Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Matthew 7:1-2.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
My Son has released you from your sins by His blood and made you a kingdom, priest unto Me who shall reign on earth. Revelation 1:5-6; Revelation 5:9-10.
“You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.” Revelation 5:10.
You are called to My eternal glory and Kingdom, you are joint heirs with Christ, and My Holy Spirit is in you so you are filled with resurrection power. As My special treasure and royal priesthood you are pursuing the outcome I want in any situation, getting My Will done on earth as it is in Heaven. YOU ARE WORKING WITH ME TO MOVE THE PEOPLE WHO ARE OBSTACLES TO MY WILL BEING DONE AND PULLING DOWN THE STRONGHOLDS THAT THE DEVIL HAS ERECTED IN VARIOUS PEOPLE, PLACES, AND THINGS.
I want to repeat once again what prevailing prayer is, it is using your faith with Mine to obtain a miraculous result to which there is opposition from the world, the flesh, and the devil. It could be a hindrance that you find in yourself or another that is limiting the greatness of what I desire as the outcome in various situations.
Walk worthy of the calling you have received. And how do you do that? By hearing and doing My Word, be a living embodiment of My Word as Jesus was, imitate Him as My dear children and walk in love.
Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. Matthew 5:23-24.
In Jesus I was reconciling the world to Myself, not counting your sins and transgressions against you but making Him who knew no sin to be sin on your behalf so in Him you are righteous with My own righteousness. It is the divine exchange, He took all your sins and gave you His righteousness, which is the righteousness of God. And I have made you ministers of reconciliation calling people back to Me through the forgiveness of their sins which had divided us. You are My ambassadors of reconciliation and unification. If that is the case, how is it that you who preach My all-encompassing forgiveness as manifested in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus have not forgiven others and even yourself?
When Jesus taught prayer to His disciples they were the ones who were to be with Him and to go out from that relationship to the people to lead them back into Him with them, and thus back to Me for He is the only way to Me. And He taught them the glorious foundation and template from which all priestly prayers ascend to My throne as incense in the golden bowls of the twenty four elders twenty-four hours a day. And we had considered the opening in relationship (Our Father), your position (in Heaven seated with Me in Christ), the lifting up of the promises in My Name in awesome wonder and partaking through them in My divine nature, bringing Kingdom living into the earth, and calling the glory to fill the earth as My Will is done on earth as it is in Heaven as you tear down and demolish the strongholds of Satan with the Word, which is the sword of the spirit in all prayer and petition, pray too in the Spirit, and after that we began the verses that address relationship with Me which leads to provision, revelation, forgiveness, protection, direction, and expectation, with the verse “give us this day our daily bread.” Today we move on to “And forgive us our sins (debts, trespasses), as we also have forgiven those who have sinned (trespassed) against us (those who are our debtors).” Matthew 6:12.
And this is so very important that right after He taught the prayer, He continued and said,
“For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” Matthew 6:14-15.
This was the only part He chose to elaborate on. Why? This is the part that most people, even believers, do not take Me seriously but indulge themselves in this area. Forgiving is the most important thing you do all day. I did not say it is the one thing necessary or the thing to seek first, but for keeping your soul right and your heart open to receive and hear My voice, you must forgive. Taking offense, if harbored and meditated upon, produces bitter roots and poisonous shoots that entwine around the door of your heart allowing no entrance to healing or other good things and perfect gifts coming down from Me. I answer all your prayers but an unforgiving heart is a hard heart and the devil can steal My Words when they land on a hard heart.
“Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God. Those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they will not believe and be saved.” Luke 8:11-12.
Unless you forgive, you will never truly live and you will not set people free who need forgiveness from you to give them courage anew. Your children, your spouse, your co-workers, your siblings, your relatives, your parents, and you yourself are all waiting to be set free by your forgiveness.
So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.” John 20:21-23.
What is the most important thing I tell you that I did for you in Jesus?
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. 1 Corinthians 15:3.
But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. Matthew 26:27-28.
Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:38.
Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.” Acts 10:43.
Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Acts 13:38.
To open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’ Acts 26:18.
For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:13-14.
I think I have made My point. Without forgiveness of your sins, you could not enter My Kingdom. Without forgiveness of sins you could not receive the gift of righteousness and enter into fellowship with Me. I judged sin in Adam and its penalty was eternal death. Simply put, without forgiveness of sins you could have no relationship with Me, and certainly not an eternal one.
Now, what is the first benefit I list in Psalm 103 that opens the door for receiving all the other benefits? That I forgive ALL your sins. Psalm 103:3. And from that flows healing, redemption, love and compassion, good things, and renewal of youth. My forgiveness of all your sins is of first importance in your life to open the door to promotion, blessing, and eternal life, which is to know Me and My Son. The reason you can come with confidence to My throne is because your sins and offenses I remember NO MORE.
Think about that a moment.
Now what do I require of you? Go and do the same. As you have freely received, you are freely to give.
Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32.
I am not telling you to let evil go, but I am telling you not to let it grow in your heart in response. When I act justly I do so with no hate or rancor, but I will put things right. As I did for My people in Egypt when I redeemed them out of slavery and the killing of their baby sons by a corrupt and evil government. But I took care of it when they went too far and were about to slaughter My nation.
Forgiving others frees you to live above and not beneath the slavery of unforgiveness. Yes, unforgiveness of others enslaves you to carrying that tormenting burden through life and it is too heavy for you to bear alone, so you will keep trying to share it with those near you to get them under the load with you, but that will not ease the burden. For those who are near to you that take your “side” in the hatred of the other, it will crush them as well. You may not like to label it as such but unforgiveness for another will turn to hatred of that person, even if you think you once loved them, if you fester it and let it grow instead of pulling it up at the root. And hate for another in your heart I liken to being a murderer.
Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 1 John 3:15.
The more seeds you sow in yourself and others by thinking upon and speaking about what the other did to you the bigger the harvest of ill will, malice, torment, and hatred you will grow. And you will eat the fruit thereof. Poisonous fruit comes from a poisonous root. And all will know you by your fruit as a bitter and unforgiving person. You become someone for others to avoid.
Unforgiveness in your heart towards others is also a huge barrier to receiving from Me, not because you are not forgiven in Christ, He paid the ransom for all, but for the reasons I will set out in this Life Lesson. So if you have not been receiving healing for your ills and pains, or if you are suffering financially or mentally, you must pay careful attention to what I will tell you today.
First, you must understand how I forgive sins. It is not based on a whim of whom I like and whom I do not like that changes from day to day. It is legal justification. When I created mankind in My image and according to My likeness I formed you from My Word. My Word is truth and truth is an imperishable seed. The truth is forever.
Lies are perishable seed, lies cannot stand forever. You cannot live a lie forever. Lies must die in the face of truth. In a legal case being decided at court, once the truth is established the truth prevails over lies.
When Adam sinned by rejecting My incorruptible Word of truth and submitting himself to the perishable seed of a lie, it corrupted his seed and the line he fathered, which is all of you. He was born again by a lie taken in and acted upon and he passed from life to death. A corruptible root produced corrupted fruit. All men became perishable and subject to death. He murdered the eternal life that was in him for himself and all his descendants by being born again by the perishable seed of a lie. He left My jurisdiction and put himself under the master and father of lies, the realm of darkness. He fell below the light line to the dirt of the earth. Born no longer from above but from below.
And He received the sentence of truth for his conduct: the second death unless he could pay off the debt mankind owed Me. And what debt was that? A life for a life. That is the standard of justice. And here man had to pay with an eternal life for the eternal life he lost by sin. But no one had an eternal life in the flesh with which to pay. And the life is in the blood to make atonement on the altar before Me. But no one had eternal blood to give.
But when in the fullness of time I sent My Son, the promised seed of the virgin that would crush the devil’s head and ransom you all by paying your debt to Me in full by giving an eternal life in the flesh for the one you had murdered and lost, I saved you from eternal death and gave you newness of life.
My Son came according to the flesh as your kinsman redeemer but according to the spirit as My eternal Son, born in the flesh from the imperishable seed of My Word. Born in time but also in the eternal that all sins were accounted for in Him. He was the only one qualified to do so since no one else had an eternal life to give to Me for the one you lost.
You are forgiven by the blood of Jesus. And so is everyone. There is the final question of whether you will receive the gift of righteousness by receiving Jesus as Lord in faith that I raised Him from the dead with all your sins gone, no gift is complete until received, but it is there for everyone. As far as I am concerned, sin is no longer a problem, you are all forgiven by the blood of Jesus and that is how I forgive you and everyone else. It is more than enough to cleanse you and justify you. The only issue now in whether you join Me in eternal life in the Kingdom or not is whether you receive Jesus as Lord.
But there is a spiritual law here that cannot be broken and give a good result. Just as you cannot ignore the law of gravity when you are on a high floor of a building and jump out your window or off your lanai without dire consequences, so the same is true of spiritual laws.
And I have told you this law many times, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Mathew 7:1-2. It is a spiritual law of reciprocity. The standard you judge with I MUST use back on you. By your words you are acquitted and by your words you are condemned. This is a legal matter.
If you refuse to forgive another (or yourself for that matter), in reality, you are telling Me that the blood of Jesus is not enough to take away that sin. And if it is not enough for you to forgive another or even yourself for that matter, My hands are tied and I must follow your standard back on you. So the blood is not enough for you as well and you are back in your sins.
You can think of it like a subrogated insurance claim. If someone damages your house, your homeowners insurance will pay you for the damage, but then the insurance company has a subrogated claim and will go after the culprit to pay back what the insurance company paid to you to make you whole. Hence you do not care about the tortfeasor who damaged your home, you have been compensated. Do you see? Vengeance is Mine. I know hearts. My judgment is just.
You have been paid by the blood of Jesus for every sin committed against you and every sin you did just as I have. He redeemed you from your debt and gave you an abundance to take care of other’s debts to you as well. He is more than enough to fill all your needs and restore you to wholeness. Leave justice against the other person to Me and enjoy that I have paid you in full for all your troubles by the blood of the Lamb.
But if you do not forgive than you have set the standard that the blood is not enough to take away sins, and I must apply the same to you.
I think now you will understand a parable told by My Son:
Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven times. For this reason the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ And the lord of that servant felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; a mere fraction of what he had owed, and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. So when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow servant, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.” Matthew 18:21-35.
And again,
Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.” Mark 11:25-26.
And again:
Pray, then, in this way: “Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. Matthew 6:9-15.
There are three witnesses from My Word. This is very serious. Do not take it lightly. Unforgiveness can ruin your life by making it hell on earth and can rob you of your eternal reward. It will send you to hell with the master you have submitted to. The devil does not forgive and consequently he cannot be forgiven.
Most people today, however, do not understand the beauty of living in the atmosphere of forgiveness and mercy and are entrenched in a lifestyle of offense and unforgiveness. It is encouraged by society today. And though they do not realize it, this lifestyle is killing their dreams, their health (for they are not walking in the truth that will set them free), and their eternal destiny.
Do not be among those that give to others what they do not want given to them.
By way of summary therefore: I forgive you based on one standard only—the blood of Jesus. He paid the ransom for all. The life is in the blood and He gave every drop of His blood to redeem you from your sins and give you forgiveness, total forgiveness with nothing left out. I punished Him in your place and what He did was enough for everyone from the beginning to the end of time as you know it to be forgiven and cleansed of all evil.
And just as I forgave you, which is by the blood of Jesus, so you must forgive others, that is, by remembering Jesus. Jesus has paid you for whatever evil someone did against you by His blood. He has also paid for anything evil you did against yourself or others by His blood. And that is the way I forgive all as well. Whether you receive it is up to you, but as far as I am concerned sin is no longer the issue that decides your eternity, it is whether you have received or rejected the gift of Jesus that I offer you.
If you receive Him, you receive the gift of forgiveness by His blood, if you reject Him you have refused to receive forgiveness and you are still in your sins. And the wages of sin is death.
What you do not forgive you lose. Many have lost their friends, spouses, families, children, and parents because they would not forgive them. I did not want to lose you, so I forgave you and I did it justly. My mercy towards you caused My justice to fall on My Son. And because of His great love for Me and you, He agreed to the plan of Salvation.
If you cannot forgive another you are telling Me that under your standard the blood of Jesus is not enough. And if it is not enough for you, then I am held to use the same standard towards you that you are using to others. It is not enough for you either and you are still in your sins. And the same is true if you cannot forgive yourself for things you have done that you have already confessed to Me, they are gone, washed away by the blood, but if you cannot accept that forgiveness and are holding yourself in the bondage of self-condemnation, then you are telling Me the blood is not enough and that is the way I must deal with you and you are still in your sins! Because there is nothing higher than the blood.
In fact if you refuse to forgive yourself or others you are dishonoring what I have done for you in Christ by telling Me that the blood is not enough, but it is more than enough, but as Elisha told the king’s steward about the twenty-four hour miracle, because he scoffed at it and rejected it he did not participate in it.
The highest honor you can give Me is applying the blood in grateful praise to know how forgiven you are and how Christ has paid you for whatever anyone has done to you as well. And just as insurance will pay off your loss, the insurance company will then go after the culprit to collect in a subrogation claim. So I do the same for you. Vengeance is Mine.
I love you. Take this Life Lesson to heart. When you understand the fullness of the redemption you have in Christ you will become the new creation that receiving Him makes you to be. And your life will be one of pure heavenly joy for the air you breathe will become the atmosphere of Heaven. Everyone there knows how beloved, how forgiven, how blessed, and how favored they are. All cups overflow. And you hear it in the songs of the redeemed, just read chapters 5 and 7 of the Book of Revelation. I surround you with songs of deliverance. It is time you sang them with Me. The past is over, finished and gone, it’s time to step up and sing a new song, I am your God, I’m calling to YOU, come live in the light of My love! Come, come, and walk with Me, beloved within My light, come, come, and soar with Me, on the wings of the wind we’ll take flight.