Yesterday (Sunday) I had a great time with a home group led by Connie Cheung. There was a great spirit in the group and the Lord gave us some real clarity in the area of forgiveness. We looked at hidden anger, forgotten offense, bitterness buried beneath years of denial and came to the conclusion that the vast majority of us have some kind of offense that we simply are not aware of - something we have just become used to. In a physical analogy, there is such a thing as "accommodation." It occurs in the nervous system in such a way that nerves send signals to the brain, and the brain instructs the person to do something to "fix the problem." If the problem is not fixed, then after a while, the brain just ignores the signal. An example of accommodation is the sense of smell. When you walk into a steak restaurant, your sense of smell is suddenly overcome with the wonderful aroma. By the time you've been in the restaurant for a while, you don't notice the ambient smell any longer. It happens with good odors and with foul. For example, if you live next to a garbage dump, eventually you won't notice the odor -- you just get used to it -- or your nervous system "accommodates" the constant input.
I said all that to say that unforgiveness / offense is the same. If we don't deal with offense completely - let it go AND restore the offender to a position of love and respect - then the offense remains and we just get used to it.
Now the point: We said that there is probably no place on earth where the Church has more cause for offense than the underground church of China. Daily, something happens to believers that would cause offense. And yet, there is no place on earth where more signs and wonders are occurring. So the conclusion is that these Chinese believers have learned to forgive and God is willing to release His power to them because He knows they will not misuse it. We, in the West, on the other hand, are experiencing almost no release of power. Could it be that the reason is we are not dealing with offense, we are just getting used to it. Look at our society. Look at our culture. Look at the Church. We live in a society and culture of anger. The Church is the same. Perhaps it's time to get honest -- to wake up and "smell the stench" of unforgiveness and stop making excuses and justifying our anger and offense. Then God would be willing to release His power.
1 comment:
Amen! These hidden areas of sin can be so hard to see. As long as we remain in the same environment, they often lie unexposed within us. Even when others see them and try to tell us about them, it is so easy for us to deny and move on. But doing this only makes our hearts colder and harder.
As an American I unknowingly developed many of the sinful habits found in my country. Galations 5:18-21 calls them the "works of the flesh". They sound nasty, so I would do everything possible to convince myself they did not apply to me. BUT THEY DID!
After two and one half years here in Indonesia, in a completely new environment, I cannot hide any longer. When I changed physical location God allowed me to see (or smell to stay with the theme) what was really inside.
You don't have to move, like I did, to change your environment. Changing our habits so that we are spending more time in the presence of God is what we really need. In the "atmosphere" of God this foul smell in our life can be removed. A change in physical location may identify my problems, but ONLY time in the presence of God can REMOVE these things and fill me with the Love of God.
Blessings to all. And may God open our eyes (and our noses) to see and smell what needs to be removed from our lives, so that we can be changed from Glory to Glory, "until the day dawns and the morning star rises in our hearts."
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