This week we witnessed the widow of Charlie Kirk publicly forgive the man who assassinated  

her husband.  Forgiving one who has betrayed you, wounded you, taken life from you, stolen from you, slandered you, etc.  is one of the most defining aspects of our faith and, sometimes, one of the most difficult to live out.

However, for us, forgiveness is an imperative.  It is not optional.  Jesus clearly stated in several places that if we do not forgive those who sin against us, God will not forgive our sins against Him.  I am uncertain if you can cross the threshold of heaven if there are any sins on your ledger not blotted out by the blood of Christ, but I think not and the question highlights what a serious issue unforgiveness is.  I am certain that unforgiven sins give Satan access to believers because unforgiven sins give him a legal right to afflict us. As we have ministered deliverance through the years, we have often seen demons refuse to leave until the person to whom we were ministering had forgiven someone who had dealt them a great deal of pain.

So, in light of Ericka Kirk’s decision to forgive, I want to remind us of the necessity of us doing the same as needed.  One thing was clear when Ericka forgave her husband’s killer…it was a decision of the will not a decision of the heart.  That is always the first step.  In the same way that we don’t have to always like someone to love them, wd don’t have to feel warm and accepting of another person in order to forgive them.

Let’s explore that thought briefly.  First of all, we are commanded to forgive those who have wronged us.  We cannot command our emotions but we can command our will.  First of all, forgiveness is a decision to let Jesus be the judge of the other person.  We let him decide if they should be punished and how.  Biblical forgiveness, initially, is a decision to release the judgment to God and to no longer act in ways to make the other person pay for what they did. Jesus often framed the act of forgiveness as a willingness to release another person from a financial debt they owed.  The debt was real and sometimes extensive, but in his parables, they simply no longer required payment for the hurt that was done. 

In the human context, we usually try to make the one who wronged us pay through our angry outbursts, by withholding loving behaviors, by our constant reminders to them of their past failure, by our subtle slander of them as we try to undermine their relationships with other people, our silence and a cold shoulder, or simply by ending the relationship. In our own way, we decide to settle the score by making them pay for what they did.

Satan helps us justify our anger and our revenge.  We don’t forgive because they “don’t deserve it.”  We don’t forgive because they haven’t adequately repented and begged for our forgiveness. We don’t forgive because our anger makes us feel powerful and righteous or we believe it keeps us from being hurt again. But Jesus forgave when no one asked and forgave before he had seen repentance.

Forgiveness requires faith.  We must believe that God and wisdom will protect us from further hurt, that God will see justice done if that is needed, and that he will heal the hurts we believe only revenge can heal.  The first step then is to declare that our betrayer is forgiven and to choose to no longer act in any way designed to make them pay.

The second step is also an act of the will.  In Luke 6, Jesus tells us to love our enemies which consists of doing good to those who hate you, blessing those who curse you, and praying for those who mistreat you (Luke 6:27-28). You do it, even when your flesh pushes back.  The blessing comes to you because the act of forgiveness and the act of loving your enemies brings 
God’s blessing as you take the high road, even though your enemy takes the low road.  It keeps anger, bitterness and a victim mentality from taking root in your heart. It keeps the door of your life closed to the devil and anger and bitterness from sloshing over into the other relationships in your life.  The very act of praying for them eventually shifts your view and your emotions. You may have to ask God to soften your heart or give you strength to pray for things your flesh rebels against.  But keep it up.  Be obedient.  Your heart will change so you no longer want revenge but truly want the best for someone who once hurt you.  Then you will be truly free of that person.

Your forgiveness keeps those who wounded you from continuing to have power in your life.  To keep the anger fueled, you have to replay the wrong they did to you over and over…each time tearing the scab off the wound so it never heals.  You end up making decisions on the basis of how they will impact your enemy rather than on the basis of what is best for you.  You indirectly continue to give them power in your life. 

When God calls us to forgive, it is our response to the immense grace God gave us through the sacrifice of his own son.  We forgive, not because the perpetrator deserves it, but because Jesus deserves it.  It is also a call to bring us freedom, healing, and wholeness is our lives.  Jesus never asks us to do anything that does not bring a blessing through our obedience. 

Let me say, forgiveness does not require letting hurtful people continue to hurt us or to keep putting ourselves or our children in harm’ s way. We can love from a distance and forgive from a distance if needed and we can set healthy boundaries.  Forgiveness is required but reconciliation is conditional. 

So, at this time, in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death we can hate or love, seek vengeance or forgive, slander all those across the aisle from us politically or we can live out a witness to the reality of Jesus and the grace he has brought to our lives.  

Let me encourage each of us to forgive every hurt and be blessed.

We have all heard the phrase “speaking truth to power.” Historically, we know that carries great risk.  John the Baptist was beheaded because he confronted Herod about his immoral lifestyle.  Jesus was crucified at the insistence of the Jewish Sanhedrin for speaking truth to them about their legalism and hypocrisy.  Charlie Kirk was assassinated for speaking conservative and biblical truth to our culture. 

Speaking to his own unbelieving brothers, Jesus declared. “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil” (Jn. 7:7). He went on to tell his disciples, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you” (Jn. 15:18-19).

We cannot be surprised that there are many who apparently hated Charlie Kirk. Obviously, the man who killed Kirk hated him, but also those who celebrated his death on social media and other venues.  I read The Days of His Presence by Francis Frangipane several years ago about the end times.  He made a statement that has stuck with me.  I’m paraphrasing, but he said something to the effect that, in the end times, everyone on earth will be fully possessed…either by God or by Satan.  I think we are seeing that.

What we are witnessing is not just a political struggle, but a spiritual struggle for the soul of this nation and, in fact, the world.  If you have seen the irrational rage that seems to possess a number of people who hated Kirk and his message, you might automatically sense the demonic realm at work.  If you look beyond the United States, you will see that the number of Christians being killed world-wide now is the highest number in any period in history.  We should not be surprised if this continues.

This is not a statement of capitulation in which we simply accept the idea that Satan will win until Jesus comes.  Jesus said the gates of hell will not prevail against his church.  We still have our assignment to preach the gospel, make disciples, and redeem cultures.  And, in fact, we are seeing the pendulum swing in that direction in America.  We need to ride that wave as long as God sustains it…which could be for a generation or more.  I am saying, however, that as we take back territory that has been given to the enemy in this nation, while the church often sat on the side lines, we should expect fierce, irrational, and sometimes violent opposition from those that are enemies of the cross, of life, of this nation, and of God’s truth.

Charlie Kirk has become an inspiration to many and I am glad for that.  However, as we honor him, we need to remember that Jesus is our Savior and our ultimate inspiration.  If we make any man a cult hero of Christianity, we have missed the mark and altered the gospel that Charlie passionately preached.  On the other hand, martyrs for the faith have fueled the faith of others for centuries and encouraged them to stand and face the fury of the devil in their own lives…so we should honor all those who have suffered for the cross.

Satan wants to silence those who speak God’s truth and he wants to further divide this nation.  Our response must be to continue to speak God’s truth in love, love our enemies, pray for them, and overcome evil with good. We are to be salt and light in the world. Love, prayer and doing good, even to our enemies, will be our weapons and our testimony to the reality of Jesus.  We are not to withdraw from the public square because to do so prevents us from being the leaven for righteousness that is our assignment.  But our words must not only reflect the truth of Jesus, but also his Spirit. God will deal with those who persecute his people.

There has been a meme on Facebook that says a great deal.  It pictures the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s death with people in numerous circles standing arm in arm in prayer.  Below that picture is a picture of the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, which was burning neighborhoods to the ground and looting stores.  We want to be part of the top picture.

As we see the move of God across this nation, our prayers should fuel what heaven is doing.  The assassination of Charlie Kirk has added focus and energy to this move of God.  This is a window of opportunity to redeem this nation once again.  May we, along with many others, be bold and passionate as we stand for Jesus and confess him before men. 

It’s not unusual for believers to offer up a fervent prayer to the Lord outlining not only what we want from God but also how we want him to deliver our request.  By “faith” we ask for not only the what but the how.  There is a real risk in that type of prayer.The classic example is found in 2 Kings 5.  Naaman was the commander of the army of the King of Aram.  He was a great man and a valiant soldier who was highly esteemed by his king and his fellow soldiers.  However, we are told, he had leprosy.  In the original language, leprosy could refer to a number of health issues and not always the one we think of in which skin begins to rot and eventually takes the victim’s life.  Those with that kind of leprosy were usually quarantined from all those except other lepers. 

However, whatever Naaman suffered, it was concerning and affected his health, his social interactions, and, perhaps, his future.  We are told that Naaman had a servant girl, an Israelite who had been taken in a raid. She confidently told Naaman’s wife that if he would go to the prophet Elisha in Israel, he would be cured. Probably, out of desperation, Naaman gathered a few men and a significant amount of wealth with which to pay for his healing.  

Eventually, he found his way to Elisha the prophet and with his horses and chariots, and probably some fanfare, he stopped in front of Elisha’s door.  Elisha simply sent his servant out to Naaman with the message that if he would go dip in the Jordan River seven times he would be healed.  The text then says, “But Naamanwent away angry and said, ‘I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. ¹² Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?’ So he turned and went off in a rage” (2 Kings 5:11-12).

Naaman’s problem was a combination of pride and a preconceived notion of how he wanted to receive his healing. To a highly regarded general, simply the fact that Elisha himself did not go out to meet Naaman was galling. He undoubtedly felt disrespected and, on top of that, he was instructed to dip in the muddy Jordan of Israel rather than in the crystal-clear mountain streams of Damascus.  In his rage, he determined to leave and, would have also left his healing behind if his servant had not spoken up. His servant quieted Naaman’s rage and talked him into doing what the prophet had instructed.  Clearly, dipping in a muddy river without fanfare or an audience seemed an unlikely way to be cleansed of leprosy, but as he rose from the river the seventh time, his skin became like that of a young boy. 

Naaman came very close to missing the blessing he had longed for because God didn’t provide the blessing in the way Naaman envisioned it happening.   I was a Singles Minister for a number of years and, of course, many of the single women in our group had a great longing to be married. They frequently prayed for God to put a man in their life they could marry and then they attached a number of qualifications for the man…six feet tall, dark hair, nice looking, athletic, a good job, and spiritual, etc.  After a year or two of praying that prayer, they would come to me frustrated with God for not answering their pleas.  I would always ask, “So has no one even asked you out?”  They would inevitably answer, “Oh sure, but they were not what I am looking for!”  I knew many of the men these women turned down and the truth is they were good guys, committed to the Lord, with good character, and would probably have made excellent husbands and fathers.  What these women needed was a good, reliable car.  When God sent a Ford instead of a Lamborghini, they were offended.

To the still lonely ladies, the men who asked them out were the Jordan River, not the rivers of Damascus. It’s not that they dated these men and found there was something lacking, they simply refused to believe that God might answer the heart of their prayer in a way he felt was best –  rather than in a way they felt they deserved or, at least, romanticized about.  

When we pray for something, we may want to leave the “how” of the answer up to God more than demanding he deliver the answer on our terms.  If I’m not offered the promotion I wanted, but am offered something a little less, do I feel like God has stiffed me?  If I want instantaneous healing, but am only offered a long, arduous healing process through doctors, do I reject that or feel that God has failed in his promise to heal me? If I don’t get the miraculous check in the mail but have to discipline myself and pay off my debt over time, do I take offense at God because I didn’t get bailed out quickly and painlessly as I had hoped?

If you look at most of the miracles in scripture, God did not act in anticipated ways.  How does rubbing mud on blind eyes restore sight?  How do a few loaves and a few fish feed five thousand?  How does showing up four days after a friend has died give life? We could go on.  The point is, we should anticipate God answering our prayers, but be open to him answering our prayers in unexpected ways.  

When we sense how he might be answering our prayer, we will still need to pray for confirmation and discernment. The answer will not always be the first thing that happens or the first person who shows interest.  The greatest blessings in my life have been unexpected moves of God that I did not see immediately as his answers to my prayers or needs. In fact, initially, I saw his move as a rejection of my need for comfort, control, and predictability. However, they turned out to be incredible blessings when I went with what was happening.

Let me encourage you to pray without ceasing.  Ask God for what you need and even how, but be open to his answering in ways that do not match your preconceptions. Ask for eyes to see what he is doing and wisdom to walk through the process he has ordained.  God is a Father who is always multi-tasking…answering your prayer while developing your faith, skills or character so that you can steward well the answer to your prayer when it comes.  When you begin to feel as if God is not responding, remember Naaman.  Don’t refuse to open the present just because it isn’t wrapped in your favorite paper!

THE ENEMY WANTS TO DEFINE YOU BY YOUR SCARS.

JESUS WANTS TO DEFINE YOU WITH HIS.   

~LOUIE GIGLIO~


The quote from Louie Giglio is right on target.  I see this in my own life and I have seen it in nearly every believer who has come to my office for counseling for over four decades.  One of Satan’s primary strategies against us is the constant accusation that our past failures disqualify us from serving God and accomplishing great things in the kingdom.  He tries to persuade us that our past failures and present imperfections disqualify us from the blessings of God and even answered prayers. He tells us that God may tolerate us but he doesn’t delight in us.

Since the beginning, his blue print has been to tempt us to sin and then to plaster us with shame as a result.  In the Garden, once Satan had persuaded Adam and Eve that God was withholding the greatest blessings from them and once they took and ate…they were overcome with shame.  

We were clearly told that the two humans God had created were both naked and felt no shame.  Before they allowed Satan to draw them away, they walked with God in the Garden without being dressed and somehow felt totally loved and accepted.  The moment they sinned, they began to hide from God and blame others for their decisions. They were ashamed.

I like to differentiate between guilt and shame.  Guilt is the feeling I have done something wrong while shame is the feeling that there is something unacceptable about me.  I am defective.  I am beyond love.  I am beyond redemption or, at least, beyond God ever delighting in me.

Satan always draws our attention to our scars brought by rejection, abuse, abandonment, and our own sins from the past.  How often have we asked forgiveness over and over for some source of shame in our past?  When we do, we reveal a belief that the blood of Christ is not quite sufficient for our defectiveness, our sin.  We feel that we must be overwhelmed with remorse and self-loathing for God to forgive us.  So…we beat ourselves up and heap shame upon ourselves as some kind of penance that might eventually earn us true forgiveness…but our shame still remains.

The only escape from this hell of self-condemnation the enemy heaps on us is the cross.  His scars. The gospel is simple.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life” (Jn.3:16).  The sacrifice of Jesus was offered for our sins so that the record of those sins would be erased in the courts of heaven.  When we believe and trust God, he makes us righteous, he remembers our sins no more and removes them as far as the east is from the west.  No amount of penance, self-loathing, or self-imposed suffering will take away or sin or our shame. If it could, Jesus died for nothing.  Only the blood of the Lamb can do so.

Faith removes our sin and love removes our shame.  The problem with the gospel is it seems too good to be true. We sense that we must pay for our crimes and that no judge can simply say, ”Lets forget it.”  We are correct.  Sin and crimes must be paid for and they have been…by holy blood.  But because the gospel is so simple, we think there must be something more in the fine print.  But there is not.  There is only grace that comes by faith…not perfect faith, but faith enough to reach out to Jesus.

Satan’s tactic is to keep us focused on ourselves…our sin, our past, our failures, our current imperfections.  He magnifies them.  I know godly people who, while they read scripture, find every passage on judgment highlighted in their minds and who feel every passage on grace is not for them. Satan twists the word as they read it. So, they read and feel even more condemned than when they started.  Then they stop reading. But Christ’s sacrifice is greater than all of our sins.  His blood is sufficient.  He is our high priest that constantly intercedes for us and pleads his blood over our failings.

To receive his forgiveness and to take joy in that forgiveness gives him glory.  When the enemy tempted Jesus in the wilderness after forty days of fasting, Jesus countered his temptations by declaring the word of God.  We should do the same.  When the enemy whispers his reminders of our weakness and failures, we should declare our forgiveness and righteousness in Christ.

Never mind trying to convince yourself or God that you couldn’t help yourself or that circumstances forced you to sin. Never mind minimizing or rationalizing what you did. That simply keeps the focus on your scars rather than on His scars. No matter what you did or what happened to you, you are a new creation in Christ. Scripture tells us to fix our eyes on Jesus.  Keep being amazed at his love, his sacrifice, his mercy, his gentleness with sinners and the all-sufficiency of his blood.  

Do not let the enemy accuse you of something for which there is no record in heaven. When he whispers, “You are not worthy.” Respond with, “God has made me worthy.  Christ became sin for me, that I might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!”  Faith is not about being perfect people, but a conviction that we really are who God says we are and he has truly removed our sin and our shame by the blood and the scars of Jesus.  Say it, claim it, and never let yourself say otherwise.