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While I was ministering at a psychiatric hospital I encountered two cases that are worth sharing with you.
The first case I will refer to her name as Marie to protect her identity. Marie was 34 yrs old. She worked at a local University and held a BA and a Master’s Degree. Shortly after she got married, Marie’s relationship with her husband started to deteriorate. She began to go through depression. It escalated into a major crisis in which Marie tried to take her life.
When I met Marie she was sitting at the end of a couch in a curled up position. I walked toward her to introduce myself. As I stretched out my hand to shake her hand, Marie pulled her hand back and hid it from me. She said that she would not shake my hand ever. I told her that it was okay, that I understood and respected her wishes. I told her who I was and that I was inviting her to come to the bible study that I held each day at the hospital. To my amazement, Marie went to the bible study everyday. I noticed that she was observing me, although we never had a dialog.
After a week, she approached me and requested to meet with me. I said sure and we proceeded to go to my counseling office. Marie went on to share her heart. She told me that the reason why she didn’t shake my hand was that her father sexually abused her since she was a little girl and that he forced her older brother to do likewise. Her Dad told her that she was a slut. He told her not to allow men to touch her and that all they wanted is sex. She had a distorted image of herself and of the world around her. I helped her to see that by me shaking her hand or giving her a hug it was not an act of sexual pleasure. It is God’s love reaching out to her.
I told her that she was trying to fulfill the false prophesies that her father spoke against her. They were lies from the pit of hell. That is not what she was, but that God has spoken true prophesies of who she is. There were many things that we discussed in ninety minutes. After the session was over, I opened up the door for her to go. Then she asked, “Preacher is it okay if you give me a hug?” I replied of course, as I hugged her, Marie started weeping and bawling. I said, “What your father and your brother did was evil. It was not love. But what God is doing to you right now is pouring out His love and setting you free”. I gave her an assignment to get 12 hugs and shake hands everyday with doctors, male nurses, and therapists. Nine months later, Marie walked out of the hospital with her head up, a different woman. Jesus healed her shame that had her bound for so many years.
The second case will be referred to as Sofia. She admitted herself into the psychiatric hospital after attempting suicide. However, she was very determined to get healed. She was married with two children. She was 45 years old. She was suffering from major depression. Three days after she requested a counseling session. Sofia shared that when she was 16 years old she was raped by several individuals. All of her life she had been tormented by dreams and reliving her experiences. She couldn’t take it anymore and by taking her life she was going to get a way out. As she was sharing her experience, all of a sudden she started to relive that experience and screaming out loud, it was like she was having a nightmare. Then I spoke out loud commanding the unclean spirits to let her go, to come out and to never return again. Sofia’s body shook and she sighed; as she opened her eyes, she said they are gone. Shortly after, Sofia was released from the hospital.
This is another of God’s encounter of His power and deliverance to heal the shame that had bound her for so long. Two thousand years ago a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping, and she began to wash His feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with fragrant oil. Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”……
Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.” And He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven”…Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.
Shame can be defined as a painful feeling, or wound to one’s self-esteem: Shame is condemnation for the kind of person you believe yourself to be—Condemnation over your own existence—your own identity—it is a failure to live up to someone else’s expectations. Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison doors to those who are bound. Jesus wants to heal the shame that binds you. If today, you feel that you are bound, and you are struggling with your self image, you have been created in the image of God. Let Jesus touch your inner being as you come before Him; pour out your soul at His feet; let Him embrace you with the fullness of His love. Let His power rekindle and burn the passion within you to make you whole. He wants to restore your hope again as He stretches His hand and says come.
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