Rates of depression have risen by more than 18 per cent since 2005, with 300 million people estimated to suffer from the condition. SBS NEWS: 31st March 2017
In a world that is becoming more and more detached from relationships with people face to face is it any wonder that we are getting more depressed? “It is not good for man to be alone” God said. Even in the Church this rising trend of depression is the same. Mental anguish can be caused by many things but I only want to focus upon one contributing factor- separation.
Gen 2:18 Then Adonai Elohim said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. Let Me make a well-matched helper for him.”
The Tree of Life Version (TLV) puts it nicely..a well matched helper.
God Himself says that it is not good for mankind(not just men)to be alone. So He brought forth woman from man. Yet there is a deeper truth being presented here by our Creator.
Remember that the Holy Spirit is also called Helper.
Joh 16:5 “But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’
Joh 16:6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
Joh 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.
It is no coincidence that Jesus said these things. He told His friends that he was going away from them to the Father. This saying caused their hearts to be filled full of sorrow. News that Jesus was departing made their hearts go loopy! The Greek word is lupē
loo’-pay
Apparently a primary word; sadness: – grief, grievous, + grudgingly, heaviness, sorrow.(Strong’s Dictionary)
So here’s the thing…God says it is not good for mankind to be alone. Being alone causes grief, is grievous, makes life heavy with sorrow…everything we do we do grudgingly..it is hard work!! It is depression!!
This being “alone” is far more than physical lonliness. God made a helper comparable for Adam..a perfectly matched helper.
The Holy Spirit is that perfectly matched Helper sent to you from Father to be fully CONFORMED to you. The Spirit of God Helps by conforming Himself to you my friend. He does nothing for Himself but all things for you. He does this by conforming himself totally to you as YOU ARE RIGHT NOW. In other words He merges Himself with your spirit soul and body–basically becoming you, yet remaining Himself. He is a perfect fit for you. If you are weak, He becomes your weakness so as to carry you. He is the perfect match for you.
In this world everything we learn as children is driven towards us becoming a “success” rather than a “failure”. We are taught and we internalise what a success looks like and what a failure must be at a very young age. The education systems and culture want us to be a success. This is usually characterised by monetary success. It may be how many Facebook friends you have, how many likes you get for a post, the car you drive, clothes you wear etc etc. This kind of success is all external and a pretence. What about inward success?
Success is defined by Jesus as becoming like a little child….being the lowest…being the least….being meek and lowly of heart. The pride shall be brought low and the humble lifted up. The very opposite to the world’s view of things.
Back to the need for the Helper.
Jesus said it is necessary that He goes away..How true!!
The visible Jesus that they knew had to go away from their sight. This immediately caused sorrow to fill their hearts. “How can we do anything without You Lord!!??” would have been their cry. “Don’t leave us here in this malicious world without You Jesus!” But it was necessary for them to be weaned off the visible Jesus in order to KNOW the Spirit of Jesus as their only Life –their Helper comparable to them.
God does this with us today. Church largely relies on seeing results, anointings and signs that God is with us. When God begins to remove us from these things we fell like He has abandoned us leaving us all alone. Yet it is necessary for us to learn to lean upon the Spirit in us.
When we see no “success” outwardly the Accuser comes to us to tell us that ‘God is not pleased with us, that is why we are barren’. When we listen to these things we begin to question everything. This must happen in order to uproot false ideas about God, ourselves and success. The Accuser accuses God of not helping us in our difficulties.
We may begin to pray more, or fast or read the Word more to try to get success happening again….all to no avail. The accuser niggles away blaming God one day…and us the next. When we begin to dwell on these negative words and speak them out then the Accuser has us in his grip. Down we go. We feel totally trapped. God has abandoned us…and without Him we can do nothing at all. AMEN!!!
This is the very place we must come to. That is why it is necessary that visible Christianity must be brought very low. Unless we learn that we can do nothing–though we pray many prayers and do many religious things…we will never know what it is to have the Helper live as us.
This Helper we have received is Jesus Himself! He has not come to live in you to make you a success. He has come to conform Himself to you so that He carries and sustains you all the way to the Resurrection. We think He wants us to strive to be perfect for Him. He wants nothing of the sort! He wants you to realise that He is with you in all your tribulations sharing all your sorrows and griefs as you, with you..TOGETHER in UNION.
You see the Church has maintained a separate view of Jesus for 1900 years. The Church believes in a Jesus who left, leaving us alone down here to try to please God….Oh yes, they believe in the Holy Spirit…but only a little bit of Him. Yet Paul said we are filled with all the fullness of God…and are complete in Him. Jesus said rivers of living water flow out of us. Where do those rivers come from? The same fullness of God Who dwells in our hearts. WE ARE NOT ALONE.
The Father fills us full with Himself…but we do not see Him or believe that He does. Instead we are easily led to believe that He is far away and not the Helper He said He is. He is an EVER PRESENT HELP in time of trouble. Yes Jesus is ever present living in your heart…joined as one spirit with you….so that He IS YOU. Oh hallelujah!!
This Jesus is conformed to you in all that you are. All that makes you you–HE IS!! Your personality, your tendencies, your inhibitions, your likes and dislikes…He and you are one in all things. This is why marriage is at the heart of all God wants.
Marriage involves two people being formed into one, yet each maintaining their uniqueness. Jesus and you are married at the deepest level if you have received Him by the Spirit. This union of S/pirit must spread to all of you and all of Him becoming one. All of your soul being made all of His soul and vice versa.
Depression has at it’s root self rejection and separation. Running away from ourselves, rejecting ourselves. Rejecting how God made us.
The good news is that God has come to live in us–though we do not see Him. We believe this is true and therefore speak it out loud.
If you are depressed I pray that His strength in you will cause you to see and to say”God is in me!”…God fills me full with Himself…Jesus has not forsaken me but is living as me in this pit. Jesus is my only Life…my source of strength. I am as He is.. I am righteousness revealed…I am love revealed… I am one spirit with Jesus now and always.
Isa 61:1 “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
Isa 61:2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,
Isa 61:3 To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”
The Gospel needs to come to those who mourn in Zion. Zion is the body of Christ, His church. Very soon it will seem to the church that Jesus has departed. Sorrow will fill many hearts as it is already. Every tree that has not been planted by the Father shall be UPROOTED.
Every notion we have had about true success and God and Jesus and self that has not been planted and established by Father shall be uprooted in the shaking which is coming. In it’s place Good News shall be preached to those who are mourning. Righteousness is the result. NOT some righteousness based upon a thinking separate from God….but Righteousness which is planted in the Living waters of God flowing out from His throne.
The throne of God is our heart….where He sits with us…and living water flows only out from beneath such a UNION THRONE. Up until now the Church has looked to a faraway throne in heaven, where they imagine Jesus sits. But the shaking of all things not planted by Father shall remove such trees of false righteousness. The Church shall awake to righteousness and see that He is fully formed and conformed in us and to us. That we being ourselves are accepted by God and most importantly ACCEPTED BY OURSELF!
The Accuser has nothing in me for my ONLY life is Jesus Christ with whom I am one.
