One Heart - Power of the Wordنموونە

THE POWER OF A HUG

"Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:8 ESV

Testimony of Pastor Jack Frost – Experiencing the Father's embrace. Outwardly, I was a Christian of moral integrity and godly character. I never had a moral failure, and I was an aggressive pursuer of God, praying and reading the Bible for two or three hours a day and doing all the right religious things. But inwardly I lacked the ability to express love at home. I was joyless. I had no inner peace. I was driven by spiritual ambition because I had built my identity and value systems on position, power, and performance. My faithfulness, duty, and service were not a response of true love to God; they flowed instead from a desire for personal gain and reward. My children hardly spoke to me because they were afraid of upsetting or displeasing me. My pride produced a desire in them to rebel, and they began to seek the acceptance they yearned for by hanging around the wrong crowd. And worst of all, they wanted nothing to do with the angry, legalistic God I modelled to them.

I attended a conference on emotional healing in November 1995, thinking that it was my wife who had the real problem. Then someone from the platform began to pray. The words startled me: “Father God, take all the men in this room who were never held by their fathers. Hold them close right now. Give them the love their fathers did not know how to give.” The presence of God’s compassion and acceptance fell on me immediately. I did not understand what was happening, but it felt as if hot, liquid love was pouring into my soul. I began crying like a baby as I lay on the floor. I was completely undone. I felt as if God transported me back to a time when I was only ten years old. I suddenly saw vivid scenes of me as a child, hiding in a closet at night, fearful of the yelling and screaming I heard in my parents’ room. I remembered the fear, the loneliness, and the sense of abandonment. I felt the deep, painful ache for my father’s embrace— an embrace he was not able to give me during my childhood. As I lay on the floor weeping, Father God entered that dark closet of my childhood and held me in His arms. For 45 minutes, the Holy Spirit poured the love of God that the apostle Paul spoke of in Romans 5:5 through my mind, will, and emotions and washed away much of the guilt, shame, fear of failure and rejection, fear of intimacy, and the fear of love. My breakthrough finally came. My pride had been shattered. Until that moment, I had never realized how deeply in bondage I was, to striving and fear. You do not know what you are in bondage to, until you are free from it! I had heard all my Christian life that God loved me, but I had never lowered the walls of protection enough to receive personally a natural demonstration of His love and affection in some of my deepest areas of pain. The Father’s love has brought restoration of intimacy to my marriage and family, it has changed my whole philosophy of ministry as well.

PRAYER POINTS

ME: Simply ask God the Father to give you a hug. You will be surprised as to how He answers your need for His love.

US: Pray that the church will not be afraid to demonstrate the Father's love by simple acts of loving one another.

THEM: Ask the Lord to show you someone today who just needs a hug.

I have learned that there is more power in a good strong hug than in a thousand meaningful words.” – Ann Hood

Congratulations you have just completed 7 days of journeying with God on Reconciliation and Oneness starting in your own heart and praying for your church community and your society at large. We trust that God has been doing a wonderful work in and through your prayers. Why not consider joining us for another 7 days. Week 4 of our One Heart Series is called TOGETHER AS ONE.

As part of this journey we decided to capture stories of reconciliation both in South Africa and in other contexts where reconciliation doesn't make sense (but for Jesus). These have been captured in podcast format in partnership withThe Follower Podcast. These will be available weekly on Mondays starting on 17 June 2024, wherever you get your podcasts