The Robe and the Ring
Have ever been lived in shame and guilt even you do all the Christian staff: read your Bible, go to church and serve in some capacities? If that's you, please hear this story, how an inner healing section set a poor man free.
ENGLISH - HEARING GOD'S VOICEENGLISH - INNER HEALING
YTM
8/3/20253 min read
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
(John 8:32, KJV)
Have you ever struggled with shame and guilt? Every time, you go to prayer and worship the Lord God, you fall short. Somehow, certain past bad events came to your mind and that reminded of your failures. Such memory drives you into agony and you feel unworthy. If you struggle with this, this story is for you.
When I came to Christ many years ago, I was told that all my sins were forgiven. I believed it at that time and I accepted this statement and never thought too much about it. Life was busy, I was struggling with my work and church services. Recently, because of some reasons, I decided to pull back from my ministries and have some quite time with the Lord. When you have time to reflect your life, many things start to surface. I remembered the past sins from the time when I was less than 5 years old. Some terrible sins at the time of my high school started to torment me during many sleepless nights. I could not forgave myself for what I did. I saw people who are blessed in their ministries with God’s power, yet I have failed on many aspects of the Church ministries. Suddenly, I felt so shameful. You see, I was having an identity crisis. I was in my pity party.
I cried, I told God repeatedly that I am sorry. Shame and guilt was heavy. If I could think of myself, I guess I was just like that prodigal young son who lives in the pigpen. The more successful stories I heard about how other Christians were used mightily by the Lord, the more rejections I felt in my heart. I thought that I was treated like a stepchild or an outsider. You see, I was deeply blinded by the enemy and accepted his lies, that the Lord had rejected me because of my past sins. One day, at a church service, when I was crying to the Lord. A thought came to my mind, the Lord have gave His life to you, what else do you want?
After many days of struggle, I reached out to my pastor. He did not preach me out of it nor teach me more scriptures. He just invited the Holy Spirit to show me what He will say about this situation. He said, Holy Spirit, please tell my brother what he needs to know. Immediately, I see a picture in my mind, a prodigal son kneeled in front of a father. I heard Father God say to me: robe and ring! My tears broke out. Brothers and Sisters, thousands of words from men never achieve anything, yet, two words from the Lord healed my heart. As far as I understood at that moment, Father’s robe is Jesus’s righteousness that covers my shame. Father’s ring is His authority for me to take on His family business. I was wrapt by His righteousness, His acceptance, and His trust. The heaviness in my soul was gone. When God speaks, he always pinpoint the right place and fill it with His love and power. Praise the Lord! After that, sometimes I still struggle with bad thoughts but this event had became such a memorial event that always pull me out of my despair thoughts. Slowly, I came out of this oppression.
At that moment, I could not understand why the Lord did not say “sandals”. (If you know the story of the prodigal son, you will know what I mean.) But months later, when I was listening to a teaching related to the meaning of the “sandals” in this story. The preacher said it refers to the “right of a son”. When I heard this, I was so moved. The Holy Spirit highlighted the “robe and ring” event. I suddenly realized that why God did not say “shoes”. Father God was saying, you have always been my son, I do not need to gave you the shoes again. You never lost your sonship! You see, thinking myself as an outsider or treated as a stepchild was another lie from the enemies.
Beloved, if I could tell you one thing about our God. That is His loving heart towards His children. He knows each one of us through every cell of us. He knows you more than you know yourself. Every time, when I think of His acceptance, I could imagine that one day in front of thousands and millions of souls, on the glass sea, I could tell my story and sing a new song about His redemption of every record of my sins. Because of the blood of the Lamb, every sin of mine was redeemed! He turned my ashes to beauty, heaviness to garment of praises! Until that day come, I could sing:
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
O, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.
This is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long;
this is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long.