Unwrap Her and Let Her Go: How to Experience Freedom
No words will ever be adequate enough to explain the power of God’s mighty hand this past week in Honduras. We prayed for God to reveal himself in such a way that we and the women of the village could receive it, and he answered our prayers more than we could ever have imagined. This week was discovery of freedom not only for the women in the village, but for many of us as well.
Lazarus
In a devotional this week, we discussed the story of Lazarus focusing on John 11:38-45. Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha, requested Jesus to come heal their brother. However, Jesus did not arrive quickly, and Lazarus died and had been in the grave for three days. There is so much to this passage in John 11, but I want to bring attention to verses 43-44.
After Jesus’ weeps and prays for people to see and understand the power before them, Jesus calls Lazarus forth. Lazarus comes forth with his “…hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and cloth around his face” (vs.44). Jesus did not tell Lazarus to unwrap himself. Rather he told those around him, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go” (vs. 44).
Did you catch that? He asked others to unwrap Lazarus. We are not an island unto ourselves. We are designed to connect with others. And in that moment, Jesus asked Lazarus’ community to be a part of his healing, to be a part of his unwrapping, his unveiling. As our devo time began to close, one of the Aqua Viva staff, Shanie, made a powerful statement before we headed to the village, “God will unwrap her and let her go.” Jesus allowed us to see this in real time in the village with the women we served. But he did not stop there! He allowed us to experience unwrappings of our own.
The Binding and Unwrapping
In our world today, we proclaim we want to be free and independent, yet we bind ourselves to so much that robs us of that very freedom. Some of our “bindings” are our soul-wounds, our trauma, our anger, bitterness, silence, past, perfectionism, people pleasing, and more. We are tightly bound in these linens believing, at times, that we are unworthy of anything else.
Additionally, due to our own soul-wounds, we believe we ourselves are the only ones we can depend upon. We cast aside community and others believing we are safer and better without them. We want to unwrap ourselves, yet we are met with frustration and disappointment that we cannot, and we need help.
Freedom
While neither wrappings nor freedom looks the same for each person, there are some general ways to identify our wrappings so we may experience the freedom God calls us to.
1) Name it to claim it
I was surrounded by some extraordinary women this week. Our time was comprised of ten women from all walks of life with beautiful gifts and talents. Yet, even in our camaraderie each of us faced a binding. For me it was emotional safety. For others it may have been doubting their purpose, life choices, silence, and more. For those in the village, it was poverty, lack of clean water, lack of a voice and choice.
The more we attempt to pretend as though we are not covered in bandages from our wounds, the tighter the grave clothes become. However, as we began naming our pain and gave language to the women in the village to name their pain, unwrapping started happening. They discovered how loved and chosen they truly were (1 Thess. 1:4). And so did we.
2) Surrendering
Many of us hold tightly to our soul-wounds. Honestly, I felt safest doing this. If I could hold on dearly to my soul-wounds, I could prove to everyone I had a right to my pain, my anger, my need for justice. I could stand firm in knowing this painful thing really happened to me and no one could take that away from me. However, God’s ways are higher than ours, and His justice way more complete than ours. In surrendering my pain, I could walk out of the grave.
For many of the women in our village, their soul-wounds were evident in body, heart and mind. As we led teachings in the mornings, activities followed that provided them opportunity to show us what their body, hearts, and minds were experiencing. We asked the ladies at one point to help each other unwrap their grave clothes. We passed along a heart layered with pink bandanas. One by one the women took the bandanas and the Holy Spirit feel. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, they surrendered much of their pain, and so did we. They began waving their pink bandanas, signaling surrender from their bindings, and we joined! He drew near to the broken hearted (Psalm 34:18). We all were coming out of graves experiencing gardens of hope, love, and peace!
3) Unwrapping
As I stated previously, like Lazarus, we all need others to help us take off what binds us. It was beautiful to watch women helping other women do just that. Through their vulnerability, their worship, they were claiming and surrendering their pain, while helping unwrap what bound hearts.
Watching all this unfold before us is a privilege God offered us during this week. But his offerings did not stop there. As he offered freedom to the women, so he offered it to us. God was allowing us our own unwrapping. We encouraged each other in our group, we spoke hope to each other, and spoke Jesus over each other. We were loosing each unbinding for one another through love. We built each other up through unwrapping one linen after another. Full restoration of life happened (2 Cor. 13:11)!
Final Thoughts
A mission trip is not needed to have the experiences we did. The same power that raised Lazarus from the dead and loosed him is also ours no matter where we are. We are called to live in freedom (John 10:10). This does not mean that we will not have trouble, pain, or heartache again. However, when we name our pain, surrender it, and surround ourselves with “great clouds of witness” (Hebrews 12:1) in Jesus name, we experience unwrappings because where “…the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor. 3:17).
Challenge Questions
1) Read the John 11:38-44. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you any bindings you may have.
2) Do you have community that can help release you? If not, in what ways can you begin to build community?
3) Are you living in freedom and hope today? If no, that is not God’s will for you. Cry out to God. He will draw near to you. All him to call you forth out of the grave into his marvelous light!