The Path to Freedom

Hello Friend,

Here at First Love we recently introduced First Love Freedom, our new prayer ministry branch. First Love Freedom's objective is to connect believers with Jesus in a deeper way and help them experience more of the abundant life He offers. During a prayer ministry session, a variety of tools, exercises, and resources are used to expose lies, deposit God’s Truth, aid in inner healing, do spiritual warfare, and grow spiritual maturity. 

Maybe you are like how several of us were before we experienced or learned about prayer ministry–we came across terms and phrases that we had heard before, even in a church service or Christian circles, but we did not have a good grasp on them. If that resonates with you, we want to take a moment to define a few things, so in the months to come you have a better understanding of what First Love Freedom offers. In this article we will touch on inner healing, spiritual warfare, and spiritual maturity.

INNER HEALING

From the start of our lives, physical pain is a very real possibility. We can be born with disabilities or challenges. We can experience illnesses, accidents, and the consequences of bad decisions. Some injuries or wounds heal without incident. Others get infected, ooze, scar, or create complications, causing ongoing pain and issues. Inner wounds are similar.

We can suffer inner pain and turmoil from early on. We all go through heartache and devastation, broken relationships, disappointments, and misunderstandings. Hard things happen. Any of these can wound our hearts. Like physical injuries, inner wounds are inflicted in different ways, by different sources, and in varying degrees. 

Both inner and physical injuries have tell-tale signs. When we are physically hurt, we experience pain, bleeding, bruising, aches, or other sensations that are not normal for us. When the area that hurts is touched, we may wince, pull back, cry, or groan. Inner pain also invokes a response when the wound is “bumped.” We may have a bigger-than-appropriate reaction to a situation. We may shut down, pull away, or lash out. Or if the wound’s pain is a constant presence, daily affecting us, we may seek comfort and relief through any number of things or develop addictions.

Just as we experience a quicker, more complete healing when we acknowledge we are physically hurt and we take the appropriate measures to address the injury, we recover more wholly when internal wounds are brought before Jesus, the Great Physician. He reveals lies and replaces them with His Truth. He comforts, brings peace, and gives freedom. Jesus helps us let go of bitterness, fear, addictions, pride, turmoil, and anything else that keeps us from Him and wholeness. 

A prayer ministry session’s goal is to create an opportunity for you to connect with Jesus, so He can mend the broken pieces of your heart. As He said in Luke 4:18 (NKJV): 

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, 

Because He has anointed Me 

To preach the gospel to the poor; 

He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, 

To proclaim liberty to the captives 

And recovery of sight to the blind, 

To set at liberty those who are oppressed;”

Jesus is the One who heals. Are you willing to bring your heartache, inner wounds, and disappointments to Him? It takes courage to admit we are struggling and have heart wounds. First Love Freedom wants to support you in your journey to wholeness when you are ready.

When we look at inner healing in comparison to physical healing, it seems to make more sense. So now what are a few points we can take away about spiritual warfare?

SPIRITUAL WARFARE

As previously stated, we all experience inner wounds, and, unfortunately, something else we also encounter whether we want to or not is spiritual warfare. In addition to battling our flesh (our carnal nature), and the world (temptations and battles originating outside of us), we also have a very real enemy (the devil and his minions). 

We do not need to live in fear of the enemy, nor do we want to give him any more attention than necessary. But we would be doing ourselves and others a disservice if we did not have a certain amount of awareness of him and his schemes (2 Corinthians 2:11). 

As believers the victory and authority is ours through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Part of spiritual warfare deals with taking hold of that victory and authority and applying them to our lives in a balanced, Biblical way.  

It should be no surprise that a major part of spiritual warfare is exposing lies. They are the work of the devil, the father of lies (John 8:44). 

“The primary strategy in the spiritual battles we face is deception.” 

Understanding the Wounded Heart (page 23)

Many of the lies our enemy tries to plant are in regard to God’s identity and ours. Who we believe God is determines how we approach Him and relate to Him. Our identity determines our actions–we live out of who we believe we are. It is understandable why God’s identity and ours would be key targets of our enemy.

Thankfully, as believers we have the Spirit of Truth (John 16:13) and Jesus who is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6) with us. They desire to reveal God’s Truth and equip us to live out of it more and more. 

An important objective of First Love Freedom is exactly that–allowing Jesus to expose the lies and bring His Truth to the recipient’s need. The result of replacing lies with Truth is that our beliefs, thinking, and behavior are transformed, casting a new light, the Lord’s, on our past, present, and future. As our identity and lives line up increasingly with His Truth, we grow as believers. That brings us to spiritual maturity.

SPIRITUAL MATURITY

We should be growing as believers. Hebrews 5:12-14 expresses this concept. Hebrews 5:12 (NKJV), “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.” The people being addressed in this passage were not maturing as Christians like they should have been–they were not growing in their understanding and responsibilities.

Spiritual maturity can be better understood by comparing it to our physical and emotional maturing processes. Spiritual maturity mirrors physical maturity in that there are stages–infant, child, adult, etc. Spiritual maturity differs from physical maturity in the same way emotional maturity does. Our bodies physically grow and change without much thought or trying on our part–there is a natural progression. Whereas, growing emotionally and spiritually takes cooperation, initiative, and awareness–it does not just happen without the proper encouragement, environment, etc. 

As believers we grow in our spiritual maturity as we are able to live out of our “spirit man” (versus our carnal nature) more and more, being led by the Holy Spirit instead of our fleshly desires. As we mature spiritually, we are not only able to assess and meet our own needs, but we begin to be able to look after and do more for others.  

Another of First Love Freedom’s goals is to aid believers in recognizing where they are maturity-wise. We want to support people as they evaluate their spiritual maturity, looking for holes and gaps, and equip them to take steps toward growth.

Well, there you have it–brief descriptions of inner healing, spiritual warfare, and spiritual maturity. Did something resonate with you? Are you curious if there is more wholeness, freedom, and growth available to you? We want to encourage you to reach out to us if this stirred something within your heart, even if it is to get a few answers to questions you may have.