Prophetic Word – Closure – Romans 8

Closure – Romans 8

My dear friends, we must not live to satisfy our desires. If you do, you will die. But you will live, if by the help of God’s Spirit you say “No” to your desires. Only those people who are led by God’s Spirit are his children. God’s Spirit doesn’t make us slaves who are afraid of him. Instead, we become his children and call him our Father.  (Romans 8:12-15 CEV)

SHOCKING RELIEF STORY

Have you ever experienced a combination of relief physically and emotionally? I’ll never forget a season of intensely agonizing spiritual warfare during my church planting days in Nashville, TN. During this time, I felt like every conversation was an argument. I felt that everyone in my life was attacking me personally and always assuming the worst about my decisions and motives.

I was complaining to a close friend in Florida during this season, and he said, “You sound like you need a vacation.” He had a guest condo and invited my family down for a week to get away and regroup. In the moment, I hadn’t realized how exhausted I was emotionally, and how desperate I was for a vacation. Immediately I accepted his offer, knowing I needed a break from everything as soon as possible.

As we headed south, I was shocked to experience my stress, anger, fears, and frustration literally melting away mile by mile. The further we got away from Nashville, the more I realized how broken and wounded I was from all the spiritual battles we were fighting. The physical relief I experienced leaving my city led to incredible emotional relief that I didn’t know I needed. 

I was so focused on trying to solve the problems right in front of me that I hadn’t noticed the crushing effects in my own life; the deadly toll of these spiritual battles on my own heart and soul. I found myself completely empty on the drive south. On one hand I was momentarily relieved of my burdens; on the other hand, all that was left was a spiritually-empty, beaten down, dried out husk of a missionary. 

I remember going straight to the beach, even though we had been on the road for 15 hours. I needed to smell the ocean and hear the roaring waves. When I got out of the car, the ocean ambience flooded my body, mind, and soul with so much peace and joy that I hadn’t felt in months, and I wept uncontrollably. I had no idea how much I needed relief, and when I received the firstfruits of relief, my only response was to cry.

God used this experience to prepare me for CLOSURE. Sometimes when we experience seasons of intense spiritual warfare, the purpose is for pruning and refining. We need to persevere through the battles, but stay in the same fields. In other cases, the Lord allows us to go through spiritual warfare to confirm that we’re called somewhere else. The warfare is the sign that it’s time to uproot and replant wherever our Heavenly Father calls us to go next.

We can’t predict God’s will in each season, so we must walk by faith with the Holy Spirit through these storms and listen to his voice as he guides us through each stage of our journey to heaven.

Unknown to me at the time, God was preparing me to launch a new nonprofit ministry. If I hadn’t gone through that season of intense warfare and experienced the visceral relief on the journey to Florida, I don’t know that I would have been sensitive enough to the Holy Spirit to discern God’s calling on my life to move on to something new. 

He used warfare to make me exhausted. Then, he ministered relief into my exhaustion to reveal something that was terribly wrong. Afterwards, he used this revelation to shepherd me into prayer and listening so that I could hear his calling on my heart to begin a new ministry.

In order to launch the new ministry, I needed CLOSURE with my previous ministry. And I couldn’t close the door until I knew God was trying to close the door himself. Only then, I realized I needed to embrace his plan for me and follow him into what he had prepared for my future.

WHAT IS CLOSURE?

Closure means the end of something in my life; shut down, finish, terminate, conclude.

• Closure can be the peaceful end of a toxic relationship.

• Closure can be genuinely forgiving someone for the first time in a way where you’re not angry with or hurt by them anymore. Or forgiving yourself and finding freedom from regret.

• Closure can be laughing for the first time after an endless season of trauma and pain.

• Closure can be deliverance and freedom from the presence and influence of evil in my heart and life.

• Closure can be finally achieving a goal you dreamed of. This adventure is over; now is the time for new dreams and visions.

In 2023, we will see marvelous closure to the enemy’s influence in the body of Jesus Christ. For too long, we have held onto false beliefs and served addictive idols. We have tried to serve both Jesus and ourselves, or Jesus and demons. 

John Baptizer said, “I must decrease; the Messiah must increase.” The decrease is closure; the increase is awakening. 

The Holy Spirit will move in the hearts of Yahweh’s people this summer to bring closure to hidden covenants that we made with hell’s agents. He will shepherd us to walk in new heavenly covenants of righteousness, freedom, wisdom, and blessing. And he will give us the strength we need to defeat and remove the toxic influences in our lives, whatever they may be, that prevent us from experiencing more of Jesus.

DISCIPLESHIP QUESTIONS

Have I ever experienced closure of some kind before? What ended and how did it happen?

What did I learn from that closure experience? How am I different now that it’s over?

Holy Spirit, is there any closure that I need this year in my own life? If so, please reveal to me what I need to remove from my life.

Make a list of barriers to closure. Examples: selfishness, unwillingness to change…

In Revelation 3:20, Jesus speaks of open and shut doors. Sometimes he opens doors, sometimes he closes doors. In terms of closure, is God trying to close a door for me? If so, what is he trying to end in my life? And what do I need to do next to accept God’s will and embrace his plans for my future?

Sometimes closure is instant. Sometimes closure is a long journey. Why is closure so difficult to achieve when it’s a long journey? What’s one step I can take to end something that I know needs to end that’s still been going on in my life for awhile?

God will use me to help facilitate closure in the lives of others around me. When God puts someone in my life that needs prayer support in their closure journey, what’s a Scripture passage that can help encourage someone seeking to close a door?