I woke up this morning with envy of another person on my mind. Since I have been working to pattern my life after how the Lord would live, I instantly began to pray for the person I had envied, and prayed for his continued success. The envy departed instantly, as the Lord promised it would.
My mind went next to people many years ago who supposedly were my brethren, who claimed to know and love the Lord, but turned out to be false brethren.
I thought I had forgiven those people for something that happened over 25 years ago, and I could move on. But I was feeling kind of lost and asked the Lord what I should be doing next. I know the answer came from the Lord and not my ego because what he said really surprised me. I thought I had forgiven these people, and that the Lord had probably also forgiven them, and we could all just move on.
Not so fast. He reminded me, again, that I was one of His servants, and that when we receive His servants, we receive Him, and when we reject His servants, we reject him. He commanded me to write up a testimony of my witness as His servant who ministered among those brethren, and also a witness of their rejection of a servant of the Lord. The phrase “of whom the world wasn’t worthy” (Heb. 11:38) kept coming to mind. In most cases, we should forgive, and the Lord will forgive. But justice must be done, and my testimony must stand as a witness.
I was told that I wasn’t going to receive any more from Him until I did this. I really don’t want to do this, but I will because I was asked to do it. This might be what’s standing in my way and blocking me at this point. I have nothing but forgiveness in my heart for these people. I am not saying I would ever unconditionally trust them again, but the bitterness and desire for revenge is gone. Most of them are dead, but for those still alive, I wish them nothing but the best. This is my “Liberty Jail” moment, and it’s time to end this and let myself out of jail. https://john144restoration.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/witness-and-forgiveness.pdf
John144 