AWM Importance of Forgiveness Recovery Program Session 1
Agenda – May 28, 2013
1. Start session with prayer – ask Holy Spirit to give you understanding and give you inner healing
2. Study each session carefully – this program is focused on healing of the spirit, soul, & body
3. If you have any questions, contact me via email
4. Close in Prayer – pray what you feel in your heart – this is your time between you and God and as you spend time with Him, you will deepen your personal relationship with Him
5. Session 2 WILL BE POSTED JUNE 4TH
Importance of Forgiveness Recovery Program Outline
I. Introduction – 1A /1A-1– May 28, 2013
II. Connection Between the Mind & Body – 1A-2
- First Point of View – Personal -1A-2-1
- Second Point of View – Medicine/Psychology – 1B
- Third Point of View – Scriptures – 1C/1D
III. Take Action By Taking Responsibility – Homework
A. Forgiveness – 1E
- The Forgiveness Affidavit – 1E
- Prayer Against Unforgiveness – 1E-1
B. Self-Bitterness – 1F
- The Self-Bitterness Affidavit – 1F
- Prayer to Overcome Self-Bitterness – 1F -1
C. Bitterness – 1G
- Levels of Bitterness (1-3) – 1G
- Levels of Bitterness (4-6) – 1G-1
- The Bitterness Affidavit – 1G -1a
- Prayer Against Bitterness – 1G-1b
D. Rejection – 1H
- What is Rejection? – 1H
- Root of Rejection – 1H-1
- Walls of Rejection – 1H-1a
- Who You Are In God – 1H-1b
- Release from Rejection – 1H-1c
- Prayer and Process for Overcoming Rejection – 1H-1d/1H-1e
E. Discovery Prayer – 1I/1I-1
Importance of Forgiveness Program – Session 1 – May 28, 2013
I. Introduction – 1A
Forgiveness is a very important part of your life! When people believe they have been wronged they become offended and this offense can lead to anger, hatred, jealousy, rejection, fear, pride, bitterness, etc. And the toxic emotions from offense leads to shame, regret, guilt, sorrow, self-bitterness, anxiety, stress, etc. To help get rid of these toxic emotions, the person must forgive – the recovery process begins when the person decides to forgive – forgiveness is a choice. Therefore, a person cannot recover/heal/be restored until these unresolved issues (toxic emotions above) are gone from their lives. Everything that has happened to me throughout my life, no matter how horrible it was, how justified I was in holding the unforgiveness against them, God let me know, I had to forgive them; it was not easy – I am not going to say it was – some things it took me years to get over. It took me over 20 yrs. to get over and forgive the guy who brutally raped me when I was 16, why because I did not deal with it. You must deal with what happened to you! Time does not heal old wounds! That is a lie from the pit of hell to keep you from dealing with your pain. Because I have been through this journey of forgiveness, I know and can tell you that if you don’t forgive others their sins (what they have done to you), you will not be forgiven of your sins by God. Let’s look at what Jesus said in Matthew 6:12, 14, and 15:
“......and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us” NLT – biblegateway.com.
What is verse 12 saying? Jesus says that we are to ask the Father to forgive us our sins, when we have forgiven those who have sinned against us. God gave us a requirement to fulfill before He will forgive our sins (I am not talking about when you accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior because God will forgive your sins – Jesus died once and for all for us and He forgives our sins always! I am talking here when someone hurt you and you refuse to forgive them – God forgive you while you were a sinner and sent His Son Jesus to die and take away your sins so you should forgive others their sins against you); therefore, receiving our forgiveness is directly tied to forgiving others.
Now let’s continue reading to verses 14-15 of Matthew 6: “14 “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 15 But if you refuse to forgive others, your (heavenly) Father will not forgive your sins...”NLT.
This Scripture clearly show us that the manner or way that we forgive others set the standard by which God will forgive us.
When someone offends us, we must deal with it then because offense opens the door for unforgiveness to come in and when that happens, it opens the door for other spirits more evil than unforgiveness. Unforgiveness is the entry point for the principality of bitterness to set up in your heart. Let’s go to Hebrews 12:14-15:
" 14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: 15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;” NKJV – biblegateway.com.
Importance of Forgiveness Program – Introduction 1A-1 – Session 1 - May 28, 2013
Once bitterness sets up in a person’s heart, it defiles them until they are destroyed! This happens because if unforgiveness is not deal with, it opens the door for resentment, then resentment opens the door for retaliation, then retaliation opens the door for anger, anger opens the door for hatred, hatred opens the door for violence and violence opens the door for murder; all these spirits cause the principality of bitterness to set up and begin to rule and reign in the person’s life, eventually destroying them.
Is unforgiveness worth losing your soul over? Let it go! When you don’t forgive, you are not hurting the person who hurt you, you are hurting yourself. Forgiveness is not a feeling, it is a choice as I stated before. You must decide to forgive the person and no matter what, don’t let anything change your mind. Keep telling yourself, “I forgive them.” Jesus said in Matthew 18:22 we should forgive someone 70 times 7; He gave us a guideline to show us there are no limits on how many times we are to forgive. It is not easy but it can be done by persevering.
I am going to give you several ways to keep unforgiveness out your life:
1. Recognize who you fighting against in the first place. Ephesians 6:12 lets us know who we are fighting against: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (www.biblegateway.com NKJV). Once we have settled this in our spirit, it will cause us to be more forgiving of people and begin to come against those spirits that are using them. We will see the spirits behind the person as the culprit instead of looking at the person.
2. Love God, His Word, and His people this will keep you from getting offended when someone hurt you. Psalms 119:165 says: “Great peace have they who love Your law; nothing shall offend them or make them stumble” Amplied Bible; in other words – do not render evil for evil, if your enemies hunger feed them, pray for them that despitefully uses you, etc. if we love God’s law, His commandments, His Word, then when people hurt us we will follow the directions God has already gave us, to keep us offense free. If we love God, His Word, and His people we will keep unforgiveness out of our life. Unforgiveness comes when we think someone has done us wrong and we get offended. A lot of times we think people have wronged us and they have not; it is our own twisted perception of ourselves that we reflect onto people. We perceive that people are one way when in reality it is ourselves we are seeing in people. If we take our focus off ourselves and keep it on Jesus, we will not have time to analyze every little thing people do or do not do to us; the devil will not be able to put these unrealistic thoughts in our head. That is why it is so important for us to have our minds transformed by the Word of God so we will not be conformed to the ways and actions of the world – we will not behave like the world when something happen to us. If the offense is not dealt with, it opens the door for unforgiveness which opens the door as I stated earlier for the principality of bitterness to set up in your life.
If you hear what God is saying to you today, by using these two ways, you will stay free of unforgiveness; you will not give place to the devil. I know there are more ways to stay free of unforgiveness but this is what God gave me!
Click here for PDF version for Session 1 May 28 2013
May God Continually Bless You and Keep You!
Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks
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