Wholeness Ministries
www.wholeness.org
www.wholeness.org
The Traps of Unforgiveness Part 1
The key to freedom from bondage and growth in intimacy with God is found in forgiveness. Most of the ground Satan gains in the lives of Christians is due to unforgiveness. Obviously we need to forgive others. But Scripture goes a little further in making the case for the necessity of forgiveness.
First: we are warned to forgive in 2 Cor. 2:10-11
"If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven--if there was anything to forgive--I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, 11in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes."
WHY- So that Satan cannot take advantage of us!
Second: we are required to forgive in Matthew 18:34-35
In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. 35 "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."
In this parable from Mt.18, the unforgiving servant is handed over to the jailers or as the King James translation says "to the tormentors." When we refuse to forgive we find ourselves in bondage and torment by such things as guilt, shame, anger, fear and bitterness! UNFORGIVENESS IS A PRISON!
I read a quote once that said: "I will never allow another person to ruin my life by making me hate them!"
If you allow unforgiveness to remain in your life you will be trapped in:
CONDEMNATION - ACCUSATION - INTIMIDATION
Satan will successfully condemn you, accuse you and intimidate you. But some will say to you, "it says in Scripture says we have been rescued from the kingdom of darkness, purchased with his blood and forgiven all our sins:"
Col. 1:13-14 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14-in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."
While that is certainly true, it doesn't mean we will be exempt from the consequences of those sins; both those committed against us and those we commit. Most of the hurt which remains in people's lives is hurt which, though they have been forgiven of, they have not been able to forgive others of. Some buy into "well I have been washed in the blood so all the past is done and I don't need to think about it anymore!" This is deadly! This is a trap of the enemy.
Let me talk about these three traps for just a bit.
I. CONDEMNATION - "To pronounce judgment against- to declare unfit for use" Occasionally in ministry we run into people who feel as if what they have done is so bad that even God will not forgive them. They feel that whatever punishment comes they deserve. Or, in some cases, when they are forgiven they cannot forgive the people who hurt them. Some feel like the woman caught in the act of adultery in John 8:1-11.
"Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and Pharisees brought a woman they had caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. Teacher, they said to Jesus, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say? They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, "All right, stone her. But let those who have never sinned throw the first stones!" Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman.
True, she was being used by the Pharisees to bait Jesus. And, she knew her behavior violated the Law of Moses and just as surely she knew that the penalty of adultery was death. She was being condemned by her accusers and they were correct and justified in their condemnation. What do you think she was feeling while standing there? Afraid? Degraded? Guilty" Ashamed? Probably she was experiencing all of these and more. But then after Jesus dealt with her accusers and they left, He turned His attention to her. (vs.10-11) "Where are your accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you?" No, Lord, she said. And Jesus said, "neither do I. Go and sin no more."
Now lets look at what has happened to her. Suddenly she is forgiven, free from condemnation. She is no longer facing death. But what she is now faced with are two things:
First: the reality of accepting this forgiveness, She may have gone away from there not really able to accept that she was forgiven. She may have been so ashamed and guilty, knowing full well she deserved the punishment of death, that she allowed the enemy to keep her trapped under condemnation even though she had been clearly forgiven by Jesus. It was totally beyond her that she could be forgiven. Satan would find her an easy target. "You really haven't been forgiven" Look at what you did, do you think God could forgive you and love you after what you've done!"
Second: giving that same forgiveness to her accusers. It would be easy for her to be bitter over what had just been done to her; dragged out in front of everybody and embarrassed and degraded. Now everybody in the whole village knew about her affair. That bitterness and anger could be easily turned around to keep her under condemnation. The unforgiveness brings the condemnation because it is sin.
This condemnation can be in the form of words spoken to us by people who are very significant in our lives. "You'll never amount to anything, you'll always be a loser" These words are like daggers stuck into our hearts and can be the very words that condemn us to being losers and failures. Numerous times we have prayed with people who heard these words from their fathers, mothers or teachers and those words have brought condemnation because they believed them and lived as if they were true. The felt "unfit for use."
Next issue I will continue with this discussion looking at the two other traps of unforgiveness.
Wholeness ministries offers a weekly School of Healing Prayer, individual prayer by appointment, numerous resources on both audio and videotape as well as our book "Learning To do What Jesus Did."
For more information please contact:
Rev. Mike Evans
4301 Stine Rd. Suite H
Bakersfield CA
USA 93313
661-833-2920
Fax 661-833-2934
mevans@wholeness.org
www.wholeness.org
