I went to church Wednesday night for a special service with guest singers and speakers. I missed the beginning, so the names of the guests; I do not know. But I thank them.
I was praying, and my prayer was a bit different than normal; for me.
I prayed to God that he would forgive me for my sins, and that he would forgive my brothers, and my sisters and my church, and my country, and our leadership here in the United States.
I was then inspired; (not normal for me in prayer) to “tell” God that I forgive my brothers and sisters for what they did to me. And my mother, and my father. Recollections were vivid in my mind.
I then “told” God that I forgive my fathers’ father, and my mother’s father, and for my ancestors who may have sinned in such a way as to cause God to lay judgement on me and my son… Here’s the verse I was thinking of…
(have no other gods before me) … followed by:
Exodus Chapter 20 ..
(KJV) (5) You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them. For I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and fourth generation of those that hate me, (6) and showing mercy to thousands of those that love Me and keep My commandments.
By “telling” God that I forgive these people, even though many I know not their names, I felt release from a burden of guilt in my own sins. And I believe a burden of guilt has been removed from my ancestors.
I believe part of Exodus Chapter 20 is very significant, and I overlooked this during my prayer; however, now that I am writing this down, I see even more light in this prayer; “showing mercy to thousands of those that love Me and keep My commandments.”
I think God has already forgiven my ancestors to a degree. And God has already shown mercy to me even before I prayed. Because of His Son, and because I accept Him as my Lord and Saviour. And because by His stripes, I am healed. But I needed to do the same.
(NKJV) Isa 53:5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
I needed to forgive my forefathers, my brothers and my sisters. In a way, I was forgiving myself.
ANYWAY: I wouldn’t write this down, or tell you about it, unless there were more to it. So here it is.
AFTER I prayed, and after the song had concluded, the pastor, (Pastor Myles) had some words to say. “I sense rejection.” .. (pause) .. “I sense someone here is dealing with rejection; and that this person, or these people need to forgive themselves in the name of Jesus… We need to forgive ourselves…” I heard this… and much more - but everything else seemed to dimnish and fade from his voice to my thoughts… We need to forgive ourselves…. this was ringing home.
I did not know what the theme was to be for this worship service before I prayed; the motto, the slogan, the topic… I knew nothing about it! I didn’t even get there on time! The music was full-underway by the time I arrived. As I said earlier, I didn’t even catch the names of the guest speakers!
How could my prayer match the pastor’s message?
- or, Did his message match my prayer?
What’s more; the guest singer; he sang powerful and beautiful words of praise after pastor Myles concluded. And THAT SONG relayed the “same message!”
What’s more: A man in the congregation who stood in praise directly in the row in front of me; during the service, he turned around and came inside my row of chairs and people, and stood next to me. (that’s uncommon timing) He began to pray for me and said; “You have sins that you are holding on to and you need to release it. You need to stop beating yourself up.” (..same as not forgiving myself.)
So.. yes,
- I received a blessing in church from (through) the pastor.
- I received inspiration and courage from the song that followed.
- I received validation that God heard and accepted my prayer when the man in front of me turned and prayed for me.
- I received prayers answered.
Our God is an awesome God!
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