It's interesting when we think, "Been there, done that!" Sure, I've went back and revisited my past where offenses have come in and people have hurt me. I've forgiven them. The past is in the past. I've moved on. Let me ask you; Have you truly? The Lord has taken me through so many layers of forgiveness checks. Some of those revisits have been so harsh...I've had to go into my memory bank and look at the ones who victimized me...I remembered the smells of that moment. The sights of that moment. The traumas of that moment. A rush of emotions came flooding into my soul. I even saw the violent act being replayed as in watching an old home movie again.
I heard Holy Spirit ask me, "Can you even forgive him?" I looked into the eyes of pure evil...and I said, 'Yes, Lord...I don't want anything holding me back from you!" Tears flowing, pain emerging; a release arose from deep within my being. There is such power in forgiveness! There were times I would look at this gorgeous little baby (me) and ask the Lord, "Why couldn't anyone love her? Why didn't she ever receive nurturing, affirmation, acceptance, love? Lord, it breaks my heart." He said, "what would you have done if she would have been in your life?" I replied, "I would have picked her up and told her how special she was. How much I loved her. How You had an amazing plan for her life. I would have held her tight and sang songs of love and affirmation over her." The Lord told me, "Then do that right now." In doing that, I was able to bring that part of my innocence back into my being. I was able to forgive those who neglected her and forsook her.
Holy Spirit is our Great Counselor. He has counseled me through my life and He has never, ever let me down. I really don't think people truly understand the power of forgiveness. The picture I continually see when I think about forgiveness is Snow White. The witch curses an apple. When Snow White bit into the apple, she fell into a deep sleep. Everytime, we bite into that poison apple of unforgiveness. We fall asleep. We poison ourselves. A slow death begins. Sorrow surrounds us and our loved ones. We keep ourselves in a state of lifelessness and dormancy. Life stops. We stop...We sleep...no advancing into our destinies...slumbering until our bodies die. UNLESS, we let the Prince of Peace into the room of our most intimate secrets, most devastating traumas...When we invite him into those tragic rooms of our hearts that we've kept locked and shut, he kisses us with one kiss of grace, mercy and forgiveness and we awaken! We LIVE! We are REVIVED!
My life is truly this verse in a nutshell...If I chose not to forgive those who hurt me and betrayed me while growing up, I would have never, ever awakened to my destiny. I would have laid dormant as Sleeping Beauty...a wasted life! My Prince Charming, JESUS, kissed me with one HOLY kiss...When grace kissed mercy...and forgiveness kissed all of my ugliness...I came to life! As Sleeping Beauty arose; AWAKE, she says, "You found me!" Prince Charming replied, "You don't have to worry, I WILL ALWAYS find you!" Let's all take a deep breath there! When we were lost, He came and found us! LOVE Awakens DEATH...Love is stronger than the Grave! His love is BETTER than life! His love and forgiveness is LIFE-GIVING! DEATH AWAKENING! RESURRECTING! We have the power to forgive others so we can let our Prince Charming FIND us!
There was a sleeping BEAUTY inside of me. What was that beauty? The ability to forgive those who hurt me. The willingness to let the offenses and trauma go! The desire to wake up and live! I'd much rather be a Sleeping Beauty...Than a Sleeping Ugly! Some will never let unforgiveness go...and they become more ugly on the inside.
Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Matthew 18:22 (RSV)
What does the Greek word (aphiēmi) 'Forgive' mean? cry, forgive, forsake, lay aside, leave, let (alone, be, go, have), omit, put (send) away, remit, suffer, yield up, to send forth, yield up, to expire
The word has an overwhelming amount of definitions...One of the words is DIVORCE...We need to divorce ourselves from the bitterness and hatred keeping us from forgiving those who sinned against us. (to bid going away or depart, of a husband divorcing his wife) This is very interesting seeing all these different meanings of this Greek word. It's almost like if you don't forgive the one who sins against you for whatever crime they did against you, the opposite of forgiveness will take root).
(aphiēmi) -I FORGIVE
- to let go, let alone, let be
- to disregard
- to leave, not to discuss now, (a topic)
- of teachers, writers and speakers
- to omit, neglect
- to let go, give up a debt, forgive, to remit
- to give up, keep no longer
- to permit, allow, not to hinder, to give up a thing to a person
- to leave, go way from one
- in order to go to another place
- to depart from any one
- to depart from one and leave him to himself so that all mutual claims are abandoned
- to desert wrongfully
- to go away leaving something behind
- to leave one by not taking him as a companion
- to leave on dying, leave behind one
- to leave so that what is left may remain, leave remaining
- abandon, leave destitute
That's a continual forgiveness....What do you think happens when we don't forgive?
It causes all types of other ailments in our physical bodies. Not only do we separate ourselves from the Father. We separate ourselves from health and wholeness. The crux of the gospel is forgiveness...We are to forgive others as Christ forgave us. If you need a reality check, watch The Passion of the Christ. It will open your eyes to 'forgiving others as Christ forgave us.' He was an innocent man. He did everything right. For that, he was spit upon, mocked, bruised, beaten, smitten, forsaken, used, abused, whipped, stripped, naked, ashamed, scorned, hated, despised. Yet, he forgave. He forgave us while we put him on the cross with our mockery of who HE is and was. He loves us with an UNCONDITIONAL love. Love without conditions. We are to love our enemies. Sometimes, those closest to us become our greatest foe. Sometimes, it's our own memories of what we did, that we cannot forgive. Sometimes, it's the deepest, darkest places inside of us that we condemn and become bitter against. We fight against our own demons. We become guilty and condemn ourselves too much to let it go. What if they knew? What would they think? Who is 'they?' anyways. When Adam and Eve ate the 'poisoned' apple, they suddenly were naked and ashamed. God replied to them, "Who told you that you were naked?" Who is it that is telling you that you cannot forgive yourself? Who is telling you that others couldn't forgive you? Who is telling you that God can't forgive you? It truly is the TRUTH that sets you free. When you can stare the truth in the face and become friends with it, lies become shadows in the light of truth.
I had a dream many years ago of someone in my family. In my dream, she had cancer. She had cancer because she couldn't forgive someone. I woke up KNOWING this to be the root cause of entry point of that spirit of infirmity. I knew I had to go to my relative and tell her about my dream and ask her if there was someone in whom she couldn't forgive. She had lung cancer. The woman never smoked while I knew her. With her oxygen intact, I told her about my dream and then I asked her the question if there was someone whom she couldn't forgive. She began crying. She said, "I can't forgive that person. They don't deserve my forgiveness. What they did was wrong and I'll never give them the chance to not be guilty of what they did to me." I began explaining how she was only imprisoning herself that the person who sinned against her could care less about my relative's feelings. I said, "she's not the one suffering with cancer, is she?" My relative began getting it...She let me pray for her. The breath of the Lord breathed upon her. Mind you, she was on oxygen...She had her eyes closed, we are praying and she suddenly opened her eyes and said, "Did you feel that?" I said, "No, what did you feel?" She said she felt a wind blow over her...It felt like someone turned up her oxygen because she could breath so freely. She felt like it was a windy day inside where we were. I knew the Lord was kissing her with grace and mercy to forgive her offender. She was awakening from years of being dormant and tormented.
For some forgiveness comes easily...if you have a story like mine, it was either life or death. I either died in unforgiveness at birth or live and forgive. As I mentioned before, there were several very hard ones to forgive...and even though I had thought I'd forgiven them, it was the Lord bringing their faces and details back in the moment to see if I could truly forgive their heinous crimes...Step by step, He leads us. For others, forgiving yourself may be the hardest challenge you face. Let me encourage you, when you ask for forgiveness, your sins are so far removed as the east is from the west.
As high as the sky is above the earth, so great is his love for those who respect him. 12 He has taken our sins away from us as far as the east is from west. 13 The Lord has mercy on those who respect him, as a father has mercy on his children. (Psalm 103:11-13) NCV
If a perfect, loving God can forgive you, what is your offense against yourself. Let it go! Let God! Let it Go! Let God! Let it Go! Let God...awaken you with one kiss of mercy, grace, and forgiveness.
Christ August pretty much sums up forgiveness in this song 70 x 7.
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