“Pain is powerful. It can really grip you and overwhelm you. But I want to expose the work of pain today. Are you ready for God to take away your pain?” said Pastor Sam Evans at the Planetshakers Awakening Conference held at Sunway Pyramid Convention Centre on 29th to 30th of January, 2016.
While biking down the slope, she shared how her toe mercilessly dragged against the road, as her heel got stuck at the pedal.
“It’s only my big toe! But all of a sudden, I am enveloped in this pain that is overtaking my entire body! All I can think of is the pain. The pain is throbbing, throbbing, and throbbing,” said Pastor Sam, reminiscing her childhood.
Pain was constant in her life. It began to speak to her and influence her. She began to adjust and compensate her walk. She could neither wear shoes nor go to school.
“It’s amazing how pain can change your walk, even your walk with the LORD. When there’s pain in your life, you start to adjust and compensate.”
“I started to live with pain, and embraced pain. What it also did was that it slowed me down. My presence anywhere began to influence others. Other people had to slow down because I was in pain. Isn’t it amazing how powerful pain is?”
Also, every time she did something, she would think of how it would affect her pain level. So, she began to stop doing the things that brought her joy. She began to compensate for her pain.
“Maybe there is pain in your life that robbed you from your joy.”
Over the night, her sleep would be interrupted with the piercing pain of her toe. She began to lose her ability to rest. Pain robbed her peace.
“Pain can be so overwhelming that all I can do is focus on pain. I was living according to the dictates of pain.”
At one point, she became so accustomed living with the pain, that she discovered herself missing the pain when it began to leave.
“If you’re not sad or depressed, you start to miss that feeling. This is how crazy pain is. But Jesus came to take away all our pain. He doesn’t want anything else running our lives apart from His Will.”
Many of us will do anything to remove the pain. We make compromises, compensations, and adjustments.
“Pain can be so strong and loud that you start making choices based on what pain is saying. I don’t want to feel the pain anymore, therefore I will compromise.”
We get into unhealthy or abusive friendships or marriages, because we do not want to feel the pain of loneliness. We get stuck into addictions because we want to dull the pain, even if it is just for one night.
But pain is already defeated by Jesus Christ on the cross! Pain has no right or authority over us. We do not need to listen to pain any longer because Jesus went through the pain, so we do not need to have pain.
Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
(Isaiah 53:4-5)
Some of us carry invisible pains – mental pain and heart pain. Something happened along the way, which inflicted pain in our heart. We began to accept and agree with negative and oppressive thoughts telling us that we are not good enough, we will fail, and we will be lonely forever.
“Pain has a voice. But it only has power over us if we let it. But it’s time for us to be filled by the Spirit of God, and not come into agreement with pain. But we come into agreement with what the Word of God says.”
The Word of God says that we are overcomers, we are more than conquerors, and we can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens us!
When Jesus was praying at the Garden of Gethsemane before His crucifixion, He said to His disciples, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” (Matthew 26:3)
Yet, when He returned to His disciples, He found them sleeping and said to them, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:40-41)
What temptation do we need to watch and pray for here? Jesus is talking about the temptation of pain.
“In the garden, Jesus wanted to give up! He knew His destiny, calling, and purpose. But in the midst of pain, pain wants you to give up! It doesn’t want you to keep going in the things of God. It wants you to stay here.”
Jesus was about to go through His most excruciating pain – the crucifixion. He was so distressed that His sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground. (Luke 22:44)
“In that moment of choice, pain was yelling at Jesus. But Jesus did an incredible thing and He did it for us. We are ‘His joy’ standing before the cross! He met pain head on. He went all the way for us, so that we don’t need to have this pain. We can receive healing.”
‘looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.’ (Hebrews 12:2)
When Jesus says, “It is finished,” He is saying that pain is finished and the power of pain is over.
“Why live with pain? Why let it talk to you about your future? Why shrink back? Why compensate? Why not rid yourself from pain and move on to what God has called you to do?
“Maybe you are carrying a sickness you think you need to live with. Maybe doctors tell you that, and you agree. You think, ‘It is part of my DNA, it is part of who I am.’ But no friend, when Jesus went to the cross, He paid a price, so you don’t need to live through this physical pain. By His stripes, we are healed.”
Pastor Sam shared how she disagreed that her son would have to live with eczema, against the medical report and her hereditary odds. She spoke against eczema to be out of her son’s body, her house, and her family line. And by Jesus’ stripes, her son was rid off eczema. Hallelujah!
If you are having heart pain, ask the LORD to come and heal you.
Lord, I forgive those who have hurt my heart. Lord, please come and heal my broken heart and bind my wound. Release and massage your healing balm deep into my heart, Lord. In the name of Jesus, I ask You now to make me whole. I receive now Lord, Your peace and Your joy back into my heart. Amen.
If you are having mind pain, ask the LORD to heal you.
Lord, you came to set us free from all pain. In the name of Jesus, we shut down the accuser of the brethren who bombards us with thoughts not from you. We take captive and cast down every argument and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Jesus Christ. In the name of Jesus Christ, we rebuke all spirit of depression, the spirit of heaviness, and every deceptive and lying spirit in us. We receive now the spirit of Truth and Freedom from God, in the name of Jesus Christ. Therefore we proclaim in the name of Jesus Christ, we are free now from pain. Amen.
Jesus wants you to be freed from pain. Pain, be gone in JESUS’ Name!
Planetshakers will be coming to Malaysia next year, on 20 – 21 January 2017. See you there!
Noted: All pictures taken for the Planetshakers Awakening 2016 in Malaysia are credited to Planetshakers. Also, although this article has not been vetted by Planetshakers, it has been written based on the audio recording of Pastor Russell Evans’ sharing.
| Share the Good News |
Leave a Reply