My love,

Can I hold you? Can I wipe away those tears for you? Let me soothe your soul with a lullaby. You are precious. You are beloved.

The pain you are experiencing breaks my heart, for you are mine and you are a part of me.

I know you don’t have the words or the will to extend love to the ones who have hurt you right now, and that’s okay. Come commune with me in the garden. I have beautiful things to tell you. Come sit awhile with me.

Ask Holy Spirit to intercede for you. Ask Holy Spirit to teach you to pray, not only for yourself, but for the very people who have gravely injured you.

I don’t tell my children to pray for their enemies because I want them to mindlessly gloss over real emotions. I command my children to pray for their enemies because it will properly order their emotions and release healing and grace. Anger is useful and warns the body of dangerous or destructive people and situations, but anger left undisciplined will only lead to bitterness. When you pray for your enemies, you’re asking Heaven to inform your emotions and perspective, and this is the quickest way to gain clarity and compassion. It is your compassion that will eventually lead to your healing.

Everyone is fine when grace is applied to them, but oh how I long for my children to delight in extending grace to others. When people stop relating to one another, when they refuse to enter into their enemy’s story, shoes, and suffering, their minds become an echo chamber of one sided and misguided narratives.

My love, allow me to give you some perspective: imagine watching a movie of the person you are in conflict with from the moment they were born until now. Imagine virtually experiencing all of the things that have influenced their character and choices. Imagine witnessing all of the hardships, losses, abuses they have faced, and every single lie that has ever been spoken over them that they still believe. Imagine being in the room every time your enemy cried and experiencing the same fear and trauma they experienced when people inflicted pain on them. Something in you would break and you would be forever changed. You would see them the way I see them.

I have seen you all from the very beginning. There is a compassion in my heart you will never understand. But when you walk in obedience and model your Papa, when you trust my instruction, you will only grow in your understanding and ability to love others, including your enemies. The more you allow Christ to transform your heart and mind, the more you will walk into your true identity and experience freedom.

You see my love, healed people don’t hurt others, broken people do. Only those with an orphaned spirit feel the need to steal from others in order to feel good about themselves or to survive. But those who know they’re already loved and eternally provided for, know that nothing can ever be stolen from them. For in Christ, there is enough grace, healing, and provision for every single need.

I am not suggesting you excuse bad behavior. When people hurt, betray, or abuse you, they rob you of something they are incapable of repaying. The debt is so deep that the perpetrator actually finds themselves bankrupt. Forgiveness doesn’t ignore the offense but it releases a person from the debt they owe you and allows you to find restoration in the only place capable of providing it: the love of God. If you spend a lifetime trying to gain money back from someone who’s bankrupt you’ll be desperately unsuccessful and miserable forever. But if you release someone of their debt and find all your life and identity in Christ, you will see you are indestructible.

Can I tell you something else, releasing someone from their debt not only allows you to walk in freedom, but it is a powerful enough gesture to cause your enemy to repent and change their ways. Jesus, forgiving and dying for His enemies rather than killing them, was the first expression of unconditional love the world has ever seen. His love caused the very soldiers who were murdering Him to question everything. It was the start of the Kingdom finally invading earth and putting an end to cyclical violence.

Heaven is here in part, but it is coming in full. When you forgive, you are expanding the territory of where God reigns and you are participating in the restoration and reconciliation of all creation.

Beautiful one, hatred is easy and takes no courage at all. Forgiveness is divine. Forgiveness is both your greatest need and the most difficult thing you will ever do, and it is also one of the most defining marks of being a Son and Daughter of mine. Enemy love is the highest form of love. When you were my enemy, I died for you. If my children don’t forgive, or can’t forgive, they’ve missed everything.

My love, I relate to you. I know exactly how you feel. I know because I created the emotions you are experiencing as a gift to guide you into wholeness. Please know I am weeping with you in your suffering and pain. Please know there is so much time and grace for you to grieve and to lament. You need to do that. This is your body’s way of releasing built up pressures and starting to heal. Just stay close to my heart. Grieve in me, not apart from me. Know that I will never let any suffering go unredeemed. Know I am working to influence, correct and discipline those who have so dreadfully wronged you. Rest assure my love, your deepest pain will be the very thing that gives you your greatest authority. Forgive those who have wronged you, just as I forgave you, precious one. Don’t allow what others have done to you, to be greater than what I have done for you.

I love you forever and always. I believe in you, and I’m so deeply proud of you.

Love, Papa.

John 13:34 | Matthew 5:7 | Matthew 6:14 | Matthew 5:44 | Matthew 6:12 | Matthew 27: 54 | Mark 11: 25 | Philippians 2:5 | Romans 5:8 | Ephesians 1: 7-8 | Colossians 3:15 | Psalm 86: 5 |