FORGIVENESS - Preparation for Glory

10/27/99

Hi Loved Ones,

God’s glory and awesome Presence is going to descend upon earth and among the great shaking of the earth and shaking of all that is dark, we are going to experience glorious things that our eyes have never seen and our ears have never heard before! (I Cor 2:9) I live and breath this anticipation and my heart pants for the fullness of His Presence. In my recent prayers I have been saying, "Oh Lord, prepare us for You! Anything left in our lives that is yet keeping us unprepared, please bring to the surface now. Deliver us from our blindness so that we may comply with Your wishes and be prepared to be used as Your vessels, bringing salvation, healing and deliverance!" The following are 4 pieces of revelation He brought to me in answer to that prayer.

(1) FORGIVENESS IS VITAL

I listened to a series of old tapes from Derick Prince’s deliverance ministry, and also a recent Colorado conference on deliverance. Between all the speakers and the tapes, there was a consistent theme for those needing deliverance, those needing to keep the deliverance they have received and those needing healing ….. Forgiveness is a foundational key.

The demonic world is governed by spiritual laws in which they must comply, and they also receive their legal rights within those laws. Listen to the following permission given to the tormentors!

Matt 18:33-35

"Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and DELIVERED HIM TO THE TORMENTORS, till he should pay all that was due unto him.

SO LIKEWISE SHALL MY HEAVENLY FATHER DO also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses."

The Greek word for tormentors (930) comes from a word meaning to torture, pain, toil, torment, toss, vex. Jesus said our heavenly Father will deliver us to the tormentors if we do not forgive. These tormentors are demons given full legal permission to vex our lives when we have unforgiveness in our hearts!

When we forgive someone, we do not point a finger against them, we do not criticize them, we do not speak ill of them, we do not slander their reputation, we do not desire their punishment, we do not judge them, we do not accuse them…. etc!

The Greek word to forgive (#863) means the following:

aphiemi (af-ee'-ay-mee); from NT:575 and hiemi (to send; an intens. form of eimi, to go); to send forth, in various applications (as follow): cry, forgive, forsake, lay aside, leave, let (alone, be, go, have), omit, put (send) away, remit, suffer, yield up. (From Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c) 1994, Biblesoft and International Bible Translators, Inc.)

When we forgive someone, we lay aside their crime, we forsake their debt, we yield up their punishment, we omit pointing our fingers, accusation and back biting, we leave the offense behind us.

(2) RESISTING THE ACCUSER IS VITAL

On 7/17/99 I had a "gazing wonder" vision, and I saw 2 beautiful identical white eagles in the sky. They were wondrous to my eyes, as they were extremely huge. I had never seen a white eagle before, and they were pure like doves, but I sensed in my spirit as I gazed at them that they were eagles. They were very big and not even in the dinosaur days did we have birds this size. They were much bigger than our largest airplanes.

Suddenly out of nowhere I saw a dragon swoop down and grab the birds and the 3 of them were connected and wrestled in the sky. The dragon was about twice the size of the 2 birds connected. His intention was to cast the eagles down to the ground and make them fall. It was a powerful struggle, but the birds did not fall.

As I was gazing into the sky watching this, suddenly I was swept into a very fast flowing river with strong current. I saw Keiko the whale swimming past me. Keiko’s size was huge and even though it was very intimidating, I knew he was kind and had no intentions of hurting me. Keiko seemed preoccupied with something upstream. Suddenly Keiko took off in a dead heat swim downstream. I looked upstream and noticed there was a great number of identical whales coming downstream like torpedoes. They were going so fast that they were like a blur.

I realized that the dragon was no longer fighting the 2 white birds, but had gone into the water to find the "hidden" whales. As soon as I realized this, I came out of the vision and I saw a picture vision of the dragon’s face right in my face. I had just enough time to say, "I bind you satan" and it disappeared and left.

In my past rhema, Keiko the whale (and his story) is a prophetic parable, and although I don’t have space for his story and explanation here, he represents the called and chosen leaders who have been hidden away and prepared for leadership. They received their training in captivity, received a spiritual enlargement in the past couple years and are waiting the Lord’s promised enduement of power and to be released into an even greater promotion. Personally I think that Keiko represents the coming government/foundation of the apostles and prophets.

Pondering the vision it was apparent to me that the dragon was the accuser in Revelations 12, and his intent for this season is to chase after and accuse those anointed ones. As a sidebar warning, it is vital for these people to follow their conscience very carefully, so as not to give the accuser any ammunition. He has enough without giving him fuel and making things worse.

As the body of Christ, we are in desperate need for holy leaders to bring forth the unpolluted Word of God to help prepare us for the pressing, yet glorious times. We need to pray for them, not agree with the accuser. If we hear accusations against one of these chosen vessels, no matter how true, it is our place to forgive them and ask God for mercy. The scripture says that if we do not forgive others, then neither will our heavenly Father forgive us. (Mark 11:25-26)

(3) FORGIVING OUR LEADERS IS VITAL

As I was thinking about the fact that our leaders are facing the accuser and they are our spiritual "parents" so to speak, the Holy Spirit brought back to memory an interesting connection I heard in the deliverance tapes. They mentioned that the most common place of unforgiveness was the need to forgive one’s parents. Then yesterday I read the following interesting story about forgiving President Clinton.

This story is re-posted with permission from:

Kevin Matthews

RAPHA Christian Ministries

www.rapha.org

"I was ministering at a large AG church in Duluth, Minnesota a month ago and was approached by a lady there who related the following story:

About two or three years ago, this lady had begun a small business that became very successful in a short space of time. As a result, she was invited to attend the White House along with several others from around the country to receive a commendation from the First Lady. This was during the time of the scandal. The lady related to me that when news of the scandal leaked out she was disgusted with the President. However as time went on a prophetic word came in the church that 'instead of throwing the first stones the church ought to be the first to lay them down and pray for forgiveness and reconciliation.’ The word had such an effect upon the congregation that many began right there to pray for the President instead of accusing him.

Shortly after this, the lady went to the White House. She decided to take with her a small stone as a gift for the President, in the unlikely event that she would have the opportunity to talk with him. After being honored in the ceremony the First Lady and then the President came and talked with her. As the President took his leave, she addressed him, "Mr. President, I would like to give you a gift from my church" and proceeded to take out the small stone that was in her pocket. She said to him, "This is from our church, we just wanted you to know that we have no stones to throw at you, rather we are giving you this stone, we'd like you to accept it as a symbol of forgiveness

with the hope of healing." She related that tears began to run down the President's face as he quickly thanked her and turned away. Shortly afterwards, an aide came to her and said, "I don't know what you said to the President, but I've never seen him so moved. The stone that you gave him has now been placed prominently on his desk."

[end of story]

As I read this story, I could see so clearly the Lord had answered my prayer for Him to reveal anything that is keeping us from the final preparations of receiving His glory when He visits earth in His awesome power. We need to forgive our leaders.

4. FORGIVING GOD IS VITAL

Everyone at some time in their lives has suffered loss, when God tells them "No." As the times are shortened, the enemy will be accusing God of not being a good God and we need to understand God’s fierce love for us. In Hosea 2 it speaks of our Beloved stripping us of our worldly lovers and idols, bringing us through the valley of troubles and exchanging our old relationship with Him. He wants the old slave/master kind of relationship, where He tells us what to do and we obey, to be replaced with a passionate marriage love for Him — where we return the kind of fierce devotion and passion that He has for us. The following is a Word to ponder from "Words to Ponder, Volume 2." It describes what the mature believers have been going through for over a decade and what the young believers will be going through.

SONGS IN THE WILDERNESS

Your songs are precious to Me. I hear the longings of your heart as I woo you into My arms. One by one I watch the passions in your life drift away as you turn your heart toward Me. Step by step My Spirit calls to you, and you leave other loves behind.

Even so, I ask you a question. You obey Me, you serve Me, but do you love Me? Your obedience pleases Me. Your service is responsible and even your sacrifice is faithful. But do you love Me? "Of course I love you!" you reply. Even still, I ask, "Do you love Me?"

Our union is not complete until you call Me Husband, instead of Master. I want to share a love that only comes through an undivided passionate heart… a heart of yearning, a heart of unquenchable longing to be satisfied. A heart that comes back for more and more and more and more, still wanting more. I want all of you. Do you want all of Me? How much do you want? How much is too much?

For Myself, I want ALL of you. Sing Me another song and let’s dance the wind together. Listen to My Spirit call you with wooing from My heart.

"Therefore, behold, I will allure her, Will bring her into the wilderness, And speak comfort to her. I will give her her vineyards from there, And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope; She shall sing there, As in the days of her youth, As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. "And it shall be, in that day," Says the LORD, "That you will call Me 'My Husband,' And no longer call Me 'My Master,' For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals, And they shall be remembered by their name no more…."I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me In righteousness and justice, In lovingkindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, And you shall know the LORD." (Hosea 2:14-17, 19-21 NKJ)

[end of Word to Ponder]

In these days to come, it is vital that we forgive God for any losses we have suffered. Whether the loss is labeled judgment, chastisement, the enemy, mankind’s injustice, consequences of sin, or whatever: Our Beloved has one purpose in mind... that we turn to Him... with every fiber of our existence.

He wants to prepare us for His grand finale with His awesome visitation upon earth. The closer He comes, the stronger the earth, the darkness and His beloved Bride will react. Are we prepared? We have come a very long way in our faith, expectations and hope. But I also know there are still issues that remain that are holding Him back. I believe unforgiveness is one of them. Father, please be merciful and teach us to forgive. Please give us grace to let go of the offenses and leave them behind.

Lovingly,

Sandy

CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON FORGIVING