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 The
Birth of Your Destiny
by Victoria Boyson
$12.95 Book
 Dear
Friends, There are many things which can hold Christians in
bondage. One very powerful stronghold is unforgiveness. This week's
message was written by Victoria Boyson. She and her husband, Steve,
have been close friends of ours for several years. This week's message
is from her life changing new book, The Birth
of Your Destiny. - Francis Frangipane |
"FORGIVENESS - THE GATE TO YOUR HEART"
by Victoria Boyson
web: http://www.boyson.org
Your Father in heaven wants you to be freed from the
wounds and disappointments of your past. He wants you to be free to
move on and fulfill your destiny in Him.
If we can look at our hearts like a walled city, we can see that the
gate to that city is forgiveness. Forgiveness is a powerful tool we
can use to protect our hearts against the enemy's attack. That is why
Satan is always eager to get us caught up into offenses that cause us
to become bitter.
Forgiveness is the very pinnacle of our faith in Jesus Christ. And it
is only through forgiveness that we can be truly free, free to move
forward, unchained from our past. Forgiveness is a gift to us, but it
is a gift we must be equally willing to give to others.
Christ Forgave Us
His love for us is unconditional (see Lamentations
3:22-23), but his forgiveness is conditional (see Matthew 6:14-15).
There are no exceptions to this rule. We can say that the offense that
we feel in our heart is too great for us to forgive and let go of, but
if we do not forgive, we will be tortured by that misdeed for the rest
of our lives. The person that wounded us continues to cause us pain
each time we remember it, until we release that person to God and forgive.
This is what Christ did for us, and this is what He expects of us.
"For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly
Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins,
your Father will not forgive your sins" (Matthew 6:14-15).
He Expects the Same from Us
As Christ hung on the cross, He knew He was being
brutally murdered by hatred. The hatred His murderers felt toward Him
was indeed a great offense. They not only killed Him, but while He was
hanging on the cross, beaten and humiliated, they continued to mock
and insult Him (see Matthew 27:39). He was innocent, and they
were guilty. He was dying for them, and they mocked Him. Yet, enduring
their torture, Jesus reached down into the reservoir of His strength
and labored in His weakened condition to speak in their defense. He
said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing"
(Luke 23:34).
Their offense was great, but His forgiveness was greater. And He expects
nothing less from us. He knew that the people who were hurting Him were
not His enemies. He saw them as innocent victims who had been manipulated
and used by His enemy, Satan. We need to see that behind every offense
is our adversary, the devil. And he "is seeking whom he may devour"
(1 Peter 5:8). His target is not the person who offended you,
but his target is actually you. His plan is to get you to hold onto
the offense and open the doors of unforgiveness. When he does this,
he can bring in a multitude of torturers to torture us with our past.
Our past is allowed to take hold of our present, and the sinful behavior
that we have been forgiven of and delivered from suddenly returns and
tries to take root in our hearts.
The Bible, in Matthew 18, tells the story of "a king who wanted to
settle accounts with his servants." He realized that one of his
servants owed him ten thousand talents, so he had the man brought to
him. He ordered that the man and his entire household should be sold
to make payment for the debt. "The servant fell on his knees before
him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.'
The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him
go" (Matthew 18:26-27).
As soon as the servant left his master, he found a man who owed him
money and demanded payment of the debt. When the man could not pay and
asked for mercy, the servant had him thrown into prison until the debt
could be paid in full. Seeing the entire situation played out before
them, the other servants in the household went to the king and told
him what their fellow servant had done. "Then the master called the
servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt
of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your
fellow servant?' In anger his master turned him over to the jailers
to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed"
(Matthew 18:32-34).
Free from Offense
When we choose not to forgive our brother, we open
the door for our past to come back on us and torture us. There is a
very painful side to unforgiveness that Satan does not like us to discuss.
He wants to make you feel as though you will lose something by forgiving,
but really you have everything to gain and very little to lose. You
gain peace and joy, you lose the constant torture of remembering the
offense. You gain the love and acceptance of your heavenly Father. You
lose the chains of the fear of the incident recurring again. And you
lose the agonizing entitlement of living in the cozy little jail cell
of your past.
Suddenly you are free to move on. You only need to look back now to
see how far you have come from the "old you" who kept every offense
locked away in the treasure chest of your mind. The "old you" would
pull out (at Satan's request) the woundings from your past, only to
let them wound you again and again as you toss them around in your mind.
Dear ones, do not forget: You are a child of the King! Your heavenly
Father rules the world and you are His heir. Your life belongs to Him,
including the painful events of your past. He cares about you very much!
He has provided a way out of the pain: you have only to open the locks
and remove the chains...you have only to forgive.
Your Father in heaven wants you to be free from the offense; free to
move on and fulfill your destiny in Him. As you move closer to fulfilling
the call God has on your life, Satan will try to bring about circumstances
that lead to unforgiveness. Disappoint him and forgive. Satan does not
want you to fulfill your destiny, and he knows if he can get you into
unforgiveness, you won't.
The very person who has offended you might be the one that God wants
to use to release you into your destiny. Offense is the test of graduation.
Forgiveness gives you an A+! Unforgiveness leaves you with a failing
grade and you will repeat the course again and again until you have
passed.
A Thorough Cleaning
"Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances
you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you"
(Colossians 3:13).
I went through a season in my life when God chose to do a thorough cleaning
of my heart. I use the word thorough because in Webster's Dictionary
it means "complete and absolute." My heavenly Father laid the ax to
the roots of unforgiveness in my heart and did not let up until the
job was done. The word thorough is also appropriate because the root
word of thorough is rough, which in Webster's means "lacking comforts
and conveniences." During this season in my life, God would not permit
me to give any comfort or convenience to the sin of unforgiveness, no
matter what the offense was or who had been used to offend me.
Often those closest to us will be the ones Satan uses to hurt us the
most. It is easy to forgive the checkout lady at the grocery store who
does not show us the proper respect. However, when those we love betray
our trust, it is a much deeper wound and we need to be aggressive in
our ongoing love for them. Our love for them will keep us from retaliation
(see 1 Corinthians 13:5).
An Aggressive Defense
The enemy will seek to use our mouths to accuse the
ones we love. We can stand in aggressive judgment toward them, with
our finger wagging in their face and Satan's words of condemnation flying
out of our mouths.
~ or ~
We can be used by God to aggressively defend those who have wronged
us. Satan cannot condemn them if we, as the people they have offended,
will stand in their defense.
When Aaron and Miriam spoke against their brother Moses, (see Numbers
12) for having a Cushite wife, the anger of the Lord burned against
them. Miriam was struck with leprosy, but Moses interceded for her.
"So Moses cried out to the Lord, "O God, please heal her!"
(Numbers 12:13). Moses was not the one who sinned, but he is the
one who cried out for God's forgiveness for his sister. He had the authority
to intercede for her because he chose to forgive. If we love, we will
not let Satan use us to condemn and accuse. We can be used by God to
cover their sins. Next time it might be our turn to be forgiven, and
they may be used by God to defend us.
It is not always easy to forgive, but it is necessary; it is what Jesus
is asking from us. He expects us to do as He Himself did. And yet, while
they were killing Him, He was interceding for their pardon.
Pray this with me:
Dear Father,
Please uncover areas of unforgiveness in my heart
and help me to release them to You. I choose to forgive those who have
been used to wound me, because I want more of You.
Say out loud the names of those who have offended you. See them as victims
of Satan's manipulation to hurt you, and release them by saying that
you forgive them. Pray for them and bless them. Now, go on and fulfill
your destiny!
Taken from Victoria Boyson's book, The Birth of
Your Destiny.
by Victoria Boyson
web: http://www.boyson.org
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"The Birth
of Your Destiny"
It Is Time
To Give Your Life To Your Dreams
by Victoria Boyson
$12.95 Book
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We are excited
to announce the recent release of Victoria Boyson's new book,
The Birth of Your Destiny.
God wants
to give you a dream for your future and implant the seeds of destiny
in your heart. Just like a baby hidden in the womb, so are the promises
God has given to us. He speaks to us of our future, to conceive
within us His will and purpose for our lives.
Giving birth
to your destiny is a difficult and exhausting process, but inevitably
your misery will turn into joy, and you will produce the product
of grace that you have always dreamed of. You are much too close
to the end to give up now. How do I know this? You have this book
in your hands. Experience an impartation of God's grace and faith
to fulfill all that He has for you.
"The Birth
Of Your Destiny not only instructs you about theological
facts pertaining to destiny, but the fact that this book is in your
hands tells me that you are well on your way to the fulfillment
of your destiny. It will provide important keys to unlocking the
fullness of God's plan for your life."
- By Francis Frangipane
Feel free to
order
online OR by phone (1-8.6.6-881-0477)
http://www.elijahshopper.com/detail.aspx?ID=1266
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