Finding Healing Between the Cherubim
This article will explain the meaning of the cherubim and then show how this understanding can bring healing to the deepest levels of a wounded soul. God is calling us to meet with him between the cherubim and it is here that we will find all we need to be healed and made whole. The second half of this article tells of a vision experience where Jesus meets with wounded inner parts and gives instructions as to how this healing takes place. Truly amazing!
The most detailed description of the cherubim is found in Exodus where they were positioned over the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant (Exo. 2:18-22). They are mentioned as being there again in Hebrews 9:5 where the writer of Hebrews stated that he could not at that time reveal more about the cherubim saying that of such “we cannot now speak particularly” (KJV). Another translation puts it this way, “But we cannot explain all of these things now” (NLT). The mystery of the cherubim could not be explained 2000 years ago because they have a message for the church of the end times. This article will explain their message in detail.
Over the Ark of the Covenant (a type of our heart) was a lid called the mercy seat that was made of pure gold. This mercy seat was a representation of the atoning work of Jesus Christ…the propitiation for our sins. Rising up out of the mercy seat and made from the same piece of pure gold were the two cherubim. So we see here a beautiful type of the heart of a believer (ark) covered by the atoning work of Christ that grants forgiveness for sins (mercy seat), and rising up out of this were the two cherubim. Now I ask you, who is the atonement all about? Certainly it is not about angels. The cherubim represent the two persons involved in the atonement. One represents the initiator of the atonement which is the Lord Jesus Christ. The other cherub represents the recipient of this atoning work—the believer. Because of what Jesus did for us…because he died for us that our sins could be forgiven (the atonement), we can now have relationship with God. This is where we meet with him…in relationship. (He said to Moses in Exodus that he would meet with him from between the cherubim.) As we shall see, we can also meet with him there.
These two figures were at opposite ends of the mercy seat. The number “two” means spiritually that there is a difference and that one is higher and the other lower. Christ is higher and he is different from us in that he is totally perfect and without sin. The figure that represents us is at the opposite end of the mercy seat. We are obviously lower, but because of all Christ has done for us, we can also be pure and perfect because that is how God sees us. He sees us as already perfected in Christ Jesus.
Here is another wonderful thing about these two figures—they are facing each other and looking at each other! It is the desire of God’s heart that we look upon him and fellowship with him face to face. Here is what the actual verse in Exo. 25:20 states, “And their faces shall look one to another.” It also says, “toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be.” What this is saying is that the focus of this relationship is to be the love of Christ and all he has done for us.
Now you may be asking, How can I see God face to face when the Bible says no one can see God face to face? The answer is very simple and has to do with another feature of the cherubim. They have wings. “And the cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on high covering the mercy seat with their wings.” Jesus was never described as having wings, and you and I don’t have wings. The wings represent the imagination. In our imagination we can fly…we can go anywhere and do anything. These wings were also made of pure gold which represents the pure, sinless nature of Christ. This speaks of a holy imagination made pure and sinless by the fact that Jesus died for us (the atonement/mercy seat). We are to meet with Jesus in our imagination. The Hebrew definition of the word “cherubim” is “an imaginary figure.” This definition is pointing us towards the message that God wants us to use our imagination to draw close to him. It doesn’t matter that we don’t really know what he looks like. The Holy Spirit will help us determine what he looks like. (Please see articles on the imagination in the Divine Health section of this website.)
Here is what the final verse about the cherubim in the Exodus passage states, “And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim…” We are to purposely and regularly practice having a relationship with Jesus in our imagination. As we do so we are stretching forth our wings towards him. He stretches forth his holy imagination towards us and this is where we meet.
The Scripture tells us that the mercy seat and the cherubim were made of beaten gold. Think of the work that went into making this beautiful cover for the Ark of the Covenant. Every curve, angle and detail…the feathers on the wings, their faces, etc…absolutely everything required many blows with a tool of some sort to hammer these things into being. This is the way it is to be for us. Using your imagination to see Jesus and have a relationship with him requires effort and time. It is not easy…especially for those of us who have felt shut-down in our imaginations. We have to repeatedly return to our imagination and work out every detail of Jesus’ appearance. We have to practice seeing our self as perfected in Christ…young and vibrant and perfect. This is not easy. However, it is well worth the effort because it brings us into the presence of God in a powerful and very real way.
This is how healing for the deepest wounds begins to take place. If your daddy never told you he loved you and was pleased with you, go to Daddy God and listen to him tell you these things. See the love he has for you in his eyes. It is real and it is powerful. (This is what my book, The Four Living Creatures, is all about.) If you think you are ugly, go to Jesus in your imagination and hear him tell you how beautiful you are. This requires faith as we imagine what Jesus says based on all we know about him from the Scriptures. If I am feeling afraid, I can go in my imagination to a lovely place that I have developed in my mind where I meet with Jesus. There I can look into his face and hear him say the words, “I will never leave you or forsake you. I am with you always even unto the end of the world.”
The Lord tells me that sooner than we think, we are going to believe, based on all that is happening, that the end of the world is upon us. The Bible tells us that men’s hearts will fail them for fear. The Exodus passage we have been examining states that the wings of the two imaginary figures cover the mercy seat which covers the ark (our heart). Our heart (our ark) will not fail us for fear when we have the covering of the wings of the cherubim over it. This word “covering” in Hebrew means, “to entwine as a screen; to fence in, cover over, protect, defense, defend, hedge in, join together, shut up.” Looking at these definitions we can say the following:
As we use our imagination to meet regularly with Jesus and develop our relationship with him, our life will be entwined with his. We will be fenced in with him. He will cover us and protect us. He is our defense. We are hedged in with him, joining together with him, and shut up with God. If we are afraid, we can stop the threatening taunts of the enemy by going in our mind to a safe place we have made with Jesus. There we can find rest and peace in the midst of the adversity of everyday life. If we have been severely wounded in childhood, we can find healing for our fractured soul by going back with Jesus to the parts we split off from through dissociation and meet the needs of these parts.
The following is a detailed account of how Jesus has been teaching me to use the mystery of the cherubim to bring healing to the deepest parts of wounded people in a truly amazing way.
Healing the Deepest Roots of Shame
Over many years of satanic ritual abuse ministry, I have learned that people can go through their memories, have most of their dissociated parts merged, and there can be significant healing in their lives, yet they are still deeply wounded. Even though they daily pursue God and are part of a loving fellowship of believers, they are still hindered in many ways from entering the joy and fullness of victory Jesus has for them.
In addition to these types of persons, there are others who have many definite signs of serious childhood abuse yet have no memories of it. For example, I know one man who has faithfully followed God for many years, a man of considerable godly character along with biblical knowledge and revelation who seems to be “stuck” in regards to overcoming his ways of thinking and feeling related to serious abuse. He can’t remember anything at all before the age of six. There are other blank spaces regarding his childhood. His indicators of serious childhood abuse are numerous and his dreams are showing definite evidence of it, yet no memories surface. He has often sought God for memories, but nothing comes. How do we help these people?
I have been seeking God for a way to help these dear ones. They love Jesus so very much and are doing absolutely everything they know to do yet cannot seem to move forward. As always, God is faithful and he is showing us the way into a deep, lasting healing and a richer relationship with Christ for these people. I am writing here the details of how God has been leading because (1) it is amazingly supernatural and wonderful, and (2) some Christians might doubt the truth of what I am about to reveal here if they don’t know how the answer came. The way the answer came shows the love of Jesus and his closeness to us in an exciting way. I believe this closeness is increasing daily, not only because we are seeking him, but also because of the Day in which we are living.
One morning as I was praying, God reminded me of a psychology book still on my shelf that I had read over 15 years ago. The author of this book writes that people who were raised in dysfunctional families have wounded children inside. Anyone who reads much about inner healing knows about the inner child, but this author says we have inner children. He is not writing about dissociation per se but a concept of brokenness that applies to multitudes of persons. He says we need to welcome into the world and meet the needs of our inner children at various stages of our development including the following: the infant, the toddler, the preschooler, the school-age child and the adolescent.
In this book (Homecoming by John Bradshaw), there are various tests consisting of questions to be answered whereby one can determine whether or not one was wounded at each of the various stages of one’s development. (This book can be purchased from Amazon for $.01 (yes, one cent!) plus $3.99 postage.) I have administered the test for the infant stage to several people. Almost every one of them was very wounded as an infant (age 0-9 mo.). This really opened my eyes to the fact that even though these people are demonstrating significant transformation in their life, they are in need of much deeperhealing. I have known that even though we do all we know to do, there is something missing, some way of ministering that we need to understand.
Bradshaw, the author of the book says we, as an adult, need to go back in our imagination and find our inner child at each stage of development and welcome it into our life and meet its needs. He offers various meditations that we can use to go back and, for instance, hold our inner infant, welcome it to the world, hold it close and tell it the loving things it was never told.
I was not sure if this was what God was saying for us, as Christians, to do. I mean, where is Jesus in all this? Although John Bradshaw is a Christian, his books are written to a diversified readership–people of all faiths or no faith–although he does encourage us to have a “higher power.”
Being a little leery of his approach, I wrote a more Christian meditation where we imagine Jesus (not our adult self) going to our inner infant, holding it and meeting its needs. I read this meditation to a small group of trusted friends whom I like to consult whenever I need discernment. They liked the meditation. One woman started sobbing as I read it because her infant is so terribly wounded still…even though she has finished her SRA memories. However, I still was not sure if this was all that was needed. I was wondering if maybe the adult still needs to go back and accept the part of their self that was cut off and rejected so many years ago.
The Lord answered my question in a remarkable way. I was ministering to a satanically ritually abused woman. As we were praying she began to have the following experience. I wrote down as fast as I could what she related to me.
The Vision
As we were praying, Lucy began to see herself as an elementary school age child in her safe place. (This safe place inside was a place where wounded child alters had been taken for healing by Jesus in many of our previous ministry sessions. For more on the safe place, see my book Restoring Survivors of Satanic Ritual Abuse.) This safe place was a lovely outdoor scene with flowers, grass, a little waterfall and a stream. Jesus has often met with her here to comfort and talk with her after satanic ritual abuse memories.
In addition to the school age child who was standing on the grass, there was also a baby sitting in the stream and gleefully splashing in the water at the feet of Jesus, who was sitting close by on the stream’s edge. Jesus spoke to the older child and said, “This baby is very important because she is you. You have been mean to the baby and expected far too much from her.” Then Jesus said regarding a baby that adult Lucy knows and loves in her everyday life, “You need to love this baby like you love ___. She is very little like her and needs to be taken care of.”
The older child said to Jesus, “Why do I have to take care of her?”
Jesus answered, “When she is older you will be able to play with her.”
Young Lucy thought about this and then replied, “What do I know about taking care of babies?”
Jesus responded, “She needs to be loved, held tightly when she is afraid, and you need to teach her. At night you can give her a stuffed animal to sleep with. As you take care of her, she will grow like a flower.”
Why can’t I be the flower?” the older child asked.
Jesus answered, “You are the stem and the roots that are needed to feed the flower. As the flower grows, you will become part of the flower too.”
Lucy asked, “What kind of flower?”
Jesus answered, “Your favorite…a rose.”
As the child Lucy and Jesus were talking, the baby decided to lie down on her back in the stream. The water was flowing over her face and body but she was not choking or drowning. Young Lucy thought that looked like fun, so she asked Jesus if she could do it too. He nodded yes, and she jumped into the stream and lay on her back letting the warm water flow down over her face as the baby had done. She giggled with fascination over the strangeness of not being harmed by water flowing over her face and not having to come up for air.
Jesus continued instructing her, “Even though you are helping the baby by taking care of her need for love and comfort, the baby will show you things too. When the baby grows up, she won’t need any of the medicines that big Lucy now takes.” Lucy asked when that would be. Jesus answered, “It is as long as it is.”
Jesus said that he wants adult Lucy or child Lucy to go to the baby sometimes and just hold her. (This was very emotional to the adult having this experience. We paused for awhile so she could cry. This confirmed to me how real this is and how healing it can be for the wounded infant inside so many people.)
Jesus said that all through her life adult Lucy has been mean to the baby…even hated her. It was because of her hatred for herself as a baby that she never wanted to have children. She thought it was the baby’s fault that all the horrible abuse was done to her. Jesus is letting her have this experience so she can see that she was just an innocent baby. She did nothing to make all those terrible things happen.
Jesus continued instructing her. If Lucy will go and hold the baby, the baby will grow bigger and stronger. As the baby gets bigger and stronger, so does big Lucy. Jesus then reassured the child Lucy that if it was too hard for her, he would be there to help her. He kissed her and the baby on the forehead. Even though the baby is only a little infant, she is heavy for child Lucy to hold. However, she will learn a lot of things. She can hold her baby and hug her and it is the same as when she holds _______ because baby Lucy wants to be held and loved just the same as the baby adult Lucy holds wants to be loved.
Adult Lucy realizes that she needs to purpose to stop what she is doing every day and go and hold baby Lucy or visualize the child Lucy holding her. At night she can sleep with a stuffed animal. Jesus says he will be there too. He wants adult Lucy to bond with the baby. What an amazing answer to my question. Now I know that both Jesus and the adult person are to go to the inner child at whatever age is needed and minister to that child.
The baby in this account is obviously Lucy’s original person. She is the one Lucy was before her first split. This is the part of Lucy that all alters will eventually be merged into. She is the one who has the true authority and the greatest ability to commune with God. It is always important in SRA ministry to find the original person, and the cults know this and purposely try to hide the OP somewhere it cannot be found. Of course, they don’t know that you can’t hide anything from God! If we let the Holy Spirit guide the ministry, he always brings forth the OP at exactly the right time for optimum healing. He also knows when it is time for other alters to merge into the OP.
Here in this experience we see healing does indeed take place between the cherubim. The vision took place in Lucy’s imagination where she met Jesus face to face. Lucy continues to make progress in her healing because she is faithful to do what Jesus said. If a person has no memories but has all the symptoms of childhood deprivation or abuse at various stages of their development, they can purpose to go to that inner child in their imagination with Jesus and start to bring healing to that part of their self that was cut off and abandoned many years ago.
