1. Breakthrough
to Healing
‘Heart Issues’
Revd Chris Lawrence

2. ‘Heart Issues’
1. Human being – physical and spiritual
2. Understanding the human heart
3. The dynamics and effects of wounding
4. Healing
5. Ministry opportunities

3. ‘Heart Issues’
1. Human being – physical and spiritual

4. And the LORD God formed man of the dust of
the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Gen2:7

6. God’s mandate for humanity
Love the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with
all your mind and with all your
strength’ (Mark 12:30)
To Love is a conscious commitment

7. ........with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your mind and with all your strength’
Body
Soul
Heart
&
Spirit
Senses

8. ‘Heart Issues’
1. Human being – physical and spiritual
2. Understanding the human heart

9. The human heart

10. The human heart
• As a man thinks in his
heart so he is (Pv 23:7)
• out of men’s hearts, come
evil thoughts (Mk 7:21)
• But Mary treasured up all
these things and pondered
them in her heart.(Lk 2:19)

11. Heart - kardía
• Definition: the centre of the physical life – the
seat of one’s personal life; the centre of one’s
personality, the seat of one’s entire mental and
moral activity, containing both rational and
emotional elements. It is the seat of feelings,
desires, joy, passion and love.
It is also the centre for thought and
understanding.
The human heart is the dwelling place of the
Lord and the Holy Spirit.

12. My son, pay attention to what I say;
listen closely to my words.
21 Do not let them out of your sight,
keep them within your heart;
22 for they are life to those who
find them
and health to a man’s whole body.
23 Above all else, guard your heart,
for it is the wellspring of life.
Pv 4:20-24

13. Guard your Heart – why?
H
E
A
R
T

14. Gateway to the Heart;
through the Soul via the senses.
Touch
Taste
Sight
Hearing
Smell
[Spirit]

15. Guard your heart
The emotional state of the heart affects
us physically, mentally and spiritually:
"A happy heart makes the face
cheerful, but heartache crushes the
spirit“ (Pv 15:13)
The heart is in need of protection if we
are to live to the full in the freedom
God has provided in Christ.

16. Guard your heart
From conception to death our hearts are
recording information – good, bad or
indifferent!

17. ‘Heart Issues’
1. Human being – physical and spiritual
2. Understanding the human heart
3. The dynamics and effects of wounding

18. How does this picture this make you feel?

19. Angry Behaviour
Threatening
Passive Anger - Ignoring
Senses involved - Sight, hearing,

20. An offended brother is more unyielding than a fortified city,
and disputes are like the barred gates of a citadel. (Pv 18:19)

21. Senses involved: touch, sight, hearing, smell

22. Stress Response
Stress is a normal physical response to events that
make you feel threatened or upset your balance in
some way.
The stress response is the body’s way of protecting
you. When working properly, it helps you stay focused,
energetic, and alert. In emergency situations, stress
can save your life e.g. slamming on the brakes to avoid
an accident (‘fight or flight response’)
However, excessive stress can have a major influence
on health, emotional wellbeing, productivity,
relationships and quality of life.

23. Stress Reactions
Biological
Social
Psychological
Spiritual
Discomfort Zone
Stressors
Stress
symptoms
Overflow
Based on the Pint Pot model - Professor Gordon Turnbull

24. Living with Stress
Stress is unavoidable but it needs to be identified
and resolved in the short term so as not to become a
long term chronic problem.
• Biological – underlying medical condition; medication,
living conditions, heat or cold, lack of food etc.
• Social – relationships (family, marriage, work, school
(ongoing effect of background childhood trauma(s)).
• Psychological - personality factors, inherited traits,
unresolved traumatic experiences.
• Spiritual – sin or demonic oppression.

25. Acute Stress - Trauma
‘A trauma is a dangerous experience that does
not only expose people to threat of life or
limb: it also pierces strong psychological
defences to produce a state of fear,
helplessness or horror’ (Professor Gordon Turnbull)
__________________________________________
Traumatic stress reactions were described my Homer
in the Iliad around 850BC. This was the era that gave
rise to the word ‘trauma’ which means from the
Greek, to ‘pierce’ or to ‘puncture’.

26. The unexpected and the
unprepared for
• Experiencing or witnessing (childhood or adult) -
physical, emotional or sexual abuse.
• Physical assault, experiences of accidents, illnesses,
loss of a limb, medical complications.
• Employment in occupations exposed to war (soldiers) or
disaster (emergency service workers).
• Receiving a diagnosis of a life-threatening illness
Children are perhaps the most vulnerable as they have
minimal psychological defence mechanisms and
strategies.

27. Arrows in the heart
Trauma .....pierces strong psychological
defences to produce a state of fear,
helplessness or horror’
• Reckless words pierce like a sword,
but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Pv 12:18
• Simeon foretelling the crucifixion of Jesus to Mary –
“And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” Luke 2:35

28. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Exposure to an event outside the range of
usual human experience
• Re-experiencing the original trauma(s)
through flashbacks or nightmares.
• Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated
with the trauma.
• Increased arousal—such as difficulty
falling or staying asleep, outbursts of
anger and hyper-vigilance.

29. Processing events and memory
SAM- Situationally
Accessible Memory
Perception based
information received
from the sensory
channels – not verbally
encoded and
therefore harder to
communicate or
integrate into the
auto-biographical
memory
VAM – Verbally
Accessible Memory
Easily accessible
information that can
be communicated to
others and
integrated into the
auto-biographical
memory
Ref: Chris Brewin – Professor of psychology – University College London; 2001
Hippocampus

30. Hippocampus:
Processing sensory events into words is vital for our
mental wellbeing (SAM-VAM).
Brewin’s theory suggests that the Hippocampus acts
as a temporary store and a mediator between the
SAM & VAM. The transfer of information can only be
fully processed if an event matches up with
information already stored in the data base of your
life experiences.
Information that does not compute is returned to the
SAM and perpetually recycled, creating stress.

31. Stress effects on the Hippocampus
• Functioning deteriorates under high levels of stress –
8% reduction in volume in US Army veterans.
• Memories of trauma are fragmented and less time
ordered.
• High levels of adrenaline – sudden event or over a
longer period of time may cause mental shut down.
• High levels of Cortisol kill off hippocampal nerve cells
causing depression of mood, increased anxiety and
deterioration of memory and concentration. Impaired
learning, high blood pressure, weakening of the
immune system.

32. A point to ponder
Is the Hippocampus actually the Heart
that the Bible refers to?

33. ‘Heart Issues’
1. Human being – physical and spiritual
2. Understanding the human heart
3. The dynamics and effects of wounding
4. Healing

34. Healing the heart
The heart is deceitful (untrustworthy)
above all things and beyond cure. Who
can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit
within you; I will take the heart of stone out
of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to
walk in My statutes, and you will keep My
judgments and do them. Ezekiel 36:26-27

35. A new heart - but we are not immune
Wisdom and understanding are key
Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who
gain understanding, 14 for she is more
profitable than silver and yields better
returns than gold.
16 Long life is in her right hand; 17 Her ways
are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace.
18 She is a tree of life to those who take hold
of her; those who hold her fast will be
blessed.Pv3:13-18

36. What is the root of the trauma that
is generating stress?
1. Ask yourself if possible:
Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me? Ps 42:5
2. Seek wise counsel
Specific prayer ministry – pray
intelligently.
Psychotherapy, CBT , TA

37. 3. Studies have shown that those
prepared for the potential of a
traumatic experience are more
prepared to deal with the stress of a
traumatic experience and therefore
less likely to develop PTSD.

38. A deeper healing – God’s province
“I understand the event but I still feel awful”
Jesus’ mandate and ministry:
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the broken-
hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
Isaiah 61
Broken heart = fragmented heart?

39. Olivia’s story
Trauma from a child’s perspective....

40. PTSD in children
Foster Care
• The rate of PTSD in adults who were in foster care for one year
between the ages of 14–18 was found to be higher than that of
combat veterans. (Harvard Medical School study).
• Dubner and Motta (1999) found that 60% of children in foster care
who had experienced sexual abuse had PTSD, and 42% of those who
had been physically abused met the PTSD criteria. PTSD was also
found in 18% of the children who were not abused. These children
may have developed PTSD due to witnessing violence in the home, or
as a result of real or perceived parental abandonment.

41. Don’t let a problem fester
1. Move sufferer to a place of safety –
30days is sufficient for the
hippocampus to recover and regenerate
after an abnormal adrenaline attack.
2. Reassurance that the sufferer is not
mad!
3. Cast all your anxiety on him because he
cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7 (school teacher testimony)

42. Seek God’s Peace
The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious
about anything, but in every situation,
by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, present your requests to
God. 7 And the peace of God, which
transcends all understanding, will guard
your hearts and your minds in Christ
Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

43. Physical effects of trauma
• Nerve damage – misalignment and
mismatch of pain signal pathways (micro
currents) results in a stress response
and a release of Adrenaline and/or
Cortisol. (e.g. prolapsed disc)
• Cellular memory – remembering and
reliving injuries

44. ‘Heart Issues’
1. Human being – physical and spiritual
2. Understanding the human heart
3. The dynamics and effects of wounding
4. Healing
5. Ministry opportunities

45. Ministry opportunities
• Young offenders
• Prison ministry
• Recovery from personal injury
• Children/adults – divorce, family
breakdown
• Up to 14% of the population may have or
be suffering from PTSD

46. Thank you Jesus
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished
by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on
him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:4-5