Narcissism, Shame, Finland, Where Else?
Part 1
Here I go again. More thoughts. I pray you follow me
in these for they are for good and not for condemnation. I am not generalizing
but focusing on my observations over the years of living and ministering in
Finland. May they bless you solely for the purpose of change and growth! Rise
up in the personal responsibility of your Christianity. Forsake all for Christ.
In the revelation of His grace, the finished work of the cross, you will find
freedom. With that revelation comes personal responsibility to grow up and
mature. It is time to grow up! For all of us.
Finland – a nation that is shame based. That is quite
obvious and one sees it everywhere when one lives here. I no longer visit. I
live here. It is easier to bring ministers in that don’t live here. They come
and go by droves. And people flock to them like little children. But, living
here is a whole other matter.
Finland – shame based. More conferences, more
revivals, more this, more that has come and gone to make many people here
immature without a true revelation of discipleship, the purpose of their
salvation and so much more. The focus on much of this has been a Carnal Trinity
of “Me, Myself and I” which caters to people’s flesh. The leaders may foster
this by not leading and truly allowing God to bring them into brokenness,
honesty and transparency before they go before the people. Where is
discipleship? More about that coming later. For now I will comment that Paul
says in Corinthians that he imparts that to which he dies to. What does that
mean? It means that unless the cross personally confronts you in your own life,
you have nothing to say. Get the picture?
Over the years I have watched prophetic conferences where
people hungered insatiably for a prophetic word, even taking a number to
receive something from someone saying something that many times was general and
fleshy. I felt pressured to do prophecy after prophecy in our meetings here in
Finland in times past over the years. I have since repented for following the
needs of the people rather than God. I won’t do that again. That brought me
into anger and a hatred for Finland because I felt compromised. Now I actually
love this nation but I am not afraid to confront for I have lost the fear of man.
Then comes inner healing where people want to sort
through their emotional needs and talk endlessly about their rejection, their
pain, their wounds, their lack of love. This has perpetuated into a continual
movement of immaturity where people again settle into a revelation of the
Carnal Trinity “Me, Myself and I”. They seek an answer to this question “What’s
in this for me?” What about God?
Then comes Daddy, Papa, Father – a revelation that one
needs only to have Daddy revealed to them and all will be okay. Climb upon His
lap and all your troubles will go. There is nothing actually wrong with that
but when perpetuated without a revelation of maturity in grace, we stay
immature. We are told to follow Christ and with that being true, how many of
the Daddy people are willing to go the cross to be dealt with as mature sons
and daughters and not babies avoiding responsibility. You can’t find the Father
apart from Christ. Again this may sound strong. It’s supposed to be. Waking
someone up from sleep is our call to this nation and I have said, “yes” to God.
The love that resides in me for Finland is a love that accepts suffering so
that others may live. Here’s a verse:
Colossians 1:27-29
To them God willed to make known what are the riches
of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the
hope of glory. Him we preach warning every man and teaching every man in all
wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I
also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.
The sad thing is that many things start off good but
when sidetracked into a self-focus and a denial of the cross of Christ, His
grace and the finished work of the cross, it all becomes just a place where
people think about themselves, analyze themselves, dwell on themselves, what
God can do for them, how God meets their needs, and on and on and on. Is there
any wonder why the Body of Christ in Finland and in many other places is
immature? Perhaps it does not apply to you. That is okay but this is what I am
seeing over and over here.
The apostolic and the prophetic is about bringing
people into maturity and equipping people into that maturity. This anointing is
not about raising babies but about sons and daughters who seek Jesus Christ and
what has been accomplished on the cross. In that continuing revelation of
freedom, one then comes to know the Father and their purpose in their
Christianity in time. Why is it that Finland accepts evangelists, pastors and
teachers yet there is a rejection of the apostolic and the prophetic unless it
is presented on their terms? God sends apostles and prophets here. They come
and they go. Have you noticed? We are staying. We love a challenge in Christ.
Yet when He says go, we will go but God will continue to send them because He
loves Finland.
Now back to shame. It is the foundation of narcissism.
Narcissism is a continual focus on oneself – the carnal trinity of “Me myself
and I”. Narcissism is alive in Finland because of shame. Shame continually
causes people to hide from reality because they can’t and don’t want to face it.
It is only facing reality that one gets healed and set free. Reality is faced
at the cross where Jesus took all shame upon him and died to set us free from
sin and shame and guilt, etc. etc. We are forgiven. Selah.
One can bypass this teaching by appealing to the needs
of people and that makes you popular but it does not raise mature Christians.
It raises a people who are immature and constantly looking for satisfaction in
their flesh to feel good, to feel better, to feel loved, to feel welcome. Let
me break this down. Apart from Christ, we are nothing. We have nothing. We can
do nothing. Until Finns and all of us in the Body of Christ bypass this
incessant desire to seek satisfaction apart from the cross, we will always
believe there is something good in us. There is nothing good in you - only
Christ. The cross and the awakening of this revelation in Finland will set
people free to mature and actually LIVE, not survive from conference fix to
another, from one revival fix to another. To truly LIVE in Christ.
More coming………..
In Christ
Debra Westbrook
