Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land. – Exodus 23:30.
Transformation is not from sick to well, it’s from death to life. That transformation from the life lived out of trauma and consumingly focused on self-survival to a life lived out in freedom and identity in Christ takes time. You are going to look different, feel different, think different, behave different, and relate different. Losing your old life to gain new life takes time.
There may be generations worth of dysfunctional impact that have to be overcome. That takes time.
There are visits to and phone calls with counselors and doctors. That takes time
Janet Yassen, a Boston-area social worker who leads groups for female survivors, talks of the necessity of at least "fifteen hundred hours of crying" to get over the hurts. There is grieving, crying, screaming, thrashing, and angry to do. That takes time.
There is pondering, meditating, considering and journaling to do. That takes time.
There is forgiveness work and making amends. That takes time.
The process of transformation is hard work and exhausting. We need rest and times of refreshing from The Lord. That takes time.
Ultimately, God wants transformation to be our lifestyle; to move from a project to a process. That takes time.
Whatever it is, didn’t get that way overnight. It took a long time to set in and it may take a long time for it to set out. That takes time.
Everyone needs transformation until the day of their rapture. That takes time.
Transformation takes place in waves; like peeling back an onion. Some of the time we are dealing with the effects instead of the root causes. Sometimes we are dealing with the fall out and consequences. Sometimes it’s two steps forward and one step back. That takes time.
Jesus told the leper to go back and do what His representatives said to do. Doing what His representatives say to do takes time.
Taking territory that used to be occupied by trauma takes time. We are taking territory for the Kingdom of God; figurative and sometimes literal territory. That takes time.
It is our intimacy with Him that He is after. Intimacy takes time.
The very process itself can be wounding; like a surgery. Stuff is being cut out. Healing from surgery takes time.
It takes time to learn to steward the new you and the new territories and freedoms in your own mind and soul. It takes time because it is supposed to. It is a precious season of life, because God is working in it to detach you from what you should be detached from, and attach you to Him, in full intimacy and trust.
God gave us a picture of this journey to freedom in the Israelites being delivered from their bondages and traumas in Egypt. One of the key principles in the Passage is the incremental, little-by-little acquisition of new territory and freedoms. He warns that any pace outside of His is dangerous because it leaves us vulnerable to attacks of the enemy. We can only endure and consolidate so much at one time. We can only successfully integrate, steward, and own so much freedom at a time. We need it incrementally; in different areas of our lives or in different doses.
PRAYER
Abba Father. Please give me Your grace of patient endurance for my transformation and sanctification. Help me to journey the timeline with Your perfect pace and path. Help me to be merciful and patient with others who are on their own unique journeys through transformation. In The Powerful Name of Jesus Christ.