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