Forgiveness and Freedom
And forgive us our
sins,
For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.” Luke 11:4
We don’t live very long before we realize the importance of forgiveness.
We learn to live for God through the path of forgiveness. We’ve been made holy
by the blood of the Lamb, but our “condition” doesn’t always match up with our
“position.” As we live out our daily lives before Him, we need our confession
(our walk with Christ) to line up with the one we’re created to look like:
Jesus Christ, the pure and holy one. For Christ is our righteousness.
We’re like Peter when he asked Jesus to wash his whole body at the last
supper. Jesus told him that he only needs his feet washed. That’s the same for
us. As we live out our lives before the Father and walk through this world, we
don’t need our whole body washed, but we do need our feet washed again. Our
walk must be aligned with our calling.
To refuse to forgive those who have injured or offended us is to keep
our heart at a distance from the throne room. To come into the throne room is
to come clean, drawing near with a clean heart. To be hurt is to be human.
There is nothing evil with you being hurt by the words or actions of others.
You can’t repent of being human with intricate, legitimate feelings. However,
our hurt feelings and brokenness can hinder a divine encounter in prayer. All
of us need forgiveness, and all of us must release forgiveness. The prayer
model of Jesus has the component of releasing forgiveness to those who have
wronged us.
There is no unforgiveness in heaven, so we must model our relationship
after what we see above us, not around us. This is like the priest going to the
laver (the washing bowl in the Temple) before entering in. We too must enter into
His presence with clean hands and a pure heart. They have already been provided
for us in the blood of Christ, but we must appropriate them each and every day
as we walk with our fellow mortals. After we can move forward towards heaven
and closer into his heart.
How do we forgive?
1. Admit the pain. Don’t just stuff it deeper
or think it doesn’t matter. To acknowledge that someone has hurt you is the
beginning of forgiveness and freedom.
2. Work through the confusion of your feelings.
Sort out your thoughts and consider that you may have had a part in the
offense.
3. Set holy boundaries. When you feel your
heart straying or your mind reliving the trauma, set a boundary and defend it
carefully. This is watching over your own soul.
4. Turn the pain into insight. Consider what
happened and ask God to teach you through it any lesson He chooses to reveal.
This will bring you to the very point of extending forgiveness. Joseph had to
forgive in order to be released from prison. He forgave those who had forgiven
him, devalued him, and hurt him the most.
5. Make a choice to relinquish the entire
event. Give up your right to be angry. This makes forgiveness real. Our Lord
Jesus, the Master of Forgiveness, shows us the higher way. To pray requires
that we forgive. To pray with Jesus requires that we forgive every offense.
“AS WE OURSELVES RELEASE FORGIVNESS TO THOSE
WHO HAVE WRONGED US”
Forgive as often as you want to be forgiven.
This is the lesson of this prayer. There is nothing as serious as unforgiveness
in the heart. It reduces our prayer to hypocrisy. We must press into the grace
of forgiving all who offend us. We must take a pre-determine posture before the
world that we will seek to be un-offended. We decide ahead of time not to be
offended by the deeds of others and to extend true forgiveness whenever we’re
mistreated. This is divine insulation for the heart. The evil cycle of sin-offense-is
broken by an attitude of forgiveness. curses are shattered and strongholds
demolished when you forgive those who have wronged you.
“RESCUE US EVERY TIME WE FACE TRIBULATION”
This is a prayer for power to overcome sin
and to be freed from the snares of life. There are temptations you may escape
if you pray. Intercession builds a wall of protection around your soul. It’s
taking the armour of God and putting on each piece by prayer. Prayer-clothing
is God’s armour for the soul and will deliver us from temptation. This verse
causes us to wonder how many temptations we may not have had to experience in
life if we’d prayed. Every believer walks in grace, but there is a measure of “saving
grace” that comes only when we intercede.
See this as a request from God not to
promote us beyond what out character can handle. When God puts out His hand of
favour and outstand blessing come to us, we’re often led into the temptation of
pride and believing we deserve the glory. This prayer preserves us from being
promoted beyond the grace that would keep us humble and usable in God’s hands.
Our gift and responsibilities may be ready for promotion, but our character may
not yet be mature and stable.
This prayer is intensified as we come
together as one. Churches may pray with confidence that the health and future
of the church will be preserved through corporate intercession. In these
difficult days of world tension and pressure on all sides, it’s so critical
that the church comes together to say to God our Father, “rescue us every time
we face tribulation.”
“AND SET US FREE FROM EVIL”
It’s clear that intercession thwarts demonic
strategies. True deliverance from the evil one who walks this earth can only be
secured as we intercede with others. The little word us is repeated throughout
the Lord’s prayer to show us that it’s corporate intercession that’s in view
here. A church that neglects having consistent, regular prayer meetings can
expect to get “beat up” by the evil one. Prayer secures us from the schemes of
the enemy.
The word evil speaks of everything that the
curse of sin has brought to earth. The Greek word for evil is poneros, which is
taken from the root word meaning pain. Jesus has destroyed the power of evil-sin, sickness, pain, and poverty (the word evil is derived from the Greek
word penes, which means poor) -Though His redemptive work on the cross for us.
There is additional help for this kind of
prayer found in Psalm 91. It’s wise to take this Psalm and pray its contents
over your church and family. To pray together as a body will increase the hedge
of protection around your church. No one is wise enough to discerning enough by
themselves to detect every scheme of satan. We must have each other and enter into
corporate prayer. Not a teacher, pastor, evangelist, prophet, nor apostle is
enough, but all of us must pray as one, asking in unity that the favour of God
will “set us free from evil.”
“FOR YOU ARE THE KING WHO RULES WITH POWER
AND GLORY FOREVER. AMEN”
Pray will always acknowledge the power and
glory as belonging to God alone. They’re His possessions, and they’re His to
give. It’s when we acknowledge that they belong to Him that He releases them to
us. As we move into the declarations of praise, heaven pours into earth. When
we act as though the power and glory belong to originate with us, we are left
empty. When we bow before Sovereignty, we leave with earth.
The Lord’s prayer is for our
intercession. We can ask for the nations to receive the revelation of salvation. Our inheritance is to be the conversion of the nations, not just our
neighborhood.
Ask of Me, and I will give You
The nations for Your inheritance,
And the ends of the earth for Your possession. Psalms 2:8
Surely you shall call a nation you do not know,
And nations who do not know you shall run to you,
Because of the LORD your God,
And the Holy One of Israel;
For He has glorified you.” Isaiah 55:5
Both Paul and Peter prayed for the understanding of salvation
for all men
1 Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers,
intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, 2 for kings and all
who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all
godliness and reverence. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God
our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of
the truth. 5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man
Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,
7 for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle—I am speaking the truth
in Christ and not lying—a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
Men and Women in the Church
8 I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands,
without wrath and doubting; 1 Timothy 2:1-8
But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord
one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is
not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering
toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to
repentance. 2 Peter 3:8-9
We can believe things we cannot even imagine. Then we can go
further! Your faith needs stretching. Holy Spirit prayers will go further than
your imagination.
may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width
and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes
knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or
think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the
church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians
3:18-21
Your prayers should go beyond your thoughts and comprehension.
The future belongs to the intercessors who believe the future into being.
Through your Prayers, an alternative future may happen as you pull the will of
God down to the earth.
When we grow desperate enough, passionate enough, and prayerful
enough, the Lord will answer our cry, and the church will become His throne of
Grace upon the earth! We can expect great answers to our prayers. This is the
hour of destiny for planet Earth. The scriptures will soon be fulfilled. May
this be the generation of those who seek His face. We have been given privileges
that even the angels don’t have. There is no record of the angels of heaven
praying. It’s time for us to ask, seek, and knock!
Pray this today:
Our Heavenly Father may the glory of your name be the center on
which our life turns. May Your Holy Spirit come upon us and cleanse us.
Manifest Your Kingdom on earth. And give us our needed bread for the coming
day. Forgive our sins as we ourselves release forgiveness to those who have
wronged us.
