Are You Hanging onto your “Ouch?”
-or-
Are you still affected by past hurts and Wounds?
Kathie Walters – Sunday, August 01, 1999
Driving with my daughter, Faith, and grandchild, Zion, we were having a great time on the way to a meeting in Virginia. Suddenly Zion said, “Ouch, ouch mommy,” He began to make a wailing sound and we turned to see what was wrong. Zion was holding up his finger and looking at a small scar. “Zion,” said Faith, “That’s an old ouch.” But the little scar had reminded Zion of the hurt, he had experienced a couple of months previously. As he saw the scar, he thought about it and he remembered that he had been in pain. The memory made him react in the “now.”
I thought immediately of adults I knew who do the precise same thing spiritually. The devil has been around a long time and he knows how to reach our unsuspecting minds. I believe that most of the time our healing from past hurts and wounds is linked to our forgiving those who have hurt us.
Jesus spoke of forgiveness, not as a suggestion, but as a command, “When you stand praying, forgive if you have ought against any..that your Father… in heaven may forgive your own trespass,” (Mark 11:25). When Peter asked Jesus how many times, he should forgive his brother, Jesus replied “…until seventy times seven,”(Matthew 18:22).
We must remember that forgiveness is an action we decide to take. It is not firstly a feeling. In the first church we ministered in full-time we had a clash with a certain elder. He did some things behind our backs while we were away ministering. His attitude toward us did not change even after we had emigrated to America. I knew that I had to really forgive that brother in order to go on with God. I made up my mind to obey the Lord and I consciously forgave him.
I noticed several times after that whenever we were in a meeting where someone spoke about forgiveness, I would think again of this man. As I thought about it the old feelings would come back and I would make another prayer of repentance. I thought to myself, “Will I ever get free from this unforgiveness?”
Forgiveness is not a feeling
At the end of a service I attended at a church in Melbourne, Florida, there was a call for people to forgive those who had hurt them. Immediately my thoughts went again to the elder and I began to ponder on the old things. The feeling of hurt began to come up inside me and I was fixing to go through the “forgiveness” syndrome again. Suddenly the Holy Spirit spoke to me as I was getting ready to make a “forgiveness” prayer. “You already did that,” He said. I was puzzled. “You forgave him, don’t keep taking it back, forgiveness is not a feeling.”
I saw what had been happening. The words of the ministers caused me to look at an old situation and the devil had tried to make it come alive again in my life. I began to thank the Lord for setting me free and I told Him that I would never allow that condemnation to come into my life again through my feelings. I resolved to live in the truth that if I forgave, then my heavenly Father would also forgive me. Satan had been trapping me by making me look at an old “Ouch.”
Make a decision that you will not walk in bitterness, unforgiveness, resentment. If you feel offended make a decision NOT to be offended, and go on. Those things will not cling to you if you refuse to have them in your life. Remember the old person WAS crucified with Christ. (Romans 6)
When the devil knocks on your door with suggestions, don’t answer – send the Holy Spirit, He will answer with the truth. The Truth is that we can walk in the spirit and if we walk in the spirit we will not fulfill the demands of the flesh. The enemy will try and make us sin conscious or self conscious, but the Holy Spirit makes us conscious of the presence of Jesus and in His presence is fulness of joy.
Kathie Walters