Dear Friends,

I hope that God is filling you with His joy and peace through the power of the Holy Spirit. I have been teaching some foundational truths at church. I believe that God has shown me some things during this study that I felt I should pass along. Forgiveness is an essential part of the Christian walk, both giving and receiving. Offense is a serious issue in the lives of many Christians. Many are held captive by prison bars forged in the pit of unforgiveness because they cannot forgive. They are forfeiting their inheritance because they cannot receive from God because they are holding on to offense. I hope this teaching will exhort Christians to forgive as we have been forgiven.

“As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” John 20:21-23

Could it be that Jesus has given authority to His people to forgive sin? Many would say that it is blasphemous to think that way and would make applications that would even deny the suggestion that God had given such authority to men. We may say it was only for the apostles. I believe that there is much of the scriptures we do not receive or do not walk in because we don’t believe God would give us that much authority. What was the resurrected Lord, who had just died for the sins of the world, saying if He was not giving us the authority to forgive? Could it be that God is not free to work in the lives of those who we won’t forgive? If we have authority to forgive; we also have the power to retain. With the authority to release comes the authority to keep bound.

In Matthew 18: 21-35 Jesus gives one of His “the kingdom of heaven is like…” parables. Rather than type all the scripture I’ll briefly give the gist of the parable. A servant was forgiven an insurmountable debt by the king and then went out and found a fellow servant who owed him a relatively small amount. When his fellow servant could not pay him, he threw him in debtor’s prison. When the king found out how he had treated his fellow servant, he was angry and turned him over to the torturers until the debt be paid There was nothing mentioned of the fellow servant, so we must assume he was not released from prison. Jesus said, “So my heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.” If we do not forgive we can keep others in prison as well as ourselves.

If we have been crucified with Christ and the crucifixion provided forgiveness for sin, then by virtue of our position in Him not only were the sins we have committed put on the cross, but the sins committed against us were put on the cross as well. By refusing to forgive we are denying our position in Him. We have failed to appropriate the work of the cross.

The cross was both vertical and horizontal. God made provision not only for our being reconciled to Him, but that we might be reconciled to others. We have been given the grace to be ministers of reconciliation.

“Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 2 Cor. 5:18,19

“Reconcile” in one meaning of the word means to balance the books.

“Our certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us was nailed to the tree”. Col. 2 :14

When Jesus said, “It is finished.” The Greek word means “paid in full.” As ministers of reconciliation we do not impute the trespasses of others against them. As I was meditating before doing this teaching Sunday, I heard the Lord say, “If a man thinks he is right with me and is holding offense toward others he deceives himself.”

It is by His grace that we have been made ministers of reconciliation and if we do not walk in forgiveness we fall short of that grace allowing opportunity for a root of bitterness to spring up in us which affects everybody around us. C-Hebrews 12:15

In closing, know this, that there is not anything that you have done or that has been done to you for which the finished work of Jesus Christ is not sufficient. Praise God for his infinite mercy.

May you continually experience the abundant grace of our Lord.

In His service,

Herb Dean

Dear friends,

I pray that you are well and growing in the reality of His presence. One of the operative principles of the kingdom of God is the principle of sowing and reaping. It is so often used in reference to money and sometimes to the extreme of manipulating people to get a bigger offering. It applies across the board in every area good or bad. If we sow mercy; we reap mercy. If we sow love; we reap love. If we sow judgement; we reap judgement. We reap what we sow; we reap later than we sow, and we reap greater than we sow. I felt impressed today to share a testimony that might encourage someone who may be going through a crisis of faith or a financial struggle. God’s word is true and He is faithful. I hope this blesses you.

And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Phil. 4:19

I had been preaching out of Philippians 4 when I felt impressed of the Lord that we needed to put these things in practice by giving to another church. It was clear that the promise which is so often quoted was given to a group of people who had sown sacrificially to meet the needs of Paul and his ministry. I knew a young pastor who had started a church and most of his members were college students. I am sure most of you know that most college students do not have an abundance and most have little or no income to give from. They were struggling financially. We were a new church as well, meeting in a Days Inn and we didn’t have an abundance of money either. I shared what I felt the Lord was telling me to do and my people were agreeable. We took up an offering for this other church. I, personally, was paid at the end of every month and I had almost run out of money before I had run out of month. My family had practically no money to give and I sacrificially gave almost all I had left. I gave 20 dollars. We collected a total of 120 dollars. It wasn’t much, but we didn’t have much.

The next day I went to the pastor’s home and gave him the check. The young pastor teared up when I handed him the check and tears came to my eyes as well as a sweet presence filled the room. God honored our sacrificial gift. No amount of money could have equaled the richness of that moment. I left broke in terms of finances, but with joy in my heart money could not buy. If that were the end of the story, it would be enough, but that was only part of what happened. The next Sunday an elderly lady who would visit our church every now and again came. She was a dear precious saint of God, an intercessor who spent many hours in prayer and knew the voice of her Lord. After the service, she came up to me and stuck a wad of cash in my hand and asked me to pray over it. She was giving this money to me in obedience to the Lord. I didn’t know how much it was and after we prayed together she left and I counted it. It was 130 dollars. God had provided for the rest of our month. I was humbled and touched. I knew that for this lady that was a lot of money. She and her husband lived on social security and what he could earn from a few odd jobs. I knew this was a sacrifice.

I saw the lady a couple of weeks later and she said that she wanted to share something with me. She had some friends to call her and ask her to go shopping with them . They told her they needed to buy a refrigerator and would like her advice as to what kind and style would be best. They looked at a number of refrigerators and my intercessor friend gave them counsel on each one. They finally came to one that she felt would serve her friends well. Her friends then asked her, “Would you like one like this?” She said she’d be very happy with one like that.They said, “It’s yours.” She was so excited. Her refrigerator was very old and she said she had laid hands on it and prayed for it on more than one occasion. God is faithful.

That is as far as I can carry the story, but knowing God I’m sure the ones who bought the refrigerator were blessed as well and probably the ones God used to bless them were blessed and so on. God has given us a gift that will never stop giving. Some might say, I’ve sown and I’ve not reaped. Remember, you will always reap later than you sow. It may be a season, but we have His promise. Be not weary in well doing for in due season you will reap if you faint not.” Gal.6:9

It is my hope to day that I have sown a blessing in your heart. God bless you.

Herb Dean