forgiveness

Follow-up to a service on Sunday. The sermon was on forgiveness. It was expressed during the service that "Forgiveness is the key to the existence of a Christian." Some seemed open to this. Others seemed afraid and maybe one or two were a bit put-off.

The question: What if a person doesn't deserve it? What if they haven't repented of what caused the offense or changed the way they were living or........?

The answer to this: You are still accountable for the forgiveness between you and God even if you have not given them such face to face.

I heard a preacher once who said that the only time you are required to express forgiveness to a person is when they are showing you repentance. Maybe so, but there comes a time when you can be using this for an excuse to hold onto anger as well. "They are never going to change", "Every time I forgive them, they still do the same thing", "How do I know that they are really sorry?" Any number of reasons to hold onto anger.

Forgiveness is the key to the existence of a Christian. If you cannot forgive, you are not living as a Christian. God says: I will forgive them their since and remember them no more. This is the standard of forgiveness that God sets. The moment we begin to change this standard, we then place ourselves in His stead. The first 11 apostles were given the authority either hold onto others sins or to let those sins go. The power is not in holding onto them. It is easy to hold a grudge. It is easy to be angry with others and to allow them to be your "reason" for being miserable, living in pain, living unhappy, never realizing that the kingdom is so near to us that we but need to reach for it in faith.

If you are unhappy, if you have not experienced joy, if you are ill, in pain, uncomfortable, angry, disappointed, or just simply "blah", I offer this advice:

Ask God, beg of Him, plead with Him to come to you and search you, have His Spirit begin at your toes and work His way up filling you with His Spirit with the intent of pushing anything of unforgiveness to the surface that you may take this ______ and place it before the throne of God, lay it at the foot of His cross and......

Turn Away from it.

Allow Him to do with it as He will, but as for you, Forgive........

The Flood

5 Wks ago, some one had a vision of a flood coming. There was a call for us to be prepared. Then, a week ago, another vision. This time it was of huge gates in heaven, holding back a flood of Living Water....the gates were of solid gold with gold recesses on them. Behind them, it appeared as though there was all this pooling of the Living Water that had not been loosed. It wasn't being sought after, so it wasn't being given and therefore it was backing up.



Another had a vision of two guardians in front of the Tree of Life and then water in the form of twin geysers shooting up from behind it.



Normally, I will often pray for fire to fall, receive fire and be blessed by the firery presence. During prayers at service this morning, a collecting together of the visions:



God is waiting for us to seek the outpouring of the Living Water...it will come as a flood, but pay attention to what flood waters do; they come upon the land and wash away all that is not clean and then depositing the rich soil ready for planting of crops. Without the flood waters, the soil dies, loses its potential, growth is nominal at best and that normally being useless weeds that choke the life out of fruit bearing plants. This is what God is looking for from us; don't hold your breath, don't try to get the house ready and don't try to stand against it. Ask God to send his flood, beg of God to cover you in Living Water, plead with him to release the flood gates so that we can be cleansed. Allow Him to wash through you so that you will be cleansed of all that is unclean and not of Him.

Those whom stand against the waters, are bound to be consumed by them. Only through surrender to the water can one hope to survive. Not only survive, but in the end to actually thrive.

This is His promise.

Pray that the Lord would release His waters, His healing waters as a great flood, wash us through and through, make ready our soil, energize our souls and lift our spirits upon the flood that we may be prepared for the coming of His Fire....

first things first

So, maybe this is what I am called to do, to add to what others would have of me.....sharing thoughts, prayers, whatever.

I'm not really sure about this. Call this a moment of stepping out of the boat in response to saying, Lord, if you tell me what to do, I'll do it.

There is something that needs to be said, before I begin this on a regular basis. I will be praying for each day, each post. I will pray over all comments. This will be open to thought, soul searching, and Christ seeking.

How's that for avoiding what this is about????

I am here to hear, I will speak what's spoken. What do I mean? Stay tuned to find out. There is a lot of things out there. There is a lot of noise out there. Noise which takes away from truth, noise which we use to turn off our souls, turn off our minds. Or noise that makes us feel less uncomfortable. Noise that deadens the old hurts, lets us walk around on a broken spiritual leg for the last 25 years and not think anything of it and when offered to get it healed, we say, naw, why would I do that, I'm used to walkin with a limp.....infact you're probably 6" shorter then you're supposed to be, but you don't want to reach for it since it would mean a whole new walk......and that walk may not look like what you are used to. Fact is, it won't look like anything you thought you could walk.

IHS,

Rev Frank