Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God. Luke 9:62.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלוהים) says:
Unforgiveness is of the past, but if not dealt with and put down, it is carried into the present and the future. If you don’t let go of unforgiveness by giving forgiveness, it will never let go of you until it destroys you and others. An unforgiving parent will destroy not only his own life but also that of the unforgiven child. When you discipline a child never make them feel unforgiven, continue to give them love and forgiveness along with the correction and direction. Correction and discipline of a child is showing them love so that they do not ruin themselves from a lack of restraint.
Don’t let things fester and grow. Never let the sun go down on your anger. Get rid of the spirit of anger attacking you. Your anger has never worked justice and righteousness. Righteousness is harvested from seeds sown in peace by those who make peace.
“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny. Matthew 5:23-26.
Know this first of all for it will help you to forgive yourself and others: You are forgiven and you are loved forever!
First let us consider the unforgiveness of yourself. For as long as you live under the curse of self-condemnation you will not be able to advance in virtue. You will keep falling into sin and further condemnation.
Let Me give you an upfront rule here: Cover the past with My mercy and clothe the future with My love.
Many of you are grieving over things of the past where you failed to follow a direction of Mine, or acted contrary to My Word and My law, but I can take care of that. Do not think you have lost your destiny because you took a wrong turn, even if you took it out of disobedience or fear, My gifts and My call are irrevocable. It may not be that I put you back in the same place, but I will move you forward in your calling. And your life will be the full measure of what I called you to do. You can trust Me to complete the good work I have begun in you even when you have missed the mark. Continue forward in My upward call in Christ Jesus.
He who puts his hand to the plow and keeps looking back is not fit for My Kingdom. Why? You will not go forward with Me if all you are doing is looking back with regret over where you did not do something I told you to do or you did something I told you not to do. Do not think you lost it all and I will exclude you from getting to your promised land. I am not like that. I am for you.
David knew that, “this I know,” he sang, “God is for me.” No matter what. I always cause you to triumph in Christ Jesus. There is cause for rejoicing here, not for grieving. Remember when the Israelites, when I graciously supplied for their return to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon, were grieving because of all the ways they had disobeyed and spurned Me by refusing to obey My Word, My Covenant? They were weeping from remorse and shame as Ezra read to them from the Torah.
But I had a different idea which I shared with Nehemiah and Ezra, and the Levites, so that Nehemiah, who was the governor of the returning Israelites, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep. Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be still, for the day is holy; do not be grieved.” All the people went away to eat, to drink, to send portions and to celebrate a great festival, because they understood the Words which had been made known to them. Nehemiah 8:9-12.
I want you to dwell with joy in My love for you, not that you have loved Me but that I have loved you and given My Son as propitiation for your sins. Once you have repented and returned to Me with all your heart, instead of grieving over your failures and sins, rejoice in that you are forgiven, made righteous, and justified in Christ. Jesus took upon Himself all your sins and received the punishment of divine justice for you. He presents you holy, blameless and beyond reproach before Me. Stop groveling before Me and heaping reproach upon your head. Get up, like I told Joshua, and listen to My direction and go forward to win.
My apostle Paul understood forgiveness. He had wasted many years before he got on the assignment for his life, but he did not let that slow him up from going forward. He wrote, “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12-14. Do you see? “Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Forget the past, I am doing something new in your life, do you not perceive it? And N.E.W. means “never ending wonders.” You will not perceive it if you are blocking communication with Me and distancing yourself from Me because of your past sins and failures, or even ones you did today out of momentary weakness. You will be like the barren bush in the desert that does not see good when it comes and just lets it go on by without taking hold of it.
If you are grieving and staying in remorse before Me, you will be weak and incapable of going forward. But I am calling you higher. But I only tell you in the Bible one thing that gives you strength: joy. And a particular kind of joy, My joy.
I have given you My joy. Jesus told you that, “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” John 15:11. And then He prayed to Me, “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.” John 16:13.
And do you see from this where that joy comes from that goes into you? I assume if you want joy unspeakable and full of glory, you will want to go to the source of that joy so you may have it always, no matter what the circumstances, no matter who or what tries to take your joy. And the source of that joy? My Word. Did you see? The joy came from the Words Jesus had spoken to them. Both faith and joy come by hearing and hearing My Word. Try reading Psalm 91, Psalm 103, and Psalm 23 and you will get more and more joyful as you realize every promise in those is “yes” to you in Christ Jesus.
Without joy, you have no strength. You just want to go by yourself and end it all in a good cry and give up trying. I anointed My Son with the oil of joy so that He could finish His assignment for the joy that lay before Him. And His anointing, as your great High Priest, runs down from Him, the Head of the Body, onto all the members of the Body. Come share your Master’s joy!
A fruit of the Holy Spirit is joy and when you remain in My Word and My Word remains in you, you will bear fruit and that fruit also contains joy. My Word gives joy. You know that. If sickness is attacking and trying to come in you, when you read that I am the Lord who heals you and that by the stripes of My Son you are healed that will give you joy and confidence that you are healed and the sickness, which is illegal, cannot come in your house. My Words are Spirit and Life, in them is eternal life, so in My every Word there is joy that can be released to impart a joy to you that no one can take from you.
If you are grieving over your sins, it brings you joy to know that My Word, which is truth, tells you that I remember your sins and lawless deeds NO MORE. My Son took them on Himself for all time and if He took them, you no longer have them. You are not just forgiven, which you are, but beyond that—I took care of the sin problem in your life entirely—your sins are not just forgiven they are gone, like the mist in the morning sun, borne by Him who knew no sin, but became sin for you all. Jesus. Jesus is joy to you for in Him you have everything. When you have Jesus you have everything you will ever need or want, whether it be physical, financial, emotional, relational, or spiritual. In Jesus, ALL I have is yours, and that includes My joy. But like all the promises that are “yes” to you in My Son, you must come and take them or they will just sit there looking beautiful, but you will not be using them or benefiting from them.
I love you. Know that My mercy is as great as My majesty. It reaches all mankind. It is hard for you to even begin to fathom the depths of My mercy. When I forgive your sins, they are gone. I remember them no more. You are washed clean in the Blood of My Son and become holy and blameless in My sight. I forgive your sins, not because of any righteous act you do, but because of Who I AM. I am love. The Hebrew word for love and mercy is the same. You will find it translated both ways in the Old Testament. And I do not change. My mercy and My love endure forever.
I so love you that I gave My Son to die to pay the penalty due for your sins. His Blood was shed so your sins are forgiven. He sealed this at the Last Supper in an everlasting Covenant when He took the cup and changed the wine to His Blood and proclaimed it the new and eternal covenant in His Blood shed for you and for all for the forgiveness of sins. My mercy is so great and the Blood of My Son so powerful that it can cleanse out the most stubborn stains of sin so that not a trace of them is left. Though your sins be red as crimson and scarlet, I make them white as wool. As far as the east is from the west, so far have I put your sins from you. I have taken them off you and plunged them into the depths of the sea. Stop looking back with regret and shame. If you have taken Jesus as your Lord and repented of your sins and transgressions, your foolish actions and unthinking and unkind words, they are forgiven and gone. You are cleansed by the Blood of My Son. Rejoice as the prodigal son when he returned home. Join in the feast, the celebration of the marriage of our spirits.
In tomorrow’s LIfe Lesson we will discuss forgiveness for others.