Deadly Rumination--It MUST Stop!

If I want to make God happy, I must give Him the opportunity to bless me.  It is God’s nature to give, to bless. 

What God requires of the BORN AGAIN is faith and obedience to His commandments and precepts found in the owner’s manual, God’s Holy Bible; and He directs you and I to praise Him.  When I understand the nature of God, I will recognize that what He requires of us is not self-serving at all.  His joy is in blessing.  Acts 20:35:

I have showed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. 

This truth will demonstrate the nature of God.  Every commandment and precept found in God’s Word was given for our edification.  Inherent within every one of them is a blessing or a curse.  Because God’s Word is true and righteous altogether, obeying it yields the fruit, the blessing of doing the right thing.  Because God’s Word is true and righteous altogether, disobeying it yields the deadly fruit, the curse of doing the wrong thing.  For example, Leviticus Chapter 11 and Deuteronomy Chapter 14 command us not to eat a bat or touch its corpse.  Covid-19 comes to mind.  When I have faith in and demonstrate obedience to God’s Word, I am in a blessable place, and in that place, God can bless me, and that makes Him happy.

Man doesn’t handle self-praise well.  We are directed to turn that praise unto God.  God inhabits, or dwells in, the praises of His people.  Psalm 22:3:

But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

When God inhabits my praise, darkness must vacate immediately.  The powers of God’s deliverance and His joy will dwell in me, and this makes God happy because I am in a blessable place.   God wants to bless us.

Have you yet to be BORN AGAIN?  If you follow me in a simple prompt, today will surely be the best day of your life and, as you walk in faith and obedience, every day after will be better, even and especially the dark and hard days. Today, all your sin and shame will be washed clean by Christ’s cleansing blood. Today, the devil’s bondages in your life will be broken.  You will be free!  Today, you will become brand-new.  Jesus appropriately names it BORN AGAIN.  John 3:3:

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Today, you can enter into the ultimate blessable place.  Today, you can make God happy.  Here is the simple prompt I promised: Click onto Further with Jesus for childlike instructions and immediate entry in the Kingdom of God. NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Mark 11:25-26:

25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

26 But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.

GOD SAID, Hebrews 12:15:

Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

GOD SAID, Jeremiah 31:34:

And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

MAN SAID: I am offended by these Bible-thumping do-gooders.  Get out of my face, you Jesus freaks!

Now THE RECORD: Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature 1109 that will once again certify the glorious and supernatural authorship of the Holy Bible.  Each feature is archived here in text and streaming audio for the edification of the blood-bought and as Holy Ghost bait for the fishers of men.  Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one.

Thank you for coming.  May God’s marvelous face shine upon you with Light and Truth.

Self-examination is critical to the child of God.  II Corinthians 13:5:

Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

It is my responsibility to judge myself and not others.  I am not talking about self-condemnation, but rather Godly conviction unto correction and unto perfection.  This is our job.  Consider these sobering verses in Psalm 50:16-17:

16 But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?

17 Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee.

Verse 16 begins “but unto the wicked.”  These individuals talk of God’s Word and take the promise, the covenant, of salvation in their mouth, but cast off the instructions and restrictions of God’s Word.  I purposefully won’t know individuals by name that I would lump into this group, but I know of that spirit that prevails amongst the churched and has infiltrated by a large proportion. May God have mercy on you and me that we don’t fall into that number.  I John 2:4:

He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.    

I went to visit a middle-aged woman who was in the hospital. She immediately began to recount her life’s story, highlighting all that had harmed her along the way.  She relived the angst and the trauma associated with each individual event or person, stacking one upon another.  This woman was bound by the spirit of unforgiveness, something the medical world knows as rumination, and she filled the room with a thick darkness of despair and hopelessness. 

I have been a pastor for many years, and in those many years, I have noted that a heavy spirit of unforgiveness has taken up habitation in the hearts of many confessing Christians.  This is such a terribly dangerous place! 

Jesus makes this amazing promise in Mark 11:22-24:

22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

“Hallelujah! That’s marvelous,” everyone exclaims!  But, what about Verses 25 and 26?

25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

26 But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.

If I do not forgive, I am not forgiven!  Wow!  That’s sobering!  If one confesses the Lord Jesus Christ, laying hold on all the great promises of the covenant, yet harbors (gives place to) the spirit of unforgiveness, that spirit makes the promises void.  Some of you visiting today have a spirit of unforgiveness dwelling in your heart.  You are in a constant state of jeopardy, but that will change today if you follow the simple instructions coming up in a few minutes.

Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 6:12:

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.    

I must forgive if I want forgiveness. 

✟ Matthew 6:14-15:

14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:

15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

✟ Matthew 18:21-35:

21 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?

22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

23 Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants.

24 And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.

25 But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.

26 The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.

27 Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.

28 But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.

29 And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.

30 And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.

31 So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done.

32 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:

33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?

34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.

35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

✟ Luke 6:35-38:

35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.

36 Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.

37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:

38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

✟ Matthew 5:43-48:

43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

It is CLEAR! If you want to be forgiven, you must forgive and even love your enemies and seek their good.

We were first called Christians, meaning followers of Christ, at Antioch (Acts 11:26), and this is the example the King of Glory left.  Luke 23:34:

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.

The young brother Stephen was being stoned to death for the testimony of Jesus Christ.  His response is recorded in Acts 7:59-60:

59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.  

Stephen prayed for his enemies.  The man who authorized the stoning, at whose feet the murderers laid their coats, was Saul of Tarsus. This Saul of Tarsus, after a miraculous conversion, became Paul the Apostle.  Forgiveness is not optional in the house of faith.

This cardinal verse will always be true.  Galatians 6:7:

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

If I reject the ordinances of the Book and continue on in the spirit of unforgiveness, I will reap the curse of doing the wrong thing, and this is the eternal curse of God’s unforgiveness.

The medical community knows the spirit of unforgiveness as rumination.  The following excerpts are from Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience:

Rumination is a form of preservative cognition that focuses on negative content, generally past and present, and results in emotional distress.  Initial studies of rumination emerged in the psychological literature, particularly with regard to studies examining specific facets of rumination (e.g., positive vs. negative rumination, brooding vs. self-reflection, relationships with catastrophic thinking, role of impaired disengagement, state vs. trait features) as well as the presence of rumination in various psychiatric syndromes (e.g., depression, alcohol misuse, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, bulimia nervosa).  Rumination studies are now emerging in the somatic literature, particularly in relationship to pain. In these studies, rumination appears to be associated with symptom magnification as well as poorer clinical outcomes.  While still a nascent field, the assessment and treatment of rumination in primary care settings is beginning to unfold.

While present in a number of psychiatric syndromes, rumination also appears to influence some somatic syndromes such as perceptions of health.  In somatic syndromes, rumination may play a role in symptom magnification as well as psychobiological changes due to rumination-induced stress. Rumination in somatic syndromes is most studied with regard to pain, and findings indicate that rumination typically results in an intensification of pain symptoms as well as poorer clinical outcomes. 

In highlighting the differences between rumination and worry, Nolan-Hoeksema et al state that rumination tends to be anchored around the sustained processing of negative material whereas worry tends to be anchored around the sustained processing of uncertainty.  The content of rumination tends to be more focused in the past and/or present whereas worry tends to be more focused on the future.  The content of rumination may be condensed into a distinct theme of loss whereas the content of worry tends to condense into themes of anticipated threat.

Associations between rumination and perceived impairment in general somatic health.  A number of studies have confirmed associations between rumination and the perception of poor physical health.  For example, rumination has been associated with health anxiety in college students, emotional distress in chronic illness, self-reported somatic complaints among British and Dutch children, and hypochondriasis.

Rumination and pain.  The largest number of clinical studies in this somatic area are those examining relationships between rumination and pain, and most have studied pain populations with the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS).  The PCS has three underlying components—rumination, helplessness, and magnification—and in studies, rumination is oftentimes the most germane.

As for studies using the PCS, Sullivan, Bishop, and Pivik examined 425 Canadian undergraduate students and, as expected, higher scores on this scale exhibited more negative attitudes toward pain, greater emotional distress, and greater pain intensity.  In a study from Belgium, Nijs et all examined 36 patients with widespread pain due to chronic fatigue syndrome using the PCS; pain catastrophizing was related to overall bodily pain. [End of quotes]

The spirit of unforgiveness eats the one who is given to it alive.  Unforgiveness spawns bitterness.

✟ Hebrews 12:15:

Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

✟ Ephesians 4:31:

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

The following passage is from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Ship, Come Alive!”

Dr. Andrew Newberg, with co-author Mark R. Waldman, wrote the book How God Changes Your Brain.  At the time of publication, Dr. Newberg is the director of the Center for Spirituality and the Mind at the University of Pennsylvania, and one of the founders of the new interdisciplinary field called neurotheology.  Mr. Waldman is an associate fellow at the Center for Spirituality and the Mind, a therapist, and the author and co-author of ten books.  The following is from the book How God Changes Your Brain:

I want to bring up an important but often overlooked point.  What you choose to meditate upon, or pray for, can do more than change your brain.  You can damage it, especially if you choose to focus of something that makes you frightened or angry.  In psychology, this is called “rumination,” and it is clearly hazardous to your health.  In a Stanford brain-scan study, people who focused on negative aspects of themselves, or on a negative interpretation of life, had increased activity in their amygdala.  This generated waves of fear, releasing a torrent of destructive neurochemicals into the brain. [End of quote]

Again, Galatians 6:7:

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

Thoughts, which are spiritual in nature, produce physical outcomes, good or bad, and I have been given charge as a believer to control the dialogue. I am reminded of I Thessalonians 4:4:

That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;

I must possess my own vessel. 

Again, from “Ship, Come Alive!”

In the book Switch on Your Brain, Dr. Caroline Leaf demonstrates the power of death and life that’s in the tongue.  Dr. Leaf’s biography reads, in part:

Dr. Caroline Leaf is a communication pathologist and audiologist who has worked in the area of cognitive neuroscience since 1985.  Her pioneering work on neuroplasticity—that changes in thinking actually change the brain and can effect behavioral change—paved the way for her current research on how scientific principles are supported by Scripture and vice versa.

Passages from Switch on Your Brain follow:

You are a thinking being.  You think all day long, and at night as you sleep, you sort out your thinking.  As you think, you choose, and as you choose, you cause genetic expression to happen in your brain.  This means you make proteins, and these proteins form your thoughts.  Thoughts are real, physical things that occupy mental real estate. 

Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  Whatever you believe in and hope for becomes substance on a physical level, and you act upon this.  This process can move in either direction—negative or positive. 

It is very interesting that every cell in the body is connected to the heart, and the brain controls the heart, and the mind controls the brain.  So whatever we are thinking about affects every cell in our body.

When you make a conscious decision to focus and direct your attention correctly, you change physical matter—your brain and your body change in a healthy way. [End of quotes]

From the GodSaidManSaid feature, “God’s Brain and Harnessing the Placebo:”

You’re aware of the placebo effect.  In clinical measurements, for instance, a proposed medical remedy is measured by taking a group of people and distributing the correct medical product to part of the group and a harmless sugar pill—or placebo—to the other part.  Results are then tabulated.  According to the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, the placebo (sugar pill) clocks in with a cure rate of 33%, which is sometimes higher than the proposed remedy that is administered.  They also discovered that the benefits of the fake placebo spikes measurably upward if the doctor talks up the benefits of the fake placebo.  It’s a matter of words.  Converse to the placebo effect is an effect now known as the nocebo effect, which is the simple, measurable result of negative words. 

What science calls placebo, the Bible calls hope.  Medical researchers are shocked at what they’re finding. Discover magazine’s July/August 2014 publication, in an eight-page spread, addresses the subject of the placebo effect.  The subhead of the feature reads, “Once dismissed as a psychological curiosity, the placebo effect is now recognized as the key to the brain’s ‘inner pharmacy.’ If only doctors knew how to open the medicine cabinet.”  Excerpts from the article follow:

The new evidence has established that placebos trigger the brain’s “inner pharmacy”—in essence, a warehouse perpetually stocked to deliver active drugs to itself.  In addition to improving Parkinson’s symptoms, that same inner pharmacy can affect conditions like pain, depression, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety, schizophrenia, and more.  As the placebo effect emerges from a long history in the shadows, the new question is:  How can we use this age-old brain trick to our advantage?

When Wager analyzed subjects’ brain activity, he found that people who reported the greatest relief after receiving a placebo also showed the strongest reduction in activity in the ACC, the thalamus, and the insula, all evolutionarily primitive brain structures that respond to physical pain. 

Suddenly, it was clear that when a patient improved on placebo, it wasn’t just some delusion or an effort to please a person in a lab coat.  It was a measurable brain event and reflected an actual reduction in the experience of pain. 

Today, placebos are widely recognized not as a psychological mirage, but as a potent inner pharmacy that we might someday even harness. 

But the real placebo revolution may be in reshaping clinical practice.  Jensen says many doctors cripple their chances of leveraging the placebo effect by acting disinterested or lacking confidence with patients.  She would know:  When she started out, she had trouble eliciting a placebo effect.  It was the doctor, not the patient, who had to change in order to boost the placebo.  She learned to exude confidence and crafted a warmer manner, and her patients began to respond.  [End of quotes]

The thoughts we fixate on will deliver real physical results.  This is a cardinal law. 

Several months ago, a brother and I were ministering the baptism of the Holy Ghost to a young gentleman.  After he was instructed in the Scriptures, we laid hands upon him, and I said: “Brother ‘Jack’ (not his real name), receive ye the gift of the Holy Ghost!” My ministering brother and I began to speak in unknown tongues and, for about five seconds, we waited for the young man to step out of the boat and enter in.  However, he did not.  We stopped, and I asked Jack if he had unforgiveness in his heart against anyone or anything.  Jack responded that he did.  It took about five minutes for Jack to confess and to be set free of the blocking spirit.  We laid hands on Jack again, and he immediately received the gift of the Holy Ghost.  Jack began to speak in other tongues, just as they did on the day of Pentecost. 

Remember that spirits have lips, hands, teeth, and feet.  Angels are ministering spirits. The cursed spirit of unforgiveness devours individual lives and entire families.  If you are participating, THIS MUST STOP!!

Just like Jack, we are going to smash the spirit of unforgiveness and bitterness in five minutes or less. 

THE SEVEN STEPS OF DELIVERANCE:

1.  Ask God to forgive you for giving place to the evil spirit of unforgiveness.  Now, I John 1:7 applies:

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

2. Think of the person or persons, one-by-one.  The person you need to forgive can even include yourself.  Now, confess with your mouth the individual’s name, and as you speak the name, say “I forgive you in Jesus’s name, and in His name, I love you and will seek your good.” 

3. Now speak: “Thank you, Father, for breaking the dark spirit of unforgiveness and setting my captive soul free!” 

4.  In the faith, they are known as “Gos-pills.” Using 3x5 cards, write each verse below on a card:

✤ Mark 11:25-26 (one verse on each card)

✤ Hebrews 12:15

✤ Luke 23:34

✤ Jeremiah 31:34

Take (read) these Gos-pills (cards) with a glass of living water several times a day until all symptoms are gone.  You will renew your mind.

5. Never speak ill of the person you have forgiven again.  Jeremiah 31:34:

And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

It is ungodly to hold onto the bitter memory.

6. Avoid being drawn into rumination with others who are bound by the spirit of unforgiveness from which you have been delivered.  Admonish them in the Word.  Consider the following from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “God’s Brain and Harnessing the Placebo:”

Doubters, incessant moaners, and other types of pessimists, according to Doctors Brennan and Charnetski in their book, Feeling Good is Good for You, should be avoided like any kind of contagious problem because pessimism is a psychologically contagious disease.  In God’s system of mind control, these mindsets are commanded against—and yes, they are of nocebo kin. [End of quotes]

7. Stop now and consider your marvelous deliverance.  With appreciation, shout: “HALLELUJAH!!  I AM FREE!!” 

When the spirit of unforgiveness is destroyed, God will begin to restore what the enemy has destroyed.  God’s Word is true and righteous altogether, a place to build a life that will last forever. 

GOD SAID, Mark 11:25-26:

25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

26 But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.

GOD SAID, Hebrews 12:15:

Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

GOD SAID, Jeremiah 31:34:

And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

MAN SAID: I am offended by these Bible-thumping do-gooders.  Get out of my face, you Jesus freaks!

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

GodSaidManSaid, “God’s Brain & Harnessing the Placebo”

GodSaidManSaid, “Ship, Come Alive! (39,154,267,815 New Cells on Board)”

Sansone, R., & Sansone, L, “Rumination,” Innovations of Clinical Neuroscience, February 2012

 

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