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Unforgiveness: The Deal Breaker

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“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

Forgiveness is probably one of the hardest things to do as a Christian. Yet it is not only a command from God but is required for us to receive forgiveness for ourselves. Its tough to do because we are wronged and yet we can’t get revenge on the one who wronged us or retaliate in anyway. We can say how we feel about another’s actions or words but in the end we are required to let them off the hook. Why? Because Christ does the same for us on a daily basis. He died on the cross to pay for our sins and every time we sin and repent of it He forgives us. To try and receive forgiveness from Jesus only to deny it to somebody else is hypocrisy.

Recently I’ve had yet another incident in which someone wronged me. In fact they wronged me about four times in a week! I felt like Peter did when he asked Jesus “how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”(Matt. 18:21). I was angry, really angry but eventually I broke down and gave up my negative thoughts  and emotions and forgave them. It is quite freeing but that doesn’t make it that much easier. But what really gets me about forgiveness is that to refuse to give it causes you to lose it as well. And I’m not interested in allowing anything to come in between me and my God, especially unforgiveness.

The Cost of Unforgiveness

The cost of being unforgiving is loss in the area of relationship. When we withhold forgiveness from others our relationship with them suffers as a result. We behave bitterly towards them, don’t allow them to get close and continually expect them to wrong us again. What’s true in the natural is true in the spiritual. In our relationship with God if we are unforgiving towards others then we struggle to have a healthy relationship with Him. When one fails to grasp God’s love and forgiveness they see God as being only angry and just. When they sin they beat themselves up, living with a downcast soul and expect God to punish them. What we think of God effects how we think of others and ourselves. If we view God as full of wrath and judgement towards our sins then we typically respond the same towards sin in our lives or in the lives of others.

Christ suffered a great amount of pain for our forgiveness, we must not demean His great sacrifice by denying others forgiveness. The cost for our forgiveness was great, so also is the cost of withholding it. Being unforgiving often even prevents someone from receiving physical healing as well as deliverance from the demonic. It’s like a disease that cripples us in many areas of our life: the spiritual, emotional, and physical. Even our personalities are affected. He was wounded for our transgressions and by these stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). The blood He shed cleanses us of our sins (1 John 1:7). Withholding forgiveness causes us to ignore the Cross.

Forgiveness is a part of dying to oneself, the crucifying of our own flesh. Want to gage how well you are at dying to yourself? See how difficult it is for you to forgive. Forgiveness is a basic component of the Christian faith, yet Christians are mostly weak in this area. Too often I hear statements from other Christians such as: “forgive but never forget”. And yet God’s example is that He doesn’t remember our sins. He blots them out, casting them as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). Obviously He’s not an amnesiac but this means He doesn’t hold it against us. We create a list of the wrongs someone has done to us and this list plagues our view of them, our expectations of them and fuels our negativity. Don’t hold on to your list of wrongs. Follow Christ’s example and allow them a clean slate.

Being Preemptive Helps

We need to learn to be assertive. Spare yourself some pain by making your boundaries known. Don’t be mean or rude, just let your voice be heard and let them know what you will and won’t tolerate. Many of our problems, many of my problems, are results of a failure to take control of our situations. Some people seek to control, manipulate and steal from us regardless of our response. But I’ve learned that many of the times that I have been hurt and taken advantage of are due to my failure to say no, to take charge over my own life when others attempt to do so. People are more inclined to do something damaging to you if they perceive that you are a timid pushover but they will think twice about doing it to one who has self-control and confidence in themselves. Many of our hurts could be avoided if we would just let our voices be heard. Forgiveness is difficult enough, make it easier for yourself: be assertive. You’re allowed to tell others that you don’t like the way they are treating you.

Final Thought: The Cross

If the events surrounding His suffering and crucifixion are what leads to our healing, forgiveness and access to intimacy with God then the carrying of our own cross should then enable us to forgive others and ourselves, usher in healing into others lives and our relationships and lead us into deeper communion both with others and God as well. So let’s consider what Christ did for us on the cross and truly appreciate what we have received from Him. Then let’s pick up our cross and follow Him, allowing forgiveness to flow from us even as we too are wounded.

Reaching the Enoch Threshold

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“And everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:26

Once while reading Genesis 5:24 I asked the Lord if it were possible for me to do what Enoch had done and be taken into heaven without dying.  He confirmed to me that it was possible and even showed me in a vision a man being taken up into heaven in a great burst of light. Many  Christians are hoping for the rapture to happen, but hardly any seem to consider that its possible to be taken up individually, as a result of our walk of faith pleasing God. But the question is: how did Enoch live such a life that God decided he could skip death?

The Dark Days of Enoch

Enoch had one advantage in his day that we do not have: long life span. The scriptures say that after having his first son Methuselah he walked with God for 300 years (Gen. 5:22). Sadly we don’t have 300 years to learn the walk well enough to reach the point of God taking us up into heaven. However, Enoch was also at a great disadvantage when it came to walking with God. Enoch lived before the law of Moses, the coming of Christ and the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit. In his day there wasn’t a Jewish religion or nation for him to belong to and receive instruction from the spiritual leaders. There weren’t any commandments recorded for him to follow or a group of fellow believers to help him along the way. And as for the rest of society in his day, they were extremely wicked. Scripture says all of man’s thoughts were constantly on evil (Genesis 6:5). Fallen angels were on the earth mating with women, giants are engaging in violence and all the earth was corrupted. The time that he lived in was so bad that God decided to destroy everything on the earth with the flood. Finding another righteous individual seemed very unlikely in his day. Yet he succeeds in walking with God.

There may be a lot of evil in our days but its nowhere near as bad as the days of Enoch. We also have the church, the bible and most importantly we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us; guiding and teaching us. The simple truth is that we are more equipped than ever to reach the level of devotion and relationship with God that Enoch had reached. And we don’t have to live three lifetimes to do it. So why hasn’t one of us succeeded at it yet? Why are the only examples we have of individuals being taken up to heaven two men who lived before the indwelling Presence?

Means to an End?

What I’ve learned in the last few years is that what enabled Enoch to reach this threshold was his love and total focus on God. Many Christians today struggle in their walk because it is not a result of their love of God, but their love of themselves. What many today are really after is self preservation. Their goal is to make it to heaven, not to be with the God that makes heaven worth going to but to escape pain and trouble. This is being selfish. But Gods desire is to put to death our selfishness, not preserve it.

Clearly the Lord desires for all of us to be singularly focused on drawing close to Him as possible. But we must learn that God is not a means to an end. God is the end! And as long as going to heaven to escape our problems is our focus and not being with God, than frankly I have to wonder if such a focus could actually lead one to heaven anyways, regardless of how your time on earth ends. I say this because when I think of how men and women interacted with the idols they worshipped in ancient times I cant help but notice that they did so under the impression that their worship would lead to a blessing. For example they would worship an idol believing it would give them a good harvest.

Therefore there worship was a means to an end. But God deserves worship regardless of whether He is giving us a blessing in response or not. That is what it means when we say “He is worthy” in our prayers and worship songs and when we read scriptures such as Revelations 4:11 and Psalm 145:3. He is worthy because of who He is, in His great and perfect nature. Using God to get what you want is a part of idolatry, not godliness.

To walk as Enoch did we must sacrifice our selfish nature and our desire for self preservation, and love God for who He is, not what He does for us. You cant love God just to get to heaven. God is the Alpha and the Omega, He is the end. Enoch was focused on God and learned to live as a child of light in the midst of the darkness, not allowing his circumstances to draw his mind and heart away from the Lord. He understood that loving God looked like giving attention, affection, and time to God continuously and he trusted God to take care of his needs without needing to worry about it.

Basically, walking with God is a lifestyle in which God is your focus and number one priority. The desire to reach the Enoch threshold is an exciting prospect but even the pursuit itself must continue to be about God and not just having the experience.

The Pursuit of the Presence

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“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”  Jeremiah 29:13

Mistaken Identity

I remember when I was younger learning about the different people in the bible during Sunday school. Samson with his super-strength, the boy David taking down Goliath, Moses parting the Red Sea. I remember when I learned about Joshua how I paid a little extra attention because I knew that this was the man that I was named after. I grew up looking at Joshua as a great warrior and military commander, picturing him as being physically strong and quick thinking on the battle field. This is how I thought of the man and without fully understanding why, I thought of myself as being like him. I felt that my identity needed to be that of a man who was strong, brave and decisive. And yet, most of my young life was spent being anything but those things.

At fourteen I left the faith and became an atheist. By nineteen I was so afraid of conflict and making mistakes that I was practically mute, not wanting to talk to anyone or come out of my room. Fear dominated my life. After returning to Christianity I spent a few years attending church, reading everyday, praying as much as I could and trying my best to be a good Christian. Yet I kept succumbing to sin no matter how hard I resisted and was still very fearful and never did or said what I really wanted to. After about four years of getting nowhere with overcoming the same sins I eventually gave up on trying to not sin. I told God that I didn’t know what to do anymore, instead I needed Him to do something. And He did. I had an encounter with God that brought me out of a performance driven lifestyle and a focus on sin and ushered me into a real living relationship with God. A friend of mine had invited me to go to a place called Potters Place, which was a couple’s private property that they had turned into a place where anyone could come and spend time with the Lord away from all the busyness and noise of life.

Ill never forget that first visit or what the Lord spoke to me that day. At the time I was reading the book of Exodus and as I was reading chapters 32 and 33 I noticed something for the first time. As Moses was coming down the mountain he encountered Joshua. Remember that Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights without food or water, which means that if Joshua was with him then he also didn’t eat or drink for that amount of time. So for forty days Joshua was somewhere on the mountain while Moses was at the top communing with God. And then when Moses set up the tent of meeting it says that Moses would go to the tent and Joshua would follow him but when Moses would finish he would return to the people yet Joshua remained at the tent(Ex. 33:7-11). And then I remembered the story of Joshua’s first day of leading the Israelites into battle (Exod. 17:8-13). The success or failure of Joshua and the Israelites was completely dependent upon Moses’s obedience to Gods command to keep his arms raised. And that’s when it hit me. Joshua wasn’t a great military leader or a warrior. In fact, when he lead Israel into the promised land he was at least 80 years old! His great success depended on something else.

Life in the Presence of God

I felt that the Lord was saying to me that Joshua was able to lead Israel, be victorious against thirty-one kings, defeating five at the same time, and tell the sun and moon to stand still and they did; not because he was such a great man but because he was a man after the Presence of God. Although the scriptures don’t tell us exactly what happened with Joshua while Moses was receiving the commandments, one can imagine that Joshua must of had an amazing time in the manifest Presence of God. Enough so that he didn’t want to leave the Tent of Meeting, the place where he could encounter God regularly! Joshua pursued life in the Presence of God above everything else. This resulted in a lifestyle where he was aware of the Presence even when he was busy.

I remember declaring to the Lord that that’s what I wanted to be: a man after the Presence of God. And in the past couple of years that’s exactly what I have been pursuing. Since then I have actually stopped focusing on my sins and performance and have overcome many of my fears. How? God did it. I dedicate as much free time as I can to just sit in the Presence of God and wait on Him to move or to speak. Sometimes I just praise Him and worship Him, other times I don’t move until He gives direction. Its not about reading more verse or saying more prayers.

The Omnipresence of God

God is omnipresent, which means that He is always present, He is always with us. A relationship is mutual which means that its success is not dependent just on how well you behave. It depends on two people showing up. And in this case God always shows up. Its up to us to search  for Him. “Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice! Seek the LORD and His strength; seek His Presence continually!” 1 Chronicles 16:12-11

His Presence is always with us, this is a truth about Gods nature. This never changes so we can trust Him to always be there. Loneliness is a lie of the enemy, its believing that no one is there with you which is impossible in light of the truth of Gods Presence.

The feats that Joshua performed is a great example of what a life lived in the Presence of God can look like, when a man or a woman lives with a constant awareness of God. What’s even greater still is that Joshua lived in the old testament period and did not have the indwelling of the Spirit. The same God who parted the Red Sea and came down in a pillar of fire and smoke now resides in you and me!

All it takes is for us to begin by taking a few minutes a day searching for Him. An even simpler discipline then reading scripture or praying is just focusing your attention towards Him. Let your mind stay upon Him, not upon your sins or worries. In His Presence is where we find freedom, hope and the truth of who we are as children of God. “For how shall it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not in Your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and Your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?” Exodus 33:16

The Key to Intimacy

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“It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.” Luke 23:44-45

The Veil

Upon breathing His last, Christ’ death initiated a rather tumultuous event. The light of the sun failed, leaving the land in darkness, the earth shook and rocks split in two. And within the temple the veil was torn in two, from top to bottom. The veil created a physical separation between the Holy of Holies, the area where only the high priest was allowed to enter and offer sacrifice once a year, and the rest of the temple. This veil is a physical representation of a spiritual separation between the perfect God and fallen man. And the tearing of it in two is the removal of that divide. Just as His death opened the Holy of Holies by tearing the veil, it also enabled us all to have entrance into the Presence of the Holy God.

But  it was not the resurrection of Christ from the dead that caused this but the death itself.  It was the sacrifice of His life on the cross as payment for our sins that led to such a great blessing in being able to draw near. His death earned us the gift of salvation, but the event of the tearing of the veil showed that He also intended for us to approach Him in relationship. Christ set for us an example in everything that He did on earth; in His life, His suffering, His death and resurrection. His death and the tearing of the veil, shows us that sacrifice is the key to intimacy. His death and subsequent tearing of the veil initiated the intimacy and allows us to respond similarly. Many Christians accept the salvation that His death bought us yet still fail to enter into real relationship with Jesus. If we want to draw close then it will require sacrifice. Jesus tells us this in Matthew 16:24-25 when He says “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

I believe that if there was one reason why we are so devoid of personal relationships with Christ it is because we wont sacrifice. Beginning with our failure to sacrifice a small amount of time to spend with Him. I remember a few years ago when I had enlisted in the army and was going through basic training. We were woke up extremely early in the mornings and would train all day. When we finally got to turn in for the night we were exhausted and had just enough time to shower and maybe write a letter to home. It was during this time that I decided to spend some time just to read a chapter of the bible and pray for about ten minutes before I went to bed. After showering and maybe writing a letter, prayer and reading had to take place often after the lights were already off. And if you have never been in the military than let me just say that sleep was a precious commodity. But I gave some of it up just to draw close to God and it paid off. Despite sleep deprivation, physical pain and emotional and mental strain I knew that God was always present despite the circumstances and the fact that I couldn’t “feel” His Presence. It built up my faith and helped me get through the whole ordeal.

This is when I learned that we all have plenty of time to spend with the Holy Spirit. If I could find time in boot camp for God then we can find time in civilian life. So what is our problem? The culture we live in says we must be busy and productive and when we have free time we find ourselves spending it on our own entertainment or relaxation. I believe that rest is extremely important, even a command of the Lord but the way we are “resting” is not good. We drink, party, go to friends, play video games, watch television or get on social media. We fill our lives with distractions and feel bad about failing to spend time with the Lord. We fail to recognize that in the Presence we find rest and sustenance. These other things only satisfy temporarily and leave us empty. They simply distract us from our work obsessed culture and when it is time to return to work we are still reluctant to go back and our rest is immediately disturbed. If we could just be bold enough to sacrifice one thing to open up some time for the Lord in our schedules we would find Him and find the rest He has for us. We would discover that it wasn’t just His sacrifice that lead to intimacy but our own as well. God enjoys partnering with us and after all a relationship takes two people to work, not just one.

He opened the door, but the choice to walk through it is up to us. Developing a relationship with God is actually not as difficult as we think. In addition to tearing the veil, His death also took our sins away. With the penalty paid and our old self dying on the cross with Him, we are able to enter into relationship right now! He took care of everything else. We just have to make the choice and as He tells us in Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters , for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other”. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you an area in your life where you could surrender it to Him and in its place interact with Jesus. Sacrifice a distraction, give up an idol that is holding you hostage to religion without relationship and experience the blessing of knowing God personally.

The Fork in the Road

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“God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13

We have a promise in this verse that God will not allow us to face temptation without providing a way of escape. Christ tells us that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). Christ is the Way. I know that this also refers to Christ as being the only way to heaven and salvation but right now I want to talk about being guided away from sin. Every time we are being tempted we often think of it as a decision between sinning and not sinning. This is because the enemy likes to appeal to our desires and that which is pleasurable to us; making it hard for us to resist. We think that its up to our ability to recognize the temptation and to resist it with our own strength. When we think this way we are pitting our strength against demons; and as much as I hate to admit it demons are very slick. They are tricky and will wear you out. They’ll get you to focus so much on one sin that you become blind to all the other areas that they are attacking you in.

The truth is that it is not a decision between sinning and not sinning. Its a decision between following a way that leads to sin or following a way that leads to Christ. Each time we are tempted by the enemy, God counters it by providing us with an opportunity to be blessed by Him. The alternative to sin is being in the Presence. Its showing our obedience to Jesus instead of following the enemy. Its as if the enemy recognizes when the Lord is wanting to draw us close and he comes in and plants his destructive alternative. So really instead of choosing between the sin and its pleasure and no pleasure, the choice is really between the pleasure of Gods blessing and the satisfying of the flesh.

Have you ever wondered why the enemy tries so often to tempt us? Obviously the enemy wants to cause us to fall away from God and go to hell along with him. But when we are saved and we don’t fall away, why does the enemy try so often? Could it be to rob us of as many blessings as possible? Or to try to make our faith and depth of relationship with Christ to be as shallow as possible? What if there was so much more that we could receive from the Lord but our failure to recognize the temptation and more importantly, the Way that is Christ, causes us to miss out. How sad it is that we miss so many chances to walk with God because the enemy masks the moments with his filth!

We move through life so fast that these moments pass us by. We don’t realize what happened until the sin has been done and we are asking ourselves “How did I get into this place?”. We’ve got to slow ourselves down and I’ve never found a better way to do that then to spend time alone with God. Not more time reading or saying more prayers, just abiding in His Presence. Resting in His Spirit and lifting up praise to Him, contemplating on His greatness and listening for Him to speak. I find that the more time I spend with Him the more life seems to slowdown, allowing me to recognize the fork in the road moments where I can clearly see the right Way to go.

Enoch’s Walk (Purpose of this Blog)

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“By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.” Hebrews 11:5

There’s not a whole lot that is said concerning Enoch in the scriptures. Yet what little is said I’ve always found interesting. A man seems to have accomplished the impossible, he has pleased God to such a degree that God takes him without him ever seeing death. Genesis 5:24 says “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.”. What exactly does it mean that he  “walked with God”? How does one go about it? Enoch lived in a time predating the Bible and even the Law. There was no Israel at this point in history either so clearly its not devoting more time to study, attending more church services, or performing works. To walk with God is to live your entire life with Him, to walk in a constant relationship with Christ. Its what Christ and the apostles refer to when they say “abide in Christ”. Its learning to live your life moment by moment in the Presence of God, lead by the Holy Spirit. Walking with God means that your ultimate goal in life is to get as close to your Lord and Savior as you possibly can. It means you’ve counted the cost and have determined that sacrificing everything is a small price to pay to obtain the riches found in God and the understanding of His nature and ways. It means you’ve made God your first love and the ultimate desire of your heart. Its behaving in a way that is in accord with Gods character and making decisions that will keep you close to Him and avoiding the wrong choices that you know are presented by the enemy in an attempt to draw you away. All because of your love for the Lord.

There is no shortage of blogs out there that talk about scripture and our Christian religion. My vision for this blog though is to get to the bottom of what it means and looks like to walk with God, to understand the walk of Enoch. To go deeper into the knowledge of our great God, to learn how to approach Him and to develop an ever deepening relationship with Him. My hope is that through this blog we might establish a firm foundation in our understanding of Gods nature and how to live a life in the Presence of God. Through His death Christ tore the veil so that we could draw close. We owe it to Him and to ourselves to do so. There is no greater blessing from God then to know Him.