The Chief Cornerstone
The Chief Cornerstone
When I first got saved (as a teenager), two verses in the Bible really perplexed me. It was at least a year of regularly asking God to explain it to me before I had even a basic understanding of it’s meaning.
Matt 21:44 (NLT) “Anyone who stumbles over that stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone it falls on.”
1 Peter 2:8a (NLT) “He is the stone that makes people stumble,
the rock that makes them fall.”
As it turned out, I would spend a significant portion of my life learning (experientially) what these verses mean!
That is, HE alone is God. He is the immovable, unbreakable Rock. He is solid. He is unwavering Truth. We - and everything else in all of creation - must yield to Him. It is never Him who must yield to us!
Perhaps you’ve heard this one …
Plowing at night through rough, foggy seas, a battleship’s radar suddenly indicates an object directly in its path. The ship’s captain sends a radio signal, “We are on a collision course. Advise you to change course 10 degrees north.”
A response crackles over the radio: “Negative. We advise you to change course 10 degrees south.”
The captain can now see a blinking light from the approaching object. Perturbed, he bellows a reply: “I’m a ship’s captain. Change course 10 degrees north, now!”
“I’m a seaman second class,” comes the reply. “Advise that you change course 10 degrees south to avoid imminent collision.”
The captain is furious. He blurts another command: “This is a battleship! Change your course immediately!”
Back comes the calm reply: “This is a lighthouse.”
The battleship changed course.*
This is a difficult and painful lesson to learn. For most of us, it shatters us to pieces. It certainly did me! But that is preferable to the Rock falling on us and crushing us.
Why am I pointing this out on a website/ministry devoted to deliverance and inner healing for children?
It is essential for us as parents/guardians to understand that no matter how much deliverance and inner healing we do for our children, they are going to suffer. Everyone must learn this lesson (Phi 2:10-11), and learning it involves pain! It is truly a dying to self. No amount of deliverance, inner healing, therapy, or your sweet love is going to change that.
Therefore, it is necessary throughout this process to remind and teach your children every chance you get that despite these painful experiences of dying to self, God IS Good! He LOVES them, and discipline is a LOVING process (Heb. 12:5b–6). It is meant to save us from worse things - and ultimately, eternal damnation - and keep us on “the path that leads to life.” (Matthew 7:13-14). He disciplines us because He loves us. Once this lesson is learned, it is a priceless life-long blessing. To know in the depths of your being that He IS the Rock that cannot be moved or shaken means that you can have complete faith in Him! He can never be broken or changed or moved. He is the Anchor of our hope. His Word never fails. He is Faithful! The more deeply you understand that, the more unshakeable YOU become. And isn’t that our goal for our children? That they be solid and unshakable, unwavering in their faith in Jesus?
Deliverance and inner healing for your children is essentially the process of clearing away the rocks from their path (Isaiah 57). That makes traveling the path for your children easier, more pleasant, and faster - and decreases the opportunities for them to get knocked off of the path altogether - but they still must travel the path!
So know this: You can be completely successful at deliverance and inner healing with your child, and they can - and likely will - still act out, disobey, and struggle with things in their lives. Don’t interpret that as failure on your part, or that God didn’t answer your prayers, or that your child didn’t get delivered! God is being Faithful to continue to disciple them. Rejoice at the wonderful work God is doing in them, and keep clearing away those rocks! “He who began a good work in us is faithful to complete it.” (Phi. 1:6).
* Quoted from: https://www.dasma.com/the-battleship-and-the-lighthouse/
Side note: A corollary of Christ being the solid Rock is that Satan and his ilk - the “critters” - are not solid and are not on solid ground. They are on very shaky ground, if even that. The Bible says that Satan's fate is to be sealed in a bottomless pit. (Rev. 9:1-12). That’s the absolute opposite of solid! Remember that when you are engaged in battle with him and the critters.
