above mentioned emotional wounds can have a corresponding demonic spirit that will "piggyback" in on these negative emotions if not addressed. Ex. if a person has not dealt with rejection issues from childhood, a spirit of rejection can come in and exasperate the pain of feeling rejected. This demonic spirit will flood the persons mind with thoughts of being rejected which pushes the pain of rejection from inside. Now the person doesn't just have a rejection issue but they have a demon issue they need to deal with as well. Another example is holding unto unforgiveness. If you don't forgive people, it will give a right to a spirit of unforgiveness to come in and oppress you by holding you in feelings of unforgiveness. This demonic spirit will flood the persons mind of what was done to them which will torment them emotionally. I have prayed for many people who felt they couldn't forgive a person who had hurt them but it was actually a demon holding them and tormenting them of thoughts of not forgiving the person.
To address trauma you have to be willing to forgive people who have hurt you whether its other people, yourself, and even God. Holding unto unforgiveness is a sin and gives demons a "legal right" to be there since holding unto unforgiveness is the breaking of God's law. Forgiveness is non-negotiable in God's kingdom. (Matthew 18:21-35)
Additionally, revelation from the Holy Spirit will also be a necessary key to bring healing to trauma. Many times the memory also needs to be healed. When a person has a traumatic experience, it wounds the soul and creates a memory. The memory of a trauma is made up of three things; there is a picture, a belief formed about it; and a reaction to it. Jesus can go in and heal a memory by revealing where He was in that traumatic moment and speaking to the person what the truth is about what happened to them. This helps people break the power of the painful lie they had been believing regarding what traumatized them. This is just an example of how Jesus can heal trauma. Many times the spirit that came in through the trauma needs to be driven out as deliverance and healing of trauma (brokenhearted) go hand in hand.
The Holy Spirit is the one who brings deliverance and inner healing so He may also bring up moments of sin, traumatic memories, generational bondages, word curses, and more. Always remember, it’s in partnership with the Holy Spirit that the anointing for deliverance and inner healing flows. Deliverance and healing is a process of taking back the territory (in our lives) that has been taken by enemy and his demons.
Truth & Freedom Church is having an "Inner Healing & Deliverance Conference" this coming weekend (March 14-15) and we invite you to join us. The Friday & Saturday night meetings start at 6:30pm and we will also have a training on Saturday afternoon at 2:00pm. All information can be found on the website www.truthandfreedomchurch.com
Pastor Rafe Ronning
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