Have you ever known someone or dealt with someone who was really abrasive? Someone who, for whatever reason, seems to always be disagreeable or questions your motives, even if they’re pure?
What about overly-sensitive people who are easily triggered, and no matter what you say or do, they are provoked to offense or they get triggered by the slightest innocuous thing you may do or so?
Pray for them!
They could be very close to a breakthrough or an important destination in their journey and these wounds are just being brought to the surface as God is trying to deal with them — for their benefit as well as healing.
The Requirements of the Priests
It can be very easy to just get annoyed with these people and wash our hands clean, justifying ourselves in the process that it’s their fault and they should just develop some people skills and learn to treat people better.
I’m not very old, but I’ve been around long enough to notice that whenever someone is very rude to me or puts up a front like they’ve “got everything together”, usually just the opposite proves to be the case.
None of us will walk in our calling if we keep unhealed wounds.
Wasn’t that one of the requirements for the priests, in the Old Testament?
They could not have visible or noticeable scabs that would make them sensitive to touch. A priest covered in scabs or boils would not be able to adequately fulfill their duties as long as they were affected.
What is a Scab?
A scab a protective crust that forms over a cut or wound during healing. If someone has unhealed wounds, you can’t touch them. You can’t get close to them. They’re sensitive and touching the wound or the root can cause a reaction or even be contagious.
I remember one night in Bible college, a couple of friends from school were over and talking in the living room and we were about to pray for each other…to be men. They had been having a discussion on the girls they liked or something, and I had walked into the room in time for prayer which got delayed. Instead, another conversation started about not fearing being leaders and acting like God intends for men to act. A specific sister from school who evidently we were each offended with kept coming up in the discussion — and we proceeded to discuss what annoyed us about her, and how frustrated and hurt she’d made each of us, or how much we won’t miss her when she leaves. Utter garbage unbecoming of men of God like that.
We all got convicted very fast and decided to pray for her and repent. Not until after we laid hands on each other and prayed for each other to be real men of God.
When we prayed for her by name and lifted her up to the Lord, we were all convicted, and I felt God show me a picture where I sensed she cries often to God about the very things we were judging her for. I knew we were not seeing the whole picture and had had no right to talk about her the way we were and judge her when we didn’t know her heart. While we were finishing up, we mutually decided to go over to her apartment and see if she wouldn’t mind us praying for her since it was her last night in town before returning home.
A Surprise We Didn’t Expect
When we got there, it was obvious that it was God’s timing for us to be there for reasons I won’t divulge. We stated our intentions, and she freshened up and had her roommates lay hands on her and we ‘men‘ (ha!) prayed out loud.
I can’t remember all that was said or prayed, or what the exact prophetic words were that were spoken over her, but I couldn’t work up the nerve to apologize to her personally in front of everyone like the Lord was convicting me to.
When it got to the point I couldn’t resist, I vaguely stated what the Lord put on my heart — about Him seeing her cry before Him, only I didn’t have the guts to say why I felt it was important and that it pertained to walls she had put up regarding building healthy friendships with the opposite gender. I said something in a very vague way so as not to step out in case I was hearing from God incorrectly.
After a half hour to 45 minutes of us praying for her, we finished and started to just sit down in various places in the living room while she ran to her room to get something. When she came back out she passed a little notebook around for us to write our prophetic words down for her so she could remember them, and then what happened next I think shocked us all.
Ready to Burst
She proceeded to ball her eyes out and tell us how much she appreciated the prayer because nobody — especially any guys — had ever told her she was their sister or called her ‘sister’ before, and it cut her up. I mean she just opened up COMPLETELY about it.
I was cut to the heart because I had not had any idea how much she’d been carrying stuff in her heart as a result of having these walls up.
I proceeded to say everything I was supposed to say during the prayer time but had resisted, and in her straightforward way characteristic of her personality, she told me “next time you have a word from the Lord, say ALL of it!“
We have no idea how powerful our words can be or the prayer we offer.
Someone might be a little crusty to us, but we might not have any idea what they’re carrying inside. They likely have learned to incorporate their wound into their life, whether they realize it or not, while the rest of us can see the personality scabs.
Wounds from their past have had a lasting impact on them.
Just pray for them.
The enemy could be trying to stop something wonderful from happening and the breakthrough is closer than anybody would think.
