Many of you are simply going through the motions of life. The initial drive and determination you once had to believe God and to stand on His Word are gone. Yes, you are getting up in the morning, going to work and coming home; but that is it. You are only doing the things you need to do to make it, but you are not going beyond that. You don’t have the energy or the spiritual strength you once had. When you hear or read a scripture that tells you “you can make it” or “God will make a way,” you are not excited because you feel as if you heard it before and that the word does not work. But you must pick yourself up and believe again. You can not stop believing and trusting in God and his Word. Your season and your time is coming.
Posted on Feb 6, 2021 | African, African Outreach, BLOG, Devotions, General, HomePage, IGBATT! Missions, It's Getting Better All The Time! Mental Health Outreach, MEN, Newsletter, Uncategorized, What is It Like |
Spiritual Impact – ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2021
Mental illnesses are not the result of personal weakness, lack of character, or poor upbringing. Any part of the body to include the brain, can become sick or diseased. Mental illness can affect all aspects of a person’s life, including how you live, work, raise children, and relate to the world around you. Mental illness impacts the brain and how we process information.
There are several categories of mental illness, and the degree to which a person is impacted will vary. Untreated mental illnesses can affect us both naturally and spiritually. Naturally, untreated mental illness can negatively impact:
But there is a spiritual impact as well. Man has a spirit, soul, and body. Anything that impacts one area can affect the other areas of our lives. Spiritually the symptoms of an untreated mental illness can:
In the Bible, we see Moses and Elijah, both great men who had a season of depression. In the natural, we can study the lives of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, and even Mother Theresa to see examples of depression and or burnout. In a quote from Mother Theresa, she states, “I am told God loves me and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul.” Mother Theresa, a woman whose life touched many, got to a point in her life when she said, “nothing touches her soul”. An untreated mental illness, a period of untreated sadness, ongoing burnout can lead to spiritual burn out.
But there is help.
In the natural, there are medications, counseling/therapy to include Christian counseling or pastoral counseling. But when an untreated mental illness has touched your spirit, you need more than medications, counseling, or a pastor. You need the healing power of Jesus Christ to restore you.
If something negative is allowed to get into your spirit and stay there, it can destroy you. How does something get into our souls? By words. Negative or anti-christ words (words contrary to God’s Word) that we begin to meditate on weaken us. When we are weak spiritually, it is harder to resist those words that tell you that it is over, words that cause you to question your faith and walk with God.
Not everyone with a mental illness is weak spiritually because they have learned to cope with what they are going through. But some people are. When you have been experiencing the same negative thoughts/feelings repeatedly, it is easy to lose hope. It is one thing to believe God for one month, one year, but it is another thing to believe him for years.
Long-term stress tires you out physically and spiritually.
What to do?
Posted on Feb 6, 2021 | African, African Outreach, BLOG, Devotions, General, HomePage, IGBATT! Missions, It's Getting Better All The Time! Mental Health Outreach, MEN, Newsletter, Uncategorized, What is It Like |
Be Prepared. Don’t Wait Until A Crisis Happens. (IGBATTMHO. ALL Rights Reserved 2021)
Assessment – After gathering information and asking questions, take an evaluation of the answers. Identify and list the weaknesses that you have uncovered. Assess what you need and what resources you have in place.
Talk to people in your community. God never meant for us to exist in a vacuum. To develop your plan, reach out to other people and ask questions. Pray and trust God but reach out to people. You are not alone in this. An excellent place to start is your local state mental health agency. https://findtreatment.samhsa.gov/
Posted on Feb 2, 2021 | African Outreach, BLOG, Devotions, General, HomePage |
Mental Illness
Why does a Christian become mentally ill? Is it a result of demon possession, faulty thinking, chemical imbalances, or a combination of all three? We can answer this question many ways but what is most important for us to know is that with God the why really does not matter. There is nothing made that god did not make (St john 1-3).
God will use whatever means is needed based on your situation to help you obtain wholeness and wellness. For some people healing may come as a result of a prayer, others through the use of therapy or medications. Still others may be healed by a spoken word from the Holy Scriptures. I submit to you that if we acknowledge god in the midst of what ever is going on with us he will direct us in the path he has designed for us to take. As I looked at the scriptures, I noticed that only in a few cases did they specifically tell us why an individual was sick. I noticed that in many of the cases in which Jesus healed someone he did not ask why. The scriptures just let us know that he healed. To bring about repentance, Unclean spirit, Demon Possession and so that God can be glorified were just some of the why’ that I was able to find from the scripture. Again, the why is not important I list it here just to bring a balance into what we will be talking about.
a result of gods desire to teach him who God Is. Prior to his illness the king had a dream that he did not understand but it was Daniel who interrupeted his dream. The latter part of verse 4:35 reads “till thou know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will” and at the end of the appointed time we see that the king did indeed learn that lesson 4:37 we read “Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the king of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.
However, in many other scriptures we see that Jesus just healed. He just dealt with what was instead of trying to place blame or find out why. In St Matthew Chapter 8:16 we see that “they brought unto him many who were possessed with devils, and he cast out the spirits with his word and healed those who were sick.
In St Mark 3:10 we are told that he healed many
When we look at the story of Hezekiah we see that God healed with the use of a fig. Naman was healed as a result of his obedience to the prophet. For others healing comes through therapy or medication. Whether it is through the spoken word, a touch, a prayer, or counseling it is sill God at work in your life. And no one should feel bad, upset, or sad because they are not healed in the way other people say that they should be healed. Being sick is not an indictment against your faith. According to the scripture, In St John chapter, 9 we see that Jesus and his apostles passed by a place in which they encountered a blind man. In looking at the man the disciples asked Jesus who sinned was it the man or his parents that he was born blind. In looking at mental illness many people are asking what type of sin did this person commit that he or she is unable to get victory over there thoughts, they wonder in what area is this persons faith lacking and what sin is he or she holding on to that is impending their deliverance. But we can learn from the answer that
Jesus gave to his apostles that sin is not always the answer to a person’s sickness.
When an individual suffering from a mental illness get up every morning and goes to work, cooks takes care of a family, comes to church despite the feelings of clinical depression and intrusive thoughts that is nothing less than the power of god being manifested. Sis AL, IGBATTMHO ALL Rights Reserved
Posted on Feb 2, 2021 | African Outreach, BLOG, Devotions, General, HomePage, IGBATT! Missions, It's Getting Better All The Time! Mental Health Outreach |
Christians do suffer from mental illness, and all mental illness is not a result of demonic activity. Many of us have developed coping mechanisms that allowed us to cope with the negative events that have happened to us in our lives. Some of those coping mechanisms were good some were not. In other words, patterns to include sinful ones can develop because of the sins perpetrated against us. When we are saved, we confess our sins and develop a godly lifestyle that would not be conducive to sin. We pray, fast and trust God. When we are saved, deliverance will come but the manifestations may not be instant. This does not mean we are not saved.
And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. St Luke 17:14
We believe that in the area of mental health God heals some people instantly and others are healed through medications, therapy or counseling. Because the bible tells us that every good and perfect gift comes from the father above we feel that whatever way a person is healed it is still God. We feel that it is god’s ideal plan that Christians would receive healing through his word and that everything we could ever need for our life is in god. When Adam disobeyed god in the Garden of Eden, he attempted to cover himself with a garment of leaves. Sin entered into the world. Sin is an act, violation of, or want of obedience to the revealed will of God. Sin is in our flesh and produces all manner of evil
Desires (Rom 7:8). Sin manifests itself in erroneous concepts (thoughts, ideas) and practices. Gd in his kindness and mercy knew that that garment was insufficient so he himself covered Adam by shedding the blood of an animal. When the men during the time of Moses were killing their wives in order to get rid of them god allowed divorce due to the hardness of their heart. When god’s chosen people continued to defame his name among the gentile’s god declared that he would act because his name was on the line. Whenever we fail to come up to the standards that god has set for us god is so kind and merciful that he provides us with a way of escape. A way that will not allow us to be overcome by the enemy.
In the days of the early church instant healings were common places. In past generations of our church history Saints of god prayed, read the word and walked in the ways of god to an extent not seen today. How many people have you seen instantly healed? When was the last time you laid hands on someone and they were delivered? Does the problem lie with god and his word or with you? I believe that medications and the field of psychology were not God’s first idea. However because of the sin and mans inability to connect with god in a real way god permitted these things to be so.
It is interesting that we can suffer from all types of physical illnesses but cannot believe that the brain could be sick. When the brain is sick it affects our thoughts and feelings. As I said before all mental illnesses/disorders are not a result of demonic activity. Some disorders are due to biological and physical problems. Though there is no doubt that demonic influences, old maladaptive patterns, and the flesh can aggravate the problems. But a mental illness is an illness that can be treated.
Posted on Jan 18, 2021 | General |
If you are a family member with a loved one who has a Severe Mental Illness, prepare. Do not wait until the the last minute to obtain phone numbers, information and support