Healing
February 24, 2022
Healing
Jeremiah 17:14
Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou [art] my praise.
There is a time and season for all things under heaven. Ecclessiastes 3:1,3 tells us, “To every [thing there is] a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven…. A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up.” Our lives are a series of seasons, some of those seasons bring perceived goodness and blessing to our lives, while others we don’t relish or necessarily enjoy and yet all of it is a part of this life, even the dying. We know that we don’t always have a lot of control over the seasons that affect our lives, anymore than we have control over winter, summer, fall or spring. Through the cycle of life and seasons God has worked all things to bring balance and we see that even winter isn’t the absence of life, it is simply life in hibernation, in waiting for its season and time to bring forth. Through each season, our circumstances can bring to pass inner workings in our lives that couldn’t be brought forth or worked in us in other ways. It brings us to the perspective that whether in life or death, He lives and we who are in Christ live in Him. That is where we live and move and have our being. When our hearts and spiritual eyes are fixed on Him then what we see, or what man tells us or what natural circumstances dictate to us, does not move us. Our God is the Lord of the seasons of our lives and just like there is a time for every purpose under heaven there is a time when God alone is God. He moves as God in our circumstances and trials. It may be in a moment and it may be in the course of years, but God is the Lord of our seasons.
We have the sovereignty of God’s Word concerning healing. Deuteronomy 32:9 says, “See now that I, [even] I, [am] he, and [there is] no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither [is there any] that can deliver out of my hand.” God is the Lord of our seasons, but He also promises provision. Jeremiah 30:17 says, “For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, [saying], This [is] Zion, whom no man seeketh after.” Sometimes there is affliction that moves us to right relationship with God. God is not sadistic, simply wishing to see us suffer. Suffering has spiritual medicinal powers to move us often to where we need to be in relationship with Him and His purpose. Even Jesus learned obedience through the things that He suffered. He had to willingly come to that place where He was totally surrendered to the Father’s will and not His own. Ultimately God is moving us in the direction of restoration and wholeness, but the path to getting there may be with suffering. At the waters of Marah (bitterness) Exodus 15:25-26 says of Moses, “And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, [which] when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them, And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I [am] the LORD that healeth thee.” God has showed us a tree in this day and we know it is the cross of Calvary. Because that tree knew the bitterness of suffering and death, when it is cast into the bitter waters of our life’s circumstances it brings sweetness, healing and restoration, but we must guard our hearts that we fall not into the snare of murmuring and complaint while we await our deliverance.
We believe in healing, because the Word of God has promised it to us. Psalm 103:2-4 encourages us, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies.” 1 Peter 2:24 speaks to us that life giving promise, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” Christ provided it, we must possess it and God must manifest it, but the promise is ours. James 5:16 exhorts us, “Confess [your] faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” Sometimes there can be things in our lives that hinder us from receiving the manifestation of the promise such as sin or unforgiveness. We must search our hearts to be sure there are no such unconfessed and unresolved encumbrances. “By His stripes we are healed” for He is the Lord our God “who healeth all our diseases.” He has healing in His wings for you today. Make His Word your standard, the continual confession of your lips and the faith that fills your heart.
Blessings,
#kent
Salvation and Healing
January 28, 2022
Salvation and Healing
Isaiah 53:5
But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
Every aspect of what Jesus endured and suffered through the Passion was accomplishing a gift of grace and benefit to the salvation that it provided for us. Jesus died for the whole man. The first and greatest aspect of His salvation is the redemption of our souls, which restores us to a right relationship with our heavenly Father and washes our sins and transgressions away. Sometimes that is where we stop in our understanding of salvation and all that it provides. The Lord came to heal us spirit, soul and body. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and [I pray God] your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” When we look up the meaning of salvation in the concordance it carries with it much more than just spiritual salvation, it means help, deliverance, health, prosperity, welfare and victory. The wonderful thing about the ministry of Jesus is that while he spoke of spiritual truths which He demonstrated in practical ways. His very life was a portrait of salvation at work. Every day the compassion and love of God was manifested through selfless giving and ministering to practical needs in whatever dimension people needed the touch of God. Psalms 68:19 says, “Blessed [be] the Lord, [who] daily loadeth us [with benefits, even] the God of our salvation. Selah.” The Lord is indeed our Savior and Benefactor, providing for all the needs of our lives as we trust Him and walk in His grace and truth. I believe Jesus wants to be involved in our personal lives in the same practical sense that He was involved with the people of His day when walked in this earth. Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Jesus hasn’t changed in His desire and willingness to touch us in the practical areas of our lives. Everyday multitudes of people are experiencing His touch in a miraculous way. It is not always in our time or our way, but the Father knows best concerning us. The important issue is that we understand and embrace His personal love and salvation. Salvation isn’t an event that happened that time we answered the altar call and asked the Lord into our heart. That was just the beginning. Salvation is at work in us as believers every day of our lives. While it has already sealed us unto God and delivered us from the wrath to come, it is progressively working in our lives His nature through the Holy Spirit. That salvation is seen through the power and ministry of the Holy Spirit working in our lives according to our need and the work He wants to do in us.
Our healing, whether it is physical, spiritual or emotional, is an aspect of our salvation and provision from the Lord. If this is your need today reach out and let the Healer set you free. It is as free and easy as when you asked Jesus to come into your heart. You receive by faith the same way, not by works or how good you are, and you rest in what He has provided for you. It is not in what you see immediately or just outwardly, it is embracing by faith that by His stripes you are healed. Let’s not be afraid to trust the Lord for our practical needs as well as our spiritual needs.
Blessings,
#kent
You shall not Die, but Live
August 20, 2020
Psalms 118:17-18
I will not die but live and will proclaim what the LORD has done.
The LORD has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death.
You shall not Die, but Live
“Has fear and doubt come against your mind? Has your faith been sorely tried? Reach out your hand from whence cometh your help. It is Jesus, for you He has died. Rise and be healed in the name of Jesus. Let faith arise in your heart. Reach out your hand from whence cometh your help. It is Jesus, for you He has died.”
I was just impressed that the Lord was bringing this song up in my heart as I began this writing. There are those of you who need this word this morning, because it is the Word of the Lord for you. If you need it, take hold of it with all faith and don’t let go.
Oh, the Spirit of the Lord has heard your cry as you have faithfully cleaved to Him. He knows your every need and He is your healing and your answer today. Take hold of Him, nothing wavering. Set your face as flint upon the promises of His Word and refuse to be moved, ‘for has the Lord spoken and will He not make it good?’ “God is not a man that He should lie, neither the son of man that He should repent.” Ephesians 5:30 says, ” For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.” “The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you. (Romans 8)”
You are no longer identified with this man of the flesh, even though you can be touched by its infirmities and weaknesses. “You are more than a conqueror through Christ who loved you and gave Himself for you. (Romans 8)” 1 Peter 2:24 declares to us, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” We, who are in Christ, already possess our healing, it has already been done for us in Christ. The fact that we are afflicted doesn’t negate the truth that we are healed. Healing is not something we have to get. It is what we already have. When the circumstances of this natural realm presume to rob that from us then we have to stand in truth and declare the truth of God’s Word over our circumstance and affliction. We are not of this world, even though our natural man is still subject to it. We are kingdom people “who worship God in the spirit and put no confidence in the flesh.” As God’s children who set at the right hand of the father in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6), we have been raised up to declare and to live out God’s kingdom on earth. “His kingdom come and His will be done, in earth as it is in heaven.” We live our lives not out of the life of this natural man, but out of the Spirit of God. We are identified and one with a risen Savior, Christ and Lord; bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. God has declared life into us by the power of His Son and the manifestation of His Spirit.
We declare the Word of the Lord today over all sickness and death that is at work in God’s people. Declare this scripture in Psalms 118:17, “I will not die but live and will proclaim what the LORD has done.” Do it out loud and with all authority. The Lord is touching you even as you read this, believe and declare His Word. You shall not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord. Remember Proverbs 18:21, “Death and life [are] in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” Align your heart, your faith and your declaration with the Word of God. Stand believing and proclaiming what He has said. Don’t look at your symptoms as the proof of your healing, keep your eyes only upon His Word. Truth is greater than all the facts of the world. They that stand in it, will be vindicated by it. Rise and be healed in the name of Jesus!
This is the Word of the Lord to you who are sick or enduring the trials of affliction today.
Blessings,
#kent
Christ in You
May 3, 2016
Matthew 25: 35-40
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,
36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37″Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?
38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40″The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Christ in You
You are a ray of sunshine.
You are the extension of God’s divine.
You bring healing in the midst of pain.
You are heaven on an earthly plane.
When you walk into a room it brightens up.
When you spend time with me you fill my cup.
You are my companion when I feel alone.
The voice of love is in your tone.
You are the servant that gives your all.
You pick those up who stumble and fall.
You encourage those who have lost their worth.
You share the life that brings new birth.
I see His face when you smile.
I see His walk when you go the second mile.
I see His love in your unselfish ways.
Yes, you are His expression day by day.
Kent Stuck
Blessings!
Forgiveness
May 2, 2016
Matthew 6:14-15
For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Forgiveness
I would dare say that all of us have had experiences in life where others have wronged or hurt us and in some cases quite severely and repeatedly. It is often these experiences, wounds and hurts that we can not seem to release. They are a trauma upon our lives. It is in these adverse life experiences that we are confronted with a choice to forgive and release an offense or to hold on to it and maintain the unforgiveness. When we are hurt it is our natural inclination to want to hurt back.
In the natural we often are wounded through life and most are superficial. In most cases they require a little attention and then they heal and we go on. There are those times when we are wounded more deeply and without cleansing the wound and putting something on to disinfect, we can get it infected. When infection sets in the wound festers and will not heal. In fact, untreated, it will become worse and more compromising to our health. It can actually be the infection that comes into us through the wound that could end up killing us rather than the wound itself. That is what unforgiveness is like. With emotional hurts and wounds there is a natural healing process and with the right heart and attitude those wounds will heal. They may leave some scars, but life goes on. Unfortunately, for some of us, there are places and ways that we have been hurt where we let the infection of unforgiveness come in. It is a form of hate and it can even be toward ourselves as well as others. It is the love of God that is the antibiotic that heals the infection of unforgiveness. It is when we see Jesus, unjustly accused, mocked, ridiculed, beaten to the point of being unrecognizable and then nailed to cross who can, before he breathes his last breath, say,” Father forgive them, for they know not what they do” that we see what forgiveness really looks like. It is only as we are willing to apply that same forgiveness of love toward our offenders that we can receive the forgiveness of our offenses. Before God, we stand no less guilty of sin and offense than those who have wounded us. What we ask of God, we must be willing to extend to others.
It is the love released through making the decision to forgive, not just the feelings, that is the antibiotic that will bring healing and restoration. First it restores our relationship back to Father and then it works to restore our human relationships.
You may be saying, “yeah, but you don’t how many times this person has hurt me.” Peter addresses this question unto the Lord in Matthew 18:21-22, ” Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”
22Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” You see sin kills, but God’s love is the multiplication of forgiveness that triumphs even over the depth and death of sin. It is the grace of God’s forgiveness that brought each one of us into a place where can know the restored fellowship and relationship with the Father. We receive that only through His forgiveness for us, because we all deserve condemnation and death. Luke 6:37 exhorts us, ” Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.”
For some of us it is time that we examine our hearts and lay down this cross of unforgiveness that we have been carrying. We must realize that the unforgiveness is doing far greater damage to us than even the offense. It is keeping us from our own forgiveness and right relationship with the Father. Ask the Father for His love in you to release the unforgiveness you have been carrying, no matter how awful the offense. As He forgave us, we ought also to forgive others. How can we have Christ come forth in us if the very prominent part of His nature is forgiveness?
First come and release it to the Father and then release the individual or individuals. When you release you will be released from the judgement that unforgiveness can hold over us. ” If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. (John 8:36)” Isn’t time to come into the freedom and the release of His Love?
Blessings,
#kent
God’s Toolbox
May 27, 2015
God’s Toolbox
Romans 12:4-8
4Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
We have often heard the analogies of how we are members of one another in the body of Christ and how as such we serve one another. Perhaps another way of looking at the body of Christ and its members in particular is that we are God’s toolbox. He has a world of broken people down here, and many Christians are among them. They are broken, hurting and in need of attention and fixing. We know that God is a Master Craftsman concerning His creation, but He has chosen to work with and through His tools. Think today that you are a unique and special tool of God. God has given you characteristics, gifts and abilities He didn’t give to everyone else. There are ways and areas you can operate in that others can’t. Those gifts and abilities He has placed in you, some naturally and some divinely, are so that He can use you as His tool to do a work that perhaps no other tool can do quite as effectively. What’s more, He will put you in circumstances and with people that need the ministry of those gifts and abilities. Obviously, you are most effective as your life is yielded to the Holy Spirit so that He can direct and use you to fix, mend and encourage the broken, damaged and discouraged. Sometimes we often take for granted what our lives can mean to the well being and spiritual health of others if we are truly yielded and available to the Holy Spirit to use. How often we miss it because of our self-will. We take ourselves out of God’s hand to pursue our agenda and our priorities. We often rob others of God’s ministering, healing touch through us. We rob God from doing a divine work of grace in some broken person’s life and last but not least, we rob ourselves of being that tool in God’s hand that could have made the difference, that could have brought the healing and the restoration. We didn’t have the time, or the energy or our own agenda was more important. Haven’t we all been guilty of that?
God wants each of us to realize how important and vital each one of us are to His Kingdom coming forth in the earth. Isn’t that what we pray? “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done; in earth as it is in heaven.” If God’s kingdom isn’t fully come in us, possessing us and living through us, then how can it come in the earth? Jesus says the “Kingdom of God is within you.” We are the vessels and the conduits through which His kingdom flows out to the earth and waters the dry ground. The kingdom must first come and be revealed in us. Christ must have expression and license through us and through our will to perform His. That means to be effective tools, we must be yielded to the Master’s hand. As readily as He will use someone else to work grace in your life, He wants to use you to work the work of grace in another’s. We are created for a purpose and that purpose is to fulfill what God has fashioned us for. Everyone is different, but everyone is just as important to the whole.
Take time to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Be careful that we don’t blow past those divine appointments we have in life and the opportunities to minister the love, grace and gospel of Christ. A tool that is not used eventually becomes rusty, stiff and of no use. Be that tool at the top of God’s toolbox that He can lay hold of and use often in His work of grace in the lives of others. Be that yielded vessel that God can perform the will and do of His good pleasure in and through. We are God’s toolbox and He deserves only the best tools.
Blessings,
#kent
More than all Burnt Offerings and Sacrifices
May 12, 2015
More than all Burnt Offerings and Sacrifices
Mark 12:33-34
“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
While we no longer literally offer burnt offerings and sacrifices we still do it in type. Many times I might rather love my neighbor, whoever that might be, from a distance rather than up close and personal. Just allow me donate some money for their cause, or pray for them, anything, but don’t make me become personally involved in their lives. Most of us like our own space and some of us like to be around friends and family, but even that has its limitations. How much time do I have for my neighbor, those people that I encounter in my daily life, business or work? Many times we might think to ourselves, “You know, I have enough problems of my own, I don’t need to get involved with someone else’s.” If we love ourselves enough to care about our problems, our needs, our wants, desires and goals in life, then aren’t we mandated to care about the similar needs of others as well?
Most of us would agree that in a world where every time you turn around someone wants to sell you something or ask you to contribute something we begin to become rather cold and callused. We build these walls to try and keep these people out. It is true, we can’t be everything to everybody and we do only have so many resources, still, are we loving our neighbor as ourselves? All of the things that I do for me, am I willing to do them for someone else? Personally, I am not a real people person and the majority of the time I am quite content and comfortable to be by myself, doing my own thing, but can I really love my neighbor as myself from that position. Loving others is always stretching us. It causes us to move out of our comfort zone. It causes us to come out of the place of just making the token efforts of the burnt offerings and sacrifices and requires me to get involved. Jesus was involved with those around him and not just with the upper crust, the easy to get along with, the likeable or the ones that could benefit Him. He was relating to humanity at all levels, classes, sexes and races. He would relate with children and adults alike, to the whole and the broken, rich and the poor and to the sinner and the righteous. Jesus was not a respecter of persons and He was sensitive to the heart cry of people. There are a lot of people out there that just want to take advantage and use others. This tends to make us wary and cynical, but the Lord wants us to tune into the heart cry of others. Listen, by the Spirit to the real need in people. It often isn’t what we see being portrayed on the outside or in their actions. We need a spirit of sensitivity, not to be duped by everyone that comes along, but to see into the heart need of others.
As the ambassadors and representatives of Christ in this earth we are the channels of God’s blessing, healing, restoration and reconciliation. If we don’t take the time and make the time for the needs of others, then who will. If I want someone to love me, be sensitive to my needs and to just care then that is the love I need to be extending to others in whatever capacity I have to give it. It isn’t the religious gestures that I make and the token giving that the Lord is looking for. He is looking for my heart to be one with His heart in me. He desires me to love Him through the way I love others, through a heart that is really caring and concerned for the needs of others. So often we are like the Scribe, the Pharisee, “the Christian”, who walks to the other side of the road when we see our neighbor in need. We don’t want the inconvenience and the investment of our time and resources to get involved. If my neighbor is important to the Lord, then they have to become my priority also. We have to remember that our mission in the earth is not about us, it is about Him through the way that we serve others. Loving God and loving our neighbor are all part of the same pie.
“Lord, give us sensitive hearts and eyes to see into the real needs of others and to make ourselves available and willing to minister to those needs in what ever way we can. Give us your heart to really love others as we would love ourselves, not from a distance, but up close and personal. Help us to truly be the extension of your compassion, love and grace. May the world truly know us by our love and not just by our name and religion. Allow us to be willing to pay the price of the personal sacrifice required in the giving of ourselves and that which cost us personally to love You with all of our hearts; to love our neighbors as ourselves, no matter who they may be.”
Blessings,
#kent
Activate
May 4, 2015
Acts 2:42-47
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Activate
As we commit and devote our hearts to the Lord we are going to see activation. The Holy Spirit is wanting to activate his body even as the early church was activated after Pentecost and even greater. This is the day to take our Sunday Christianity and make it an active part of our every day life and encounters with the world around us. We need so much of Jesus spilling out of us that there is no way we can contain or hide the life that is living inside of us. This is the day to let Christ shine through our lives in word and deed.
For years we have set under the Word of God. Today is the day to become the Word of God in the flesh as we live by the Spirit in the love of God toward all men. We are carriers of His divine life and we want to infect every part of our world with His love and great salvation. It is not just about getting someone to pray a prayer and make a confession of faith, it is about being so much the reality of what we profess that others want what we have and they will seek us out to receive it.
The world’s general perception of Christianity looks very little like Christ. As the world has looked upon the Church as a whole, they have seen hypocrisy, materialism, ungodliness, judgementalism and self-righteousness. No wonder so many disdain Christianity. This is the time when they need to begin to see the reality of the true Church, the bride of Christ and His power and love manifested through her. For this love and power to flow through us, He must possess us body, soul and spirit. Our lives must be so focused and set upon the Father’s business. It can no longer be about life as usual; eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. This is the year to see and step into a radical transformation in the body of Christ, at least the first fruits of it. I believe God has prepared a people to champion His cause and bring a transformation in the paradigm of what the church of God is and what it should look like.
It is a day for us to graduate out of the school of learning and knowing and step into the world of being and doing. What is our faith if it is not activated to bring us forth in who we have been called to be as sons and daughter’s of the MOST HIGH GOD!
“Holy Spirit, arise in the hearts of your people and activate us to extreme godliness, holy living and love impacting lives. Emancipate us from all sin and every love and affection we have had for it. Help your people to rock the former image of your church and be the example of what the people of God are to truly look like. Help us to loose ourselves as we take up our cross and follow you whithersoever you would lead and direct us. Give us ears to hear your precious voice and hearts tender to quickly obey whatever you instruct us to do. Help us to walk the walk of faith and step boldly into who you have created us and called us to be. You are our God and in You we will be strong and do exploits. The world will come to know us by our love and unity and no longer by our division and condemnation. We will exemplify the love and nature of Christ in the earth, because we dare to allow that Christ to come forth in us. We dare to step into our Sonship and the high calling that we have in Christ Jesus. Our eyes, our hearts, our minds and desires are set upon You Holy Father. Activate Your people in righteousness, power and divine authority to have dominion over every darkness and every perverted thing that we may bring the hearts of a lost world into alignment with the restoration of the identity you want to give back to them. Help us to come into the image of what the true Church and body of Christ is suppose to look like in this hour that you might be glorified and magnified among men. Amen!”
Today is our day to be transformed from the introverts of self-centered lives to become the extroverts of Christ expressed lives. Let us be that standard of Christ activated for all to see and aspire too. Let our lives be the light that transcends the darkness and the love that brings healing, hope and salvation to every lost and wounded soul.
blessings,
#kent
The Darkness of Hate
March 10, 2015
The Darkness of Hate
1 John 2: 9-11
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. 11But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.
Matthew 5: 43-44 says, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.
There are some of us that have been offended, hurt, defrauded, cheated and taken advantage of. There are some of us who have hate in our hearts and who feel so strongly about it that Christianity or no Christianity, it is our right to hate this person or persons and no one is going to take that away from us. “If they had done to you what they did to me you would hate them too.” We are convinced we are justified and in the right, but somewhere deep down has to be the realization that hate is now your master and you are its slave. Maybe you are determined to get revenge and right the wrong, pay back evil for evil and hurt for hurt. When that is all done will your spirit be healed, will a relationship be reconciled and will you feel good about yourself again?
Hate is darkness when it possesses us. It often overrides rational and clear thinking because it is only fixed on one thing, revenge. Forgiveness isn’t even in our vocabulary at that point in time. It is ironic that nothing can destroy hate like forgiveness and nothing can bring a greater retribution than love. While hate will shut us down to the Spirit of God and allow us to be driven by the passion of our emotions, if love and forgiveness are given place, it changes the dynamic from destruction to construction. Hate perpetuates itself and only serves to destroy all who take it into their soul and hold on to it. It is like a cancer and infection that only breeds more sickness and disease.
What if Jesus just happened to know what He was talking about when He said, ‘love your enemy, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you. ‘
The Father is telling us that when others offend and hurt us, then they are answerable and accountable to Him for hurting His kids. He is telling us, “ you don’t have to hate and get justice; you let Me take care of that”. Romans 12:17-21 says, “17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 20On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” If you want to get to your enemy then do the opposite of what they expect, love them and forgive them. Even go so far as to do them good and bless them.
Hate destroys and damages the hater far more than it hurts the object of the hate. Our hate and unforgiveness puts a wall up that holds back God’s forgiveness for us. In Matthew 6:14-15 Jesus tells us, “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” When you fall into hate you further allow that person you hate to damage you more by hurting your relationship with the Father.
You may be saying, “I can’t help the way I feel and this person doesn’t deserve my forgiveness.” You and I didn’t deserve the Father’s forgiveness, but it says that, ‘while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.’ We were the enemies of God. Our sin had a part in putting to death Jesus upon that cross. We as much as nailed His hands and feet to the cross. As Jesus hung their dying and having all of the reason and excuse in the world to hate His enemies and what they had done to Him, he said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” If Jesus could forgive you and I, do we have a right to not forgive one another?
When you are able to go beyond your emotions and feelings, and despite your feelings pray in faith for forgiveness for those that have hurt you, it will begin to set you free. It may well take time for your emotions and feelings to catch up with your act of faith and obedience to God’s word, but you have opened the door for Him to begin to heal the hurts and offenses you have held in your heart. It is not saying that the person you have hated was at all justified in their actions toward you, it is saying that in spite of that you choose love and forgiveness. Release whatever hate and unforgiveness you have been harboring in your heart and give it to the Lord. Allow Him to be your judge and vindicator. Allow the light and love of God’s forgiveness to once again release your soul from the darkness that hate has held you in. Come into the light and love of His forgiveness as you release yours.
blessings,
#Kent
tricklesoftruth 