Healing the Fractured Body
/One week ago, I was praying about the terrible pain the African American community has been experiencing. I shared with the Lord how I felt like a member of a “fractured family.” As I said that, I received a download from the Holy Spirit regarding what is happening in the United States within the body of Christ. This is not the full picture, nor is it meant to be. We prophesy in part (1 Cor. 13:9). However, this is what I see happening right now.
Let me start with a little background.
Two common responses when we experience pain or trauma are:
1. To turn down the “volume” of the pain until it is either at a level where we can deny its presence, or to a background rumble low enough that we can tune out.
2. To break off the part of ourselves causing us pain. When we do this, we take the part we broke from ourselves and say that part’s pain isn’t my pain. We tell ourselves that its pain no longer affects us, and that we can afford to live without this part of ourselves.
These responses are not wrong in and of themselves, they are part of how we survive trauma. It’s how we get through the incredibly painful and intense times in life when it’s not appropriate or safe to address the pain or trauma in the moment. These responses are a built-in failsafe that prevent an unbearable amount of pain from flowing through us in any one moment much like a circuit breaker trips in a house to prevent potentially hazardous amounts of electricity from flowing through the wiring.
However, we cannot selectively turn the volume down on any one emotion, pain included. Turning down pain is like a general anesthetic. It numbs all of our emotions, all that we feel, our ability to hope, to dream, and even to connect with other people and God. If we do not turn the volume back up on our pain and appropriately process it, we will live a numb life, far below the life to which Jesus beckons us (John 10:10).
Likewise, when we break off part of ourselves, we live as a fractured person. Just like an arm with a compound fracture is technically attached but in serious need of medical attention, we must walk through healing and reattach the part broken off through pain or trauma. God wants to re-incorporate, heal, and bring together every part of our person so that life flows to every part of us and we live whole and fully alive.
Jesus showed me that we—the body of Christ in the United States—are living fractured. The white part of Christ’s body has responded to the overwhelming and extremely valid pain within the African American community by first turning down that pain, and then breaking it off from ourselves. We’ve been numb. We’ve been fractured and disassociated. And we’ve lived far below the life to which Christ calls us.
Our gracious Lord Jesus has heard the cries of His body and said, “Now is the time for wholeness.” It is time to validate the pain of the whole body, to heal, and become fully one.
We are in an Ephesians 4:11-13 moment (emphasis mine; NIV):
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
There is no “attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” as a fractured body. As the white part of Christ’s body awakens to the terrible, ongoing, and systemic pain of the African American community, God is re-incorporating His body. This is what God is doing right now. It’s glorious. It’s beautiful. And like any birth or bone resetting, it’s also messy, painful, and requires learning a new way of being.
My friends, it is time for all of us to identify with the pain of our African American brothers and sisters. God is making His body whole. And a whole body is the only way we can contain the full measure of glory God longs to pour out on every single member of His body.
So, where are we headed? What will this look like? The result of walking through pain, healing our broken parts, and living as the “whole measure of the fullness of Christ” is found in Ephesians 4:14-16 (PTL):
And then our immaturity will end! And we will not be easily shaken by trouble, nor led astray by novel teachings or by the false doctrines of deceivers who teach clever lies. But instead we will remain strong and always sincere in our love as we express the truth. All our direction and ministries will flow from Christ and lead us deeper into him, the anointed Head of his body, the church.
For his “body” has been formed in his image and is closely joined together and constantly connected as one. And every member has been given divine gifts to contribute to the growth of all; and as these gifts operate effectively throughout the whole body, we are built up and made perfect in love.
This is a now word. It is a word with an expiration date. Much like there is a timeframe in which a broken bone must be set, I feel an urgency from the Holy Spirit that we are currently within the specific window to walk out our healing. As we are experiencing a time of global reset, it is also the time to re-set the fracture within Christ’s body.
Stay connected to Jesus. Follow His leading. Invite God to search your heart and reveal hidden or hurtful ways within you (Psalm 139:23, 24).
Christ’s body will be made whole in the United States and throughout the world.