STRUCK DOWN : EPISODE 21-THE END
EPISODE THIRTY-ONE
“Mummy now, what are you still doing? I don’t want to be late o, and you know that.” Debby said impatiently at her mom’s door while waiting for her to get dressed so they could go to church together.
“Be patient will you? I’m almost done.” Her mom said from inside and Debby heaved a sigh.
“It’s 6:45am already and from here to church takes nothing less than 15mins. I don’t want to be late for the Praise/Worship section of today’s service. I read somewhere that’s the only thing God gets in the whole service.”
“Yeah that’s true. Don’t worry we won’t be late. I’m almost done.”
“Can I at least come in now? Seeing is believing.”
“Lol….we walk by faith and not by sight o. You can come in now though.” Mama Eunice said and Debby gave a quick knock before walking into her room.
“Oya let’s go. I’m through.” Mum said after some minutes.
To Debby’s satisfaction, they weren’t late but arrived during the opening prayers.
Debby engaged herself in deep worship to God when it was time for it, that she felt refreshed and more alive even after the praise/worship section had ended.
Then came the time for a brief Bible Study, popularly called ‘Search the Scriptures’, which lasted for about 30mins before the head pastor came to the podium to preach.
“Today we’re going to be listening to a message from the Holy Spirit titled ‘forgiveness’.” The head pastor said and closed his eyes to pray.
“Father I ask that you open the eyes of your people and let them have their individual rhema this morning, in the name of Jesus.”
“Amen” The church chorused.
“Our text is going to be taken from the book of Matthew 18….” He said and paused for a while to open the big Bible placed before him.
“We’d be reading from verse 23 through to the end. Are we there?” He asked and there were rumors of yes and nos so he waited a little before reading the passage out loud.
“The message for today is simple but very deep and it’s for someone here. The Lord told me if that someone here takes the necessary steps he or she should after this message, a breakthrough that you have never imagined in your life can be yours would break forth and manifest.” He said and the church chorused Amen.
“Now obviously the passage for today is centered on forgiveness.
According to the Scripture a man here owed a king a huge sum of money which he couldn’t pay. He begged for mercy from his master and received it.
Meanwhile this same servant had a fellow servant that owed him not as much as he owed the king, but held him at the throat, asking him to pay his debt. I’d like to name the first servant Servant A, and the other Servant B so we don’t confuse ourselves here.
Now Servant B did what worked for Servant A in that he knelt and begged to be given a little time so he could pay up.
Now on a normal note, it is expected that this servant recall or have a flashback of his encounter with the king and forgive his fellow servant, no matter how painful it might be for him, isn’t it? But he didn’t.
Instead he ordered his imprisonment till he paid him all. Now let me explain this passage to you as the Holy Spirit did to me.
We are all under God’s authority and God is a King, right? That’s why we call Him the King of kings. We His children are his servants, isn’t that so? That’s why even David prays ‘deliver thy servant, rescue thy servant, hear thy servant in the day of trouble’ and the likes. Please are we following?”
“Yes Sir.”
“Good. We’re servants because we all render services to God. Now as servant there’s a debt we couldn’t and still can’t pay.
That debt is what Jesus came to pay on our behalf in that he took our place and died for us. Because the huge sacrifice offered by Jesus Christ, we are pardoned and have received the mercy of God to walk around freely without any condemnation.
Now when someone sins against us as humans, a debt comes in. That’s why a person has the conviction to come to you asking for forgiveness and when you forgive, the person feels free within him. Infact sometimes it’s not only about asking for forgiveness alone, in some cases there comes a need for restitution. True or false?”
“True!”
“Now Jesus has told us several times in this Bible that we should forgive as Christ has forgiven us. He further explained how this forgiveness of a thing works in this story now.
When we offend God, we all go to him asking for forgiveness. Infact there are present believer who still don’t feel they deserve God’s forgiveness as a result of the nature of their past, yet our merciful God has pardoned them.
It is surprising that after they have received God’s pardon, they refuse to forgive their fellow men of the hurt they have caused them presently or in the past.
Now let’s go back to the passage and take note of certain things there.” The lead pastor said and flipped through the pages of the Bible in front of him.
“We’d start from verse 27. The King is God and the servant for example is Delight. So Delight asked the Lord for forgiveness and He forgave her.
This same Delight left God’s presence to hold unto a debt owed by her fellow brethren. Please note here that even if that person paid up, she still wouldn’t be able to pay the debt she owed her God. Now some of us here are like that.
You’ve received a great deliverance, perhaps it’s not even forgiveness of sins, yet you still go back to act in a way that reminds God of your past and force Him to pay you back in your own coin! Don’t you know that holding on to the past, holding on to the pain someone has caused you only hurts your relationship with God? I’m guessing now that servant A in this scripture was furious with servant B because he was thinking that maybe if that servant wasn’t owing him, he would at least have paid off some of his debt to the King.
Some of us now are angry with our fellow human being because our mindset is focused on how better our lives would have been by now if so so and so haven’t done this or that to us, so we’re holding on to the regret and caging the victim in our hearts. What you do not know is that as long as that person remains in the prison of your heart, you’re hindering yourself of the blessings and grace that God’s forgiveness comes with. Or you do not know that there’s a grace that comes with forgiveness? Don’t you know that when God forgives you of your adultery, of your fornication.
He releases the grace to recover all that you’ve lost as a result of that sin? So why hold on to the past like there’s no hope for you in getting a husband, in restoring your home, or in having your babies?
God has that grace given to you already but that grace can’t work for you when you don’t let go of the little debt your fellow human owes you.”
The pastor said and Debby’s mind immediately flashed back to Fred. For a moment it felt the pastor was directly talking to her.
“Let that person you’re caging in your heart go, so the grace God has made available to you can work for you.
If you keep holding on to that pain, that hurt, that regret, you wouldn’t be able to activate the grace God released toy ou when He forgave you of your sins.
Come to think of it, I don’t think God can forgivr you of your sins if there’s no chance of making it right.
A husband for example forgives his wife to show she has a chance of making things right.
Imagine if all the wife does is to wallow in self-pity and regret over what she has done to her husband in the past, she wouldn’t have the chance to see her husband’s forgiveness as an opportunity to be a better wife and work towards it. It’s the same thing with you dear.
If you keep caging people in your heart and allow your self sink in the ocean of regret, you’d never see God’s forgiveness as an opportunity to do better. Let that prisoner in your heart go dear brother.
Let that man that has hurt you so much and is responsible for your predicament go dear sister. Let them go.” The pastor said and at this point, Debby had gotten so emotional she didn’t realized a tear had escaped her eyes.
“God I know this is me you’re talking to through this message. I get the dream now. You’re asking me to let go of this garment of shame I feel within me that I’ve been holding on to tightly for a really long time. God it’s hard, it’s really hard to let go, forgive truly and forget about my past but I will, by your grace.
I receive the grace to let go Lord, I receive the grace to forgive Fred. His name even annoys me sef.” Debby said and sighed with her head bowed as fresh tears streamed down her face.
STRUCK DOWN : EPISODE 21-THE END
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