Kris Vallotton
When I was at the Heaven Come Conference in LA this past weekend I felt like God spoke to me about some very specific things, including the subject of pain. There’s something profoundly available in this season for people to walk out of pain and I believe there’s an anointing available to change your season. Even though I’ve taught on pain before (whether that be depression, anxiety, physical sickness, heartache etc.), I actually feel like this is more than a teaching today—it’s a prophetic declaration. We’re in the 500th year of the reformation when the protestant movement was birthed. I felt like God said that we are entering Reformation 2.0 and that He’s going to do some crazy things in this season. So, all that to say, get your hopes up!
LEAVING YOUR PAIN BEHIND
I want us to take a look at a story in Scripture that’s a beautiful representation of what it’s like to step away from pain. John 5:2-8 (emphasis added):
“Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters; for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted. A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, “Do you wish to get well?” The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” Jesus *said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.”
Think about it. This man was at the healing pool for 38 years. He had watched others get healed while he was still waiting on his miracle for 38 years! Can you imagine the discouragement he was living in? I’m surprised he hadn’t given up yet! Then Jesus asked him a question. I think this is a question we all need to ask ourselves—do we want to get well? Some people go to the doctor or the healing rooms and never get well because they come with hopelessness and the expectation that they will leave that place sick. This is because they’ve learned how to live and cope with the pain. Many people come to the of pool promise but hopelessness reduces them to the pallet of pain. However, Jesus wants to take your pallet of pain and transform it into pulpit of purpose! Today is the day your pain is supposed to go, and I want to encourage you to pick up your pallet and walk!
HEALING IS BETTER THAN NUMBNESS
Many people reduce their life to accommodate their pain instead of deal with it. The truth is that we’ve all experienced pain in life. An adage I live by is that you can’t always help what happens to you but you can always help what happens in you. I’ve been with people who are in tremendous pain and don’t feel the emotion of it anymore because they’ve reduced their life to accommodate it. They’ve numbed themselves. When we numb the pain we can’t figure out the source, so we try to fix the symptoms but our lives just get worse and worse. I encourage you to step into the pain because God wants to heal you, not numb you.4 things you should know about pain:
1. Pain is rarely the problem; it is almost always the symptom. Give yourself permission to dig deep and find the root of what’s going on.
2. Pain will lead you to the source of your problem. It’s actually a gift and a lead to follow.
3. The level of your pain does not always determine the depth of your problem. For example, a sliver in your finger can feel like you need to chop off your hand because the pain is so bad!
4.Ignoring pain or being afraid of pain often leads to bigger problems.
A CULTURE OF WHOLENESS
When you’re walking out of pain it’s important to create a culture of wholeness around you. Don’t listen to sad music or watch sad movies when you are processing through your pain. Don’t sing songs to your pain, but rather sing songs to your victory! Don’t minister to your pain or make it comfortable! Don’t try to live with it, rather make sure you’re working through it and getting it out. The Bible says we WALK through the valley, so don’t stop and camp out there. So how do you do this?
Recently I asked pastor Bill how his weekend was and he told me he had a great weekend and spent a day listening and watching to the prophecies that were given to him and Beni over the years. I was like, “Uh… I dug a ditch this weekend!” Haha. I just want to say that Bill has developed a culture of testimony and prophecy around himself, so that his weakness became his strength. He has fed his soul and spirit with God’s truth, with testimonies of what God has done in his life and in other people’s lives, and the prophecies that fill him with the hope of what’s to come. He has truly strengthened himself in the Lord. Over the years he refused to be a depressed man and rather created a culture of prophecy and testimony around him. We, myself and I’m sure many of you, now get to feed off of that. What I want to propose to you today is that you can do the same thing! You can feed off of the testimonies of breakthrough you’ve heard and the prophecies spoken over you! You can create a culture that others get to feed off of. But you have to leave pain so that you can get up and walk in breakthrough.
DO IT AGAIN
I feel that we are in a kairos moment for stepping out of pain, which reminds me of a passage in John 21. When Jesus rose from the dead he went to find the disciples in a boat. They had been fishing all night and Jesus yelled out to them from the shore to ask if they’d caught anything. They replied to say no, and that they’d been fishing all night. Jesus told them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat. Now let’s just think for a second. You’d think that if they were fishing all night that they’d tried their net on both sides of the boat! But Jesus asked them to do it one more time. My point is that sometimes it doesn’t take a new action, but rather a renewed action to see breakthrough. Sometimes Jesus asks you to do the thing you’ve been doing just one more time. I feel like this is a “try it again” day—whether that means going to the doctor one more time, going to the healing rooms one more time, calling your son or daughter that you haven’t heard from in years one more time…Today is the day that you can walk out of pain. The Lord is saying “take up the pallet of promise and move on.”
AFFECTED RATHER THAN OFFENDED
Some people may be offended at this blog. It’s not always easy to hear “get up and walk” when we’ve been waiting for our breakthrough. Think about the man at the pool of Bethesda… when Jesus told him to pick up his pallet and walk he could’ve jumped into a myriad of reasons for why he was sick and honestly taken offense. But when God is giving us the command to get up and move on, we have to purpose to not be offended! He’s not saying it with a calloused heart; He’s saying it with profound authority!
There’s something powerful about refusing to get offended when the Lord says to be strong and courageous while you’re looking fear and discouragement in the face. Receive the grace that comes with the word even if it feels harsh, and determine to be affected by His command instead of offended by it.
TODAY WE DECLARE BREAKTHROUGH!
Today, regardless of why you’re in a hard season, I want to encourage you to declare this out loud over youself. The power of life and death is in the tongue so let’s speak life over ourselves! Ready? Here we go: “I am leaving my pain behind. This is my day of deliverance. This day, the Lord will deliver me from the things that have plagued me and my family for generations. This is the day that the Lord decreed that I would walk out of a place of misery in every area of my life. Today’s breakthrough will affect and infect my children and my grandchildren. We will create a legacy of breakthrough. Hope and peace will be named among the attributes of my family lineage. Our family will create a culture of wholeness. What feeds us and walks us out of pain today will become our strength, and thousands of people will come to our house to get out of pain and find promise!”
Like I said before I’ve taught on walking out of pain a few times and I want to give you my teaching notes today. Simply click here to check them out. They include steps for walking out of pain that I hope will help you! I’d also love to hear from you in the comments! Let me know your thoughts and testimonies below.
September 27, 2017, Kris Vallotton
