How To Free Yourself From Bondage

In the past month, the Holy Ghost has been showing me the importance of learning to forgive those who harm us or cause us pain and grief. There are numerous passages in the Bible where Jesus teaches about the importance of forgiving others.

In Matthew 6:14 & 15, Jesus says, “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” 15 “But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (NIV)

In Chapter 18 of Matthew, Jesus tells the parable of the servant who was forgiven a large debt. Soon after the king forgave him, he accosted a fellow servant and demanded to be repaid what the other man owed him. When the king found out that the first servant refused to show compassion on his fellow servants, the king placed all of his original debt back on him.

In this manner, harboring a spirit of unforgiveness is very dangerous and detrimental to ourselves. When we choose to forgive others, it allows God to go to work on them and on us! It relates to the principle of binding and loosing. As a disciple of Christ, we also have that authority. Jesus said, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Mat 16:19 NIV)

Paul also instructed us in Romans 12, “19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

By asking forgiveness for our own sins, then forgiving others, we gain healing for ourselves. In James 6:16 we find, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” (NIV) Many of the miracles Jesus performed happened when Jesus forgave that person of his sins. Remember, when we refuse to forgive others, we pick up the penalty for our own sins again and place them back upon our shoulders.

Learning this principle earned one of my co-workers a miracle healing just this past June. This worker had developed severe lower back pain. It tormented him day and night. He had already consulted a doctor about possibly needing a back operation.

In talking with him, he revealed that he was harboring deep resentment for a person who was mistreating him. I told him that I had already asked the church to pray for his condition, but the Holy Ghost was telling me that he had to do something first. I then shared the above principles with him and showed him how he was letting his present circumstances eat him up. He had nothing to lose by forgiving his enemy, but if he trusted God’s Word, he had everything to gain.

An hour later, my friend returned, standing straight with a huge smile on his face. He said that when he left my office he had prayed and forgiven his enemy and asked God to bless him and take over the situation. In that instant, his back pain disappeared.

A week later, he kept an appointment with his doctor and witnessed to him how his back pain had been healed! To God be the glory, for His Word is true.

I hope each and every one of you can get a hold of this message. I witnessed the above incident to a friend of my wife just last night. This friend is a kind elderly lady who, up until last night, had been told by her doctors that she had lung cancer and probably didn’t have much longer to live. After telling her this story, she broke down and admitted that there was someone in her life, too, who had hurt her terribly when she was just a child and up to that moment she held hate for him in her heart.

I assured her that Jesus is a loving God, who is standing by wanting to help heal her of all her hurts, but she needed to let Him help her by learning to forgive. She left that night thinking on it. Today, July 5, my wife drove this dear lady to the hospital for a check-up CAT scan, X-rays and her chemotherapy. The news I got this evening elated me to no end. The doctors cancelled her chemotherapy because the CAT scan and X-rays revealed that the cancerous tissue in both lungs had been reduced in size to a grain of sand! The doctor told her that the remaining suspect tissue was too small to even biopsy. Three months ago, the spots on both her lungs were as large around as quarters (25 cent pieces). Both women burst into tears and left the hospital praising God.

In Ephesians 4: 26-27, Paul tells us, “In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” Satan will use a spirit of unforgiveness to hold us in bondage, if we let him. Quite often these days, this type of bondage is perpetrated on children, who don’t know any better. Satan then uses these hurts and abuses, suffered at a tender age, to keep us imprisoned for the rest of our lives. Now, however, the truth is out, and the truth can set you free. Learn to forgive others, for God showed mercy to all through the death of Jesus; we can do no less. Forgiving others their trespasses is medicine for your soul. Do it for your own well being.