Special to The Answer

This was my first impressionable Christian lesson as a pastor’s wife. An evangelist joined our ministry within the first year that we were opened. She was anointed, casting out demons, laying hands on the sick and a powerful prayer warrior and at the same time going through issues with her husband.

He had committed what most women would consider the ultimate, unforgivable crime and sin that any man could ever make and that was adultery. His justification was he suffered abandonment because of her ministry. 
Now, I’m not presenting or arguing the case of that marriage, but I am going to present an argument that Scriptures have against God’s people.  One day while I was in prayer, the Spirit of the Lord spoke to my heart and told me to tell the evangelist to forgive her husband. When I gave the Word of the Lord, we prayed, praised and worshiped for an hour. After all of the sharing and speaking life into each other’s lives, the evangelist informed me that she would pray about forgiving her husband. From that day to this, my senses have been heightened to listen to some of the things that we “Christians” say. Hmmm, think about it, pray to forgive someone.

The Lord revealed to me a law that Christians have a hard time with. We are inclined to teach and preach “The Law of Reciprocity,” which is tithing and offering; “The Law of Gravity,” what goes up, must come down; “The Law of E.F. Hutton,” when he speaks everyone listens; and Christians have the nerve to quote and live Murphy’s Law, anything can and will happen; and the list of philosophical laws go on and on.

There is one law that we do not like to practice and will find every justification and fleshly reason not to do and that is the Law of Forgiveness or as I like to call it, ‘the most important but unlived law’. Matthew 6:15 tells us “But if ye forgive men not their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” The scripture plainly tells us that if we don’t forgive, we will not be forgiven. Think about it, all of the preaching, prophesying, singing, teaching, etc., that we do to the glory of God and are not forgiven - because we cannot forgive. Speaking of Law of Reciprocity! You are forgiven as you forgive. Let me add this: a law is a directive, a commandment, a rule established by Authority. A law does not include the privilege of choice.

Look at how God sees things. Peter asked Jesus how often should we forgive our brother: seven times? Jesus then told Peter not just seven times, but seven times seventy. Afterward Jesus tells them that the Kingdom of Heaven is like the parable of the ‘unforgiving servant.’ A master does inventory of his servants, he wants to reconcile their accounts. He finds one servant who owes him ten thousand talents. The master summons the servant to settle the account and ordered that he and his family be sold because he was not able to pay. The servant begs the master to have patience with him until he pays his debt in full. The master is moved with compassion and grants him the mercy that he asks for and forgives his debt.

That same servant goes and finds a fellow servant that owes him one hundred dollars. This servant falls to the feet of the unforgiving servant and begs him to have mercy upon him, this wicked man grabs the fellow servant by the throat and refused to have mercy on him. So the master finds out what happens and summons the unforgiving servant to answer for his unwillingness to have compassion on his fellow servant as he had received mercy. The master was very angry and delivered him to be tortured until his debt was paid.  My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses. (Matthew 18:21-35).

How many of us are as the evangelist I mentioned at the beginning, singing, shouting, operating in spiritual gifts and not forgiving others? In the book, “Bait of Satan” by John Bevere, he sums this violation of God’s Divine law up he wrote, “Offenses is the bait that Satan uses to trap us into the sin of unforgiveness.”  My brothers and sisters, God has given us power to overcome all tactics of the enemy. There is NOTHING that anyone can do to offend us to the point of unforgiveness. The evangelist passed away six months after I gave her the word and prayer. Her marriage was never reconciled. We have the power to forgive any wrong and live kingdom laws freely.