RECAP 02.05.20

Good Morning Sisters,

Deep, rich and highly anointed! Still praising Him this morning!!! As prophet Lana Vawser said on Feb. 1st  “in this new era there is going to be incredible demonstrations of the Lord’s power and Glory. He is going to reveal Himself in such profound ways that it is going to leave the people of God and the world in awe of wonder of who He is.” Oh how we experienced this last night! The Lord is inviting us into places that are completely out of our depth. So new, so weighty, so heavy. His glory is resting on us heavily. In this new era there is going to be incredible demonstrations of His power and glory. He is looking for childlike faith and trust in this new era. He is looking for those who will take Him at His word and trust him completely like a little child. Not “childlike” in immaturity, but “childlike” in faith, trust and wonder of who He is.

Forgiveness is one of those deep areas. Do you see how easily a child forgives? A child does not hold anger or bitterness. In order for us to step into these new areas of anointing our hearts cannot be filled with unforgiveness. 

Last night we really dug into the power of forgiveness. I think we could all relate to the pain and heartache of Lisa Bevere’s personal story. Through her testimony the Lord reached down into our own hearts and revealed to us people we needed to release and forgive. It was powerful! And oh SO necessary in order for God’s healing and favor to flow. Nights like this I try so hard to articulate in words but I cannot. What we experienced was truly supernatural. THANK YOU Jesus for helping us to forgive and bless those who have hurt us. And THANK YOU for helping us to release and forgive ourselves as self condemnation and shame are at the root of so many of our problems today. 

Below are my notes from this chapter. Next week we conclude our Girls with Swords study with Chapter 14 entitled “Cross Carry.” I believe that the first and last of any study holds a special anointing so I am expecting a GREAT move of His power next Wednesday. 

Our new study “20/20” written by Christine Caine will begin on Wed. Feb. 19th (can be purchased on Amazon or Christian book store).  It is a 7 week study of how God sees you and has chosen YOU to make Jesus’s name known on this planet. Through biblical teaching and lessons from her own life, Christine challenges you to share the story of how God’s love has transformed your life right where you are. It is a study for NOW and is spot on for this season of reward.

I look forward to seeing your beautiful faces next Wednesday. SO excited for these coming weeks! We have much to look forward to. Our best days are ahead of us!

Love,

Sherry :-)

Notes on Chapter 13 “Sword of Forgiveness and Restoration”

This chapter is POWER-FUL!!!  We have the opportunity to weigh our motives. It’s all about the power of forgiveness and God’s ability to restore and renew what the enemy has stolen. We do not fight to tear down but to build up. The authority heaven lends to us on earth is to destroy evil by doing good. Through this chapter Lisa tells her personal story that was filled with mishaps, heartache, forgiveness and finally triumph. Lisa’s father died 9 years ago, but she felt fatherless long before his death. For most of his life he was a rough and angry man, born the son of Sicilian immigrants. He fought hard to find his place in the world. His own dad died when he was a young boy and he fought hard to survive. He became a successful home builder and yet the success he experienced could not heal the wounds in his heart.

They ate away at him and he turned to alcohol for comfort and escape. Her parents divorced and as the years passed her relationship with her dad faded away. She often reached out hoping things could be different. She prayed fervently for him. More than two decades passed when something shifted that changed everything. In 2009, Lisa, along with her son and his wife and first born son went to visit her father in an institution. The years of alcohol abuse had driven him to a state of dementia where he could no longer live on his own. He was a shadow of the man she had known and feared growing up. Not knowing what to do she prayed and asked the Lord what she should say. The Lord whispered, “Tell him he was a good dad.” What? Are you kidding? She was shocked. Why should I lie to my father? He hadn’t been a good father! He abandoned and rejected us and betrayed my mother with several affairs, ignored his grandchildren! What was good about this?”

She heard the Holy Spirit whisper. “He was as good as he knew how to be.” She took her father’s hand in hers, looked him in the eyes and said…”DAD, you were a GOOD DAD.” He started to cry as he formed the only two words he spoke during that visit…”THANK YOU.” Years of anger, shame and guilt rolled away and she saw her father for the first time. In that moment her son prayed for his grandfather and he received Christ. FORGIVENESS is the GREATEST GIFT you can give. We should give it liberally and fearlessly. 

This story resonates with me on so many levels. My life was riddled with much shame, anger and bitterness. On page 196 when Lisa says “she wept into the carpet...suddenly dawning on her that she was “fatherless” I knew exactly how she felt. She felt so rejected, abandoned and unloved. Then she heard what sounded like God laughing. She lifted her head from the carpet and heard Him whisper “You are looking at this all wrong. What you see as rejection I see as adoption.” WOW!!! When you are completely abandoned by your natural father, you are utterly adopted by me. In a sense your father has renounced any claim to you and your children. Now nothing stands between us. YOU ARE ALL MINE. Talk about a change of perspective! At the very moment she realized she was fatherless, she discovered she was adopted! What a life transforming revelation! From that moment forward Lisa did not look for anything from her father. He owed her nothing...no visits, approval, love, gifts or even kind words. 

John 20:23 says “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld”. 

Are you easily offended? Does unforgiveness affect your health and quality of life?

There is one thing we all encounter on a daily basis and that is the opportunity or temptation to be offended by something. And the people closest to you know how to push your buttons.

Offense is a tool of the enemy to bring people into captivity. The Greek word for “offend” in Luke 17:1 comes from the word “skandalon” which means laying a trap in someone’s way. Satan is trying to trap you through offense.

Offense can take on a life of it's on and can be an emotional default setting for a lot of people. It will creep up on you over the years if you don't use the word of God to keep it in its place. Offense will block all of the blessings of God that want to come to you.

The good news is that it's possible to live above offense and not become a victim to it. You cannot do it in your own strength but through God you can. The first thing you must do is to make a decision that you don't want to live this way. Once you make a decision that is in alignment with God's will all of the supernatural power of God comes in to help you with that decision. When you live a lifestyle of unforgiveness you become disconnected from society and this is not God's plan as He wants to use people to meet your needs. People do not like to be around those who live in offense. They use their sharp tongue as a weapon to hurt.

How do you lose the grip of offense on your life? First, know that you are not alone. It is the #1 tool of the devil. It's his most prevalent and most effective tool against mankind. He and his demons are constantly trying to get you to take offense. Why?

It blocks every blessing God has for you. It puts you in turmoil and makes you unhappy. It also opens doors to other things. James 3:16 says..."For where envying and strife is, their is confusion and every evil work."

When you get envy and strife out peace comes, and the blessings are free to flow. When strife comes it opens the door wider for the devil to push in every other evil work. It's a downward spiral. Offense opens the door for the devil to hurt and afflict you. It gives him legal right to come in. Did you know that the whole word of God and the whole universe is a legal contract between God, man and the devil?

And WE are the deciding factor. He made us in His image so we have choice. We have God's principles and pressure from the devil. Every human being has this. We can ignore them, cross them and not flow with them. We can choose to reject God and when we do that we throw the door open to destruction and disaster.

What do doctors treat most? 90% are stress related illnesses.

Where does the stress come from? Strife and unforgiveness. This will absolutely destroy your immune system. Holding onto anger and holding onto hurt is linked to arthritis, Chron's disease, cancer, autoimmune disease and all kinds of other diseases and ailments. Your gut is the seat of everything that goes on in your body. It's like grand central station. Every system is your body is connected to it! When you're upset you secrete more acid in your stomach and interrupt digestion which is key to every cell in your body. When your digestive system is off your entire body is off. So, when you're all wrought up and not peaceful it has a huge impact on your immune system. You simply can't assimilate your food correctly when you're upset.

Disease seems so complicated yet the answer is very simple to understand.  So many things in our bodies can be traced back to hurt, offense and bitterness. Many people are walking around with deep wounds and condemnation. The good news is that you can step your way out of offense with the word of God. Offense is a total waste of time, energy and strength!  Some people have been in offense most of their lives. There are instances in which family members haven't spoken to one another in years. You can end that today.

Paul gives us Biblical proof that offense makes our bodies sick. He is talking to the believers in Corinth telling them the reason some of them are sick. 1 Corinthians 11:30 says "For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many asleep." He is saying that Christians should examine themselves but not beat themselves up over sin but determine if they are holding something against a fellow believer that could cause disunity in the body. In other words, offense destroys your body. Medical science has confirmed it. Unforgiveness will make you sick. Unforgiveness is like you taking poison and expecting the other guy to die. If you stay offended you become toxic physically, emotionally and spiritually blocked in from God's blessings. So, don't drink the kool aid of offense. In order to have healing in your body you must not hold unforgiveness against yourself or others!

So how did Christ handle those who came against him and hurt him? How did he avoid being offended?

1 Peter 2:23-24 says "When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed."

Christ is our example! HE is the one we are to follow to avoid offense! He forgave them and committed it to God, the righteous judge! Although He was the most undeserving person to be reviled He refused to revile back. He didn't try to get even when he suffered. Instead, He committed himself and the situation to God, the righteous judge. This makes all the difference in the world. This changes from you from being a doormat... letting everyone walk all over you to YOU being in control, refusing to revile back and committing it to God. We were simply not designed to carry that type of care. We don't have the credentials to judge therefore we must give it over to the only One who does. Let the bitterness and the offense go and commit it to God. Whatever bitterness, anger or offense you are holding onto today my friend LET IT GO and COMMIT IT TO GOD!

Forgive even if it has to be through gritted teeth. You can say "I forgive" even when you don't feel like it.

How do you know you've totally forgiven someone?

There are 7 ways you can know for sure if you've forgiven those who have hurt you:

1) You don't tell anybody what they did to you. Joseph, in the Book of Genesis, is a great example of forgiveness and how God can work through a person who chooses to forgive. In Genesis 45 Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers behind closed doors because he knew the people of Egypt would hate them if they knew what they had done to him. Why do we immediately want to get on the phone and tell when someone has hurt us? Because we want to bring them down off of their pedestal... to hurt them and keep them from being liked and admired. It's our way of punishing them even though God says vengeance is His. In total forgiveness you tell no one what they did. There are two exceptions: 1) You may tell one person for therapeutic reasons... someone who won't tell anyone. 2) When the person who hurt you is a danger to society. Tell the Lord what they did. Psalm 142 tells us to pour our complaints out to the Lord... to tell HIM our troubles.

2) You don't let them be afraid of you. The moment he says he is Joseph his brothers are terrified but he puts them at ease. Jesus always wants us to be at ease and taught us to call him Abba (daddy).

3) You don't let them feel guilty.

Joseph tells his brothers not to feel distressed or angry with themselves for selling him into slavery. Have you ever said to someone..."I forgive you but I hope you feel bad about it"? You really want to make sure they're really sorry and feel bad. And if they say they're sorry you wonder if they're sorry enough. You want them to know how hurt you are. Many of the people you need to forgive you don't have to say a word to, because the forgiveness happens in your own heart. Nine out of ten people you need to forgive don't think they've done anything to you. And that's really what hurts. It takes minimal grace to forgive them when they're sorry. It takes a whole lot of grace to forgive them when they're not sorry and don't think they've done anything wrong. Let them off the hook. That's what Jesus did.

4) Let them save face. Joseph covered for his brothers as if he didn't know what had happened. He wanted to protect them. You win a friend for life when you let him or her save face.

5) You protect them from their darkest secret. Joseph knew that his brothers would rather die than tell their father Jacob what they had done to him. He did not ask them to. Rather he tells them word for word what to say to Jacob when they returned to Canaan. God is this way with us. We've all got skeletons in our closet and He knows enough about us to bury us but doesn't. He lets us save face.

6) Total forgiveness is a life sentence. It's not something you do just once. You have to do it as long as you live. You have to do it today, tomorrow and everyday. Even years later Satan will try to remind you of what they did to you in an attempt to get you all churned up inside. Seventeen years after Joseph forgives and blesses his brothers his father dies. The brothers are afraid and make up a story saying that Jacob had asked Joseph to forgive them. They think that because their dad is now dead Joseph is gonna throw the book at them. Joseph starts to cry because he forgave them then and forgives them now. Joseph realizes that forgiveness is not a one time thing. Total forgiveness is a life sentence and must be done today and everyday.

Do you know why God could trust Joseph to be Prime Minister of Egypt? It wasn't his gift in foreign languages, his IQ, or his diplomatic skills. He really had forgiven his brothers. No matter what your IQ is or how educated or uneducated you are God has a work for you to do that no one else can do. But it's not until you set "them" free that you can be trusted with what you have been earmarked for.

7) You bless them. And in Genesis Chapter 50 we see that's just what Joseph did.  This is the hardest thing to do but is so necessary in order to totally forgive and set yourself free. 

Put them on your prayer list everyday and ask God to bless them. Once you do God's blessings will begin to flow into your life!

Forgiveness is the KEY to your freedom my friend! Make the decision today to forgive!