Hope for Scrupulosity Strugglers (Religious OCD)

[Music] he [Music] he [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] looking forward to speaking with you today I'm joining in live going to be sharing insights for your healing and freedom Journey we're going to provide hope for your journey as you're working through what is called scrupulosity religious OCD and everything in between I want to be an encouragement to your journey remind you you're not alone there are many others going through this struggle we're going to get into it what this journey looks like cuz we all need some encouragement and some insight for our processing for e e e e e e e e e e e e we're going to figure it out we're going to make it happen Captain the creek will not win when it rises if you could also let me know if you can hear me that'd be great in the chat but I'll be joining y'all live in just a moment un momento [Music] [Music] he [Music] walking with you through the Journey of navigating religious OCD otherwise called scrupulosity a lot of this going on a lot of battles and deep struggles I want to be a support to your life and to your journey [Music] you're tuning in to a live broadcast your brother from another mother bringing you insights regarding religious OCD and scrupulosity providing hope you're not alone in this journey you're not alone in this battle [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome everyone to this broadcast your brother from another mother Mar De Jesus is in the house welcome come on in take a seat and I will take you on a journey of healing and freedom that's what I'm all about from the inside out I'm all about mental emotional and relationship health and if you are too you've arrived at a great place it's fantastic to have you all here of course if you want to know more about my materials and resources you can go to Marth jesus.com and there is a topics page things are organized there by topics I've got all kinds of mental health emotional health relationship Health topics that you can take advantage of and utilize for your healing and freedom Journey my latest book is the OCD healing Journey which navigates what the Battleground is like what we're up against when it comes to the obsessive compulsive Battlegrounds that so many are facing in the church and for a long time so many have not even had a voice or a placement on what to do with these battles that they've been struggling with and I believe we live in a time in place where God is doing a work in healing this area in people's lives I'm going to get a little bit into some of the history behind this and some of the perspectives and what's happened along the way and I pray it'll give you some r Ned perspective on what you're facing give you some encouragement and also let you know a little bit about what the journey is going to look like of course this book material is also being taught on right now in my healing and freedom Community it's an online training course that goes along with the book but I get to expand expound whichever word whichever word fits better uh even more and and go into more in depth and provide a lot of feedback for questions you can find out more about that at/ community at Mark de jesus.com check out more about that where I have regular q&as I have regular opportunities for you to interact and lots of course material for your healing and freedom Journey today today let's get into this subject scrupulosity religious OCD and my goal here is to add some help I want to take my time to encourage you to provide some insight to provide some perspective and some hope to know that you're not alone in this Battleground it's my goal and it's my desire that I want to help teach and bring out Insight that I wish I would have had many many years ago and I am so happy to be able to do that because there's a Redemptive work in being able to share with you the things that I wish I understood and the things I wish that I was able to process and take I had to learn a lot lot of it the hard way and it doesn't mean that you won't have to learn some things the hard way many of us do in our journey where we have to go around the mountain a few times where we have to kind of hit our head against the wall a few times stumble fall feel like we're a mess and within that if we'll just stay in the game and just keep learning and keep allowing ourselves to relearn and practice again there's some great healing that can take place in our life some great matur and the good news is that many of you are going to take in what you've learned and what you have processed in your own journey and you're going to help others because your voice is needed your encouragement is needed we need more people like you yes you to be able to hear a struggle and go hm I know a little bit about that I've gone through some of that myself where we can not in condemnation not in shame but in compassionate Grace be able to be Comfort to others just as the scriptures say where Paul says we're going to give the Comfort to others of the Comfort by which we've been comforted I'll tell you what I didn't know how to receive Comfort I grew up in the church my whole life not realizing how much obsessive compulsive Battlegrounds had infected my journey how much anxiety had infiltrated my way of thinking how guilt and shame and all this stuff that got into the root system of my life I had no idea I just lived the way that that I knew how to live and what I saw and what was given as examples to me and I needed some help and some insight I didn't know how to receive the comfort of God I didn't know how to receive comfort from others or even Comfort myself in fact many of you who struggle with obsessive compulsive Battlegrounds you think that receiving Comfort involves fixing whatever spinnies are going on in your thinking you try to fix it you try to make it better you try to make it just right and then you find maybe for a moment you get some relief and then you find it repeats again or repeats again or it Dodges into another subject Dodges into another subject and you find yourself in what is called a compulsive lifestyle and that's what gets religious OCD and scrupulosity uh a lock into how we process our walk with God and I think of uh of if you're a believer in Christ then this obsessive compulsiveness is going to want to infect your faith walk and how you process your faith so my goal today is to bring some hope for you because if you battle OCD and how you relate to God the Bible prayer Christian Living you're not alone many influential people in history have not only had this battle but many in the church today struggle with scrupulosity or religious OCD you're not alone in this battle and there's hope but it's going to involve some renewed perspectives and what you're going through it's also going to involve some renewed steps sometimes we think that OCD is a new thing and maybe the term is somewhat new to us but in reality OCD has been around for a long time I would say all the way back to Old Testament times so my goal is to provide some perspective for you along the journey along the way so that you realize this isn't about you being crazy this isn't about you having some weird or strange Battleground for years folks I felt that I had this very weird unique battle I didn't know anyone I didn't know anyone and I didn't have the ability to go on YouTube I have the ability to go online because that didn't exist back then in the in the depth of my battles I just lived in a prison of all these strange anxieties and guilts and thoughts went my way I did a lot of chasing did a lot of repenting did a lot of spinning did a lot of reasing Christ into my life re salvation read this redo that redo this and go and something is really really wrong wrong with me so I went into a lot of Shame a lot of discouragement a lot of despondency and I want to let you know that if you're feeling some of that there's hope today and many of you what you just need is hope to just stay The Learning Journey and keep putting one step in front of the other you beat yourself up you shame yourself and you feel isolated in your Battleground you might share it with other people and they give you a strange look because you share with them the content of where this pathology of OCD goes and they might look at you weird and and you wonder why did I even share that or maybe people who just didn't know they send you on unnecessary rabbit trails that you start going and searching through If you experience that listen join the club we all have we have all gotten advice that wasn't the best feedback for us it wasn't the best for the journey but it is okay and you're here and you're learning and some of the things I want to bring out to you go into a little bit of History a little bit of history of understanding how his how how scrupulosity nod has impacted the church so without any further delay let me get into that because the term scrupulosity which has to do with Scruples with has to do with your sense of right and wrong has to do with your moral compass could get into things like your conscience confession your standing with God I often use scrupulosity religious OCD interchangeably so you'll hear me use that back and forth but the term dates back to you can go back as far as the 12th century in the church a lot of records of the Catholic church but I would say the ways of scrupulosity the ways of religious assy go back to the Old Testament um but in the church in in some of the records They observed a pattern where parishioners people that were a part of the church they were having an obsessive concern and worry about their own sins combined with a compulsive performance there's your performance-driven Christianity of an intense religious devotion so they noticed this pattern church leaders would see this in people where there was an obsessive concern or worry subjects in the Bible that are legitimate subjects but they've been wrapped with Obsession wrapped with worry wrapped with anxiety create an intensity and then their life is a compulsive striving of trying to have this intense Devotion to God you can see scrupulosity in early church records where they found certain monks praying in excessive fashion now in my in some of my research church and just reading through the monastic lifestyle where it goes back to and looking at different subjects that they battled with and wrote about and wrestled with there are a lot of obsessive compulsive influences in things that I see them writing about uh excessive giving up of things trying to burn sins out of their life a devotion that's over the toop a striving to live a holy life now again with all OCD with monastic Lifestyles with all with anyone in the Christian faith who wants a wonderful relationship with God there are some great things here but we all have to be aware of what happens when those things get under pressure and get under law and get under a performance-based life and so I see even some of the obsessive compulsive influences I read about in monastic influence even in today in Christian lifestyles where there's this excessive need of trying to give up things I got to do this to be close to God even certain prayer movements and excessive fasting and prayer that gets excessive yes it it g gets excessive where we're striving trying to get God's attention trying to do a bunch of things to make him happy I see it in in many movements where people's lives they get out of balance they they they they it might take a toll on their health they take a toll on their marriage their parenting and relationship and there Comes A Time In place for all of us where we may have to realize that our faith journey and the way that we're processing our walk with God is having a negative effect on how we're living you see at first I didn't see it that way I just felt like everyone around me just wasn't as dedicated to God as I was I felt like they just weren't as sold out they weren't as Allin some of that could be true some of that can be valid but then there was this perfectionistic intensity with within me of a striving that was going on and over time I started to realize that my life wasn't grounded in love my life wasn't grounded in Grace and so the intensity of the anxiety built up built up built up because I kept serving the obsessions serving the compulsions and now what was just a list of a few things became a list of many things and I felt myself becoming more and more imprisoned by these obsessions so you'll see this all throughout history if you're tuned to it in fact I want to encourage many of you to pick up where you see OCD influences in Preachers today now back in history you'll see leaders and writers you can look at look this up for yourself like John Moore and Richard Baxter they were recognizing the behaviors and rituals of some in their church members were unhealthy where the confession was going over the top where the striving in prayer the trying to fight back the thoughts intensely they would see and and this kind of cracks me up because in some of the writings they talk about their parishioners having naughty thoughts your thoughts are naughty how many of you have struggles with naughty thoughts that that enter in that are intrusive that seem to come out of nowhere and so many of them would fall into the typical error that we tend to fall into is we start researching and chasing after the subject matter we start thinking that that's what the problem is you have an intrusive thought about committing the unpardonable sin about your salvation about you have this disturbance over your sins and you feel the striving of needing to pray more and and and Bible read more and be more devoted serve more evangelize more obey rules and the rules increase increase increase and and and you feel your sense of righteousness is at stake or you obsess about the end times and these kind of things you chase that thought and you investigate it and you read about it and I think today with web search ability it is uh another tool that's feeding our compulsion because we're now trying to search for answers that way but it's not the subject it's not the subject you research about the problem is not the problem it's how you relate to your thoughts it's how you relate to God yourself and the world around you that actually needs relearning and re adjusting but it takes some time to recognize that now church leaders were noticing that um before I get to that slide church leaders were noticing that that parishioners attempting to suppress The Unwanted thoughts this effort to suppress it go away go away there's a lot of thought suppression a lot of thought stopping that goes on in the church today try to stop try and they're realizing it's making things uh even worse and so there there's there's even when you read back into many of the struggles and battles that they have you can see the fear the toxic guilt that drive religious OCD there now I'm going to say this the church often feeds fear in people let me say that again the church often feeds fear in people because we can often use fear to get people to to do things right fear of Hell the fear uh not a healthy fear of the Lord it's an anxiety it's a chronic anxiety and the church can feed toxic guilt use guilt to give you to give more serve more do more and keep you in that cycle over and over and over again the church can push a lot of guilt on people and they've done that a lot in history so it's important that you be a discerner if we're going to learn how to navigate through OCD and start gaining Victory we're going to have to have a different relationship with fear and guilt get into that some more but uh as I said parishioners often realize that suppressing The Unwanted thoughts only made them worse try to try to stop thoughts stop it or counter the thoughts or ARG you back or yell back makes it worse this has been happening for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years now the term OCD obsessive compulsive disorder you can look back and you see it in writings back in the 1800s and I found one publication where it describes it as a rum rum if I get this word out a ruminator or a questioning illness a ruminator or questioning illness a ruminating battle and it's a questioning illness religious OCD or OCD in general is a questioning illness it's a doubting disorder right yeah but what if yah but what if yah but what if yah but what if over and over and over and over again it's not about asking good questions it's about a life of questioning you're questioning things over and over again and as I said this goes back if you have eyes to see to pick up on this you can see the tendency of this and many people historically many writers now I personally believe there are aspects of perfectionism performance and what could be obsessive compulsive tendencies that I'm sure the Apostle Paul in his journey would have had to face and would have had to work through I don't think we take into consideration how much processing Paul had to go through going from somebody who murdered Christians to then becoming someone who's a lead Apostle and actually setting the foundation of the early church and the writings that we hold as the word of God as a guide to our life and journey I don't think we recognize how much processing he had to go through we read the story we see him along the road to Damascus this this this big moment that happens and we we tend to think of light switch experience all of a sudden in one moment he just thought differently and boom Apostle Paul there you go but there's actually a lot of writing you can see some of it in Galatians of time away and time where he allowed God to work on areas of his life and his journey and I don't think we give enough room for that when we're looking at the lives of the Apostles or looking at the lives of people that we admire in scripture of varas where they had to learn how to navigate their journey of renewal and Paul needing to detox the influence of the law the leevan of the Pharisees the the mindset of performance that he had to let go of I appreciate so much Paul's brutal honesty of the influence sin had in his life and some of his most powerful writings come out of Romans 67 and 8 and how he walks the journey leading to the no condemnation Zone and the freedom in Christ that we have as sons and daughters because of what Jesus Paid for on our behalf but I also appreciate his honesty of processing through that and just the honest struggle that he wrestled with another area I'm so appreciative of Paul is his writing in Galatians which is believed to be one of his earliest writings he conveys in strong language the Deep need for believers to get themselves out of the influence of the law because one of the things that we're going to see in the trappings of OCD is a law influence and what it did to those in the galatian church and to many others is they stepped into Christ but then they pulled back into law as a way of standing they got sucked into that and Paul had to rebuked them because he said no no no no don't miss out on the beauty of Freedom now there are many law Hustlers out there they want to keep you many performance Hustlers out there they want to keep you in the hamster wheel over over again and also keep you in the bondage of that and Paul had to rebuke them and say hey don't don't don't skip over the beauty don't dilute the beauty of what Jesus Christ paid for and he had to bring out something that is is a part of the grid of those who struggle with religious OCD they say yes to Christ they embrace the work of Christ but they find themselves sucked in by the mindset of the law which involves performance driven living and perfectionism the modern-day version of the law is found in performance and perfectionism and you see it everywhere you see the influence and I and I see in in Reading slowly through Paul's Journey you can see his processing the time that he had to go through and work through things even how he faced weakness in his own life that he had to learn how to have a renewed perspective so I so appreciate his work and appreciate uh the Insight that we can gain in our own Journey now if we move further into history we can look at the life of Martin Luther and I'm so thankful for his journey and I'll tell you a little story of my process as a young man I remember going to a Christian school and I'll be honest I didn't really read a lot of books and I I to be honest I didn't get like reading wasn't my thing reading and writing I just we would get these book assignment ments I had to read them and I I just kind of drudged through them and just okay cuz I have to i' have to take notes have to learn right but something happened when I was studying history and my world history class and going through the different events and there was a time where in the Christian school I went to where we were briefly studying the life of Martin Luther and I remember seeing what he went through and it caught my attention and now I was reading and I was interested and fascinated you ever have that happen in your life and journey you can't you can't seem to focus on what you're reading but all of a sudden you read something and it's like boom you just get illuminated and now you're you're pulled into it you can't get enough of it I had that kind of experience and even as a young age I started to really appreciate his journey but the more I studied him the more I realized this guy had a lot of battles and this thing that he went through felt very alone what he brought that we call a Reformation of an Awakening to things that we hold near and dear of scripture Alone by Christ Alone grace alone faith alone right these things that we hold near and dear to our heart he had a lot of wrestling a lot of struggling and there was a lot of times alone in his journey but they show markers where you see his battle that we would call today hey man you got some OCD struggles with his his repetitive prayers his struggle with salvation his constant confessions I'd even uh see some some things that said that uh he was consumed with thoughts of the Devils behind uh we would call that an intrusive thought many Blasphemous thoughts we see in some record and writing him having these yelling matches where he's swearing at the Devil and just kind of yelling out because he's just so frustrated and he's he's responding to these thoughts that are actually feeding them and and making some of them grow even more uh I I even remember uh of of of a story told of a priest saying to him Martin come to me when you have actual sins that need to be confessed because he had this continual incessant introspection of trying to find sins and so many fall into that same exact pattern today and get into compulsive confession it's one of the the main compulsions of religious o and scrupulosity is the the need to confess the need to get things out yet in the midst of his messiness God used him and you're going to see throughout all of history that God uses us even in our hot mess Even in our struggle Even in our multifaceted flaws because none of us are perfect in our journey and I'm thankful that within that God sees us with a gracious lens and he used Martin Luther to bless many to even change uh the direction of the church and I believe he can use people like you and me who have our own struggles and have our own journey of navigating through these areas to bless other people in their life another person worth mentioning is John bunan I haven't read a lot a lot of his materials I but I I know there was one book see I think it's the grace abounding to the chief of Sinners and I remember reading that and going wow this is really really heavy duty on an introspective look at digging into sins and finding sins and being overwhelmed and obsessive about his own sinfulness you can pick up pretty quickly on neurotic influences and how he feels about his standing with God and let that be an encouragement to you because back then they didn't have the tools and resources to look online and find other people that have some of these same Battlegrounds many of them suffered in their their kind of inner turmoil not realizing there's so much more available in the love and grace of God for freedom and today many pastors and church leaders show their battles with obsessive compulsiveness but maybe don't even realize it some of them it gets into their teaching it gets into the way they're pastoring their perfectionistic Tendencies their black and white thinking that gets that gets more narrow and narrow and narrow they're all or nothing but no room for gray no room for for process no room for grace and I see and I'm not necessarily going to pick out a bunch of modern names but we could get into some they're they can be found in Pentecostal circles they can be found in Baptist reformed circles they can be found in men andite circles it can be found wherever your stream of Christianity has been influenced by you can find obsessive compulsive pastors and and leaders I actually pray that what I'm sharing can awaken some to go man I realized that um compulsion is influencing my faith walk one of the areas I noticed this in is public confession where I I saw this back in my youth pastoring days where sometimes church leaders or teenagers would feel the need to get up in front of the church and confess their pornography struggles and something about it didn't sit right with me because I said to myself this isn't the best way to to process uh a deep struggle this needs to be done in a place where there's some safety not just a public Arena where we're now just dumping all our issues in front of everyone there I even saw in recent years a very well-known influencer of of of ministry in a prayer movement at a very large Gathering all of a sudden you know take a turn in in what he was speaking on and start sharing his uh public confession of struggle with pornography and my antennas came up because I said H I think I see some OCD going on here I think this is compulsive confession happening and sure enough it just kept going more and more and more and somebody else who was standing there they they they applauded him and his his Devotion to God and I'm not saying anyone should have shamed him or anything like that but they weren't picking up on this and they said you know what this guy is so devoted to God he'll even say if he has a thread of a thought that's inappropriate come to him he's got to talk and he's got to confess it to us and many of us in the church applaud this oh this is wonderful you want to live a holy life you want to live a a life of Integrity but what we're not picking up on is that this is obsessive it's compulsive and what it does is it puts a burden on the people to feed this in our lives and it increases law it increases performance driven and perfectionism in our lives in our journey and what it does is it disconnects our awareness of God's absolute love and the grace of Jesus Christ which points us to righteousness in him it puts a yoke back on us so again you can see OCD all throughout the church a lot of times it can come out in a a pastor's heavy obsessive because in teaching we can become obsessive over certain subjects right in a disturbance kind of way now I'm not saying that you know pastors that have they emphasize something often doesn't necessarily mean they're obsessive it's a disturbance kind of thing and so it can come out in a Salvation disturbance Obsession a Holiness disturbance Obsession a getting God to move uh a move of God getting God to heal to answer our prayers or it becomes obsessive there's a there's a stress there's a disturbance involved that doesn't let people enter into the rest and the fruit of the spirit it's a lot of striving involved so as you look around you may look around and say oh man I struggle with this and many obsessors look around in their church or in their fellowship and they go man I'm the only one who struggles with this these people don't struggle they seem to have everything together they seem to be doing okay they seem to be doing wonderfully oh there's a lot of people struggling with this and maybe other people in the church may not be fully OCD but I find the chasing of guilt the chasing of our anxieties trying to fix ourselves perfectionistic influence sorry I see it everywhere and I don't just see it in my work in people I work with and write with and talk to and try to mentor and support and help I see it in everyday conversations with everyday Christians when they express their Journey there's a lot of compulsive behavior in it cuz they feel Disturbed and they feel to chase it and it it leads them in chronic loops and so you may think you're the only one there's a lot of this going on now patterns of scrupulosity can be seen as admirable right these are the people you can count on they're rule followers they show up on time they're reliable they're very devoted they serve they serve they serve they stick with you they're loyal to you they're loyal to Mission they follow the rules this can be seen ashe's the one we can really count on he's the one we can really count on or they can be seen as highly spiritual lots of Integrity solid people and I'm not negating any of those areas but have we ever picked up on hey you live under a lot of pressure you're pretty hard on yourself I want to talk to you about how you view God the way you view God is intense the way you go about your days under a lot of pressure do you know what it's like to be loved do you know what it's like to give yourself Grace the point is that I want to bring to you is as you look around the body of Christ you're not alone in these battles you're not alone in your mental health battles you may look around and think no one does I'm here to tell you as your brother from another mother I live behind the scenes while I may have a Public Presentation of teaching and materials I've lived for decades helping and seeing things behind the scenes there's a lot of battles and a lot of wrestling in mental emotional and relationship Health we're just often good at putting on a presentation that doesn't let you see all the details and some of it's understandable we're not backing up the truck in front of everybody get it but there's also a lot of Shame CU people don't know what to do with these struggles in their mind that they're having so you're not alone in this and a key lie that many people believe in their battles in this OCD battle my battle is so strange I'm the only one that deals with this the battle is so strange and I'm the only one that deals with this and I would say wherever your thought patterns or wherever your obsessive patterns go there are scores of other people all around the world that battle it exactly the same way I'm telling you cuz I meet them but we feel that ours is particularly shameful ours is particularly damaging and have to remind people over and over again that this this is what OCD looks like and you'll need to buckle up from some learning and for a journey and I'm teaching you this not from a distance I'm teaching you from firstand experience I know what it's like to wrestle with this I know what it's like to feel like I'm losing my mind I don't know where to turn I know what it's like to cry out to God endlessly endlessly to stri and try to do everything I can to feel like what what do I do to fix these things now growing up I I mentioned in my story in my journey of things there's multifaceted things that impact us when it comes to OCD it's understanding your your family makeup of generations of what you come from your family upbringing but also your faith grid and when it comes to religious OCD a faith grid is really important what faith grid what faith community were you born again into what was the the highest level of influence that um preaching and teaching had now I had the blessing of being able to be exposed to various streams of of Christianity from uh Pentecostal charismatic to baptist to even independent fundamental Baptist some of these groups never hang out with each other but through my journey I've had exposure to a lot of their teachings I admired many of the the faith and courage that many of these leaders had and but I also found myself getting wrapped into distorted views on subjects like salvation Holiness prayer uh things in this world of what's worldly the idea of surrender of being full fully devoted subjects like Purity living right confession repentance these subjects got wrapped around with the Distortion of obsessiveness and it and it pulled me into a distorted way of how I related to God I remember many many days of weeping groaning fasting praying crying crying tears until tears couldn't flow out anymore and snots running down my face my spiritual life drove me into absolute exhaust exhaustion and deep hopelessness I was living in constant compulsion of confession of trying to sacrifice and give up things to push myself all in the name of God and I found many believers they would affirm this they would affirm these behaviors and it wasn't till later in my adult years that it started to get it thankfully it took me in my I I should say not later in my adult years my still young adult years but it took me crashing it took me in a place of absolute discouragement and despondency to go I need help and there were a few people along the way they may or may not have understood OCD they may or may not have understood even what it was or that was influence but there were a few along the way that said H there's some things here that aren't sitting right with me I know what you're saying has some scriptures to it but something's distorted about it and I'm going to be honest with you folks at first that kind of feedback made me angry because I had certain stories and ways I approached my faith and just a couple people just going something doesn't sit right with this and I remember at first being angry because sometimes we we hear something we need to hear and get angry at first we get defensive and ERS can be defensive of their compulsions God wants Holiness hell is real eternity is real we can't tolerate sin all statements that have validity to it but then get part a part of this distorted perspective and I had to hit a number of Walls where I said the way that I'm approaching God and the way way that I'm seeing God needs renewal I was living a self-punishing life I was living a life in Journey where I looked at the fruit and sometimes you have to look at the fruit of your the way you relate to your thoughts and the way you relate to God in the world around you and you have to have a sober Awakening to go all right some things need to change I meet many people who have obsessive compulsive struggles and they defend them and and some of them it's very super concerning because they're driving themselves into isolation they they they're convinced they've committed the unpardonable sin and they're defending it and they have themselves locked into a damning place that's hopeless with lots of despondency and nowhere to turn but they they reinforce it they defend it no mark this is true many of us what's it going to take to go I need some help and I need some relearning so I pray for you today that even this broadcast will lead you to a place of going okay it's time to do some relearning the way that I'm approaching the things of God needs some renewal and that right there was what I needed to open up a healing Journey it wasn't a light switch experience well all of a sudden I just started learning things and everything was great but it pointed me in a New Direction where now layer by layer I began to experience healing I began to experience renewal I exp I I began to experience a a a foundational restructuring of my faith Journey because many times in our walk with god he has to go back to the foundation and we struggle with that because then we say is our foundation messed up was I never not not really Sav to begin with oh my no it's it's that some work needs to be done to the structure why waste our time patching holes in the wall we can get down to the fundamental structure of how we relate to God and if you find yourself struggling with scrupulosity and OCD there's there's two things you can't get around these are incredibly incredibly important they're your big needs these are two big needs but they're also big struggles for religious ocers there's two of them number one is to know the unconditional love of the father to know know how much he loves you and sees you through his love and number two the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the righteousness that he delivers and offers to us in him ocers say yes to this in their heads but because they're so lost in their heads they struggle with connecting to this in their heart in their Journey because they're they live a lot of their lives out of their heads these two areas are areas that we have to learn to EXP experience in our hearts but the problem is that unconditional love it's it's uncomfortable what do you mean you love me right now not because I'm perfect or because I'm all cleaned up you love me right where I am right now unconditional love is seen as too good to be true many people who've been infused with constant performance and legalism they see unconditional love as compromise you're going to compromise The View on sin and you're just going to you're going to get soft on sin and you're going to live a life of of calling evil good no it's none of that it actually reveals how much we don't know what love from the father looks like and so Grace is the same thing Grace seems messy to us huh give me the rules give me the black and white on everything everything in life I need rules on give me all the rules Journey what you talking about journey and just like unconditional love Grace seems way too good to be true when you start stepping into it and many they're first OCD is their first reaction if I step into experiencing more grace and living more in Grace this means I'm going to compromise sin and I'm going to become Lawless furthermore there's some things you need to know about the inner life of a what I call an ocer a religious OCD is um they have a a performance living and how they approach their faith walk they have a constant scorecard in how they assess their faith and how much they're doing Bible reading how much they're praying how well they're serving how well they're serving in certain areas are they preaching are they evangelizing are they are they are they praying for people how's their daily routine they're always asking how do I do this and and what do I need to do and how do I do it what do I need to do and how do I do it they struggle with just relating they got to have a certain list of things to check off they need a to-do list so they ask what am I supposed to do I need to be doing something I can't just sit here and do nothing they have a performance-based way and how they approach the things of God another thing you need to know and understand this is where we start getting sober is that you live your life according to rules now rules and guidelines are not completely evil that's not what I'm saying but rules are not a basis by which you relate and walk with God cuz then you're always looking for the rule you're always looking for the black and white answer you're always looking to check off a box and it's going to suck you into law infused living but you live by these intense rule systems and when you ask questions and many people in their questions to me they're often asking Mark give me the rule give me the list of rules so I can check it off and I can feel better about myself they often have a punishment-based relationship with God if I don't get these rules right then it will compromise my standing with God it will compromise my relationship with God we can't do that I've got to get all these rules just right they when it comes to fear they compulsively respond to fear often now when I speak of fear I'm speaking specifically to anxiety they often interpret anxiety as God trying to speak to them to try to get their attention and they often say yeah but what if maybe this is something I need to pay attention to and I need to think about so their fight or flight is often in operation and I find many of them are often in fight and flight not necessarily fight or flight fight is the gearing up right flight is the avoidance get me out of here and ocds are in constant fight and flight so they're exhausted all the time because their stress response is like the pedal to the metal and there's been a brick that's put on the accelerator just forcing it in that go position and they're either fighting and gearing up or gear or getting into avoidance so they they gear up with pressure to try to thought stop to try to suppress their thoughts to try to make sure no no no no no no no I don't think those I don't think those way I got to keep these areas clean I got to keep these areas good and they're also avoiders oers are avoiders they avoid anything that will want to trigger them because if it triggers them then it's going to spin them in a spiral they're going to get hooked into feeling like they have to do their compulsion so they go if I avoid that all together then I don't have to deal with it I don't have to face it because um it's a part it's ingrained in what OCD OCD is a very anxiety driven disorder in fact for many years OCD in the DSM manual was considered an anxiety disorder but then in some of the latest work it was kind of taken out separated on its own mainly because there's so much complexities to what OCD does in the documentation that was put out in his own but it's heavily influenced by anxiousness and do you find that in your life where you're striving trying to be a good Christian for God but then you're also avoiding him at the same time it's kind of funny because I joke about my my dog our pet Levi he's just such a cute dog we love him if you've seen some of our broadcast sometimes he pops in but he's the example of fight and flight he's very anxious so he comes running to you he wants to be with you but as soon as you get down and you want to embrace him he backs up right it's just like tug and go I want to be with you and he backs up and we laugh about it all the time because it's it's kind of funny to watch and when I watch him I said this is the life of an OCD right here I want love oh my goodness this is scary I want love I want Grace We're scared right constant fight and flight striving all day you look at a scrupulosity struggler they are striving and a lot of times it's just striving up here trying to get their thoughts straight trying to get it just right trying to get it all together and they're avoiding love cuz love goes you're safe right now where you're at you're loved they can't comprehend that and then Grace it's like that's too messy just I I need the certainty of the rule that's going to help me so they're constantly geared up meanwhile they start to develop these avoidance things where now it's like well I better not be near that or do this or go to that places because it's going to trigger me now and if I get triggered I don't have the will to resist the compulsion I will have to do the compulsion and so I'm I'm not going to even get there with that with that with that with that stimulus or that environment or that place or that sentence Manos years they they listen to Fear as though it's their helpful counsel and they often Infuse God as getting into this God must be saying something one of the big deceptions of religious OCD is that whatever you struggle with this is God and if you put that into the equation it creates this ominous weight upon your shoulders now it's this heavy duty thing so with religious CD you become very depressed you become prone to depression because it's exhausting it wears you out meanwhile God's not putting this on you God has not put this burden on you but we have to understand God is not going to think for you he's not going to program your brain and just set you like a puppet master he GI he's given us the ability to decide but our frequency and what we feel is the right or healthy way to go has been messed with it's been hijacked and it's been pushed away from what love and grace could do and I'm here to invite you back into the power of love that actually casts out fear and the grace of God that invites us into a journey in his righteousness and what that means to walk and live in what's already been provided for us but OCD are struggle to receive they struggle to receive love they struggle to receive Grace they're deep deeply tied into unworthiness now another thing is that they perceive guilt and shame almost as helpful guides many of them get confused in subjects like conviction oh this is God convicting me this is my conscience this is right and wrong I need to listen to this meanwhile it's riddled with accusation condemnation guilt and shame but they've they've not known any other way to live and known any other way to to think in process now they see things in black and white and when you see things in black and white this becomes very very challenging because it it it it it leads you into a rule-based lifestyle where you're always looking for the rule and you don't know how to see things in the realm of process so how many of you know our journey is a journey and it's process when you understand Grace you start to understand the journey you start to understand what's been given to you of God's work through Jesus Christ having a work in and through your life but instead when you're in the black and white you can't see the process so you also then dip into an all or nothing you see your options as all or nothing so uh if your you know devotion isn't up here then that means you're not even saved if your dedication is not up here if your sinlessness is not up here then it's nothing it's it's constant in every area of your life so of course it's going to defeat you of course it's going to leave you more depressed because law is your influence and one of the things the scripture talks about is the letter of the law and it says the letter kills but the spirit gives life how many of you find the way that you process God it's like killing Vitality in you isn't it it's killing Joy it's killing peace it's killing the way that you interact with people around you now I always have to bring this up because OCD is influenced by seven distortions these are these are distortions I teach on over and over again the material is in uh book material in the course on the OCD healing Journey but when you are struggling with scrupulosity you are in all seven of these all seven of these distortions are clocking at the same time sounds overwhelming doesn't it but this is what's influencing you when you get these together in a web it brings about the confusion that obsessive compulsive manifests number one is perfectionism the mentality of just right never enough I got to have this just right but it's never enough the struggle with uncertainty there's a doubt and uncertainty magnet that you just you get drawn to trying to figure out all your doubts and you got to have absolute 100% certainty or it means you don't have any at all and number three takes things off the rails cuz now you interpret your thoughts you interpret what you're going through through Distortion now for for Christians we can start getting into not start we dive right into it overestimating threats the sky is falling the sky is falling the end of the world it's hell Doom destruction so we can't see things through a sober and more grounded way but number five the pressure Rises and in Christianity we can have very very very big problems with inflated sense of responsibility now in our journey I always want to encourage people we don't want to live as victims we don't want to live our life as victims there's a victim mindset it's a real thing self-pity it's a real thing uh this victim kind of mentality that can perpetuate a lot of mental health areas no question but often times we take that responsibility and and and that we need to there's healthy responsibility for our lives in our journey it gets twisted it gets turned on its head and now you feel like you need to stop the sky from falling and if you feel like you're the one responsible to keep the sky from falling it's going to put pressure on you that is so intense and so difficult number six is control issues the intense need to control your thoughts and you'll control relationships control people I'll be honest with you in my in my healing Journey this was one of the last ones for me to really deal with was my control issues of how I I I would control things and control areas of my life and it's been a big area of Deliverance and freedom that's been refreshing but it it actually kicks up a lot of your fears when you realize how much you try to control your inner world and the more I've learned to let go I have a whole chapter on that whole material um based on on just that but these these distortions oh oh there's one more is the difficulty with emotions so ocers don't know they don't know how to name what they're actually going through what it actually means they don't know how to process their own emotions they don't they don't know how to how to navigate they're just always focused on fixing they're focused on fixing their emotions not actually working through them emotions are not meant to be fixed emotions are meant to be worked through and historically the church and even the non-church world society in general has struggled with what to do with emotions if you look at your upbringing what were you taught in how to deal with your emotions well in the obsessive compulsive world it's just a constant drowning you get pulled by anxiety you get pulled by guilt you feel like you're all over the place all the time now let me take some time to talk about finding help cuz many of you in in your journey you're wanting hope for for help in your life and at first we can go and run somebody rescue me right we 911 it you know because many people write to me and Mark help me with this question and if it's an email and if I get a chance to reply and even reply back by the time I reply back they're past that thing they're on to another subject um I had no words or reference for what I was dealing with just that it was a weird anxiety and so at first I never found a teacher preacher Pastor that could help me work through what I was going through I started to share it a lot of it was around relationship OCD but it was connected to religious OCD because I would connect the idea of getting married to God and making sure that I followed God's Will and plan and that I I couldn't mess and mess around with this I got to make it just right then that often trickled into so many other areas and how I prayed and how I worshiped and how I saw my standing with God so at first I would share it with friends and my friends didn't necessarily pick up on the neurotic behaviors of mine because I I kept them I kept them gu you know with a cover I kept them with a you know to to look a certain way so you know that they didn't know the real depth of it then it hit a point where I just started getting honest and started sharing and my friends that at the time didn't necessarily know what to say to me but many of them were very kind I know some that sat with me and some that would drive in the car for me with me go get coffee while I was just spinning and spinning and spinning over the disturbances and I think it was wise that some of them even said you know I'm not sure how to help you but I'm here and I always remember that cuz I appreciate that and many of your friends don't know how to help but they love you and I think it's important that we stay sober in recognizing and appreciating love that is shown to us because ocers don't they they struggle with being loved they don't know how to be loved they focus on fixing themselves and love is not a fixer Love Actually Embraces you in your struggle in your journey but I I remember going to my pastor and sharing in with him he didn't know how to necessarily help and the pastor I worked for and in fact some of the stories he told me back were of other people having that he had heard of having similar issues looking back though what he was telling me is they were all being compulsive about their Journey some of them told stories about oh they they weren't feeling just right about is this the person God want me to marry and so they were like well we're going to take uh 6 months or a year off and we won't see each other and we're going to dedicate our Liv Liv to God and we're going to make sure and make certain and a lot of that was just compulsive behavior and this um relationship substantiation problem that they need that just right feeling or it's or it's not going to be enough and so from there he you know he said well I know of a therapist you can go that he gave me his card so maybe you try that before that I talked to church counselor about it and struggled to get any progress in that and again it's not against anybody who's talked to me I don't have any I don't have any negative feelings towards any people who've helped me in the past cuz often times people are just doing the best that they can sometimes we can go well that counselor and this person said this and some person that sometimes you're just not ready to hear what they said to you and we could say well that counselor was terrible they did this okay maybe maybe they saw something you didn't see at the time and so it didn't land right it's okay we're we're in a journey there is no perfect person in this world that's going to be the perfect solution Jesus and the work of the Father's Heart in our lives that's Perfection but um it's not about finding the perfect thing for your journey it's learning along the way but I remember going to see the counselor and he uh never never mentioned obsessive compulsive we just talked about about a lot about anxiety but the problem is is that in the therapy I was very obsessively digging into issues and many people come to me this day that's what they do and many who even ask me questions they're obsessed about the subject Mark tell me about the subject and because they're seeing it with obsessiveness they can't see it in its proper place so I'd have a certain thing I was disturbed about so I'd spin about it the counselor would do his best to try to give me feedback I appreciate his help and his attempts but eventually he said you know what you should probably just consider medication which many psychologists and many therapists they get to that point where they they say maybe you need medication and some some tell you right off the Jump some after a while when they get a little bit not sure how to help you they'll say maybe you need to take a medication route so I went to a psychiatrist and I'd just go and and see this lady for just a few minutes to just get the get the dosage and get get on with things and uh like I share I have a whole broadcast I shared about a Christian in medication you can find out more about that if you have questions about that area but uh for me in my journey it um just kind of dull things and that's what a lot of mental health medication does it kind of just dulls things which for a season if things are really out of control may just help to just kind of help contain how the how your emotions and all that are but there's a couple things I didn't like about dulling is it dulled everything it's it's not like it just picked certain things and let's help this that then kind of DED everything and then there's the side effects that that come with it too that that weren't great and so it was in that that I said Okay I I need to continue on my journey and be open and here's the thing that I've learned in my life that I want to share with you is if you remain humble and teachable what you need will show up you got to be patient a lot of us want us to just be rescued out and what you're going to need to know is you're going to need to take a deep breath and you're going to walk through this it's not just a rescue out we we many of us relate to God and life in a way of just we need rescuing we need rescuing we need rescuing what you really need to learn is walking because when I look back I see a journey of learning and I just had a heart that say you know what I want to be open and and people crossed my path some of them were inner healing Ministries some of them were Deliverance Ministries some of them were prayer Ministries some of them were Christian Counseling Ministries and I saw a lot experienced a lot some of it wonderful some of it super goofy some of of it I wouldn't recommend uh many people ask me about Deliverance because ocers feel like I've got something in my head I've this must be a demon there a demon doing this and I have videos on that that you can check out as OCD a demon and then there's a long form where I break down spiritually what an OC deer is going through but but the short answer is Deliverance Ministries can often make ocers worse because it's very law-based because you can often start repenting and renouncing for things you don't need to but you just start you just start throwing mud at the wall and you start just trying this and trying that and trying this and trying that and you're incessantly trying to fix you and so many OCD years go I went to Deliverance minist I did this I'm now I'm worse well it's not blaming them or blaming that I think the concept of Deliverance has its place but a lot of times Deliverance Ministries and make that almost the only thing make that the thing in the journey and we get law-based we can lose sight of the beauty of of righteousness in Christ Jesus we start getting fixated on fixing ourselves and this thing and that thing everything's a demon we we're obsessing and spinning about that so uh many years ago I found many people coming out of I went to Deliverance Ministries and it's like I'm just getting worse and just getting worse I'm not blaming the Deliverance Ministry and just saying that that Focus doesn't uh it can get people to be become actually more obsessive about trying to fix themselves and clean them and clean themselves up so that's important to understand that but I ran into a lot of inner healing Ministries I I think that the the the first thing that was helpful that I recommend to any believer that's wanting to live with greater mental health emotional health and relationship health is the love of the father I see that as the as the crisis I see that as the struggle that many people are facing they don't know how to connect to the love specifically the love of the father and um that was such a new stage for my life and for my journey I've been teaching on it and writing about it ever since and I will continue to for the rest of my life because there's nothing greater than the love of God nothing greater yet at the same time I see it is the top problem in the church of being rooted in his love and what that does for our mental emotional health it is absolutely incredible so that began to open up then delving into the depth of the beauty of the grace of God and what Grace does to condemnation what Grace does to shame what it does to guilt what it does and that has been a renewal of realigning my focus of what I even pay attention to what thoughts I I lean into learning to navigate the journey and healing it's it's it's been remarkable for my life but this isn't a formula step one step two step three there's precepts I'm going to give you but you need to understand if you're hungry humble and teachable what you're going to learn is going to show up and maybe Mark de Jesus's video or his materials is some of the things that needs to show up for you and you were late night in a Google search or in a YouTube search or wherever and one of my videos popped in and it became something that awakened some healing or awakened some insight for you in your journey I'm not for everybody and that's okay I'm fine with that but I'm just telling you what you need will show up if you just stay teachable and allow yourself one step at a time to go okay yeah I got anxiety that keeps rising up and rising up but I am learning on a daily basis some new things I'm going to need to learn for healing and for Freedom now I want to talk a little a little bit about and I I have more expanded areas on this I want to talk about the Christian and psychology for just a moment and kind of looking at the question well how should a Christian relate to psychology of course if you ask a hundred Christians you'll get a hundred different answers won't you can get kind of frustrating now I'm going to say this it's sad to me that when we think about working through our thoughts and emotions right you said I I got some some thinking patterns I need to work on I got some emotional stuff I need to work on we associate that with psychology and not our faith walk with Christ Jesus right that's sad to me that working on our thoughts working on our emotions is associated with psychology and not the Christian life because I believe the Christian Life should improve mental health I absolutely with all my heart believe that living with Christ is not a separate subject from mental health oh my mental Health's over there my walk with Jesus is over here I believe that God wants us to live mentally healthy and emotionally healthy and he wants us to live in fruitful relationships Jesus said there'll be known you'll be known for the love that you have for one another but many of us in our Mental Health um struggles reveal where we struggle with loving and being loved when we're honest we realize that but when it comes to the Christian psychology there can be many many objections I could go through a whole list of them there's no need for counseling Jesus is all we need problem is OCD is trying to follow that just read your Bible and pray you don't need therapy that's exactly what ocers do they try to read their Bible and try to pray they go for it you just need to be more surrendered to God more fully surrendered that's exactly what they're doing and it's tormenting them ah you just need to get your salvation set straight that's exactly what they're doing and that pressure is making things worse ah you just need to be more dedicated to your church and get involved it's exactly what ocers are doing they're the most dedicated devoted dependable and loyal people in the church they're so committed they follow every rule they show up on time they're they're there trying to get all the rules straight not saying that church involvement prayer Bible reading not talking negatively about those things I'm saying that our cliche statements we're not realizing that's exactly what they're doing it's not that they're doing it it's how they're going about it that needs renewal and I think we in the body of Christ need more discernment to go hey this person's obsessive the problem is is and this you know we're getting into the Kibbles and bits a little bit here that people who are compulsive servers like oh we like this we like this because they get more done in the church they make more things happen right so we have to make a decision do we want to be healthy or do we want to keep promoting this behavior that adds some achievement to the worlds that we're trying to build many can have objections to psychology psychology is psycho Babble it's all this you know when we don't give room to realize wait a second um psychology and therapists and counseling is revealing a need people have to work through how they think to work through their emotions to work through their relationship patterns and I believe that we in the body of Christ not that we have to be experts on every Battleground but we were designed to be safe people to help people process but we get lost in this argument about psychology right or psychology has dark influences and we look back at the history of psychology certain people and certain influences and we'd say oh there's some dark stuff there there some wrong things and I could certainly go back into church history and find a lot of that too and a lot of things that you can read about in how the church has developed over the years and many things have been done in the name of God that are that are downright wrong but I'm not here to argue and my teachings are not designed to debate or argue because no one's heart gets changed and transformed simply by arguing no one says you know what when my life really changed was when I lost an argument and from then on my life has been changed ever since now I'm here to speak to your heart I'm here to speak to the masses of people in the body of Christ that need help with how they think how they feel how they relate cuz I didn't have any of that I didn't know how to work through how I thought how I felt and how I related now you may call that psychology I call it discipleship because I believe that's where True Discipleship is discipleship is not preaching at somebody we think it is here just hear a sermon you'll be good here's a Bible just go read it now certainly the Holy Spirit teaches us shows us but discipleship is helping model for somebody walking through what it means to to experience the love of God and the grace of Jesus Christ the truth that sets us free to empower people to walk in who they are in Christ so whatever your thoughts are about psychology Pro con whatever the truth is people need help and a big aspect of what we ought to be doing needs to be helping people in their thinking their emotions and they're relating what else is there how we think about God how we think about ourselves and the world around us how we deal with our emotions how we deal with the emotions that we spin about how we feel about situations and how because there is no thought without emotion and historically the church has had a very poor relationship with emotions for many many years the church has often lived in a thought suppression I mean emotion suppression kind of world just suppress how you feel just decide move on that's it I understand that because you don't want the ups and downs of emotions to drive your world but we just kind of disconnected oursel from being aware of any emotion and anything in that Meanwhile we're needing to learn how to navigate through our emotional World in a healthy way and so we see this when you look back historically you're going to see a movement of people trying going to more counselors therapists or psychology is um because in the early days the in the church and you look back at church history after you see the the biblical church and then movement into uh historical church and where it went from there people with religious Melancholy is what it was often called uh or scrupulosity you'd go to your pastor a Shepherd you go to your priest or you go to a spiritual leader to ask for help traditionally that's where you would go right the problem is that Mental Health Battle what we would call today mental health Battlegrounds was attributed to basically two options sin and demons this is problematic in the sense of it infuses very black and white thinking and emotions aren't just black and white if someone's depressed it's not just a black and white thing oh it's a demon oh it's sin it's all that CU depression's multifaceted it has multiple factors in it it has to do with how you deal with sadness with grief in your life disappointment has layers of History childhood upbringing it's all kinds of things that are going on and we just want these two answers right it's a sin to be repented of it's a demon to cast out so we send people into cycles and what it does is it doesn't allow for nuance depression has Nuance to it anxiety has Nuance to it OCD has Nuance to it you name it panic attacks whatever but those were your only options and I don't see in historical record that the need for believers to get rooted in love and grace because in love and grace you're free and freedom is infused in your journey you're released from bondage but when I read a lot of church history I see a lot of control a lot of control mechanisms a lot of guilt and shame a lot of religious um shackles put on people a lot of condemnation that was put on them and and and see what happens in your mental health is things start opening up when you see how much God loves you when you see how the grace that he has toward you you start to see the beauty of what heaven is bringing into your life but you see the more I teach you that the more I actually free you up from my any agenda I would have to control you I actually begin to free you and the church is in need of Freedom just as much today as it did a thousand years ago and so people have these problems they had these battles so it's like okay my salvation's not good enough or I got a demon okay I've been going through all these anouncements and all these things um back then it would be called like exorcisms doing all these things right and that's still struggling still battling so now you're hopeless So eventually you would get kind of you know pushed off into uh the development of asylums that started to open up because Al the family would take care of you or or something but then eventually asylums happened and then you know you know over time you start to see people going to therapists and somewhere within I would say like the early 1900s it's before then but somewhere around there there Rose a wave of Believers Christ followers going to the psychologist rather than religious advisers for help and this has become an ongoing Trend ever since now why is this happening we could speculate into a lot of areas of what's taking place one thing that I would share from my observation and study and being in the church and seeing it at many different levels is in the 1900s the church became taken over by the church growth Movement we wanted the church to take a similar Journey that industrialism took and the journey of a store like Walmart took bigger better more creating this intense focus on Church growth and being fascinated by that the problem is is that when you want to grow bigger your connection to people gets shallower because now you're you're dealing with more people so you're you're you're not at you're not actually having connection and touch and Now relationships become more shallower because everything is about moving the bigger there's no time to talk about your problems there's no time to deal with your marital issues so many in the church were relieved oh you're going to go see the counselor oh thank goodness because I don't have to deal with that anymore I don't have time I've got budgets I've got programs we've got to develop our worship program our kids program our singles program our this program our production program our lights our sound our audio we got to figure out all these things to do to strategically get more people to be in our church and this has influence what you see a lot of America a lot of Western culture but really see it all around the world it's not just exclusive to Western culture where we see the mindset of Mega we want mega church where the the leader is not really a pastor the leader is not a pastor meaning Shepherd the leader is a CEO a very charismatic speaker who has the ability to organize a large organization I'm not trying to just speak against it I'm just telling you the trend that happens Meanwhile we're seeing divorce increase we're seeing Pro we're seeing a carbon copy of problems outside the church also happening inside the church where the mental health strugles are pretty much the same and so then Christians are condemning themselves meanwhile the solutions are read your Bible pray and serve just get involved and serve and that'll take care of itself that was a predominant message I saw in church life where where I serve for a very long time if you just serve and get involved it will solve many of the things you just figure it out along the way and problem is is that wasn't necessarily true I'm not saying that the church should be solving everyone's issues and there shouldn't be therapy there shouldn't be room for those things I'm just telling you part of the trend of what happened and what's influenced part of what has led us to where we are today so that you have those that were relieved we're building our church I don't have time to talk about anxiety and these problems right and many of the leaders who were the the type A and and and pushing the church to grow in numbers they didn't have the emotional bandwidth because they're not necessarily dealing with their own issues they're lost in the rat race and many Believers today are unplugging from The Matrix of this they're going I'm tired of the Rat Race tired of this this institutional model that's being offered H because they're wanting depth they're wanting to slow down they're wanting to live a different pace and a different emphasis so there are many that were relieved H at least they're going to somebody okay then there's those in the church who they're condemned in Psychology okay it's fine I got it you disagree with this and and all that right they're irritated with this mass shift ah you're going to counselors but what they're doing is they're condemning and not not going hey what should these people be doing then what should happen what is this person that keeps spinning over the same stuff over and over again and what we often do is go well they just need to get more grace they just need to get more L and we just kind of sh them away with cliche answers so I understand your frust ation but we're not seeing the trend that the Church of Jesus Christ actually needs to slow down and start getting rooted in what's meaningful we're living in a fast-paced culture that chases achievement chasing a lot of stuff and a lot of it is not important but we make it important so some observations I I I'll provide for you but I want you to think for yourself the way that I look at Psychology I don't worshiping and look at it as my guide or or or my sense of right and wrong but psychology is the study of the Soul simply what it is which it involves the researching and documenting of patterns of how people think feel and relate and the battles that arise within that so I appreciate that so I can I can look at documentation I can look at research and see this is these are common struggles that people have and when it's in this category it's kind of like this and and in this this is kind of the some of the struggles that are there here are some of the things that research shows helps and the church can often just dismiss this but we as Believers the Christian Life should be how to think how to process emotions how to relate in ways that are empowering that that God shows his way amongst us I learn how to relate to God through how I relate to you and how I relate to you helps in how I relate to God this this whole thing that's happening and taking place it's not just a me and God thing many Christians live that way oh it's just me and Jesus it's just me and Jesus those people over there they're idiots but it's me and you Lord Me and You Lord right it's me and him working in my life and I learn how to process my walk with God by how I relate to you and the church hasn't recognized I that we're actually manifesting a lot of mental health breakdowns and how we relate to God ourselves and others so the soul involves how we relate right it involves how we relate to the world around us John put it this way in third John verse two he says beloved I pray that you may prosper in all things now that word Prosper people get triggered into prosper teaching that kind of thing Prosper that word Prosper means help along the journey help along the way having what you need for the journey that's what Prosper means and I'm thankful that I get to be here today to help give you some insight for your journey and it may be a part of the luggage that you carry that's going to help you along the way not baggage luggage right it's a difference between baggage and luggage and so Prosper means I have what I need for the journey and today you need to connect to what you need for the next step in your journey he says that you'd prosper in all things and be in health as your soul prospers as your soul gains what it needs in the journey my soul needs things today and the days ahead for the journey what do you need for your journey in Learning and Development so life for the soul so the church often misses this emphasis we kind of like us and God we emphasize a lot of worship prayer devotion Bible reading but then we avoid each other why because well you and I are goofy and we have issues and sometimes those issues can get really damaging right but sometimes we've emphasized our relationship with God so much we dismiss the need to learn how to grow with each other I grow in my mental health by learning how to interact with you wow how to receive love from you how to love you and to walk that's why the fruit of the spirit is the manifestation of God's work in our lives love joy peace longsuffering so Christians are not exempt from working on Mental Health people say to me oh you work with people in that those people over there I want to say yeah yeah and you too we all think we all feel we all relate we all need healing yes you yes you Mr Pastor guy yeah you need healing too we all need maturity we all need growth in fact everything in the Bible is meant to help us learn to think feel and relate empowered in fruitful ways and so sometimes I ask myself the question have we neglected to see that counselors and therapists began to fill the Gap that families and church communities needed to fill because mental health doesn't start and begin in the home and how the family talks about things and works through issues what was meant to be processed with Mom and Dad in their upbringing is being brought into a therapist's office now and then there's the church Community right which is our new family when you're born again you're brought into a new family God is our father we are brothers and sisters Jesus is our elder brother there's a family of God that's going on so Believers are often left with a dilemma those who want to improve their mental emotional relationship Health are they're left with this dilemma and I'm just being honest they attend and support a local institutional Church they give up their time in service but when it comes to mental emotional heart connected development they have to look outside the church for help when many bring up their battle with anx iety or SE to depression they get blank stairs from other people even talking about heart healing working through the past and healing relationships can involve an empty response or cliches even though everyone has areas that they need to work through and process through many Believers will say they just attend a church for some Community interaction but they're finding help and healing somewhere else I've also heard this so much many believers tell me they feel more safe in The Recovery Group or in a counselor's office than they do anywhere else including their Christians friends or local church setting my goal here is not to hate on the church my goal is just to bring out honest expression of what's happening in the trenches and many with OCD they have no idea um what to do CU they feel so alone and they feel so strange in their battle grounds but the truth is folks no one's exempt from working through their issues thinking feeling and relating this is everyone it's a subject we all need to work through maybe you're not obsessive compulsive or maybe you are whatever you B everyone has areas they need to work through now many Christians are afraid of diagnosis they're afraid of counseling terms but psychological diagnosis and Diagnostics don't have to a permanent label as far as this is who you are that this is your destiny this is always going to be you but it can be informative and something Embrace as a part of your journey as a part of your learning as a part of your process do you avoid this because you go I don't want the oh my goodness it's going to mean something bad about me a I'm OCD I got OCD ah yeah okay are the people have other that battle with that's one of your battles it's one of your struggles there's other people have the same battle that need some encouragement too now one thing that's that's interesting about ocers is they can struggle in getting therapy from someone who doesn't share their faith lens understandable understandable you want someone who shares your faith lens but that can also be a part of your black and white all or nothing thinking because what you need to know about therapists whether they share your exact Faith Grid or not a healthy therapist is going to respect your faith grid and not try to change necessarily uh the the doctrines or or belief systems around your faith grid but they will challenge your distortions in how you relate to your thoughts and what often happens is we go well I have this salvation thing this person doesn't share my faith so they're going they're they're dismissing it you can feel that your obsession is being dismissed because they don't share the same Faith grid just understand when you're obsessive compulsive you're going to need a challenging to how you look at your faith grid so whether you have it from a secular person or a person who's a Christian you're going to have to face a place where how I see things needs to be renewed now many of us can get stuck on you know what is this is this a spiritual thing psychological thing or physiological people every week all the time they're asking me this question is this spiritual Mark is this a soul issue is this just a soul psychological issue or is this a physical is this chemical imbalance right is it this thing right kind of spin through we want to try to find a silver bullet answer but really we need to realize that it's all these you are a spirit have a soul you live in a body now it's not like oh this part is just spiritual this part is just s all these things are clocking through affecting your spirituality affecting your psychology affecting your physiology certainly but what I encourage people and and you can learn in all those three areas in fact h a big part of my journey was I went through the Bible from beginning to end and studied the term Spirit soul and body it revolutionized how I saw things but the key is not getting lost in the study and Matrix of all those things the key is about the heart because I believe in ministering to the whole person of of who you are but it begins with just a simple heart and the Heart Is moved by not just following your feelings we T think follow your heart so follow whatever you're feeling feeling the heart is moved by choice and decision decision says I want to experience healing I want to experience freedom in my life I want to work through this even though I struggle to feel like I even have the motivation anymore because when you start making a heart decision and you say how do I know I make a heart decision just make a decision and and you lead your heart there sometimes we say oh it's the heart dece f is it is it what do I do with the heart just lead make a decision and lead your heart heart is where we're going we're going to start learning how to work through these things we're going to learn what it means to be loved we're going to learn how to face these thoughts different we're going to learn the grace of God we're going to learn how to relate in renewed ways because I'll leave you with this all healing is relational all healing is relational all mental health breakdown stems from relational breakdown how you relate to God how you relate to yourself how you relate to the world around you how you relate to your thoughts that show up whether or not you are able to embrace love or Embrace Grace or if it's a struggle and a battle over your life These are now the real issues now we're getting to more the root system of what's really needed for your life and for your journey all healing is relational so where do you find in your life and in your journey H this is where I'm needing to just keep myself humble and teachable to learn how I relate to our thoughts how many of you relate to the concept I need to relearn how I relate to my thoughts and when we begin to move into that make the decision one step in front of the other what you need to learn what you need to to to process out we show God has a way of meeting you in that and I'm so happy that he met me in that you can find out more about this by getting a copy of the OCD healing Journey you can also dive more into this in my online course a indepth teaching through the OCD healing Journey material with support and uh questions that you can ask found in the healing and freedom Community which I formed a year ago and it's a delight to have a gathering of people that are invested in their in and freedom Journey I'm going to take a moment to pray for youall in just a moment but I'm going to come back after a brief dance break [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] he n [Music] father I want to pray for my brothers and sisters thank you for this opportunity to share with them today and to be able to take a moment to talk about a Battleground that often gets misunderstood meanwhile many are suffering and struggling in the trenches and need a voice need an Insight need a perspective and I pray that the areas you've shown me and and I've what I've learned that that Grace would just be like like a seasoning salt to others that it would impart to them courage to stay the to stay the course to stay the Journey To Face their fears to work through their fears because it's a journey in process of learning how to navigate through our fears to heal their hearts of where they've been disconnected to what love means and how to connect to the Beauty and the power of your love I'm so grateful for where you've taken me and where you've led me I I'm excited about where things are going to be moving to in the days ahead I pray that there be a moment of just connectivity right now to peace to nurture to the love that you have for each of the listeners those who are watching I'm so thankful for it all and I bless everyone in this broadcast bless those who are tuned in now bless those who tune into this later on and I thank you for all that you're doing Jesus name I pray amen if this has been blessing to your life and your journey would you consider a one-time donation to support these broadcasts we have lots and lots of materials over 900 yes I said that 900 over 900 videos are available online for free for your freedom Journey would you consider a one-time donation or become a monthly supporter to the materials or maybe you say you know what I need to join the healing and freedom community and have a process developed in my life where I start walking through the material step by step taking a deeper look into this and learning how to navigate it more and more in an effective way it's an honor to be your brother from another mother and L willing in the creek don't rise I'll be back with more insights for your healing and freedom Journey but ladies and gentlemen brothers and sisters in the meantime I'm out [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Mark DeJesus

Views: 4,170

Keywords: Mental Health, Christian Mental Health, Scrupulosity, Religious OCD, Obsessive-Compulsive

Id: yP7DmQ2V0y8

Length: 113min 49sec (6829 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 25 2024