“Cleansing is required...

Literally able to see the tendon and muscle, I was told to soak the wound in a solution of Tide detergent twice a day. For a wound to heal it must be cleansed and it must be kept clean. In my spiritual healing process, I daily had to cleanse my mind of wrong thinking and replace it with right or godly thinking. Part of that right thinking was that I needed to receive God’s forgiveness for my sin...and had to forgive myself for my failures...and had to forgive those who had hurt me. What I discovered was that as long as I allowed bitterness (unforgiveness) a place in my heart and mind, I could not be as clean as my wound required for proper healing. Besides, not forgiving those who have wounded us is like holding them captive in our hearts. We don’t really hurt them...we just add more hurt to our already wounded souls. God forgives. We can do no less. As I forgive and as I receive forgiveness, cleansing comes...and healing begins.

Life in the blood...

In addition to the need for cleansing, I was told that I needed to make the open edge of the wound bleed as much as possible. Why? There is life in the blood. As I washed the wound I rubbed the edge until blood began to seep out...and with that blood came the granules of life that our blood carries. In a spiritual sense, the blood of Jesus Christ was required to pay the debt we owed because of our sin. We could not pay that debt. Jesus could—because He was perfect and sinless...even though He had been tempted in every manner just as we are! When we place our faith in the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ, we actually are bought by that blood and are given eternal life. Life comes through the blood...and as I made my wound bleed, life came. Again, this is also a great picture of honesty. Honesty is like opening a wound and allowing all that does not belong in the wound to flow out, which brings me to my next point.

Deep wounds require a pure packing material...

Each day I was told I needed to pack my wound full of a long strip of sterile gauze. My physician told me to pack it in tightly so as to completely fill the wound. The purpose? The sterile material that filled the wound also served to keep germs out. In addition, I was instructed to pull that material out daily and repack it. Whenever I pulled that gauze out, everything that did not belong in the wound would be pulled out...the debris of the wound, so to speak. As I pondered what the spiritual equivalent might be, the Lord began to place these thoughts in my mind...

“Son, when I first set you free but you were still attacked with lies and fears and temptations, what did you pack in those wounded places?”

When I had first walked away from homosexuality, I had begun memorizing Scripture that would reinforce the truths God was trying to build into my life so I could more easily withstand the lies of the enemy. “What shall I say then? Shall I continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall I who have died to sin continue to live in it?” That was Romans 6!

“Son, when the enemy would tempt you and you would fail, what did you pack in that wound?”

I remembered that I had put this verse in my heart. “Do not rejoice over me, my enemy. Though I fall, I will rise. Though I dwell in the darkness, the Lord is a light for me.” That was Micah 7:8. What I realized was that whenever I had begun my journey toward wholeness, the Lord always seemed to have averse”“for me to combat the lies with. As I learned to put off the lies and put on the truth, God’s healing began to flow deep into my heart and mind. My life was never the same again because as soon as the enemy would come and try to re-injure that old wound, I would simply remind myself of the truth...and he cannot stand in God’s truth!

As with my physical wounds, God showed me that true healing involves a process...and that it is best to go through that process or we wind up with un-confessed or unexposed areas of spiritual infection...areas where perhaps we have allowed an area to scar over, but in reality the wound is still there...just hidden away.

Dennis Jernigan

Excerpt From

Victim to Victor

Dennis Jernigan

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