Speak Lord Part 2 : Forgiving the seemingly unforgivable.
Colossians 3:13 - bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. (NKJV)
Blessings everyone. Hope you've all had a blessed day so far. I'm back and I'm bearing gifts; Speak Lord Part 2. Before I get into the post I have a mini story for you guys.
On the 21st March 2020, I finished this post. I was about to send it to my friend to edit but I completely forgot. On the 22nd March 2020, I was about to send it to her but me being the interesting boy that I am, I decided to play with the font and the background of the post and long story short, I deleted the initial post. As a creative, I felt like this post was my baby; I loved it. But it was gone in a flash. I couldn't even recover it because this contraption called Blogger isn't anything like Microsoft so this post was gone quicker than disciples in the garden of Gethsemane. But as we all know, God is funny and has His will. Initially, this post was based around another passage and was going to be about obedience. However, this post has taken a complete left turn and is going to be discussing something that I am currently struggling with. God directed me and has given me everything I need for this post so I pray you guys enjoy it and are blessed.
Let's begin with David aka King David. I'm going to be discussing 1 Samuel 16.
The Spirit of God had just left King Saul because of his disobedience to God. Reading this story, I was so shocked at how God orchestrated this whole thing. After the Spirit of God left Saul, another spirit came and tormented Saul. He then called for a top musician from the kingdom to come and play for him. Now David had just been anointed the new king by the prophet Samuel - this was the start of the process that God was using to prep him for his office. David played many instruments. The guy was a top musician and on top of that according to 1 Samuel 16:12 was "dark and handsome". I'm sure there are many Davids today. My instrumentalist brothers, if sisters have been watching you and have been smiling as you're playing C# or applying a capo to your guitar, run
sksksk I'm joking..... I think.
Anyways, David was a handsome instrumentalist. King Saul heard about him (not knowing that this boy was his replacement, awkward) and beckoned the boy to his palace. David played some tunes for him and King Saul liked them so he decided to make David his armor bearer who would also play tunes for him. Whenever David played, the tormenting spirit would go away and Saul would be at peace.
Now fast forward to a famous story. David killed Goliath with a stone that sunk into the giants head.
The Spirit of the Lord was with David but this battle confirmed it. King Saul noticed and became very jealous. He slowly began to desire to kill David and he made multiple attempts.
1 Samuel 18:14 - "David continued to succeed in everything he did, for the LORD was with him." (NLT)
1. King Saul sent David to collect 100 Philestinian foreskins (yes, I know) but David came back with
200. This was practically sending him to his death but my God is greater.
2. He threw spears and javelins at David during his random outbursts and the Bible points out that he did this with the intent to kill David. This happened multiple times even in between the different plans he mustered up to kill David.
3. King Saul got assassins and even called on his son Jonathan (David's best friend) to try and kill David. Jonathan and David's loyalty to each other was so unmatched that Jonathan warned David beforehand.
4. He sent another batch of troops into the night to capture and kill David. Michal (Saul's daughter and David's wife) helped him escape.
5. King Saul then spent the rest of his life chasing poor David around the Kingdom trying to kill him and then died doing so.
Now, after all of this (and more) you'd be certain that if David got the chance to kill Saul, he would right? But fortunately, David wasn't like you and I. David ended up sparing King Saul's life twice.
1 Samuel 26:9-11 - 9 But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him; for who can stretch out his hand against the LORD’s anointed, and be guiltless?”10 David said furthermore, “As the LORD lives, the LORD shall strike him, or his day shall come to die, or he shall go out to battle and perish. 11 The LORD forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the LORD’s anointed. But please, take now the spear and the jug of water that are by his head, and let us go.” (NKJV)
David took things that were near the Kings head to show him that he found his hiding place and could have killed him in his sleep. After a short exchange between the king and David, David gave him back his spear and they departed from each other in peace.
Now you may be wondering where the forgiveness is in all of this but it all becomes clear when King David hears of King Saul's death in 2 Samuel 1. We are told that David and his men "tore their clothes in sorrow when they heard the news"(1 Samuel 2:11) and then David killed the man that killed king Saul. He then went further and composed a funeral song for Saul and Jonathan.
Do the things highlighted sound like something a man that hasn't forgiven his enemy would do?
Forgiveness is hard. It is very hard. Like I mentioned at the start, this is something that I'm struggling with so I when I had a situation, I called my friend and she gave me some very very good words which I'm going to share.
1. When we are unforgiving, it gives the enemy a footstool in our lives. God wants to use us all however, if you are harbouring an unforgiving spirit it makes it hard to move forward. All the bitterness and the anger will be stored up in you. We are told that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Matthew 24:34). So if your heart has all this bitterness in it and you're evangelising, the bitterness will show one way or another even though you may be trying to hide it.
2. In situations where it is a parent you need to forgive, satan will use it to get you to dishonour your parents and then, it will not be well with you (Exodus 20:12). Honor does not mean tolerate disrespect HOWEVER, you have to be respectful when raising issues like this. If we have to be real, most Nigerian parents (talking with regards to me because I'm Nigerian), especially Fathers will NOT listen to their children because it's a pride thing. So it is better to forgive and move on so you can better yourself and make sure that you don't repeat their mistakes to your children. There's a certain blessing that comes with parents so we need them by our side.
Even though Saul was not David's father, David treated him like he was. Honoring him and going back to him even after he tried to kill him multiple times.
Anyways, I'm going to go more into David later on in this post, but now we're going to go and meet my good bro Joseph aka guardian of colour schemes, the keeper of all shades and the pioneer of colour-clashes. Mr Technicolour coat.
Lets take it from Genesis 37. Joseph was one of Jacob's 11 sons and he was Jacob's favorite child and this was confirmed by giving Joseph a technicoloured coat. He was also a dreamer:
Genesis 37:9 - 9 Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, “Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me.” 10 So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?”
As you can see from the verses, his family weren't happy at all. Even his father whom loved him very much rebuked him. We're told in the verses following that his brothers started to feel jealous. Later on, when the opportunity rose, they plotted to kill Joseph but then one of Joseph's brothers Reuben came up with the plan to sell him into slavery instead. They then took the technicoloured coat, covered it with animal blood, gave it to their father Jacob and told him that his favorite son had died. See why they say "beware of the green-eyed monster"? Jealousy makes you a monster!!
Moving on to Joseph as a slave. He worked for an Egyptian officer called Pontiphar.
Genesis 39:2-3 - 2 The LORD was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. 3 And his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD made all he did to prosper in his hand.
Pontiphar now gave Joseph administrative roles because he was very happy with him. Joseph was the oga at the top (under his master of course). We are then told that just like David, Joseph was a handsome young man and soon Pontiphar's wife started to look at him lustfully (Genesis 39:7) and then sis went the extra mile and asked him to sleep with him.
*pause*
See how God works. Joseph went from being at the bottom of the well and being sold into slavery to being the ruler of a whole country.
*play*
Now this is where the forgiveness comes into play. The dream that Joseph interpreted from Pharaoh was one indicating a famine. Joseph's interpretation allowed the Egyptians to stock up and save up crop for the dry times. When the famine came, people were travelling to Egypt to get crop to eat because the famine was worldwide.
Remember Joseph's brothers? Yeah, they were going thin. They had no food. They were really suffering. Jacob heard that Egypt was popping so he told his sons to go and collect some crop. They made their way to Egypt and had to meet with the ruler of Egypt (or governor) who happened to be their supposed to be dead/sold into slavery brother Joseph. He noticed them straight away but thought them to be spies because of a dream he had a few years ago. His brothers denied that they were spies and told him their stories. They mentioned that their youngest brother Benjamin was at home with Jacob and that they had a brother who was no longer with them (Joseph who they thought was dead). He then tested their story and said that they should go and collect Benjamin and bring him back to Egypt as proof. We are told that Joseph wept after this and when he had regained composure, he said one of the brothers should stay in prison whilst the rest go back with grain to feed their families and to collect Benjamin. Talk about a forgiving God fearing man. Joseph wept for them and then gave them grain for their families. These are not actions of a man who has harbored hate in his heart.
To summarize the end of it, Joseph got to see Benjamin and his father. They all had a nice happy reunion and Joseph ends this whole family feud with a sweet line:
Genesis 50:20 - "But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive."
Like I was saying before, forgiveness helps you more than it helps the person that offended you. Yes, they did that unforgivable thing to you and yes it still burns because they have not apologised. But here is the catch - we're called to be set apart. We are the called out race. We have been called to conform to the image of Christ who forgave those who KILLED Him. I read somewhere that there is no way that we should even have the cheek to hold a grudge or be unforgiving because if we weigh up how many times we have disobeyed God's WRITTEN Word and decided to do our own thing and compare it to how many times someone has offended us or done something that we dislike (and these things are usually not vocalized because who goes around screaming their pet peeves or soft spots), we are the villain from all angles - we have done more wrong to God. We have offended God more times than people have offended us. God done told you not to do that thing, not to steal that cash or to change that price at work but you still said no. Every time you say no to the voice of the Spirit and you decide to fulfill your own desire, you put your fleshy needs before God's will for you life and whether you like it or not, God is now second place in your life because you have put yourself first.
We have been told to forgive. Every time you say no and you store that anger inside of you, Pastor David likens it to drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. You are only hurting yourself and becoming bitter. Now who wants to marry a bitter Betty? You, bitter Bernard expect to propose to a sister and have her say yes??
Moving on.
Luke 11:4 - and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation.”
When you pray the Lord's Prayer, you are telling God forgive me as I forgave that person who did me dirty. If you forgave them at 50% then....
YOU who doesn't even deserve to be forgiven, you still think you can withhold forgiveness?
Now again, forgiveness doesn't mean reconciliation. Again, I understand that you were hurt bad so it would be very silly to now go back to that same person. Forgiving them means giving it all to God. All your anger and rage. You need to be ready to let go. Reconciliation comes from the word reconcile which means " restore friendly relations between". We have been told to guard our hearts (Proverbs 4:23) so God would not endorse us going back to that person who wants to hurt you again intentionally.
However, God does just that. He hears your cry to Him when you sin and then allows you to come back to you. This helps me appreciate what Christ did even more; He gave us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18) and allowed us to be reconciled unto God . God forgives us AND restores our relationship with Him to its former glory and is even willing to work with you to better it.
Imagine if David didn't forgive Saul. Do you know how PROBLEMATIC it would have been for him? Remember, this is the SAME David who went on to sleep with Bethsheba, then kill her husband to cover it up? What grounds could he have come to God in Psalm 51 and ask for forgiveness? Being unforgiving is a sign of pride - you're too proud to let go of your hurt and go back to that person and put it in the past. God resists the proud!!
Imagine if Joseph didn't forgive his brothers. He would not have seen his father which was even a greater blessing to him. When you harbor a grudge, you're filling up your storage and not leaving enough space for the blessing that God wants to give you. Drop that grudge and let God hand you the blessing!
Now, I know some of you may look at this title post and will have got the forgiveness part but not the 'Speak Lord' part. I'm going to take you guys to one of my favourite scriptures - 2 Corinthians 3:2-5 but we are going to focus on verses 2 and 3.
2 Corinthians 3:2-3 - 2 The only letter of recommendation we need is you yourselves. Your lives are a letter written in our hearts; everyone can read it and recognize our good work among you. 3 Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This “letter” is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts.
You are a letter of recommendation to unbelievers about the work that Christ does. God speaks through YOU and your change. The letter isn't something that can be written for people to see with the naked eye but when the Spirit of the Lord moves and changes you, words of recommendation are written on your heart and when people see you, they see His work. People should see that the Word of God is guiding you and you should be aiming to be a reflection of the Word.
If you don't forgive someone, you're giving God a bad recommendation. Not that He needs it but humans always need physical evidence and substance before they take their first step. Just like one person can define and ruin a whole company, one 'bad' Christian sets everything off. 'Christian Twitter' (I prefer the notion that we are just Christians on Twitter) can relate to this. Someone can see you and think "wow, this God thing is real and it changes" and suddenly decide to give their life to Christ or step out of lukewarmness. God's agenda is bigger than you. Like I said in my last post, stop letting your FEELINGS get in the way of things.
Like I said, I myself am praying on the spirit of forgiveness and I am working on it so I will be taking everything I have written here onboard too.
This is the end of this post. I pray you were blessed. Please share, comment and hit me up on Twitter if you have any questions on anything. - www.twitter.com/johnpaulk01
Scriptures on forgiveness
Ephesians 4:32
Matthew 18:21-22
Matthew 5:7
Bible Plan on forgiveness : Living Changed: Forgiveness (click the red link)
As a young Black boy, I do have to address the injustices that are going on right now. As a believer, I have taken it up in prayer and urge you all to do the same. I KNOW satan is behind all this mess and division and he really needs to take a break because he's most certainly NOT getting paid for all this overtime. In addition, if you are in a position to, attend PEACEFUL protests and raise awareness. Sign petitions, donate and educate yourself.
To my non-Black readers, I'm very sure that Black culture has influenced your life positively. Please don't sit by and do nothing because silent is the worst thing to be at this point in time. Pray for the Black community, educate yourself and protest too. If you have the privilege, please use it. The devil is the master of disunity but Christ came to make us one body and have us life to the fullest.
Stay blessed everyone! #BLM #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd #JusticeForBellyMujinga.
Make sure to keep your eyes peeled for part 3 :)) - click the subscribe button on the top of the page to receive emails when new posts drop. 🙌🏿🙌🏿🙌🏿
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