Fresh Air

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."  2 Corinthians 3:17

Recently, I've been very convicted of a spirit of condemnation.  It first came to me in the way of desiring my family to look and act a certain way so that we could be seen as "godly" by others.  In this, I greatly condemned myself and also my family, pressuring my wife to be a certain way.  I was not "washing her with the water of the word", but in reality calling her unclean by demanding that she live up to my standards.  I was condemning her.

Since then, the Lord has opened my eyes, and I have repented before Him and my wife.  From there, the Lord showed me this verse:

"And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst." Exodus 25:8

One of the definitions for sanctuary is "immunity from arrest".  Which to me means no condemnation - though a crime may have been committed, immunity from arrest is granted; i.e. grace.  The Lord showed my wife and I that He wanted our home to be a place where hurting people can come and be given "immunity from arrest" and allowed to heal.  We want our family to be a place where no topic is off limits and no imperfection will be treated as leprosy.  We will not condemn one another, but will always bring our conversations and imperfections to submission under the Lord.

Prior to this eye-opener, I was very hard folks who complained, especially Rachel, my wife.  I hated complaining, and still do.  But I was condemning in my response, not giving a place for healing and grace.  Thus, the wounds of my family were not being allowed to air out.

I work in medical design and construction.  We design and build hospital rooms.  The requirements in America call for us to completely seal every room, so that it is air tight.  The thought is that this will prevent infection and diseases from spreading.  "Just seal it up," is the idea.  "Put a band-aid on it so nobody can see what's in there". 

We also do mission work on hospitals in Africa.  The hospital rooms in Africa are usually large rooms with lots of beds in them.  People with all different ailments and diseases are in one room together.  Surrounding the room is usually lots of open windows.  Most Americans would shutter at the sight.  But infection in these open air hospitals is way less of a problem than in our zip-locked "germ-safe" rooms.  The fresh circulating air in the African hospitals actually brings healing. 

I experience the same effect with my black lab's ears - when I tie them up to let fresh air in, his ear infections heal.  If I do not do that, medications really do not help.  Man-made cleanliness covers up, while God's fresh air brings healing. 

This vision for my family was very freeing for both me and my wife; "like a breath of fresh air".  God is Spirit.  The word spirit is also translated as breath or wind.  The realization for me is that my family is going to have hurts and wounds.  I'm ok with that now.  This is not to allow sin, but to apply the grace of God that brings about repentence and healing.  In that, there is also discipline and consequence, but all is under submission to the Lord.

My home is not going to be a man-made, self-righteous place where we just put a band-aid over a wound, preventing the flow of fresh air. We will be a sanctuary where we bring our hurts and iniquities to the Throne of Grace, allowing the free-flowing Spirit of God to breathe fresh air on our imperfections, so that we will be able to healthily minister; first to one another, and secondly to others that the Lord puts in our path.  

"...where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."