From Pastor's Heart :

Unforgiveness Short Circuits Faith

August 29,2018

The Word of God is an incorruptible seed and is guaranteed to produce fruit. Faith in the Word of God will always bring results. If it is not producing, the problem cannot be with God or His Word. Suppose a person turns on the television to watch his favorite program, but nothing comes on. It would be foolish for that person to immediately call up the station to complain about it. The problem could simply be that the television is not plugged in, or the channel is not set correctly, or the antenna is not adjusted properly, or any number of things. Unless the problem is identified and resolved, the person cannot enjoy his favorite program. Likewise, if our faith is not working, we cannot blame it on God. Unless we identify and resolve the root cause of the problem, we cannot see our desired result.

One of the major causes of failing to receive from God is unforgiveness. Unforgiveness has robbed God's people of the blessings that belong to them. Jesus in giving His disciples the instruction on faith and prayer, immediately points out the necessity of forgiveness in Mark 11:25-26. The instruction is very clear, if we do not forgive, neither will God in heaven forgive us. It is a very serious thing for God to have ought against us. It would be safe to say that our faith will not work then. Ephesians 4:32 says, "be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you." Not only do we have to forgive, we have to do it the way God does it - total forgiveness. When Peter asks Jesus how often should we forgive those who trespass against us, Jesus replied, "up to seventy times seven." In other words, we need to forgive as many times as necessary. Therefore for faith to work in our lives, our hearts must be free of any offense. We can say it another way; offense chokes our faith and makes it inoperative.

There are a couple things that a believer must realize before he can walk in divine forgiveness. First of all, every believer is capable of doing it. God has already made us a new creature. He has already placed within us the divine nature. We have a nature of love just like God. Romans 5:5 tells us, "the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." So often I heard people say "I just cannot forgive." If this is so, then God is lying to us and is unjust for requiring of us something that we cannot do. In reality, the person can and has the ability to forgive but chooses not to. If Jesus can forgive after all the injustices that were done against Him, we can too because we have His very nature.

The second thing that we need to realize in order to walk in divine forgiveness is that forgiveness is not based on feelings. If we go by our feelings, we will probably never forgive and remain in a perpetual cycle of unforgiveness. I remember one time while I was in Bible school, a brother offended me in a very embarrassing situation. I knew was I suppose to forgive, but every time I thought about what the brother did to me, I became upset. Whenever I saw this brother, I would purposely avoid him or give him a cold shoulder. The Word of God would then convict me to forgive, and I would do so but only to find myself slipping back into unforgiveness. This is when the Lord began to minister to me about forgiveness and gave me some insight. Forgiveness comes from the heart. We cannot look to our feelings to determine whether we have forgiven or not. We forgive by faith. We may still have all kinds of emotions raging in our head, but as long as we have forgiven from our heart, in the eyes of God we have already forgiven. This leads me to the next point - forgiveness is based on choice.

We forgive by first making a quality decision before the Lord to forgive. This does not mean that we will no longer have problems with our emotions. The devil will make sure that we are constantly reminded of the offense. We need to realize that temptation is not sin. If temptation is sin, then Jesus has sinned because He was at all points tempted just as we are. Jesus was without sin because He did not yield to it. Once we make a solid decision to forgive, the next thing is to make constant and consistent choices to let go of the thoughts that stir up the emotions. This is where we must realize that those thoughts are from the devil, and we can chose to reject them. It will help if we declare out loud, "I have already forgiven so and so at such a date and time, and I refuse to think those thoughts. I choose to forgive so and so." Take authority over those thoughts that come and refuse to be under condemnation because they originate from the devil. Again, constantly and consistently choose to forgive and make a declaration that you have done so. As we do this, we then allow the Holy Spirit to do what we cannot do on our own, the emotional healing. The Holy Spirit is our Helper, but He cannot do it for us. The decision to walk in forgiveness is ours alone.