FORGIVENESS – A POWERFUL FORCE

Forgiveness is not something we do once, but is a total way of
living. We have the power to totally and completely forgive all
others, because Jesus gave us that power. We experience His power of
Forgiveness the moment that we accept Jesus Christ as our savior and
Lord. This forgiveness that we receive from Jesus is a total
forgiveness of all of our sins and a washing of all our
unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
In this forgiveness there are two points to consider:

1. He forgives us freely when we truly repent.

2. He forgets our sins. He never remembers them again.

Here we see the power of forgetting and forgiving. Sometimes you
and I have both said that “I will forgive, but I will never forget.”
But the forgiving and forgetting of the sins of others are part and
parcel of the same package, they cannot be separated. How can we both
Forgive and Forget? There is a very simple 1 word answer. It is by
Faith! Faith is NOT an emotion. It is not a set of circumstances
which we can see. It is acting uncompromisingly on God’s Word. The
apostles learned this powerful truth in their walk with Jesus. They
knew the difficulty they had in forgiving those who had seriously
offended them. Jesus told them specifically how they were to act
toward offending brothers. Luke 17:3-5: “Take heed to yourselves: if
thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent,
Forgive Him. And if he trespass against thee 7 times in a day, and 7
times in a day turn again to thee saying, I Repent; thou shalt forgive
him.”

And the apostles said unto the Lord, “Increase our Faith.”
Please notice the answer of the Apostles, “Increase our Faith.” They
knew that they could not act on their emotions or the surrounding
circumstances which they could see. They must act on His spoken
words. They needed increased faith for increased forgiving. Hearing
and acting on God’s word will increase your faith, and increased faith
will give you increased power to forgive.

When you forgive by faith, you can also claim divine power to
forget by faith. It is divine to forgive, but it is also divine to
forget. Forgiveness is a powerful force. We can loose others with
our forgiveness, or we can bind them with our unforgiveness. We can
loose ourselves from torment by forgiving, or place ourselves in
torment by not forgiving.

In Matthew 18:23-25, Jesus told a story about a man who owed a
king 10,000 talents in Gold. (Today that is worth at least
$290,850,000). To even begin to pay the debt, that man would have to
sell his wife and children into slavery. But the King had compassion
and loosed him by forgiving the debt. How free the servant must have
felt and how overwhelmed he must have been with the compassion and
goodness of the King! But then the roles in the story were reversed.
The forgiven servant also has a debtor who owed him the equivalent of
$17. What a contrast on the amounts of money owed. Also, in contrast
to the benevolent King, this servant becomes irate with his debtor and
throws him into debtors prison. The king hears of his servants
behavior and is greatly disappointed. He turns the ungrateful servant
over to the tormentors until his debt is paid. The end of this story
is very sad. One man is bound in prison because of another’s
unforgiveness and the unforgiving servant is being tormented.

We are living in a very dangerous condition if we don’t forgive,
for we will live in torment. If we don’t forgive others, then Jesus
will not forgive us. If we plan not to forgive those who have wronged
us, we better make plans to never sin again, for there will be no
forgiveness for us from our Heavenly Father. But, when we do forgive,
we loose our forgiven offender. We have freed him by our faith, for
whatsoever we loose on earth is loosed in heaven. Heaven will begin
to work on him and our prayer power will increase. Jesus said in
Matthew 18:18 “Verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on
earth shall be bound in Heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth
shall be loosed in Heaven.”

We can either eradicate people with our unforgiveness, or we can
edify them with forgiveness. But that is a decision we must make.
Joseph made a decision to forgive. If he had not forgiven his
brothers, he could have wiped out the whole Jewish nation by refusing
them food. Instead he forgave them and edified them by giving them
food.

The Apostle Paul decided to forgive, also. He said that he would
be accursed that his brethren might be saved. The Jews had him beaten
many times and treated him cruelly; but instead of wanting to
eradicate them, he chose to edify them.

Jesus could have eradicated us because of our sins but, instead,
His one desire was to edify us. Therefore, He forgave us. Paul said
in Philippians 3:10 “That I may know Him, and the power of His
resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made
conformable unto His death.”

If we are to know Jesus and His sufferings, we will feel what He
felt for those who offended Him. He died on the cross for our sins
because He Loves us and Forgave us. Paul felt the same feelings of
Jesus for he wanted to die for his persecutors.

These are truths to live by. If we take the feelings of Jesus
for our offenders, it will not be the end of our forgiving, only the
beginning; for forgiveness is a twin to faith and is the DIVINE way of
living.

Marilyn Hickey
Charisma Magazine, 10-81

Computers for Christ – Chicago