Freedom Can’t Fake Forgiveness
From our last conversation, we embraced a truth that communion with the Comforter is the sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings, especially on a mental or spiritual level. Communion is communication: your hearing and obeying the voice of God, and He hearing and answering yours.
It is not alright to always complain about what’s not going on well in your life. Is there any time we come to the Lord with thanksgiving in our hearts and a song of praise on our lips? Do our souls always wax cold in pain or distress? Or can we bless the Lord through the pain and come out of despair set up on a higher plane with peace?
Made in the image and likeness of our Creator, God Almighty, we are His children. The privilege of children is that they can call on their father for help. In Hebrew, the word “father” is “Abba”, so whenever we feel to get the attention of our Daddy in heaven, the soul can simply cry out, “Abba, Father!” Then speak. He hears.
Dearly beloved, there are some simple truths that lock our souls in the prison of trouble and distress; and most oftentimes, it is we ourselves who put us into these “pits”. It’s not from another person, though we try to point fingers at others to deflect our own faults.
Sin is the number one cause of a soul’s distress. When we go against what is the perfect will of God, there are consequences, or punishment, or a price to pay (wages) (Romans 3:23). If we regard God as our heavenly Father, though our earthly fathers do exist, then the term “father” must be respected as the One who disciplines us to do what is right (Hebrews 12:3-11), that we may be partakers of His holiness thus reviling any sinful tendencies and live in obedience (James 1:21-22).
Doubt (double-mindedness) is the number two cause of a soul’s distress. If you believe in yourself, in your dream or life purpose, and in your intimate (close) relationship with Abba Father, then whatever you ask for in the name of Jesus, He will do it for you (James 1:5-8; John 14:13-14). But, when you question as to whether or not God has heard you; or you doubt that what you ask for is in the will of God, then you are unstable and won’t receive the peace to heal your troubled soul. Abba Father desires to grant you according to your heart’s desire, and fulfill all your purpose (Psalm 20:4).
Pride is the number three cause of a soul’s distress. Pride makes you deny the hand of God on your life’s affairs. Pride is pushing God out and relying on yourself or other people to promote your cause, to cover your sins, to supply your needs. Therefore, you do not have [peace, prosperity, praise, or purpose] because you do not ask your Abba Father (James 4:2). Rather, your reward is rebuke, shame, and destruction. God cares all about you, but He shall surely pay you the wages of a proud and haughty character because His will is that you humble yourself before Him (1 Peter 5:5-7) so that He will do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20a).
These three works of evil—sin, doubt, and pride—have to do with behavior (sin), thought-pattern (doubt), and character (pride), all rooted in lack of love for Abba Father. This disconnection renders our soul in pain and distress. This disconnection boils over as bearing grudges against one another and harboring grievance in our relationships toward each other. What results is war—a struggle to prove that “I am right; and you are wrong”. This war appears child-like in the eyes of God because He wants us to grow up into the image and likeness of Him who is a God of peace, not confusion. Go to that quiet place and tell Him all about your struggles with sin, doubt, or pride.
The only way to destroy these three works of evil and to free your soul is forgiveness. On the cross at Calvary, Jesus implored Abba “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” If Jesus, through the pain and suffering of slowly dying on the cross, could cry out to our Father to forgive humanity for all our filthiness and fornications, how much more must we grow up and put away our childish grudges and grievances, embrace the cross, and forgive others who offend (sin against) us even up to seventy times seven times (Read Matthew 18:21-35). Believe (without any doubt) that the Lord has forgiven you of any sin, doubt, or pride; and tat He loves you unconditionally (with no strings attached).
Bearing grudges and stirring up grievance with fellow boys and girls, men and women also made in the likeness of God, our Creator and Father, traps your soul in Satan’s snare and locks you up in prison while living on earth. The only way to free yourself is to free the offender out of your heart. True freedom can’t fake forgiveness. Fake forgiveness comes from the mouth and continues to recount the wrongs done. Pure forgiveness is from the heart and keeps no records of wrong-doing. And, though the scars may never go away because of the memories of the pain, remember that Jesus bore all that pain on the Cross to heal your broken heart and to restore broken relationships. Purely forgive that person (those people) right now. . . and be free indeed.
Abba Father, help me to let go of the pain (the bitterness, the anger, the disappointment and the disgust) I feel in my heart for what …….. has done to me. Replace that pain with Your agape love and fill my heart with peace in knowing I’ve let that person (people) go out of my heart to never hurt me again. Keep my heart in pure forgiveness which is the love shed abroad in me when I was created by Your hands. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
As Jesus rose from death on the third day, today it is your turn to rise from anything dead in you. Receive the resurrection power of Christ into your heart to help you live as a victor, not a victim.
Easter is a time to enter into your new season of change . . . the best is yet to come.
© 2023 by Patience Osei-Anyamesem. All rights reserved. Published by The Light In Me Enterprise. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews or other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Unless otherwise stated, all scripture quotations are from The New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The artwork depicted in the blog article is carefully selected to draw out the points made for healing of the soul, and by no means promote any ideologies from the various artists unless they are found in the center of God's perfect will.
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