“Do not remember the former things, or ponder the things of the past. Listen carefully, I am about to do a new thing, it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even put a road in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:18

            One of the hardest things I’m having to learn how to do is start again. I have spent quite a bit of time in the wilderness and have dropped a lot of the baggage that has been keeping me there. I have let go of unforgiveness, addiction, idolatry, past pain, and much more. God has been hinting at it now for about a week that it’s time to start again and that plan B will work out better than plan A because I spent the better part of a year figuring out the things that held me back and learned a lot of what not to do.

So you might ask: How do you start again? I will tell you some of the things I did for a new start.

First things first, I started to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit and truly believe it was Him working in my life. If you have a hard time trusting God, you have a hard time building faith and faith is paramount to a lot of miracles working in your life and staying that way. Unbelief can sometimes make the one who was healed revert back to their old ways. I speak from experience with this. It is impossible to trust God and have faith, not to mention, it’s impossible to please Him too. “But without faith it is impossible to [walk with God and] please Him, for whoever come [near] to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He rewards those who [earnestly and diligently] seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6. I struggled for the longest time believing it was God and for the longest time, thought it was a deceitful spirit trying to pull one over on me because of some of dealing with them in the past, not to mention some of the promises He told me seemed like it was too good to be true. I have come to realize though, the closer I am to God, the more I believe the promise and I guarantee that isn’t a coincidence. Not only did I have a hard time believing the promise but because I doubted God, I started reverting back to my old ways and in starting again, I have reverted back to the way I was when God came into my life a couple of years ago.

The second thing I did was I fasted from food for 5 days last week and man, let me tell you about the miracles that came out of that fast. I got my friend back who had been blinded by deception that made her believe I did something with her husband, not because of me but because of what he had done to her multiple times in the past. I got closer in my relationship towards God. I dropped an addiction to kratom. I started trusting again that it was God telling me about the promises because fasting makes you more spiritually sensitive to His presence. I also dropped the unforgiveness I had towards my ex, my step dad and the guy who beat the crap out of me. It was exhilarating and I know that I’m a better person for it and more importantly can be used by God to help others again.

When I forgave those that hurt me, believe me, it was not easy or pretty for that matter. There was a lot of yelling, screaming, hitting the floor, bed, car and even hitting myself a couple of times trying to get out that unforgiveness. It was a temper tantrum in every sense of the word. But, afterwards, I felt so light and free and felt like a HUGE weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. There is nothing like feeling no pain when you think back on a past event in your life that caused you a great deal of pain every time you thought about it. Every time I used to think back on certain things, it would either make me depressed or angry and now I don’t feel any pain whatsoever anymore.

The Holy Spirit is the Ultimate Healer and it was even prophesied in Isaiah that He would be just that: “For to us a Child shall be born, to us a Son shall be given; And the government shall be upon His shoulder, And His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6. If you are sick and tired of being sick and tired, I would like to introduce you to my friend Jesus Christ, who truly has the power to heal all wounds and rewrite all wrongs. He is a God of second chances and the God of a fresh start. It is not easy and it takes a little effort on your part, but in the end, it is worth it when you finally find freedom in Him and not be hurt by your past anymore on top of not letting new, painful roots take hold in the future. He can and will heal all wounds if you let Him.

 

“Praise the Lord!
For it is good to sing praises to our [gracious and majestic] God;
Praise is becoming and appropriate.
The Lord is building up Jerusalem;
He is gathering [together] the exiles of Israel.
He heals the brokenhearted
And binds up their wounds [healing their pain and comforting their sorrow].
He counts the number of the stars;
He calls them all by their names         Great is our [majestic and mighty] Lord and abundant in strength;
His understanding is inexhaustible [infinite, boundless].
The Lord lifts up the humble;
He casts the wicked down to the ground.”

Psalm 147:1-6