Most of us would love to know God more fully. Yet, there's a huge difference between simply knowing that we possess God's Life in our hearts and actually experiencing it in our lives. The key to being able to do this, moment by moment, is understanding how to surrender ourselves to the Lord. These are the actual steps that the priests took in Solomon's Temple in order to deal with their sin and be reconciled to God. And, they are the same steps we must take each time we quench God's Spirit. The essential steps are:
1) Recognizing, acknowledging and experiencing our ungodly thoughts and emotions as they come in.
2) Confessing our sin and self, choosing to "turn around" from following them and unconditionally forgiving anyone who has wronged us.
3) Giving over to God all that He has shown us that is not of faith, and...
4) Reading God's Word and replacing the lies with the truth.
Isaiah 24:15 reminds us that we are to "glorify [or reflect] the Lord in the fire..." And going through these steps, moment by moment, is the only way we can do this. One of the hardest parts of this is not necessarily turning from our own sin; it is often terribly difficult to unconditionally forgive those who have hurt, betrayed or wronged us. Yet, this part is so important, and can make a huge difference in how we experience God’s fullness in our lives.
Unconditional Forgiveness
There are really two parts to forgiveness: first, our relationship to God; and second, our relationship to the other person. The primary reason we must forgive is because God commands it in Scripture. Mark 11:25-26 tells us, "And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have anything against any: that your Father also, Who is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father, Who is in heaven, forgive your trespasses."
The next reason we are to forgive is to be able to reconcile with the other person. When we choose to unconditionally forgive them, we will be clean before the Lord, and we can know He will then give us the Love we need for that other person. The only way we can genuinely love those that have wronged us is by unconditionally forgiving them (or releasing them to God) and then, becoming an open vessel for God's Love to flow. If we don't do this, Scripture tells us what will happen - the enemy will get an advantage in us (2 Corinthians 2:11).
There are at least four good reasons why we must forgive others: 1) God says so in His Word. 2) Our relationship with Him will be quenched if we don't. 3) We won't have His Love flowing through us if we choose not to. And, 4) The enemy will get an advantage in us if we won't obey.
Now, if that other person comes to us and asks forgiveness, then our relationship with him has a wonderful chance of being healed and we can end up even closer than we were before. If, however, that other person never repents and never comes to ask our forgiveness, then there will be a breach in our relationship and only God's wise Love can operate. The Bible exhorts us, however, that we are still to love them wisely. In other words, we are still to be an open vessel for God's Love to flow through us to them.
People often have trouble forgiving a serious wrong or betrayal, because they feel that forgiving a deep wrong is the same as saying it didn’t really matter. They feel that forgiveness denies the hurt that was caused . That’s not the case at all. When we sin against God, that sin matters very much. It causes great destruction to His creation and to the humans He loves so much. Yet, He is willing to forgive us because of the greatness of His love. He is willing to forgive us because His perfect, sinless Son died to pay for our sin. That’s not something to sniff at. When we forgive someone, we don’t deny that we were damaged; we simply release the person into God’s hands, for Him to handle as He chooses – even if it means that He forgives them too - as He forgave us.
It is not a simple step, but it is one of the most important we can make in our walk with God.
To be continued next week…
Related Links:
• Unconditionally Forgiving Others - Koinonia House