Saturday, January 10, 2015

Forgiveness, Praying for a Loved One's Salvation, Even if They Have Said No 1,000 Times Before!

"Alas! Father Forgive Them They Do Not Know What They Are Doing!"


Isaiah 58 Ministries                                                          January   2015

Pastor: Leah Svensson

Scriptures: Matthew 9:2-7, Acts 2:38-40,Acts 3:17, 26, Acts 5:29-32, Matthew 6:9-19, Acts 2:23, Acts 7:54-60, Acts 9:10:-19, 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, Luke 14:23, Luke 6:12, Ephesians 4:26,


                                                              God forgives someone?
                                           What Happens if you are forgiven by God?
                                                                  You are healed!

                           Ask God to Forgive!

Matthew 9:2 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”
3 And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, “This Man blasphemes!”
4 But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?5 For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? 6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”7 And he arose and departed to his house.


When Jesus prayed, "Father forgive them they know not what they are doing," he was asking God to draw them unto himself. Why? So they would know that God loves them so very much. Why sin when you can  turn away from sin, be filled with the power of God, be filled with his love and forgiveness. When God forgives  a person's sins, they receive Salvation,  then God heals their lives. 

On the day of Pentecost, a while after Jesus' death, God answered Jesus' prayer on the cross and forgave 3,000 people.


 Acts 2:23 this Jesus,  delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
 Acts 2:38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.


 Human love and forgiveness is worthless.  I have never seen someone healed and made whole when a human being forgives sins.  Priests in the Catholic church absolve people of sins all the time and Catholics can be the most sinful people. (see side note under ref.)





Acts 5:29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings! 30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. 31 God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. 32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

                                                                             Acts 3:
17 “Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. 18 But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. 19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,
26 When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”

Acts2: 38“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”





In the "Lord's Prayer", or "The Our Father" we pray, "God forgive us our sins as we forgive others." 


Many times in the Bible it says things like, "you must forgive others if you want God to forgive you."  But our human forgiveness is worthless... powerless.  God forgave us in the Power of the Holy Spirit!!
We need to link forgiveness with God's power, the Gospel. Only through Jesus' death on the cross can a person be forgiven by God!

Matthew 6:
Mat 6:9  “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
Mat 6:10  your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Mat 6:11  Give us today our daily bread.
Mat 6:12  And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Mat 6:13  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’
Mat 6:14  For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Mat 6:15  But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Forgiveness, the key to stay free!
Matthew 16: 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed  in heaven.” 

 We, in our own power and decision, can not forgive anyone. We must be lead by God himself through the gift of the Holy Spirit. We pray as Jesus prayed: 
          

 "Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing."
         "  God you love them so much and want to show your love to them like you did me."
        " You forgive my sins! You made me a brand new creature, poured your love and Holy Spirit into me, and filled me with the knowledge of your will."
        " You took the desire to sin from me, you gave me the power to do the right thing!"
       "God, you called me, anointed me, and ordained me to proclaim the "Good News" of your love."
       "God, you loved everyone so much you sent Jesus to die for them so that they may be free from sin and the power of sin, (The devil), had over them that causes them to sin."
       " Oh Father do the same for them as you have done for me."
       " Deliver them from sin, heal their souls, (minds) fill them with your love!"
       "God  Set them free!"  
        "For your power and love has no limits no boundaries you can bring the worse sinner into your love!"  
        "Just like you did Paul, an avid persecutor of the church, even to the death!"

   

     That kind of prayer for others frees your soul of any animosity or bitterness you hold against the person who sinned against you.  It frees God's power to bring justice for the crime, conviction of sin, and restoration of your health, finances, (not money, blessings), personal life and possessions!




In Acts 7 Stephen prayed the same prayer Jesus did: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”





Shortly after God answered Stephen's prayer and forgave "Saul,"  who later became known as Paul. Paul wrote half of the New Testament and converted many Gentiles to the Hebrew Messiah: Jesus.  Paul's life has effected more people in the last 2,000 years than any other person except for Jesus and Peter.  (See scriptures below)



Praying "God forgive them as Jesus and Stephen did" is very powerful and effective. God's ways of doing things is the right means to accomplish God's will on the earth. 







 Churches, Ministries, Christians need to separate themselves from the world. Stop compromising. Stop choosing Political sides and having faith in the ways of men, (business  practices) and Politicians instead of God.  We,  as children of Our Father the Most High God, need to do things God's way. We have a much higher standard than the world. First of all, we are commanded not to bow to anyone but God. 



When we bow to laws and rules made up by arrogant, sinful, wicked men, we have thrown our faith in God out the window becoming servants and slaves to mere men instead of God. Be persecuted instead. Jesus promises persecution.

  


    2 Corinthians 10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
            
                                                           Conclusion
               
             







 Ephesians 4:26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 

       
     
 It wasn't until I started praying this way that I realized why Jesus, the son of God, God himself, (except Jesus was in the flesh), had to stay up all night praying sometimes.  As you pray this prayer of forgiveness for those who have sinned against you your mind is cleansed from the days offences. offenses cause you to be bitter and angry.  






    In Ephesians Jesus is telling us not to go to bed until we pray and get rid of any anger we might feel. You will mediate on the day's events as you sleep. Most anxiety and sleeping problems come from offenses of others against your soul.










In today's society every thing you see, hear, even touch, is immoral, defiled. TV, Radio, communication with people all day, your office, your home, etc... everything because it did not come by having Faith in God! 

   




 When someone smiles at you/ you naturally smile back. If someone reaches their hand out to shake it, you usually hold out your hand to shake their's. If someone hugs you/ you usually give them a hug back.   But that goes the other way too.  It is called the "Law of reciprocal action."
Newton's Law Motion
''To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction: or the forces of two bodies on each other are always equal and are directed in opposite directions''.

      Jesus was perfect in every sense of the Word.  At the same time he would spend almost 12 hours a day, if not more, with imperfect humans who had almost no visible faith in God.  So as Jesus is doing everything perfect, everyone around him is offending him, (hurting him).

 
  When someone hurts you it is a natural response to want to hurt them back!  If someone yells at you/ you start to yell back.  Jesus had the Holy Spirit to control his natural reaction to want to do the same thing in return, but it affected his ears, eyes, and nerves. The defiled, (defiled means not cleanse by the blood of Jesus and filled with the Holy Spirit), people around him effected his whole body. 

     
Jesus would have to stay up all night praying for each person who said or did things that were wrong or sinful in the eyes of God.  Anyone, by simply having a lack of Faith in God, which  is a sin hurts Jesus. 

Romans 14:23.................for whatever is not from faith is sin.

Luke 6:12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God

      This prayer of forgiveness cleanses your mind and it also cleanses your sub conscience mind!! 

 So much happens in your subconscious that you are not aware of because you have been trained since diapers to not pay attention to "wrongs" done to you and around you.  
 As a result,  every time you have seen someone sin, you have to file it away in the back of your mind. 
 Sin, your sin, and the sins of others, effects your life with seriously negative consequences.    

   Overcome the days evil with Good!  Pray for everyone according to Jesus' pray:  "Father forgive them, they know not what they do, bring them into your kingdom that they might know your happiness, you freedom, your peace of mind."

                                        THE   END!

The Stoning of Stephen


Acts 7:54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together  at him. 58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Acts 9:10 Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” 11 And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” 13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. 14 And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” 17 So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; 19 and taking food, he was strengthened.


References:




(Side note to Catholics: Sorry Catholics, we come from a German Irish Catholic family. They go to mass, and to confession, They take the Eucharist, they say the Rosary, they say the Hail Mary, they say the Our Father, they all have their first Communion, they all have their Confirmation, they go to good catholic schools, high schools and College, Marry Catholics, they baptize their children.  They do everything "right".  But God has never forgiven their sins and healed them.  They do what looks right, but god is a spirit and it is the Holy Spirit that gives life and light not obeying a lot of rules and regulations.  Even the Sacraments are  for "good", a lot of it is right out of the Bible but if it isn't lead by God and out of a heart who truly repents from sin, where a person starts obeying the Holy Spirit and obeying the Ten commandments you've wasted all your time and energy and will end up in hell.  Most Catholics drink to much, are in pride which is the worst sin, love money, which is absolutely not God, then the church provides for itself by gambling and getting people addicted to gambling instead of what God does. God sets people free from Carnal worldly desires!)  
















No comments:

Post a Comment