Unforgiveness is a trap the devil uses to hold any person in captivity! As a result the person never seems to reach God or receive forgiveness for their sins for once and for all. Therefore it is the very first step to receiving deliverance and forgiveness of our own sins.
Forgiveness for another person’s trespasses is the very first thing God requires from us before we come to Him for forgiveness of OUR sins. When a person hates someone else the devil already has a stronghold that holds the unforgiving person in captivity. The following Bible verses show how we can be trapped by un- forgiveness.
Matthew 6:14 "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
1John 4:20 If anyone claims, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how is it possible for him to love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God should love his brother also.
Leviticus 19:17 "You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.
2Corintians 2:10 And to whom you forgive anything, I also forgive; for if indeed I have forgiven anything, the one whom I have forgiven, I have done so for your sakes in the presence of Christ,11 lest we be taken advantage of by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his devices.
According to the verses above unforgiveness is an actual device or stronghold of satan. The devil uses people to get us to hate them for what he has done to us:
Ephesians 6:12 For our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against authorities and powers, against the world-rulers of this dark night, against the spirits of evil in the heavens.
1John 3:15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
The words: “I forgave, but I will never forget” Make sure you have forgiven:
Remember the words of Jesus on the cross “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they do”. Jesus asked God to forgive the people, before his death. This is also a part of the blueprint of our salvation and our old man being crucified with Christ. We MUST FIRST FORGIVE to be forgiven. Break yourself loose from the trap of unforgiveness with this powerful prayer to forgive:
4 Ask God to change their(name) hearts so they will not heart you again
5. Now, ask the Lord to help you to never ever think of their(name) wrong doings again.
God will answer this prayer, because in God’s eyes LOVE is the biggest Commandment. Do this prayer and see how God reaches out to you. If for any reason you find it difficult to say this prayer or start shaking then I urgently need you to ask someone to pray this for and with you to be released. If there is more than one person who did you wrong in the past please do a prayer for each of them saying their names to the Lord. I was not aware of the hate I still carried against other people. This prayer was very difficult for me. I was really struggling, but after this prayer I was finally released and the Lord changed my heart and feelings toward them. Not long after this the Lord forgave all my sins, forever, I was born again, only to realize afterwards that the Lord placed that instruction to forgive those people. GLORY TO GOD OUR FATHER FOREVER AND EVER! AMEN