Christian Suicide Prevention Training - Finished work of Jesus
We have been ministering to Christians and other people who deal with suicidal thoughts, depression, anxiety, panic attacks and PTSD. One of the conclusions we have come to over the years is that one of the main needs is to replace hopelessness with hope.
The New Testament and the words of Jesus are clearly full of hope. The whole training we are going to talk about replaces hopelessness with hope. One of the things we've seen that's a common thread in all of these issues is that a person who is depressed has gone through problems and have a real hopelessness. We want to beat depression from a place of real hope and there's no question the words of Jesus can bring real hope.
We have ministered to Christians with depression, panic attacks, anxiety, and so forth and see them overcoming and getting completely set free from these oppressions.
So anybody reading this can bring hope. The people overcame by trusting in the words and promises of Jesus. Now obviously this is for Christians. So we're gonna come at this from a little different perspective. Maybe some things you haven't heard before or maybe you haven't seen it before, but by trusting in the words and promises from Jesus will bring you hope. Hope will get you to a place where you can completely be free from these oppressions. We have seen healing, that's why we're doing this.
So let's just give a couple of examples here and we'll go into this in detail as we go along. “I have come to set the captives free” (Luke 4:18). Jesus is saying that He has come to set the captives free. I needed to deal with a fear issue in my life for years, and I didn't. I prayed and prayed and nothing was happening until I came to realize that Jesus had come to ‘set me free’. It seemed like He was challenging me. If Jesus came to set you free, why don't you believe that.
That's the key to this whole thing. When you come to Jesus, and again this might be from a different perspective, but this perspective works and it will bring you hope. This is not taught much in the church. I had come to the realization that in Colossians 1:13, Jesus said you've been translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His son.
When I realized that it was already done, and the finished work had already set me free, that was the main turning point. I am convinced that this is why people get set free. When you look to Jesus and you see the finished work, you believe in him. If you are a Christian, and you see this is already done and that He has come to set you free, He's saying “the Truth will set you free” (John 8:32).
I have come that you might have abundant life. “I have overcome the world, in me you will also” (John 16:33). Understand that He came to set the captives free and I was a captive.
The fear issue in my life there was that I couldn't sleep at night and it was just horrible. It was a torment and when I realized that Jesus had already provided abundant life and that He had really set me free, I didn't pray to God to set me free from this anymore. Instead, I realized that's not how it works in the New Testament, I have to ‘submit to God resist the devil’ (James 4:7), resist the enemy and they'll flee.
The fear was an oppression, and once I realized that the oppression was not from heaven, and that Jesus had already set me free from that. I had that thought in my head that I was already set free, that what I had to do is fight this thing and that Jesus has already said I have come to set you free, I've come to give you abundant life. As soon as I realized that, it didn't happen overnight and this will not probably happen over night for you, but I've made a major change in the way as a Christian the way I perceive things. That major change really did set me free over a certain amount of time. By believing in the words of Jesus and trusting in his finished work, and the Bible says that God is no respecter of man if He will do it for me He will do it for anybody. So this is the beginning of the teaching of hope to replace hopelessness, and we'll come back to some of these things we talked about here again but the next part of the teaching will be on spiritual understanding.
We move along to spiritual understanding and again this can be difficult for people. On this journey here, we know how people we taught of Christians and ministry Christians we have a good idea how they react after a while. This can be difficult. I mean this is a bit of a difficult fight, so don’t let nobody tell you this is easy. Anybody that's come out of this process knows that it is difficult. We have some good testimonies on our websites, but anybody will tell you to talk to somebody about what happened to them, and they'll tell you it's a difficult process. One of the first things you got to get a hold of is the spiritual understanding. For a Christian this should not be difficult, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). So if you are not a Christian, again it's easy to become a Christian and just email me and I'll send some literature and you just need to trust and believe in Jesus. So email me at my email address (patbuckley82@gmail.com) and I can send you some information. If you are a Christian then you will understand these things. If you are not a Christian you won't. It says here that the natural man cannot understand the things from the Spirit of God. The natural man can't. So if you become a Christian, then you're not a natural man because you have been born of God so you can understand these things.
Paul goes on to talk about in Colossians 1:9, he talks about spiritual understanding and if you read Colossians 1:9, which I suggest you read some of these scriptures. You will get a revelation of it yourself, but Paul talks says it is essential, the spiritual understanding is essential. Paul says without the spiritual understanding, it makes the whole process difficult, and that's what we're going after first here is hope. We need to get you to a place of hope, and there is hope in the words of Jesus. There is lots of hope in the words of Jesus.
You have probably been through some of these places, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick” (Proverbs 13:12). I mean, a lot of Christians I told you don't understand this they say I've been crying out to God for years and nothing seems to be happening. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick” (Proverbs 13:12), but “Hope is gladness to the righteous, hope first, then the finished work guarantees the victory (Proverbs 10:28). That's the key and that's some of the things that you have to understand spiritually, the spiritual understanding part, is that Jesus has already done this and once you get to that point that he has set you free that brings hope that yes, He has done this for me and I understand that now instead of crying out to Him and begging Him and pleading with Him, which isn't a bad thing to do, but it's immature based on what the New Testament tells us. The New Testament clearly tells us that this is a finished work, it's done He has defeated the enemy. The enemy here is the two voices in your head sometimes a very negative stuff and is usually from hell. The very positive stuff is from heaven. People have a difficult time with that and that's why spiritual standing is the key. We are not against psychiatry that works for some people, but if you're coming to God and you get the spiritual understanding here, you really get a hold of what's going on. The important thing is to understand spiritually what's happening to me. Realizing what this oppressions all about and how it how it works. Then when you understand from a spiritual perspective, it makes it difficult. Because if you think it's all all in the natural, or all in the flesh, then how do you battle that. We are convinced, and as a Christian it shouldn't be difficult for you to understand this because you've been taught this already. A lot of these things are spiritual and once you see that the spiritual aspects, and that's what we'll explain how these spiritual things work, we're going to go on to talk about some of these things. You will see it clearly and that it is not difficult to see, if you're a Christian. If you're not a Christian whoever it'll be difficult for you to see. When you see that from a spiritual perspective and you understand what's happening spiritually, then you connect the words of Jesus Christ, because Jesus is talking to us in the spiritual realm. This is a spiritual battle and Christians call it spiritual warfare. I don't use that term because it's overused sometimes and people get kind of carried away with what that is all about. If you're suffering from any of these things like suicidal thoughts, depression, PTSD, anxiety attacks, you know you're in a spiritual battle. What we're doing here and why people have come out of this is because they look at it from the spiritual, they got some spiritual understanding and then they connect this to the words of Jesus. They connect it to the finished work and all of a sudden things begin to change.
The Word of God says clearly “as a man thinks in his heart so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). That is such a saying from God. God has these great one-liners that are packed with truth and again they're in a spiritual realm. “As a man thinks in his heart so is he” (Proverbs 23:7).
So when you begin to think in your heart and begin to believe in the words of Jesus, you understand spiritually what is going on, it's amazing what kind of changes can take place. Just amazing.
We continue with the spiritual understanding and we just talked about Proverbs for “as a man thinks in his heart so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). I just want you to spend some time on that one for a while, just think about that for a little bit .
It is amazing as we think in our hearts and as we think in our hearts and as we speak some things, as you should know this as a Christian, that they we make those things happen. All the negative thoughts, think about all those negative thoughts that we've all had, and the hopelessness. Think about the negativity and the two voices that sometimes the other voice, the two voices, the inner man. God says “as a man thinks in his heart so is he” (Proverbs 23:7).
That has really helped me so much because that's what we're looking at here. We're talking about changing the way we think, and part of the spiritual understanding is this, it's changing the way we think about things and thinking about things the way God thinks about things. Thinking about things the way Jesus talked about. That will transform our minds. It will. The thinking is usually part of our problem. Our thinking process needs to change we to think about the positive things and the positive thoughts that Jesus talked about, rather than what is coming from the other side. This can make a tremendous difference in our lives. It is part of the spiritual understanding, the spiritual understanding is this is a spiritual problem, so we tackle it from a spiritual perspective. And with a spiritual perspective, is looking at the Word of God to renew our mind. Renewing our mind is a transformational thing. Once I line up to what God is saying about me, it's amazing how many positive thoughts start coming back to me.
But our problem is, a lot of us, and I've had the same problems here, Proverbs means a lot to me because I leaned on my own understanding. My understanding of things was part of the problem. I didn't want to let go because that was connected to my ego. I didn't want to cave into the Word of God and say ‘you're right and I don't have this thing down properly’. I didn't want to do that because my ego didn't want that. Part of the spiritual understanding process is that our understanding might be part of the problem (Proverbs 3:5), and our ego is connected to that. We all want to be right. That can be a real problem here in this area. We have to let go of some of these things. I don't care about being right, I want freedom. I want out of this thing and I want to look at what God has to say about these things. I'm gonna believe what He says and I'm gonna put my own understanding away.
“My people suffer for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). This is why I do this, and this is why we've got people doing this because it's just a lack of knowledge of and lack of understanding of the New Testament. The key understanding of the New Testament from a spiritual perspective is it's a finished work. It's done. It's finished. Jesus has defeated the enemy. He has. He said that He came to set the captives free and He has done it.
So when I get my mind around that and I start thinking that He has done this thing even though I still have the problem, that will cause a tremendous change in my heart. It will give me hope, it will definitely give me hope. Once I get hope, it's not that far to freedom.
“We wrestle…” (Ephesians 6:12), Paul is talking about wrestling here in the spiritual battle. As we continue on and move ahead, the spiritual understanding is a key element. That's why I tackle this thing first, because when you understand spiritually what's going on, then you connect that to the Word of God. Especially the finished work of the New Testament, it brings you hope. When you realize that the finished work has set you free already, then you start fighting these things. It's amazing how things will change. It's amazing how your thinking will change. It's amazing how supernaturally your mind will start being renewed and being transformed. As soon as you start thinking differently about things, then freedom is around the corner.
I'm talking about freedom and the people that have come out, have completely come out, and they've completely overcome these things. I do not have any issues anymore with fear and the fear was tormenting me for a big part of my life.
The great thing about the world, the world can help in some of these things, but only Jesus Christ can set somebody totally free. The world could have helped me with this fear issue. Psychiatry, maybe medicines can help in some of these areas. But when you come to Jesus, He will heal you completely and set you free completely. That is what we talk about here and that's why it's so exciting. We have people that have come out of these things and you know again it's not an easy, and nobody says this is easy. But you can have this freedom, and you can completely overcome.
We move on to the truth that will set you free. We talked about Ephesians 6:12 for we wrestle, this is for Christians so this is very important and I'm sure you read this before I just want to emphasize it again here. We're going to look at some of these things and apply it to some of the issues you're dealing with regarding oppressions. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). This is a problem for us because we can't see in the spiritual realm. If we can't see something, it sometimes makes it difficult for us to kind of go there.
So we have to trust in God, and trust in Jesus. Jesus is the Word, so when Paul wrote this, it's coming from the Holy Spirit. It is coming from Jesus. He's telling us something very important here. The battle is not against flesh and blood and we've all been here. We have all blamed other people for problems, and we get into that kind of critical judgmental place. We've all been there. None of us can hold our hands up and say we haven't, because we all have. You know exactly what I'm talking about. That judgmental critical place and blaming others. But the the Word of God said, and this is why we must not lean on our own understanding. The Word of God says there are battles against principalities and powers. What does that mean?
Jesus said that “the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy” (John 10:10). If we look at that and relate that to ourselves as a Christian, you know that's true. We know that's true. Some of the things Jesus said are very simple but they are profound. They are packed with truths and realities. When we look at it from that way as a reality, as a truth, these truths will set you free. When Jesus said the truth will set you free, He meant that. He meant every word He said, He meant. So we will know that “lies will keep us in bondage” (John 8:44). We know that Jesus talked about that as well. “Who the Son sets free is free indeed” (John 8:36). He will absolutely set you free. Let me give you an example of this, I've worked with people in AA and I'm not against the program. Anything the world can do to help, is a good thing. God is for that, but we can get to a more mature place where we actually go to God and we trust what He says.
I've worked with with many drug addicts, and again getting free from drugs is not an easy proposition. But I coach them, and I train them, and I minister to them, and I tell them to listen: You will get to a point, you're not there yet, but you will get to a point where you know that Jesus has completely set you free. These principles apply to any kind of oppression, and drug addiction is an oppression. It is definitely spiritual.
The world says, once a drug addict, always a drug addict. That's true in some situations, but if you can get a hold of the fact that Jesus Christ has come to set you free if you're a captive or a drug addict. He has come to set you free, and you can get a hold of that, and you say I know that He has completed His work. His finished work says He has done what He's done, and you absolutely wrap yourself around that. If Jesus said ‘who the Son sets free is free indeed’, then I can be totally free. Your mindset will change, and I've seen this and know some drug addicts who have done this. I worked with a guy who is one of the kingpins here in my city, and he was a drug kingpin, and he is now completely set free. The psychiatrist and some other people in the world will say, well this guy is just delusional. That's what they called him, delusional. But listen,he laughs and says, ‘you can call me whatever you want, but I know that I'm set free, and I know that Jesus set me free’.
So what we are emphasizing here is truth, and the truth is that there is an enemy. They come to “steal, kill and destroy” (John 10:10). That is the voices sometime in your heads, and our heads that have a very negative and actually draw us to certain places. They can become real. We must realize what's going on here. These are oppressors, Jesus call them oppressors. We all deal with them, in the inner man, in our soul, in the place we have a spirit soul and body. In that soulless realm, in the inner man, we we have two voices. I'm not talking about literally hearing voices, that's a different thing altogether. I'm talking about the positive and the negative stuff that flows through us. So this is the truth setting you free, this is real hope again. Jesus is full of hope to the people who have no hope. Jesus says “who the Son sets free is free indeed” (John 8:36). If you will go along with that, and you will say, ‘yes Jesus I'm willing to not lean on my own understanding, I'm willing to look at your finished work from a new perspective, and believe what you've done for me, then I know that you will and have set me free.’ This is transformational...this is transformational. For most Christians in the spiritual realm, it is supernatural, so it's not that easy to get a hold of. But if you go down this path, and we'll take you down this path here, these things are transformational. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). Again we're talking about your thinking process, we're changing your thinking process. You must change your thinking process from the negative into the positive, and Jesus is the best way to do that. When Jesus said ‘who the Son sets free is free indeed’, this is not an advertising slogan. Everything He said He means it. When you look at that and can get a hold of it, and say yes Jesus, you've set me free I understand how this works. Now you're on your way to a change. The first thing that has to change is your thinking. As the Bible says your mind needs to be renewed.
Let’s continue with the truth setting you free (John 8:32). Let's look at Exodus 14:15, what was happening here you see the picture Moses, and he is at the Red Sea. He's lifting his hands in the air, he's in trouble and the Egyptians are behind him. You can read the whole story, but what I'm getting at here is when the Lord said to Moses “wherefore when Moses was crying out to Him” (Exodus 14:15). We have all done this when we get into trouble. There's nothing really wrong with this, but you know you need to hear me here. There's nothing really wrong, it's just a little immature, and God would like us to be a little more mature. The more mature we are, the more we'll see these things happening. I'm not into theological stuff, I mean just stuff that works. This has got to work and the New Testament, the words of Jesus, they work. These words are meant to come and really set us free. That is reality. It's not just doctrine, it's reality. So again, Moses was in trouble, he cried out and lifted his arms to God and God said to him ‘why criest thou unto me’. Use what you've got Moses. We've all done this, we've all come to God and asked God to take this away. This is a fundamental problem in the New Testament and I can't emphasize it enough. When you get a hold of this truth, it will begin to change your reality.
A lot of people I've worked with have said that this is where they really changed and they could sense, what I call stepping into the sweet taste of victory, they could sense a change. They knew they went from from hopelessness to hope. They started saying yes I can see this. I'm not out of this thing, but I can see. I can see it and this is the turning point when you see this. Our Father wants us to believe what His Son has done for us. In the New Testament it is clear. Crying out to God to take this away, that's immature and there is nothing totally wrong with that, but if you want to get free from some of these things, then you're going to have to line up to the scriptures. Submit to God means lining up to the scriptures. James 4:7 talks about ‘submitting to God’. If you are not lined up to the scripture and not submitted to God, you've got your own understanding. If you lean on your own understanding this won't work. Let me say that very clearly it won't work! You must line up to what God says. People ask all the time, about James 4:7 and want me to tell them how to resist the devil. I said no, let me spend a half an hour and how to submit to God. This is where we stumble. We must line up to what the New Testament, and what Jesus has done for us. We must trust in the finished work. Our Father wants to honor God. When we ask God to do something that He has already done, that's really not faith. We are not honoring God by doing that. We honor God by saying Father I understand what your Son has done for me. I see it clearly. I know what he's done. I still have issues, but I know by believing what He's done and He has defeated the enemy for me, so therefore I can have victory here. I can defeat the enemy. The victory of the finished work of Jesus and overcome through what's already been done. We don't ask heaven for things that have been done through the finished work. Again that's not faith and I think you can see that now. Our responsibility, is that we “submit to God we resist the devil and they will flee” (James 4:7). That's a promise. The scripture is absolutely clear. We know a battle is against principalities and powers. These are oppressors, and they will be oppressing you, and God has already defeated them and wants you to grab a hold of this to understand the finished work, to submit to God, resist these oppressors, resist these thoughts, these negative thoughts that come. Resist them and all of a sudden they will flee. They will and they have. People have lots of testimonies here about this, but this is one of the key elements they tell me. When they got a hold of this, that we don't cry out to God. We go to our Father and say we honor Him by believing in what His son has done. We trust the finished work and then fight. We shall live by faith. Three times in the New Testament says we will live by faith. Because we don't see it, because it's in the spiritual realm, these oppressors work in the spiritual realm in our inner man.
So submit to God and resist the devil. This is what this teaching is all about. They will flee and you can have it. Jesus said whom the Son sets free is free indeed, and you will be able to proclaim that. There is no better hope than this. You know I've looked at a lot of ways to help people out, and again I'm not against things in the world that can help people. Anything that can help somebody God is for. Our Father would would rather us come to His Son to get these things directly from His Son. This is what honors Him. This is a guarantee. I say this to people, what Jesus says is a guarantee. If you “submit to God resist the devil they'll flee” (James 4:7). That is the guarantee! When you do this, this will happen.
It won’t happen overnight or over the weekend, but if you get into a pattern and your thinking starts changing then this will work for you. But this is one of the main elements of this teaching here, if you get a hold of this go back over it time and time again, the Holy Spirit will show you. He is a teacher. He will lead you and guide you in all truth. When you get a hold of this truth here, this is when things will begin to change. It's a battle, so it's not gonna be easy. It will take you into the battle and that's what it’s all about. If you go into the battle, you're guaranteed by the words of Jesus himself, that you will win. Who the Son sets free is free indeed.
How To Break Free From Anxiety & Depression is possible. In fact, it is a guarantee from God if you believe in His Word, the Bible.
The Bible says “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36). Claim that promise.
You have a choice to believe every word of the Bible, or you can choose to say that it is a good book full of good stories. It is your choice.
Our challenge for you is to believe! Whether you are a Christian or someone who believes in something else, you have the same opportunity.
We would like to offer freedom and hope to your addiction, depression, anxiety or anything else that you have and allow you to make that choice while listening to this video.
When you need more information, please contact us at patbuckley82@gmail.com