Getting at the heart of it all

Have you ever seen someone so good with their skinning knife they can just peel away the hide of an animal without a rip or tear, no waste of any of the meat just below that skin? I have seen some fishermen able to fillet their catch with such skill not even one bone is found in the fillet. How do they learn this skill? I think it comes to them through practice and with the employment of the right 'tool' to do the job at hand. There is comfort in knowing that God means what he says and his Word will come to pass. His Word is like the scalpel in the skilled hands of a surgeon or the knife in the hands of the skilled hunter. As a nurse, I have seen the skillful use of the scalpel - dissecting away the finest of tissue to protect the healthy tissue and to expose the tissue that has become devitalized by disease or decay. I have also seen the damage done by a "blade" in the hands of one not trained or at all skilled in its use. The difference is beyond description.

God means what he says. What he says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon's scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey. Nothing and no one is impervious to God's Word. We can't get away from it—no matter what. (Hebrews 4:12-13)

Dissection is the process of taking apart the various parts until each part is exposed as uniquely separate from the other. The purpose is to bring separation.  In his hands, the Word cuts through our doubts. It reduces our defenses. In turn, it lays us open - not to bring damage through exposure of these parts, but to bring us to a place where we can see the aspects of our doubts and defenses at the "root". It separates our doubts and defenses away from our heart so he is free to get to work repairing the heart! No true analysis of our doubt is possible without understanding what contributes to that doubt - he needs to get at the root of the doubt. When we finally see the roots of our doubt (past hurts, inability to trust based on fear of rejection, etc), we are better able to allow him to show us how to bind up our wounds and to step out in faith. The purpose of exposure (separating those things from their attachment in our heart) was to bring us to a place of listening and obedience.

The same is true about our defenses. Without revealing the real reason we set them up (pride, anger, fear, etc), we will never be successful in seeing those defensive walls brought down. The walls did not go up in one day and they will not come down in one day! There is a process of taking apart the various "pieces" of the walls of our defense until all that is left is the total freedom of passage. That which remains hidden behind the wall is never truly able to be touched by God or others until we are willing for this "disassembling" or separating of the pieces. The reduction of our walls of defense may be catastrophic if a bulldozer simply pushes them down, but in the hands of Jesus, one stone is removed at a time until we no longer "need" to hide behind that wall any longer.

The really good news is that we cannot escape the Word of God. It has an impact in the lives of all that hear it - it has the same ability to separate in me as it does in you. We might not realize the complete impact of the "scalpel" until much later on, but once the health returns to the tissue, the realization of the healing is apparent. We don't realize what has been missing from our "line of sight" until the wall is finally down. That is what God is after when he uses his Word in his tenderly, skillful way. He brings health and he broadens our line of sight. Stop nursing your wounds - allow God to bring health to your life again. Stop limiting your "line of sight" - allow him to expand you beyond measure. His skill in doing both is beyond what you'd ever imagine possible! Just sayin!