The 3rd Reason Why You Are Not Completely Delivered

The third common reason why people fail to receive complete deliverance is a failure completely to forgive others.

“And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: That your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive you your trespasses.”

What could be clearer than that? “When ye stand praying,” when you’re called forward to pray the deliverance prayer, “if ye have ought against any,” that leaves out nothing and no one. What do you have to do? Forgive.

If you forgive, God will forgive you. If you do not forgive, God will not forgive you. If you are not forgiven, you’re not a candidate for deliverance. You don’t have the legal rights of deliverance. God has required this. We cannot change it. I want to say again, as I said the other day, forgiveness is not an emotion. It’s a decision. It’s tearing up the IOU. That’s the way I explain it.

Let me take an illustration. My good brother here, Brother Glenn Miller, has lent me $10,000, praise the Lord. And I’ve given him my IOU for $10,000. And now we’re having a face-to-face confrontation about the situation and the relationship between us. And he’s sitting there with my IOU in his hands, and he’s saying, “Brother Prince, I really love you.” And I think, I could care less. He said, “Brother Prince, I understand you were in a difficult situation.” “Brother Prince, I pray for you.” I still think I could care less. “Brother Prince, I am asking God to forgive you.” I could care less. What am I interested in? What he does with the IOU. The moment he tears that up, I don’t mind much what he says. I’ve got what I want. Now, forgiveness is tearing up somebody else’s IOU.

I remember, or I’ve had many conversations along this line, especially with women whose husbands have wronged them, being unfaithful. “Have you forgiven your husband?” “Well, I pray for him.” I didn’t ask you that. “Have you forgiven your husband?” “Well, I understand he couldn’t help himself.” That isn’t what I asked you. “Have you forgiven your husband?” “Well, I’ve asked God to forgive him.” That isn’t what I asked you. “Have you forgiven your husband?” “No.” “Are you willing to forgive your husband?” “Well, Brother Prince, he’s ruined 15 years of my life.” All right, do you want him to ruin the next 15 years, too? Then keep on not forgiving him, and he’s sure to do it. Forgiveness is only enlightened self-interest. That’s all it is.

Jesus said in the parable of the unforgiving servant, in effect, and I’m paraphrasing it, “You owe God $6 million. Your fellow servant owes you 10. If you forgive your fellow servant 10, God will forgive you 6 million.” Well, who wouldn’t do that? Anybody that wouldn’t do that would be a bad businessman, wouldn’t he? That’s what forgiveness is. It’s forgiving the $10 somebody owes you. Why? Because you owe God 6 million. That’s the proportion in that parable. Forgiveness is a decision. I do not say you can make it at any time, but you can make it when the Spirit of God prompts you to make it. That’s why it’s so important to obey the prompting of the Spirit.

What is forgiveness? It’s a decision of your will expressed by an utterance of your lips, and it’s best to say it out loud. And, in fact, it’s a good thing to say it in the presence of witnesses. It’s rather like a marriage service. It’s as solemn as that. “Lord, I forgive my mother,” or “my father,” or “my husband,” or “my wife.” Those are the four main relationships in which we normally need to forgive. Sometimes it’s our mother-in-law, or our son or daughter-in-law, or it could be our grandparents, or it could be the minister of the church, or it could be a fellow Christian, or it could be a businessman who cheated you. But, basically, I would say four times out of five, it’s in the closest personal relationships that we have to practice forgiving. If you want God to forgive you, you just have to forgive others. You have no option.