The Power of Forgiveness

By David Williams

Very little in the way of spiritual encounters can match the experience of a sinner being forgiven by His new found Lord and Saviour. Such is the power of God’s forgiveness, not only is shame and condemnation dissolved, but the transaction also entails the release of new life. Forgiveness received releases the river of hope and joy, a softened countenance and even a tender heart. This is the power of God’s forgiveness when a sinner repents. There is also great power released when we forgive one another of our wrongs toward each other.

In fact Scripture teaches us that forgiveness is such a powerful principle that it is one of the most powerful acts of warfare we can produce as a means of releasing the power of God and stopping the enemy in his tracks.

When a pardon is given, not only is there a dramatic release of life between two people who were once estranged but it also releases an increase of life in the heavenly places. Let us take a look at an example from Scripture to see this warfare in practice:

Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do…"
Luke 23:34

When Jesus was prayed this prayer and forgave the people who mocked and persecuted Him, not only was He obeying His own teaching, but through this act He disarmed the powers and principalities from their rule over mankind (Colossians 2:15). In my opinion Christ’s forgiveness of

the people was more than a display of godliness but was the final act of Christ’s warfare against the power of the Devil. It was at this point that the battle was won. His act of forgiveness released the greatest power the world has ever experienced. It brought the restoration of God and man. Imagine if Jesus had prayed judgement on the people – we would have seen an outcome far from the grace He secured for us that day.

Lets take another look at an example of the power of forgiveness. Let us turn to the book of Acts 7:57-60 at the point where Stephen is about to be stoned to death by the Jews:

"Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. "Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not charge them with

this sin." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.”

Notice it was Saul who was overseeing the murder of Stephen. If we turn to Acts Chapter Nine (two chapters later), we see that Stephen’s prayer and act of forgiveness was not only heard by the Lord but its warfare resulted in the eventual conversion of Saul who then became Paul – the great apostle. The one who hated Christians became one of the greatest men ever used by God. Again imagine if Stephen had of prayed judgement over them, would God have reached out to Saul the way He did?

When have we forgiven someone? When did Jesus and Stephen truly forgive? Let us turn to the parable of the unforgiving servant, Matthew 18:21-35:

"Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. "And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. "But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. "The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, 'Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.' "Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. "But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took

 him by the throat, saying, 'Pay me what you owe!' "So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you all. '"And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. "So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. "Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 'Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?' "And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. "So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses."

Like Jesus and Stephen we know that we have truly forgiven our offender from our heart when we no longer carry the hurt and angry thoughts but we can genuinely pray for God to bless them.

Who do we need to forgive? Whether a sin against us was real or imagined we need to forgive anyone or anything that has caused us to hurt – that means we may

need to forgive others, ourselves, churches, circumstances or even God. Once we have truly released forgiveness we can expect to see God work on our behalf to bring about a change of circumstance, first within us and then within the problem we are facing.

Forgiveness cancels debts, disarms evil and releases the power of God.