Christine Caine — New Identity (05/04/2017)
It would be just like God. Really, what happens, when there's deep woundedness in your past you're going to go one of two ways, really. It's going to play out somehow if you don't surrender it all to Jesus. I think, hurting people hurt people and that's just kind of what happens.
If you don't get the hurt dealt with from your past then you're going to end up repeating the cycle and the pattern, which is why I love Jesus because he works from the inside out, not the outside in, obviously, so he can make us whole.
I said to Lisa that we've got to always remember that what we have done does not change who God is. And so God is a god of grace, God is the god of love, God is a God of mercy or forgiveness, redemption, wholeness, healing, and so the enemy would love us to think we have committed that unforgivable sin that the blood of Jesus is not enough to wipe clean and give us a brand new start.
I think when we were talking in the teaching about the gate and that sometimes you'll get stuck there and guilt and condemnation will scream at you, you've got to remember that Jesus died for that and took that upon himself. So we are free and shame can lift off us because of the blood of Jesus and guilt and condemnation.
And at some point, you've got to stand up and then say I'm going to walk... this gate will no longer be that prison door that is going to hold me back into my past but it is going to become the doorway. Jesus says he is the gate. He is going to become the doorway into the future. Just like God, that he would take and weave together the fabric of any broken past.
I was abandoned, no name, abused, and now God who rescued me is using me to rescue others and we partner together, obviously, with LIFE Outreach and do so much work around the world together to rescue the victims of human trafficking. And then it would be just like God to say, "I'm going to take together..." And is everything you did good?
No. Is everything that happened to you good? No! But God is able to work all those things together for good because we love him and are called according to his purpose.
I felt when I was listening to this story, I think of my story, I think of your story. I feel like Joseph when he said to his brothers in Genesis, "You meant this for evil against me but God, he meant it for this very purpose that we would see many people saved alive." And that's what I see with your life -- it's awesome!