Chapter 9, Section 3 of 4
There Is Buried Treasure
(taken from the book "I Will Give You Rest" by Edward Kurath)
What Happens When We Were Not
Heard
Mary is also a newborn baby. She wakes up in the middle of the
night, and she too is hungry. She responds to that negative
feeling by crying. But her mother is a not a good mother. Mother
has her boyfriend over, and they have been drinking. The last
thing she wants to do right at that moment is to take care of a
crying baby. So Mary's mother, storms into Mary's room, rushes
over to the crib, and screams, "I'll give you something to cry
about, you little brat," and she smacks Mary on the bottom. Then
Mother stomps out of the room, and slams the door.
What's going on inside Mary? Not only is she still hungry, but
now she has a sore bottom. She has been traumatized, and that
drowns out her hunger pangs. Responding to the uncomfortable
hunger feeling by crying did not help. In fact little Mary is worse
off than before she cried. So the conclusion that Mary will come
to (again, not verbally) is that the hunger feeling coming up from
the Treasure Inside caused trouble. When she responded to that
feeling, bad things happened.
Separating From Herself
Her conclusion is that what is in the Treasure Inside can be
trouble. So a process of judging her Treasure Inside begins, and
a desire to bury what she feels (the messages from her Treasure
Inside) begins.
Diagram Showing A Loss Of
Willingness To Respond To The
Feelings From The Treasure
Inside: The Building Of A Wall
Inside.
The problem develops:
These Experiences Are Frequent
In Childhood
Interactions with the World happen a countless number of times
to every little child as they grow up. The result of this process can
lead to either growing in their ability to hear what is coming up
from the Treasure Inside, or a growing tendency to repress those
messages. If enough repressing goes on, if there are enough
events that invalidate what is coming up from the Treasure Inside,
eventually the person won't hear those inner voices anymore.
They have lost the use of those valuable resources in their
Treasure Inside. They have built a “heart of stone."
The Wall
God intended for us to be whole so that we can truly be like Him.
We need all of the attributes that are in both our Head and our
Treasure Inside. Neither part is bad, and neither part is
superfluous. Sometimes we need to analyze a situation with our
intellect and then simply go and do it. Sometimes we need to
listen to the messages from our Treasure Inside and act on what
they tell us.
However, The Wall we have built interferes with our ability to hear
these internal messages. The Wall wasn’t supposed to be there,
and you can see from the previous diagram that when The Wall is
present our access to the Treasure Inside is inhibited.
If there is enough repressing going on, if there are
enough events that invalidate what is coming up from
their Treasure Inside, eventually they won't hear those
inner voices anymore.
We Become Crippled!
In this case we have to try to live all aspects of our life from our
Head, and we may not even be aware that the Treasure Inside
exists. Without access to those attributes inside, we fail in some
aspects of our life.
For instance, a wife may be complaining that her husband can't
communicate with her. She expects him to know what is going on
inside her, yet she does not communicate her needs directly. Her
husband is very frustrated because he is not a "mind reader." He
asks himself, "How in the world am I supposed to know what she
is feeling when she does not seem to know herself?"
The problem comes about because the husband is cut off from
his Treasure Inside. In that place inside he does feel her pain and
does know what is going on inside her. There is ongoing
communication between her Treasure Inside and his Treasure
Inside. However, the awareness of that information never makes
it through his Wall to his conscious mind (his Head). He becomes
frustrated, and his wife does not feel heard. Because of the
presence of The Wall in him, the marriage is much less intimate
and rewarding than God meant it to be.
It is also quite likely that the wife also has a Wall, and therefore
she too may not have a clear awareness of what her own needs
are.
When The Wall is built, in a sense the person has buried
their humanity.
Separation From God
The living Lord communes with our personal spirit. We are
designed to have a personal relationship with Him through this
part of our Treasure Inside. When we can hear God's voice, we
will be reliably guided by Him and prevented from sinning. We will
be able to discern Satan's traps and accurately identify the
deceptions of the World. Satan loses.
However, when we have shut ourselves off from our Treasure
Inside, we become unaware of God's presence. We are separated
from Him by The Wall, and our ability to hear Him is impaired
(sometimes totally)! This is the greatest tragedy that results from
the building of The Wall.
Satan's Favorite Trick
I believe that building The Wall is Satan’s favorite scheme,
because he loves to see us cut off from God. When we are cut off
from God, we have to rely on our intellect, which is ill-equipped to
discern good and evil, right and wrong. Satan can then lead us
into all types of error. Satan wins.
Unfortunately, history is filled with examples of people who are
cut off from their Treasure Inside. Some examples are the
Crusades, the Inquisition in the Middle Ages, and the Holocaust.
These tragedies could not have happened if people had been able
to hear the living God, because the Holy Spirit would prevent them
from hurting other people in these cruel ways.
The Holy Spirit Is Meant To Be Our
Guide
The Holy Spirit was in agony over the pain being inflicted on the
victims, and spoke to the hearts of those inflicting the abuse. But
The Wall in these perpetrators prevented the message from
getting through to the conscious faculties in their Head. They
were unaware of the pain they were inflicting.
Diagram Showing How The Wall
Cuts Us Off From The Living God:
An unfortunate side effect:
I am not implying that our personal spirit is God. However, for
Christians it is true that God does dwell in our Treasure Inside.
Here I am simply illustrating the fact that though God does dwell
inside us and speaks to us, we may not be able to consciously
commune with Him because The Wall gets in the way.
Separation From Self
A second great tragedy that results from The Wall is a separation
from ourselves, a separation of our Head from our Treasure
Inside. The Treasure Inside is very important to us. The most
obvious result of separation from self is that we are shut off from
the benefit of all those attributes contained therein. In fact most of
our personhood, most of who we are, is in our Treasure Inside.
"We are much, much more than our conscious processes."
This Separation Causes Internal
Pain
But there is a more debilitating result than not being all we are
meant to be. Being cut off from ourselves causes incredible
internal pain. Our Treasure Inside is meant to be the best friend of
our Head, and suffers greatly when cut off from this relationship.
The pain comes about because we have decided that who we are
in the Treasure Inside isn’t acceptable. In fact, we conclude that
this part of us inside is bad! I call this internal pain the "Big Hurt,"
because it is the most excruciating emotional pain we experience.
I will discuss more about the "Big Hurt" later in this chapter.
Separation from Others
The Wall also affects our ability to have relationships with other
people. It is the part of us that is sensitive and has compassion. It
is the part of us which has relationship with another person. Real
relationship is heart-to-heart (Treasure Inside-to-Treasure Inside),
not Head-to-Head. There is actual communication that occurs at
the heart level. Jesus could tell what was going on in peoples'
hearts, and so can we. When we have access to this part of us,
we can then feel what the other person is feeling. This sensing is
called "empathy."
Relationships Are From Inside
Our personal spirit was given to us so that we can communicate
heart-to-heart in this way. However, if there is a Wall inside, our
ability to consciously hear what our personal spirit is saying is
impaired, or perhaps completely blocked. If completely blocked,
we are forced to try to figure out what is going on in the
relationship with only our head. Consequently, our relationships
are shallow. We cannot feel what others feel or sense what is
going on behind the personality they present to the world. It is
not possible for us to have intimacy in our relationships, because
intimacy is only made possible by the heart-to-heart connection.
Other people who are sensitive to their own Treasure Inside will
be able to sense that they are not connecting with us. We have
them locked out. Our relationships are hollow and not very
rewarding to either the other people or to us.
The Wall is a big problem for us, because it prevents us
from being whole. We are unable to access those
important gifts which are inside.
Men And Women Differ
Both men and women are wounded and react in the way I have
been explaining. Both do whatever they can to stop the pain
coming up from inside. However, God has so constructed men
that they are more efficient at building The Wall. Sometimes a
man's Wall can be so impenetrable that he is totally unaware of
what is going on in the Treasure Inside. Women are seldom able
to accomplish this degree of shutdown. Given the same amount
of wounding, women would also build a thick wall to stop the pain
if they could, but they can’t. They may hate themselves just as
much, and they may be equally shut off from being able to live
from the Treasure Inside, but they are less able to shut out the
pain.
We All Have A Treasure Inside
Men and women do not differ in what is in their Treasure Inside!
Both men and women have the same attributes. What has often
been labeled as "your feminine side," or "women's intuition" has
been so labeled because these attributes tend to be outwardly
evident in women.
However, the main differences between men and women are not
based on what is in their Treasure Inside, but rather on the
thickness of The Wall that inhibits what is in their Treasure Inside
from manifesting itself outwardly. Over the ages, men have
demonstrated these "feminine" gifts. For example, men are just
as intuitive and artistic as women.
Men Have Demonstrated
"Feminine" Gifts
In past history most of the well known artists, sculptors,
architects, musicians, and composers were men. The gifts were
obviously there, and in some men they managed to come out. Of
course, the reason women didn't manifest those gifts publicly in
the past was because until recently, they were prohibited by the
culture from doing so.
The main differences between men and women are not
based upon differences in what is in their Treasure
Inside, but on the thickness of The Wall.
How Can You Know If You Have A
Wall Inside?
Are you a human being? Then you have a Wall inside. For some
The Wall is like the vault at Fort Knox – nothing can get in or out.
For some it is like Swiss cheese – it is solid but has holes in it. For
some it is like a screen door – there is some interference, but there
are more holes than blockages.
How can you know to what extent your Wall is disabling you?
You can tell by the fruit demonstrated in your life. Often, if The
Wall is big and thick, you may be unaware of the hurt in the
Treasure Inside. You may even be unaware that something is
missing. You may simply know that you are not very empathetic,
or that you are not very spontaneous, or that you do not cry very
easily, or that you cannot hear God’s voice. Often the feedback of
other people is necessary to bring to light what you cannot see.
Often what you cannot see is obvious to those around you.
Since there are so many possible ways The Wall can manifest
itself, I will not try to go into detail here. It is very important to
realize that each person is unique. We were each created by God
to be unique, and we each have our own life experiences.
Consequently, there is no pat answer that fits all people.
Jesus Can Remove The Wall
The only way to unravel this complex puzzle is in a living
encounter with another person and the Lord. Only then can we
identify the bad fruit and deal with The Wall. To be whole we
always need to remove The Wall, and this should be the most
central necessity in Inner Healing. Once The Wall is dismantled,
the Lord is freed to be your Counselor, to heal you in the deepest
places hidden inside you.
How Can You Remove The Wall?
The Wall is made up of Judgments and Inner Vows. The
Judgments are against yourself (your Treasure Inside), and the
Inner Vows are decisions to not listen to the messages that come
up from the Treasure Inside.
For example, the little boy who skinned his knee feels pain
coming from the Treasure Inside. That Treasure Inside is
compelling him to do something that Dad disapproves of (to cry),
and it thus threatens to cause him the loss of Dad’s approval.
Therefore the little boy judges that place, the Treasure Inside, as
being trouble. He decides “I’m not going to be a wimp. I’m going
to be brave. I’m not going to listen to the pain anymore.” This is
an Inner Vow.
I have previously discussed how to be cleansed of Bitter Root
Judgments and how to renounce Inner Vows (Chapter 7). You
deal with these Judgments against yourself and the associated
Inner Vows in exactly the same way that you deal with them in
relationship with other people.
rejection, and yet your Treasure Inside is a part of you.
Yourself
You need to restore this relationship in exactly the same way as
you would restore a relationship with any other person. You need
to be proactive and pursue the restoration. You need to
persevere, and to correct immediately any future Judgments you
make against yourself. And you need to spend time in
relationship with your Treasure Inside (listening, valuing,
attending to, protecting, nurturing, blessing). Relationships
require time spent together, and interaction.
Your Most Important Human
Relationship
Bear in mind that your relationship with yourself is the most
important human relationship you have. Being able to have
access to those attributes in the Treasure Inside depends upon
you having a loving relationship with yourself. Having a Wall
inside interferes with your ability to hear God, to love Him, and to
love other people. Therefore, if you are at war within yourself, you
cannot possibly fully and freely love others.
Loving Yourself
Removing The Wall and keeping it from being rebuilt requires you
to not only tolerate your Treasure Inside, but to positively love
yourself. This is not selfishness or narcissism. It is obeying
Jesus’ second commandment to love others as you love
yourself. He did not say to love others and hate yourself. He
said this because you were made for love, and love must start
with your Treasure Inside before it can be manifested outside.
God is love, and as you are changed into His image, love must
permeate your being.
You Become Selfish When You
Are Empty Inside
Loving yourself does not lead to selfishness. You become selfish
when you are empty and needy inside. When you are needy, that
need impels you to strive for more of what you are missing. That
is the nature of any need. If the need is severe enough, you are
compulsively driven to fill that empty place, even in unhealthy
ways. That is when you become self-focused.
If right now I asked you for a glass of water, you would be pleased
to give me one. After all, you have plenty to spare. However, if
you have been wandering in the Sahara Desert for three days with
no water, all you would be able to think about would be getting a
drink of water. Your thirst would consume your attention,
because you would soon die if you didn't get a drink. If you then
found a single small glass of water, and I asked you to give it to
me, it would be almost impossible for you to be big hearted and to
let me have that glass of water which you so desperately need.
You would be literally driven to be "selfish."
Similarly, if you lack love for your Treasure Inside, you are
absolutely impelled to try to draw love out of others and out of life
to fill the void. Then your need is so great, and the demand inside
screams so loudly, you cannot hear others’ needs. You have no
reserves of love to give them. You are "selfish."
Loving Is An Ongoing Relationship
Loving is an ongoing necessity, not a one-time event. Thus you
need to walk daily, moment by moment, loving yourself. This is
the only way to continue to dismantle The Wall and to keep it from
being rebuilt. When you do actively love yourself in this way, you
will find it easier and easier to hear your Treasure Inside.
The Only Way To Love Others
You will also discover that you are loving God and other people.
You won't be trying to do this, you will do it effortlessly. You are
loving them because you have a surplus of love in your Treasure
Inside. The overflow of love is good fruit from a good root.
There Is Buried Treasure
(taken from the book "I Will Give You Rest" by Edward Kurath)
What Happens When We Were Not
Heard
Mary is also a newborn baby. She wakes up in the middle of the
night, and she too is hungry. She responds to that negative
feeling by crying. But her mother is a not a good mother. Mother
has her boyfriend over, and they have been drinking. The last
thing she wants to do right at that moment is to take care of a
crying baby. So Mary's mother, storms into Mary's room, rushes
over to the crib, and screams, "I'll give you something to cry
about, you little brat," and she smacks Mary on the bottom. Then
Mother stomps out of the room, and slams the door.
What's going on inside Mary? Not only is she still hungry, but
now she has a sore bottom. She has been traumatized, and that
drowns out her hunger pangs. Responding to the uncomfortable
hunger feeling by crying did not help. In fact little Mary is worse
off than before she cried. So the conclusion that Mary will come
to (again, not verbally) is that the hunger feeling coming up from
the Treasure Inside caused trouble. When she responded to that
feeling, bad things happened.
Separating From Herself
Her conclusion is that what is in the Treasure Inside can be
trouble. So a process of judging her Treasure Inside begins, and
a desire to bury what she feels (the messages from her Treasure
Inside) begins.
Diagram Showing A Loss Of
Willingness To Respond To The
Feelings From The Treasure
Inside: The Building Of A Wall
Inside.
The problem develops:
These Experiences Are Frequent
In Childhood
Interactions with the World happen a countless number of times
to every little child as they grow up. The result of this process can
lead to either growing in their ability to hear what is coming up
from the Treasure Inside, or a growing tendency to repress those
messages. If enough repressing goes on, if there are enough
events that invalidate what is coming up from the Treasure Inside,
eventually the person won't hear those inner voices anymore.
They have lost the use of those valuable resources in their
Treasure Inside. They have built a “heart of stone."
The Wall
God intended for us to be whole so that we can truly be like Him.
We need all of the attributes that are in both our Head and our
Treasure Inside. Neither part is bad, and neither part is
superfluous. Sometimes we need to analyze a situation with our
intellect and then simply go and do it. Sometimes we need to
listen to the messages from our Treasure Inside and act on what
they tell us.
However, The Wall we have built interferes with our ability to hear
these internal messages. The Wall wasn’t supposed to be there,
and you can see from the previous diagram that when The Wall is
present our access to the Treasure Inside is inhibited.
If there is enough repressing going on, if there are
enough events that invalidate what is coming up from
their Treasure Inside, eventually they won't hear those
inner voices anymore.
We Become Crippled!
In this case we have to try to live all aspects of our life from our
Head, and we may not even be aware that the Treasure Inside
exists. Without access to those attributes inside, we fail in some
aspects of our life.
For instance, a wife may be complaining that her husband can't
communicate with her. She expects him to know what is going on
inside her, yet she does not communicate her needs directly. Her
husband is very frustrated because he is not a "mind reader." He
asks himself, "How in the world am I supposed to know what she
is feeling when she does not seem to know herself?"
The problem comes about because the husband is cut off from
his Treasure Inside. In that place inside he does feel her pain and
does know what is going on inside her. There is ongoing
communication between her Treasure Inside and his Treasure
Inside. However, the awareness of that information never makes
it through his Wall to his conscious mind (his Head). He becomes
frustrated, and his wife does not feel heard. Because of the
presence of The Wall in him, the marriage is much less intimate
and rewarding than God meant it to be.
It is also quite likely that the wife also has a Wall, and therefore
she too may not have a clear awareness of what her own needs
are.
When The Wall is built, in a sense the person has buried
their humanity.
Separation From God
The living Lord communes with our personal spirit. We are
designed to have a personal relationship with Him through this
part of our Treasure Inside. When we can hear God's voice, we
will be reliably guided by Him and prevented from sinning. We will
be able to discern Satan's traps and accurately identify the
deceptions of the World. Satan loses.
However, when we have shut ourselves off from our Treasure
Inside, we become unaware of God's presence. We are separated
from Him by The Wall, and our ability to hear Him is impaired
(sometimes totally)! This is the greatest tragedy that results from
the building of The Wall.
Satan's Favorite Trick
I believe that building The Wall is Satan’s favorite scheme,
because he loves to see us cut off from God. When we are cut off
from God, we have to rely on our intellect, which is ill-equipped to
discern good and evil, right and wrong. Satan can then lead us
into all types of error. Satan wins.
Unfortunately, history is filled with examples of people who are
cut off from their Treasure Inside. Some examples are the
Crusades, the Inquisition in the Middle Ages, and the Holocaust.
These tragedies could not have happened if people had been able
to hear the living God, because the Holy Spirit would prevent them
from hurting other people in these cruel ways.
The Holy Spirit Is Meant To Be Our
Guide
The Holy Spirit was in agony over the pain being inflicted on the
victims, and spoke to the hearts of those inflicting the abuse. But
The Wall in these perpetrators prevented the message from
getting through to the conscious faculties in their Head. They
were unaware of the pain they were inflicting.
Diagram Showing How The Wall
Cuts Us Off From The Living God:
An unfortunate side effect:
I am not implying that our personal spirit is God. However, for
Christians it is true that God does dwell in our Treasure Inside.
Here I am simply illustrating the fact that though God does dwell
inside us and speaks to us, we may not be able to consciously
commune with Him because The Wall gets in the way.
Separation From Self
A second great tragedy that results from The Wall is a separation
from ourselves, a separation of our Head from our Treasure
Inside. The Treasure Inside is very important to us. The most
obvious result of separation from self is that we are shut off from
the benefit of all those attributes contained therein. In fact most of
our personhood, most of who we are, is in our Treasure Inside.
"We are much, much more than our conscious processes."
This Separation Causes Internal
Pain
But there is a more debilitating result than not being all we are
meant to be. Being cut off from ourselves causes incredible
internal pain. Our Treasure Inside is meant to be the best friend of
our Head, and suffers greatly when cut off from this relationship.
The pain comes about because we have decided that who we are
in the Treasure Inside isn’t acceptable. In fact, we conclude that
this part of us inside is bad! I call this internal pain the "Big Hurt,"
because it is the most excruciating emotional pain we experience.
I will discuss more about the "Big Hurt" later in this chapter.
Separation from Others
The Wall also affects our ability to have relationships with other
people. It is the part of us that is sensitive and has compassion. It
is the part of us which has relationship with another person. Real
relationship is heart-to-heart (Treasure Inside-to-Treasure Inside),
not Head-to-Head. There is actual communication that occurs at
the heart level. Jesus could tell what was going on in peoples'
hearts, and so can we. When we have access to this part of us,
we can then feel what the other person is feeling. This sensing is
called "empathy."
Relationships Are From Inside
Our personal spirit was given to us so that we can communicate
heart-to-heart in this way. However, if there is a Wall inside, our
ability to consciously hear what our personal spirit is saying is
impaired, or perhaps completely blocked. If completely blocked,
we are forced to try to figure out what is going on in the
relationship with only our head. Consequently, our relationships
are shallow. We cannot feel what others feel or sense what is
going on behind the personality they present to the world. It is
not possible for us to have intimacy in our relationships, because
intimacy is only made possible by the heart-to-heart connection.
Other people who are sensitive to their own Treasure Inside will
be able to sense that they are not connecting with us. We have
them locked out. Our relationships are hollow and not very
rewarding to either the other people or to us.
The Wall is a big problem for us, because it prevents us
from being whole. We are unable to access those
important gifts which are inside.
Men And Women Differ
Both men and women are wounded and react in the way I have
been explaining. Both do whatever they can to stop the pain
coming up from inside. However, God has so constructed men
that they are more efficient at building The Wall. Sometimes a
man's Wall can be so impenetrable that he is totally unaware of
what is going on in the Treasure Inside. Women are seldom able
to accomplish this degree of shutdown. Given the same amount
of wounding, women would also build a thick wall to stop the pain
if they could, but they can’t. They may hate themselves just as
much, and they may be equally shut off from being able to live
from the Treasure Inside, but they are less able to shut out the
pain.
We All Have A Treasure Inside
Men and women do not differ in what is in their Treasure Inside!
Both men and women have the same attributes. What has often
been labeled as "your feminine side," or "women's intuition" has
been so labeled because these attributes tend to be outwardly
evident in women.
However, the main differences between men and women are not
based on what is in their Treasure Inside, but rather on the
thickness of The Wall that inhibits what is in their Treasure Inside
from manifesting itself outwardly. Over the ages, men have
demonstrated these "feminine" gifts. For example, men are just
as intuitive and artistic as women.
Men Have Demonstrated
"Feminine" Gifts
In past history most of the well known artists, sculptors,
architects, musicians, and composers were men. The gifts were
obviously there, and in some men they managed to come out. Of
course, the reason women didn't manifest those gifts publicly in
the past was because until recently, they were prohibited by the
culture from doing so.
The main differences between men and women are not
based upon differences in what is in their Treasure
Inside, but on the thickness of The Wall.
How Can You Know If You Have A
Wall Inside?
Are you a human being? Then you have a Wall inside. For some
The Wall is like the vault at Fort Knox – nothing can get in or out.
For some it is like Swiss cheese – it is solid but has holes in it. For
some it is like a screen door – there is some interference, but there
are more holes than blockages.
How can you know to what extent your Wall is disabling you?
You can tell by the fruit demonstrated in your life. Often, if The
Wall is big and thick, you may be unaware of the hurt in the
Treasure Inside. You may even be unaware that something is
missing. You may simply know that you are not very empathetic,
or that you are not very spontaneous, or that you do not cry very
easily, or that you cannot hear God’s voice. Often the feedback of
other people is necessary to bring to light what you cannot see.
Often what you cannot see is obvious to those around you.
Since there are so many possible ways The Wall can manifest
itself, I will not try to go into detail here. It is very important to
realize that each person is unique. We were each created by God
to be unique, and we each have our own life experiences.
Consequently, there is no pat answer that fits all people.
- "The Wall" is made up of
Judgments and
Inner Vows
Against ourselves!
Jesus Can Remove The Wall
The only way to unravel this complex puzzle is in a living
encounter with another person and the Lord. Only then can we
identify the bad fruit and deal with The Wall. To be whole we
always need to remove The Wall, and this should be the most
central necessity in Inner Healing. Once The Wall is dismantled,
the Lord is freed to be your Counselor, to heal you in the deepest
places hidden inside you.
How Can You Remove The Wall?
The Wall is made up of Judgments and Inner Vows. The
Judgments are against yourself (your Treasure Inside), and the
Inner Vows are decisions to not listen to the messages that come
up from the Treasure Inside.
For example, the little boy who skinned his knee feels pain
coming from the Treasure Inside. That Treasure Inside is
compelling him to do something that Dad disapproves of (to cry),
and it thus threatens to cause him the loss of Dad’s approval.
Therefore the little boy judges that place, the Treasure Inside, as
being trouble. He decides “I’m not going to be a wimp. I’m going
to be brave. I’m not going to listen to the pain anymore.” This is
an Inner Vow.
I have previously discussed how to be cleansed of Bitter Root
Judgments and how to renounce Inner Vows (Chapter 7). You
deal with these Judgments against yourself and the associated
Inner Vows in exactly the same way that you deal with them in
relationship with other people.
- First you need to forgive and be forgiven in order to stop the
operation of God's laws (and to take away the power that
drives the Inner Vow).
Second, you need to renounce the Inner Vow. For example,
"In the name of Jesus, I renounce the decision that I made to
never pay attention to my emotions."
Finally, you need to restore the relationship, in this case your
relationship with yourself (your Treasure Inside).
rejection, and yet your Treasure Inside is a part of you.
Yourself
You need to restore this relationship in exactly the same way as
you would restore a relationship with any other person. You need
to be proactive and pursue the restoration. You need to
persevere, and to correct immediately any future Judgments you
make against yourself. And you need to spend time in
relationship with your Treasure Inside (listening, valuing,
attending to, protecting, nurturing, blessing). Relationships
require time spent together, and interaction.
Your Most Important Human
Relationship
Bear in mind that your relationship with yourself is the most
important human relationship you have. Being able to have
access to those attributes in the Treasure Inside depends upon
you having a loving relationship with yourself. Having a Wall
inside interferes with your ability to hear God, to love Him, and to
love other people. Therefore, if you are at war within yourself, you
cannot possibly fully and freely love others.
Loving Yourself
Removing The Wall and keeping it from being rebuilt requires you
to not only tolerate your Treasure Inside, but to positively love
yourself. This is not selfishness or narcissism. It is obeying
Jesus’ second commandment to love others as you love
yourself. He did not say to love others and hate yourself. He
said this because you were made for love, and love must start
with your Treasure Inside before it can be manifested outside.
God is love, and as you are changed into His image, love must
permeate your being.
When you are at war inside, you are controlled by
the world.
When you end the war and begin to live your life
loving yourself, the world loses its power over you.
You Become Selfish When You
Are Empty Inside
Loving yourself does not lead to selfishness. You become selfish
when you are empty and needy inside. When you are needy, that
need impels you to strive for more of what you are missing. That
is the nature of any need. If the need is severe enough, you are
compulsively driven to fill that empty place, even in unhealthy
ways. That is when you become self-focused.
If right now I asked you for a glass of water, you would be pleased
to give me one. After all, you have plenty to spare. However, if
you have been wandering in the Sahara Desert for three days with
no water, all you would be able to think about would be getting a
drink of water. Your thirst would consume your attention,
because you would soon die if you didn't get a drink. If you then
found a single small glass of water, and I asked you to give it to
me, it would be almost impossible for you to be big hearted and to
let me have that glass of water which you so desperately need.
You would be literally driven to be "selfish."
Similarly, if you lack love for your Treasure Inside, you are
absolutely impelled to try to draw love out of others and out of life
to fill the void. Then your need is so great, and the demand inside
screams so loudly, you cannot hear others’ needs. You have no
reserves of love to give them. You are "selfish."
Loving Is An Ongoing Relationship
Loving is an ongoing necessity, not a one-time event. Thus you
need to walk daily, moment by moment, loving yourself. This is
the only way to continue to dismantle The Wall and to keep it from
being rebuilt. When you do actively love yourself in this way, you
will find it easier and easier to hear your Treasure Inside.
The Only Way To Love Others
You will also discover that you are loving God and other people.
You won't be trying to do this, you will do it effortlessly. You are
loving them because you have a surplus of love in your Treasure
Inside. The overflow of love is good fruit from a good root.
- Click here to find out what happens when we
judge ourselves instead of loving ourselves.
Divinely Designed
Being changed into the image of Jesus
Being changed into the image of Jesus
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