Forgive once, Deeply!

“Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.


     My world has gone crazy.  I have had so much going on I can barely sort my thoughts.   While the storm is raging around my boat and I am trying to hold on for dear life, Jesus shows up and says, "Hey, Get out of the boat."  Are you crazy?  This is not a time to test my water walking skills. 
     A friend asked me to dinner and while she was away from the table I heard the Lord speak, "I want you to write your dad a heart felt letter.  Let him know you love him and that he is completely forgiven."  That's easy.  I can do that.  I confidently said, "We can talk about this in more detail later."  Then my friend sat down with a "Get out of the boat" expression.  "Hey, I just had a vision of you writing a letter and I could see the words "I forgive you"."  Well if that wasn't confirmation enough, but instantly I was hit with a knowing that Dad was only the beginning.  I would be writing letters to each of those who abused me.  Several thoughts flooded my mind for the next day or so.  Some of them were mine and some were from the Lord. 
     One thing He showed me was what I had received from my true friends for Christmas was shoes and contacts.  Some may think I am making something out of nothing here, but what the Lord showed me was that He has surrounded me with the relationships I need to walk me through this journey (shoes) and help me see clearly (contacts).  It was a relief to me.
     I have forgiven.  I feel no anger toward these people.  Why now do I contact them?  I thought it was finished.  Okay God, You are going to have to teach me about forgiveness.  I open my heart and my mind for whatever You want to show me.  Wow.  The last few days have been an intimate ride down a path I never expected.  Earlier in the day my friend and I had been talking and out of the blue I heard the Lord say something about the 7 spirits of God and we forgive 70 times 7.  I said it out loud and forgot about it, until I got home that night and was thinking about writing the letters.  A few of my friends were sharing a writing on the 7 spirits of God and so I asked for a copy, but when I started to read it, the Lord said "No.  I don't want you to focus on this, I want you to have a clear mind and hear me."  This wasn't the first time He said "No" to me when my friends were studying something and I began to join in, so I stopped reading and put it away. 
     Forgive 70 times 7.  Several times in the Bible when the Lord wants to give an infinite number He uses grains of sand, hairs on our head, stars in the sky, things that are too numerous to count.  He didn't do that here.  We can actually multiply this number and come up with an answer.  Why?  I have heard many times that this means infinite, but I wasn't feeling that. 
     I got out the Concordance and began to look up the words describing the seven spirits of God and though I felt Jesus was telling me not to go too deep in this area, there was a definite feeling of God's completeness.  There were also words that stood out to me.  In Hebrew one of the words used to describe the spirit of the Lord were eternal.  Forgiveness should be eternal and our forgiveness is.  The spirit of Counsel brought out the words purpose and resolve.  The spirit of Might brought me to the words victory and mastery.  We can have victory in forgiveness.  Though I did not focus too much in this area, the one thing I got was forgiveness should be complete.  What if 70 times 7 is the dimensions or quality of forgiveness and not the quantity. 
     If we were made in the image of Christ then we should have or be able to attain the 7 spirits of God.  I don't totally understand this 7 spirits thing, but I strongly feel it is about completeness.  We were made in His image, we are to strive to be like Jesus.  God did not send His son every time we sinned.  He died once for every sin committed and every sin that would be committed.  We forgive the person, not the sin.  The sin belongs to the enemy.  We are not to be offended.  We are to forgive that person so completely that we can never be offended by them or what they did again?
     So if 7 represents the completeness and the layers or depth of forgiveness, what does 70 mean?  I looked up every instance where the bible uses the number seventy.  Seventy elders, seventy sons, army of seventy thousand, I'm wasn't seeing anything until BAM.  Daniel 9:24, I had been given this verse a couple years ago when God said He was lifting His hand off a particular church.   

Daniel 9:24  (NASB)

24 “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.

     Instructions on how to finish the transgression?  The way I read this there are 7 things to do in 70 weeks.  Mariam, Moses sister was struck with leprosy and when Moses asked God to forgive her, God sent her out of the camp for 7 weeks, Nebuchadnezzar was eating with the beasts for 7 years.  I'm wondering if 70 is a time allotment?  Not that we have a certain amount of time to forgive, but that we keep at it until it's done.  We don't throw it on the back burner because it needs to be started immediately and as long as we are striving toward complete forgiveness He will show us the way or ways, layers, parts to complete forgiveness.  It's a process.  It's His timing.
     I had to look at Jesus on the cross.  That was all about forgiveness.  The whole crucifixion was about forgiveness and love.  When Jesus was crucified, He did not have to ask for forgiveness because He had not sinned, but He asked the Father to forgive them for they know not what they do and I think He was talking about all of us.  We ask for forgiveness for ourselves, but what about asking for forgiveness for others.  If we want to be like Jesus, I'm seeing this as a must.  The Lord commands us to forgive, it's not a request and Jesus as our example asks the Father to forgive others.  God sacrificed his Son and Jesus suffered, though He had done nothing wrong and He suffered for us who had sinned against Him.  Who are we not to suffer for those who have sinned against us, hurt us, even if we have done nothing wrong?
     One other thing the Lord has been talking to me about is communion.  We must first examine ourselves.  I can't count how many times I took communion before I heard this explained.  I wonder how many people are sitting in church buildings examining themselves and finding nothing to forgive or be forgiven?  Making excuses in their own minds why they don't have to.  Do they understand the importance of examining ourselves?  Is this why so many in the Church are asleep? 

1 Corinthians 11:27-32 (NASB)

27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. 30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number [a]sleep. 31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.         
    
     God wants to forgive us enough that He sent His only begotten Son to suffer through a horrendous death so we can be reconciled to Him. Why are we so afraid to allow him to shine His light into our dark places and heal, forgive and love us?  I want freedom so badly, I don't care how bad it hurts to get there.  I'm not stopping.  I believe we are to leave the door open, take it off it's hinges, for God to shine a light into our hearts and show us what we need to heal.  He took the first step in Jesus crucifixion, now it is our turn.  The forgiveness is there and has been presented to us, all we have to do is ask for it.  We also need to be willing to give it - For - Give. 
     I had told the Lord weeks ago that I want to be a person with no offense.  I want to be that person you can do or say anything to and I don't react.  I don't get offended.  I don't want to have anything to ask forgiveness for.  I am a long way from being this person I want to be, but when the Lord addressed my request we began the conversation on forgiveness.   I believe what He showed me is that we forgive the person, not the sin.  We forgive the person on such a deep Godly level that nothing they have done to us is remembered and future sins are already forgiven.  Isn't that how He loves us?
     I think we need to get all of our wounds, garbage, baggage, whatever you want to call it, out of the way, cleaned up, dealt with, so when we are asking God for forgiveness, it is always for others.  Moses still made mistakes, but how many times did He ask God to forgive those who followed him?  Stephen was stoned to death and his last request was forgiveness of those who stoned him.  How many of us on our death bed would be thinking of forgiving others?  God told Job to pray for his friends after all He had allowed the enemy to do to Job.  Was he asking God to forgive them?  Probably.  David was a man after God's own heart who had opportunity to kill Saul, but he loved him and saw him as God's child and left him for God to deal with.  Vengeance is not ours, but forgiveness is ours to freely take and/or give.
     The first part of forgiveness no matter if we are asking God to forgive us or another person, whether we are giving forgiveness, or forgiving ourselves is to take responsibility.  No matter what anyone else is doing, saying or believing, I can do something about this situation.  Jesus was sinless as he stood in the gap.  God is looking for people to intercede, to stand in the gap and I believe it is our responsibility to be like Jesus mostly in love and forgiveness. 
     So I write my letters when and to whom God tells me.  After focusing on forgiveness in such  deep and intimate time with God, I have such a deep desire for others, for all abusers to have freedom, to be forgiven, to forgive themselves and to reach a place in their relationship with Jesus that they can't wait to set others free.  As I was forgiven before I committed sin, those who abused and hurt me were forgiven by God before they committed any sin against me.  We will never know how much it cost to see our sins upon that cross.


Jeremiah 29:10-13 (NASB)

10 “For thus says the Lord, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans that I [a]have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.