Part I - Do you have a broken heart and struggle?

A Broken Heart (Wounded Spirit)

Jesus said in Luke 4:18-19, Jesus quotes Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord."

That means that the Lord came to preach the gospel, heal the brokenhearted and bring deliverance to the captive and heal the sick. According to the Bible, the heart is the centre not only of spiritual activity, but of all the operations of human life. "Heart" and "soul" are often used interchangeably. A wounded spirit or Broken Heart is one that is hurting. A person with a wounded spirit lives in inner misery that focuses regularly on his injuries or pain cannot receive the cleansing. Usually there is unforgiveness in a wounded heart and unforgiveness and bitterness is the glue that holds the pain in your heart. Forgiveness is one of the major steps to bring healing and peace.

If the spirit is damaged, wounded or corrupted in any way, and our ability to relate normally to others, to ourselves and to God is hampered. For a small minority of the wounded the damage is only slight; they are able to get on with their lives with the hurt causing only a minimum of irritation or inconvenience. Many more of the wounded are more affected and limp through life. They survive a relatively normal life but fail to realize their full potential in their friendships, in their marriages, in their day to day relationships with others and their full potential that God has for them. Then there are those with extreme or severe damage to their spirit. These people are greatly incapacitated; dysfunctional with all manner of emotional, spiritual, physical, mental, relational and financially. These people are forced to crawl or need to be carried through life.

Has anyone ever told you that you have a broken heart or tried to help you get your heart healed! Have you met people that no matter how hard they try to walk, they seem to fall or one day have faith and the next not but have doubt and unbelief? That’s because they have a broken heart and cannot stand. You can tell them to stand on the word, quote promises but they cannot.

The Hebrew word translated broken is a strong word. It means "wrecked, shattered, even crippled or maimed." The Hebrew word for wounded is “to profane (to profane oneself, defile oneself, pollute oneself a) ritually b) sexually) , defile, pollute, desecrate: 1) to violate the honor of, dishonor; 2) to violate (a covenant), 4) to treat as common.

A broken heart comes from life’s devastations. Life’s devastation is that God never wanted us to be trapped in or have happened to any of His children. Through a broken heart, strongholds are formed in the mind.

When you have a stronghold you have something that has a hold of you and you cannot behave any differently then from that character or nature of that stronghold. Such as if you have fear, you are going to view the world with fear. If you have rejection, you are going to filter information as rejection, etc, etc.

A stronghold is a strongman which is a devil that has a hold on your life that has a characteristic that is antichrist and it behaves that way. Most often will sound like your own voice. Most people, Christians, have been fellowshipping with devils by believing the lies of the enemy or submitting to the lies. Spiritually rooted circumstances require spiritual results.

Jesus didn’t say that bad things were not going to happen to you, but He did give you the tools through the Gospel of Christ to be healed.

•   In Psalms 147:3, Scripture states, speaking of God: "He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds".

•   Jesus lived a life of sorrows and understood how to heal the broken heart [Hebrews 4:14-16]

We all deal with unfinished business and unresolved issues; time doesn't necessarily heal old wounds of abuse; healing is slow and arduous.

A person with a deep deep broken heart struggle in some of the areas listed below:

•   Cannot understand the things of God. Don't think God loves you like He loves others.
•   Cannot bring forth good things in their lives. They seem to have more things go wrong than good.
•   Not being blessed financially even when they give tithes. Not able to stand until your crop comes in (financially).
•   Have a hard time reading the word and meditating on the word.
•   Living in mental pain and trapped or preoccupied with the past.
•   Will seem spiritually asleep and spiritually immature.
•   Struggles understanding teaching.
•   People in authority that hurt them and did not love them and have a trust problem.
•   They go by feelings and cannot go by faith
•   Come across as a negative person and have chronic hostility, sarcasm, cynicism, critical and judgmental of others.
•   Will be caught up in works instead of grace meaning being performance oriented to prove their worth.
•   Has a hard time receiving love from others or love them.
•   Will have a history of seeing psychologist, etc. and even problems with thoughts of suicide.
•   They will be negative about everything and not able to see anything positive and will lack peace and joy.
•   Will have more things go wrong in their lives.
•   Will not know their identity in Christ and know your promises in Him especially during trials and hear the truth but cannot hold onto the truth.
•   Not able to keep God’s commandments and will have trouble with sin. Prone to adultery and pornography and want to feel love and feel better. Possibly other addictions to food and people such as codependency!
•   Will be fearful.
•   Will have physical ailments that seem to not go away.
•   You will not be able to get rid of your anger and have fits of anger and rage when feeling rejected.
•   Will view themselves as the sufferer and want self pity from others.
•   Will blame others by holding others responsible for the misery in their life.

How does someone get a broken heart? Here are some of the ways (unkind words, abuse, sorrow, betrayal, false accusations, divorce, rejection/abandonment, trauma, conditional love, etc.) listed below.

Unkind Words - The old saying; "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me" is a dangerous lie. Words have spiritual values. They can create life in our spirit or they can produce death. Negativity and criticism can do more to wound and bruise the spirit than physical violence. Maybe you had parents or a father that spoken negative words or another way of saying it “word curses” over your life and you believed them.

•   "The tongue has the power of life and death" Proverbs 18:21.
•   "A lying tongue hates those it wounds and crushes, and a flattering mouth works ruin" Proverbs 26:28.
•   "The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit" Proverbs 15:4.
•   “The words of a man’s mouth are as deep waters” (Proverbs 18:4).
•   Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs?” (James 3:10-12)

Some children are more sensitive than others and so words can pierce the soul of a child very deeply especially if they suffer with rejection. Some children are subject to hurtful or cruel parents or teachers that also can cause deep wounding of the heart.

Abuse - Abuse takes on three forms: verbal, physical and sexual. Verbal abuse is a sad part of our culture. It is all too common to hear people making fun of and ridiculing children, spouses and one another. In spite of the intention, this still hurts. It is particularly harmful when it comes from those who are close, who instead should support and uphold.

•   "Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless. I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found none" Psalm 69:20.

Sorrow - or heartache is a damaging emotion.

•   "A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache (sorrow KJV) crushes the spirit" Proverbs 15:13.

Heartbreak is frequently the end product of an unfulfilled desire or craving, the outcome of unrealistic expectations, where another person or some material pursuit is worshipped or idolized. It can also be the result of an inability to forgive and let go of those who have sinned against us.
•   "So also my heavenly Father will deal with every one of you if you do not freely forgive your brother from your heart his offences" Matthew 18:35.
A wounded spirit comes as a result of a re-action to negative words, events, actions, or a violation of your person or rights – a re-action that crushes you, knocks you down and from which you cannot seem to rise. It crushes an area of your life – your spirit – which is quite devastating in how it affects us. It seems we cannot heal ourselves of a wounded spirit.