Heb 12:15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

If we want to encounter Christ, we must purge ourselves of the things that grieve the Holy Spirit. There are things as a Christian that are our responsibility. We have a covenant with God. We have our responsibility and He has His. As we do our part, we can be assured, He will hold up His side of the covenant.

Things that will deter our prayers being answered.

• Messing with the Occult
• Living in rebellion or known sin.
• Unbelief
• Covenant Breaking
• Bitterness or sometimes called Unforgiving

Today I will talk on Bitterness

I took this photo yesterday of a Philippine’ Eagle.

As Christians we are supposed to miunt up on eagles wings, but like this eagle we are deterred or hampered by our lifestyle. We are caged by things that we are meant to conquer in the Name and authority of Jesus Christ.

On the cross Jesus bore our sin, our shame, every curse, every sickness and disease. But just like forgiveness or becoming a Christian does not happen automatically, neither do the other benefits of the Cross. We have to go after them!

When we see a promise in the Bible or a warning, we must be inspected by this Word with the Help of the Holy Spirit.

Psa 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
Psa 139:24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

So many people do a self evaluation, but to me this is pointless. Many of our problems have a symptom, but God is the only one that can show us the root cause.

Bitterness or not forgiving others is a poison. According to our text it defiles many.
So many in the body are bound and limited by bitterness.

Jesus put a super high priority on us forgiving others. He included it in our daily model prayer.

Mat 6:12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

Mat 6:14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
Mat 6:15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses

In fact in the Lord’s Prayer 3 out of 7 verses are focused on forgiving others.

This is a huge deterrent to our walk with God. If we hold a grudge against another human, God Himself will not forgive our sins. We can confess our sins, but they remain until we a clean from bitterness.

Psa 66:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:
Psa 66:19 But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer.
Psa 66:20 Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me

God turns away our prayer as we hold iniquity in our hearts. In this case the iniquity is our not forgiving others.

When we forgive someone, it is to our benefit. We are held captive by not forgiving. We will not grow in Christ until we learn by His Power and Grace to forgive. We may not be able to forgive in our own strength as the offense may be huge. But beacaise we have this bitterness, we are the ones trapped, caged and many times tormented. If we don’t forgive, no matter the circumstances, we are in sin.

Years ago I was teaching a bible study in a bad part of town. I believe there were 7 of us who met the same night week after week. One night during our study, there was a knock on the door. It was a Chinese lady that came requesting prayer. She had been receiving treatments by one of the best doctors in our area. This doctor is highly esteemed in one of the foremost hospitals in the world. Her problem was complex as she had tumors behind her eyes and attacked to the brain. She also had tumors in her reproductive organs. They could do a hysterectomy for this problem, but she would certainly lose her sight and possibly die if they operated on the tumors in her head.

We did not know her, but when she entered the house she immediately said, “I hear there are people here who will pray for the sick.”

We did pray for her and anointed her with oil.

Jas 5:14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
Jas 5:15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

Mar 6:12 And they went out, and preached that men should repent.
Mar 6:13 And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them.

After we prayed, God gave me a Word of knowledge and Prophecy

1Co 12:8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
1Co 12:9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
1Co 12:10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:

I said, “This is what the Lord says, “You have someone in your family that you hate and this person hates you. You hate each other so much that you would be happy if harm came to the other.” “On the day you reconcile this relationship, I will heal you.”

God, by His Spirit told her she needed to forgive!

About 2 months passed by and I got a phone call from her. She was jubilant and she told me she was completely healed. She said the person in her family wash her sister-in-law and she was currently in the house with her. Her doctor came to her church and testified of a bonafide miracle. God knows what He is doing. We only need to trust and place ourselves fully in His Hands. We must forgive!

Luk 17:1 Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!

Jesus is saying it is a guarantee that offenses will come. In the following verses Jesus is saying fir us to forgive 70 times 7 times.
Right after this, His disciples request that He increase their faith.

I did not say it would be easy, but we must forgive.
If not we will be like the eagle with potential to fly, but we will be caged by bitterness, and this bitterness defiles many.

I find I need to allow the Holy Spirit to check me every day so no root springs up.

If we have bitterness, we are stuck where we are and we will not go any farther in our Christian walk until we deal with this and forgive from our heart.

Thank you for your time.
This is the end of this installment on An Encounter with Christ
Blessings!
Daddy William

All proceeds from this account will be used to benefit the people of the Philippines and Eastern Asian Countries