This five-part series explores five stages of healing, restoration and freedom in Christ. When we talk about how we BUILD more room for God, so often we refer to the sacrifice and letting go of our good stuff – our time, our energy, our finances. But God doesn’t just want our good stuff. He wants our brokenness too. And sometimes we want to hold onto our brokenness and not give it over. We at CSC are in a journey of sacrifice and BUILDing as we raise funds and expand our physical space to accommodate growth in our discipling ministries to children, youth, young adults, seniors and marginalized communities. But we also want this to be a church-wide journey of spiritual growth and healing.

CSC offers many healing discipleship ministries and courses to help people walk in freedom from the things that are holding us back from living life to the full in Christ (John 10:10). Construction of NW Campus and expansion of Central Campus will allow for the various sized multi-purpose spaces needed to optimize the ministry environment for people walking on journeys of spiritual growth and healing. In the spirit of James 5:16, the new spaces will provide discrete and confidential places for people to work in safe community through spiritual barriers like addiction, deep emotional wounds and trauma.

Part 1: Giving Jesus access to the house

“When it comes to restoration, it’s not really about BUILDing room for God,” notes Greg Grunau, Pastor of Spiritual Development. “It’s about making space for Him. He’s the one that does the renovating and the building.”

Pastor Greg notes a metaphor of a house from the book, My Heart – Christ’s Home by Robert Boyd Munger. “When we first invite Jesus into our hearts, he knocks on the door of our house which represents our lives,” says Pastor Greg. “We may let Him into our house, but we tend to either keep Him in the doorway, or in the living room because the rest of our house is a huge mess. But Jesus is the Master Renovator and He’s saying, I haven’t just come to forgive you. I’ve come to do so much more.”

Cam Harris, Pastor of Healing Discipleship at CSC adds that part of the first step to this healing is giving Jesus the master keys. “He must have access to all the rooms in our house, and all parts of our being,” notes Cam who oversees Freedom Session, Encounter God and other healing discipleship ministries at CSC that help people walk in freedom from spiritual oppression. “We then think through all the rooms and ask, is there any room in my life that Jesus has withdrawn from because I’m putting something between us in that room? Is there anything I need to deal with so He can come back and be with me in that room again?”

Pastor Cam describes how we give Jesus access to different rooms. What is in our dining room? What appetites are we currently driven by? What is in the attic? Are there family photo albums and heirlooms where He helps us look at how our past, including our family history and how intergenerational curses contribute to our present oppression? What is in our bedrooms where we have our intimacy and relationships? What is taking up space in our office and driving our finances, timelines and work? “The idea is that we let Him step into every room and help us recognize what we might be holding onto, and then giving that over to Him so we can experience healing, victory and fullness of life.”

Take Dan for example: Dan’s journey to recovery started at the Encounter God weekend at CSC in May 2018 upon the suggestion of a pastor. “I went there wanting to find out if God even wanted to encounter me. I had resisted the Holy Spirit for so long that I expected God was done with me. My secret immoral lifestyle was keeping me from hearing from God. I was unable or unwilling to give it up.” said Dan.

But Dan was surprised to discover God’s kind and forgiving nature. He did show Himself very clearly to Dan. “It was at this weekend that I had the opportunity to confess all my sins to God and three other brothers in Christ. I also renounced those lies and vows I had been living my life by and replaced them with God’s truth. The truth is, I am His child and He loves me and wants a relationship with me. The truth is, I need others to confess my sins to and to hold me accountable. I am not a rock or an island – I need my Christian brothers.”

Dan looks back and realizes that part of his issue was that he had become a loner. “Because I was not right with the Lord and I knew I was hiding sin, I pushed everyone away so that I would not have to be accountable. I did not realize the value of confessing one’s sins to another Christian and to God and asking for forgiveness.”

At the Encounter God weekend, Dan finally had that opportunity and a great weight was lifted off him. “Years of bending beneath the guilt and shame of my secrets was suddenly removed. I can not describe the relief and joy I experienced that day.”

Since then, Dan has taken Freedom Sessions which allowed him to learn more about areas in his life that he needed to change. Referring back to the house and rooms analogy, Dan recalls going into many rooms, many areas in his life, as his leader taught him how to identify areas of dyisfunction and ways to deal with them and to change them. He had the freeing experience of confessing to God and to his sponsor, renouncing the lies that had him trapped, and praying against any ‘soul ties.’

“By God’s grace I am not the man I once was. I am not perfect but I am working towards a life of telling the truth, of living in the open and not hiding lies. Freedom Session taught me how to move forward, and how to guard my life so I don’t slip back into the dark pit again. I was taught how to set good goals and values. I established five values for my life. They are truthfulness, purity, faithfulness, self-control and kindness. It is these values that will help me make good choices in my everyday life.”

Dan recognizes now how he had made a total mess out of his life and was reaping the consequences of his sin. “I know there is nothing that I can do to make things right. I cannot mend the hearts that I have broken. But I also know that God is able to restore and rebuild and I trust Him. The last chapter has not been written yet, and I am praying that He can cause roses to grow out of the ashes. My task is to focus on my relationship with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and pursue the fruit of the Spirit in my life. I pray that my heart will continue to be changed and restored so that I can once again know how to love
and be loved.”