Gregory Dickow - Healing Your Soul - Part 2
Welcome to "The Power to Change Today". I'm Gregory Dickow, and I've got a Word for you that I know is from God that is going to help you heal you everywhere you're hurting today. I want to share with you the number one secret to finding healing from all the pain that you may be experiencing in your life or your family. Everyone knows what it's like to live with pain, but today, we're going to see what life can be beyond the pain. It's time to live beyond your pain, whether it's physical, emotional, financial. Perhaps the pain of a bad upbringing, or mistreatment, or abuse, or an addiction of some sort, or whatever you're going through, today's program is going to help you blow past your pain and become the best version of yourself the way God intended.
You know, sometimes instead of relieving our pain, we relive our pain. And it's time to stop reliving it and start relieving it. And I believe that because Jesus paid the price for our pain, whether it's physical or emotional, we can now take ahold of it. Remember, God makes it available and faith takes it. We're going to take our healing today. I know you're going to be inspired to see beyond your pain and to live beyond the sickness, beyond the depression, beyond the lack, beyond defeat. So, take a moment, grab your Bible, and get ready to live life beyond the pain. Check this out, and I'm going to pray for you at the end of today's broadcast. Watch this.
Everything goes down this downward spiral of disorder when you don't live from the purpose for which you were created. And what were you created for? To glorify God and to be thankful. So, what happens? You become futile in your thinking and your heart becomes foolish. And what's a foolish heart? A foolish heart is a heart that makes bad decisions. A foolish heart is a heart that is not a wise heart. A foolish heart, a wise person makes good decisions, a foolish person makes bad decisions. And it's our decisions that determine the outcome of our lives. And our decisions are the byproduct of what we're thinking, so our thinking produces our emotions and our decisions.
And so, if we can deal with our thinking, get in the right mind, what is the right mind? The right mind, he was clothed in his right mind. What was he doing? Sitting at the feet of Jesus. What does that mean? He was glorifying God and he was being thankful. He was glorifying God and he was being thankful. He was glorifying God and he was being thankful. Guess what happened? He ended up being clothed and in his right mind. But we have a ton of Christians, and of course non-Christians as well, but a ton of Christians that are neither glorifying God nor are they thankful. We have so many Christians that are negative that err on the side of negativity and pessimism, and they get so caught up in what's happening in the world, in the government.
And we forget that we're of a different kingdom, that the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ are the kingdom that we're a part of. We're a part of the kingdom of God. Our citizenship is in heaven. Our Lord is Jesus. Our king is Jesus. Our Savior is Jesus. Our governor is the Word of God. Our judge is God, and he's determined that the judgment has fallen upon the Son and fallen upon the Savior. And he will never judge you, and we are free from the wrath of God if we accept Jesus and step into the ark of his protection called the grace and the blood of Jesus Christ. All right? That'll make you thankful, that'll make you glorify him. But in the absence of glorifying him and being thankful, what happens is we create a disorder in our minds, so we create a mental disorder. Ah, now you see where this is going. Why is this world so screwed up? Why is this world so nuts? Why is this world so crazy? Why are there shootings in malls, and shootings in churches, and shootings in places, and all these things?
And thank God we have a covenant with God. We believe in a divine covenant of protection, and we also believe in using wisdom. So, when you see a police officer in our building, just know that's a part of wisdom. We have officers that you can recognize and we have those that you won't be able to recognize. But know this, that we have angels in the Spirit and we have angels in the natural. And that's how a church should be. And that's how a church should function in America and any free society. So, but why is all this happening? Because where there is a mental disorder, there will be behavioral disorders. Behavioral disorders are the result of mental disorders. And you say, "Well, is this psychology class? Is this college"? No, this is better than college.
Number one, you don't have to pay tuition, just honor God with your tithe. Number two, the teacher's not a bad dude, and your teacher is not crazy, and your teacher is not bringing you some weird thing that he learned in college. I didn't go to Bible college. I went to Bible University by reading it myself, figuring it out through the school of hard knocks, and through trial and error, and you know, reading it and meditating on it and figuring this thing out. And if tongues is really of you, Lord, you're going to have to show me in this Bible. And if I don't see it in this Bible, I'm never speak in tongues another day in my life. But if I see it in this Bible, I'll never not speak in tongues another day in my life. If healing is not in the Bible here, Lord, I'm not going to preach healing. But if it's in the Bible, I'm going to preach healing and I'm going to expect people to get well.
You say, "Well, you know, why don't people get healed in all the churches in the world"? Well, why don't people get saved? If people don't talk about salvation, nobody's going to get saved. How can they hear without a preacher? If people don't preach about healing, nobody's going to get healed. Right? If we don't preach about blessing, you're not, no one's going to be able to take ahold of the blessing, right? So, that's another topic for another day. My point is disorderly behavior comes from mental disorder. So, mental disorders create behavioral disorders, that's how it works. A disorder is a mental condition that affects your mood, your thinking, and your behavior.
Examples of this include some of the things we talked about last week: depression, anxiety, disorder, schizophrenia, eating disorders, addictive behaviors. Mental disorders account for four out of the top ten causes of disability in US and worldwide. Four out of ten, four out of ten disabilities are mental disabilities. Manic depression, clinical depression, bipolar disorders. Did you know that nine out of ten inmates in the United Kingdom have been tested for mental health disorder? They have a mental health disorder. In America, it's six out of ten. Six out of ten prisoners in inmates in prison have a mental disorder. Does that mean we should let all of them go out? No, 'cause unless we have... we used to have a system where there were more mental institutions where people could be treated.
And I am all for treatment of every kind that brings healthy results in a person's life. But we will never solve this world's problems until we realize that behavioral disorders, violence, hatred, murder, shootings, killings, destruction, addictions, suicides, all of the hate and domestic violence and in society and in our families and in our world, until we realize that all of those are a result of mental disorders, and a mental disorder is the result of your thinking being out of alignment with God's thinking. But as soon as you get your thinking in alignment with God's thinking, now you have mental order, and then you'll have behavioral order rather than behavioral disorder. This is how it works. This is how it works.
So, I could go on and on about the disorders in the world. One in four adults suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder. In any given year, more than 90% of people that commit suicide have been diagnosed with a mental disorder, and on and on we go. People can, kids that are, and people that are burning themselves, cutting themselves, carving themselves, hurting themselves, shows 23% of adolescence have done that and have injured themselves, 10% of third graders injuring themselves, 15% of ninth graders injuring themselves. Eating disorders, 8 million people. Forty million people in America suffer from anxiety. Heroin addiction among 18 to 25 year olds has doubled in ten years.
I know I gave you these statistics, but we got, we cannot ignore this stuff folks. Three hundred and fifty million people worldwide suffer from depression at least. These are the people that have admitted it, not even including the people that are suffering silently and have no one to talk to, and are living in loneliness, which by the way was the first thing, the first condition of man. After God created man, the first condition that God recognized was not a good condition in mankind was that it's not good for man to be alone. Loneliness is the greatest form of poverty. It's a greater form of poverty than being without money. You know, if you're with people you love, you don't mind sharing a piece of crust of a bread. But when you're alone, it doesn't matter if you have a feast before you, you are still the poorest person in the world.
And that's why God gives us the church. It's not perfect, but it's God's body. It's not perfect, but it's God's way. It's not perfect, but it's God's idea. It's not perfect, but it's the hope of the world is the church. Being a part of a spiritual family, a spiritual home, that's order. If you're a loner, that results in disorder. If you're somebody that is a recluse and you don't like anybody ever knowing anything about you, there's a disorder there that, in your mind, you feel like a victim and you feel rejected. And as a result, it will result in things, behaviors that hurt other people because hurt people hurt people, right? We can solve this stuff. Twenty million substance abusers in America. A person commits suicide in the world every, I believe every 45 seconds, 1 million people a year.
One in four women suffering domestic violence. Youth violent deaths ten times more in America than any other industrialized nation. Why is this happening? It's because the world is out of order, society is out of order because of mental disorders. Why was this guy cutting himself? Why was this demon-possessed man cutting himself? Why was he breaking chains and being violent? Why was he a loner living among the dead? Why was he yelling out, and screaming at people, and bringing fear and terror to the people around him? Why? Because he was not in his right mind. What was the remedy? Come to Jesus, sit at the feet of Jesus. You'll be clothed and in your right mind. What happened after that? He wanted to go share the gospel of what happened to him to everybody he came in contact with.
And what did Jesus tell them to do? Take it to your house first. Before you go into the world and preach the gospel, take it to your home. Go back to your neighbors, go back to your friends, go back to your family. Let them see the good that God has done for you because nobody will appreciate the miracle that has happened in your life more than the people who already knew what you were like before Jesus delivered you. So, the greatest form of evangelism is for us to go to the people that knew us before we were saved and see them as our mission field. If you can't convince some, like me, this demon-possessed kid, this drug dealing kid, this addictive kid, me this kid that was suicidal, depressed all the time, me this kid that was drunk every day three times a day, me this kid that everybody knew who I was, what good after I got saved, what good am I going to do in Africa where people only see me as a new creature in Christ?
Maybe one day that was what God would call me to, and I've been there many times. But my point is, who am I going to make the biggest impact on? The people that I went back to and they go, "Wait a minute, who are you and what did you do with our nephew? Who are you and what did you do with our cousin? Who are you and what did you do with our son? Who are you and what did you do with the old Greg? What did you do with that druggy Greg? What did you do with that burnout Greg? What did you do with that loner Greg? What did you do with", I didn't do anything with him. Jesus killed him and raised up a new person in me, and I'm a new creature in Christ.
If any man is a new creature in Christ, old things have passed away and all things have become new. Here, look, look, touch me, I don't hate you anymore. Look at me, I'm not mad at you anymore. Let me pray for you, I'm not trying to get rid of you anymore. I'm not angry at you anymore. I'm not selling you drugs anymore. Well, I do have some leftovers and I need the money, so I will... Oh man, let me show you something. Go back over to Matthew chapter 24, we tie some stuff together to some things we talked about in the last few months. Matthew chapter 24, look at what he says in verse 10, "And in the last days," Jesus talks about this, "and many will be offended". Remember we talked about this? "Many will be offended". And then notice what happens. "They will betray one another and will hate one another".
Now, notice the progression. Being offended is not a physical thing. Being offended is not a behavior. Being offended is an emotion that is the result of a thinking pattern. It's an emotion that is the result of how you perceive what somebody has said about you or what somebody has done to you. So, notice there is a mental condition called being offended here. It is a mental condition. It is in his mind, it is in his heart, or it's in a person's mind, it's in their heart. Many, not just a few, many will be offended. And then notice what happens, a mental disorder of being offended results in a behavioral disorder of betraying others and then hating one another. And what does hate result in? Hate results in murder. Hate results in death.
Now, it may not always result in physical death or physical murder, but hate murders a marriage. Hate murders relationships. Hate murders success. Hate murders joy. Hate murders peace. Hate is a murderer. And this is the result of a mental disorder. What's the mental disorder, being what? Offended. In verse 10, what does it say? Many will be what? Offended. That's the mental disorder, and then what does that result in? Behavioral disorder. We betray one another. There was disloyalty. We don't know how to operate in relationships. We don't know how to resolve conflict. We don't know how to get along. We don't know how to have peace with somebody of another color, or another age group, or another nation, or another nationality, or another race, or another background, or somebody who comes from something you didn't come from and another social status and social class.
You can't relate to them, you can't resolve things. Somebody does something that offends you and now you are a candidate for betrayal. You are a candidate for poor relationships. In fact, not only a candidate, you will have poor relationships when you're offended. Being offended will result in betraying one another. It will result in bad communication, bad relationships. When you're offended, you don't hear what I'm saying, you're only nursing your pain. If I've offended you, then you don't hear the truth coming from my soul and coming from the Word of God that I'm teaching.
You see it twisted. You look at it from a veil. You look at it through a lens of emotional pain because of what you now attribute to me as the cause of your offense. When really the reason why any of us get offended is because we have expected too much of people and not expected enough from God. Because when you, listen, the reason we get offended, the reason I get offended at you, if I get offended at you, it's because, "Whoa, what you just did to me, that has so much power over me, and that's why it is affecting me so much". But when I exalt your power, I will be subjected to your flaws and weaknesses and mistakes in my life. But when I exalt God's power, then it makes what you did to me moot. It brings to pass what Joseph was able to say in Genesis 50, verse 20 when it says you, and he's speaking to his brothers because, you know, the people that betray us are usually the people that are close to us.
I'm not saying don't get close 'cause those are the people that are going to betray you. I'm saying if a stranger does something wrong to me, that's not going to shock me. But if a close friend does or a relative or somebody that I love and I thought loved me, that's what hurts the most, right? "But you meant evil against me," but notice his perspective, "but God meant it for good". In other words, what was the difference between him and somebody else? The difference was that Joseph's perspective was that God was bigger than man, and that God's power was bigger than man's power.
Man's power sold Joseph into slavery, but God's power elevated Joseph into a position of authority. Man's power put Joseph in a pit, but God's power put Joseph in a palace. Man's power put Joseph down, but God's power raised Joseph up. And the question that you have to ask yourself is, whose power are you trusting in? Are you trusting in what man can do to you, or are you trusting in what God can do to you? And that's why Paul said in Romans chapter 8, verse 31, that's why he said, "If God be for us, who can be against us"? He was saying, "Look, there may be people against us, but it is trumped, it is mooted, it is irrelevant, it is of no value, it is of no effect when you know that God is for us".
And he says, I love how he says it, he says, "What shall we say to these things"? We got to stop worrying about saying things to people, and we got to start saying these things to the things. The things, what shall we say to these things? He doesn't say, "What shall we say to these people that hurt us"? He doesn't say that, he says, "What shall we say to these things? What shall we say to the tribulation? What shall we say to the offense? What shall we say to our emotions? What shall we say to our fears? What shall we say to our distress? What shall we say to our pain"? We shall say, "If God is for us, who can be against us"? That's what we need to be saying to those things.