Importance of Forgiveness Recovery Program Session 1 - May 28, 2013

[Rev. Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks, PsyD]

“Abused Woman Ministries’ (AWM) Importance of Forgiveness Recovery Program”

Today I am starting a new program, "AWM Importance of Forgiveness Recovery Program" to help those who are recently out of abusive relationships or is still struggling with the effects from previous abuse. In this recovery program, I will help you through your recovery process one step at a time. This is a program God gave me and I am giving it to you as He gave it to me. This is an interactive program so as you respond to me I will respond to you. You will have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss whatever part of the teaching you want. This program is part of “Journey of Freedom: Pursuing Freedom From The Bondage of Traumatic Experiences" which is a declaration for 2013 and beyond that you are going to continually pursue your freedom from whatever that has had/have you in bondage for years, recently, or at present!! Continually pursuit of your freedom means that you will stay free by any means necessary!! You will no longer tolerate foolishness of any kind!! You will rise up and by God's grace take back everything that the enemy has stolen from you (your self-esteem, your self-worth, your freedom to live life as God designed you to, your boldness God gave you through Jesus, and much, much more!! This year, 2013, is the beginning of your life and the best is yet to come!!! God has a plan and purpose for your life and I am your life coach; I am here to show you how to be set free from bondages so you can know and embrace God's will for your life!!

Abused Woman Ministries, Inc. is dedicated to helping women, their children and men who have been abused! We do this by providing them with the tools they need to recover from the bondage of domestic violence and abuse. However, we know that domestic violence/abuse is not the only traumatic event that can keep a person from having a healthy relationship! Therefore, we will also focus on recovering from the following traumatic experiences in the "Journey of Freedom: Pursuing Freedom From The Bondage of Traumatic Experiences:" sexual assault, rejection, abandonment, neglect, loneliness and whatever other traumatic experience God gives me to include.

I am dedicated to walking with you (I cannot do it for you – I am an instrument that God is using to help you recover – as He gives me your tools of recovery, I give them to you then you must decide to take this journey) so are you dedicated to take the journey? I understand you have busy schedules so I have broken the program down into smaller parts to accommodate your busy schedule and I will post the new teaching once a week on Tuesday – that way you will have a week to study it.

The journey may not be easy but we are in this together and we will hold each other up; no person left behind!!! If you have any problems contact me directly!! God got you in the palm of His hand and nothing and nobody will be able to pluck you out!! God will NEVER leave you nor forsake you!! Trust Him!!

The goal of this recovery program is:

1. To help you obtain wholeness from all emotional, psychological and any other effects that domestic violence and abuse or other issues of the past have caused you so you will be able to live the abundant life Jesus died so you could live.
2. To get things that are worrying you out of your mind so your mind will be free to take in and think about new things. As long as the old things are hindering you, you will never be able to embrace the new – the old will always be present – however, drown out the old and embrace the new God has for you.
3. Once the healing has taken place, you will be able to set effective goals and carry them out so you can live trauma and drama free.

After the initial program, you will learn how to receive your emotional healing with the next part of the recovery program called "Emotional Healing." But we will take this in small steps and it will be some months before you finish but you receive a certificate when you finish and most of all, you will recovery!

So let's get started with the first teaching in the “AWM Importance of Forgiveness Recovery Program!” The first part might seem long but it is mostly information; study the highlighted pages – those are the actual teachings. The next part will only have the parts for that week and the Agenda but keep the instructions so you can refer to them if needed. If you have any questions, as I stated earlier, contact me via email: [e-mail].

 

 AWM Importance of Forgiveness Recovery Program Agenda – May 28, 2013

 1. Start session with prayer – ask Holy Spirit to give you understanding and give you inner healing

 2. Study each session carefully – this program is focused on healing of the spirit, soul, & body

3. If you have any questions, contact me via email

4. Close in Prayer – pray what you feel in your heart – this is your time between you and God and as you spend time with Him, you will deepen your personal relationship with Him!

5. Session 2 WILL BE POSTED JUNE 4TH

 

  Importance of Forgiveness Recovery Program Outline

I.  Introduction – 1A /1A-1– May 28, 2013

II. Connection Between the Mind & Body – 1A-2

• First Point of View – Personal -1A-2-1
• Second Point of View – Medicine/Psychology – 1B
• Third Point of View – Scriptures – 1C/1D

III. Take Action By Taking Responsibility – Homework

A.   Forgiveness – 1E

• The Forgiveness Affidavit – 1E
• Prayer Against Unforgiveness – 1E-1

B.   Self-Bitterness – 1F

• The Self-Bitterness Affidavit – 1F
• Prayer to Overcome Self-Bitterness – 1F -1

C.   Bitterness – 1G

• Levels of Bitterness (1-3) – 1G
• Levels of Bitterness (4-6) – 1G-1
• The Bitterness Affidavit – 1G -1a
• Prayer Against Bitterness – 1G-1b

D.   Rejection – 1H

• What is Rejection? – 1H
• Root of Rejection – 1H-1
• Walls of Rejection – 1H-1a
• Who You Are In God – 1H-1b
• Release from Rejection – 1H-1c
• Prayer and Process for Overcoming Rejection – 1H-1d/1H-1e

E.   Discovery Prayer – 1I/1I-1

 

Importance of Forgiveness Recovery Program – Session 1 – May 28, 2013

I.  Introduction – 1A

Forgiveness is a very important part of your life! When people believe they have been wronged they become offended and this offense can lead to anger, hatred, jealousy, rejection, fear, pride, bitterness, etc. And the toxic emotions from offense leads to shame, regret, guilt, sorrow, self-bitterness, anxiety, stress, etc. To help get rid of these toxic emotions, the person must forgive – the recovery process begins when the person decides to forgive – forgiveness is a choice. Therefore, a person cannot recover/heal/be restored until these unresolved issues (toxic emotions above) are gone from their lives. Everything that has happened to me throughout my life, no matter how horrible it was, how justified I was in holding the unforgiveness against them, God let me know, I had to forgive them; it was not easy – I am not going to say it was – some things it took me years to get over. It took me over 20 yrs. to get over and forgive the guy who brutally raped me when I was 16, why because I did not deal with it. You must deal with what happened to you! Time does not heal old wounds! That is a lie from the pit of hell to keep you from dealing with your pain. Because I have been through this journey of forgiveness, I know and can tell you that if you don’t forgive others their sins (what they have done to you), you will not be forgiven of your sins by God. Let’s look at what Jesus said in Matthew 6:12, 14, and 15:

“......and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us” NLT – biblegateway.com.

What is verse 12 saying? Jesus says that we are to ask the Father to forgive us our sins, when we have forgiven those who have sinned against us. God gave us a requirement to fulfill before He will forgive our sins (I am not talking about when you accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior because God will forgive your sins – Jesus died once and for all for us and He forgives our sins always! I am talking here when someone hurt you and you refuse to forgive them – God forgive you while you were a sinner and sent His Son Jesus to die and take away your sins so you should forgive others their sins against you); therefore, receiving our forgiveness is directly tied to forgiving others.

Now let’s continue reading to verses 14-15 of Matthew 6: “¹⁴ “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you refuse to forgive others, your (heavenly) Father will not forgive your sins...”NLT.

This Scripture clearly show us that the manner or way that we forgive others set the standard by which God will forgive us.

When someone offends us, we must deal with it then because offense opens the door for unforgiveness to come in and when that happens, it opens the door for other spirits more evil than unforgiveness. Unforgiveness is the entry point for the principality of bitterness to set up in your heart. Let’s go to Hebrews 12:14-15:

" ¹⁴ Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: ¹⁵ looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;” NKJV – biblegateway.com.

 

Importance of Forgiveness Recovery Program – Introduction 1A-1 – Session 1 - May 28, 2013

Once bitterness sets up in a person’s heart, it defiles them until they are destroyed! This happens because if unforgiveness is not deal with, it opens the door for resentment, then resentment opens the door for retaliation, then retaliation opens the door for anger, anger opens the door for hatred, hatred opens the door for violence and violence opens the door for murder; all these spirits cause the principality of bitterness to set up and begin to rule and reign in the person’s life, eventually destroying them.

Is unforgiveness worth losing your soul over? Let it go! When you don’t forgive, you are not hurting the person who hurt you, you are hurting yourself. Forgiveness is not a feeling, it is a choice as I stated before. You must decide to forgive the person and no matter what, don’t let anything change your mind. Keep telling yourself, “I forgive them.” Jesus said in Matthew 18:22 we should forgive someone 70 times 7; He gave us a guideline to show us there are no limits on how many times we are to forgive. It is not easy but it can be done by persevering.

I am going to give you several ways to keep unforgiveness out your life:

1.  Recognize who you fighting against in the first place. Ephesians 6:12 lets us know who we are fighting against: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (www.biblegateway.com NKJV). Once we have settled this in our spirit, it will cause us to be more forgiving of people and begin to come against those spirits that are using them. We will see the spirits behind the person as the culprit instead of looking at the person.

2.  Love God, His Word, and His people this will keep you from getting offended when someone hurt you. Psalms 119:165 says: “Great peace have they who love Your law; nothing shall offend them or make them stumble” Amplied Bible; in other words – do not render evil for evil, if your enemies hunger feed them, pray for them that despitefully uses you, etc. if we love God’s law, His commandments, His Word, then when people hurt us we will follow the directions God has already gave us, to keep us offense free. If we love God, His Word, and His people we will keep unforgiveness out of our life. Unforgiveness comes when we think someone has done us wrong and we get offended. A lot of times we think people have wronged us and they have not; it is our own twisted perception of ourselves that we reflect onto people. We perceive that people are one way when in reality it is ourselves we are seeing in people. If we take our focus off ourselves and keep it on Jesus, we will not have time to analyze every little thing people do or do not do to us; the devil will not be able to put these unrealistic thoughts in our head. That is why it is so important for us to have our minds transformed by the Word of God so we will not be conformed to the ways and actions of the world – we will not behave like the world when something happen to us. If the offense is not dealt with, it opens the door for unforgiveness which opens the door as I stated earlier for the principality of bitterness to set up in your life.

If you hear what God is saying to you today, by using these two ways, you will stay free of unforgiveness; you will not give place to the devil. I know there are more ways to stay free of unforgiveness but this is what God gave me!

 

Click here for PDF version for Session 1 May 28 2013   

                                      

May God Continually Bless You and Keep You!

Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks

 

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