You will know that you are a wounded person in need of healing, secondly, when you are someone who cannot stand seeing a person (or something) that reminds you of something or a part of yourself that you dislike—and, moreover, have never accepted. Sometimes, this feeling of intolerance may manifest through attacks or harm that the wounded person is ready to inflict on anyone who seems to bring them back to what they consider the source of their wound—especially when they have not yet accepted it.

What you have never accepted could refer to a part of your body you don’t like, a part of your past you’re not proud of, or even an event (a circumstance) that negatively affected you. Let us consider two biblical cases to illustrate this truth.

Elisha’s Baldness

In the Bible, there is a prophet named Elisha who was greatly and powerfully anointed, and yet, he was in need of healing. His need for healing was as great as his anointing. This sufficiently proves that anointing is not always synonymous with healing when it comes to inner wounds. A person can clearly carry the anointing of God while living in deep vulnerability and in need of inner healing. Speaking of Elisha, 2 Kings 2:23-24 says:

“From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. ‘Get out of here, baldy!’ they said. ‘Get out of here, baldy!’ He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the forest and mauled forty-two of the boys.”

The one who was supposed to be a source of blessing becomes, in this passage, a source of mourning by causing the death of 42 children. What was their offense? Mocking a bald head.

The Bible specifies that they were little boys! Where the Louis Segond version speaks of “little boys”, the French Common Version (Français Courant) calls them “kids” and the Chouraqui 1985 version clarifies that they were “little children.” Was it really surprising that little children behaved this way? Wasn’t it actually a sign that they were behaving normally? In fact, when a child doesn’t notice something unusual at a certain stage of development, it can be concerning. So it was normal for these children to notice and then react to something that seemed out of the ordinary.

The goal is not to absolve the children of their responsibility, but to help us understand that God can allow those around us to treat us poorly simply because, through their actions, He wants to draw our attention to the pain within us. That is exactly what happened with Elisha through the children’s mockery. God wanted to make him aware that he had never accepted his baldness.

For Elisha, it was baldness—but for you, it may be a deformity, a shortcoming, a disability, or simply a part of yourself that is often mocked and that, as a result, you dislike or have never truly accepted. How do you feel when someone—even unintentionally—says or does something that reminds you of this part of your body that you dislike? What do you do, or how do you react, when this happens? Your response will reveal whether you urgently need healing or not.

Cain’s Case

Beyond physical features, this truth also applies to events you have never liked, let alone accepted. A clear example in the Bible is a man named Cain, the very first murderer in the Bible, who killed his own brother Abel. But how did it come to that?

“In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.” (Genesis 4:3-6)

In the passage above lies the reason for Cain’s murder of his younger brother. Both made offerings to the Lord, but with different outcomes: God looked favorably on Abel and his offering, but unfavorably on Cain and his. God’s response enraged Cain. Because he did not accept this outcome and was driven by jealousy, he decided to kill his brother. He believed that by doing this, he would rid himself of the burden caused by what he perceived as an injustice—something he had never accepted—instead of seeking true healing, or even learning from Abel how to please God and then offering Him something that would be pleasing. God could only accept the offering if He had first accepted the person making it.

Like Abel, how many people have died or experienced hardship simply because they crossed paths with others who had gone through events they were ashamed of and had never accepted? For others, it may not necessarily lead to murder like Cain, but rather to avoiding or fleeing from people who know them, who know what they went through, and whose presence might remind them of their fall—even when those people are unaware of it.

This is what drives some people to leave a church or move to another city, unable to bear seeing those who, even unintentionally, remind them of where they failed and have yet to rise again. I’m not denying that it’s possible to start over elsewhere, but I insist that merely changing locations or avoiding people is not what will lighten your soul from the weight of its wounds…

This text is an excerpt from the book “HEALING INNER WOUNDS” written by Rémy BISAGA.

We invite you to read the next article: “A WOUNDED PERSON WOUNDS OTHERS.”