First of all Id like to say this is a really long update and I'm terrible with grammar and all that jazz...BUT the message is still good and packed with some revelations so hopefully you can see past the messiness of my updates haha.
Recently this week we have been learning of the Nature and Character of God taught by Peter Brownhill. I had some crazy revelations especially in the area and forgiveness and love. I realized I had unforgiveness towards people in my life and I wasn't showing them real love(love is the sacrificial unselfish choice for the highest good of another person). So God exposed my heart this week to my unforgiveness and refusal to extend hope love and mercy but instead I would be upset with the person and in my heart hold it against them because they would continue to betray my trust and learn a lesson they learned so many times before. The Lord gently restored me and gave me these words…Briauna how many times have you come to Me for forgiveness for the same thing and how many times have you gotten revelation of “hey this is not a good idea this is wrong, it hurts me others and worst of all it hurts God” yet then how many times have you still messed up and did what you got revelation that you shouldn’t do then getting on your knees repenting(repenting in the Greek means “change of mind”)and how many times have I gently forgiven you and again given you revelation of something that is wrong and again you say “I was wrong to do what I did, I hurt God and myself”?
Recently this week we have been learning of the Nature and Character of God taught by Peter Brownhill. I had some crazy revelations especially in the area and forgiveness and love. I realized I had unforgiveness towards people in my life and I wasn't showing them real love(love is the sacrificial unselfish choice for the highest good of another person). So God exposed my heart this week to my unforgiveness and refusal to extend hope love and mercy but instead I would be upset with the person and in my heart hold it against them because they would continue to betray my trust and learn a lesson they learned so many times before. The Lord gently restored me and gave me these words…Briauna how many times have you come to Me for forgiveness for the same thing and how many times have you gotten revelation of “hey this is not a good idea this is wrong, it hurts me others and worst of all it hurts God” yet then how many times have you still messed up and did what you got revelation that you shouldn’t do then getting on your knees repenting(repenting in the Greek means “change of mind”)and how many times have I gently forgiven you and again given you revelation of something that is wrong and again you say “I was wrong to do what I did, I hurt God and myself”?
God is not a harsh God, He is not a hard man, He is not a “Frankenstein God because if He was our response would be fear and there would be lack of fruit in our lives because our mind may not believe God is harsh but our heart does(matt. 25:24-25). So when we mess up God doesn’t get mad at us or deal harshly with us, He lovingly meets us where we are at “come as you are” not once you have cleaned up a little and are worthy or earn my trust back but no come as you are now “yet while we were yet sinners Christ died for us”. Then once again gives us revelation of the same lesson we have gone through so so many times because He loves us. Yes our sin grieves God but He has made a covenant of love with us, He chose even before mankind to never let go, to love us unconditionally even when it hurts him so bad He continually pours into us. Like when your close to someone and they hurt you sometimes our response is not trusting them anymore and withdrawing from them in unforgiveness because it grieved us, yet “even when we are unfaithful God remains Faithful” even when we messed up so many times the same dang thing He remains consistent in loving us and being just as intimate in relationship(psalms 15:4). He makes Himself vulnerable to relationship for the sake of love. He has compassion and perseverance to keep choosing to love staying committed to those who hurt Him. That’s gusty love right there.
God is not a concept Hes a person, a person who you can have a real relationship with.
God can reason- Isaiah 1:18, Jer. 2:35.
God has a memory- gen 9:15, ps. 111:5
God has a consciousness- Is. 43:10b,11
God has an imagination- Gen 1
God has an intellect- Ps. 139:17-18
God has emotions- Eph. 4:30, Gen. 6:6
God has a will- Gen. 6:6-7
God chooses to live in time in humility just so He can have personal relationship with us- John 1:14
God is not a concept, Hes a person. God is an invisible, personal, everlasting, infinite, Trinity of loving being.
John 8:1-11 THE WOMAN CAUGHT IN ADULTERY
“I hear a banging at the door but then suddenly BAM! The door breaks down from a mob of scribes and Pharisees. They see me naked all exposed sleeping with a man who is not my husband. Terror strikes me as they grab me dragging me outside. I know exactly what they are going to do…Im going to be stoned to death.”
Back in those days of stoning(capitol punishment) a woman was buried in the ground up to her shoulders so she couldn’t block the stones from hitting her. The first couple of stones are not head shots because they want the criminal to not get knocked out but go through the most painful stoning because of the crime they committed.
“So there I was naked for the whole town to see trying to cover parts of my body while trembling watching the men gather sharp stones in anger. Though I was so fearful I also felt shame, condemnation, and completely disgusting. I knew what I did was wrong, I deserve this stoning…but I was so SCARED, why?...because I'm going to die.
I here men talking about the horrible thing I just did but it was hard to understand because I was filled with fear and anticipating the sharp stones to hit my bare flesh. There was a pause and a man who they called “Teacher” said “let him who is without sin be the first to throw the stone at her”. Wait what did this “Teacher” say? Still I anticipated the stones, still in fear, still naked and trembling. “
But then instead of sharp stones cutting my flesh I feel a warm gentle hand on my head, “woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
So in realization I replied” No one, LORD.”
He smiled at me and said” Then neither do I condemn you. Go and from now on sin no more.”
What strikes me in this story is Jesus said “go and from now on sin no more” but wait its impossible in this life to not sin at all. Jesus knew that yet He forgave her and had hope for her “here daughter, try again”(Luke 15:11-32). Mercy is not getting what we deserve. Mercy is demonstrated in: forgiveness of sin, forgiveness of offense, gratefulness, and realizing that we have no rights. Jesus, for every single person Christian or not, has massive amounts of hope for their life…because if He didn’t He wouldn’t have sent His son even knowing that not everyone would choose Him He still died for that one person who might choose to love Him(not obey Him, love Him. Obedience comes out of love, if we love God we will automatically want to obey, not love comes out of obedience because that’s striving). So when we mess up God doesn’t get mad at us or tell us “your just going to mess up again” (which is speaking death to that person), instead He speaks life by forgiving and having hope extending grace and mercy to us with revelation for something He has forgiven us so many times in the past, but because He loves He is committed to us and doesn’t give up on us. That’s how we need to act towards each other having forgiveness and love towards one another like God.
The enemy comes to kill steal and destroy. When you don’t have hope for them your speaking death to that person and actually joining with Satan by stealing hope and accusing (another one of Satan's names is the accuser)because when someone hears “you’re just going to mess up again” your saying there's no hope for them and time and time again they believe it and instead of hearing ”I messed up” , it moves into an identity and it becomes "I'm a mess up, there is no hope for me”. So the enemy clouds our minds with lies about their identity which causes us to draw away from God(not because He pushes us away because of our sin. None of us are perfect we all have sin and yet He remains. It’s a lie from the Enemy that when we mess up that God rejects us and doesn’t come close to us Romans 8:31-39, WE DO NOT HAVE TO EARN HIS LOVE OR TRUST BACK). God extended forgiveness to us on the cross even before we asked for it. We need to open our eyes and realize we are delivered and believe it like the woman caught in adultery had to when Jesus asked her where are your accusers.
This recently has been a HUGE revelation in my heart and life because I was the woman not believing I was free, delivered and forgiven so when I failed I viewed God as a hard man and wouldn’t come back to God because Satan would feed lies to me and I ate them so I withdrew from God harboring unforgiveness and self-hatred towards myself. Also I was the Pharisees with the stones clench tightly in my fist. I realized it was so hard for me to have hope for those people because I had unforgiveness towards them and I wasn’t showing love which is committed “love covers over a multitude of sins”. I had to repent and ask for forgiveness and I had to ask for forgiveness to those I threw stones at. Since then I've felt so much intense love for them and my heart feels lighter.
So I just want to challenge you on this loving Truth to pray about where your at and your motives and what your heart believes not your mind. What does your heart believe about God's character? Is it possible in areas of your life you may have a false view of The Heavenly Father? Is it possible that in some areas of your life your eating lies? “take every thought captive”. So humbling yourself “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” asking forgiveness to people being led by the Spirit to whatever the Spirit brings up, no excuses no justification but complete humility and love and having hope for them showing them what the Father is really like and His character redeeming and restoring the situation with actions not just words. And maybe by doing this, by giving this all to God past present and future it will also lift a burden off your shoulders like it did for me.
Much love,
Bree
