Forgiveness part 2

   “Whatever your situation, whatever has happened in your past, remember that you are the loser if you do not deal with an unforgiving spirit. And the people around you suffer, too. You have within you the power to forgive, to be healed, and to be set free to live your life to the fullest.” This is on the back jacket to Dr. Stanley’s book, Put the past behind you and give…

The Gift of Forgiveness. [part 2]

   Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32

   Dr. Stanley writes, “If we refuse to deal with the bitterness and resentments that put us in bondage, we cannot have the fellowship with our Father that we are supposed to have.” (see page 124) He also continues, on page 126, “I rarely counsel people to confess their forgiveness to those who have hurt them if the other persons have not asked for it…God forgave us long before we ever asked for it…He has forgiven us of things we will never ask forgiveness for. In the same way, we are free to forgive others of things they will never know about.”

Forgiving Others

   Forgiveness is an act of the will that involves five stages:

•   We must recognize that we have been totally forgiven. (Romans 6:10)
•   Release the person from the debt we think is owed us for the offense.
•   Accept others as they are and release them from any responsibility to meet our needs.
•   View those we have forgiven as tools in our lives to aid us in our growth in and understanding of the grace of God. (Genesis 50:19-21)
•   Make reconciliation with those from whom we have been estranged.

Forgiveness is an act of the will… Forgiveness is for our benefit. The other person’s behavior may never change. It is up to God, not us to change that person. It is our responsibility to be set free from the pressure and weight of an unforgiving attitude.

We will know we have forgiven when…

   Several things will occur once the forgiveness process is complete. First, our negative feelings will disappear. We will not feel the way we used to feel when we run into these people on the street or in the office. Harsh feelings may be replaced by feelings of concern, pity, or empathy, but not resentment.

   Secondly, we will find it much easier to accept the people who have hurt us without feeling the need to change them; we will be willing to take them just the way they are. We will have a new appreciation for their situation once the blinders of resentment have been removed from our eyes. We will understand more why they acted and continue to act the way they do.

   Third, our concern about the needs of the other individuals will outweigh our concerns about what they did to us. We will be able to concentrate on them, not on ourselves or our needs.

   Forgiveness is a process that can be painful and at times seem unending…We must get involved with the process of forgiving others and find out what it means to be really free. If we will persevere and keep our eyes on the One who forgave us, it will be a liberating force like nothing else we have ever experienced.

   Forgiveness is complete when we have experienced the forgiveness of God; we can forgive others who have wronged us; we are able to forgive ourselves.

Forgiveness, part 1

The Gift of Forgiveness by Dr. Charles Stanley

   “Whatever your situation, whatever has happened in your past, remember that you are the loser if you do not deal with an unforgiving spirit. And the people around you suffer, too. You have within you the power to forgive, to be healed, and to be set free to live your life to the fullest.” This is on the back jacket to Dr. Stanley’s book, Put the past behind you and give…

The Gift of Forgiveness.

  “Forgiveness is ‘the act of setting someone free from an obligation to you that is a result of a wrong done against you.’ …Forgiveness involves three elements: injury, a debt resulting from the injury, and a cancellation of the debt. All three elements are essential if forgiveness is to take place…A person who harbors unforgiveness always loses.

   Through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins (Acts 10:43)…Christ is God’s solution for dealing with sin. Only through Christ can we find forgiveness. But once it has been found it is a settled issue-past sin, present sin, and future sin. The details of what we have done, why we did it, and how many times we did it are irrelevant. Sin is sin; lost is lost; paid is paid; forgiven is forgiven. Either we have it, or we don’t… Forgiveness is available only to the man or woman who has put personal trust in Christ…God’s gift of forgiveness must be appropriated; that is, it must be accepted on an individual basis…

   Settle in your mind once and for all that your sins are forgiven; that God is in no way holding them against you; that from His perspective, they are no longer obstacles to fellowship.

   …Begin to view your past failures as a reminder of God’s grace…Your past sins should become memorials to the grace of God in life. When Satan accuses you of being unworthy because of things you have done in the past, you can respond by saying (and I recommend actually speaking out loud). ‘That is exactly right. I did do that, and that’s not all. But before I ever committed my first sin Jesus Christ died and paid for my sins-not just the ones you have reminded me of-all of them. Now they stand in my past as memorials, reminders, of God’s goodness and grace toward me. Thanks for the reminder.’..This is a confession of truth…

   …God wants to take any emotional stumbling block out of the way and flood you with the assurance of His forgiveness and acceptance. He wants you to live with a sense of security and intimacy with Him.”

   Dr. Stanley writes of forgiveness with Luke 15:11-24 as a Biblical reference. The following are just the highlights of the explanatory paragraphs in chapter five Our Forgiving Father.

•   Our heavenly Father’s love has no limits.
•   Our heavenly Father’s love is patient.
•   God is eager to express His love.
•   God the Father’s attitude is that His focus in on the sinner, not the sin…You are His focus.
•   God receives the sinner back into fellowship joyfully.

  “When any child of God turns from sin, God rejoices. If it is possible to assign emotions to the heavenly Father, He ‘feels’compassion for you and therefore experiences joy at your homecoming. He does not wrestle with feelings of hurt and jealousy. He has dealt with that once and for all. Instead, He identifies with your hurt and frustration and takes joy in seeing you set free…

   …You have a heavenly Father who is free to identify with your situation and who takes great joy in seeing you restored to your rightful place as His child. Your forgiving Father’s greatest concern is you, not your sin. His focus is on you and your willingness to comply with His will for your life.

   Heavenly Father,

Sometimes it is difficult for me to see You as You really are. By faith in the testimony of Jesus, however, I accept You as my forgiving heavenly Father.

A Father who love me with unlimited love;

A Father whose patience is inexhaustible;

A Father who is eager to have fellowship with me;

A Father who focuses on me and my position as Your child, not on my sin;

A Father who rejoices when I turn to You from my sin, whether it be one single act or a season of rebellion.

Expose the errors in my thinking toward You and fill me with the truth, for I know that in discovering the truth I will be set free. Amen.”

Rest of the Gospel

   Quoting from page 155, “For you who have told God that you want to go on with Him, that you want to know Him and Him only, the victory is to press on beyond the human situation. We move past what something looks like and feels like, to see by faith that God is involved in it. He has a purpose in it for us.

   For those who have come to know this, one of the best things we can do is speak this word of truth to those who, in the midst of their circumstances, can’t see God acting. We know He is acting in those circumstances and we can be a word of encouragement to them. Often believers do not see that what they are going through is the way God is going to give them what they really want: Him.

   …What the Christian needs is 50/20 vision…Referring to Genesis 50:20.”

   The above quote and the following quotes are just a few of the many encouraging thoughts from reading, The Rest of the Gospel, When the partial Gospel has worn you out by Dan Stone and Greg Smith.

   In the preface by Dan Stone, “’Christ in you, the hope of glory’ (Colossians 1:27). Christ living is us and through us, as us, is the only hope we have of experiencing the glory God intends for our lives…We start from this question: what is God’s intent…We are not the center of the universe. The Son is…God had a purpose for us before the foundation of the world. (see Ephesians 1)…We exist for the praise of His glory…God, in His love and grace, has made us a part of His plan. But we are not the center of it; Christ is. We are participants in the plan…

   The authors divide the book into four parts:

V  Union with Christ

V  Who are you?

V  Knowing God’s ways

V  Living in union

   This book is very reader friendly, easy reading, yet with plenty of depth to study and chew.

Chapter nine talks about The Real You.

  “We are born into a tough existence. As infants, every day is a new challenge to ensure all our needs are met. Before we are even aware of it, we learn to play the world’s game of life…It isn't much longer before we learn that if we behave a certain way, Mamma and Daddy like that, and if we behave another way, they don’t like it…Going through school, if we have a personality that others are attracted to, we become one of the most popular kids in school. We learn how to operate in that…In high school, if we have a boyfriend or girlfriend, we learn how to adapt to that, or we learn how to get along without it…When we get into the work world we learn what will earn us advancement and what will earn us the pink slip. Then we get married and things are going to be wonderful. It’s God’s trick. Marriage is meant to sandpaper you into Him, not to provide you bliss. If you happen to find bliss, it’s not permanent, is it? Marriage is not like that. Marriage is for discovering real intimacy. So we learn to adjust to that, or fail to…From the moment we were born into the world dead in trespasses and sins-dead in spirit, separated from God- the world and the devil conspired to create this self in us that could try independently to get along. It’s what I call the false self.

   The Bible calls the false self flesh. The flesh self is a soul based self. It is the soul operating independently of its Source…The life of God through us must be expressed through the soul. But His life is expressed through a soul dependent upon it Source, not acting independently of it.

   Nothing happens in our life for which there isn't a God reason.”

Lifetime Guarantee by Bill Gillham

Lifetime Guarantee: Making Your Christian Life Work and What to Do When It Doesn't 

by Bill Gillham

   This is a foundational book to knowing your identity in Christ. Galatians 2
²⁰   "I have been ⁽¹⁾ crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but ⁽²⁾ Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in ⁽³⁾ the Son of God, who ⁽⁴⁾ loved me and ⁽⁵⁾ gave Himself up for me.”
Cross-references

1. Rom 6:6; Gal 5:24; 6:14
2. Rom 8:10
3. Matt 4:3
4. Rom 8:37
5. Gal 1:4

   In this book the author is willing to be transparent. Bill Gillham has struggled; and he is willing to share his daily turmoil to help others understand their life problems. The audio sets, “How to Live the Victorious Christian Life” and “How to Live the Victorious Christian Life: Advanced Series” along with this book are the foundation to our subject of "Christ in you."

   On page 170 and 171, Dr. Gillham summarizes what has been written so far:

FACTS:

Ø  When Christ died, you died an ‘old man.”

Ø  When Christ arose, you were born as a “new man.”

Ø  Christ is now the only life you have. Any other technique you employ for living is “death.”

Ø  Christ is now resting in heaven and so are you in Him.

Ø  You have the same rights Jesus had when He left heaven and came to earth-none. You are a “living sacrifice.” You are to “see God first” and He will supply all your needs.

FAITH:

Ø  You must believe the above based on revelation by the Holy Spirit to you from God’s Word.

WORKS:

Ø  Moment by moment, by faith, you are to act as though Christ is expressing His agape life through you to accomplish His will.

Ø  You are to apply all diligence to the task.

Ø  You are to study God’s Word so the Holy Spirit can train you to discern good and evil, that you might not prostitute the life of Christ by living for self while claiming it to be a life of Christ through you.

Ø  You are to rest in your mind that your method (faith and obedience) is correct.

Ø  You are to rest in you mind that the results are Christ’s results through you, and you are to praise Him whether “successful” or not.

Ø  You are to recognize that your emotions are not your primary barometer of truth. God’s Word is.

   Bill Gillham writing about my new nature on page 92, I read, “You are not grubby. You are glorious in your nature! The new natural you is really someone special. You are a child of God as Jesus said in John 1:12, and as the Word repeats in many verses such as Galatians 3:26: ‘For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.’ And He is now your life. He will live the same life through you that He lived through His own earth-suit when He walked the planet if you will cooperate with Him. This means a supernatural life of agape, not a life of constantly striving to get your needs met. Jesus Christ wants to express through you what the Father expressed through Him, bringing love and hope to a hurting world, beginning with your own house.”

Set Free in Christ

Bondage Breaker by Neil Anderson

    “We are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ…to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:15, 13). 

God has given us everything we need to grow to maturity in Christ (2 Peter 1:3). But Satan is opposed to our maturity and will do anything he can to keep us from realizing who we are and what we have in Christ. Since we wrestle against principalities and powers instead of flesh and blood (Eph 6:12), we must experience victory over the dark side before we can fully. Page 11-12 Bondage Breaker

   The Bondage Breaker starts with Free at Last! and ends with Helping Others Find Freedom in Christ.

   The chapter titles in between include: You Don’t Have to Live in the Shadows, You Have Every Right to Be Free, Jesus Has You Covered, The Lure of Knowledge and Power, Don’t Believe Everything You Hear, and Appearances Can Be Deceiving.

   Before reading and understanding this material, I felt like a pawn in a giant chess game.

   “You are not the helpless victim of a tug-of-war between two nearly equal heavenly superpowers. Compared to Satan’s limited power, God is completely off the charts in His omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience-and you are in Him! Sometimes the reality of sin and the presence of evil may seem more real than the reality and presence of God, but that’s part of Satan’s deception. He is a defeated foe, and we are in Christ the eternal Victor. That’s why we worship God: to keep His divine attributes constantly before us in order to counter Satan’s lies. A true knowledge of God and our identity in Christ is the greatest determinant of our mental health. A false concept of God and the misplaced deification of Satan are the greatest contributors to mental illness…

   Deception is the most subtle of all satanic strongholds…Lying is an evil defense promoted by the father of lies, Satan (John 8:44)…Satan’s lies are at the heart of addictive behavior…

   Faith is the biblical response to the truth, and believing the truth is a choice…Faith is something you decide to do, not something you feel like doing. Believing the truth doesn’t make it true; it’s true, so we believe it…

   Your faith is only as great as your knowledge of the object of your faith.”

   When writing about forgiveness, Dr. Anderson writes, “You don’t forgive someone merely for their sake; you do it for your sake so you can be free. Your need to forgive isn’t an issue between you and the offender; it’s between you and God.

   Forgiveness is agreeing to live with the consequences of another person’s sin. Forgiveness is costly; we pay the price of the evil we forgive. Yet you’re going to live with those consequences whether you want to or not; your only choice is whether you will do so in the bitterness of unforgiveness or the freedom of forgiveness. That’s how Jesus forgave you-He took the consequences of your sin upon Himself…

   Forgiveness deals with your pain, not another’s behavior.”

Have you met the Bondage Breaker?

Jesus Christ will set you free!

God does not call you a sinner; you are a saint!!!

Victory Over The Darkness by Neil Anderson

   “God doesn’t call you a sinner; He calls you a saint–a holy one…What you do doesn’t determine who you are; who you are determines what you do.” Page 45 Victory Over The Darkness by Neil Anderson

WOW!!! What a statement!!!

   My actual salvation experience dates back to April 1953. At that time my aunt was attempting to teach me the Apostles Creed. I believed that Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins. I believed that if I accepted Jesus Christ personally as my Savior, when I died I would be in heaven with Him–period end of lessons. The rest of my life I am to try to conform to the image of Christ. As you can read by all the “I’s” above that this has been a long process.

   For many, many years John 8:32 was my prayer, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” I keep asking, “What is the truth?” Finally in 1992, I met someone who told me that truth is not what but who. In John 14:6, “Jesus told them, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life…’” I was introduced to the Neil Anderson books Victory Over The Darkness and Bondage Breaker. The following are a few of the highlights from Victory Over The Darkness.

   “…But ultimately every Christian is responsible for his or her own maturity and freedom in Christ. Nobody can make you grow. That’s you decision and daily responsibility. Nobody can solve your problems. That’s a process you must initiate and follow through with. Thankfully, however, none of us walks through the disciplines of personal maturity and freedom alone. The indwelling Christ is eagerly willing to walk with us each step of the way…

   …Before you can be truly free from your past, you need to know who you are in Christ…

   …The only identity equation that works in God’s kingdom is you plus Christ equals wholeness and meaning.

   …Your Christian walk is the direct result of what you believe about God and yourself…Walking by faith simply means that you function in daily life on the basis of what you believe…Your belief system determines your behavior…

   Anger signals a blocked goal…Feelings of anger should prompt us to reexamine what we believe and the mental goals we have formulated to accomplish those beliefs…

   Anxiety signals an uncertain goal…You are hoping something will happen, but you have no guarantee that it will. You can control some of the factors, but not all of them.

   Depression signals an impossible goal…Some forms of depression can be caused by chemical imbalances…Depression often signals that you are desperately clinging to a goal you have little or no chance of achieving, and that’s not a healthy goal…

   If Satan can destroy your belief in God, you will lose your source of hope. But with God all things are possible. He is the source of all hope. You need to learn to respond to hopeless–appearing situations as David did: ‘Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, the help of my countenance, and my God’ (Ps. 43:5).

   A godly goal is any specific result reflecting God’s purposes for your life that does not depend on people or circumstances beyond your ability or right to control…The only person who can block a godly goal or render it uncertain or impossible is you…

   A godly desire is any specific result that depends on the cooperation of other people or the success of events or favorable circumstances you cannot control. You cannot base your self-worth to your personal success on your desires, no matter how godly they may be, because you cannot control their fulfillment…”

   On page 115 of the study guide, Neil Anderson writes, “Healing emotional wounds from the past will enable you to find victory over the darkness and freedom in God’s light. Dealing with any rejection you’ve experienced is also essential to realizing victory.” There is a word of prayer in which Dr. Anderson writes, “All-knowing and all-loving God, I come before you with David’s words on my lips, ‘Search me, O God’ (Ps. 139:23a). Maybe there is something in my past that, brought to light, into Your healing light, can mean freedom for me. Show me, merciful and gentle God, who I need to forgive and of what I need to forgive them.”

Experiencing Go Through Prayer

Experiencing God Through Prayer by Madame Guyon

   The reader finds on page nine that God delights when we come to Him in simple, childlike confidence.

   Madame Guyon teaches this simple truth and childlike confidence. We must learn to pray from our heart, not from our head. She explains how to sit quietly (while being active) and wait on God.

   “I would emphasis my statement to you-you are called to enjoy God-not only His gifts to you…

   The whole desire of our heavenly Father is to give Himself to every creature according to the capacity in which we will receive Him.”

   This is a small book of only 90 pages, yet it is difficult to try to limit the wisdom and knowledge to just one page.

   Starting on page 31 of chapter 7 The Bitter and the Sweet reads:

   “Be patient, dear ones, during suffering. It was through His suffering on Calvary that Jesus gave the greatest display of love.

   Don't be like those who give themselves to Jesus at one season only to withdraw from Him at another. They give themselves to Him only to be caressed, yet when in times of trouble, they turn back to man for consolation.

   No, beloved friends, you will not find consolation in anything other than the love of the cross and total abandonment. If you will not savor the cross you cannot savor the things of God. (See Matthew 16:23).

   It is impossible to love God without loving the cross. If you savor the cross, you will find even the most bitter things to be sweet.

   ‘To the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet’ (Proverbs 27:7), because it finds itself hungering for God in the same proportion as it is hungering for the cross...

   Jesus Christ Himself chose to endure the utmost severity of the cross...

   (John 14:6)  Abandon [surrender] yourself then in Jesus. Follow Him as the way. Wait for Him to reveal truth to you. Allow Him to animate us with life.

   Abandonment [surrender] is the means God uses to reveal His mysteries to us.

   To bear all the marks of Jesus Christ is much greater than merely meditating on them. Paul said, ‘I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus’ (Gal 6:17). He does not say he merely thought about them, he says he bore them.

   As you abandon yourselves to Jesus, He will reveal those marks to you. You have no choice but to reach after Him. Dwell with Him. Sink into nothingness before Him.

   Accept indiscriminately all His gifts whether sweetness or bitterness. Let nothing retard your course for even one moment...

   If you sincerely love God, you will love all that belongs to Him.”

   In another chapter we read, “The only genuine means of bringing about change is by inward means. You must commit yourself wholly into the hands of a loving God. The simple act of commitment in every circumstance where self exerts itself will, in time, produce a separation of the sensual from the spiritual…

   The nearer your spirit draws to God, the further you become separated from the soulish demands…

   God himself will show you the areas of your life which need attention. Those who are  faithfully abandoning all to God will indeed be purified, polished, and perfected in His timing…”

   A quote from the chapter entitled Matters of the Heart. “Sin takes possession of the soul deficient in faith and prayer. If we would but teach our wandering brethren to simply believe and diligently pray, rather than engaging them in endless reasoning's, we would lead them sweetly into the arms of God.” And for references Madame Guyon gives Psalm 19:7, 119:130; Matthew 19:14, 11:25.

   Other chapter titles include: Thirsting For God, Scriptural Meditation, Surviving Dry Periods, Distractions, Put Off The Old, The Reward of Silence.

   Could our goals in life, our aim for class members, this book and the other resources we use as tools be:

   “To teach man to seek God in his heart, to think of Him, to return to Him whenever he has wandered, and to have a single eye to please Him, is leading that person to the source of all grace. There he will find everything necessary for sanctification…

   Teach the young to pray, not by reasoning or by method or by understanding, but by the prayer from the heart-the prayer of God’s Spirit rather than man’s invention…

   There is no better way to learn how to love God than to simply love Him.”