Many people have the mistaken idea that forgiveness is the same as reconciliation. This is far from the truth. Forgiveness and reconciliation are two very separate actions. Forgiveness has to do with the removal or release of a debt; reconciliation has to do with restoring friendship or harmony between two people, i.e., repairing a broken relationship. Thoughts by professional counselors…
Christians hold many commonly held misconceptions about forgiveness. Here are ten “nots” about forgiveness: 1. Forgiveness does not depend upon the offender Forgiveness does not depend upon your offender wanting or asking for it. It does not depend upon whether they are sorry or not. It involves only our cutting off the debt (Gr. aphiemi) that their offense created. If…
When someone unjustly offends us, a debt has been created, an account opened; we hold the offender as responsible. But Jesus expects us to resolve that debt created by them before we come to him and pray. He says we can do this through forgiveness! Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors (Matthew 6:12). Whenever you…
When it comes to forgiveness, we need to understand the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Although everything Jesus did for us is factual, unless we have revelation of it in our heart, it will not be real to us. If we want to fully benefit from what happened on the cross, we must see it and know it…
You can forgive others. You can let go of that list of grievances you are holding on to—if you accept the blood of Jesus as enough for the wrongs committed against you. Or would you rather stay angry, close your heart, go after the people who hurt you, and make them pay for what they did? Unforgiveness carries a high…
Traumas often leave negative pictures in our minds, often tormenting us for many years. Perhaps the neurons of the brain get stuck at the point of shock, and our brains won’t let us move on. Or perhaps a demonic spirit fastened itself to us in the moment of the trauma. Either way, Jesus Christ offers us His blood as a…
We need to understand the power of the blood so we can fully benefit from the blessings it offers. Here’s the spiritual reality: the life is in the blood. God established this truth with Noah, and told Moses how to use it in order to resolve the sin issue between people and God. To Noah, he said: “You shall not…
More than 2000 years ago, God provided us with the greatest tool of power ever given to humanity—forgiveness. Through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, forgiveness was made possible. The sacrificial blood of Christ was given in payment for all our failures. Forgiveness alone has the power to set you free from debilitating guilt, simmering resentments, and chronic…
Since the earliest of time God has planned a better way for us to pay the debts we occurred when we could not fulfill the law of Moses. Paul wrote, “When the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the…
Since ancient times, blood was used as a ritual sacrament. It was seen as the carrier of the spirit of life and character that lived in a person. Blood has been symbolic of the seat of the soul and the life force within a person. In our culture, we use the term “blood” in symbolic ways, employing idiomatic expressions like:…