# Understanding the Power of Forgiveness

## Total Forgiveness: From the Heart

In this newsletter, we will continue our discussion on the power of forgiveness and the importance of total forgiveness from the heart. We will delve into the process of forgiveness and its significance in our lives.

### The Power of Love and Forgiveness

- Forgiveness is one of the most powerful expressions of God's love.
- Total and complete forgiveness, not partial, is essential for our spiritual growth and well-being.

## Forgiveness Toward Others

### Forgiveness Toward Ministers Caught in Sin

It's important to understand how to approach ministers who have fallen from grace. The Bible provides guidance on how to handle such situations with love and grace.

- Galatians 6:1 emphasizes the need for restoration and spiritual support for those who have been overtaken in fault.
- The focus should be on total restoration, including inner character and repentance, rather than just restoring their reputation or credentials.

## Embracing Total Forgiveness

- The process of forgiveness may start as a decision, but it should mature into a heart transformation where hurt and resentment are replaced by genuine forgiveness.
- The more we understand and embrace God's love and forgiveness toward us, the easier it becomes to extend the same forgiveness to others.

### Understanding Forgiveness and Judgment

- It's essential to differentiate between being judgmental and exercising good judgment without condemnation.
- Forgiving others does not mean condoning their actions, but rather releasing them and trusting in God's justice and restoration.

## Conclusion

Total forgiveness is a manifestation of God's love and grace in our lives. As we continue to grow in our understanding of God's forgiveness, let's also strive to extend the same grace and forgiveness to those around us.

Stay tuned for more insights on the power of forgiveness and the transformative impact it can have on our lives.

Unlocking the Transformative Power of Total Forgiveness

- The speaker talks about love and forgiveness, using jokes to lighten the mood
- The speaker reflects on the influence and power of their mother, and the importance of forgiveness from the heart
- They emphasize the need to experience and know the love of God in order to walk in forgiveness
- The speaker shares a story about a man who didn't realize his ticket included meals on a steamship, relating it to believers not fully enjoying the forgiveness and blessings already paid for by Jesus

- The speaker emphasizes the importance of enjoying the forgiveness and blessings that Jesus has provided
- They discuss the concept of reconciliation, both from God towards humanity and from humanity towards God
- The speaker encourages listeners to fully embrace and claim the forgiveness and blessings offered by God
- They stress the importance of forgiveness and the power of God's love and grace
- The message is centered around the idea of receiving and embracing God's forgiveness and love, and sharing this message with others

- The piece discusses the stronghold of hurt and unforgiveness, and the influence of demons in our thoughts
- It emphasizes the importance of God's total forgiveness and the need for us to confess our sins
- The power and authority given to believers in Christ is highlighted, along with the importance of forgiveness towards others
- The need for restoration and forgiveness towards ministers who have fallen from grace is also discussed, with an emphasis on total restoration of inner character.

- Restoration of inner character is necessary for individuals who have fallen from grace
- Repentance and spiritual guidance are important in the restoration process
- It is important for individuals to apologize and repent to those they have hurt
- The concept of judging and forgiveness is discussed, with an emphasis on the need for love and restoration rather than condemnation
- The importance of self-judgment and spiritual maturity in helping others is highlighted

- The speaker emphasizes the importance of restoration and loving judgment
- He discusses forgiving enemies and gives personal example of forgiving a coworker
- He explains the difference between civil law and spiritual law in forgiveness
- He uses biblical examples to illustrate the concept of forgiveness and reconciliation

- The speaker emphasizes the importance of repentance and forgiveness in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins
- Encourages releasing enemies and praying for their blessing
- Emphasizes the need for forgiveness from God and exercising good judgment without being judgmental
- Urges not to view present and future lives through the lens of past hurts
- Leads a prayer for forgiveness and healing from past hurts
- Encourages spreading the love of God to others

The speaker discusses love, forgiveness, and the influence of their mother, emphasizing the need to experience God's love. They urge listeners to embrace forgiveness and blessings, and discuss reconciliation with God and others. They highlight the importance of restoration and repentance, and the need to forgive enemies. The speaker emphasizes the difference between civil and spiritual law in forgiveness, using biblical examples to illustrate the concept. They lead a prayer for forgiveness and healing from past hurts, and encourage spreading the love of God to others.

But once again, now today we're going to talk about love, so this may be an opportunity to exercise love.

So what's the best way to cook an alligator?

And we might need to walk in love toward Jackie too.

So you may want to just give Dick and Jackie a hug and tell them just keep trying.

And that'll give me excuses to just keep coming up with these.

But on a more important note, today's Mother's Day.

And yeah, how many mothers do we have here today?

I didn't raise my hand because I'm a mother.

But, you know, mothers, I just keep thinking about my mom and reflecting on my mom and you know, her going home service some years back.

I read to this in Hebrews chapter 6 I said for those who were once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and Have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come.

And at her going home service, I said to everybody after I quoted that verse, I said, that's what my mom gave to me.

She gave me an incredible gift, A gift where I could actually taste of the powers of the world to come.

And my mom wasn't perfect and nobody's mom is perfect and thank God moms don't have to be perfect.

But she was just there's something supernatural, something God planted in her.

I remember when I was in seventh grade, all the neighbor kids, they decided they were gonna start smoking cigarettes.

And so of course they had a few spares, so I started, you know, I thought I'd be cool and I started smoking cigarettes, you know, seventh grade, 11, 12 years old, whatever.

But I had such a fear, it's like she was like, God, she wasn't there watching me, but I had such a fear of displeasing, a holy dread of displeasing my mom, that I gave her the cigarettes.

Which was sort of interesting because she smoked at the time, so she probably smoked them.

But a few years later, God delivered her from that.

I said, Mom, I'm really concerned about your health, and you need to quit smoking cigarettes.

And She says, Ken, she says, I've tried about 10 times, really, really hard and tried.

She says, but if you're really believing God, you quit nagging me about it, and let's just believe God that he's gonna do something special.

It was less than a year after that conversation.

It was a Mother's Day at church and she came forward for prayer and the pastor's wife prayed with her.

She said, I need to quit smoking cigarettes.

And she never touched another cigarette from that day forward.

And that was the mother's prayers and I know she was praying for me for all those years and I just could not, getting back to the fact I could not displease her even if she was nowhere to see.

It was like, you know, what would mom want me to do?

And sometimes she was pretty tough on me.

But anyway, but yet at the same time she had such a gentle spirit.

How can somebody so gentle be so influential and powerful in your life?

I can't figure that out exactly but I know it's the truth.

In fact, that's 1 of the major things that came up during her going home service was that she was so gentle.

A lot of work moms have and the Holy Spirit will use you to shape people's destinies.

Let's give the Lord a hand clap for moms.

Thank you so much for being who you are and for walking in the grace that God gives you.

And so this morning I want to talk about forgiveness and not just forgiveness but I want to talk about total forgiveness.

I mean complete and total forgiveness from the heart.

You know in Matthew 18 I'm not gonna read the whole part but the last part of this story it says so shall my heavenly Father do unto you if you do not forgive from your heart or forgive with your heart.

And so when forgiveness happens as a process it starts out a lot of times you've got a pain and you've got an ache in your heart and you've got a wound in your heart.

And so, forgiveness may have to start out as a decision, but when forgiveness matures, it will be a heart thing.

It will be so strong that the hurt and the wounds and the resentment goes away.

And literally you forgive totally completely from your heart, amen?

And that is a process and I believe the more we walk in the love of God, the quicker that process happens.

You know, for many years I thought, well, I don't need to ask God for love because after all the Bible says in Romans 5, 5 that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.

But yet I didn't, I forgot about Paul's prayer in Ephesians chapter 2.

He says that you may know the love of God which surpasses knowledge.

And he was speaking to believers, wasn't he?

And so to know the love of God which surpasses knowledge and to experience that and to get your heart wrapped around that a little bit empowers you so strongly to be able to walk in forgiveness.

I mean it is 1 it is a serious part of love.

I mean it's a serious major part of the love of God.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe on him should not perish but have everlasting life.

And then it says the Son of man came not to condemn this world, but that the world through him might have life.

And so the first part I want to talk about is God's forgiveness toward us, because I thank you, Jackie, for sharing that this morning.

And I mean, it was powerful enough to just If that was all we heard this morning, that would be good.

We've got to be a millionaire on the inside before we can be a millionaire on the outside.

And so in our hearts, you know, even though God has forgiven us and God has reconciled us, we've got to know that and we've got to receive that.

And it reminds me of a story 1 time and this sort of reminds me of believers.

There was a man over in Europe and he got a one-way trip on a steamship many, many years ago to get over to America.

And he barely, barely had enough money to get that ticket, one-way ticket, to make it to Ellis Island and to immigrate to America.

And he had just enough money to get a little bit of crackers and a little bit of food to be able to eat on the steam ship while he was on his way crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

And so he hopped on that ship and off they went across the Atlantic Ocean and he noticed every night he'd walk by the window of the dining hall and see all these people eating all that food that they could afford.

And they were just banqueting on this food.

And in the meantime, he'd go back to his room and eat a few crackers, maybe a few little fish that he brought or whatever, I don't know.

And he sort of lost quite a bit of weight on that trip.

And finally, at the very end of the trip, the captain came up to him, walked up to him as he was walking by the window looking at everybody eat.

I notice I haven't seen you in the dining hall 1 time.

He says, I didn't have enough money for the food.

He says, it was paid for when you bought the ticket.

And that whole time he could have been enjoying the goodness and the bounty that was already paid for.

And that's the same thing with us as believers is that it's time for us to enjoy the ticket.

It's way past time, hallelujah, for us to enjoy what Jesus bought for us and to enjoy His forgiveness and enjoy everything that He has for us, amen, for we are heirs to the throne and joiners with Jesus and part of it is total and complete forgiveness.

It's not just, well I'll forgive but I won't forget.

For as far as the East is from the West so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

And the more we walk in that, the more functional our relationship with him will be, and the more we'll be able to understand his love to us, and that we will be able to, with all saints, comprehend the incomprehensible love of God toward us.

I mean, to just be aware of God's love, and to be walking in His love, That gives me a contentment.

That gives me a feeling that it don't matter what the world brings, everything's going to be okay.

It doesn't matter what somebody else does.

Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17 through 20.

Therefore if any man be in Christ He is a new creation.

It says, old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new.

And all things are of God who has what reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and has given unto us, or to us, the ministry of reconciliation, to wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation." So there's 2 types of reconciliation here.

Reconciliation is just to bring back together, to be, to have in common.

First we find here that God reconciled the whole world.

That means that he paid the price for peace between him and mankind from Adam up until the last person that will ever live.

Every sin they ever have committed, are committing, or will commit in the future has already been reconciled.

The second part of reconciliation is us accepting that.

Is us saying the ticket's been bought, I'm walking into the banquet room and I'm going to have some steak and lobster.

Because you are a perfect candidate for God's best.

Don't let the devil steal your identity and make you think that you are not worthy of his best.

Because you are as worthy of his best as anybody because of the blood of Jesus.

You don't want to miss out on this stuff.

You don't want to not soak on this and allow this to soak into your heart and change the very fiber of your being and bring you from 1 level of glory to the next level because it will affect the quality of your life for the rest of your life on this earth.

Jesus said, I've come that you might have abundant life.

And this is part of that abundant life, that total and complete reconciliation.

And it happens sometimes if you just said, well, you know, I'm looking at the lottery and it's, you know, $500 million or some such astronomical number.

And I know it's just a joke, but you know what?

I've never done it, but I'm not saying it's a sin to do it I just you know didn't feel lucky or something.

0 man, $500 million of course the IRS is gonna get half of that so it's only $250 million that I'm winning here.

And you know and and then your family member says well now what you need to do is go down and claim that.

You say, no, no, no, I don't need to go down and claim that.

I'm just going to wait for them to transfer that into my bank account.

And so we need to go down and claim that in Jesus' name.

Just imagine all the people who all their sins have been totally reconciled and paid for, all the millions and millions of them, and they never cashed in their ticket.

We're cashing in our ticket in Jesus' name, and we're receiving all that He has for us.

And so, there's 2 parts to that reconciliation that we read about in 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

1 is God's reconciliation toward us, and the other is our reconciliation toward God.

And then we have the ministry of reconciliation, and that's telling other people, hey, God has already made the way.

It's A great way to share the gospel with somebody is to say, just share with them, say, there is an incredible gift that all you have to do is receive.

There's nothing you have to do other than receive him by faith and make him Lord of your life and believe that God raised him from the dead and you will receive the most valuable gift ever known to mankind.

It's such an easy way to present the gospel.

And that's exactly what the ministry of reconciliation is.

And allow the Holy Spirit to come into their lives and then they can ask God to forgive them and be totally cleansed of all unrighteousness.

I like the fact that instead of saying well you know You gotta first convince God to forgive you, and then you gotta do all these steps, and then you gotta be baptized in water, and then you gotta confess to every person you've ever done anything wrong to, you know.

And I'm like, that's, that ain't gonna happen.

Who knows how many people I've done something wrong to.

And so but the point is, you know, it's so easy.

You know, it's by grace we've been saved through faith.

It's not of works lest any man should boast.

And then it says that we've been reborn unto good works or saved unto good works, not saved by good works.

If we do good works, it's not because we're earning anything.

It's because we're partakers of the divine nature, and He just makes it where we love to do good works.

We don't have to earn favor with the Father because of the ministry of reconciliation.

We've been totally and completely reconciled.

And so we need to forgive others just as the Father has forgiven us.

And like I said in Matthew chapter 18, we're not going to turn there, but it simply says, if you forgive from your heart, Forgive from your heart.

This is a like I said 1 of the most important messages.

I can't think of anything more important in the Bible.

And this is something that we need to get down in our hearts strong.

I mean, I eat it, but I like it, and I keep eating it.

We can keep feeding on this and it'll cause us to grow strong in Christ.

Well, we must wholeheartedly with everything in us, take hold of the benefit of God's forgiveness, and never let it go.

Don't let the accuser of the brother and steal what has already been paid for, for you.

I find that I have underestimated the power of the realm of the spirit.

And I have underestimated the fact that there are little demons going around, going around telling people lies and stealing from them and trying to take from them what God has already given.

The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, that means natural, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.

They're the lies that have been built up like strong castles in our minds.

And 1 of those major strongholds is hurt and unforgiveness and running over in a feedback loop of all the bad that that person has done to you.

You experience that feedback loop, you experience that hurt, you experience that God why did you let that happen?

Well there are demons running around and they are here set on 1 thing to steal from you, to kill you, and to destroy you.

And we need to be aware that, no I don't believe there's a demon behind every corner, around every corner, but I don't know 1 thing.

The primary battlefield of the spirits of darkness is in our minds, amen?

And so we need to recognize thoughts that are not of God, thoughts that come from without, that depress us, that steal our joy from us, that steal our peace, that steal our sense of goodness, amen?

The accuser of the brethren would like us to believe otherwise.

So we're talking about God's total forgiveness to us.

And you may say, well what if there's some unknown sin that I haven't repented of?

I'm sure all of us, every 1 of us, has done some sin and didn't even recognize it, and we never had a chance to repent of it because we don't even remember that it happened.

Well, quite obviously in 1 John chapter 1, verse 9, it covers it so wonderfully, so comfortingly, so great.

It says, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, but it doesn't stop there.

It says, then He will cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

I said, that's a good place for somebody to praise God.

And so we are literally, literally, if God brings something to you that your conscience pricks you, you say, Lord God, I need to ask you to forgive me of that.

That we have boldness and access to the throne of Jesus.

That we are partakers of His divine nature.

That we are now a new creation in Christ, 1 that can come before God with total confidence of his acceptance.

I'm going to keep feeding on it because the devil wants to keep stealing it from us and ain't gonna happen here.

And when we know who we are in Christ, we have a boldness in prayer and a boldness to declare things because we realize when we say the word, we're saying it as if Jesus is saying it because we are in Christ.

We have been given power and authority and our conscience doesn't condemn us because the blood of Jesus and the ministry of reconciliation has totally brought us in union with God and we can decree and declare a thing and it will be established unto us.

Now the Bible says in Romans chapter 4, God who quickens the dead and calls things that be not as though they were.

Just make sure we're calling things the same thing as God is calling things.

Because God calls things that be not as though they were.

You can't say, well God I'm going to believe you for a hundred oil wells.

Because you can't find chapter and verse for that, can you?

If you can, show it to me and I'll believe for, I'll believe with you.

But there are many, many promises that God has set and all the promises of God are yea and amen, amen?

2 Corinthians chapter 2 or somewhere in there, 1 or 2, I don't know where it's...

All the promises of God are yea and amen by Christ Jesus.

And so, you know, God who quickens the dead and calls things that be not as though they were, we need to find out what God is calling and be calling the same thing because we have been forgiven and we have been given the same power that rose Christ from the dead lives in us.

In fact, I think sometimes the power gets a little bit bored.

I don't know if that makes sense for power to get bored.

But I know if it does, we don't want it to happen.

We need to use that power and operate that power that God gave us.

It's not like we're trying to convince God to do something through us.

It's in fact it was He that did the reconciliation and all the work.

All we're doing is stepping into what he has preordained and told us to do.

He has foreordained works for us to do and exploits for us to accomplish and miracles for us to see done in Jesus' name, amen?

It wasn't our idea, it's his, Hallelujah.

And then next I want to talk about our forgiveness for others.

And forgiveness is 1 of the most powerful expressions of God's love.

And that's why I once again I'm quoting that verse.

I didn't even have time to write it down.

I just looked at it in the Bible, Matthew 18.

It says, So shall my heavenly Father do to you if you do not from your heart forgive your brothers.

And it's a long parable, it's a long story, but the message I get out of that once again is that from my heart, with all of my heart forgive, with all of my heart forgive.

And it's amazing to see this process and it's happened to me and I'm sure it's happened to many of you, but I will admit I have human weaknesses and frailties.

The worse the offense, the harder it was to forgive.

And there's an offense I'm thinking of right now.

It didn't have to take that long, but you see I was only so acquainted with the love of God.

Because the more acquainted you are with the love of God, the faster you're going to be able to receive, or excuse me, be able to forgive from your heart.

The more you understand how much God has forgiven you and how much He loves you, the more that's going to spill out of your heart toward other people.

But God did the work and He had a total and complete reconciliation and restoration and now that person is 1 of my best friends.

I said 1 of my best friends and I don't do that feedback loop in my mind about how they did me wrong anymore.

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