LOOSE HIM AND LET HIM GO

Dear Heather,

Your thinking needs adjustment. Just like Lazarus in the tomb, you have wrapped up Josh in mortal beliefs.

• he is unreliable
• he is ungrateful
• he is selfish
• he is violent at times
• he has PTSD
• Etc., etc.

When Jesus raised Lazarus, he did it by refusing to accept the lie that he had died. He told his disciples that he needed to wake up Lazarus from sleep. The disciples misunderstood Jesus, so he spoke to them on their level of understanding and said, “He is dead.”

This shows that Jesus refused to believe what the material senses said about Lazarus. Instead, Jesus “knew the truth” about Lazarus — that he was eternally the image and likeness of God — alive, not dead.

“Loose him, and let him go.” You, Miss Heather, need to loosen the grave clothes that have bound Josh. See him as Jesus saw Lazarus. See him as God sees him — spiritual and perfect — the reflection of his Maker. Take off the bindings for Josh. Like Lazarus, he cannot do it on his own. Stop seeing him as a sinning mortal — the devil wants you to see that viewpoint.

And how did Jesus speak to the devil? “Get thee behind me, Satan!” Put off those false suggestions about Josh every time they come knocking on the door of your thinking. Jesus also said, “You are a liar, and the father of it.” Josh is not a mortal sinner — he is God’s beloved child. We need to impersonalize the error — take it off of Josh — and recognize its true source — the one evil, or evil one.

So, sweet Heather, start seeing Josh as God made him. Put off the old man with his deeds and put on the new man. “New” in this instance means “not brand new, but always there, dusty from lack of use.” Remove Josh’s graveclothes and wrap him up instead in God’s love. And, be obedient to Jesus’ command — loose him, and LET HIM GO.