FORGIVENESS IS FREEDOM AND SELF MANAGEMENT.

So lately I have been thinking about forgiveness and unforgiveness.What does it really mean to forgiveness?  I don't want to harbour unforgiveness in my heart because unforgiveness only causes stagnation in our lives and stands in the way of our relationship with God.

Forgiveness is required of us even when the person who we need to forgive does not acknowledge that they have wronged us.

Often the people who hurt us and who need us to forgive are those closest to us, and who we hold dear. Regardless of who may have wronged you, you need to forgive because living in unforgiveness hinders our growth and progression.

In Matthew 18 vs 22 , Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus said to him, I say not to you, Until seven times, but Until seventy times seven.

Jesus speaks to us in this verse and commands us to forgive 70 times 7 times. Let's think about what this really means. Even the one person who annoys us or even offends us the most could not possible need forgiveness 490 times a day, therefore this would mean that as we go about our daily lives, we are required to forgive every single person who does wrong to us. EVERY ONE.

So while dealing with some issues where people who are very close to me hurt me very badly, God spoke to me about my difficulties with forgiveness. You see, God is in the business of refining people. He wants us to be the very best that he created us to be therefore God will constantly reveal to you areas of your life that require attention.

One of my areas that requires attention is that I struggle to forgive when someone as not acknowledged that they hurt me. I even sometimes hold on to unforgiveness as a way of control. It is a lie from the pit of hell if you think that holding on to anger and past hurt gives you control over the person that inflicted pain on you. It is a lie from the devil if you think that the "hurt"  is too big to forgive or that because the person who hurt you is too close to you i.e Father, Mother, Brother etc they don't deserve your forgiveness. The devil lies to us in order to keep us in bondage because when we are in bondage, it kills other areas of our lives that God wants to bring light and victory to. The devil will keep you in darkness for as long as possible in order to stop you from seeing God's light therefore we need to break free.

So recently I asked God to  teach me how to forgive the way that he forgives me, to show me the relationships that require my forgiveness  and to teach me how to forgive the way that he wants me to. Forgiveness should be on God's term and not on our terms.

Forgiveness is  an act of "Self Management". When you forgive someone who hurt you, regardless of whether they acknowledge it or not or asked you to forgive them or not, its a act of self management. You are managing and controlling yourself, you are taking ownership of your emotions. Maturity is getting to a point where you realise that you cannot control other peoples reactions, you cannot manage other peoples, their reactions nor opinions. You are only in control of yourself and you have to excess self control and manage YOU.

So as hard as it may be sometimes to let go of past hurts, by forgiving those who have wronged and hurt us, we are not only setting ourselves free but we are also obeying a commandment from the most high God and  walking in freedom because Forgiveness is Freedom.

So forgive your mother, father, brother, sister, cousin, nephew, aunt or uncle, husband or wife. Who ever may have hurt you yesterday, today, last month or last year, no matter how long you have been harbouring unforgiveness in your heart, its never too late to let go and forgive Today.

Take it one day at a time, ask God to come into your heart and teach you how. Ask your advocate the Holy Spirit to show you how.

When you truly forgive, your heart will be set free and you will be able to hear that person's name, see that person and feel nothing. Infact you will love them, even if its from a distance and you will wish them no harm.


<BLESSINGS>

Necessary Roughness.

I was speaking to a friend of mine today. Someone very special to me and whom I hold  dear. We were discussing tough times and tough people. I was so inspired by the life that she spoke into me this morning.

In life we go through situations and it is in those situations that our character is defined. However whats important to realise is that God doesn't make situations happen just for the fun of it. I you are a child of God then every situation that you go through is for a reason. There is a lesson that you are suppose to learn from that situation and until you learn what it is that God wants you to learn from that situation, it is impossible to progress from that situation and that is the school of life.

I was so inspired by these words because of the fact that I have been going through a certain situation in my life. In that situation God as shown me victory but however even though I have seen victory in this situation through God speaking to me and telling me to write a testimony about it, I am still struggling to get to the finish line of this situation.

Let me elaborate on that, God as told me that I will OVERCOME, I will WIN, but yet I'm struggling to win at the moment. In fact, I feel that I am losing which is causing me or was causing me to doubt the word of victory that God as put into my life.

After this mornings conversations though, I now understand exactly what to do I order to bring the Victory into actualisation. I know how to bring the Victory from the spiritual into the physical and I would like to share with you how to bring your Spiritual victory into the physical.

Before Jesus descended  into Heaven the Bible tells us in John 14 vs 16 that "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever"

Jesus speaks in the verse about leaving the Holy spirit to be our Advocate, comforter, helper. The interpretation behind this verse is that No one needs an advocate, a helper or a comforter unless they are in trouble, going through a period of trails and tribulations and needs assistance. Therefore this verse proves to us that Jesus knew while on earth that we would go through trying  times and he knew that he would not be with us "physically" to help us and that is why he left the Holy spirit which the bible tells us is for all of us if we receive him.


If I have received the Holy spirit, he therefore lives in me and if he lives in me and is a part of me then nothing I do can chase the holy spirit away. All the Holy Spirit needs is acknowledgement. Therefore how can I bring my Spiritual Victory into physical, I can do that with the help of the Holy Spirit who is within me and who is my Advocate, Helper, Comforter.

I realised this morning that the mistake that I have been making is 2 very important things  that I hope will potentially Change my situation and bring my victory into the physical and those 2 things are the following.

1. The school of life is such that through any hardship there is a lesson that God wants us to learn from it and we cannot progress until that lesson or that character  as been built in us. Therefore when faced with a situation in life which seems to be a mountain before us and which does not seem to want to move, we need to ask God to reveal to us and open our hearts to what it is that he wants us to learn from the situation. The word says that if we ask, we shall receive therefore If we ask God to reveal the reason behind a situation to us, he will surely reveal it to us.

2. The second lesson that I realised this morning is that although I know the Holy spirit is in me, I don't give him enough acknowledgement. I have been so caught up in my life that I have not been involving the Holy Spirit in every decision, every challenge, every situation that I have been faced with. Therefore from this day forward, I will consciously acknowledge the presence of the Holy Spirit in me and invite him into everything Good and Bad because although he is a spirit, he is very real and very much a person.


Tough times don't last but tough people do. It's time to toughen up, only the strong survive.

<BLESSINGS>

There is Power in a Praying Man.

There is Power in a praying man...

I never really knew or understood the power of a praying man until I started really growing up.

 Since the age of 24, I have been so blessed to be exposed and to know praying men.

In the 21st century, there appears to be a lot of women in church. Although the numbers are changing but there seems to be a general consensus that woman tend to open their hearts easier to God than men do.

In the 21st century, women are also taking on a lot more responsibility than God may have intended them to. Woman are becoming more independent than in previous years and in some cases there seems to be a shift in the roles of Men and Women in the households.

Women are taking on the roles of mothers as well as fathers and although I salute those strong women out there whose men may have left them with the responsibility  of raising their kids alone, I'm talking about women who choose to carry the responsibility alone.

The reason why I started with the emphasis on church is because women are been encouraged to be a praying woman, to pray for their households, their husbands, their children. So many books have been written about the power of a praying woman, wife, mother and although all of this is good, I love the praying man.


I was listening to a DVD a couple of weeks back where TD Jakes talks about how the devils main starting point in destroying a family is to start with the head of the family. According to the word of God, the head of the family is the MAN.

The devil knows that if he successfully eliminated or even wounds the "head of the family", the rest of the family will be left unprotected. Lets elaborate on this statement.

The head of the family is the protector, the provider, he leads the family. If the devil eliminated the head of the family, the family is left vulnerable and easier to be targeted by the devil. Therefore although I am not taking anything away from a woman who prays for a husband, a loving woman would cover her man in prayer. I am saying that there is tremendous power in a praying man.

Real men do pray and a real man must pray. Prayer as a man does not only begin when you are a husband or a father but it is a life long  commitment that a man must make from a young age as prayer succeeds when all else fails.

A praying man can be set apart,  he loves God above all else and always puts his commitment to God as the most important priority in his life.

A praying man makes decisions that are centred around his relationship with God.

A praying man will do things that are impossible to the world because the spirit of God lives in him.

A praying man will love one woman and place no one except God above her.

A praying man will show weakness to God for it is through weakness that his strength is developed.

A praying man is lead by God and not by anything else or any other external forces.

A praying man chooses to love, Honor, respect, adore and be faithful to one woman.

A praying man admits his mistakes and prays to God to help him to stop making those mistakes.

I could go on and on about the characteristics of a praying man.

 I pray that all women and children out there get to witness the "POWER OF A PRAYING MAN" in their lives.

Thank you God for My Praying Man :-)

"THE WAITING PERIOD"

I have been struggling in the waiting periods of my life. I feel that God has been putting me through so many waiting periods. However through and during these waiting periods, I have come to realise that life does not have one waiting period but that in life we will be faced with several waiting periods as we  wait on God to bring something to pass, or to just guide us through certain periods of our lives.


I have been feeling encouraged and so I would in return like to encourage all of you who may be going through waiting periods and  who may be struggling through this period in your life to hang in there and   continue to trust in God for it is only him who can bring things into being and who can make that thing which your heart desires to come to pass. For the Lord our God calls things that are not as though they are.

Jeremiah17 vs 7 says that "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose confidence is in the Lord"

As I go through the struggles of life, I continually have to remind myself and renew my mind  that struggles is not a bad thing as Struggles represent the Lord working in ME, YES ME AND YOU TOO a purpose for my pain.

PAIN without purpose means that God's hand is not in it, he is not involved and as not part in it, but pain with purpose is a cause to rejoice because God will bring you out of it and will make all things beautiful.


The Verse that makes the most sense to me is Ecclesiastic chapter 3 verse 1 which speaks about there being a time for everything. God's timing is perfect therefore we should not rush the seasons of our lives because everything as its own Divine timing.

I have learnt that God knows us well enough and knows that we will overcome any trial and circumstances that he puts us through, he would NEVER put us in a situation that we cannot overcome. Behind every trial is a triumph that's not only ours but God's too.

God is always on time, never behind and we should be happy as we wait on God and learn to pray and never lose patience with God for God's timing is the best time.

Suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, character produces hope and hope does not put us in shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy spirit who has been given to us, Romans 5 vs 3-5.


I pray that God gives power to us when we are  weak  and strength to us when we are powerless as he as promised to do in Isaiah 40 vs 29. God made that same promise again in Psalm  115 vs 12 where he says that "The Lord remembers us and will bless us"



I know the BEST IS  YET TO COME. I'm going to be faithful for God knows all the things he has promised will completely become real.