Day Four

Step 4: We Must Forgive

This step is crucial to living the healed life. We must forgive others. We must forgive ourselves. We must forgive God.

Living in unforgiveness can hinder the ability to receive your healing.

In Mark 11:25-26 Jesus says, "Whenever you stand praying, if you find that you carry something in your heart against another person, release him and forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also release you from your misdeeds."

When I finally realized, I didn't have to live in fear, torment and anxiety anymore, I went to Father God and ASKED Him to heal me, and do you know what He told me?!

I clearly heard this is my brand-new reborn spirit...You must forgive your stepfather.

My flesh was like NO WAY! But I knew I wanted my healing more than I wanted to stay in unforgiveness. The Lord had me write my stepfather a letter saying I had accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and just as He has forgiven me of all my sins (which were many) I forgive you for what you did to me.

The moment I chose to forgive him; I literally felt the shackles of bondage fall off of me. I had no idea I was living in bondage all these years.

I felt a release in my spirit, and I knew I was on my way to living in freedom!

Forgiveness is NOT a feeling. I am almost certain that our flesh will never feel like forgiving. As Christians we don't allow our flesh to have a say anymore. As followers of Christ we are Holy Spirit led, not flesh led... we are done allowing our feelings to dictate our life. We now live according to the Bible and in this case the Bible says we must forgive.

If you are anything like I was, we can be led to believe that person who hurt us doesn't deserve forgiveness. And to that I will say you are absolutely right!

But I want you to hear me out, neither do we (ouch).

We have all sinned. We have all fallen short. Yet, Jesus still came to earth to pay the price for our sins.

If we want to represent Christ well, we must choose to follow the example of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is called being obedient to the Word of God.

We did not deserve God's forgiveness either... but God. He in His mercy and grace came to earth so that we could freely receive it.

We must remember forgiveness is a choice not a feeling!

If you want your healing as bad as you say you do, you must choose to forgive.

I know for me and I'm sure some of you have said I want to be healed, but when it comes down to it, we don't want to do the work. Living with pain (trauma) can give us a lot of attention, and sometimes our soul/our flesh would rather have attention from people then going to God and receiving our healing. And... being obedient to what He says.

Forgiveness releases you from the person who has hurt you. When you hold onto unforgiveness you are keeping not only that person in bondage, but you are keeping yourself there as well.

My encouragement for you when you want healing, but you are withholding forgiveness, just remember that Jesus forgave you of all your sins. When I remember this, it helps me to extend forgiveness to others.

Refuse to be offended.

Choose to forgive them.

Walk in love.

We not only need to forgive others, but we must forgive ourselves. I know for some reading this you might be thinking why do I need to forgive myself?

I know for me personally living a life of sin, I had a lot of shame to overcome.

I love what it says in 1 John chapter 3:

Whenever our hearts make us feel guilty and remind us of our failures, we know that God is much greater and more merciful than our conscience, and he knows everything there is to know about us.

My delightfully loved friends, when our hearts don't condemn us, we have a bold freedom to speak face-to-face with God.

And whatever we ask of him we receive, because we keep his commands. And by our beautiful intentions we continue to do what brings pleasure to him. (1 John 3:20-22 TPT)

We are fully known and loved by God. Nothing is hidden from Him. When the enemy brings past sins to my mind if I think on them long enough, I know shame will be right there.

Just as we forgive others, we must forgive ourselves too. We have been forgiven by Jesus so why can't we forgive ourselves? If you haven't forgiven yourself for all your sins, I highly encourage you to do so and quickly.

You will gain a sense of healing and freedom in giving yourself the grace that's needed in this life. I see so many people being so hard on themselves and never allowing the grace of God to cover them. When you are hard on yourself all the time, I know that inner self talk is negative. Don't fall into that trap from the enemy.

If we don't forgive ourselves, we will never see ourselves as God does.

If we don't forgive ourselves, we can never live up to our fullest potential.

We must acknowledge our sins and repent for them. Give them to God and say, yes, I did that I repent, and I ask for forgiveness, followed by saying I receive my forgiveness in Jesus' name.

Let yourself off the hook so to speak. Jesus already forgives you, now it's your turn to forgive yourself.

Don't allow the guilt and shame to control you any longer. You have been forgiven and redeemed by the precious and powerful blood of Jesus. You are able to walk in total freedom!

Lastly, we must forgive God. We are not forgiving God because He has done something wrong. He cannot do wrong. He is perfectly perfect in every way.

I'm talking about the times where you've endured injustice in anyway and God allowed it to happen.

I remember I would say if there was a God...in essence I was saying God doesn't care about me because if He did then He wouldn't have allowed me to be abused for all those years. I had so much anger on the inside of me because of all the abuse and I was in a sense blaming God for it all.

I want you to think of a time where maybe you've said this too. And if you find a time when you did, declare...God, I forgive you.

One last note...after you've forgiven who you need to be prepared for the enemy to bring these people and what they did to you back to your mind again and again. When this happens declare out loud you have forgiven them, and you let it go in Jesus' name.

The enemy wants you to pick back up the offense. This is a trap. Don't fall back into it. He knows how powerful forgiveness is to you receiving your healing and he doesn't want you to walk in it.

Remember our feelings have nothing to do with forgiveness.

TODAY'S PRACTICE

Take out a sheet of paper and write at the top 'I FORGIVE' and make a list of every person you need to forgive. Go back to your earliest memory of someone causing pain in your life and if you know you haven't forgiven them write their name down.

Write anyone that comes to your mind it doesn't matter if you don't know their name God does. Make sure to include yourself and God if need be.

If you feel led to write a letter like I did, I encourage you to write it. Even if you never send it to them, it's very healing and therapeutic to write it all out and get it onto paper and off your chest.

Whether you actually mail the letter or not I suggest you pray to God for guidance about this.

TODAY'S QUESTION

Who do you need to forgive?

Were you surprised by any of the people that came to your mind?

Do you find it hard to choose to forgive?

TODAY'S DECLARATION

I forgive if I have aught against any. I refuse to hold onto offense and unforgiveness from this day forward. I declare I am forgiven therefore I will extend forgiveness to others including myself and God!

MY PRAY FOR YOU

Lord, I pray for my friend today that they would make the quality decision to walk in forgiveness. I pray that they would realize forgiveness is a choice not a feeling. I pray that as they release forgiveness to who they need to they too would experience the freedom of the shackles of bondage falling off of them just like I did. Let them feel a new level of healing in their life today. I pray that they would begin to see themselves as you see them. I pray that they would see those people who have hurt them through your eyes Lord. I pray that you would help them to walk in love and avoid strife from here on out in Jesus' mighty name. Amen!