Living the Resurrected Life. The Testimony Part 3 The Voice of Power- The Gift of Forgetting - David Mitts

““And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.” (Revelation 12:11)



To listen to the audio-only version click below 

Giving Opportunity Message


Givelify

Recovering our voice, the power of our testimony releases the overcoming life. We have often struggled with having boldness in our speech.

Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech—(2Co 3:12)

The key to boldness is expectation of a favorable outcome, what the Word calls a hope. Imagine a situation where you are being threatened but you know that your deliverance is at hand. That hope, that promise of salvation gives you boldness in your speech. (insert story)

The key is our focus, how we see. Like the scout who went into the Land, we either put our hope in the power of the giants or in the power of our loving God. How do we get to that point?

I want to look at the phenomenon of forgetting. Forgetting ispart of God’s technology. Look with me at Hebrews 8:8-12. This is the declaration of the new covenant.

Because finding fault with them, He says: "BEHOLD, THE DAYS ARE COMING, SAYS THE LORD, WHEN I WILL MAKE A NEW COVENANT WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND WITH THE HOUSE OF JUDAH—NOT ACCORDING TO THE COVENANT THAT I MADE WITH THEIR FATHERS IN THE DAY WHEN I TOOK THEM BY THE HAND TO LEAD THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT; BECAUSE THEY DID NOT CONTINUE IN MY COVENANT, AND I DISREGARDED THEM, SAYS THE LORD. FOR THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS IN THEIR MIND AND WRITE THEM ON THEIR HEARTS; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. NONE OF THEM SHALL TEACH HIS NEIGHBOR, AND NONE HIS BROTHER, SAYING, 'KNOW THE LORD,' FOR ALL SHALL KNOW ME, FROM THE LEAST OF THEM TO THE GREATEST OF THEM. FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE." (Heb 8:8-12)

Notice the statement that our sins and our lawless deeds He remembers no more. Think about that for a moment. Who is God? How can the one who knows all things past, present, and future forget anything? Yet He says He forgets. Forgetting is a choice that God makes for the sake of Love. It is the same decision as writing the Torah on people’s heart.

In order to truly forgive, we have to activate the forgetting. What does that mean in a practical reality? Let’s look at a few scriptures to try to grasp the importance of forgetting.

"Do not call to mind the former things or ponder things of the past. "Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert. (Isa 43:18-19 NASB)

Roadways in the wilderness is a picture of knowing where to go in difficult times and circumstances. It is also the place where the voice of our testimony can be heard declaring to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.

For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said, "THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, 'MAKE READY THE WAY OF THE LORD, MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT!'"
(Mat 3:3 NASB)


Rivers in the desert is a picture of provision in dry or difficult times. These are the benefits of learning how to use the spiritual tool of forgetting. We are instructed to not to call to mind the former things of the past.

What in your past is being called to mind? Sometimes we aren’t even aware of what voices from our past are defining what is possible in our present and into our future. But God wants to bring forth something new that is totally unpredictable based on the memories of the past. He declares that the new thing will spring forth. The term in Hebrew for springing forth is a “tzemach”, or a new bud that shows life where all appearances were of death.

For the new growth to come into our lives, we must go through the gates of death of the old reality. This is the power of forgetting. God has given us sovereignty over one area. The area is the beliefs in our heart and the confessions of our mouth. Together these frame our testimony.

But what does it say? "THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART"—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. (Rom 10:8-10 NASB).

The authority in our lives is reflected in our inner conversation, the conversation of the heart and the outward expression of that conversation. When our beliefs are anchored in the past, then our beliefs in the past limit our future. We hear this often in our confessions, our testimony. We hear ourselves saying things like, “I could never…..”. These statements are reflections of a sense of who we are based on the partial information of our past.

Last chapter we spoke about the contrast between the partial knowledge of ourselves based on the perspectives of our past, our childhood:

For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. (1Co 13:9-12 NKJV)

The “perfect” referenced in the verse is the baptism of fire and the Holy Spirit. He comes to lead us into all truth, which involves a transformation of our heart where all things pass away, all things are made new. This includes intentionally forgetting the old things.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2Co 5:17 NKJV)

The things of the spirit are activated by receiving them in our hearts, allowing the seed to germinate through mediation on the new belief and then aligning our confession, our testimony.

In this way the seed goes into the soil of our heart, dies, and brings forth resurrection life.

Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. (John 12:24 NKJV)

In this way death is essential to new life and forgetting is essential to new realities and new possibilities. Look with me at Isaiah 48:6-11:

"You have heard; See all this. And will you not declare it? I have made you hear new things from this time, Even hidden things, and you did not know them. They are created now and not from the beginning; And before this day you have not heard them, Lest you should say, 'Of course I knew them.' Surely you did not hear, Surely you did not know; Surely from long ago your ear was not opened. For I knew that you would deal very treacherously, And were called a transgressor from the womb. "For My name's sake I will defer My anger, And for My praise I will restrain it from you, So that I do not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it; For how should My name be profaned? And I will not give My glory to another. (Isa 48:6-11 NKJV)

This is a powerful picture from the Lord. Let’s deconstruct it a bit. God makes us hear new things that we cannot hear because of the iniquity that is bound up in our heart. He calls this being a transgressor from the womb. He is speaking, I think, of the natural inheritance from our past, our generational lineage. He then declares that the anger that He feels from the unrighteousness of it all, He will defer.

He says for His praise, it will be restrained from us or held back by His hand. He is literally protecting us from ourselves, the ones birthed in the memories, the ancient ways of our natural lineage. He refines us in the struggles our lives. You see our identities bring us into trials. It is the curse of the sin that is alive in us bringing us down to death.

He tells us ultimately the process is for own sake, His Name and His Glory! You see we have a destiny, but we have to forget the old ways. One final verse:

Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained. Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. (Php 3:12-17 NASB)

Our upward call is beckoning us. Paul calls the forgetting the perfect attitude. He also promises that if we are in a different attitude, that God will reveal that to us as well so we can be refined in the fire of the Holt Spirit.

Activation: Let’s pray and ask the Lord what from our past is keeping us anchored to the old ways. Maybe it is a family pattern. Maybe it something we learned along the way that may have helped at one time but is no longer what we need. Whatever it is we need to forgive it and forget it.

 

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Glory: Kavod - David Mitts

Dam, the Blood - David Mitts