The Lord caused me to be drawn away this weekend for some alone time with Him. I am always amazed at how God will use everything to bring His children to a higher level in Him; that is, if we are willing and submitted. What I learned this weekend has led me to this one conclusion; God truly won’t be satisfied until we too can look from our cross in the midst of our own rejection, shame and crucifixion and say "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."
This is not to say that we are to walk in any type of messianic complex but we are charged by the Word, “ And he who does not take up his cross and follow Me [ cleave steadfastly to Me, conforming wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also] is not worthy of Me.” (Matthew 10:38) and again in Matthew 16:24 “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” It is from this same cross that we say like Jesus, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Luke 23:34.
True forgiveness is not simply an exercise of your Christian duty. It is a matter of a transformed heart that understands it true power. True forgiveness lies at the root of the deeper revelation that says “Judge not [neither pronouncing judgment nor subjecting to censure], and you will not be judged; do not condemn and pronounce guilty, and you will not be condemned and pronounced guilty; acquit and forgive and release (give up resentment, let it drop), and you will be acquitted and forgiven and released.” (Luke 6:37) In other words forgive others, and you will be forgiven. This scripture is paramount to our understanding of true forgiveness and not because God wants to subject us any form of law or religion but because God in His wisdom knows that until we have truly forgiven we cannot and will not understand what it means to be forgiven by God of all of our sins past, present and future. This is also a part of God’s plan to keep us out of bondage to the overindulgence of self; self processing, self-evaluation, self efficiency, self-emotions, and self-thought processes.
This command to hold neither ourselves nor any man in bondage is true forgiveness and this alone leads to true freedom. You know that you are truly forgiven when the offenders words, actions, or inactions lack the power and authority to affect or effect you mentally, spiritually, emotional or otherwise. In fact forgiveness empowers you to move further in your God-given power and authority because you are free from the yoke of bondage to your sin and iniquity. If you are moved in any way by an offense or the offender you have not truly experienced the god-kind of forgiveness that is required of you.
As you walk in this type of forgiveness you relinquish all rights to be right, to be justified, to be paid back, and to be apologized to. What I have learned is that you relinquish all right to be or do anything that is not in direct conformity to God’s plans for your life. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.” Because God is Sovereign He knows that all things work together for your good and what your enemy meant for your harm God will allow and use for your good. This scriptures assure us that we don’t have to be subjected to fear of what happens when we yield in forgiveness. If God is calling you to a higher level of forgiveness trust that He knows the purpose and the affect in His destined purpose for your life.
Last week I remember sensing that there was a call of deeper still. I confessed to the Lord Psalms 139:23-24 "Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Lord if there be something in me that you are trying to bring to the surface that is displeasing to you pluck it up and pluck it out! So when He ushered me into this place I was pleasantly un-surprised. At first God so graciously allowed me to know Him as Comforter and He wrapped His loving arms around me allowing me to be broken before Him until I cried out for My Father. When I cried out for my Father He answered me and then as any Holy and Righteous Father would, He disciplined and corrected me. He said, "daughter there is an issue of unforgiveness that I want to deal with".
I have walked with the Lord long enough to stand still during these times of correction. During my earlier years I would run around like a child being spanked not understanding that the discipline and rebuke were for my own good. So now my walk has become a 'deeper still' walk in which I allow God, in the midst of my pain and discomfort, to have His way in me; understanding that His desire is to take me into His deeper things. I asked the Lord to amplify the area and after prayer and meditation in His presence He obliged. He began to show me areas that in past seasons were acceptable but for this new place He is bringing me to it would no longer be enough. I knew allowing God to do this work in me would not only challenge me but it will change and transform me. The awesome thing with God when you are in right relationship with Him is that as you grow He forbears with you as you mature but then you get to a place where what is acceptable for others is no longer acceptable for you and what was acceptable as a babe in Christ is not acceptable for the growing teen-ager. This is a place of deep repentance and forgiveness that ultimately yields a higher level in God.
I have walked with the Lord long enough to stand still during these times of correction. During my earlier years I would run around like a child being spanked not understanding that the discipline and rebuke were for my own good. So now my walk has become a 'deeper still' walk in which I allow God, in the midst of my pain and discomfort, to have His way in me; understanding that His desire is to take me into His deeper things. I asked the Lord to amplify the area and after prayer and meditation in His presence He obliged. He began to show me areas that in past seasons were acceptable but for this new place He is bringing me to it would no longer be enough. I knew allowing God to do this work in me would not only challenge me but it will change and transform me. The awesome thing with God when you are in right relationship with Him is that as you grow He forbears with you as you mature but then you get to a place where what is acceptable for others is no longer acceptable for you and what was acceptable as a babe in Christ is not acceptable for the growing teen-ager. This is a place of deep repentance and forgiveness that ultimately yields a higher level in God.
The Lord also said to me that this type of forgiveness loves to a greater degree regardless of the depth of the offense or the offender. This forgiveness loves over and over again even to the 7 times 77 level of forgiveness. Matthew 18:21-22 “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” Imagine the exponential degree of love from the one who is forgiven much. The scripture also teaches us that who is forgiven much loves much. Luke 7:47 says “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.” An even deeper revelation God showed me is if we forgive much we become the recipient of much love. This is the promise and the exchange. You are the recipient of love to the degree to which you forgive.
Today we have a choice. Will we continue to justify our un-forgiveness because of our hurt and disappointment? If this is our position we are in basic conflict with scripture and the nature of our Lord. By esteeming our need to be right, to be heard and to be understood we are in direct disobedience to His will. No matter the offense, great of small, we must be like Jesus. We often feel like the enemy of forgiveness is our loss of control to our offender; but Jesus is saying today you are Mine, I have bought you with the precious price of My blood. With this understood we must reflect our Savior and yield our spirit, souls and bodies to the seemingly unforgivable and unlovable even as we are fully persuaded that truly “greater love has no man than to lay down his life for a friend.”(John 15:13). In fact, Jesus teaches us that there is no such person as unforgivable or unlovable for there is no depth, nor heights that His love cannot reach. God gave His Beloved Son for the whole world, therefore it is His very nature to love all and forgive all.
I am not saying to run out now and call everyone that you have held in bondage to un-forgiveness or for that matter everyone who you know is holding you in that same bondage. Forgiveness is a spiritual exercise. It is done in the spirit. Whether it is received or accepted by the person it is extended to may not be immediatley or ever seen. Jesus forgave the whole world but we know that not the entire world has yet to receive that forgiveness.
But, you must also be ready to move in obedience if God should require you to go to someone and openly ask for forgiveness or ask to be forgiven. Before you proceed please pray for the Lord’s guidance and move in exact obedience to that leading because this will take courage beyond your physical ability and human will.
In my spirit I know there is a promise connected to your obedience to walk in a deeper level of forgiveness in this season. Whether it is the spiritual act alone or if you are also asked to approach someone; God is requiring us to go deeper still in the area of forgiveness as we grow in deeper manifested identification with Him. If you should experience continued conflict that leads to your inaction or if your forgiveness does not yield your desired result remember and be encouraged that the scriptures says that we are to always obey God and not man. God will honor your obedience in unseen and eternal ways and you must be fully satisfied that you have fully obeyed God and not leaned to you own understanding.
And the Lord says, your way may seem to be working for you, or perhaps you are just beginning to realize that although My ways are not your ways I do have a righteous expectation for you to conform to My way of doing, thinking an being. You current state of existence may have proved to be enough for you in seasons past but I tell you in days ahead there will be a stirring up of your soul and you will no longer be satisfied with your standard of forgiveness. In fact, your standard on many things is about to be converted. You will receive the revelation that there is a higher level. I Am calling you to My way of forgiving because only by doing My will are you truly and absolutely satisfied. Yes there is a corporate call to true forgiveness but today I am speaking to each of you individually. Your spirit is bearing witness that this is rhema word for you today. Move in complete obedience and your soul will not only be satisfied but it will rejoice in a freedom that you have never experienced before. Beloved you can choose to exist in the acceptable will of the Kingdom but My desire is that you would crave to be fully satisfied in My perfect will. There are many other areas that I will reveal to you with the desired result of you walking in My freedom. You must conform to My image, that is the Promise and it is your inheritance.
What else did I learn in submitting to this pruning? I learned once again that my life is not my own. I belong to God and as His precious possession He has the right to use me, shape me and mold me according to His desired purpose even if that means me going to a cross. Deserved or undeserved we will be cut, pruned, placed in the furnace of affliction, thrown in lions dens, left in the pit, and sold into the slavery; but we can rest assured that Father is with us and He will never abandon us. As we submit we learn of Him and His ways and it becomes our good pleasure to conform to His will and His way knowing that truly our lives were meant to bring Him glory. God is calling us higher and deeper once again, let’s just go!
Please read and meditate on the following passages:
Matthew 18: 21-35 “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. 23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. 26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. 28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. 29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ 30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. 32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. 35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
Luke 7:37-50 “When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. 38 Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them. 39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!” 40 Then Jesus answered his thoughts. “Simon,” he said to the Pharisee, “I have something to say to you.” “Go ahead, Teacher,” Simon replied. 41 Then Jesus told him this story: “A man loaned money to two people—500 pieces of silver to one and 50 pieces to the other. 42 But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?” 43 Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt.” “That’s right,” Jesus said. 44 Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume. 47 “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.” 48 Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 The men at the table said among themselves, “Who is this man, that he goes around forgiving sins?” 50 And Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
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