Many people have seen healings through Linn’s ministry. Some healings were overnight while others struggled with their will for months. Deep hurts take longer to heal but some have occurred overnight. “Forgiveness comes not through will power but through Spirit power.” (p. 60) The Spirit turned frightened and hurting disciples into powerful apostles who were preaching to those who could hurt them. God longs to do the same for us with the same forgiving Spirit. The author gives the example of an African husband and wife who were captured by the guerrillas. The woman was forced to hit her husband and eat a piece of his buttocks in return for his life. They killed her husband anyway. She had to endure other atrocities to save her friends in the…show more content… She cried and nodded yes. They opened the Scriptures to her and shared how Jesus promised to help her forgive when she could not. She let the vengeance go and embraced the truth of forgiveness. “To this day her village lives in the peace that returned with Sarah.” (p. 63) The leaders told her of the four steps of forgiveness they used to forgive their torturers. These steps are love, do good, bless, and pray.
We are to love our enemy. To love is a decision to forgive as Jesus did on the cross. As in Sarah’s case, she had to experience the depth of hurt in her enemy to understand why they acted as her enemy. As long as there is hatred and bitterness, we will not be able to get close enough to feel love and mercy for them. Only forgiveness allows Jesus in us to be that close to our enemy. “If we try too soon to forgive the hurt without experiencing the depth of the hurt which has made the other our enemy, we swallow our anger and we will not know the depth of what we need to forgive.” (p. 64) Secondly, we are to do good to those who hate us. Jesus acted out His words by eating with the publicans and sinners. He loved the sinner, but hated the sin. Forgiveness does
