Wholeness Ministries
www.wholeness.org
www.wholeness.org
The Traps of Unforgiveness Part 2
If you have been trapped by condemnation it is a trap you can work your way out of by understanding who YOU are in Christ and that YOU are free from condemnation!
You Are Accepted (I am God's child John 1:12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--
You Are Secure (I cannot be separated from the love of God Romans 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or
nakedness or danger or sword?
You are Significant (I am God's workmanship Ephes. 2:10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Satan knows that if he can keep you from understanding the truth of your forgiveness and who you are in Christ he can keep you trapped by condemnation.
II. ACCUSATION -"To bring charges against" We know from Scripture that Satan is the accuser. In revelation 12:10 it says...for the Accuser has been thrown down to earth - the one who accused our brothers and sisters before our God day and night." How many times does Satan try to stop or destroy us with accusation. He accuses us before God and he accuses to our face. "Who do you think you are; you are nothing, you are of no value to God. You don't have any power to overcome that sin." You're such a hypocrite" You call yourself a Christian, how
can you be a Christian and do that, how can you feel that way!"
EXAMPLE: When I was 18 my father was killed. I had just graduated from high school. My father was not an alcoholic but on occasion he would go out get drunk and come home. One night he went out and didn't come back so my mom went out looking for him. She found him outside a bar, brought him home and then took him to a hospital after she determined he was indeed seriously hurt. We learned later that he was beaten outside a local bar in the town where we lived. He died a week later from the brain injury. When this came up for a legal hearing the whole case was dropped against the guys who had beat him because there was not enough evidence to bring them to trial. I felt betrayed by the judicial system. I was angry at the cops, the sheriff and the judge. As a result, I began to distrust and rebel against authority, especially anyone associated with the legal system. I felt anger toward my father because my reasoning was that it was his fault that he went out and got drunk and in a fight and left me without a father when I needed one badly. I felt abandoned and lonely without my father. I was angry with him and angry with God for taking him. I couldn't let God love me deeply, intimately, nor could I respond back to Him, because I didn't want to risk getting hurt again. I found it difficult to get very close to other men, thus most of my friendships were very surface and I kept a guard on how close I let anyone in. It took a number years before I was able to come to grips with this and let the hurt and pain surface so I could accept God's love and let others who wanted to be friends in close. Only after I did this was I able to get on with my life, move into an intimate relationship with God and others and then be used as a channel of His love to others. What makes this so significant is that many of these years when I was so guarded I was in full-time ministry. I was supposed to have an intimate relationship with God, I was supposed to be open and loving, I was supposed to know how to help people move into loving relationships through forgiveness. But I had given the enemy ample opportunity to accuse me, which made me pull back because of the anger I was hiding. Satan stands before God at any opportunity to accuse you and he takes every opportunity you give him by holding on to unforgiveness.
III. INTIMIDATION - "to fill with fear, to coerce, inhibit or discourage by threats." This often happens after you are committed. If the enemy can intimidate us he has won a great victory. He will use any means he can but most often he will use those people around you who are your friends or associates.
EXAMPLE: A number of years ago when this ministry began there was significant opposition to it. This ministry was birthed with great pain. At that time I was in a fairly traditional church and the whole area of healing was just beginning to be explored. There wasn't much problem with physical healing but when we began to move into areas of Inner Healing and Deliverance there were problems. During this time I was trying to learn everything I could about healing; I was attending seminars, reading books, and hanging out with people in the healing
ministry. We were beginning to see some significant results as we prayed for people and it wasn't too long before some in the church began to raise questions about what we were doing. We were accused of manipulating people, of being "New Age" because of some of the reading we were doing, of being unscriptural. My integrity and honesty were attacked. My motives were called into question. I was called to go before this group and defend what we were doing, answer charges they were making which were taken completely out of context. Things were said about us that were not true and they hurt. It was a tough time in which we lost some friends that we'd had for years who couldn't understand what we were doing. I found myself angry and resentful at people who were doing this and I couldn't understand why they would do this to us. I remember sitting by a river complaining to God about all the flack I was getting. I remember saying "God, why is this happening, all I want to do is pray for people!" What's the big deal here! Why can't we just forget about all this hassle over how we're doing what we do and just do the stuff! All I want is for people to get healed.
I was becoming very angry towards some people and it was beginning to affect ministry to people. It even began to plant some question in me that maybe what I was doing was wrong. I became intimidated by this and I started pulling back and found myself being very careful of what I said, or what I did, because I was afraid of getting attacked and having to constantly defend myself. What eventually happened was a that a large contingent of these people left the church. As I look back on it I see how easily Satan was using this to manipulate, divide and destroy people. Because of these accusations I had to later work through some serious unforgiveness issues with people who had hurt me before I could move ahead. What I did by granting this forgiveness was pull the ground right out from under Satan. Because those very things he was accusing me of, anger, bitterness, etc. I released and God forgave me of. If I had allowed him to keep me in this trap the ministry we were doing would have very well been destroyed.
Another way Satan will intimidate you is through scripture; especially using people in positions of authority to quote scripture to you. Some will say to you, "it says right here in Scripture "we have been rescued from the kingdom of darkness, purchased with his blood and forgiven all our sins:"-- 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.
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. Sins 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.
If we have been trapped by condemnation, accusation or intimidation then we are faced with a question, the answer to which will either keep us trapped or bring us into freedom. In next months article I talk about our decision to forgive to not to forgive.
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
