My Experience With Arrested Development

If someone had asked me a few years ago about “Arrested Development,” I wouldn’t have been able to tell you anything about it, let alone if it affected me. Nevertheless, when I became aware of it, I was certain that I didn’t suffer from Arrested Development, but I was incorrect and living in denial.

THE HOLY SPIRIT

The purpose of this article is to share my understanding of Arrested Development in light of the Bible, how it affects people and how I became free of this emotional bondage. Arrested Development is caused by demons and it has been quite the experience to achieve the healing and growth in my life.

While psychologists are correct in their diagnosis regarding emotional maturity and growth, I do not agree when they state that most people are stuck in their teens. Based upon my own experience and what I have learned from counseling people coming for deliverance, stunted emotional maturity can occur as a young child. My pastor, John S. Torell, has been ministering to people for 45 years and this is also his consensus. The traumas that trigger arrested development can occur in the womb and infancy, meaning you will grow up thinking that your lack of emotional maturity is normal while it continually frustrates family, friends and co-workers around you.

REFLECTIONS ON THE PAST

I married two men for wildly different reasons. I was forced into the first marriage because of a child out of wedlock but it only lasted a few weeks. The second marriage came about as a result of fear and rejection and turned into a 17 year emotional black hole that left me sick and dejected. I was reflecting on my life and told my third and final husband, Kristian, about how I used to feel.

I couldn’t see it while it was happening, but I felt like a child when I started my adult life. I was a young mother filled with insecurity and fear. Under the influence of fear, I made rash decisions because that is what children do. I threw temper tantrums when I was overwhelmed and alone. Sometimes I would take the car out alone and drive much faster than the posted speed limit or curl up in the fetal position and cry or just give someone the silent treatment for days on end.

There are a few times I remember being so upset and despondent that I lost it at home. On one of these occasions, I was crying so much that I crawled on my hands and knees up the stairs of my home. I was desperately exhausted and felt hopeless. It didn’t occur to me to think about God as my source of strength even though I had been saved as a child. I was operating completely in the flesh, trying to be tough and do everything by myself.

My second husband refused to show me affection and constantly rejected me during the 17 years we spent together. I had many illnesses during this time such as gout, diverticulitis attacks, and horrendous stomach pains that the doctors could not diagnose even though they performed a myriad of tests. As I stated, this period of my life was an emotional black hole that left me feeling horribly lonely and full of emotional pain.

DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE

Kristian and I were working together at the same firm two years prior to my divorce. We became friends after a year and it only took me 3 months after I separated from my second husband to get involved with him. My previous marriage was dead for many years, I was starved for love. Kristian was the complete antithesis of my second husband and met my most basic need to be loved and cherished. I was able to get some level of healing from the affection and acceptance he provided; however, it could only take me so far because God was not the focus of my life.

I started to feel like an adult and was able to save money and not be in debt. This was a huge problem in my previous marriage and for the first time I began to feel a semblance of security as we started a new life together. We bought a boat, went camping and spent time with my family. Two years later I remember driving off with our boat attached to the truck and saying to Kristian, “I officially feel like an adult now.” When I uttered those words, I knew it wasn’t right to have a material possession make me feel like an adult but I was in a state of Arrested Development that I couldn’t discern or understand.

I did okay with my intelligence and street smarts. Humans are very resilient and possess the ability to survive the worst abuses and neglect, but that doesn’t mean we come out unscathed. Survival is just that, survival. Surviving is not thriving and living to the potential that God has for us. I have been through some pretty traumatic events as a young child and teenager and they left an unseen mark on me.

There isn’t a single person coming to this ministry for healing and deliverance which has a perfect life; all the stories are similar to mine and some are much worse. What Satan does with emotional traumas is nasty; he freezes our emotional state at the first traumatic event. This is where we get an evil spirit called “Arrested Development” because of its function.

We continue to physically grow and learn but our emotional state is stunted and this hinders our spiritual growth with God. Does that sound strange? Just take a moment and think about the adults in your family or friends that just can’t get it together. Examine their childish behavior and poor decisions. You can almost tell the age at which they were first traumatized. Then examine yourself and see if this too applies to you.

THERE IS NO PARADISE WITHOUT JESUS

Kristian and I started a business two months after we were married and things were much better than I’d previously experienced. Our new venture took off and we were doing great financially but the pressure of this new business and our lack of faith/devotion to God took its toll on us.

I loved Kristian deeply but he started having regular anxiety attacks and would lash out at me in frustration. I was still wounded and the slightest criticism from Kristian would put me in tears because of the emotional baggage from the previous marriage and the associative fear of rejection.

I began to entertain thoughts that maybe I had made a huge mistake in marrying Kristian because the pressure of his anxiety was very heavy on me. Almost every weekend ended with me crying and Kristian apologizing and trying his best to control himself around me but this is what happens when two emotional infants in their mid-30’s try to live a life without God.

RECONNECTING WITH GOD

The good news is that we found our way back to our Heavenly Father! We found a ministry that knows the value in James 5:16, “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed…” This ministry had experience with Arrested Development and God used them to cast that demon out of me and my husband. We flew from Alaska to California where we went through a week of prayer for deliverance from demons as we methodically retraced the steps of our lives and discovered a whole mess of stuffed emotions and things we had never told anybody. We confessed it all to the Lord, received forgiveness and God gave us miraculous healings in our souls and bodies. One of the healings that took place is that I don’t suffer from unknown stomach pains, gout or indigestion anymore.

There are still times when I experience those familiar stomach pains but now I know that means my soul isn’t happy. God reveals the source of the problem when I pray about it and the pain stops immediately when I discover its root and deal with it. This shows the sensitivity of our souls. It is important to listen to the Holy Spirit because our souls won’t be happy when we don’t heed the guidance of the Lord.

I can laugh about this now, but as I started to read my copy of Christian Dynamics Course 1, I remember sitting back in my chair with a little bit of pride and a side helping of denial and informing Pastor John, “I don’t have Arrested Development; I just read about it and it doesn’t fit me.” He was silent and after a long awkward pause he lovingly asked, “Do you think that all the decisions you made in your past were mature ones?” I couldn’t argue with that logic!

Christian Dynamics Course 1 is an excellent resource. It is biblically sound and will help you find your freedom in God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

WHERE WE ARE NOW IN 2015

It’s been a long road to get where I am today! I now look at Kristian and he’s become a man. We no longer get upset about things which cause turmoil in our lives. I did not know I was a child emotionally until I was set free by the Lord and today I can look back and see the difference!

We study God’s word and have been baptized in the Holy Spirit. We sold almost everything to become missionaries to help others go through this process to find freedom and to grow in Christ! I love my life with God as my employer! I love that I can now understand with my redeemed soul and born again spirit the “covering” my husband is to me as described in 1 Corinthians 11:3, “But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ: and the head of the woman is the man: and the head of Christ is God.”

My first two husbands failed in their God-given duty but Kristian’s prayers are very powerful for me. The Bible tells me to go to him for prayer. It’s not easy to put into words what it is like but it is so peaceful. We shared a communion together a few nights ago and it was the most powerful communion I have ever experienced. To listen to God’s anointing on my husband as he prayed brought me to tears.

The steps we are going through to reach our actual physical maturity have been interesting and we aren’t finished yet! I want to share my experience so you too will be prepared. After being set free, it is necessary for a person to go through the emotional phases that were skipped over. My husband and I thankfully went through this together and had strong support from our pastor to help us when we had questions.

The first time we had a temper tantrum or an outburst, we were concerned that we had allowed a demon back in. After being set free from the years of constant noise in our heads, we certainly did not want to regress. It was just a fleeting moment of us going through that phase in our life. So we started to recognize the different emotions and go with the flow. I am working with a few women now who are in the process of emotional growth after being set free of the demon of arrested development and they are a blessing to me. I don’t wish to relive my life but I praise God for getting me through all of this so I can in turn help others.

I have a friend who is doing the 16 week Christian Dynamics Course 3 follow-up after deliverance. She expressed feeling annoyed when someone tries to show her love. She doesn’t have a problem with this normally, so we know she is just having a moment of being emotionally arrested as a 12 year old. She was experiencing a healing and this is hard to explain until you have gone through it. I experienced this also and God is good to help us go through some of these blocked emotions we surpassed as children and very quickly. I talked to her a week later and she is so happy! The joy she had with the Lord has returned to her and she is able to pray freely in her intercessory ministry, something she has not been able to do in quite a while.

My journey isn’t over yet and it is my prayer that I will be available for anyone seeking salvation, deliverance and healing. We are all in this together. Deliverance only comes from seeking the Lord and using the Scriptures as our guide.

Yours in Christ,

Laura Getting