Category: Self-Help

Forgiveness is a choice. We must choose to forgive those who have done us wrong, then lay the whole mess in God’s hands, and leave it there. Give your hurts and hard feelings to Him. Think about Jesus… here they murdered Him (they didn’t do that to you or I!), and yet one of the last words that left His mouth were crying out “Father, forgive them!” Look at the depth of God’s love for us! God’s deep love for us was expressed through Jesus’ death on the cross. When we begin to comprehend the great expression of love that was towards us, that same love will begin to grow in our hearts, and flow out to others. That is why it is important to grow in God’s love and become well aware of how deep and rich it is, because when we understand His love for us, we will find that forgiving others becomes naturally and the choice becomes much easier to make.

Read More

One time I had somebody say some things that was very belittling about me, and most people would have been offended. After they were gone, the Lord spoke to me… He told me to go turn on some worship music and spend some time with Him… I did… and within no time, instead of thinking about what they’ve done to me, I was weeping before the Lord for them in prayer… begging God from the bottom of my heart to bring them to come know Jesus… I felt a love inside me well up that was not mere human emotion… I felt the love of God flowing through me! Instead of letting it get to me, and looking at what they had done, I got my eyes on God’s love for me, and that love flowed right through me to them… as a result, I loved them as Christ loved me. It’s one of the most beautiful feelings in the world!!

Read More

If you reach out to God, and seek a deeper relationship with Him, He will draw near to you, and you will find that deeper relationship with Him. God’s Word is clear about this fact:

Luke 11:9-10, “And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”

James 4:8, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you…”

The relationship is yours for the taking! Christ wanted this relationship with you so badly, that He gave His life for it! Your heavenly Father wants this intimate relationship with you even more than you do.

What kind of a relationship does God want with us? An intimate love relationship! The Lord gave me a powerful revelation of this not long ago, and I wrote a teaching on it. It is a must-read if you want to take your relationship with the Lord to a deeper level. The teaching is titled A love relationship with Jesus.

Read More

How to deal with unforgiveness

As I have pointed out, unforgiveness is a form of hatred, which is actually a lack of love. If you are bitter with somebody, then the love of Christ is not flowing through you. So how do you solve that problem? You need to grow in God’s love. You need to come to realize that deep and beautiful love that He has for you. As you learn of His love for you, your spirit will respond and you will love Him in return. When you love Him, your love will begin to flow through you to others around you. When that happens, it becomes more natural to see Christ’s forgiveness flowing through you to them.

How do you come to know the love of God? You spend time with Him. You research His Word to see what it has to say about His great love for you! Work on developing an intimate relationship with Him, and you will come to know His love. Here are some verses that can get you started:

John 10:11, 15:13, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep… Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

1 Corinthians 2:9, “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”

Romans 2:4, “Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?”

1 John 3:1, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God…”

Look at this one… you aren’t loved for what you’ve done… but because of who you are! Even before you came to Christ, He loved you so much that He died for you!

Romans 5:8, “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” (NLT)

1 John 4:9, “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.”

If you have a hard time forgiving others, it’s because the love of Christ isn’t flowing through you. How do you solve this problem? Start working on your relationship with your heavenly Father so you can come to know of His great love for you, and then your spirit will respond and His love will begin to flow through you naturally. When that begins to happen, forgiving those who have wronged you will become much easier.

It is nearly impossible for somebody who is flowing in the love of God to hold bitterness (a form of hate) inside! If you struggle with bitterness, it’s because you lack the love of Christ in your life! You need to become grounded and rooted in the love of Christ, if you want His love to flow through you!

I believe Jesus made it clear that if you love Him, keeping His commandments will naturally follow. If you love Jesus, carrying out His love will come naturally to you:

John 14:23, “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”

What was His big commandment? To let His love flow through you to others around you, and love them as He has loved us:

John 13:34, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”

Read More

Unforgiveness is actually a form of hate against another person. If a person hates somebody, it is a sign that the person is lacking love in their heart. Why? They are not firmly rooted and grounded in the love of Christ, and Christ’s love is not flowing through them. As simple as that sounds, that’s how it works.

What somebody may have done against us is one thing, but if you take Satan’s bait of unforgiveness to heart, it will do much more harm than they did. Do you want to continue to allow their mess to trouble you even more? Have they not done enough damage? Allowing yourself to hang onto hard feelings and become bitter is only causing your wound to become even more infected spiritually. Honestly tell yourself, what good is it doing you to hold onto the hurt and bitterness that the enemy has tried to plant within you? It is doing nothing but harm, and is holding you in bondage spiritually. The only reason you are holding onto those feelings is because it feels good inside. Don’t let this fool you, bitterness is known in the Bible as spiritual poison:

Acts 8:23, “For I perceive that thou art in the gall (poison) of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.”

The reason Satan wants you to hold onto that bitterness is because it is poison to your soul. Jesus said that the devil came to steal, kill and destroy. Satan wants to do just that to you. Know wonder Satan makes unforgiveness ‘feel good’… he wants your soul to be poisoned!

Don’t let him do this to you… stop him dead in his tracks! Release yourself from those hurt feelings, and let them go… stop holding onto those feelings, and let that poison out of your soul!

Read More

Wounds can fester into infections if left untreated. That’s exactly how unforgiveness works. Whatever was done to us pierced our skin, but if we keep prying it open and looking at the wound, it won’t be able to heal… instead, because it is continually exposed to the dirty air, it becomes infected. That infection in the spiritual realm is welcoming to unclean spirits, which fester the wound even more. If something isn’t done, the person ends up facing demonic harassment and torture, and becomes a very bitter and unhappy person.

I have an idea of what you may be saying right now, “This person has NO clue what they’ve done to me! They don’t deserve anything at all! Much less MY forgiveness!!” They certainly don’t deserve your forgiveness, much less God’s… but none of us deserve what Jesus did for us either. Those who killed Jesus didn’t deserve anything at all, but look at what He said just before He died, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!” Look at the deep and rich mercy and love that Jesus has towards us… none of us deserve it! But He loves us for who we are, not because of what we’ve done. He wanted a relationship with us so much that He gave His life for it! When we grasp what Jesus has done for us, it makes it a lot easier to pass that grace along to others. We aren’t letting them off God’s hook, we are merely releasing our souls from bondage that un-forgiveness brings us under. You aren’t forgiving them for their benefit, but for your own good! Your soul, not theirs, is what is being held in bondage because of the feelings you’ve allowed yourself to harbor inside. Why should you allow what they’ve done to continue to bring you under bondage? I wouldn’t! I would let that poison out of my heart… give it to the Lord and seek Him to heal the wounds they have caused.

Forgiving others is sometimes very hard, but it is essential if you want to break out of the bondage that it’s brought you under. Forgiving others opens you up for the Lord to begin healing your soul (inner healing). Since unforgiveness blocks us from receiving God’s forgiveness of our sins (Matthew 6:15), it puts up a wall between us and the source of our healing.

Read More

2 Cor 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Why do you think God wanted us to be new creations when we enter His royal family? Because He doesn’t want your past to be a part of you anymore! He wants you to be washed clean from all your sins and wiped clean from your past!

Isaiah 43:25, “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.”

God knew that if He didn’t forget our sins, they would forever be before Him, and it would hinder the closeness that He desires to have with us. Therefore, God Himself said that for His own sake, He chose to not only forgive your sins, but also forget them and cast them into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19).

Hebrews 9:14, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

Not only did God chose to forget your sins, but He also wants you to forget them as well. God’s Word tells us to, “…draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” (Hebrews 10:22)

Worship is one of the most intimate ways in which we commune with God. Jesus tells us that, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24) The truth is, if we have repented of our sins, and believe upon the blood of Jesus to wash us clean, then we are clean from those sins, and if we approach God in worship with a dirty conscience, we won’t be approaching Him in truth. Hebrews 10:2 tells us how worshipers should have a conscience clean from sin, “…the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.” God doesn’t want us hanging onto our pasts when we come to worship Him! He wants us to approach Him through worship from a conscience washed in the blood of the lamb!

In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus tells us, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” If you look up the word ‘labor’ in the NT Greek, it basically means to toil under a burden. What kind of people are heavy laden and labor in their souls? People who are laboring under the burden of guilt. Jesus wants you to come to Him, and shed your old heavy burden of guilt. He died so you could be released from it… won’t you make the choice to let go of it today?

Read More

Hebrews 10:1-22, “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.

He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having a high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.”

In the Old Testament, they used to offer sacrifices each year to cover the people’s sins. The blood of Jesus does far more then cover sins, it takes them away. It removes them from your identity… it removes them from you as far as the east to the west! Psalms 103:12, “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”

Revelations 1:5, “And from Jesus Christ, who… washed us from our sins in his own blood.”

Psalms 103:12, “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”

Matthew 26:28, “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Do you know what the NT Greek has to say about the word ‘remission’ here? “Forgiveness or pardon, of sins (letting them go as if they had never been committed), remission of the penalty.”

Read More

Step 1: Understand the nature of God’s forgiveness towards you. The teaching on The Forgiveness of Sins is a great teaching to help you there.

Step 2: Repent of your sin(s) if you haven’t already done so. They big key to being forgiven is repentance.

Step 3: Know that your past sins have been forgiven, and that you are now clean in Christ Jesus. Stop thinking about your past sins and start thinking about the new person you are in Christ. We are NEVER told to mull around our past sins, but rather to forget the things which are behind and press forward. (Phil 3:13, “…this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.”)

Step 4: Forgive yourself! Jesus made it clear that we are to be forgiving, and that includes forgiving yourself. You need to release yourself from the bondage of unforgiveness. If God chose to forgive you, who are you to hang onto something that God chose to let go of? This is a major source of bondage, and I can’t stress how vital it is for you to release yourself from your past. Colossians 3:13 tells us to be, “…forgiving one another…” If you look up the phrase ‘one another’ in that verse in the NT Greek, it translates to the word Heautou which includes THEMSELF! It is vital to be forgiving towards yourself!! Bitterness (the fruit of unforgiveness), regardless who or what it’s about, defiles a man (Hebrews 12:15).

If a stronghold of guilt exists, then the feelings of guilt may not disappear overnight, because strongholds need to be torn down by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2). A great place to start is learning how to recognize condemnation from the devil, and stop paying attention to it. One teaching that will show you how to recognize condemnation is Condemnation verses Conviction.

Once you know the difference between condemnation and conviction and can recognize condemnation when it’s thrown at you, you need to guard your thoughts, and when you see condemnation coming your way, pay no attention to it. Treat it for what it really is… a lie from the devil. You can learn more about how to take control of your thought life in the teaching The Power of Your Thoughts.

If nothing seems to work, you may need to have a spirit of guilt or condemnation cast out. There are particular evil spirits that go around and hang around people like a thick black cloud, constantly making them feel dirty, unworthy and guilty. They usually thrive on strongholds of guilt though, so usually your first step to getting rid of this spirit is by tearing down the stronghold by which it’s holding on. If you tear down the stronghold, and still feel like a black cloud is following you around, I would read the article on Seeking a Deliverance and pursue having it cast out.

There’s a teaching that specifically addresses Strongholds that I recommend reading if you suspect you have one or more strongholds to be torn down.

Read More