Jesus viewed people as more important than their failures. He never treated His enemies as enemies. Jesus loves people and He hates sin, but His love for people is greater than His hatred is for their sin. In fact, He hates our sin so much that He died in order to separate us from our sin so He could restore us to relationship with Him and His Father. There is no sin that we can bring to Jesus to which He will say, “I didn’t cover that one.” He covered them all.

When we devalue the blood of Jesus and the sacrifice of Christ that He paid for for us, the Father is not okay with that. He gives authority for us to be tormented, which literally means that demonic forces have authority to torment us. We've got this tormenting spirit in our life competing with the Holy Spirit so we can't really hear the Holy Spirit because these tormentors are there under the authority of the Father to fight us. I'm convinced you cannot fully abide in Christ effectively when you have unforgiveness in your heart because there's a competition involved.

Join us and resolve to navigate the transition into the New Year by focusing on Jesus and forgiving everything. We invite you to pray this with us each morning throughout 2021: "Lord, be our focus throughout every day so that we see Your hand in everything that we encounter. Jesus, because your Blood is enough for us, we choose now to forgive every wound we may suffer today."

We all have these people from our past who wounded us, sometimes severely. When it is a non-family member, it seems simple- just cut them out of your life and stuff the wound. You know, fugetaboutit! But when someone in your family hurts you, it’s a different story. Those wounds run deep! How do you enjoy (rather than endure) the holiday when you know that the offending party will show up?

I jokingly often say the only people who don't need what we teach are the ones who've never been wounded. So if you've been wounded, you probably have a forgiveness struggle, because when we get hurt we want people to pay. Somebody has got to make it right. It's so hard for people to grab a hold of that. I also think there's a lot of confusion that circles around what forgiveness is and what it isn't. We've addressed that in other questions that we've answered in other ways, but forgiveness is basically applying the blood of Jesus as payment in full for every wound I ever have or will suffer. It's recognizing that the debt that was incurred by the wound has already been paid.

The moment we forgive, the discipline ends because God's discipline for us is not punishment. It is there to bring us to rethink, to change our mind, to get us to a new understanding of the blood of Jesus and how it covers our sin. When we honor the blood by applying it to what has wounded us, then the reason for the torment is over. The discipline is gone.

Well, my responsibility is to own my sin, basically to recognize the wounding and the pain that I've inflicted upon someone and own it and change my mind about it. Repentance. When you talk about reconciliation, you have to have both forgiveness and repentance. Repentance does not mean to change your behavior. It means to change your mind, which will ultimately change your behavior. Repentance is metanoia: to change your mind. So my responsibility is to recognize and confess what I did was wrong, confess it to God, and then go see what I can do to make it right. There's a passage where Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5 says, "If therefore, you are offering your gift on the altar and you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift.”

Dr. Bruce and Toni Hebel of Forgiving Forward answer the age old question, "Do deeper wounds take longer to heal?"

What if I'm able to forgive others, but I can't seem to forgive myself? Dr. Bruce and Toni Hebel answer this question and more in this video!

There are certain wounds that are more painful to endure and process than others. Adultery is the deepest form of betrayal within a marriage and leaves devastating wounds in the heart of the victimized spouse that makes forgiveness seem impossible. Conventional wisdom says that even if forgiveness is possible for an unfaithful spouse, recovering from it will take years. But conventional wisdom rarely considers the Cross.

Recently a couple came to us as a last resort. The wife had lost all hope and they were clearly heading for a divorce. As my wife and I worked with these two hurting people, we begin to recognize the telltale signs of unforgiveness. We helped them to discover the deep wounds from their childhood, their past relationships and from each other that were tormenting them both. As we walked them individually through the protocols of forgiveness, we witnessed two unbelievable transformations. They were set free! They were arm in arm as they walked to their car. Their marriage was restored through the power of forgiveness.

The insufficiency of the animal sacrifices gives way to the sufficiency of the Lamb of God who was slain from the foundation of the world. As we reflect on these High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, let’s celebrate that the ultimate Day Of Atonement was accomplished over 2000 years ago on an old rugged Cross where the spotless Lamb of God was slain for the sin of the world. It never has to be repeated!

Jesus Christ himself identifies with that because when he forgave it cost him greatly. And so, no, it's not OK. But, forgiveness does say that it was already paid for. They don't owe me anything because Jesus already paid for their sins against me.

Faith is the confident and active understanding that God is love and, in His sovereignty, governs everything for His glory and our good. David began to live by faith as a young boy as he shepherded his family’s sheep. On separate occasions, a bear and a lion threatened the flock and David killed both of them with his bare hands. Quite a heroic conquest for young man! David understood full well who it was who actually won the battle. As he recounted the story to Saul in 1st Samuel 17:37, David said “the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear he will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”

Sometimes we find ourselves angry, bitter, and upset without really understanding why. The answer, according to scripture, is oftentimes because we are harboring unforgiveness in our hearts. Toni and I wanted to share some of our story and how it manifested in our lives with you, in the hopes that you could learn to recognize unforgiveness, and in turn choose to forgive immediately - leading to a lifetime of joy and peace, no matter the circumstances.

There! I said it! Unforgiveness is a sin. It really is. “I know I know it doesn't feel like a sin. I mean, come on. They hurt me. It wasn't my fault. So it's my choice whether I forgive or not. I have a right to be upset because they owe me.” All of that may be true, but unforgiveness is still a sin. And it's a sin that keeps us in torment.

Our speaker today is Dr. Bruce Hebel. He is the international speaker with a compelling message that is revolutionizing the hearts of people from all walks of life. Raised in a pastor's home and educated to pastor the local church, he is now following God's call to the church at large.

Forgiveness is a transaction. It's receiving the blood of Jesus as payment in full for every wound I ever have or ever will suffer.

What if I told you that forgiveness isn't a process, it's a decision? And what if I told you that you don't need a lot of time to make that decision? And what if I told you, the concept that's out there that, "OK, it's going to take time to deal with this wound and process it and get through it"...  What if I told you that's exactly the opposite thing that you ought to do? And what if I told you that the purest evidence of the Christ-Life in us is when we choose to forgive instantaneously?

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times..