Criminal Records
Those of us who have been set apart to undergo the Wilderness process have unknowingly been being prepared even
before we entered this barren expanse of testing and transformation. We have experienced many things from birth that were
a bit different from others where it seemed that were always getting the short end of the stick in all areas of our life.
We always seemd to be the last not the first, the tail not the head. We may have even been led to think that maybe we were
just cursed, but we were actually only restricted by God, and like Joseph, we were to undergo many tests that would build
our character into someone who would someday be a man or woman after Gods own heart. The thing is, after we have been treated
unfairly and/or unkindly by so many people that really should have treated us much better and differently, we can file some
of their offenses away in the file cabinet of our heart neatly arranged in a folder called "criminal offenses". We put them
in a cold case status and although we have left it in Gods hands, we have not forgotten how unfairly and badly they treated
us.
Before we graduate from the Wilderness, the Holy Spirit will pull out these old files and bring each case to resolution
so that we can truly forgive from our hearts. You see, unforgiveness blocks our relationship with God, and ties His hands
to act on our behalf so we must be willing to allow the Holy Spirit to deal with all that we have kept stuffed down inside.
Forgiveness is actually more about us than it is about others. You need to forgive especially for "You", not just them, because
when you don't forgive, it just poisons your heart with bitterness and resentment, and it blocks up Gods pipeline of love
and anointing that should flow through us unhindered. Like someone said, "Not forgiving is like taking poison, and expecting
your enemy to die", they have usually moved on anyway and we are the only ones really suffering from their offense. Although
God allows many things to happen to us to develop our spiritual character, there comes a time when we must settle all accounts,
and move forward into full forgiveness.
Joseph had to do this to move on and be free from the pain of the past. This is what happened to him during his
life;
1. He was mocked and rejected by his brothers and finally tossed into a pit and then sold as a slave to the Ishmaelites
(alot of room for bitterness there I would say).
2. He was working very hard and doing a great job at Potiphars house only to be falsely accused of being a rapist
and thrown into prison.
3. He was sold out and abandoned by the the Pharaohs Cupbearer after Joseph had ministered to him and helped him.
You will undergo many tests and trials where you will be tempted to keep a criminal record of wrongs on certain
people, and although God wants us to keep healthy boundaries, it is time to hand these records over to the Lord, and not let
this hinder your progress in moving forward any longer. Usually we know who we have been angry with, they are people who have
repaid our good with evil, people who we trusted and who sold us out in our day of need, people that have taken things from
us that were not theirs, and they didn't care in the slightest what they did to us. They are the Judas', the Nabal's, the
King Saul's, Potiphars wife, the Delilahs, David's brothers, and the many others that God allowed to do us wrong, so that
right could be formed within our hearts. It hurts God when someone hurts us, and rest assured He will deal with it in His
time, but He is the only one qualified to deal with a humans judgment because He is the only one that has all the information
concerning that person and what they did. Nobody ever gets away with anything because everything is recorded in Heaven. Literally
everything.
Ask the Holy Spirit today to pull out all the old criminal records files you have been keeping on people, and be
willing to go through each of them with Him. He wants your heart and spirit to be clean and pure so that God can bless you
and flow through you unhindered. It also hurts God when something is hurting you, just like it hurts you to watch your child
be in pain with something that is hurting them. The Holy Spirit will take you back and you may or may not have to face the
offender. God deliberately sent Joseph's brothers back to face him after what they had done to him, to give Joseph and opportunity
to resolve this old criminal record and heal from the terrible pain they had caused him. Plus his forgiveness paved the way
for him to be reunited with his long lost father Jacob. You will go on to feed many just like Joseph did and God wants you
to be free from the pain of your past and from what people did to you. Allow Him to heal you today and send you forward to
take your place in this great harvest of souls.
1CO 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It
is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil
but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
MT 6:14 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.
GE 45:4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, "Come close to me." When they had done so, he said, "I am
your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for
selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in
the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for
you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8 "So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God.
He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.
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