Steps to Wholeness

INTRODUCTION

I had once thought that serial killers had no chance of rehabilitation or salvation until I heard Aldo Nascimento’s story, which changed my thinking. It made me even more amazed at God’s awesome unconditional power and love for us all.

He had grown up in the Assemblies of God Church in Brazil. His mother was a strong believer, but his dad was not. At the age of 6, like many his age, he was a hyperactive child. One day, while travelling with his mother, Aldo decided to pull a prank on her and hide in the train station’s washroom. After fruitlessly searching for him and seeing a little boy that looked just like her own enter the train, she boarded hoping he was onboard. The train left while Aldo was still in hiding. After a while, he began to look for his mom, but she was nowhere to be found. Scared and alone, he was now a street kid having to fend for himself on the fearsome and brutal streets.

Later, he was adopted by a witch, who would groom this church-going child to become one of Brazil’s foremost Satanists, even while he was still a teenager. He thrived in the entertainment world providing satanic services to the TV industry’s actors and actresses. According to Aldo, he would kidnap and ritually murder children then offer their blood to Satan, to dedicate a soap opera. While still a young man, he was finally arrested as a serial killer and sentenced to life in prison.

Even though he was dying of terminal cancer, Aldo was euthanized in the jail’s hospital, after two failed attempts, despite his profuse protesting and not before he had cried out to the God of his mother to save him. You see, after almost two decades, Aldo had an unfulfilled urge to find his mother. Finally, he was pronounced dead, was issued a death certificate and his body was removed to the morgue. There, God miraculously brought him back to life. He was rushed back to the hospital, where he fully recovered; and under the guidance of the Prison Chaplain, he repented of his past sins and reconciled with God.

After acknowledging that Aldo had fulfilled his sentence by death and seeing his amazing transformation from serial killer and Satanist to ‘born again’ transformed Christian, he was released from prison into the custody of the kind chaplain, who took him in, helped him find and reconciled him with his mother. Eighteen years had passed since that ill-fated day. The chaplain then groomed him to become an ordained pastor. You can hear the testimony of this completely transformed ex-Satanist, in greater detail, on YouTube (but only in Portuguese).

How can this happen, you ask? What do you have to do? I have entitled this book Steps to Wholeness because that is what Elijah’s last itinerary reveals. Not only does Elijah’s journey reveal the steps to wholeness but it also shows the essential stages of discipleship and leadership development. Every leader has to go through the same steps to become the total and confident waymaker that Elijah was.

When God created our world, everything worked together as one whole unit, so much so, that he was pleased with His masterpiece, concluding that it was “very good”. It is only when humanity fell, that even our earth, never mind our own selves, became corrupted, as we veered away from God and polluted our earth with our rebellious ways. God’s desire is to move us back by taking us along His journey to wholeness and restoration of our lives. I have thus taken advantage of the template of Elijah’s journey going from Gilgal to the Jordan River to show God’s plan and purpose for how this restoration to wholeness should take place. However, first we must look at the definition of wholeness.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, the definition of ‘Wholeness’ is the state of forming a complete and harmonious whole; unity. Again, according to the Free Dictionary, wholeness implies that all components are complete, not divided or disjoined; not wounded, injured or impaired; sound or unhurt. As each transgressed, became wounded and/ or broken and fell away from the wholeness that once existed when the Creator pronounced that everything He created was “very good”, we need to be restored to that wholeness. Christians often say, “I am whole in Christ,” or “Christ has made me whole.” What does this mean? It means that we are being brought back into the whole -- physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually -- through Christ. In other words, we need to, once again, align with and be integrated into the unity of the kingdom of God and of His ecosystem. Then, they will be able to experience the goodness of God and of His creation, “lacking nothing’.

Through the life of Elisha, on his journeys through Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho and the Jordan River and interspersed with my own testimony, and Biblical passages, I have attempted to outline the various life phases that God planned for us all to go through on our way to heaven. It is truly God’s steps back to wholeness and to life.

So, let the Lord reveal to you ‘the hidden manna’ of this revelation knowledge how to find freedom, deal with the critical aftermath of years of abuse and attain physical and emotional wellbeing. Anyone can obtain a new lease on life with a new identity, new wholesome labels and a renewed hope -- if they surrender to the Lord of all life and take up His ordained journey for their lives. Let this book identify the steps that God calls us all to go through on our way back to wholeness and life.

Author’s note: Yahweh, whenever used, is the name of the God of Israel and our Heavenly Father.