The Barbed Wire Room of Self-Control

Submitted by Phyllis Tarbox on Wed, 08/31/2011 - 10:23am

-Phyllis J. Tarbox, MA
What is at the root of your self defense mechanisms? What causes those automatic responses that keep God and people from getting too close to your heart? God showed me a picture of that room at the beginning of this year.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bitzcelt/388978524/" title="Therapy II by bitzcelt, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/144/388978524_5781563f01_m.jpg" _fcksavedurl="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/144/388978524_5781563f01_m.jpg" _fcksavedurl="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/144/388978524_5781563f01_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" alt="Therapy II"></a>During prayer the Holy Spirit showed me a three-story house with three rooms on each floor. As we walked in the front door, it was very warm and welcoming. The foundation was firm and based on love. The three rooms on the first floor were beautifully decorated and easily entered. On the second floor the first room we entered looked like it was just being finished, the second room was under construction. There were painters and ladders and lots of work going on. When we got to the third room on the second floor, I gasped. That room was just a tangled mesh of wires. No one could enter that room.

So, I asked, "Lord, what is this room?" His reply was, "This is the room I am taking the body of Christ into this year. This room is called ‘Self-Control’."  I said, "It really doesn't look like anyone could ever get into this room." Then, I saw a smile on his face and wire clippers in his hand. At that point, I knew this was going to be one doozey of a year!

I believe transparency in ministry is important.  None of us have made it yet. There are rooms we are all in together this year that God has purposed to clean-out. It's about His glory being poured into us so that His light will arise and shine through us. Quite clearly there are things that have to go first!
 
At the root of self control is a framework of learned behaviors based on childhood instruction or wounds that can invite in spirits of isolation, self condemnation, self critical, self judgment, sarcasm, insecurity, inadequacy, inferiority and addiction to approval.
 
Quite simply it's the relationship-communication room! And this has been a year of wire cutting based on repentance, and reconciliation of broken relationships in order to finish this season well. Unless this room is confronted and exposed there will be hindrances in the spirit realm that will block your forward movement. 
 
Deliverance is a key to unlocking that door and confronting self control head on. The correction, and discipline to change what has kept our heart's impenetrable to God is clearly His priority this year. 
 
I would encourage you to take a look at your relationships and ask God what is it that keeps you circling the mountain, waiting for breakthrough. Seek God; He is desperate to have your whole heart!

Dutch Sheets shared a message on July 20th, 2011 while visiting Tampa, FL. It's about finishing well and preparing for proper alignment in this next era. See it here.
 
We have to be ready to confront the enemy, and it starts with facing our own giants, and cleaning out that room! We are all in this together!

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