Breaking Lies and Agreeing with Truth

Want to know how to start breaking lies and agreeing with truth? In this episode Gina has a conversation with Dr. Joe Johnson about the love of God the Father, and the importance of healing heart wounds. “Papa” Joe is the Founder and Director of Heart of the Father Ministries. A pastor of 45 years, Joe has a Doctor of Ministry from Fuller Seminary and teaches Pastoral Care and Counseling and Inner Healing at The Master’s Institute Seminary.

Click below to listen starting at 29:41 to follow along.

Breaking Lies and Receiving Truth

Gina:

You just briefly explained what you did in the webinar, talking about the wounds and the lies that we believe, and then vows. Can you just unpack that a little deeper? If you haven’t been in certain streams of spiritual community, all of that is brand new language what is that? Could you just kind of unpack that a little bit?

Papa Joe:

I’d be glad to. Think of a radio station or a TV station. It’s W.L.V.S, wounds, lies, vows and strongholds. The wound is, wounds of absence, things I missed out on, necessary things, good things like we don’t have perfect parents. The wound of absence is harder to identify in a way. We remember if somebody hit us. But if I didn’t get it, I don’t even know I needed it. The big lie is “I’m on my own.” That means I have to protect myself, or find different ways I have to survive without protection. Some other lies are, “It’s my fault” that’s a big one, or “Something’s wrong with me” that’s a lie of shame. These are false beliefs.

How do I handle the pain that I’m all alone? Things become a trauma to us when we feel like we’re all alone. We can go through suffering and it’s not traumatic, but if I’m all alone, that can be a trauma, and we call it absence trauma, or “trauma A”. Then there’s “B traumas” where I’ve had bad things happen to me, all kinds of abuse, the spiritual, emotional, physical, mental, even satanic ritual abuse. These huge lies go with abuse.

What I do then to survive, believing those false beliefs, the lies, is that I make a vow, which is an agreement with a lie. Two ways you can make a vow, first, “I have to”, such as, “I have to be strong, I have to protect myself, I have to pretend it doesn’t hurt, I have to hide”, and second, “I’ll never”, such as, “I will never need to be loud, I’ll never trust man, I’ll never be like my father or my mother.” In Matthew chapter 6, Jesus said, “Don’t judge.

If you judge you’ll become like whatever you judge.” We need to deal with those judgements and let go of the vow. The vow can become a stronghold. That vow could have helped me survive as a little child, but only because I didn’t know how to go to Jesus. I’m depending on myself, to save myself I run to the vow. Then it becomes like a stronghold that holds me. Then it needs to be renounced and the power of that vow and any spirits attached to it broken. There are different ways you can pray, but you don’t say, “please leave” you have to take authority over it.

Gina:

What we don’t understand is that when we have those things and those vows, we bring them into our relationship with God. We bring them into that place. Maybe we go along our Christian journey, we could be living believers in the church 20 years, but there’s these constant walls we hit in, or this pattern that we find ourselves, certain weaknesses. We don’t connect the two. I had a very similar thing, I grew up with both my parents were alcoholics, but neither they weren’t married. My mom was a cocktail waitress. My dad was a lounge singer.

My rebellion against that was I will never be an alcoholic. I will never make a fool of myself. I will never use credit cards. I will never smoke. And they became like a pride, I became the caretaker of everybody and the peacemaker of everybody. And when I met Jesus, when I was 12 and I got saved, then I had a new reason to not do those things. But I was still kind of waving that banner.

I remember a dear friend of mine, I don’t remember at what point where he was saying, there’s a banner over your head that you’re waving that Jesus didn’t put there, it’s time for you to put that down and ask Him to show you the banner He’s got over you. Those are the moments that when we can finally come to terms with, and recognize those vows and we can actually let go of those and let Him in that, really powerful transformation can happen.

Papa Joe:

Because we write a narrative of how we’re gonna survive, but Jesus giving us a new story. We go back, start with the wound, make sure that we experience Jesus presence in our memory and see where He is, and sometimes ask Him, “Jesus, what are the lies I believe?” My lie was, “I’ll be abandoned.” I was a seven year old son, and I didn’t have what it takes to be a man. The fathers have to give that to their daughters and sons “You can do this. You have what it takes to be a woman or a man. To be all that God’s called you to be a woman and a man.”

We need that spoken to our hearts. For me it was a wound of absence. One of the ways the Lord healed me was for me to say to that seven year old boy, “Joey, you are supposed to have a dad.” To validate how big that was. I see seven year old boys sometimes and I say, “Oh, that’s what my life would’ve been like.” All that helps me. I do find it very simple. The way to pray is we start with a memory where we felt loved. We don’t start with the trauma. It’s important that we start with a positive memory when we pray grateful appreciation and then invite Jesus to take us to the memory for healing.

But we’ve learned that if we get into a traumatic memory and we don’t see Jesus there, and the thing is He was there, He would’ve stopped it. If we can go to that positive memory and talk to Jesus about it there, and ask him why. If you have feelings, you tell Jesus in that memory where you feel safe, and then maybe He’ll take us back to the trauma, but He can do all that healing in that positive memory.

Gina:

We may have to have you back for another episode to go through some of that. I would love for you just to pray over our listeners and bless them. If you wouldn’t mind, take a moment. I just want to encourage you, if you’re listening, that there has been a lot covered and touched on here, and it may be bringing some things to the surface. The Holy Spirit may be tapping you on the shoulder and going, “Hey, it’s time.” You might be a little scared and not sure what to do at this point.

So I just wanna encourage you to just breathe deep and know that Jesus loves you. He’s with you. And this is the beginning of something. So have grace for yourself and remember that any thoughts that come into your heart and your mind that are contrary to the heart of The Father, and the things that Jesus says about who He is and about who you are, those are not His voice. So even if they are familiar, because it’s a tape that’s been playing in your head before, try to resist that and move towards the truth.

A Papa’s Prayer of Blessing

Papa Joe:

I’ve learned to do deep breathing. Breathe through your nose, it’s like you’re smelling a nice bowl of soup, and then you blow on it because it’s too hot. The word for breath and Hebrew means spirit. So we’re breathing in the life of the Holy Spirit. I bless now the presence of God in your heart, wherever you are. Jesus is Emmanuel. He’s with you. He’s always with you, you may not know it, and we missed it because we didn’t even know to look for Him. You can pray this prayer out loud or silently, but pray, “I open my heart to you. Jesus Help me to be aware of your presence with me right now.”

And we notice what our first thought is. When we look for Jesus’ presence, we know “I’m not alone.” And sometimes we can picture him because he’s Emanuel. I invite you to just pray a grateful prayer to Jesus. You can be grateful for His presence, His love, and anything else you’re grateful for today in your life. Share a memory with Jesus that you’re grateful for. And then if you like, you could find a happy memory, a grateful memory with your dad, If not maybe a grandpa, or a teacher, or a friend.

But if you can’t find one with your dad, It would be good to be in that memory and be aware where you are and relive it a little bit and start telling Jesus to be with you in that memory. Then ask Jesus, what do you want me to know? When I asked Jesus what he wants me to know, then I pay attention to my first thoughts. When I ask him that, maybe an impression, maybe just a first thought you have, And then tell Jesus what you want to say to him in response. Ask Jesus, is there anything you want to say or do for me today in my memory.

I did this prayer once and I heard Jesus say, “I did not abandon you when your father died.” And I believed him. So I’m gonna just go to a prayer of blessing. I bless you with a daddy’s love today. Come Holy Spirit and pour out the love of The Father. Romans five, says that The Holy Spirit pours The Father’s love into our hearts. I tell your heart, be loved now by The Father. I pray that Jesus will be be close to you all day long. He loves you all day long. Holy spirit come be our best friend, comfort and strengthen us.

I tell your immune system to be strengthened in the name of Jesus. And I bless your healthy cells to be strong. I especially tell your immune system to be strengthened, to fight and overcome any harmful cells. And I bless you with peace and joy, and the joy of knowing Jesus. He is always glad to be with you. He knows your name. I bless you with the presence of peace in your life. God’s going to take care of you, and He’s gonna be just what you need for him. Bless you.

Receive the peace and joy and love of God, Father and Son and Holy Spirit. The Lord bless you and keep you and protect you. The Lord be gracious to you and make His shine upon you. You’re his favorite. You are special to Him. The Lord turn His face to you. The Father’s face has always turned toward you. I bless you with peace. Jesus is with you, beside you, around you, and behind you within you. He is with you in your coming and you’re going, you’re sleeping and you’re eating, Every time, every day, every moment of your life, He is with you. He is for you. God is for you, in Jesus name I pray, Amen.