WE live in a brokenhearted world.
We LIVE in a brokenhearted world.
We live IN a brokenhearted world.
We live in a BROKENHEARTED world.
We live in a brokenhearted WORLD.
However you place the emphasis, broken hearts abound. So does the Lord’s love, mercy, and grace for healing. If it were not so we would become permanently fainthearted. I’m glad and grateful that is not what we’ve been called to. We are built for joy.
Many broken hearts, including mine, have turned to the beautiful and sure promises of Isaiah 61:
He does bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners;
He does make proclamation of the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God;
He does comfort all who mourn and grants to those who grieve
a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning,
and a mantle of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
(Isaiah 61:1-3, paraphrased with emphasis added)
Over seven hundred years later the One whom Isaiah had prophesied about stood up in a synagogue in Nazareth, where He grew up, and read from the scroll those same beautiful and sure promises.[1] Scripture was fulfilled in their hearing that day. To all who had ears to hear, Holy Spirit was speaking.
He still speaks. Spiritual ears still hear. He still heals the brokenhearted and binds up our wounds. [2]
Journeying into wholeheartedness (which is not an “I’ve arrived” but becomes a lifestyle), I’ve learned – and continue to in new ways – that nothing bypasses the notice or compassion of The Comforter.[3]
Not broken hearts.
Not the ones who broke those hearts.
Not the ones who believe broken is all they will ever be.
Not those who welcome the touch of His healing hands as He fits the pieces back together.
Not those no longer called ‘broken’ but ‘beloved’.
Jesus is still about His Father’s business through the work of the Holy Spirit. He’ll not rest His desire until He has gathered to Himself every brokenhearted one His Father has given Him so we may be one.[4]
For some time now, Holy Spirit has seemed to like peeling back scripture and causing me to see it in another of its formerly hidden facets. In John 17 Jesus prayed that we may all be one and that we may be perfected in unity, among several other requests and statements He voiced to His Father. To my knowledge, I have never heard the passage in John 17 preached about or shared in any vein other than a corporate word to the Body of Christ.
Until a few weeks ago when Holy Spirit, faithful Teacher that He is, began to unveil another deposit as true, legitimate and wonderful as the corporate Body will be when fully complete and mature in Christ.
“…that they may be one, just as We are one…”
Fresh revelation came upon our return home from a five-day conference my husband and I attended that focused on the Isaiah 61-based ministry to which the Lord has called and entrusted us. One morning while beginning to review the binder of conference notes, scripture came to mind: Jesus’ prayer in John 17. Turning to it I began to read Jesus’ prayer for His disciples, then all believers in the lingering light of the definition of ‘brokenhearted’ I had just read in the binder’s notes:
Any persistent separation between and within the heart, soul, mind and spirit of a person (an emotional and spiritual captivity hindering the resolution of conflicted beliefs, as well as the effects of pain and trauma), which prevents consistent joyful connection with God and others.
I had written beneath it the added statement voiced by the presenter[5]:
We are built for joy.
The Joy of an Undivided Heart
Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him so that we too could return to the joy of an undivided heart.
In order for Him to approach, go through, and come out the other side in victory, Jesus was one part of a dynamic Trio that displayed honor of each other; trust in each other; and abiding Love for one another.
The Father willed. The Son listened for and agreed with the Father’s will.
The Spirit provided enabling grace and power in the Son
so that the Father’s will would be done.
Each Person of the Godhead distinct in role, yet sharing together the unity and joy of “We are one.”
Jesus prayed as much for each one of us;
that we as individual believers in Him
would be one with an undivided heart
just as He, His Father, and Holy Spirit relate and are one.
When I saw at the conference a rendering of a similar ‘divided’ heart, so much of life’s struggle and sorrow made sense to this ishshah. At the same time it was resonating with my husband too. A picture can say a lot, with or without words. With these accompanying words this one said plenty, as we were to find out over the next five days.
We were not at all unfamiliar with the understanding; however, different identifiers and addition of more brain science teaching caused us to once again marvel at the way we are all created by our Creator. He who planned ahead for all our humanity even as we each were born into sin in this fallen world, with the result of living out of divided hearts.
It quickly became evident that these Core Parts of our heart and their roles are universal to all people:[5]
• The Function part of our heart that believes knowing certain information about one’s history is incompatible with survival and/or functioning.
• The Emotion part of our heart most closely connected to the pain and depression – joyless if you will.
• The Guardian part of our heart doing its best to ensure that Function and Emotion are kept apart because it believes that Function will be too overwhelmed to do daily life.
Ish or ishshah, hope and healing is found in the fact that the ministry of the Spirit to broken and divided hearts applies to everyone, regardless of where we fall on a ‘brokenhearted’ continuum.
Add to the above very brief description the unfolding in myriad ways and depths according to each person’s life, and we begin to catch a glimpse of the powerful request Jesus asked of His Father – and ours – in his John 17 prayer. Full God/full man praying in fullness for each one the Father has given Him, who in turn make up His corporate Body that will one day reach its fullness of the measure of Christ.
Our united in perfect Love, “We are One” Elohiym has willed and prayed for us, every believer, that we may be one (undivided) in our heart, soul, mind and spirit – regardless of gender or life experiences that comprise our story. Even more when our gender and life experiences have inflicted wounds, caused mourning and evoked despair.
Which is why we need Him so. He is the only One who heals the brokenhearted, binds up our wounded places, and restores our soul.
Part of the joy set before us is becoming vessels fit for the Master’s use – hands and feet, arms and ears, hearts and minds through which His healing flows in us and out to our brokenhearted world until He has gathered the last one to Himself.
Beloveds, it is not the Father’s will that we remain brokenhearted.
We are built for joy.
~ Nancy
Ishshah's Story 