(Psalm 103:10) He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities.
One of the great truths of living an overcoming life as a Christian is to remember from where you came in other words your testimony for no matter what the up bringing when we have accepted Jesus as our lord and saviour we were translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. We all have a testimony; we all have the goodness of God expressed to us.
No matter what we are facing, how hard life is; the Father’s goodness is there for us. One of the things we must do is find His goodness in every thing we are facing and to do that the Psalmist say remember, he used the phrase forget not his benefits. Another thing to consider is that our life is ordered by the Lord
Psalm 37:23-24…”The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, And He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand.”
How does the Lord uphold us? He does this with his goodness and mercy because every where you go goodness and mercy follow you and when you fall you fall into the hands of the Lord which are goodness and mercy.
Psalm 23:6…”Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”
Now notice what our scripture says of the Father’s goodness that is ours to receive and walk in: The Psalmist says “Forget not”
(1) Forgive all our iniquities.(2) Heals all our diseases(3) Redeems our life from destruction.(4) Crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies.(5) Satisfies your mouth with good things so your youth is renewed like the eagles.
He forgives all our iniquities; I wonder why some Christians we struggle with this concept are we game to ask our selves this question? Have you ever asked your self this question what is there in me that sees the speck in my brother’s eye; why we are critical of others? I think it has a lot to do with what is in our hearts and not the other person Jesus called it a plank in the eye. This is what Jesus said to the religious leaders;
(Mat 7:3-5) And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
From this I would say the lack is not so much in the other person but in us and if we will do what the Psalmist says and forget not then these planks begin too fall off and we become a blessing to our brothers for we will love them as we love our selves. He Crowns us with Loving Kindness and tender mercies that is the foundation stone for me us returning to our testimony, His loving kindness, not just His kindness but His loving kindness. Forget not;
A number of years ago Father met with me in an incredible encounter and crowned me with His tender mercies and loving kindness, it was an experience that changed my life and gave me understand of His heart His tender mercies, His Father’s heart towards me.
I was on the floor of the Church under the power and dealing of the Holy Spirit and I was so impacted by the touch of the Father that it removed a ceiling that had been over my life for so long.
When I got saved I had a real confrontation with the Lord and wanted nothing more than to follow him and serve him and at my baptism in water the Spirit of God came upon me and it was like a rushing wind deep into my soul and body I literally felt the wind rush deep inside of me and I began to speak in a language of the Spirit, the interesting thing about it was I did not know what it was but knew it was of God.
All my Christian life I knew Jesus as my saviour and knew and experienced the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit but there was a ceiling over my life in regards to God as father, yes I knew about him and understood the doctrine of Jesus and the Father being one at least on an intellectual level. Yet there was a ceiling over me that stopped me from enjoying the presence of the Father. Something happened in my life that so locked me up to the Father heart of God that hindered me from reaching out and touching the very one I wanted to know.
As a child I was like Adam and Eve who because of their decision lost the gift of innocence.
Innocence was the gift that covered them in the Garden of Eden, for they were naked and transparent before God. The interesting thing about this is, it was not until their eyes were opened to other things that God did not want them at that time to understand that they knew they were naked for innocence and glory covered them.
Parents cover your children as long as you can, protect them for when their eyes are opened to other things it is then that they begin to accept that they have imperfections according to the world standard, it is then they forget that they are fearfully and wonderfully made. When we are innocent we do not see what others call imperfections.
Jesus said in Mark 10:15; Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it."
When God came to Adam and Eve in the Garden in the cool of the evening to fellowship with them they hid themselves behind a tree; The covering of innocence was lifted, they saw each other naked and undone and so tried to cover themselves and hide from the presence of the Lord.
More was lost that day than their innocence when they disobeyed God - they also lost their intimacy with God. Because of there decision God removed them out of the Garden; they had now also lost their place of worship.
Lost innocence leads to lost intimacy, and a loss of intimacy leads to a lack of being able to enter into true worship.
This was the very place I had found my self in as one that loved and experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit; it was as if I was outside the garden of the Father’s presence. I did not know it at the time but I could not worship the Father the way I wanted, there was a ceiling over me I instinctively knew that there was much more to worship than what I was experiencing.
As I lay on the floor Father began to take me back to my childhood to deal with the many issues that had been compacted into my heart under so much other rubble to the point that they could not be found but yet were still in my heart. Issues such as never owning or wearing a pair of shoes until I was 15 years old, never owning any thing of my own always wearing second hand clothes and never having my own Christmas.
As a child I was rejected alone and now devastated. The pain was so intense in my soul that it locked me up on the inside yet all the time the pain was looking for a way out looking for some expression.
I felt like the man in Mark 5 who was in such pain in his soul the Bible says, he would daily cut himself and cry out, because of the indescribable pain.
Mark 5:5 and always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.
In 2 Samuel 13…we have a story of two of King David’s children; Tamar and Ammon who raped her. Not only was her innocence robbed from her; but the one who declared his love now rejected her and left her with feelings of guilt, shame, uncleanness, and all these things were tearing away at the very fabric of her soul;
Such was the pain that racked and raped her soul the intensity was so overwhelming that it could not find expression of an out let and the only way that she could display the devastation, the only way she could express how she felt was to tear her coat of many colour, the robe of her innocence This coat of favour, the coat of the virgin daughters of the kings she tore this to pieces and then she took ashes and placed them on her head. She took the worthless things that is, ashes, the thing that is left over after fire has devoured all that is good and she places it on her crown and glory.
Listen… Beloved, Father’s promise to us; one of the benefits the psalmist asks us not to forget is that “He crowns us with loving kindness and tender mercy”.
We may feel worthless on the inside we may feel used and abused by others, we may even be cutting ourself with our words, tearing away at the coat of the image and the likeness of God because of the pain that is trying to find expression, we may even be hurting our selves physically because we feel worthless.
Today that changes, listen to what Father says in Isaiah 61:3 To those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified."
Give Father your ashes, all the worthless things in your life and He will give you a crown of beauty. We know that there is nothing left inside, we look in our hearts and see only ashes some one or some thing has burnt the very life the glory and the innocence out of our life, we look in the mirror and we do not see the image of god we only see ashes. Listen God is not asking for any thing more, we look at our bodies and we only see the ashes of our health, God is not asking for any thing more; If we will give Him our ashes he will give us beauty for those ashes, we look into our hearts and we don’t find a well of joy springing up as the word say we only see sadness or disappointment, if we give him those ashes of sadness He will give us joy for our morning and garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Ashes.
Now just like the man in Mark 5: who was looking for expression for the pain he felt so was I as a young boy “wrap arm” & grind teeth and rock back; looking for some comfort for my soul looking for some expressions for my pain. As I grew older I soon learnt how to put concrete in my heart and compact those ashes deep into the place of my forgetfulness.
One night on the floor of the Church as Father was ministering to me I saw myself as a little child – and a man’s lap. I never knew the arms of a father around me; comfort beyond imagination. I looked up – I crawled into my own lap. Accept myself.
With all that Father has healed me from there was still a blockage in worship. Father showed me I still had unresolved issues in my life. I was alive but there were still dead things in my life. Like the man in mark 5 he was alive but he lived with the dead things.
Back to Tamar for a minute…despite all that she went through the saddest thing was yet to happen.
2 Samuel 13:20..”Tamar renamed – desolate in her brother’s house.” Absalom her brother said to her “Do not set your heart on this thing.”He did not allow her to resolve the issues. She remained desolate in her brother’s house. Listen we are not designed for a brother’s house, we are designed for a Father’s house. A brother’s house stops us from resolving the issues. Many Christian live their whole life with unresolved things and if they are in the brother’s house these things will stay unresolved. A father’s house will deal with and bring to resolution the crippled things in our lives but we have got to come to a place where we can receive the help and face the issues to many run to a place where they feel comfortable and where deep attention is not placed on the issues they are struggling with.
I had unresolved issues with my mother even thou I had not meet her and stilled carried deep resentment of disappointment even after I had meet her. Father said Forgive and thank her. Once I did what He asked I was free. What was holding me back was the fact that I did not love my self enough to trust my self to give to her what was freely given to me, I was blaming her for all the things that she had nothing to do with because of her original decision.
Part of the blessing in following Jesus is He crowns us with loving kindness.
Innocence, intimacy and our ability to worship unhindered will be returned.
Psalm 103 – Forget Not
