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Aloha Friends:

Recently, at a prayer gathering in Omao, one of the sisters was prompted to confess an attitude and posture of unforgiveness. Her courage and humility to share this in a group was inspiring. Those of us who were there were able to relate and to respond with confessions of our own and prayers for her as well as ourselves in this area. Although I have seen this happen a number of times I felt that this particular occasion was representative of something the Lord desires to see throughout the entire Body of Christ on Kaua`i.

Our God is a jealous God - jealously in love with the church, His Bride. He desires the very best for His Bride and will go to great lengths (indeed, hasn't He given His all?) to bless her. He knows that she is made for Him, that her fulfillment is to be one with Him, and He wants nothing to harm her.

Eph. 5:26-27 says that Christ loves the church (as His bride) and gave Himself for her, "that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present to Himself a glorious church (bride), not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she (His bride) should be holy and without blemish." Wow! The church's (bride's) fiancé, the Lover of her soul, the King of all Kings (Jesus), desires so much goodness for His Bride that He will, like King Ahasuerus for Esther, provide the means of preparation and beautification necessary for her to be one with Him and to reign with Him.

I believe He is doing this now and emphasizing this now to His Bride here on Kaua`i and probably across the world. He is calling us to "the cleansing", the "washing of water by the word" and one of those areas that He desires to be cleansed and sanctified in us has to do with our relationships to others.

God's Word clearly tells us that we are not to hold unforgiveness in our hearts. Truly, if we desire to be like Jesus we certainly won't want to hang on to stuff like this. Besides, there are lots of negative consequences both to ourselves and to others (Heb.12:15 speaks of a root of bitterness by which many become defiled). The effects of this sin of unforgiveness are too numerous to count but the simple fact of the matter is that we have no right to harbor it in our lives. I realize that sometimes it is very difficult to forgive but God is more than willing to help us in this. Perhaps a good verse to remember would be James 4:6 which says "God resists (or is opposed to) the proud, but gives grace to the humble".

I'm sorry if I have gotten a little too much into a teaching mode but I truly believe that God is trying to prepare us for what is ahead and maybe what is waiting for us right now if we will walk in obedience to His Word. So I would just say to you "Have courage and humble yourselves (ourselves) before each other and under the Mighty Hand of God that He may lift you up at the appointed time. Allow the Holy Spirit of God to search your hearts in this area and instruct you through His Word how to reconcile yourselves both to your brethren and to Him. We are not our own - we belong to Jesus."

At times it is a battle to enter into an undefiled place of prayer and worship, let alone entering in with unforgiveness resting upon our shoulders. The enemy would like nothing better than to hinder our presence before our Lord. The call to forgive is knocking on the door of our heart, and we must answer as He so demonstrated through the cross.

"Blessed be the Lord my Rock, Who trains my hands for war..." Psalm 144:1

Blessings on your heads, warriors of the Most High God!

Kerry

Kerry Crain
(808)651-6351

Kaua`i House of Prayer