Relationships are hard. You know why? Because human hearts are broken.  We all have areas where sin, selfishness, or denial pollute our stories. Thankfully, Jesus has come for us.  “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit” Psalm 34:18.  Even so, even with the Holy Spirit, we continue to find ourselves hurting others and being hurt in such a way that it causes us to shake our heads in shock and disbelief. God said to me once, you walk with a limp. We all walk with a limp. As soon as we accept this reality, He unveils the pathway of unconditional love. It is our calling.

But how? How, in the face of betrayal, disappointment, and failure, do we carry on in love?

God gave me a revelation decades ago, which burns just as hot for our current heartaches.

Through a prophetic prayer on a mission trip, God told me two pivotal relationships were shifting.  This word was confirmed when I returned home, but I still protested. I loved these friends. Despite the unhealthy tendencies, a deep affection existed with these women. God explained that our separation was needed for their growth — and mine.

As the threads of our lives began pulling apart, the Lord revealed my weaknesses and my role in the relational rat’s nest. Next came the grief. My heart balked over the loss of connection yet I complained every time I was with them, and when I wasn’t. It was an open emotional wound that I kept hitting at every turn, like an injured body part that keeps getting bumped.

The Lord gave me the word cauterize. Then He gave me a vision of a glowing firebrand coming toward my open wound. “No, don’t!” I said to the Lord, “I’m afraid of the pain!” The Lord gently asked me to trust Him and His process.

When I asked Him what on earth the vision meant, the Lord explained the whole point of cauterization was to instantly seal a wound to prevent infection, and to hasten scabbing and scarring to prevent further pain. He said He would cauterize my relational wound so that it could heal and still have a protective covering. He would desensitize it so that I could be around them without all the pain.  He did just that.

After the searing.

Here we are years later, and all three of us are healthier, at peace, and still friends.

However,  recent woundings have caused that weighty word — cauterize— to resurface again. Again, I am looking for His fiery touch to seal off the wounding.

People lie. We fail. We blow it. We lose our way.
We attack others with half-truths instead of owning our sin.
We malign instead of listening to the Spirit’s wisdom.
We isolate, or violate, instead of repenting and repairing.

We all walk with a limp. We are all in need of forgiveness.
The good news is we all HAVE forgiveness— and — we MUST activate it to live it out.

To move forward, to continue the human trial-and-error journey of love, we must appeal to the Great Physician for radical intervention. He will hurt us to heal us sometimes. Hear me now. He will bring a word, a scripture, a rebuke or exhortation, any fiery tool to seal up our wounds and speed our healing. Perhaps a hot coal from His altar.

And it will hurt.
Desperately.
And it will heal.
If we let Him.

I wonder, are you in need of a radical spiritual intervention?

Will you allow the Holy Spirit to bring a holy fire to your mortal wound so that you might walk in a way worthy of our calling? It is for freedom that Christ set us free.

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.  Ephesians 4:1-6