The Real Ghost of Christmas Past
You thought this whole journey of life was only to grow and heal? Beloved, human life is one drop of rain…
When God asked Noah to build a boat in the middle of the desert, we now know the purpose was to preserve him and his family during the great flood, but think of Noah’s life during those 55-75 years that he was building… what comes to mind? What do you think others said as they walked by? How many times did Noah feel like a fool, question his faith, or not understand? How many times did he want to quit?
You see, once God wipes your slate clean of sin, and the old man dies for the new man to emerge, there will be one demon that comes with you. One ghost. One shadow lurking in the spaces between your faith and your new-found confidence…You. More specifically, the old you. And the haunting of Christmas past only just begins…
It’s easier to understand God’s lessons when we call them what they really are—gaining wisdom. Making the affirmation to God that we are ready to take His path kick-starts the journey, and a sort of checklist begins to form. We start out shaky and a little afraid, but as we start to cross off “things from the past that need to be healed,” we gain a deeper understanding regarding the “point” of it all. The thing is… there is only so much of us from the past that God needs to dig His hands into and restore before the list ends: our childhoods, broken relationships, loss or abuse that we’ve experienced, trauma bonds, emotional scars, etc. What happens when there’s nothing from the past left to mend? Well, now you find yourself as Noah, existing in the space between the moment when he finished the boat, and when the first rain drop fell.
The amount of time spent in this space will look different for all of us, but this pause holds a sensitive secret… it’s here, when we are waiting for the rain to come, that our faith is tested the most. It’s also a perfect time for the old man to creep out and attack the new person we’ve worked so hard to become. I know you thought that once every demon from the past had been dealt with that you could finally start living your new beginning, but be warned: the last crucial lesson of total restorative healing is to learn how to deal with the old you trying to sabotage your new life. You may have healed every pain from the past and find yourself in a great job and peaceful home life, surrounded by friends and family, thinking, “Nothing can touch me,” but just when your life feels balanced and secure, guess who is going to try to take you down? The old you. And count on it being the worst demon you’ve ever confronted.
We cannot step into our full spiritual calling until our old selves die. We know when it’s R.I.P. time because the ghosts of the past will all have disintegrated, but we’ll have an unsettled feeling of, “what now?” This is because with death, there needs to be re-birth. When we’re sitting with our finished boats under the hot sun waiting for the rain, the re-birth (miracle or promise we’ve been waiting for) hasn’t happened yet. But God doesn’t put us on an epic journey for nothing; it’s to bring us to the point where we can realize His plan for our lives and actually execute it. If we have allowed God to heal us, NOTHING should be able to stand in our way, not even the demon of our old selves whispering reminders of failure and generational trauma bonds. Whoever that person was that we held a funeral for will continually haunt us, but we can keep it from dragging us back to the past by making a new list…
✔️Pain, ✔️trauma, and ✔️fear are not of God, so if we could imagine all the possible ways our old selves might try to sabotage us, what we’re doing is being human. But God’s ✔️power, ✔️healing, and ✔️love are supernatural, not human. What we are doing in the death and re-birth is killing off the traumatized and broken human in order to allow the Spirit to take over. It’s difficult because we live in a concrete world, but the truth is that we are spiritual, immortal beings, and this life is a drop in the ocean. Faith not only grows in us when we see God move, but when we don’t… and still believe that He will. The old man is human. The new man is pure Spirit, untarnished by the things this world did to us. We must not make choices or form beliefs that stem from our human experiences, or it could steal away the truth that ALL things are possible with God—including our beautiful new future! If we believe that we are healed, we must stand up as supernatural beings and let the old skin fall off like a coat. At this point in the process, we don’t even walk the path, we just float above it and enjoy the view as we go!
So, now is the time to truly allow the flesh to die and become Spirit-led. When the ghost of our old selves haunts us, we simply won’t acknowledge it because ghosts aren’t real. Our past pain, habits, addictions, and failures only need to be healed ONCE. When Jesus, the Great Physician, healed the man at the pool of Bethesda, He said, “You’re healed. Take your things and go home.” That man never needed to go back to the pool for more. It was done! If there was anything holding him back from God’s plan after that day, it would have been an illusion of the mind; only a ghost, which has NO power over us!
Today, we sit in the sun with Jesus, KNOWING that God’s promises will be fulfilled in His divine timing. We will wait for His plans to materialize with unshakable faith, as we hear His voice… “Now do you see why I asked these things of you?” And realize that we should have always believed there was a reason to build the boat even before seeing rain, because God keeps His promises, and nothing can stop His will. Only then, the first rain drop will finally fall, and through the mist, God’s true calling for our lives will be revealed.
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!”—II Corinthians 5:17
Written by: Michelle TK
Heal up! And then get moving and don’t look back… Don’t you tell me you can’t do it…