The Power to Forgive

I have done this a bit in practice on my own while at work and out and about. I called it preemptive forgiveness when I was working with it. Basically you forgive someone actively the moment you see them, if they haven't done anything to bother you then you are doing it on a basic broad level. It's not the same thing as acceptance, try to be specific and forgive. When actively involved in presence, the practice of forgiveness however you decide to carry it out a very powerful thing to do.

I don't think most people have much power to forgive, typically people try to fly before they can walk when it comes to forgiveness and they can never seem to get over things even, much less forgive truly. They wait until somebody wrongs them or hurts them terribly, then they try to forgive. And it's impossible to just out of nowhere do that. Forgiveness is something that can be felt and developed. That's my experience with it.

I guess right now, I just feel like I need to move on past attempting to alter my present state of mind actively, and perhaps hope it develops this ability on a more subconcious level, a more subtle level that is just "it." We can be present, Power of Now, Power of Forgiveness, now what comes next? How do we grow past this?

To forgive as we are forgiven implies people must be repentant for having harmed us. Remember, we are only forgiven by God when we "repent." Therefore, forgiveness is not unconditional. The forgiveness we receive from God is conditional on our repentance. If it was not so, then we would have more power to forgive than Christ himself does, and that would mean he died for nothing.

As believers, we have the power to forgive people who have wronged us, but we cannot forgive people for the wrong they have done to others.....those people who have been wronged must make the decision to forgive those that wronged them. But unless people repent and ask for forgiveness from those they have wronged, there is no requirement to forgive. If it was not so, then we would not need Christ.

Forgiveness often involves a lengthy process, especially if the wrongs we have suffered at the hands of others are serious. The small stuff is no sweat, but the real big wrongs take time, and it definitely helps when one asks for your forgiveness and shows they are serious through a willingness to make full restitution for damages.

IMHO of course.

I believe that it is precisely BECAUSE we are all one than we must forgive and forgive even those who we do NOT know or who did not neccessarily wrong US, and I think that this is the metaphysical axiom which informed Jesus. That to forgive, is to be forgiven, because, we are all one in God. In fact, he wanted us to be so one, that we would know that he was sent for the sake of the forgiveness of all sin and evil. It IS unconditional and brings us TO repentence and love as the only possible response in the face of the power of God's forgiveness. I think most Christians are CLOSE but miss the mark in terms of fully grokking the true nature of God's mercy as represented in the work of the cross of JC, and by their own making of it into a conditional thing, and an exclusive thing, is to allow the devil within to grab hold of it, and then twist it, ever so slightly, so that we don't QUITE fully get it, in the full splendour of it's import and export. We are to become like Jesus, unto the full stature of Christ, and of course the student can never be as great as the master, but that's irrelevant, particularly when he says "and as my father hath sent me, even so send I you."

I don't think most Christians understand Jesus or his intent, or God's through Jesus.

The supreme challenge of Christianity, is precisely in how to recieve a free gift of incaculable value, for which there is nothing a person can do to either earn or deserve it.

And if he exclaimed from the cross, indicating even those who put him there "father forgive them, for they know not what they do" than such a forgiveness as that is equally applicable, whether someone believes in him, or not.

But Christians don't want to hear that, since it would mean that they would lose hold of their own exclusive status, adn their "rights" to salvation on account of their Christian faith. IMHO.

We do not have the same kind of power to forgive people of their sins like Jesus did....we are not Gods, we are God's subjects, made a little lower than angels. Some day we will be changed and receive incorruptible flesh, but while in mortal flesh we should not think too highly of ourselves.

If peace and inner spiritual balance is what you are after, that can be done by asking God to give you the serenity and strength to accept the things you cannot change, the ability to change the things you can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

The kind of forgiveness you are talking about, and the benefits you say people will get from it, already exists for those of us who have been granted the repentance that leads to forgiveness and salvation for our souls; followed by transformation and the sealing of one's faith by a visit from the Holy Spirit, at which time you experience oneness with the Divine.

I can tell you from experience that when the Holy Spirit seals one's faith, every doubt you ever had concerning the existence of the Divine creator of all things will be completely and utterly wiped from you consciousness.
The experience is that profound and life changing.

You are misinformed, we are higher than the angels in God's creation.

And oneness, in spirit, that's Jesus all the way. You fail to grasp the point I was trying to make, and to begin with it requires an open and undoctrinated mind.

Much of the way Christianity is sold by the fundamentalists these days, bears no similarity, or very little, with the originating understanding and appropriation of Jesus Christ.

Put it this way, because Jesus forgave all, we must do the same.

Because if you can't fogive everyone, then you can't forgive anyone.

Originally posted by OmegaPoint
You are misinformed, we are higher than the angels in God's creation.

And oneness, in spirit, that's Jesus all the way. You fail to grasp the point I was trying to make, and to begin with it requires an open and undoctrinated mind.

Much of the way Christianity is sold by the fundamentalists these days, bears no similarity, or very little, with the originating understanding and appropriation of Jesus Christ.

Put it this way, because Jesus forgave all, we must do the same.

Because if you can't fogive everyone, then you can't forgive anyone.

I don't know how you arrived at your assumptions about me. You don't know me and you are wrong about me.

It is apperent that you have never had the mystical experience of light and oneness with God. I hope your search leads you to that state of oneness in Spirit.

Originally posted by OmegaPoint
You are misinformed, we are higher than the angels in God's creation.

No, I am not misinformed. Angels exist in the eternal realm with the Divine and have spiritual bodies that are immortal, not bodies of mortal corruptible flesh and blood stuck in this temporal material dimension. Sprirtually speaking, we are in a fallen state and therefor lower than Angels. We have the potential to become higher, but not while we are stuck in these weak, mortal, corruptible, flesh and blood bodies.