One More Time—Falling and Getting Back Up

Do you feel like a failure? Are you brokenhearted? Have you struggled with the same behaviors or addiction for years without victory? Have you felt like giving up? Don’t! It takes courage to get back up when we fall. Be courageous and the Lord will strengthen your heart.

Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart,
All you who hope in the LORD.

Psalm 31:24 (NKJV)

If you have sincerely asked Jesus Christ to be your personal Lord and Savior, then you can hope in the Lord. We all occasionally miss the mark of perfectly following and obeying the Lord. However, practicing known sin on a regular or daily basis is not missing the mark. That is rebellion and willful disobedience to God.

If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:6-9 (NKJV)

Our faithful God will forgive a repentant person who is genuinely sorry for their sins and makes the choice to change their behavior. God is ready to forgive.

For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive,
And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.

Psalm 86:5 (NKJV)

Father God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are good! However, no person is good all the time—no one. Human beings have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Falling short of the glory of God does not make us hopeless cases. It means that we are human.

Just because you have failed once, twice or even hundreds of times, that does not mean that you cannot succeed. A friend of mine once told me that a high-ranking officer in the military shared with him that he would rather have someone under his command who had fallen and gotten back up than someone who had never fallen at all. He knew that the one who had fallen and gotten back up would not easily succumb to defeat. The person who has failed at receiving healing from past pain and trauma, but continues to pursue their freedom is very likely to eventually be victorious. Do not lose heart!

And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

Galatians 6:9 (NKJV)

The enemy of our souls, Satan, encourages genuine Christians to feel defeated and discouraged. If we allow him to accomplish that in our lives, he has won the battle. However, he does not win the war! The Bible makes it clear that Satan and his forces will be completely defeated in the end. We must hold on to that truth as we fight the good fight of faith.

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 

1 Timothy 6:12 (NKJV)

Regardless of what you are facing today, do not give in to the temptation to give up! Yes, there are horrible storms that come into our lives. Those situations can cause us a lot of emotional, spiritual and/or physical pain, and trauma, but our victory is found in overcoming through the Lord Jesus Christ.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.  Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:31-39 (NKJV)

We are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ!

Do not give up! If you have fallen again, get back up one more time and fight for your victory. You will succeed with the Lord Jesus Christ by your side. Take His hand and let Him lead you into freedom. He loves you and wants that for you more than you can imagine. I have witnessed Jesus Christ set hundreds of people free from past pain and trauma. He can do the same for you!

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13 (NKJV)

For suggestions regarding how to receive help, check out our HELPFUL RESOURCES page. Your freedom from sin, addiction, and past pain and trauma is worth fighting for. Be filled with hope today!

Kathy Shelton

The Joy of the Lord IS Your Strength!

Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Nehemiah 8:10 (NKJV)

Joy means happiness, pleasure, bliss, and ecstasy to the world. Since most followers of Jesus Christ have come from a worldly background, it is easy to confuse the joy of the Lord with those emotions. However, the joy that comes from knowing the Lord and following Him is far beyond fleeting feelings of happiness. It is a sense of peace and contentment in knowing that one day we will be in Heaven with our Most High God and the Lord Jesus Christ forever.

If the enemy, Satan, can steal our joy, he has won half the battle. The devil loves to lead a Christian into a state of anxiety, fear, or worry. That is one of the ways he can get their focus off the joy of the Lord. If a person’s heart is broken, they are more likely to succumb to Satan’s tactics. One reason it is so important for us to cling to the joy of the Lord in spite of our circumstances is that it gives us strength against the enemy.

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!

Philippians 4:4 (NKJV)

The joy of the Lord is our strength and remembering Almighty God’s marvelous works will help us to receive His joy and to rejoice in the Lord. Traumatic experiences weaken our hearts and spirits and the only true and lasting remedy is healing through Jesus Christ. The most incredible thing that the One True God has done for all of us is that He sent His Son, Jesus, to this earth in order to offer us the opportunity to be forgiven for our sins and to receive healing for our broken hearts. We must thank God for that and talk about it, because it is very healing to speak of all His wondrous works. It fills us with His joy!

The fact that Jesus was born and died a horrific death is nothing to rejoice about if He had not also risen from the dead. The disciples and His family were overcome with emotional pain before they realized that His promise to be resurrected was to be taken literally. Once they saw that Jesus was alive again, they rejoiced.

Since we have the blessing of knowing that Jesus’ death was not the end of the story, we should enthusiastically REJOICE! The more often we remember and meditate on the fact that Father God gave His Son, Jesus, to die for us and that Jesus rose from the dead, the more we will be able to rejoice. The Father and the Son love us deeply and eternally. No person can come close to that magnitude of love for us. Those amazing blessings should cause sincere Christians to rejoice!

A broken heart is no excuse not to rejoice in the Lord. However, the devil uses emotional and spiritual pain to bring discouragement, depression and despair into our minds, hearts and spirits. That is why we must obey God’s Word faithfully and rejoice in the Lord. As we rejoice in God and all He has done for us, we are filled with His joy. That strengthens and heals us in ways that are unseen, but more real and permanent than the world’s solutions for pain and trauma. The joy of the Lord is our strength and it helps heal our broken hearts and spirits.

Serve the Lord with gladness and delight;
Come before His presence with joyful singing.

Psalm 100:2 (AMP)

Serving the Lord can look very different, depending on a person’s age, culture, environment, maturity level, and the stage or season of their life. Everyone, including mothers, fathers, students, teachers, doctors, nurses, business owners, employees, farmers, shepherds, missionaries, and ministers, can serve the Lord in their daily lives. For example, children can serve the Lord by being respectful and obedient to their parents.

As we do whatever the Lord has given us the opportunity to do in this life, we should do it with gladness and delight. However, a broken heart can dampen our ability to feel glad. Joyful singing may seem impossible at times. We may even become numb to feelings of gladness and joy as a result of the pain and trauma that we are suffering or have experienced in the past. Anything that inhibits our capacity for joy and gladness must be addressed and resolved. The pain and trauma that caused our hearts to be broken can and will steal our joy and strength. However, Jesus Christ can release emotional pain and trauma from our hearts and spirits. He alone can heal the brokenhearted in a lasting way.

We cannot serve the Lord in freedom until we have received healing for painful and traumatic situations that have caused the numbing of our emotions. The Lord wants us to joyfully sing to Him. We must ask Him to heal our hearts and spirits from whatever may be preventing us from doing so. A genuine, personal relationship with Jesus as our Lord and Savior is the key to the restoration of joy in our hearts, minds and spirits. That joy gives us the ability to serve the Lord with gladness and delight.

When our hearts are broken, we must stand up against what the devil has done in our lives by embracing the joy of the Lord. If we allow the pain we have experienced to determine our outlook on life, the enemy will be victorious, and we will be miserable. However, as we rejoice in what Jesus did for us, we will be blessed and our hearts and spirits will be healed and strengthened. The joy of the Lord is our strength!

Kathy Shelton

Can you cry?

This may sound like a strange question. However, in my ministry experiences with brokenhearted people, several of them were completely unable to cry. When they contacted me for help, their emotions had been shut down for years as the result of traumatic situations that had happened in their lives.

If this describes you, you need to know that God created our brains in a way to shut down our emotions when trauma becomes so intense that we cannot handle the pain. The way our brains deal with that overwhelming trauma often looks like we are numb—because we are—we are not responding emotionally to the trauma. This is for our own benefit and protection. Our response to trauma can also look like confusion. The bottom line is that God created our brains to operate this way when we are confronted with tremendous emotional pain and trauma. As a result, we can usually continue to function at some level in spite of horrific and intense traumatic experiences that we suffer in our lives.

After returning from the Healing the Brokenhearted (HBH) Ministry training seminar that I attended in August 2008, the Lord Jesus ministered to me in my first HBH session. At the seminar, I became aware that there were some deep issues of pain and trauma that the Lord wanted to heal in my heart and spirit. He wanted to release that emotional pain which I was carrying from some traumatic events in my life. The day after I returned from the seminar, the Lord showed me that it was time for Jesus to lead me in healing prayer. As I proceeded through the HBH process that I had learned, I was absolutely overwhelmed by the amount of emotional pain that was released. The tears and emotional pain that came out from very deep within me were unexpected and eye-opening. I cried buckets of tears! I had no idea that I was carrying that amount of emotional pain. I had no idea that someone could function while carrying that amount of emotional pain. However, as I said above, God created our brains with the ability to suppress emotional pain so that we can function to whatever degree necessary in spite of emotional pain and trauma. Once my prayer session was over and I had released an enormous amount of pain, I realized that if I could be walking around and functioning—doing my daily tasks, carrying that amount of pain—many other people could also be living the same way.

Over the years as I have ministered to others in individual prayer sessions, during seminars and during workshops, I have seen that level of pain released dozens and dozens of times. There was one woman—and this is not uncommon—who had been sexually abused as a child by a family member. As I ministered to her during a live demonstration at an HBH informational seminar years ago, a similar amount of deeply suppressed emotional pain came out of that brokenhearted woman. Another time, a different volunteer for the live demonstration at a seminar was literally shaking as she was crying and releasing the pain that had been stuffed for decades. She began trembling uncontrollably as it came up. I prayed and asked Jesus to release the pain and fill them both with peace. He did just that and they were very grateful to be free from that emotional pain.

One of the other women to whom I ministered HBH several times came to a prayer session immediately after signing her divorce paperwork at the courthouse. She was not aware that was going to happen that day. The original plan was to work on some financial support details at the court appointment until the divorce was finalized at a later date. However, this dear lady was completely blindsided when the attorneys announced the divorce would be final after that hearing. When she came to her appointment, all she could do was cry. That was the best thing I could let her do during that session. She cried and cried and cried. As she did, I prayed and asked Jesus to release the pain and fill her with peace. I set my plan for that ministry session aside and followed the Lord’s plan to minister to this extremely heartbroken woman. She received what she needed at that session—love and compassion for her hurting heart, mind and spirit.

You number my wanderings; put my tears into Your bottle; are they not in Your book?

Psalm 56:8 (NKJV)

One of the beautiful things I have observed while ministering to women who were totally shut down emotionally was that, after Jesus released an amount of the pain and trauma that they were carrying, they were finally able to cry. The tears flowed. Our tears are precious to our Most High God. Psalm 56:8 says that He puts our tears in His bottle and records them in His book. I have often told ministry recipients that if they feel like crying, “Let yourself cry, if you can, because tears are healing.” Releasing that pain is one step to healing and freedom. We were never meant to hold the emotional pain and trauma our entire lives. Eventually it either explodes out of us, or it makes us so physically sick that we cannot function at the level that we are supposed to be living.

Occasionally people have said to me, “All I do is cry when pain surfaces between sessions.” I tell them that is good because being able to cry is an absolute gift from God. Being able to feel those emotions and release that pain through tears is part of the healing process. I encourage them to ask Jesus to release the pain—to take the pain, to remove it from their hearts, to remove it from their minds and spirits, to heal those places where that pain was—as they cry. More than a few people have told me that when they do that, they feel so much better—they feel relief. I also encourage them to ask the Holy Spirit to fill those voids with His peace.

Jesus wept.

John 11:35 (NKJV)

Jesus cried when He saw the deep emotional pain that Martha and Mary were experiencing after their brother, Lazarus, died. However, so many people were raised, especially men, being told, “Don’t cry. (Men don’t cry.)” However, it is not uncommon for men to cry as they go through inner healing for emotional pain and trauma. They are able to cry after they have received a level of healing. Men need to cry just as much as women do—sometimes more so. If that describes you and you are a man who has been told all your life, “Men don’t cry. Stop crying. Don’t cry,” I would encourage you to seek help, because many men may not cry, but the painful emotions come out in some other way. Men and women often experience anger when emotional pain and trauma surface. There are a lot of good reasons for anger to be attached to pain and trauma, but when anger erupts, it does not release the pain and trauma. Anger that is the result of a traumatic situation is usually released spontaneously as Jesus heals the damage and releases pain and trauma in a prayer session, not the other way around.

Many people tell us that we should not be angry, especially if we are Christians. We are often told, “You should not get angry. Forgive. Love everyone.” However, expressing anger is not always sin. There is righteous anger and that is what is normally attached to emotional pain and trauma. Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) survivors have enormous amounts of righteous anger attached to the emotional and spiritual pain they carry. Until the pain and trauma are released, that anger festers. I have addressed the issue of anger in much more detail in several other articles, including “Be angry and do not sin” and “A Whip of Cords!”

I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.

Psalm 139:14 (NKJV)

It is amazing how God created our brains, our bodies, our hearts, our minds and our spirits. We are truly fearfully and wonderfully made! I have been in awe of what I have seen the Lord Jesus Christ do as I have ministered over the years. Our Most High God is able to heal even the deepest pain, even the deepest wounds and damage from horrific trauma.

Inner healing includes shedding tears. We all need to be able to cry! If you cannot cry, I would encourage you to understand several things. You are carrying a level of pain that will surface one day if it is not released in a godly and healthy way. It will erupt out of you like a volcano. You need to deal with that pain before that happens. That emotional pain and trauma has caused your brain to shut down your ability to cry. One way or the other, whether it is physical illness, or an emotional outburst coming from deep within you, the pain and trauma will eventually be triggered. When that suppressed pain gets triggered, it is not pretty.

Emotional pain and trauma can cause our whole being—mind, body, heart and spirit—to be in a state of dis-ease. Buried emotional pain will cause a person to be unable to fulfill their God-given destiny. However, we can get to the place where God wants us to be—whole and healed—able to deal with future pain and trauma in a healthy way. We can be free from emotional pain and trauma with Jesus’ help. If an individual has sincerely accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, inner healing and freedom are possible!

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed;”

Luke 4:18 (NKJV)

I would like to encourage you, number one, to have hope, and number two, not to pretend that there is nothing wrong. I would also encourage you to pursue healing for your heart and spirit through Biblical prayer ministry in the name of Jesus Christ. Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted!

Kathy Shelton

Be angry and do not sin.

Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still.

Psalm 4:4 (New King James Version)

You can be angry, but do not sin! Think about this as you lie in bed, and calm down.

Psalm 4:4 (Complete Jewish Bible)

Be angry, and do not sin: do not let the sun go down on your wrath,

Ephesians 4:26 (New King James Version)

Be angry, but don’t sin—don’t let the sun go down before you have dealt with the cause of your anger; 

Ephesians 4:26 (Complete Jewish Bible)

The Bible tells us that we can be angry, but not to let it escalate into sin. That is what it says! It does not say do not be angry, period, as so many people have taught or preached. I have heard many testimonies from people who were told to repent for their anger that had resulted from an emotionally painful or traumatic situation. That is ridiculous!

Our Most High God created us with emotions. One of those emotions is anger. There are several types of anger that people experience. Anger can be righteous anger, meaning that it is justified and godly, resulting from something unjust and hurtful that happened to us or someone else. God’s anger is reported in many places in the Bible, and it resulted from the sin and disobedience of human beings. However, God’s anger is never sin. He is holy and righteous. His anger is always justified and appropriate regarding wickedness and evil.

 When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables.

John 2:15 (NKJV)

Jesus was extremely angry when He made a whip of cords and drove the money changers out of the temple. That was a perfect example of godly, righteous anger displayed as a result of people’s sinful actions. The temple was meant to be a house of prayer, not a “den of thieves,” which is how Jesus described what the money changers and sellers had turned it into. Jesus was furious when he used that whip of cords to drive those people who were defiling the temple off the premises. He was not being timid, shy, or politically correct. He was extremely angry and had a very good reason to react the way He did and kick them out. We should never feel guilty for having righteous anger. There are times when godly, righteous anger is not only appropriate, but also necessary to deal with ungodly situations! 

Most of us in the United States felt righteous anger after 9/11. That is not sin. That is a result of a horrific act that was perpetrated against our country and thousands of innocent people. As I have ministered to survivors of Satanic Ritual Abuse, I have seen incredible levels of righteous anger attached to the emotional, spiritual and physical pain and trauma that they had been carrying for decades. To tell them to repent for their anger would be further abuse! The same is true for survivors of sexual abuse and molestation. See the article, It is not who you are! dated July 7, 2025, in which I described a woman in her seventies who had over-the-top levels of anger that were surfacing as a result of childhood sexual abuse. We should never tell others to repent for righteous anger!

Of course, there are times when our expression of anger is sin. That occurs when we allow our emotions to spiral out of control past the point of righteous anger. That is sin. In that case, when we step, or leap, over that line, we do need to ask God and anyone at whom we released the anger to forgive us.

There can also be demonic spirits of anger that are attached to our own sinful anger, or to the pain and trauma that we have suffered. During ministry sessions with wounded individuals, I have observed that righteous anger, as well as demonic spirits of anger, can be attached to pain and trauma that has been suppressed in someone’s heart or spirit. No amount of repenting will free a person from that anger. Only after the pain and trauma are released will the anger be released as well. Demonic spirits must usually be dealt with to rid a person of them once that person has asked for forgiveness for sin, or received healing from pain and trauma. When that happens, the demonic spirits will leave. However, I have also observed a great amount of spontaneous deliverance from spirits of anger during ministry sessions when people are healed and the pain and trauma are released. Praise the Lord!

One of the reasons, I believe, that typical deliverance methods used by many Christian ministers are only temporarily helpful is because the demonic spirits returned and reattached to the pain and trauma to which they were originally attached. Unless it too has been healed and released, there cannot be true freedom. Lasting healing can only be received through the blood of Jesus Christ and the healing balm of the Holy Spirit.

Having experienced emotionally, physically, or spiritually painful and traumatic events should never be an excuse to continue acting out in anger! Repeated episodes of unexplained anger should be a signal to us that we need to get help. People often say, “I am this way because of what I have gone through in my life,” but that is a cop-out. Yes, the pain and trauma from the things that we experienced may very well be the root of the anger that keeps coming up. However, it does not need to continue! There is help available to receive Biblical inner healing and freedom.

Jesus said,

“…He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives…”     

Luke 4:18 (NKJV)

All anger is not sin, but some of it can be released by dealing with suppressed emotional pain and trauma. Bottled-up emotional pain and trauma—in addition to anger attached to them—can lead to years of physical illness and pain as well. However, there is hope through Jesus Christ. We can be released from the prison of experiencing unrighteous anger! Jesus came to set the captives free and to heal the brokenhearted. 

God does not want anyone to remain a prisoner of pain and trauma from their past! He has provided help through His Son, Jesus Christ, but we must do our part to pursue healing and freedom. The first step is to sincerely ask Jesus Christ to be our personal Lord and Savior. Asking Almighty God to forgive our sins and then repenting by changing our behavior to line up with God’s Word and obey Him is crucial in the inner healing process.

Kathy Shelton

It is not who you are!

You have experienced trauma. You have experienced emotional pain. You’ve gone through hell. You have experienced abuse. Whether the abuse was spiritual, physical, verbal, emotional, mental, sexual, or any other type of abuse, it caused great pain and trauma in your heart, mind and spirit.

However, IT IS NOT WHO YOU ARE! It is what was done to you.

If you have sincerely asked Jesus Christ to be your personal Lord and Savior, you are a child of the Most High God. That is who you are! You are loved with an everlasting love by the Creator of the Universe, His Son, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. You are loved!

The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying:
“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.”

Jeremiah 31:3 (NKJV)

This world is full of people who are walking around, carrying pain and trauma that has been stuffed for years and often decades. One woman to whom I ministered was in her seventies, and during a ministry session, she told me about being molested by her father, beginning when she was five or six years old. She had never told anyone before about her father doing those horrible things to her. She had been having recurring dreams of him chasing her. That lady was living with extreme amounts of emotional pain and anger inside her heart and spirit. It was coming out at those she loved most—her family. They could not understand why she was so angry.

During that prayer session, deep emotional pain was released from this precious, Christian woman as she sobbed uncontrollably. Jesus Christ ministered to this woman, and He did amazing and lasting healing in her heart, mind and spirit while I prayed with her. Afterwards, she laughed. She smiled. She was set free! Because she was able to talk about the trauma and receive compassionate prayer in Jesus’ name, she was able to receive the healing she needed. It did not change what happened, but Jesus changed her heart, her mind, and her spirit. He cleansed, purified, and healed her from that sexual abuse and trauma. The Holy Spirit filled the voids that were left once the pain and trauma were released. It was a beautiful process to help facilitate and observe. Her family was amazed at the difference they saw in her—the intense anger was gone!

What has happened to you is not who you are, unless you allow it to define who you are. You have to put an end to that. Do not let it continue for decades! You have to take control of your life because you have a beautiful, God-given destiny regardless of your age. God wants you to fulfill the destiny that He has planned for you. The enemy, Satan, does not want you to fulfill your God-given destiny. Satan often uses suppressed pain and trauma to stop people from living out their full potential for the kingdom of God.

The solution is healing through Jesus Christ! He can heal you from all the pain and trauma that was inflicted on you. Jesus can release it from your heart, your mind and your spirit. He came to set the captives free and to heal the brokenhearted (Luke 4:18, NKJV). Jesus can make your heart whole! That is a gift from our Most High God to you if you are a genuine follower of Jesus Christ.

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;”

Luke 4:18 (NKJV)

The late Tom R. Hawkins, Ph.D., Founder of Restoration in Christ Ministries, stated the following: “The presence of the ‘flesh’ (man’s inherited propensity towards sin) will not be removed until death or the rapture. Thus, even a healed heart has harassment and temptation directed to the fallen nature, or flesh, from the outside sources of evil called the ‘world’ and all the powers of darkness.”

Having a healed heart does not guarantee that a person will not encounter future trauma, trials and spiritual warfare. However, with a healed heart, a person can function and live as the whole person God created them to be. It is not about becoming “perfect” and without trials, sin, and the challenges of life. It is about allowing the Holy Spirit to direct our reactions and being able to function according to God’s plan to the best of our ability at the time.

We must take part in our inner healing first by sincerely accepting Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior and asking God to forgive our sins. Repenting for our sins—by changing our thoughts, actions and behavior—and obeying God’s Word are critical if we are going to truly live according to God’s will. We must ask the Lord what steps He wants us to take to pursue healing for our broken hearts.

Inner healing takes time, but going through the process is much better than living with deep emotional and spiritual pain. Reading the Bible out loud, listening to praise and worship music, singing to the Lord, and spending time alone with the Lord all help to heal our hearts, minds and spirits. It has been scientifically shown that reading the Word of God out loud helps to rewire our brains!

You may need to seek a qualified, Christian prayer minister who can help you to release the pain and trauma in your heart and spirit. However, that person has to be someone who is trained to do that in the name of Jesus Christ. Not every Christian minister knows how to pray for the release of emotional pain and trauma, but there are many available. If you need help finding one, check out our HELPFUL RESOURCES page by clicking here: HELPFUL RESOURCES. Inner healing will help you to start living your God-given destiny and not the life that Satan wants you to live.

God loves you and He has more for you than you can even imagine. He wants to see you set free! The lie from the enemy is that you will never be able to get healed from the trauma and that you will never be able to get passed it. YES, YOU CAN! However, you have to make the choice to go through the healing process. You have to make the choice to let Jesus Christ set you free.

Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

John 8:36 (NKJV)

If you have not sincerely asked Jesus Christ to be your personal Lord and Savior, that is the place to start. Jesus wants to help you. He died for your freedom and healing. However, in order to begin the godly path for inner healing, you have to first invite Jesus into your life, ask God to forgive your sins, and repent by living according to God’s Word. Once you do that, you will be a born-again Christian and Jesus will be by your side every step of the way. May the Most High God bless you with His everlasting love as you surrender to His will for your life.

Kathy Shelton

Jesus Came to Heal Broken Hearts!

We have all been brokenhearted at one or more times during our lives.  The pain that we experience as a result of traumatic situations can be emotional, mental, spiritual, and even physical—and it can be intense!  Biblical, inner healing prayer ministry in Jesus’ name can help heal our broken hearts and release that pain.  It is a blessing from our Most High God to receive inner healing—freedom from emotional and/or spiritual pain and trauma.

Inner healing is the healing of emotional and spiritual pain that was caused by traumatic events.  Many of them were experienced in early childhood.  We all need inner healing because we have all been wounded emotionally and spiritually at some time in our lives.  Examples of traumatic events are emotional abuse, verbal abuse, mental abuse, spiritual abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, domestic violence, rejection, abandonment, betrayal, being the victim of a violent crime, the death of a loved one, divorce, accidents, and natural disasters.  These events all cause our hearts to be broken.  The good news is that Jesus came to heal broken hearts! 

When past pain or trauma is triggered, a person can act out of character, or react to a situation in a way that is out of proportion to what happened.  Until the pain and trauma are released and the broken parts of our hearts are healed, the cycle repeats itself.  To make matters worse, trauma piggybacks trauma and pain piggybacks pain.  They pile up within us.  The more pain and trauma that we suffer over the years, the more the resulting effects will be devastating and overwhelming to our minds, hearts, spirits and bodies.

“…He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives…”

Luke 4:18 (NKJV)

Luke 4:18 is a quote from Jesus Christ.  Almighty God loves us very much!  He does not want us to go through our lives carrying deep, and often debilitating, emotional and spiritual pain.  Jesus Christ, God’s Son, was born on this earth, died a horrific death and rose from the dead to set us free from sin and to heal our broken hearts!  The first step to freedom from pain and trauma is to sincerely accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior.  We must ask God for forgiveness for our sins in Jesus’ name and repent by changing our behavior to line up with God’s Word, the Holy Bible.  Then, the healing can begin in our hearts, minds and spirits.

Jesus heals broken hearts and strengthens relationships with Him, our Most High God and the Holy Spirit through Biblical inner healing ministry.  The goal of Biblical inner healing is for the ministry recipient to be healed and set free from past pain and trauma.  This is best accomplished through prayer done under the direction and control of the Holy Spirit.  During a ministry session, Jesus releases pain and trauma so that the ministry recipient can be free from that burden.  However, it is not necessary for the person to remember the trauma that caused the pain in order to receive healing and freedom from it.  Some people have also received physical healing as a result of inner healing ministry.

There are several Christian ministries that focus on Biblical healing.  They include the following:

  • Healing Rooms Ministries; website: http://healingrooms.com/. There are Healing Rooms Ministries all over the world. You can enter your city name or zip code on the website and find a location for a Healing Rooms nearest you. They are an International Association of Healing Rooms Ministries in churches and cities with a common vision to establish healing back into the body of Christ.
  • Restoration in Christ Ministries (RCM); website: www.rcm-usa.org.    RCM offers ministry to those whose lives have been shattered by abuse.  They also have an extensive training program for people called to minister to the broken hearted and help restore lives.
  • Restoring the Foundations (RTF); website: https://restoringthefoundations.org/.  They minister, teach, and train others to function as RTF ministry teams to help bring freedom and healing to followers of Jesus Christ.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty [emancipation from bondage, true freedom].   

     2 Corinthians 3:17 (AMP)

Our Most High God has revealed many things to us in His Word.  One of His promises to us is that healing and true freedom—liberty—are available to His children.  We are given the opportunity as genuine followers of Jesus Christ to pursue and receive Biblically based, inner healing for the pain from traumatic situations that we experienced.  The emotional and spiritual pain that we carry in our hearts, minds and spirits will interfere with our abilities to have close relationships with Almighty God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  It will also hinder our abilities to serve the Lord and to fulfill our God-given destinies.  We cannot fully connect to our Heavenly Father while we have pain and trauma buried inside us.  Addressing emotional and spiritual pain and trauma in Christ-honoring ways will set us free and allow us to experience the joy of the Lord!

               Kathy Shelton

Why did this happen to me?

  Trauma…

Abuse
Rape
Molestation
Divorce
Betrayal
Rejection
Abandonment
Domestic Violence
Death of a Loved One

The list goes on and on. These are all horrible things that can happen to us as we go through life. Traumatic events such as those above and others can cause intense pain in our hearts, minds and spirits!

We may ask ourselves the question, “Why did this happen to me?”  That is a dangerous question because it can lead to bitterness, anger, resentment, blaming God, or blaming ourselves. The pain from traumatic experiences can relentlessly torment us unless we receive healing and freedom from that pain and trauma. When deeply painful things happen to us, including the death of a loved one, betrayal, divorce, abuse, or any other traumatic event, we can be overwhelmed with so much emotional pain that it can lead to physical illness. Yes, the emotional and/or spiritual pain that we carry can, and often does, lead to short-term (acute) and long-term (chronic) physical illness.

The answer is not to allow the pain from the trauma to destroy us, or our relationships with the Most High God. The answer is not to stuff the pain. The answer is not to medicate it with illegal drugs. The answer is not to drown it in alcohol. The answer is not to do anything else harmful to try to deaden the pain. However, there are times, especially for those with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), that medication is necessary and helpful to treat severe symptoms that are the result of extreme, life-threatening trauma. Medication may also be necessary to treat physical illness that results from trauma. However, the overuse of any medication can lead to addiction, which is often the result of deep emotional pain.

We must do our best not to focus on why the traumatic situations happened in our lives. Focusing on how to be more than conquerors through God in Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 8:37-39) is much better for our emotional, mental and spiritual well-being. The ultimate answer to the emotional and spiritual pain we suffer is to seek healing through Jesus Christ—the Healer. He came to set the captives free. He came to heal the brokenhearted (Luke 4:18).  Jesus said:

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;”

Luke 4:18 (NKJV)

There is so much that we have yet to learn about how pain and trauma affect our brains, our spirits, our DNA, and everything about us. However, as long as we continue to strive to receive the healing we need and not just give in to the pain, there is hope. The hope is in the fact that Jesus Christ came to heal the brokenhearted! As I stated above, we all have free wills. That is how we are able to accept God’s gift of salvation through the birth, death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. We are all given the opportunity to sincerely ask Jesus to be our personal Lord and Savior and spend eternity in Heaven. When we do that, we can have real hope.

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13 (NKJV)

If you are in such intense emotional pain that you are using illegal drugs or over using prescribed drugs to medicate it, drowning it in alcohol, or participating in some other addiction or behavior that helps you to numb the pain, you need to realize that the cause of the pain must be addressed. We have to admit that we are brokenhearted. We have to acknowledge that the pain is damaging our relationships with others, especially our relationships with God. We have to draw as close to Him as we can, seek His healing, and seek His restoration. We must reach out for help in getting free and healed from the emotional and spiritual pain. There is help available through Christian prayer ministers and others who use the Holy Bible as their basis for helping people receive needed inner healing.

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Psalm 34:18 (NASB)

Jesus will never cause you pain. He brings comfort. He brings healing. His healing is not superficial and it is not temporary. It is lasting and it is the only way to get out of the prison that the trauma has put you in. There is a light at the end of the very dark tunnel of emotional and spiritual pain. Jesus is that light!

The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying:
“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.”

Jeremiah 31:3 (NKJV)

We can rejoice in that truth. God loves us with an everlasting love! He wants us to know that there is help available for the healing of our broken hearts through His Son, Jesus!

Kathy Shelton

Are you BLESSED, but a MESS?

The answer to the question, “Are you BLESSED,” is yes if Jesus Christ, the Son of the Most High God, is truly your Lord and Savior!  Then, you are blessed because you can look forward to spending eternity with Him and Father God in Heaven.  However, having a genuine, personal relationship with the Lord does not automatically heal all the pain and trauma in our hearts and spirits.  In spite of having accepted the Lord Jesus Christ into your heart and life, you may still be a mess emotionally and spiritually.

The Body of Christ is blessed… but it is a mess!

Please don’t take this the wrong way.  I love our brothers and sisters-in-the-Lord who are genuine followers of Jesus Christ.  However, it is time for us to acknowledge the pain and trauma that the Body of Christ—the true Church—is carrying.  In the same way that people who are not Christians do, sincere Christians have experienced and stuffed pain from past and current trauma. 

Addiction to alcohol, drugs—legal and illegal, pornography, and other forms of escape may be the result of a person trying to numb the emotional, spiritual, and sometimes the resulting physical pain.  Knowing that we experienced emotional or spiritual trauma is not an excuse to continue abusing addictive substances, nor is it an excuse to do other ungodly things to numb the pain.  Once we realize that pain and trauma are at the root of an addiction, we must seek help to receive godly healing and freedom.

Situations we experience during our lives that cause pain and trauma, including abuse whether emotional, verbal, mental, spiritual, sexual and/or physical, the death of a loved one, divorce, broken relationships, domestic violence, accidents, natural disasters, rejection, betrayal, and rape, always lead to a broken heart.  There are also untold numbers of wolves in sheep’s clothing who pretend to be Christians and break the hearts of sincere followers of Jesus Christ.  Countless, genuine Christians have broken hearts!

Tragically, the end result of overwhelming pain and trauma can be suicide, or attempted suicide.  When a professing Christian takes his or her own life, people may think they were not really a believer, but that is not necessarily the case.  True Christians are just as susceptible to the devastating pain that results from trauma in their lives as are non-believers.  In addition, the devil wants nothing more than to destroy peoples’ lives, especially Christians’ lives.  If he can plant thoughts of committing suicide as a way to escape unimaginable emotional and spiritual pain, he will do just that. 

I have experienced dozens of extremely traumatic situations in my life.  I became a born-again Christian in 1986, but prior to that I was raised Catholic and taught about God and His Son, Jesus.  Sadly, I attempted suicide two times, once in 1972 and the second time in 1982.  When the circumstances occurred that caused crushing, intense emotional pain for me, I just wanted the pain to stop.  I thought that death was the only option.  I was very wrong.  I praise the Most High God that I survived those suicide attempts and became one of His children on October 16, 1986!

As a result of Healing the Brokenhearted prayer ministry that I received in 2008, I learned that emotional pain and trauma from the past that I had suppressed was at the root of those suicide attempts decades earlier. During prayer, Jesus Christ released that emotional pain and trauma!  I praise the Lord that I am now completely free of the emotional and spiritual pain that resulted in those suicide attempts.  Freedom from past pain and trauma through Jesus Christ is lasting freedom! 

Over the years, I have prayed with hundreds of men and women who had stuffed pain for years and often decades. They were a mess, emotionally, spiritually, and sometimes physically.  The emotional and spiritual pain they were carrying was often so overwhelming that the only way they could survive was to deny it even existed.  They were all blessed as followers of Jesus Christ, but they were absolutely brokenhearted.

This is the bottom line—please seek help if you are brokenhearted and feel stuck in the pain and trauma.  There is a HELPFUL RESOURCES page on this website (CLICK HERE).  Genuine Christians have the opportunity to be set free from devastating emotional and spiritual pain and trauma through the precious blood of Jesus Christ, but we must pursue inner healing to be able to fully live out our God-given destinies.

    “…He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives…”     Luke 4:18 (NKJV)

Luke 4:18 is a quote from Jesus Christ!  Jesus does not want us to go through our lives carrying deep, and often debilitating, emotional and spiritual pain.  The first step to freedom from pain and trauma is sincerely accepting Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior.  Then, the healing can begin in our hearts, minds and spirits.  Jesus loves us very much and He wants to set us free! 

Kathy Shelton

Thankfulness… One Leper Returned

And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.

Luke 17:15-16 (NKJV)

Luke 17, verses 11-19, recounts the story of the ten lepers who were healed by Jesus at the same time. It is a remarkable testimony of the genuine thankfulness of the one leper who returned to thank Jesus and give glory to God. However, it is also a very sad statement that the other nine lepers did not return once they realized that they had been healed.

The one extremely grateful man glorified God with a loud voice! He wanted everyone to know that Jesus healed him and how thankful he was to God. He did not just continue on his way as the other nine did, accepting the miraculous gift of cleansing, but failing to go back and thank the One who had mercy on them.

Besides returning to thank Jesus, this one leper also showed his great thankfulness by falling down on his face at Jesus’ feet. He did not just glorify God verbally, but he demonstrated his immense gratitude with his physical actions as well. He humbled himself, knowing that only God could have done such an incredible healing. His physical suffering from the horrible effects of leprosy was over. The terrible social stigma of being a leper was also ended. The emotional pain and trauma connected to that would no longer continue. He was overwhelmed with thankfulness!

Although being healed of leprosy was a miraculous example of healing, the most important healing anyone can receive is the healing of their heart and spirit through a sincere conversion to becoming a follower of Jesus Christ by asking Him to be their personal Lord and Savior! As followers of Jesus, we should also be overwhelmed with thankfulness regardless of what might be happening in our lives. Our hearts and spirits should reflect the amazing gift we have been given of being forgiven for our sins and welcomed into God’s family. We are children of the King of Glory! We are sons and daughters of the Most High God! The undeserved gift of salvation is more than enough for us to be forever grateful to the Lord.

We must show our thankfulness and love for Jesus by obeying God’s Word and allowing the Holy Spirit to convict us when we fall short of living the godly life that the Lord desires for us. When that happens, we must ask God to forgive us in Jesus’ name, and repent by changing our attitudes and behavior. Repeating the same sin over and over does not indicate that we are truly thankful for Jesus’ incredible sacrifice. Only genuine repentance— having a change of heart and following the Lord’s instructions—demonstrates how much we love Jesus and how grateful we are for what He has done for us. 

Too many people, including a large number of Christians, take everything for granted and have an attitude of entitlement. They act like they deserve blessings from God—like the Creator of the Universe owes them something. If we do not surrender our lives to the Lord in humility and have a sincere, personal relationship with Jesus, what we deserve is punishment for our sins. That includes spending an eternity after physical death in Hell—separated from Almighty God forever. None of us deserve any blessings without living a life of obedience and thankfulness to our Most High God. However, thanks to our merciful and loving, Heavenly Father, He does bless us if we accept His Son, Jesus, and live according to God’s Word. That includes being thankful to the One who sent His Son to die for us and to heal our broken hearts and spirits.

An attitude of entitlement is an ungrateful attitude. It is also a sign that people do not really understand Who provides for them. How could the nine lepers not return and thank Jesus? The Scripture says that the one who returned was a Samaritan. The Samaritans and Jews normally despised each other. Jesus was a Jew, but this Samaritan man did not care about that fact. That one leper was exceptionally grateful and honored Jesus!

Jesus Christ, God’s Son, was a wonderful example of giving thanks to God. The Bible contains several instances where Jesus gave thanks, including the following one in Matthew 15.

And He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude.

Matthew 15:36 (NKJV)

Paul exhorted believers to give thanks as well. In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, he urged followers of Jesus to give thanks in every situation no matter what the circumstances. We need to be thankful in every situation, not necessarily for every situation. Paul said that we should be thankful and continually give thanks to God for this is “the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.” The will of God for His children is that we are thankful and continually give thanks to Him! If we are not actively being thankful to God, then we are disobeying God’s Word. Disobedience to God’s will is sin and causes distance in our relationships with the Lord. It also hinders the healing of our hearts and spirits. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 must be put into practice in our lives!

Rejoice always and delight in your faith; be unceasing and persistent in prayer; in every situation [no matter what the circumstances] be thankful and continually give thanks to God; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (Amplified Bible)

Expressing and showing the Lord our thankfulness is an essential part of the inner healing process for emotional pain and trauma. We must verbalize our gratefulness to the Lord and share our testimonies of what He has done for us. There is no substitute for being thankful. It blesses the Lord when we thank Him and we bless others when we tell them how He has set us free. The more we do that, the more freedom we will receive. Our broken hearts will continue to be healed as we deliberately and daily thank God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit for every blessing in our lives, especially the priceless gift of being able to spend eternity in Heaven with the Lord.  

Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.

Psalm 118:1 (NKJV)

Kathy Shelton

Listen to the Lord!

Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?”

Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

John 18:37 (NKJV)

According to the Word of God, if we are genuine followers of Jesus Christ and He is our personal Lord and Savior, we are supposed to hear the voice of Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords! However, we must listen to hear His voice. Listening is sometimes difficult due to all the noise in our environment that interferes with His voice. It is like the difficulty of tuning a radio when we are trying to find a specific signal for a station, but all that is heard is static and interference from other signals. Our lives and minds are bombarded with sounds from everything we are exposed to in this world, including our own thoughts and the voice of the enemy, Satan.  Jesus said:

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

John 10:27 (NKJV)

To focus on listening to the Lord, we must learn to tune out everything that is not from our Most High God, Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit. That means turning off all devices that distract us and hinder us from being able to hear God’s still small voice (1 Kings 19:12). To practice listening to the Lord, it is crucial that we turn off the television, phone, tablet, radio, computer and all other electronic devices. We also have to take time away from friends and family to be alone with our Most High God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit on a regular basis in order to develop the ability to clearly hear the Lord. The more we become familiar with His voice, the easier it will be to hear Him and discern His voice in the midst of the distractions around us.

When we are having a particularly hard time hearing the voice of the Lord, we need to pray to tune in better. We can command all voices that are not from God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit to be silent in Jesus’ name! This is such a simple thing to do. Based on our authority as sincere followers of Jesus Christ, it will result in the quieting of our minds, hearts and spirits from the ungodly noise and static. We cannot experience God’s peace unless we practice listening carefully to the Lord’s voice and following His directions!

However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.  He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.

John 16:13-14 (NKJV)

The Holy Spirit will lead us and guide us in our daily lives to make godly choices and decisions if we listen to Him. What we do will glorify our Most High God if we are obedient to follow the truth that the Holy Spirit reveals to us. That truth will always line up with God’s Word and ultimately result in good in our lives. The Lord will never tell us to do anything to cause us harm. However, we may not understand how painful events will lead to good when they are happening to us. That is why we must know—that we know—that we know—that we heard the voice of the Lord directing us in our decisions. As long as we have that confidence that we are in God’s will, the outcome will always result in good for us in the end (Romans 8:28).

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

Romans 8:28 (NKJV)

Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

Isaiah 53:4-5 (NKJV)

Hearing and listening carefully to the Lord is also essential for us to receive freedom from pain and trauma and healing for our broken hearts. The Lord knows us better than anyone, including ourselves. He knows what we need to do to receive the release of emotional and spiritual pain that is hidden within our hearts and spirits. Because of His amazing love, God sent His Son, Jesus, to offer everyone the opportunity to receive freedom and healing. Jesus carried our grief and sorrows on the cross. The Holy Spirit came to comfort us in our grief and sorrows. Our Most High God has provided the answers for the healing of terrible emotional and spiritual pain. Our job is to listen to God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and obey the guidance they give us. As we do that, we will receive peace and our hearts will be healed!  Jesus said:

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

John 14:27 (NKJV)

Kathy Shelton