Unforgiveness

Since I’ve walked away from the busy life of ministry, I have become more focused on other things that it wouldn’t allow room for because of the pressure to constantly be doing something. Those other things are focusing more on my emotional health, learning to become a better father, husband, and son. Walking in complete wholeness in my life was unknowingly pushed under the proverbial rug in previous seasons. As soon as that lifestyle came to a screeching halt, those untended places began to surface. One of those areas is the withholding of forgiveness. This specific issue really showed its face in my marriage. Today I thankful to Abba for his mercy and his kindness that has continued to pursue me even into the darkest places of my existence.

I want share with you some revelation from this specific season of my life, overcoming un-forgiveness.

“I send you to preach the forgiveness of sins—and people’s sins will be forgiven. But if you don’t proclaim the forgiveness of their sins, they will remain guilty (John 20:23 tpt).”

When it comes to forgiveness, Yahweh isn’t saying that if we don’t forgive others, He then declares them guilty. The truth is that if we don’t forgive them, they will believe that they are guilty and that He is angry with them. However, this is not the case. Abba is not angry with any one of His Beloveds.

Our inability to forgive ourselves and others creates a facade over the face of God, which actually prevents us from advancing His Kingdom.

God being “angry” creates an illusion and therefore, we hide and punish ourselves as well as others. But when we truly believe that Abba is immutably good, we walk in mercy, compassion, and forgiveness, giving the entire cosmos the opportunity to see and experience just how kind our Father is! Let’s be those who shine the light of Christ in the darkest places, even our our dark places!

“Walking in forgiveness is the announcement of mankind’s redeemed innocence”

As I was coming to terms with how much I struggled with un-forgiveness in my own life, I heard the whisper of the Lord, “Son, it’s much more difficult to give something away that you have not received. I want you to be good at receiving forgiveness from me. I’m not telling you to withhold. I’m asking that you put more emphasis on receiving from me.”

I spent years and years pouring out and serving in the church only to realize that I had spent less time receiving from Him as a child crying, “Abba!”

We live in a world where people don’t know that they are deemed innocent by the blood of the lamb! People whether they are believers or not, need to know that they are forgiven.

In 1 John chapter 1, the Apostle John says, “But if we freely admit our sins when his light uncovers them, he will be faithful to forgive us every time (1 John 1:9 tpt).” To admit is to come into agreement with what God has already uncovered with His light. I have good news! We don’t have to beg God for forgiveness and neither does anyone else. It’s given freely in Christ! Our inability to walk in total forgiveness prevents other from receiving the full gospel. It prevents the world from fully seeing and experiencing the goodness of God.

Why is forgiveness so powerful? Because it reveals who we truly are to those who may not know who they are.

As I have devoted my life to discovering what it looks like to live out of the frame work of sonship, I have discovered this truth: Total forgiveness rests on the shoulders of the one who walks in authentic Beloved identity.

If you are having trouble believing that the Father cannot forgive you or anyone else know this: “Jesus is the appointed judge by the Father and he chose not to condemn or punish , but to forgive all (Acts 10:42-43 tpt).”

Humanity in its entirety has been forgiven once and for all. They just don’t know it and the world is looking for sons and daughters who will reveal it to them.

As I am learning to embrace a lifestyle of living every area of my life in sonship, when I choose to not forgive myself or others, I am actually robbing people from experiencing the gospel.

I am by no means perfect and I am still on the journey. I hope this will help you discover what forgiveness looks like in your walk with God.