Overcoming Betrayal: Finding Purpose in Pain

0:00 You pray it and he can answer it. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. God will put the prayer in your heart to pray so that he can answer it. Goes into the hearts of the people. Does it return void? It produces results. Well, why don't we go ahead and open in prayer. Thank you, Lord. Heavenly Father, we just come to you. We thank you that you're here, that your Holy Spirit is here, and that the entrance of your word brings light. I ask that you would enlighten us, shine your light on the tablets of our hearts.

0:44 Help me to speak this message tonight to the hearts and lives of your people. And I pray that the Holy Spirit would just have his way and confirm your word with signs following in Jesus' name, amen. So this is guided prayer or what we're calling prayer school. The Holy Spirit sent the intention for tonight. Sometimes we set the intention because we just, okay, Lord, I might get in a specific direction. But the Holy Spirit set the intention four weeks ago. It's probably the quickest I've ever gotten direction. And the prayer focus tonight is going to be prayer for your enemies.

1:37 I believe that the reason why the Spirit of God has us going in this direction is because he wants to do some great and mighty things. And the Bible speaks about, in Luke eight and Matthew 13, about the different kinds of ground. And it's the ground of our hearts. And what I believe he's doing in our hearts here at New Beginnings and in a lot of the regions on the East Coast is he's getting our hearts ready to experience, I just keep hearing it, some great and mighty things that he desires to do. But here's the key. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.

2:22 And I think sometimes there's thorns in our hearts and hard ground that we have and just some things that choke what God wants to do. And sometimes we're aware of it and sometimes we're not. Now you know if you have unforgiveness in your heart because you get like a little prickly feeling when you think about that person. Amen. But I believe that the Spirit of the Lord is here and I believe that he has anointed me to heal the brokenhearted. And I believe that he's here and he's gonna help us to uproot those roots of bitterness that have kept some of us from running the race that's set before us.

3:06 So our prayer focus is gonna be prayer for your enemies. Our text is Matthew chapter five, verse 43 and 44. And just those of you know this, but I'm gonna go ahead and repeat it. Whatever we do in prayer school, the idea is for you to learn here and take what you receive here and bring it home and develop your own prayer life or your own prayer habit with God. According to Matthew 6,6. Go into your own closet, shut the door, use what you're learning here and practice your prayer time and your prayer life. Amen. Matthew 5, 43 and 44.

3:50 Jesus said, but I say to you, isn't this an interesting prayer focus? I would have never thought of this. It was an idea from God. I've never taught on this before. He says here, but I say to you, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. So he's telling us right here that he wants us to pray for our enemies. And we're gonna get into that. Ron Carpenter once said in his book, The Necessity of the Enemy, he said, an enemy arising in your life is an announcement that the next stage of your future is about to be born.

4:41 So I'm like excited about that because if he's got me ministering on this tonight, there must be something coming up the road ahead. And I know for a fact that anytime God's desiring to do something, the enemy will try to come in and sift us, throw a roadblock in to keep us from running the race. So I'm gonna read that again. An enemy arising in your life is an announcement that the next stage of your future is about to be born. Now the question is, are you going to let the enemy win? This is, and I thought, Lord, why would I say are we gonna let the enemy win?

5:25 It's not about winning and losing, but actually it is. When you forgive and you let go, you win. When you don't, there's a lot that we miss out on and we lose, amen? So the question is, are you going to let the enemy win? Are you going to allow him to hinder your advancement? Is it worth it? I don't know about you, but I wanna go all the way with Jesus. And if there's someone or person that's something that's happened in my life that's gonna keep me from going the full course of what he's set before me, I don't want that in my life.

6:11 How about you? It's like I always tell people what we wanna do is we wanna live in the lot of eternity. We don't wanna live for this world. We wanna live in the lot of eternity. And some of these weights and some of these sins and some of these hindrances, they'll keep us from our purpose and our plan and our destiny. So is it worth it? I just said it. Let's live in the lot of eternity and let go. Give God the pain. Let the root of bitterness and unforgiveness go. It is time to let it go. Jesus instructs his followers to love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them.

6:57 This teaching emphasizes the radical nature of agape love and forgiveness. It's radical. We're talking radical tonight. Amen? But you know, we can do the radical. You know why? Because Romans 5.5 says that the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. So we have the capacity to forgive. Even as Jesus forgave when he was on the cross. Didn't he say, Father, forgive them? They don't even know what they're doing. They thought they were doing right. They thought they were doing what they should be doing.

7:38 And they didn't even know that their moments were wrong, that they were actually literally playing right into the plan of redemption. Sometimes your enemies will do you a favor. Amen. And we're gonna get into that. But the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. So we have the ability to forgive. But it's not a forgiveness that's of the feelings. It's a forgiveness that comes from the heart, from the spirit of man. Your feelings may say one thing, but your heart will say another thing. How many of you know what I'm talking about?

8:18 You know, your feelings are fickle. As a matter of fact, after tonight, when we let go of those things that have been awaited to us and forgive, you may be tempted to have those feelings of unforgiveness come back. But I'm just gonna tell you straight up, just cast it down. And say, you know what, Lord, by faith, I've already forgiven that person. I've already let it go on September 13th at six, whatever time it's gonna happen tonight. Because the enemy's gonna come in, he's gonna say, oh no, you didn't forgive. Well, we don't forgive by feelings, we forgive by faith.

9:00 Amen. Okay, so the radical nature of agape love and forgiveness. Now you know that there's four kinds of love we're not gonna get into. So agape love is the unconditional love of God. The kind of love that is patient, it's kind, it's not jealous. You know, it's the love of God that never fails, right? It's that radical nature, okay? Number one, the command to love. Jesus challenges us by commanding us to love not only our friends, but also our enemies.

9:41 It's easy to love our friends, isn't it? It's a lot harder to love our enemies, but it's the same love. Amen? This love is unconditional and transcends personal feelings. I like to call it like this. I like to call it dying to self. You know, dying to self. I remember one time when I first started ministry, I used to like to use the rose as my logo. And you know, one day the Lord said to me, I don't want you using the rose anymore as your logo for your ministry. And I go, why Lord?

10:21 I love the rose, it's me. And he said, that's precisely why I don't want you to use the rose in your ministry. I don't want it to be about you. I want it to be about me. And I want you to hide behind the cross, because this is not your ministry, it's my ministry. So I want that to die. And so I wrote this article, I found some of my old newsletters from back in the day. So I was radical back then too, you know, and that title of the article is, the rose is dead. This is funny. But that's the dying to self. Dying and surrendering to God and giving God your all.

11:03 Even these feelings of unforgiveness, even though that person, you know, yes, you may have been right. Yes, they did what they did. Yes, you were despitefully used. Yes, that person was mean to you. Yes, they were verbally abusive. Yes, that bad thing happened, but you've got to let it go. It's not worth it, because all these things will just eat at us and only hurt us. That's why God said, I want my people to have clean hands and a pure heart. So when you stand before me, there's nothing that's hindering.

11:45 Okay, now the power, number two, the power of prayer. Praying for our enemies is a powerful act that can change our hearts and our perspectives. So when you pray for your enemies, something happens on the inside of you. I know that people don't like to pray this prayer in the grace movement, but it's a prayer I'd like to pray. We may pray it tonight. Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. Let's balance it. I know we're the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I know that when we stand before God, we stand before God just as if we've never sinned.

12:31 When the Father sees us, He sees Jesus. But let's look at the renew a right spirit within me part. If we have unharmed unforgiveness, there's something in our hearts that just isn't right. How many of you know what I'm talking about? And I have to tell you as leaders, we know this. If we have to preach and teach and minister, not out of anger. And I've seen leaders, they're mad at their people, they're mad at whatever happened to them, and they're ministering out of anger and hurt. And that's not God. God has to create in them a clean heart and renew a right spirit within them.

13:13 Where does it take place? It takes place in the presence of God because something's only God can do. We could take all the steps that we need to take, but it's really God, the Holy Ghost, that's got to come into those areas of our hearts and heal us, amen? So it changes our hearts. I don't know about you, but I want a heart change, amen? It can lead to healing both for ourselves and possibly for those we view as adversaries. And you know, the beauty of praying this prayer of forgiveness is when we do that and we enter into the presence of God, we're gonna talk a little bit about that.

13:58 We see them the way God sees them. You know, we don't see that outward thing that they did, not outward, all of that, all the words and all the things. We start to see them the way God sees them. And God's no respecter of persons. I hate to break the news to you, and it's something I don't even want to hear, but God loves everybody the same. Even that person that was a complete idiot to you and to I, he loves them. And so when we begin to enter into this kind of praying, we see them or that person the way God sees them and God loves them. Is everybody here?

14:40 Right? Well, we've just gotta get to that place. Number three, forgiveness. The act of praying for those who hurt us is closely tied to forgiveness. Holding grudges or onto grudges can be detrimental to our spiritual well-being while forgiveness can liberate us. It's like Psalm 66. It says, create in me, I already quoted it, but I'm gonna say it again, a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 66, 18. But certainly, no, no, no.

15:22 If I regard iniquity in my heart, that's the verse, the Lord will not hear me. But certainly, God has heard me, he has attended to the voice of my prayer, blessed be God who has not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me. So this prayer of praying for your enemies and letting go causes the channels to be opened back up. And is that what we want? And Hebrews 12, one and two says, therefore, since we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with patience or perseverance.

16:09 The race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. I remember one time I was in a season where the Lord told me not to go anywhere, not to preach, not to do anything. I didn't know it, but he was working on my heart. And my heart wasn't right and I needed to let go of some things so that he could take me to another level. Are you listening? And so for like a year and a half, I just spent time in the presence of God. And I always like to work on my love walk. So I took out 1 Corinthians 13 and I was reading it in the amplified.

16:49 And when I got to the part, aren't you glad that the Lord who he loves, he corrects? When I got to the part, I'm confessing, I am patient, I am kind, I know, you know, because you do that because that's your true nature. And when I got to the part that said, and I pay no attention to us suffered wrong. And the Lord said to me, you are paying more attention to that person that hurt you than you are to me. And you, my daughter are distracted. So instead of looking onto me, the author and the finisher of your faith with the eyes of your spirit, you're looking at that person.

17:36 And you're harboring resentment in your heart, bitterness in your heart. And don't think that I could do everything that I wanna do in your life. If you don't let it go, it's not worth it. First Corinthians 10, 13 says, these are the scriptures God gave me for us tonight. No temptation has taken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will provide a way out that you may endure it. And the Lord said to me, the way out is for my people to pray for their enemies.

18:23 That's the way out. And I know it hurts. Let me just say this, emotional pain I think is worse than physical pain at times. Because physical pain, you have a headache, you take two Tylenol, right? But when you have emotional pain, that's why some people numb it with drugs, alcohol, food, cigarettes, right? Cause you're trying to numb the emotional pain, but it's the Holy Spirit can come in and he can heal your broken heart and bind up the wounds. But we pray for people to get set free from addictions. How about just getting set free from some of this emotional pain?

19:08 So we pray for our enemy and this will help us emotionally. But number two, I wanna make sure I say this, just because you're forgiven, you're praying for your enemy, does it mean you should be friends with them? Mind if I say that? Some people, you need to love them from a distance. Yeah, she said, didn't I just say that? Some people, you gotta love them from a distance because the Bible says you're to guard your heart with all diligence, cause out of it flows the issues of life. Some people, you just gotta set boundaries and keep that, you know what a boundary is, right?

19:49 It's like a fence around a house. It keeps the bad guys out, right? You gotta set up those boundaries and stick to it. Some of you are empaths and the reason why you hurt so many times is because you're mercy motivated, you're an empath, don't allow your empathy to allow that person back into your life. Would God, God severed that thing, now don't go back to that person. So it's important and it's healthy to set boundaries. Amen? Number three, here's another way out, stop talking about it or him or her or whatever it is.

20:31 Now I believe in talk therapy. I've been to talk therapy. I'm in talk therapy right now. Dr. K, and I'm gonna talk to Pastor Joe about Dr. K. She's a tremendous therapist and she's got a lot of degrees and I like people that are holy ghost and have degrees. What do you even talk therapy for? Because I think it's sometimes it's just good for us. Just to have somebody to bounce things off of because we all have blind spots. Thank you, holy ghost. And sometimes when you're talking things through, it's revealed to you what your blind spots are and it brings healing to you.

21:12 I'm a believer in talk therapy and there is a time and a purpose and a season under everything, a time to talk and a time just to stop talking. I could stop talking about it. You know, I have to be, can I be honest? You know, I mean, sometimes we have friends, right? And you got me have a friend that would complain and complain and is really upset about a certain person in their life, right? And then you just complain and complain and you're a friend of that person. You just listen and listen and listen and then all of a sudden you find yourself chiving in. I was doing that one day, one night. The next morning I woke up and the Spirit of God gave me a scripture.

21:56 I have to read it. I couldn't believe it. I'm gonna read it to you, you mind? Here. The tongue is an unruly evil. I woke up to that and I was like, what? He said, you're taking on her offense. She's talking about it and you're chiming in and now you don't like that person and I want you to stop talking about it because the tongue is an unruly evil. And if you don't stop it, I'm not gonna be able to take you where I need to take you because life and death are in the power of the tongue. So you better stop it, woman of God.

22:44 Because if we're gonna speak life and we're gonna bring healing to people, we cannot allow bitter waters and sweet waters come out of the same fountain. It is time for us to get rid of this stuff and let it go. And if you don't mind the word in church, repent. And then I got another one about four days later and it was on September 6th and then I didn't know all these rules. I mean, I knew a couple of them but I didn't put this together. The law of kindness is in her mouth. You wanna display my glory? You wanna display my love? You wanna be a virtuous woman? Get rid of that unruly evil tongue and allow the law of kindness to come out of your mouth.

23:30 It's the old saying, what would Jesus do? What would Jesus say? Father, forgive them. They don't even know what they're doing. Can I just tell you that straight up, some people are just messed up. Okay? Some people have personality disorders. Some people are on the spectrum. Some people, they're just messed up. Right? So I feel like we need to have more compassion for people and love people the way Jesus would love us.

24:11 Let's talk about the story of Joseph. Do you like my message tonight? Yes. In the book of Genesis, Joseph's story illustrates themes of forgiveness, providence and redemption. I'm just making this condensed. Joseph, the favored one of Jacob, is given a beautiful coat by his father which stirs up jealousy amongst his brothers. You ever get around somebody and get grieved in your spirit? You don't know why? And sometimes it's somebody right in your own house. Sometimes there's people, members, in your house that are family.

24:53 They're some of the ones that can hurt you the most. Personally, I personally don't understand jealousy. I've never been a jealous person. But his brothers, in this case, they were jealous of him. They plotted against him. See, the devil will always attack you where you're strong, but he'll also attack you where you've got a crack in your armor. If you're prone to jealousy, you got to watch that. Right? It stirred up jealousy amongst his brothers. They plotted against him and ultimately sold him into slavery in Egypt and deceived their father into believing that Joseph was killed by a wild animal.

25:34 You know the story. In Egypt, Joseph faces numerous trials, including wrongful imprisonment after rejecting the advances of Potiphar's wife. Despite these hardships, seven years of abundance followed. Joseph remained faithful and interprets dreams for Pharaoh, predicting seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine. Impressed by his wisdom, Pharaoh elevates Joseph to a position of power, allowing him to prepare Egypt for the forthcoming famine. So God gave Joseph favor. He was eventually put into the position, even though he went through all these hardships.

26:19 I remember one time, how many of you ever remember Dick Mills? Remember Dick Mills? I was with Stephanie Busada. We were at the 700 Club, and this was way back in the day. We're talking like 30 something years ago, and Dick was on the program, and Stephanie was on the program singing now, Stephanie. They're both in heaven right now. But I remember we all got back into the bus, and we were going back to the hotel, and Dick Mills, he turns to me, and he gives me this word. You know, one of these words you don't really want to hear. He turns to me and he goes, you are gonna be betrayed by your brothers, just like Joseph.

27:01 You're gonna be betrayed by your brothers, and he went into this whole thing, and then he says, and you have a ministry to ministry to the brokenhearted, to the divorced, to people who have issues with rejection. What a beautiful, powerful ministry. Do you know about six months later, I was already in ministry, already was flowing in the things of God. You know about six months later, another high level leader started calling me a false brethren. You know that scripture that says, false brethren have risen up around you. Do you know that wasn't her? She was being motivated by the devil, because I was teaching prayer and intercession, and according to Kenneth E. Hagan in all his stories, when he'd cast devils out of people, sometimes some of them would scream out, I hate intercessors, I hate intercessors.

27:54 So it wasn't her really coming against me, it was she was motivated by the demons that hated what I was teaching. Sometimes I think we take things too personal, and we think it's about us. That's why the mark of spiritual maturity is growing up, and whether they praise you, or whether they reject you, whether they speak all manner of evil against you, it shouldn't matter either way. And that really bothered me, it crushed me, it hindered my ministry, you know, but Dick already had prophesied it, and at the end of the day, I forgave her to the point when she, did I say her name already?

28:39 When she reached a really hard point, and was in a really bad place, I gave her money, and helped her. You don't mind the language, but screw the devil. See, the devil wants to divide us, if he can divide us, he can conquer us. How about praying for one another, standing with one another, understanding that we have an enemy? It's not always the person, it's the enemy. See, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world. Sometimes it's the enemy that destroys marriages, because people let the enemy in, but you know, the family that prays together stays together.

29:28 Be as wise as a serpent, as harmless as a dove. Stand with your husband and wife, and wives don't, you know, honor your husbands. Don't go to your best friends, and start telling them all the secrets that's going on in your personal life. Love covers the multitude of sin. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's podcast. It has been such a joy sharing this time with you. For more inspiration and resources on today's topic, please visit our website at margiefloran.org.