Seeing Our Need For Jesus

In this interview with Rose Colon we discuss the important step of seeing our need. When we see our need for Jesus and His redeeming work in our lives, we’ll come to Him and be set free.

Mike: Rose Colon has joined me in the studio. Rose is the Director of Women's Counseling here at Pure Life Ministries. Rose it's great to see you, thanks for coming in.

Rose: It's good to be here Mike.

Mike: Rose as we continue our discussions in Living in Victory, we want to tackle this subject today: seeing your need. You know we have such a superficial understanding of our need. As new Christians, sometimes we think, “I'm a sinner, basically.” I lied once, or stole a candy bar, or something. So obviously I'm a sinner and I have a need for Jesus. But my goodness, how much deeper our need is!

Rose: It's a lot deeper than that. That's one thing I've had to come to grips with in my own life.

Mike: Yes. All of us do. You know the great thing about being here at Pure Life Ministries, is that the men who come to us are in such tremendous need.

Rose: Yes, they are, they're aware of their need. Because they have failed God so much by their sin, as well as their family if they’re married, that they're so aware of how needy they are. Most of them come here just really broken over what they're like inside. And they realize that they need more of the Lord dwelling, ruling, and reigning in their hearts. It's a blessing to be around men that are like that.

Mike: I know in our worship services, you hear the men worshipping, and you just hear that tremendous cry in most of their hearts as they're worshipping the Lord.

Rose: Yeah, I'm blessed when I hear them singing about the blood of Jesus Christ, because they know it's real. What’s coming from their hearts is the reality that, “I need His blood, and I need His blood to wash me clean.” Not only for my sin, but minute by minute, moment by moment, it's just the reality.

Mike: What are some of the ways that the blood of Jesus impacts their lives?

Rose: When they see just how unclean their inside world and their thinking is, I believe as they get a sight of the cross and what Jesus did there, a heart of gratitude wells up within them. In that you end up loving the One who died for you, who shed His blood. I believe that, men come into a greater reality, and women too when they come here for a visit, the wives as well, that they just have a greater appreciation for what Jesus did on the cross. Because it becomes very evident that without Him, there's no hope for me.

Mike: Yes. It really creates a desperation, doesn't it?

Rose: Yeah. What happens is a lot of the men that come here realize, "I can't fix myself." I've tried to fix myself, but I can't. So they're at their wits end and they realize, "I need someone greater than myself to help me to change."

Mike: Sure. You mentioned the women. We certainly don't want to leave them out, because you see this same thing occurring in the lives of the women who go through our Overcomers at Home Program.

Rose: Yes. It's a blessing to work with them over the phone, because some of them don't get to visit here. Yet you see the Lord revealing Himself to them in the same way through the studies and through the CD's they listen to. It's just a blessing to see the Holy Spirit working in their hearts as well, making the cross real to them too.

Mike: Amen. Well Rose, I know as the Director of Women's Counseling here, you can't take those women—and certainly the men counseling here can't take those men—any  further than they've gone themselves. Talk to us a little bit about how God used Jeff's sin to help you to see your own need for God.

Rose: Well, I can think back to what you just opened with earlier. When I came to the Lord, I was aware that I was a sinner. But what I didn't realize is how much I needed Jesus inside to change my heart. When Jeff's sin came to the light and he went to Pure Life, and I got involved with the counseling at Pure Life, I started seeing how desperately I needed Jesus in my heart, to change my heart. Because I saw that my heart was just as wicked as His. I still had pride and selfishness issues, judging others, loving self. There were so many hard issues in my heart that I wasn't aware of, until Jeff's sin came into the light and God started showing me what I'm like inside.

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Mike: We sometimes say to the men that, God used their sexual sin as an excuse to bring them here.  It's just as true that sometimes God uses the sin of the husband to point out the need for the wife.

Rose: Sure, because I didn't realize how desperate my need was either. I just saw when my husband was in this sin, that he had this great need. But God started pointing the mirror back on me and saying, "your need is just as great, if not greater."

Mike: You know Rose, I think that sometimes our response to God showing us our need is really for us to run away from God. We almost feel like, "Well, then God doesn't really love me, because look, He’s just showing me how bad I am." But that's not the response He desires from us, is it?

Rose: No, He doesn't. What I've seen is when the Lord is showing me something about myself in my heart, I realize, "Lord I have nobody else to turn to but you! If I want to run from you, that's foolish because self is still there. Wherever I go, or if I try to change my surroundings, the problem is in me!" Self is still there. In that awareness I realize, Lord you're the only one who can really help me. And you're the one I really need.

Mike: We talk a lot about mercy here. And one of the aspects about Mercy is that it meets every need. In that, of course, we learn about Jesus. He wants to meet our every need. So, He's showing us our need. He wants us to see our need, so that we will come to Him and He can meet it.

Rose: Right. I think where I've seen people get tripped up in counseling, is when they start to see heart. It's difficult when God shows them attitudes of their heart that aren't right, especially as they go through the bible study The Walk of Repentance. I have one lady that I was counseling yesterday who had mentioned, "It's all negative. You know I'm waiting for God to love on me, it's all just negative." So I said to her, "No, you're not seeing it right," And I read to her Hebrews 12 where it talks about how "He disciplines those He loves" (Hebrews 12:6).  And I said, "He's loving all over you! It just doesn't feel like it, but He's loving all over you right now." That's the thing we must realize.

It's right for Him to correct things that are not right in our heart. Not only in our relationship towards Him, but towards our neighbor too. So, the proof of our adoption as sons and daughters of God is His discipline, because a father disciplines his children. Not to beat them over the head, but because He wants them to be free. Free to be able to love, and not have all these hang-ups, and all the stuff that keeps them bound up inside. He wants to set us free.

Mike: He wants to set us free from the issues of our heart that aren't right. But we can't deal with them if we don't know what they are.

Rose: Right, and we don't acknowledge them. We just keep sweeping them under the rug and pretending, “No that's not true. No, I'm not like that.” He just wants us to say, "Yeah that's me, through and through. I know I need to repent, and my hope is Jesus. I'm going to trust that as I submit myself to Him, to do His words, in whatever He's telling me to do in that time, whether it's through my leaders, through the word of God or the Holy Spirit, He's going to change me.  

Mike: Yeah, amen. Rose Colon, thanks so much for talking to us about seeing your need.

Rose: Okay Mike.