He is the Vine and we are the Branches – Fruit of the Spirit.

The church that is in the Father’s heart is like the vine. The Lord Jesus is that vine, He is the church. For in Him are all things. He is the Life of the vine and without His life the vine would not have life, the life imparted by the Holy Spirit. We are the branches that spring forth out of the Vine and only have life insofar as we are joined to the Vine. The life that we have comes from the very life of the Vine. And, the fruit that we bear is the fruit that comes from Him, for that fruit is His very nature that He imparts to us. This is the fruit of the Holy Spirit that we read about in Galatians.

So to is the church that has been in the Father’s heart since eternity past. The Lord Jesus Christ, and He alone is the Head of the Church His body. We are the members of that body, placed there by the Holy Spirit at the moment of rebirth. And there baptized, submerged, into His Body we are to bear fruit as we are joined to the Head, Jesus.

More than just being the Head, Jesus is also the Chief Cornerstone or foundation and in Him the whole body is built up to be a dwelling place for the Father. There is no place for man-made institutions here. This is the work of the Holy Spirit as He continuously points us to Jesus and not to traditions of man.

The fruit that we are to bear can only be produced in one place, and that place is the Body of Christ – the church that Jesus is building. And that fruit dear fellow believer is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. This fruit cannot be produced in any training schools designed by man. There is no discipleship training school on the face of this earth that can teach you how to produce this fruit.

It is the work of the Holy Spirit to work in us to build us up into the fullness of Christ, so to it is His work to produce this fruit in us but… it can only take place when we are members of the Body of Christ. This is not “Church Membership” as most know it. It is not a piece of paper - it is a Life and a lifestyle, and that is Christ in us the hope of glory. The very Life of God being lived in us by Jesus His Son. Nothing less!!! The apostle Paul declared this in Galatians when he said that he no longer lives but Christ lives in him.

If you do not have the assurance that Christ lives in you then no matter what “church” you belong to, no matter what denomination or house church movement, you are lost, cut off from the Vine, and are in desperate need of Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God. For in Him alone will you find your place in God’s family and have the assurance of eternal life. And only there can you produce the right kind of fruit.

This is serious. Chances are 90% that you are trapped in some or other institutional church. There you have been fed with the teachings and traditions of men that have nullified the true Word of God in your life. You have no chance of really knowing God your heavenly Father. You may have learned and know about Him, and then possibly the wrong things, but you do not know Him by experience in your heart. Do not be coerced into believing that it is only through membership of a “church” that you have salvation. That is a lie from your enemy the devil.

Do not believe that you have to go out and witness, lead others to Christ, to be able to bear fruit in the Kingdom of God or to earn your place in heaven one day.

Do not believe that because you were raised in a “Christian” home and have always attended church that you are saved.

Jesus said in John 17:3, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” And this knowing is experiential and not head knowledge.

Nothing can bring you into a personal relationship with God your Father but your own heart. No special prayer, no membership classes, no nothing but an honest and open heart. This brings the power of the Holy Spirit to work in your heart.

You see dear friend, God has poured out His Spirit on ALL MANKIND. The purpose being that when ANYONE turns to the Lord with an open heart, the Holy Spirit is right there to immediately come in, and when He does the most wonderful thing takes place. He transports you into the open, waiting arms of a loving God. He introduces you to Jesus Christ your Saviour and Lord. You are taken into the fellowship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. At one and the same time you become a part of the Family of God, the Body of Christ and the future Bride of Christ.

Is that not absolutely amazing. How does that happen? Why does it happen? For God so loved the world (all the inhabitants) that He sent Jesus to pay the price for your soul by dying the terrible death of crucifixion. Then He raised Jesus from the dead to be the start of a new creation; a creation that would not have to try to live by their own strength. But… a new creation that would live by the life of His Son Jesus Christ.

In doing this He opened the way back to Himself. He, God your Father, desires to have a personal, one to one relationship with you. He no longer desires, as in Old Testament times and in institutional churches today, to have to work through a mediator like Moses, the Kings and prophets or pastors, bishops and the like. In fact He never did plan for it to be that way. That was man’s decision and still is to this day. The same pattern. His Holy Spirit is the guarantee that He left us because it is He, the Holy Spirit that carries out the will of the Father today. The Lord Jesus did His part and His work on earth is finished. All we need do is just accept what He did for us and embrace His Life which He so freely gives. You cannot live the Christian life.

No matter what your standing in life is: millionaire or pauper, church goer or atheist, prostitute, drug lord, thief, murderer, upper class or bum; GOD LOVES YOU. He has made the way onto this relationship so easy; all that it requires is an honest heart; and then He will shower you with His love by the Holy Spirit which He so freely gives to us.

I challenge you today to be honest with God.

Are you an atheist? Well tell God that you do not believe that there are any gods, let alone the only true God. Tell Him you believe in your own strength and knowledge to get you through life and when you die… that’s it. Tell Him you believe in evolution and that you came from an ape. Show Him all the written theories of learned scientists. You may even get angry at Him for daring to challenge your intellect with all the twaddle you have read in this article. Go on – tell Him. You don’t even have to go down on your knees. All you need to do is just be honest with Him. That’s it. Resist Him all you want, just be honest. Then just wait and you will be surprised at what will happen. Afraid to do it? Then obviously you do believe that God exists.

Are you enjoying your life so much that you do not have time for God? Tell Him. Be honest and tell Him you want to wait a few more years and then you will think about it. Life is too much fun doing whatever it is you are busy with. Be honest with Him… tell Him how you feel.

God appreciates honesty, in fact He hates hypocrisy. You don’t need to use any special language as He understands all. Just talk to Him from an honest heart. Anyone can talk to God. You do not need any special qualification except an honest heart. Just tell Him how you feel about what you are doing and how you feel about Him.

I would like to end this article with a short extract from Watchman Nee’s book “A Table in the Wilderness.”

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They that dwell under His shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn and blossom as the vine. Hosea 14:7

Who ever gave much thought to vine-blossom. It is in fact one of the shortest-lived flowers, scarcely noticed before it is gone and has already turned to fruit. In nature we may recognise three types of plants; those which flower but bear no fruit at all; those, such as the peach, which are remarkable both for their blossom and for their fruit; and those like the vine, whose blossoms are of small account, and which men prize only for their fruit. Evidently God places here a high valuation on the last of these.

How tempted we are to display what is impressive to men, a blossom to be admired! But the Father has set us as branches in the Vine. There, what He seeks above all is fruit-bearing.

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Think hard and deep about this and be blessed.

With much love,

Jack Viljoen.

jack@tcitfh.co.za

http://http://www.tcitfh.co.za

http://www.hypervre.com/?affiliate=65980

http://hop.clickbank.net/?jackpepper/bryxen1

A Table in the Wilderness

Hi there,

I have found a remarkable book by Watchman Nee called “A Table in the Wilderness.” Daily meditations from the ministry of Watchman Nee.

It is packed with absolute gems of revelation from the Word. These short teachings of Watchman Nee are, to say the least, eye opening… no mind blowing. He has such a deep grasp of the Word of God and above all, a real testimony of living by an indwelling Lord.

Furthermore, he had real understanding of what the church, the body of Christ, was meant to be and how it should function… under the lordship of Jesus alone. As each believer accepts that he only has life by the Son and surrenders all to his indwelling Lord; that believer is then joined to Christ’s body, the church. The Holy Spirit baptizes you into the body in exactly the place that you need to be, and there you are to function, continually seeking to honour the Head of the body viz. Christ. In fact you need to honour the whole body, for truly the whole body is Christ as the parts cannot be separated from the head.

Watchman Nee was born in China in 1903. He committed his life to the Lord at age seventeen and after thirty two years of faithful service he was arrested by the Communists, falsely accused and imprisoned. Twenty years later, in 1972, he went to be with his Lord. At the time of his arrest in 1952 approximately 400 local churches had been planted in China through his work

He was a prolific writer and authored many books. The Last words he wrote were on a small piece of paper found under his pillow in his cell, and they were…

"Christ is the Son of God who died for the redemption of sinners and resurrected after three days. This is the greatest truth in the universe. I die because of my belief in Christ. Watchman Nee."

I publish below one of the daily meditations from the book, “A Table in the Wilderness”.

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“I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him who sent me.” John 6:38.

God’s will for me must not be made subject to my own temperament. When we know a man’s make-up it is often all too easy to guess what “guidance” he will get, because his natural proclivities intrude so subtly upon the leading of God. Too much so called guidance among us is little more than personal bias. A timid brother is “guided” to take a back seat. A forward brother is “guided” to take a front seat. Each claims to be led of the Lord. Is he? Or is his temperament ruling him?

The pure will of God demands of me that what I am temperamentally shall be set aside. I should be so Spirit-filled that the man beside me cannot foresee, on grounds of my temperament alone, how God will lead me. Oh let me beware of slanting the will of God in the direction of my own natural leanings!

Even the Lord Jesus, whose own will was surely faultless, nevertheless set it aside in favour of the Father’s who sent Him. If He should do that, how much more must I!

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This is something so vital in the church today that every professing Christian ought to take seriously the matter of total surrender to the Father! Without this, the church can be little more than a puppet in the hands of the enemy.

If the carnal nature of man is ruling his life then the Holy Spirit is not, and if the Holy Spirit is not leading a man’s life then he is under the control of the enemy. Remember that Satan disguises himself as angel of light and deceives many.

The apostle Paul urges us to be continually filled with the Spirit in order that we will not satisfy the desires of our carnal nature.

The Lord Jesus said that He sent us the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth and to speak the very words of God to us. Should we settle for listening to the words of mere man when we can hear the voice of our Father? Jesus said my sheep know my voice and they follow me.

Take time to seek the Father’s will, surrendering all. Seek Him with a pure motive, and that should be simply to know Him better; not for any personal gain like status, position or recognition by man. Least of all for material things. Your Heavenly Father knows what you have need of, but He tells us to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and then these things shall be added.

If you are not sure how to do this and you have a real desire to enter into this personal, intimate relationship with your Heavenly Father, then contact me at the address below and I will gladly assist you.

With much love,

Jack Viljoen.
The Church in the Father’s Heart.

http://www.tcitfh.co.za

http://www.inhousechurch.com

Forgiveness: Release from hurts, despair, hopelessness and depression Posted By : Jack Viljoen

The story of Martie’s experience in dealing with unforgiveness towards her mother in law had the perfect ending. This is not always the case. Bitterness could have taken root so deeply on both sides that it almost seems impossible for reconciliation. Hopelessness and despair, which also lead to depression, can play havoc with the mind.

Control, domination and manipulation are other factors which cause great difficulty in dealing with the issue of unforgiveness. When faced with this kind of opposition the “victim” feels powerless and cannot see a way out. This is a terrible condition to be in.

Now I wish to say this. The Word of God is not a magical formula. It works as a whole. You cannot name it and claim it. By that I mean that there are those who latch on to one of the promises in God’s Word and keep on confessing it in the belief that it is going to produce the desired result. Or, they receive a “word” of prophecy and attempt to build their lives around it. Beware! The word can become and idol. See what the Lord says in Ezekiel 14:1 – 5. This can bring you to destruction in order that you may turn back to God, not His Word only.

Let me give you an example which fits in with our discussion of unforgiveness and bitterness. People get caught up in the teaching on prosperity and hear the preacher saying that you must believe the Word, stand on the Word, confess the Word and it will come to pass. Now there is nothing wrong with that except for one thing; the hearers of that word have not walked the same road as the speaker. He has most probably worked through the issues in his life. He has or is practicing forgiveness. He does not harbour any bitterness in his heart. He does not speak bad about other people and the most important thing; he is walking in God’s love and has a relationship with the Lord. And, all of this is only possible when one is filled with the Holy Spirit and living daily in His presence.

People will confess the scripture in Mark 11:22 – 24 where Jesus said “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.” There are two immediate problems with this type of practice. The first being that they leave out verse 25 where Jesus says “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” This is paramount to having God’s Word produce fruit in your life. You see, without God’s forgiveness of your sins He does not even hear your prayer or confession. Isaiah 59:2 “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.” So unless you forgive others their sin against you God cannot and will not forgive your sin. Stalemate.

The other problem with this confessing, naming and claiming game is this. We need to be asking and believing in accordance with God’s will. 1 John 5:14 – 15 says “This is the confidence we have in approaching God; that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of Him.” Can you see the results of unforgiveness. If we ask of God with unforgiveness in our hearts He does not hear us, and we can claim whatever scriptures we please; it is not going to work. This is not some magical system for getting things from our heavenly Father. We are talking about real life issues here. In James 4:1– 3 the Word says “What causes quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill (hate) and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” (Self-centered).

As a result of asking incorrectly, many people don’t receive and are then angry with God. How sad? Our Father takes great delight in blessing His children. Why do we play games with Him by trying to manipulate Him with His very own words? The scripture in James says that if we ask according to His will then we know that He hears us and will grant the request. It is God’s will that we forgive? Therefore if we ask Him to help us forgive someone, do you think He will? Sure, it’s His will. But if we are still harbouring bitterness or even hurt in our hearts when we ask then He will not answer. Your request should first be, “Father give me a love for so and so and take away these bad feelings and thoughts.” Matthew 5:48 says we are to love our enemies. It is in God’s will. Let’s move on to our topic of unforgiveness.

We are going to cover two situations that appear as though asking forgiveness just doesn’t work, or we don’t know how to deal with it when:
• the person who hurt us has died.
• the other party refuses to forgive, or says they forgive but do not seek reconciliation.
.

Someone who has offended you or whom you have offended has died and you know that you have not made right. What now? Must you continue to live with that guilt feeling? No; there is a way out! The situations are numerous but here are a few examples:
• between spouses who cheated on one another; tolerated but never forgiven, now one has died
• between parents and children; drugs, alcohol, pregnancy, wrong partner choices, divorce
• between business partners
• between bust-up lovers

These issues sometimes go way back into the past but were never dealt with.

Scenario 1
A mother feels remorse over the fact that her daughter has been killed in a car accident. She messed up when she found out that her daughter was pregnant, many years before, and dealt so badly with the issue that she turned her daughter against her. Now the daughter is gone. The mom is burdened with guilt because her pride kept her from humbly seeking forgiveness from her daughter. For “pregnant” read drugs, alcohol, wrong choice of partner or whatever. You get the picture. If only…

Scenario 2.
Every time you see him you boil with anger. He used you. You lived together; shared things; had good times; and then he left you for someone else. You both moved on. Both now happily married with families. But you never forgave; you harbour bitterness; still feel abused. Then you hear that he has died of a heart attack. What now? Maybe you say, “Good riddance.” But that is the bitterness reacting and the dangerous thing is that your feelings could be projected onto your husband. Well He is a Man, and maybe he will cheat on you? You start manipulating and trying to control his life. You become domineering and he begins withdrawing. Your marriage starts crumbling. Remember that all of this happens in the subconscious so chances are that you are not even aware of what is going on. All you see is your happy life going down the tube. You never dealt with the issue of forgiveness and now it has snowballed into a nightmare. I painted this scenario to show how unforgiveness can create further havoc in your life. If only…

Scenario3.
You judged another person for something they had done. Your verdict; guilty! But you never had all the facts. You did not know that they were hurting at the time, and their actions seemed the only logical way out of their predicament. Never the less, you passed judgment. Now they have passed away. The scriptures say, “Do not judge and you will not be judged.” Now you are found guilty, you have been judged. Remember my first article on Unforgiveness? You are harbouring unforgiveness and are trapped in the prison of your mind. If only…

You can write your own scripts and the bottom line will always be unforgiveness, bitterness and the downward spiral into hopelessness and despair.

What can you do? You can go for counsel and take the tablets but deep inside you know that nothing has changed. You still battle against those feelings. The tablets help you to control your feelings but you are still trapped; in bondage to your thoughts and true feelings. This kind of counsel is humanistic and mind to mind, and the tablets only serve to suppress your emotions. No real, lasting solutions with this method.

Neither do traditional Christian counseling methods work. As illustrated above, you can confess the Word until you are blue in the face but nothing changes. By repeating that you have forgiven someone is not going to work because you are attempting to take a short cut and manipulate God into “doing it.” You need to understand that our battle is not against flesh and blood (people) but against spiritual forces that play havoc with the mind and emotions. See Ephesians 6:12 and
2 Corinthians 10:1 – 5.

Dear friend, you need to go to your Heavenly Father and ask Him for a revelation of His love and forgiveness. He will point you to the Cross on which your Saviour died. That Cross is an everlasting symbol of God’s love and forgiveness. God your Father loves you so much that He gave His only Son to die, shed His precious blood and so grant forgiveness for your sin. If you will only come to Him in an attitude of humility to genuinely seek Him, you will find your Heavenly Father waiting with outstretched arms, more than willing to receive you. This is His loving kindness demonstrated towards you.

You may have been told to repent of your sin of unforgiveness but you cannot. Repent means to turn 180 degrees from what you have been doing. Repent comes from two words; “pent” meaning top or pinnacle (penthouse) and “re” meaning to return. Adam and Eve lived on the pinnacle of God’s creation; innocent and guiltless. Then came the fall! Now the Word of God says that all men are to “repent” and return to that place of intimacy with their Creator. But we cannot repent in our own strength. The scripture says that it is God’s loving kindness that leads us to repentance.

God honours His Word and if you approach Him in this way you will be sure to find Him and experience His love. Now you can say words to this effect, “Father, I have sinned against you by not forgiving (name). I repent of that that sin and ask you to forgive me. Give me your love for (name) even though he/she is no longer with us. Help me to rid my mind of all the wrong thoughts and to replace them with good thoughts about (name). I confess that I can not do this in my own strength. I need you Father, and your love.”

Use your own words if you can. Don’t worry about perfect grammar. You don’t have to use any special “religious” language or terms. God is listening to your heart because that is where the issue lies. If you find yourself crying uncontrollably, don’t try to control it. Just let it flow because that is the Holy Spirit doing a cleansing work deep inside your being. Allow Him to finish this powerful work in you. Continue praying when you can. This process can take a while; do not be in a hurry. Hopefully you will be in a quiet place alone where you will not be disturbed.

Should you be disturbed, say by a crying baby, just maintain a quiet inner peace and continue talking to your Father and tend to your infant’s needs. Maybe just thank Him for what He is doing in you and express your love for Him. Do you know that you can talk to your Father from your heart, your spirit, no matter what you are doing? It is similar to the way in which you talk to yourself, only now you are not talking to your mind, you are talking to God!

If you are able to draw aside and find a quiet place to be alone and continue talking to your Father, you are in for a wonderful surprise. YOU WILL BEGIN TO HEAR HIM ANSWER YOU. Yes my friend your Heavenly Father seeks a relationship with you, and a relationship is a two way thing. All you need to do is talk to Him for a while and then be quiet. This is the difficult part because our minds are so busy. Get the car fixed, what to make for supper, return those missed phone calls; a hundred things flood your mind. Don’t fight it. Just keep focusing on your Father.

You will hear His beautiful words of love for you and His forgiveness. He will encourage you like no other person can. He really loves you. Forget about what you have been taught about this “god” waiting to punish you for your sins. That is utter twaddle. Your Father is first of all a God of love. God is Love. There is no punishment in this life; consequences yes; we all pay the price for disobedience. But with His forgiveness comes His mercy and His grace. GLORY! Once He has forgiven you He forgets your sin. Now He wants you to experience His Love for you. He desires to show you His will for your life. Embrace Him, thank Him, love Him and revel in His beautiful presence!

Let’s move on to that issue of unforgiveness. The person who caused the offence is gone and you are left with the consequences of that unforgiveness; bitterness, guilt and despair. You cannot change what happened but you can allow the Lord to change your heart; and He will.

I think that is enough for one article and so I will deal with the other two issues in subsequent articles. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you feel that you need more counsel. My desire is to see people made whole by the healing power of God’s infallible Word in the power of the Holy Spirit.

With much love,

Jack Viljoen

http://thechurchinthefathersheart.info
http://jackviljoensmessagebook.blogspot.com

Brother Yun from China

One of the big discussions on the Christian net at present is the book "The Heavenly Man" by Brother Yun.

As usual the "critics" are out in full force. Strange isn't it that when ever someone steps out from the institutional crowd they get attacked. It would appear that most are doubting all the wonderful miracles God performed in Yun's life. I don't want to get into all the negative stuff, but if your heart is open to the Holy Spirit then I recommend that you read the book. You will be blessed and like most will see that he only glorifies God and never himself. His accusers are false prophets.

Oh how the Father’s Heart must be saddened and the Holy Spirit grieved by this whole issue. The Cross on which our Saviour died is the greatest symbol of Love, Forgiveness and Sacrifice. Which of brother Yun’s accusers have demonstrated any of these?

One day we will all stand before the Lord and give an account of every idle word we have spoken. His accusers should fall to their knees and ask God’s forgiveness, beg His mercy and ask to be filled with His love. Brother Yun has already forgiven them and they should now publically, via the internet, apologise to him.

My heart was blessed and I was truly humbled by his story and yes, I believe every word because my Father, and not Yun, was glorified. With every miracle, with every agonising blow all I could say was, “My God is faithful.”

My wife and I have been deeply challenged by the example of Yun’s life. For a long time now we have been asking the Lord to bring us to that place of total surrender to His will. We desire nothing but Jesus and to follow Him.

Living in an affluent society does not make that easy as people frown upon you, claiming that you are not being accountable or responsible and, wait for it… respectable! That is the problem in the western church today. It is too respectable to be humble before the Lord. Pleasing man is more important than pleasing our heavenly Father.

Brother Yun, I bless you in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. I also bless your persecutors and pray for a revelation of the Father’s Heart for them.

Jesus is building His church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Glory!

With much love,

Jack Viljoen.
The Church in the Father’s Heart.

The Father's Heart of Love for His Church

The Father's Heart of love for his church, the bride that he is preparing for the Lord Jesus, winds like a thread of gold through his Word. Because God is Love, everything that he is doing in the earth today flows from that love.

Even in the Old Testament we see the Father's heart of love for his people. He has always been jealous for his creation. In Deuteronomy 7 we read that the covenant that he established with them was a covenant of love. Just a pity they did not see it; could have spared themselves from all the drama they caused.

In Jeremiah 31:3 we find these beautiful words, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness."

Romans 5:5 we find these words, "And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."

Let us not miss out because we do not pursue His love. Paul prayed this beatiful prayer for the church in Ephesus.

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Take this prayer and make it your own. Meditate upon it until it becomes a part of your inner most being. Love transports us into the realm of the Father's heart. His love will move us to accomplish all that he wills.

Paul uses four dimensions to describe the love of Christ; wide, long, high and deep. We live in the first three dimensions, and it is only as we move closer to the Father's heart of love that we begin to understand the unfathomless depth of that love. The closer we draw to him the deeper we go into his rest, that place of perfect peace and love. The heavenly blessedness in which God dwells by his Spirit.

May you be encouraged in your heart to know that your heavenly Father wants to bless you with the full understanding and experience of his love.

The desire of the Father's heart for the church is that we take this love to a hurting and lost world. As we live the message of his love we will begin to discover the church that the father has in his heart.

With much love,

Jack Viljoen.
The Church in the Father's Heart.

Forgiveness: When the Other Person is Unforgiving.

So far in this series on forgiveness we have dealt with practicing forgiveness in two situations. The first being towards some one who has hurt us, and when we sought forgiveness they responded positively and the situation was resolved.

Secondly, we looked at how to deal with forgiveness towards some one who has died. We saw that how applying God’s Word to our hearts we can come out at a place of victory. Today we will look at how to deal with a situation where the other party refuses to forgive. But, before we do that, I would like to share the following.

CHRISTIANITY IS RELATIONSHIP – NOT RELIGION AND RITUALS.

As I shared in the previous article, God’s Word is not some magical formula; it is a lifestyle. Thinking that we can simply do something once and then it will “stay done” is a fallacy. We need to keep on doing the Word, applying it daily to our lives, until it becomes a part of us. Seeking God and desiring to live daily in His presence is key to successful living. Again the key here is doing the Word with your heavenly Father’s guidance which He so freely gives us by His Holy Spirit. Do not just recite the scripture in a rote fashion. This is like a repetitive, ritualistic repertoire and is absolutely abhorrent to the Lord. See what Jesus said in Matthew 6:7, “… do not use vain repetitive prayers…”

Even the prayer that Jesus gives us from Matthew 6:9 (commonly known as the Lord’s Prayer) is not meant to be recited in this fashion. Jesus gave us an outline; we are to expand on it in our own personal daily time with the Father as He leads us by the Holy Spirit. More on prayer in later articles. Please read my article on The Father Heart of God http://thechurchinthefathersheart.info/the-father-heart-of-god/

Many preachers quote John 8:32 saying that you will know the truth (God’s Word) and the truth will set you free. WRONG!!! Many people build up an arsenal of scripture that they “know” and quote, get no where and then become angry at God. I just pray that these so called men of God would get their act together and stop misleading thousands of God’s children. What Jesus actually said begins in verse 31. Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. THEN you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Can you see the difference, and why misquoting Jesus gets so many into trouble? Too many “Christians” believe too easily what they hear without knowing what the Word actually says.

The scriptures say that we are to meditate on the Word day and night. Meditate means to ponder, mull over, muse, deliberate, chew over, reflect on and actually digest and allow the word to become a part of your being. Then you ask the Holy Spirit to help you apply the word to your life; you begin to do it, live it out daily. THEN you will be set free by the word that has become a very part of you.

James says in chapter 1; 22 – 25, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it – he will be blessed in what he does.”

The Word says that your enemy, the devil, goes around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. The only time he can devour you is when you are “not living the Word.” Devour means to ensnare you into falling short of God’s best for your life and bring you into that downward spiral of hopelessness and despair. Do not give him a foothold in your life. Live daily in the presence of God, communing with Him and doing His Word in the power of the Holy Spirit. Let’s get on to today’s discussion.

How do you deal with unforgiving people?

Firstly, you need to read the first two articles on Unforgiveness in order to understand the Biblical background concerning forgiveness. The scriptures shared in those two articles form the basis of this teaching and I will build upon that foundation. One thing that I will repeat, because it is so fundamental to the whole issue of forgiveness, is that both parties in any situation are guilty of sin until they seek reconciliation. No matter that you were the victim of gossip, slander or even some fabricated story, you are held in bondage until you have attempted to “make right.”

One key factor in true forgiveness is that there will always be reconciliation. If you say to some one that you forgive them but thereafter try to avoid contact, or even to start working at rebuilding a relationship, then you have not truly forgiven from your heart. You are still holding onto some hurt or bitterness. You need to go back to the Lord and ask Him to give you grace to truly forgive and to put a love in your heart for that person. Maybe you don’t want to do this, well ask the Lord to give you the desire to be able to love that person. It is possible, if you really want to do it. Most people don’t really want to do this as it is, or so they think, easier to just continue to ignore the situation hoping it will go away. I have bad news for those people; it never does go away. It gets worse and begins to fester; then turns into bitterness; before you realize it you are in a downward spiral which could end up in depression and worse. Unless the Word of God is applied fully to any situation it never gets better. Period.

The problem with most people in this kind of situation is that, although they say they have forgiven, they keep on talking bad about the one they are supposed to have forgiven. Ephesians 4:29 says, “Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

Let me share with you how God your Heavenly Father deals with you when you come to Him asking for forgiveness, and from time to time we all need to. We are not yet perfect and still miss the mark almost daily.

When you have sinned and you go to your Heavenly Father, His Word is very clear. In 1 John 1: 8-9 we read, “If we claim to be without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Furthermore your Heavenly Father declares that he will remove your sins from you as far as the east is from the west. Do you grasp that! If He had said as far as the north is from the south then you can travel in either direction and arrive at either the north or south pole. But if you travel from east to west you will never arrive at “the west” and vice versa. Think about that. Your sins are gone. In other words missing; forgotten.

God also says that he buries your sins in the bottom of the ocean and forgets them. If you bring up the same subject again he says, “I don’t know what you are talking about! I don’t remember that.” Isn’t that wonderful? You see God is a loving Heavenly Father and doesn’t want to keep you in bondage; rather He wants you to be free.

He, God, never talks bad about you. In fact He has nothing but good thoughts towards you and encouraging words to say about you. And that, dear hurt one, is how we are supposed to deal with those who have hurt us. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you”, declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Does that sound like some one who wants to punish you by keeping you in bondage? No! His people were in bondage in Babylon and He was preparing to bring them out. The same way that you are in bondage to your sins: He wants to deliver you; set you free and give you renewed hope. God told the exiles to pray for their oppressors, not curse them. They were to have the right heart attitude. Read also verses 7 – 8.

So then, before you attempt to go and make right, and you really do need to, make sure that your heart is right. Only when you have set your heart right with God’s help, and only then, should you go in an attitude of love and ask forgiveness. Remember now how God dealt with your sins, so when you go you cannot raise the issue that caused your hurt. You have forgiven them and cast their sin into the bottom of the ocean and remember them no more.

Now you simply ask the person to forgive you because you had picked up a bad attitude towards them. Most times, if your attitude truly is one of forgiveness and love, the person will respond positively and the situation will be resolved. They may even respond by confessing their sin and ask your forgiveness. Now you are in a victorious position because you have already forgiven them and you can say from your heart, “Yes I do.” That relationship is now on a positive course towards restoration and reconciliation. And this, all because you first applied God’s Word to your heart and allowed the Holy Spirit to do a deep cleansing work in you. Glory!

Now for the “problem” that arises when the other party does not want to forgive you. NO PROBLEM! Re-read the previous two paragraphs. You have, with God’s help, worked through the issue and have come out victorious.

Now you need to be careful because if they have a bad attitude towards you it can be easy to retaliate. All you need say is, “That’s fine. I have peace in my heart about the situation and trust that some day you will to.” Leave it at that and walk away. As you go, thank God for helping you maintain a good loving attitude and ask your Heavenly Father to bless them. WHAT?

That’s right, bless them. Jesus said, “…pray for those who persecute you,” read Matthew 5:43 – 48. Paul writes in Romans 12:14, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.” And in verse 21, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Once you have set your heart right, and keep it right by continually going before the Lord and blessing that person, it will become easier to live with the unresolved situation. The other party may even continue to say and do hurtful things but when your heart is right you will be more than able to cope with the situation; you will have victory. And you will be able to walk in continuous forgiveness.

It is at this point that you can, with the help of the Holy Spirit, consolidate your victory or you can succumb to the craftiness of the devil. You see, your enemy is going to bring subtle little doubts into your mind and try to deceive you into thinking that you have not succeeded in truly forgiving. He will keep on reminding you of how deeply you were hurt. It does not matter what the hurt was. And, if it was caused by your spouse, your parents or anyone with whom you have regular contact then the battle becomes more intense.

Remember this one thing. The Word of God declares that Satan is a liar, the father of lies, and he has come to kill, steal and destroy. Every thought that is contrary to God’s Word is a lie and has its origin with the devil. You may feel unworthy, unloved or too weak to stand against these attacks but I want you to know this:

• God loves you.
• He has given you His Son the Lord Jesus Christ whose shed blood paid the price for your sin.
• Your Heavenly Father has given you His infallible Word.
• He has given you His Holy Spirit to empower you to be able to stand in victory.
• Yes, you are weak but the battle is not yours it is the Lords. You need only to trust and Him and walk in obedience to His Word.
• Satan is already defeated. The Lord Jesus Christ accomplished that through His death on the Cross and His resurrection.
• Satan’s only weapons against you are lies and deception.
• God’s Word is Truth and it will always accomplish what the Father desires.
• You are more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ your Lord.
• You are the apple of His eye.
• God loves you.

Submit all the wrong thoughts to your Heavenly Father, His Word says to cast all your cares upon Him for He cares for you. And then turn your thoughts towards Him. Think about His love, His goodness, His mercy and His grace. Tell Him how much you love Him. Thank Him for all that He is doing in your life. In other words – Worship Him.

I leave you with one last passage of God’s Word. Philippians 4:8 – 9 says, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received from me – put into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” Read Chapter 4 from verse one to seven as well.

Please contact me at the address below and let me know how you are doing. Should you need more help, I will gladly correspond with you.

With much love,

Jack Viljoen.

The Church in the father’s Heart.

http://thechurchinthefathersheart.info

jackviljoen@gmail.com

Forgiveness: When the other person has died.

The story of Martie’s experience in dealing with unforgiveness towards her mother in law had the perfect ending. This is not always the case. Bitterness could have taken root so deeply on both sides that it almost seems impossible for reconciliation. Hopelessness and despair, which also lead to depression, can play havoc with the mind.

Control, domination and manipulation are other factors which cause great difficulty in dealing with the issue of unforgiveness. When faced with this kind of opposition the “victim” feels powerless and cannot see a way out. This is a terrible condition to be in.

Now I wish to say this. The Word of God is not a magical formula. It works as a whole. You cannot name it and claim it. By that I mean that there are those who latch on to one of the promises in God’s Word and keep on confessing it in the belief that it is going to produce the desired result. Or, they receive a “word” of prophecy and attempt to build their lives around it. Beware! The word can become and idol. See what the Lord says in Ezekiel 14:1 – 5. This can bring you to destruction in order that you may turn back to God, not His Word only.

Let me give you an example which fits in with our discussion of unforgiveness and bitterness. People get caught up in the teaching on prosperity and hear the preacher saying that you must believe the Word, stand on the Word, confess the Word and it will come to pass. Now there is nothing wrong with that except for one thing; the hearers of that word have not walked the same road as the speaker. He has most probably worked through the issues in his life. He has or is practicing forgiveness. He does not harbour any bitterness in his heart. He does not speak bad about other people and the most important thing; he is walking in God’s love and has a relationship with the Lord. And, all of this is only possible when one is filled with the Holy Spirit and living daily in His presence.

People will confess the scripture in Mark 11:22 – 24 where Jesus said “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.” There are two immediate problems with this type of practice. The first being that they leave out verse 25 where Jesus says “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” This is paramount to having God’s Word produce fruit in your life. You see, without God’s forgiveness of your sins He does not even hear your prayer or confession. Isaiah 59:2 “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.” So unless you forgive others their sin against you God cannot and will not forgive your sin. Stalemate.

The other problem with this confessing, naming and claiming game is this. We need to be asking and believing in accordance with God’s will. 1 John 5:14 – 15 says “This is the confidence we have in approaching God; that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of Him.” Can you see the results of unforgiveness. If we ask of God with unforgiveness in our hearts He does not hear us, and we can claim whatever scriptures we please; it is not going to work. This is not some magical system for getting things from our heavenly Father. We are talking about real life issues here. In James 4:1– 3 the Word says “What causes quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill (hate) and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” (Self-centered).

As a result of asking incorrectly, many people don’t receive and are then angry with God. How sad? Our Father takes great delight in blessing His children. Why do we play games with Him by trying to manipulate Him with His very own words? The scripture in James says that if we ask according to His will then we know that He hears us and will grant the request. It is God’s will that we forgive? Therefore if we ask Him to help us forgive someone, do you think He will? Sure, it’s His will. But if we are still harbouring bitterness or even hurt in our hearts when we ask then He will not answer. Your request should first be, “Father give me a love for so and so and take away these bad feelings and thoughts.” Matthew 5:48 says we are to love our enemies. It is in God’s will. Let’s move on to our topic of unforgiveness.

We are going to cover three situations that appear as though asking forgiveness just doesn’t work, or we don’t know how to deal with it when:

• the person who hurt us has died.
• the other party refuses to forgive, or says they forgive but do not seek reconciliation.
• the other party is under the control of a Jezebel spirit.

Someone who has offended you or whom you have offended has died and you know that you have not made right. What now? Must you continue to live with that guilt feeling? No; there is a way out! The situations are numerous but here are a few examples:

• between spouses who cheated on one another; tolerated but never forgiven, now one has died
• between parents and children; drugs, alcohol, pregnancy, wrong partner choices, divorce
• between business partners
• between bust-up lovers

These issues sometimes go way back into the past but were never dealt with. A mother feels remorse over the fact that her daughter has been killed in a car accident. She messed up when she found out that her daughter was pregnant, many years before, and dealt so badly with the issue that she turned her daughter against her. Now the daughter is gone. The mom is burdened with guilt because her pride kept her from humbly seeking forgiveness from her daughter. For “pregnant” read drugs, alcohol, wrong choice of partner or whatever. You get the picture. If only…

Every time you see him you boil with anger. He used you. You lived together; shared things; had good times; and then he left you for someone else. You both moved on. Both now happily married with families. But you never forgave; you harbour bitterness; still feel abused. Then you hear that he has died of a heart attack. What now? Maybe you say, “Good riddance.” But that is the bitterness reacting and the dangerous thing is that your feelings could be projected onto your husband. Well He is a Man, and maybe he will cheat on you? You start manipulating and trying to control his life. You become domineering and he begins withdrawing. Your marriage starts crumbling. Remember that all of this happens in the subconscious so chances are that you are not even aware of what is going on. All you see is your happy life going down the tube. You never dealt with the issue of forgiveness and now it has snowballed into a nightmare. I painted this scenario to show how unforgiveness can create further havoc in your life. If only…

You judged another person for something they had done. Your verdict; guilty! But you never had all the facts. You did not know that they were hurting at the time, and their actions seemed the only logical way out of their predicament. Never the less, you passed judgment. Now they have passed away. The scriptures say, “Do not judge and you will not be judged.” Now you are found guilty, you have been judged. Remember my first article on Unforgiveness? You are harbouring unforgiveness and are trapped in the prison of your mind. If only…

You can write your own scripts and the bottom line will always be unforgiveness, bitterness and the downward spiral into hopelessness and despair.

What can you do? You can go for counsel and take the tablets but deep inside you know that nothing has changed. You still battle against those feelings. The tablets help you to control your feelings but you are still trapped; in bondage to your thoughts and true feelings. This kind of counsel is humanistic and mind to mind, and the tablets only serve to suppress your emotions. No real, lasting solutions with this method.

Neither do traditional Christian counseling methods work. As illustrated above, you can confess the Word until you are blue in the face but nothing changes. By repeating that you have forgiven someone is not going to work because you are attempting to take a short cut and manipulate God into “doing it.” You need to understand that our battle is not against flesh and blood (people) but against spiritual forces that play havoc with the mind and emotions. See Ephesians 6:12 and

2 Corinthians 10:1 – 5.

Dear friend, you need to go to your Heavenly Father and ask Him for a revelation of His love and forgiveness. He will point you to the Cross on which your Saviour died. That Cross is an everlasting symbol of God’s love and forgiveness. God your Father loves you so much that He gave His only Son to die, shed His precious blood and so grant forgiveness for your sin. If you will only come to Him in an attitude of humility to genuinely seek Him, you will find your Heavenly Father waiting with outstretched arms, more than willing to receive you. This is His loving kindness demonstrated towards you.

You may have been told to repent of your sin of unforgiveness but you cannot. Repent means to turn 180 degrees from what you have been doing. Repent comes from two words; “pent” meaning top or pinnacle (penthouse) and “re” meaning to return. Adam and Eve lived on the pinnacle of God’s creation; innocent and guiltless. Then came the fall! Now the Word of God says that all men are to “repent” and return to that place of intimacy with their Creator. But we cannot repent in our own strength. The scripture says that it is God’s loving kindness that leads us to repentance.

God honours His Word and if you approach Him in this way you will be sure to find Him and experience His love. Now you can say words to this effect, “Father, I have sinned against you by not forgiving (name). I repent of that that sin and ask you to forgive me. Give me your love for (name) even though he/she is no longer with us. Help me to rid my mind of all the wrong thoughts and to replace them with good thoughts about (name). I confess that I can not do this in my own strength. I need you Father, and your love.”

Use your own words if you can. Don’t worry about perfect grammar. You don’t have to use any special “religious” language or terms. God is listening to your heart because that is where the issue lies. If you find yourself crying uncontrollably, don’t try to control it. Just let it flow because that is the Holy Spirit doing a cleansing work deep inside your being. Allow Him to finish this powerful work in you. Continue praying when you can. This process can take a while; do not be in a hurry. Hopefully you will be in a quiet place alone where you will not be disturbed.

Should you be disturbed, say by a crying baby, just maintain a quiet inner peace and continue talking to your Father and tend to your infant’s needs. Maybe just thank Him for what He is doing in you and express your love for Him. Do you know that you can talk to your Father from your heart, your spirit, no matter what you are doing? It is similar to the way in which you talk to yourself, only now you are not talking to your mind, you are talking to God!

If you are able to draw aside and find a quiet place to be alone and continue talking to your Father, you are in for a wonderful surprise. YOU WILL BEGIN TO HEAR HIM ANSWER YOU. Yes my friend your Heavenly Father seeks a relationship with you, and a relationship is a two way thing. All you need to do is talk to Him for a while and then be quiet. This is the difficult part because our minds are so busy. Get the car fixed, what to make for supper, return those missed phone calls; a hundred things flood your mind. Don’t fight it. Just keep focusing on your Father.

You will hear His beautiful words of love for you and His forgiveness. He will encourage you like no other person can. He really loves you. Forget about what you have been taught about this “god” waiting to punish you for your sins. That is utter twaddle. Your Father is first of all a God of love. God is Love. There is no punishment in this life; consequences yes; we all pay the price for disobedience. But with His forgiveness comes His mercy and His grace. GLORY! Once He has forgiven you He forgets your sin. Now He wants you to experience His Love for you. He desires to show you His will for your life. Embrace Him, thank Him, love Him and revel in His beautiful presence!

Let’s move on to that issue of unforgiveness. The person who caused the offence is gone and you are left with the consequences of that unforgiveness; bitterness, guilt and despair. You cannot change what happened but you can allow the Lord to change your heart; and He will.

I think that is enough for one article and so I will deal with the other two issues in subsequent articles. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you feel that you need more counsel. My desire is to see people made whole by the healing power of God’s infallible Word in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Bless you,

Jack Viljoen

jack@tcitfh.co.za

http://www.tcitfh.co.za

http://jackviljoensmessagebook.blogspot.com

Forgiveness

The church is a sad testimony to the world. There is so much that does not conform to the teachings of Jesus and the other New Testament writers. And, worst of all, the leaders of the numerous institutions are more interested in their reputations, membership numbers and finance than they are in the well being of “their flocks”. Their image in the media is of utmost importance.

Whilst the flock is struggling with all kinds of personal issues the leaders are preaching “well prepared” sermons that contain no life-changing message. Furthermore, when it comes to counseling they use methods from psychology studied during their “preparation for the ministry”. They counsel from the mind to the mind. But the issues of life are issues of the heart and hence are spiritual in essence. Therefore mans’ methods are absolutely powerless when it comes to life issues.

Why is it that in the church, the divorce statistics are higher than those in the world? Suicide, child abuse and poor, if not non-existent, inter-personal relationships are accepted as normal behaviour patterns. Is this the Kingdom of God that Jesus taught about? I think not.

Proverbs 4:23 tells us to guard our hearts, for the heart is the wellspring of life. In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul talks about two kinds of wisdom; human and spiritual. We know about the human kind of wisdom, but Paul says that if we do not have the Holy Spirit we cannot receive the wisdom that comes from God because it is spiritually discerned. And, only the Godly kind of wisdom has any power to bring change and healing to the human nature and emotions. The sad part in this situation is that the majority of the church institutions are founded upon humanistic principles which exclude the Holy Spirit, and are therefore powerless to help anyone.

This brings us to the subject of this article. Unforgiveness.

You have been hurt; maybe only once or perhaps many times. You have sworn never to forgive or you have tried to forgive but cannot. You can face the perpetrators and put up a brave front. But you are wearing a mask. You have to hide your true feelings because, usually those who have hurt you are close; like family members. Inside you there is turmoil. Peace evades you. Bitterness is beginning to take root. You secretly plot revenge but you just cannot bring yourself to do it. Or, maybe you have tried to, and now you feel worse than before. Never the less whatever happens you are slowly losing your grip on life. You are being consumed by all sorts of wrong thinking. At the slightest provocation, of whatever kind, you fly off the handle and then feel remorseful. What makes it worse is that you feel to apologise but cannot, and so you make excuses for your behaviour and pass the blame.

Your self image is taking a beating. To compensate you begin to act “strong” even though this is not in your nature. You begin to control and manipulate those around you in order to gain the upper hand and feel “good” about yourself. You are on a downward spiral of despair.

Listen to what Jesus has to say about forgiveness:

John 20:23 “If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” The words “are not forgiven” are translated from the original as “holden” or “retained.” This is the same word used in Acts 2:24 where it says that death was not able to retain Jesus when God raised Him from the dead. A very powerful word; think about it.

In the Amplified Bible John 20:23 reads “if you forgive the sins of anyone they are forgiven: if you retain the sins of anyone they are retained.” Now Jesus was not giving us the authority or power to forgive sin: only God has that right. There is a far deeper problem facing us here. What Jesus was actually saying in this passage of scripture is this.

If someone sins against you, no matter what the sin, we are to forgive them. Did Jesus not also teach in Matthew 6 in the Lord’s prayer, that we are to forgive? Check verse 15 which comes after the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus said “But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Serious isn’t it? Many people sight Mark 11:22 – 24 as the great prayer of faith. But you never hear them quote verse 25 which is the key to unlocking that faith. Jesus said “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive your sins.”

Are you starting to get the message? Can you see the absolute power and release there is in forgiveness? Now back to John 20:23. If you are walking in Unforgiveness towards anyone then you have placed yourself in the bondage of Unforgiveness. You have retained the consequence of unforgiven sin, which is sin. You must understand that Unforgiveness is a sin. God requires, even commands that we forgive others just as He forgives our sin. If we do not forgive others we are sinning against our heavenly Father. And, furthermore we are making a mockery of Jesus’ blood that was shed for the forgiveness of our sin. Some would say, “but I do Not sin.” Well the Word says that you are a liar. Read 1 John chapters 1 and 2.

The other party lives oblivious to your predicament. It is not their hurtful actions that are the cause of your situation. No! It is your Unforgiveness towards them. Allow me to recount a true story that I was part of, and the beautiful results that God brought into peoples lives.

I was a group leader on a course teaching telephone counseling. A very important part of this course was helping the trainees to achieve wholeness in their lives. You cannot counsel from a position of “hurt.” Now you cannot coerce people to reveal incidences that have caused hurt in their lives but under the guidance of the Holy Spirit they do open up.

There was a lady in my group (let us call her Martie) that, although she said there was nothing in her past that had caused her to walk in unforgiveness, one day just decided to quit the course. She said that she was not worthy to help others. Self pity and a poor self image were beginning to show. A warning light went on for me. I asked her if we could have a chat at the end of that Saturday’s session. Martie agreed.

Before we started talking I prayed and asked the Holy Spirit to lead us into truth. Well I had hardly finished praying when she started blurting out a whole lot of things concerning her mother in law. Martie was in her late fifties and had been married for more than thirty years. Apparently her mother in law did not like her and was always breaking her down. She was never good enough. Her cooking was openly criticised in front of the whole family. Her baking was so “bad” that it was not fit to be eaten. Her home was never neat enough. And so the criticism went on and on for more than thirty years.

Now that was all bad enough, but Martie started recording all these wrongs done to her. Yes, she kept a black book in which she had recorded the dates and the things had had been said about her. What is more she kept reading through these things to keep them fresh in her mind. She became in her mind what her mother in law thought of her; a failure. This was amplified by the fact that her mother in law had influenced her two sisters in law in the same way. She now had three people breaking her down. All these incidents were recorded in her little black book. This was another mistake. 1 Corinthians 13 says that love does not keep a record of wrong things done to us. This was only compounding the problem. Martie’s behaviour was outside of God’s law of love.

The Word of God says we are to love our enemies because love covers over a multitude of sins. The Word also says that no weapon used against us has any power to harm us when we walk in God’s love; and perfect love castes out fear. This poor woman lived in fear of the times when the families would get together.

Now I knew her husband and he had nothing but praise for his wife. Everything he had to say was nothing but praise for her, but she could not accept it. She was a failure in her own eyes.

But worst of all she had built up bitterness and resentment towards her mother in law and two sisters in law. Martie was trapped in that downward spiral.

By the time she had finished sharing all of this with me she was sobbing her heart out. I sensed that the Lord was busy doing something in her. I then shared John 20:23 with her and explained that the only way to be released from this situation was through forgiveness. But she had forgiven them she said. She had prayed and forgiven them. She had even written it all on a sheet of paper, handed it over to the Lord and then torn the paper up and thrown it away. Nothing changed.

There is a good reason why that never worked. It is simply that, it is not the way the Word says we are to deal with these matters. Jesus said, “If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift.” Matthew 5:23 – 24.

Then Jesus goes on to say in verses 25 – 26, “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”

Now let us apply this to our real life story above. When we have anything like bitterness or unforgiveness in our hearts we cannot worship God. Worship is the gift of our lives that we offer to God. We first need to put those things right before we can truly worship in spirit and in truth and connect with our heavenly Father. Our wrong attitudes cause a separation between us and Him. Jesus instructs us “to go” and set things right. We are to take action and do something about it. If we do not go, then our adversary (Satan) hands us over to the judge (our minds and emotions), who hands us over to the officer (demon), who throws us into prison (the negative condition of our minds).

Can you see how we place ourselves in this prison? This “prison” is that hopeless state we find ourselves in and is brought upon by not setting things right as soon as they occur; things like harbouring grudges and bitterness. The “last penny” that we have to pay is the action that needs to be taken to set the issues right. That demon will continue to torment our minds with a negative bombardment of accusations until we have paid the price of seeking reconciliation; that price is humility.

You see, when Martie never attempted to set these issues with her mother in law right, her mind gave the demonic forces the power to torment her. That is why Jesus said that we are to settle matters “quickly.” Do not give the adversary the opportunity to mess with your mind. The scriptures say “do not let the sun go down on your anger: do not give the devil a foothold.”

But Martie was never taught how to deal with conflict situations. Now do you understand my opening statements concerning the condition of the so called church? Knowing all about the prophecies in the book of Revelation and how they relate to the book of Daniel will not help you one iota when you are facing issues in your life. Church leaders are too busy impressing their congregations with their “knowledge” and not teaching them about dealing with life issues. The congregations are caught up in pampering the pastor, molly coddling the minister and pleasing the priest. No one is really seeking God for His plan and purposes for His church.

Sorry, let me apologise for that statement about the leaders. They don’t know any better. That is what they are taught in their colleges and universities. They studied the letter of the law without the help of the Holy Spirit and the Bible says of itself that the letter kills but the Spirit gives life. It is only in the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit that lives are transformed, not in being bombarded with humanistic knowledge. They dissect the Word (the seed) until there is nothing left to plant in order to bring forth life. A seed must be planted whole to produce life.

Back to Martie’s story. She agreed to obey God’s Word no matter how difficult it would be. Martie’s mother in law and her two daughters lived very far away so it would not be practical for her to go and put things right. I suggested that she write letters in which she should ask forgiveness for harbouring a bad attitude towards them, without mentioning their offense.

This may seem strange to you as they were the ones who had sinned against her. Correct but, remember John 20:23, Martie had retained the consequence of unforgiveness towards them! She wrote the letters and to her amazement she received prompt replies by telephone. All three said no, they were to blame and asked her forgiveness. Much crying and reconciliation. God is faithful and as the scripture says, “He watches over his word to perform it.”

Martie was totally set free and went on to complete the course, and became an excellent telephone counselor. Guess what the problem was that her very first caller had? Right! Unforgiveness. Martie was able to counsel out of her very own life experience and God’s faithfulness. Bless the Lord. Glory.

If you are struggling in the same area then read the scriptures above and ask the Father to give you the grace to apply His word. James says that it is the doers of the Word that are blessed. Do it and watch the miracle that God our Heavenly Father will do in your situation.

I know that there are skeptics out there who would say “impossible, years of hurt just cannot be healed that fast.” They are right; when it comes to humanistic counsel and tablets. But when we trust in a miracle working God and the power of His Word the impossible becomes possible. Bless His Holy Name.

May the Lord bless you in your search for the Truth.

If you need help in this area please feel free to contact me; jack@tcitfh.co.za.

With love,

Jack Viljoen.

The Church in the Father’s Heart.

jack@tcitfh.co.za

http://www.tcitfh.co.za

P.S. Ephesians 4:32 – 5:1 and 2. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.