Tag: Inner Healing

From Rotten Apple to the Apple of His Eye

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Sally was being tormented by bad memories for days but couldn’t think of any of them when we met to pray. I was confident God would bring to her mind whatever He wanted to heal.

Before we started to pray, we discussed the amazing video of Ian McCormack who had a life-after-death experience. Sally was especially impacted by the part of the story where Jesus was showering Ian with His love even though he had sinned so much. She didn’t think Jesus would do that for her. She was sure she wasn’t good enough.

We started praying, and Sally asked Jesus what He wanted to do for her. She didn’t sense anything. I suggested she ask Jesus to bring to her mind a time when she felt she wasn’t good enough for God’s love.

Immediately a memory of when she was three years old came up. A neighborhood boy had talked her into lifting her dress and proceeded to molest her. Sally didn’t really understand what happened, but she told her mother about it when she returned from playing outside. Her mother didn’t say anything, but her face looked very angry. Sally hung her head in shame. She was sure she must be very bad to make her mother so angry.

Sally invited Jesus to be with her in that painful moment with her mother. It was difficult for her to sense God. We continued to pray allowing Jesus to free Sally from the anger, self-hatred, unworthiness and shame she had been carrying around for so long. Sally forgave her mother and the boy, and she handed Jesus all the painful lies she had been believing about herself. She asked Jesus for His truth in exchange.

Sally heard Jesus say, “Your mother is not God. She is human, doing the best she can.” She asked Jesus how He felt about what happened and how He would have responded to her. Sally saw and felt Jesus pick her up and hold her in His arms. She could tell He felt hurt by what happened to her with the boy, and He explained to her why it wasn’t okay. She heard Jesus tell her, “You are the apple of my eye. You are loved with an everlasting love.”

Sally believed Him.

The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” Jeremiah 31:3

“He found him in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness; He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye.” Deuteronomy 32:10

This story is true and was posted with permission. The names were changed to ensure privacy.

If this story brought something to mind in your life that you would like help with, please email emotionalrenovation@gmail.com to schedule your own appointment for emotional renovation.

Darla and the Barking Dog

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Darla met with me today. She was feeling extremely annoyed over the incessant barking of her mother’s little dog. The dog and her mother had been living with her for years.

After prayer she remembered that she felt just as stressed 30 years ago when, as a 15-year-old mother, she was struggling to care for her infant daughter. Darla was still very dependent on her mother at that time especially to help her care for her baby.

In this particular memory, Darla’s mother was out running errands, so she was alone with her crying baby. She felt overwhelmed and helpless to soothe her colicky child. Nothing was working. Darla decided to change the baby’s diaper to see if that would help. Her daughter became even more hysterical, and Darla tried even harder to comfort her. After a while of rocking and jostling without results, she checked the diaper again only to discover that she had mistakenly pinned the diaper to the baby’s skin.

Darla was beside herself with guilt. She decided that she was not capable of caring for her child and that she was a bad mother. Darla also blamed her mother for refusing to buy disposable diapers.

As soon as her mother returned from shopping, Darla left the house and from then on stayed away as much as possible. She started drinking heavily which led to her boyfriend breaking up with her as well as many other problems.

During our prayer time, Darla was able to forgive herself and her mother. God revealed that Darla believed the lie that she didn’t deserve her daughter’s love. When she asked for the truth in exchange, God told her that He was giving her all of His love. Darla knew she was free.

Jesus is more powerful than the abuse.

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Olivia writes:

Emotional Renovation has really helped me with my healing process from my sexual abuse.  I started meeting with Catherine over the phone a few months ago.  When we prayed, Jesus always showed up.  During my ER sessions, God would sometimes bring me back to my childhood and showed me where He was during the abusive times.  Even though there was much pain remembering each abusive situation, I always ended the session with peace because He showed me where He was in the midst of it all. It has been so comforting to see Jesus right there with me, loving me, even in the middle of the abuse. It hasn’t changed the history of what happened to me, but changed my outlook and attitude knowing that God never left my side.  God didn’t want those things to happen to me, but man has a free will to do as he pleases, even the most evil of things.  Now, when I think about my abusive childhood, I can often smile because I see Jesus right there with me, loving me, comforting me, and it is more powerful than the abuse. God’s love envelopes the memory of my abuse.  His healing love is just so incredible, so soothing.  It’s almost too good to explain, you just have to experience it.   I thank God for the ministry of Emotional Renovation.  He really is healing me, little by little.

 

This story is true and was posted with permission. The names were changed to ensure privacy.

If this story brought something to mind in your life that you would like help with, please email emotionalrenovation@gmail.com to schedule your own appointment for emotional renovation.

Free to Just Say Yes!

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Skylar writes:

When I first met to pray with Catherine she asked me what had been troubling to me.  I told her about the fear and anxiety I had experienced with my ex-husband.  The effects of the abuse still lingered and every day I worried that I would need to confront his anger in an email or through accusations hurled through the kids.  After a lifetime spent trying to please him, even in the divorce it wasn’t over. It seemed like I would never be free – always feeling trapped and never feeling like I was good enough or could make everyone happy. I felt controlled by fear, anger and guilt, and I really wanted to move past these scars.  I wanted to be able to embrace the new life God had given me and the grace I knew was there with my kids, my new husband and now a bigger, happier family. I was still living in fear that I tried to control but found it was controlling me.  Just opening an email could send my heart racing and start the entire cycle of anxiety pulsing through my system again.  Would I ever be able to survive for just 24 hours without living in panic and shame?

The day Catherine came to my house, she described the healing that God wanted to do in my life.  Then she prayed with me and invited the Lord to come into this place in my heart.  She asked me to describe to her the first time I had experienced this kind of terrifying fear.  I told her it was when I was very young. When my father was angry, he would use a belt to discipline me, leaving striations of scars and bloody wounds behind.  Catherine asked me how old I was when this took place.  I told her I was 8, maybe nine.  She asked if I could see this situation.  As I closed my eyes in prayer, I could see my dad standing over me.  I was like a bundle of rags thrown over the bed waiting for the next lash of the belt.  She asked me to invite Jesus to come into this situation and I did. She asked if Jesus was there in the room with me as a child and I saw Jesus standing next to me in that same bedroom I had lived in when I was a small child.  Jesus stood between my father and me.  My father was raising his hand with the belt, ready to strike me again, and Jesus held out his arm and said, “Stop!”  In that crystallized moment everything slowed down and all the days of the past came rushing in like a wave breaking upon the shore of my life.  I saw how Jesus did not want this kind of abuse in my life.  I realized that he did not approve of my father’s actions and was putting a stop to all of this mistreatment, not just in the past but also in present.  I saw the heart-chorded connection between the abuse as a child and how I had allowed people I loved to treat me today. This included all the ways that I had allowed people I loved to have that kind of unbridled access to my life. I saw that the pattern of this lack of boundaries had continued with others, especially my former husband.  I had accepted his constant criticism and cruelty as the price one paid for love just as I had accepted the beatings from my father. I had thought that to love someone also meant to suffer for them and I realized how this abuse had entwined itself into the recesses of my heart.  Yet, in this moment, I somehow knew this would all have to stop now. Towards the end of this prayer, Catherine asked me what I could see in this situation. In my mind’s eye, I could see that I had become an innocent child again. I was a small baby now and Jesus was holding me and wrapping a protective blanket around me.  All the fear was gone, all the wounds had disappeared, and the reality I knew experienced with the Lord holding me was more real and more permanent that any I had known before.  In the days to follow I found for the first time that I was able to say simply “No”.  And again, “No, not with me.”  After this time, I did not feel the guilt I would usually feel for not doing what someone else needed, even if it wasn’t good for me.  I felt free!  The “No” that the Lord gave me was protecting me from getting into situations that would turn out to be abusive to me.  He was also freeing me.  For in saying “No” to people and situations that would harm or compromise me, I also found an incredible “Yes” to myself, “Yes” to the people God had placed in my life, and “Yes” to the newness of ministry that was emerging in my life towards others.  I saw the truth of God’s heart for me in this healing time of prayer, and that truth has set me free. Yes!!

 

This story is true and was posted with permission. The names were changed to ensure privacy.

If this story brought something to mind in your life that you would like help with, please email emotionalrenovation@gmail.com to schedule your own appointment for emotional renovation.

My New Life

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Victoria writes:

I began to realize in August 2013 that I was molested as a child but couldn’t remember what my sexual abuser did or when it began. I started to see a trauma therapist but still there was no remembrance of it at a young age. I met Catherine a few months later and she told me she could help me to remember through emotional renovation, but Jesus would have to lead us. It would be wherever Jesus wanted to take me.In December 2013, I had my first session with Catherine.  We asked Jesus what he wanted to show me today. At first I didn’t see him, but after praying, he showed up and let me know that he has always been with me and loves me very much.My next sessions were of Jesus showing me love, friendship and all the fun I had in my home as a child. This home didn’t have many fond memories for me. I had gotten to a place of comfort and safeness with him. I was ready for him to show me anything from my past without fear. I knew I could trust him completely.Then he began to show me what my sexual abuser did to me, how old I was when it began and how long the abuse went on. Even during the remembering of the abuse in action, Jesus never left my side. He was there before, during and after. He showed me that he came between me and my abuser to protect me. He wanted to take this burden and guilt from me and fill my heart with unconditional love from him.I have felt complete peace through this process. He has walked me through emotional and physical abuse I received as a child from my earthly father. Jesus had to take the place of my parent and my friend. He has led me by my right hand through all the abuse and has shown so much love to me that I’ve felt like an only child.

I had so much anger toward my sexual abuser, his wife and my father.

Jesus has rewritten my life story back to the time I first felt unworthy of being loved. He has shown me what he wanted my life to be like and how it could be today. I could never have achieved this without the emotional renovation I went through with Catherine.

I have now moved past the anger to forgiveness towards my abusers. I can now see them through Jesus’ eyes. He loves each of us so very much.

I have been given the gift of visualizing him, leading my life with love and gentleness. I feel so blessed to have been a part of this journey into a deeper relationship with my Lord, Jesus Christ, the Only One I can truly depend on.

This story is true and was posted with permission. The names were changed to ensure privacy.

If this story brought something to mind in your life that you would like help with, please email emotionalrenovation@gmail.com to schedule your own appointment for emotional renovation.

From Fear of Failure to Powerful Possibilities

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From Sean:

I had been thinking of going into business for myself but suddenly found myself very discouraged. Thoughts like “who am I kidding?” and “I am not even close to having the right skills” were coming to mind. I had been in business for myself before, and though it had not been entirely unsuccessful, I had experienced a difficult season where things did not go well and I had run into financial difficulty as a result. On top of my discouraging thoughts was the question, “What makes me think that won’t happen again?”

As I began to pray, this question came to mind as Catherine encouraged me to ask, “Lord, when was the first time I felt discouraged like this?” I also remembered feeling this way going to college. I had had a terrible time emotionally in college and eventually dropped out. In both cases, I sensed it was not God’s plan for me to do so, but it had happened.

Then Catherine asked if there was any other time. I suddenly remembered a time when I was about seven. It was my birthday, and my mom had taken me to the toy store to purchase a gift. It was GI JOE helicopter. The helicopter required assembly, and I was so excited I decided to try to assemble it myself. But I did not follow the directions perfectly and had accidentally snapped together the helicopter frame before placing the propeller assembly inside of it. I was stuck. When my dad got home, he yelled and screamed about how I had ruined it, and I felt crushed.

Catherine asked if I would ask Jesus how he felt when that happened, and I did. Suddenly I saw a scientist lab. There is a scene in the movie Meet the Robinsons, when the main character as a boy is led by his adoptive parents into his own scientist lab, which is the place where he will ultimately build his most famous inventions. And in my memory, I suddenly saw Jesus as my adoptive parent, and He was leading me to my lab. I then saw Jesus address my father, as if to say: Do not chastise the boy for his mistake, for this is his very first experiment. I felt protected. I also realized that Jesus knew me, and that he had great plans for me.

Then another memory suddenly came to mind of me at the age of about ten, in the bathroom of our house growing up, standing quietly in the dark. There had been a power failure, and it happened on a night when my dad had been drinking heavily and, as he typically did, terrorizing my mom. I felt so alone and so helpless and hopeless.

Then Catherine asked if I could see Jesus anywhere in that memory. It was strange, but suddenly I could. He was just outside the bathroom door, shining a flashlight underneath the door. I saw myself open the door a crack, and Jesus asked if I wanted to play one of my favorite childhood games with him. This was extremely significant to me for a number of reasons. I felt that Jesus really understood me and wanted to spend time with me.

Catherine then asked if I wanted (in my memory) to go outside of the bathroom and have Jesus pick me up. But I realized I was hesitant. I was afraid to open the door any further. I felt that if I let Jesus be in control that much, something bad would happen to me. Then, at Catherine’s leading, I repented for believing the lie that Jesus was scary and terrifying, just as my father had been. I also forgave my father for teaching me that God was too terrifying to trust. I did so, and I began to cry deeply. In my mind’s eye, I then saw me reach out my hand and Jesus scoop me up in his arms. He then struck or rebuked the darkness, or something in the darkness of the bathroom. Holding me in his arms, He then went around the house placing his hand on all my family members, telling them everything was going to be all right. It was as though He was a super hero. Then Catherine had me ask: Jesus, what would it be like if I was connected to you like this all the time? I did, and I sensed God saying, “You would be a super hero like me, too, setting people free from what hold’s them bound.”

I then asked, “Lord, if I go into business for myself again, will I fail?” And I sensed Him say, “If you go into business by yourself, then it is possible you might fail. But I want you to go into business with Me.” I then saw suddenly why my past business had run into difficulty. It was as if Jesus shined a light on the moment I had gone one way when he was leading me in another. I had not done so out of rebellion; I simply had done so out of ignorance, because I did not know God wanted to partner with me in business. I had thought God wanted me to do great things for Him, to secure His favor. It had not occurred to me He wanted me to do great things with Him. And it was He who wanted to do great things through me, as I did what came naturally as I remain connected to Him.

I am now excited about going into business with God. And I will never see myself and what I do in the same way again.

This story is true and was posted with permission. The names were changed to ensure privacy.

If this story brought something to mind in your life that you would like help with, please email emotionalrenovation@gmail.com to schedule your own appointment for emotional renovation.