James 1:21 Part 3—Deep-ocean floor
Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. James 1:21
At this point in our study of James, I want to take a couple of days to share what happened to me a while back. I had been following God and was sold out to Him and His Word with sincerity of heart for over 35 years. Yet, inexplicably, throughout the years when encountering innocent comments or random situations, seemingly out of nowhere I’d get hit by an onslaught of strong negative emotion, anger, fear, or defensiveness. Then a few years ago God led me to confront some deep-seated and mainly subconscious aspects of my life which were at the root of much of the occasional turmoil I experienced. Honestly, I would have rather “let sleeping dogs lie”, but evidently the Lord felt it was time to deal with these things. Over a period of two months He prepared me for this “high noon at OK Corral” showdown. (I didn’t realize it at the time, but looking back—yup, He was getting me ready.)
Many teachings exist in Christianity and other religions and philosophies about venturing into those subconscious regions and taking a look to learn about and heal the vulnerabilities of self; my opinion is that such quests, without the express leading of the Holy Ghost, are foolhardy at best and can cause a lot of confusion and even open the door to deception. It is also my experience that plenty of soulish flaws surface everyday without any need to dig at all. Surely those things can provide you with more than enough material about which to pray and apply the Word; leave the rest alone.
That said, I had learned to hold in the negative emotions that arose for the most part, but the discomfort I experienced was relatively constant. I simply chose to declare the Word over my unhealthy reactions and tried to get over them quickly with as little collateral damage as possible. My guess is that I’m not an unusual case in the Body of Christ, either. What I am about to share is a two-day intervention by the Holy Spirit to correct mindsets and thinking that had calcified in my soul for years. However, it was all avoidable; tomorrow I will share how God would prefer we deal with the deep-seated soulish issues—and it involves the purposeful, direct application of James 1:21.
When the time was right, the Lord targeted four destructive mindsets I had developed over the years and showed me how I reverted back to them again and again as defensive maneuvers whenever my peace felt threatened. Not a good thing for someone who’s a new creature and filled with the Spirit and power of God.
Long story short—after a lot of forgiveness of key people from my past—I did my part, God did His, and the strongholds were brought to the light and taken captive to the obedience of Christ. It’s been life-changing not to return to those old mindsets.
In the process of confronting and taking those things captive, I saw an image that represented what was going on. Before I describe this analogy, however, let me say this: I am not trying to start some new doctrine here—make no mistake about it. I merely saw in my mind a picture representing a very abstract idea, and it helped me. Bear with me as I describe it.
I pictured a flat stone being skipped across the surface of a large, placid body of water. And then I saw the deep-ocean floor where only specialized life-forms can survive the intense cold and crushing pressure. I sensed that the Lord was showing me that most of the time believers live at the surface of the soul, seeking to span the expanse and reach other souls with well-thrown stones of life—a good thing. But He showed me that deep beneath the surface was “baggage” which the author of Hebrews called “every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us” (see Hebrews 12:1, AMP).
Having taught about the biome that exists on the deep-ocean floor in science at the 8th grade level, I could picture those hideous creatures which inhabit that region. They are tough, creepy-looking critters comprised mainly of mouth, jaw, and teeth—sharp teeth. Those ugly things represented my baggage in this analogy, just swimming around in the deep dark bottom of my subconscious soul. Not a flattering thing.
Since creatures of the deep-ocean floor swim at depths that crush, they are rarely seen. Humans implode at that depth; only the most precisely-engineered submersibles can handle that pressure. And so it is with your subconscious. As I said before, it is my opinion that attempts to visit there are dangerous; you are not designed to handle that realm. I think that when believers try to dig deeply into their subconscious past and its effect on their psyche, they are in over their heads. However, the Holy Ghost may, on rare occasion, prepare you to accompany Him to that realm for the purpose of capturing a predator-thought and taking it captive to the obedience of Christ. This was my experience; I neither asked for it nor did I want to participate, but He took me there for a limited time, completed a specific task, and then we left with those captive thoughts to cast once and for all at the feet of Jesus.
The freedom and cleansing I experienced after this “fishing expedition” was remarkable; but I am practical and believe that such “outings” with God are very rare and may never happen in most people’s life span. So I questioned the Lord: As grateful as I am for what You have done for me, Lord, I sure would have liked to have gotten rid of all of those things much earlier in my life. How is this experience of mine going to edify anyone living their life, wanting to pursue You with all their heart, if they have to wait decades with all that baggage before You take them “fishing” to get free of it?
And His answer surprised me. It centered on James 1:21. We’ll dive into it tomorrow.
Dorothy
“Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?” Jeremiah 32:27