Transferred Guilt


"I know you wouldn't want your wife to know about...". Those were the words I heard over the phone many, many years ago as a voice from my past was trying to manipulate my future. Thank God I was able to say, "come on over and we will discuss it with her!" The attack ended. Guilt is a very powerful tool of manipulation. The goal of manipulation is to move you away from God's plan toward some lesser purpose and finally cause you to be immobilzed completely. Of course, my attack was from a real situation from my past. Bringing our sins to Jesus and doing our part to be reconciled to those whom we may have hurt releases us from guilt and shame. There are other kinds of manipulation from guilt that are not as obvious but just as limiting. People who don't know how to handle their own guilt or who are unwilling to assume responsibility for their own mistakes will try to transfer that guilt to others. I call this transferred guilt. Children seem to come into the world knowing how to do this. It is easy for Christians to receive this transferred guilt believing that is what they are supposed to do as Christians from a desire to be nice or sweet. If Christ has set us free from sin and the effects of sin, then it is an affront to the work of Jesus to allow ourselves to come under the power of guilt in any form. The Lord has designed us to live, work and minister in an atmosphere of freedom. Jesus said in Luke 4 that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him to proclaim Liberty to the captives. That liberty was purchases with his own blood so that you and I might live and minister in the perfect liberty of Christ. The world is waiting for us to live and minister out of that freedom and release that freedom to others.