The Power of Forgiveness

Host: Dr. Jamie Mitchell

Guest: Dr. Ray Pritchard

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 5/12/26. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.

Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.

Jamie Mitchell:

Well, hello friends. Welcome again to Stand in the Gap today. I’m your host, Jamie Mitchell, Director of Church Culture at the American Pastors Network. C.S. Lewis wrote this. Forgiveness is a lovely idea until you have to forgive someone. Boy, isn’t that the truth? I don’t ever want to simplify or minimize people’s issues and real life struggles, but looking back on 40 years of ministry, I am confident in saying this, that 80 to 90% of the people’s problems that I’ve had to deal with over the years is connected either to them their need to be forgiven or their need to forgive someone. When either of those situations are not resolved, a person literally is tormented in their soul. I know I have personally at times, in very difficult situations, have struggled to forgive. I know that some of the greatest hurts that I’ve experienced is when people who hurt me never came and asked for forgiveness.

You live with this gnawing angst deep within. Well, today we want to look at this subject of forgiveness and to help us, I’ve asked a person who, in my humble opinion, wrote one of the best books on the subject. The book is entitled The Healing Power of Forgiveness, and its author is my friend and returning guest to Stand in the Gap, Dr. Ray Pritchard. Ray, thank you for consenting to be with us today and especially on a subject that I know every listener that is here today has been contending in one way or another, and that’s the issue of forgiveness. Welcome to Stand in the Gap, my friend.

Ray Pritchard:

Hey, thank you, Jamie. Great to be with you again.

Jamie Mitchell:

Well Ray, it’s hard to believe that you wrote your book on forgiveness in 2005, over 20 years ago. I have got to be honest, over the years, I’ve given dozens of people a copy of that book. And to be really honest, I gave someone my last copy and I don’t remember who I gave it to, so I don’t even have a copy of your book in my hand like I normally do when I have a guest on, but you wrote this book and it has touched many. Ray, what was the motivating factor behind why you felt the need to write that book 20 years ago?

Ray Pritchard:

Well, number one, Jamie, in your introduction, you made the case for why all of us, all of us deal with the issue of forgiving and the need to be forgiven. But honestly, I tell you, this goes back to, well, the book came out in 05, so go two years before that, 2003. I was speaking at Word of Life Florida, great big conference center in Hudson, Florida. I guess it was in the winter, probably February of that year. I had lunch one day with George Theis, who was then the worldwide director of the great Word of Life ministry and a very good friend now at home in glory with the Lord. We were chatting about this or that and George said something to me that caught me off guard. He said, “Ray, I’m going to give you a book. I want you to read it and then I want you to preach about this book to your people.

” And there are times, Jamie, people can say to you, “Well, you need to do this. You need to read this book or whatever.” But George Theis is not the kind of man to say that lightly. The book was called Total Forgiveness by a man named R.T.  Kendall. Now R.T. Kendall’s a great preacher of the word of God. He was the successor to the great Martin Lloyd Jones at Westminster Chapel in London. And so when George Theis gave me the book, I read it and at the beginning of the book, R.T.  tells that some point in his ministry there at Westminster Chapel, somebody he loved and respected and looked up to as a father figure and mentor hurt him deeply, said things about him that were not true and evidently tried to undermine his ministry and what evidently was a very public manner. R.T.  Kendall doesn’t say who it was or exactly what happened, but it caused great, great angst.

That’s the word you used, Jamie, great angst in his soul and it wasn’t solved until a missionary friend heard the story of what had happened and said to R.T., you must totally forgive him, totally forgive him and let it go. Well, that was what was in the book. George Theis said, “Ray, you need to preach this to your people. Back then I was pastoring in Oak Park, Illinois.” And he said, “Ray, I’ve been preaching on the basis of the truth of forgiveness to people. ” And he said, “It’s amazing.” Even in churches, well taught churches, when you preach and teach about forgiveness, it’s like the people have never heard it before. So I read the book and then I studied what the Bible said about forgiveness and I preached five sermons in this series back in 2003 to my congregation back then Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park, Illinois.

Jamie, out of 17 years of ministry at that church, no series I did ever had an impact like that series did those sermons and further research became the background of the book, the Healing Power Forgiveness. And I’ll tell you this, it’s a message that Christians need to hear because we live in a sad, fallen, dangerous world. And if you live long enough, you’re going to hurt somebody and if you live long enough, somebody you love is going to hurt you deeply and we need to find the healing power of forgiveness. So that’s why I wrote the book and why it remains so popular with people because we need to forgive and we need to learn how to be forgiven by others.

Jamie Mitchell:

Ray, we got a minute before the end of this segment. Can you give me a quick working definition of what it means to forgive?

Ray Pritchard:

Okay. In one minute, here it is. When God forgives us, Hebrews 10 says there’s sins and their iniquities, I will remember no more. Boy, that’s a great way to look at it. When God forgives our sins, he chooses on the basis of what Jesus Christ did when he died on the cross. He chooses to remember our sins no more. Forgiving someone else means letting them go free, releasing them from their guilt so that they can be set free and so that you can be set free.

Jamie Mitchell:

Oh, I love that. In the same manner, I look at the issue of forgiveness as owing somebody something or somebody owing me something and then I have the ability to say, “You know what? I’m going to forgive that debt. You don’t have to pay me back as if you didn’t even borrow it. ” And I’ll tell you, Ray, it’s hard. It’s very difficult. And friends, this is why we’re getting started on having a deep dive on this subject of forgiveness because I got to be honest, at times it feels like it’s impossible to forgive and even worse, it’s impossible to be forgiven. Well, don’t go anywhere. When we return, I want Ray to help us understand why is it so difficult to forgive people. Forgiveness is our topic today. The power of forgiveness. We all need it. And if we can find it, boy, we’ll have peace, we’ll have joy, we’ll have deeper relationships and more importantly, we’ll see God in a whole new way.

So don’t go anywhere. Stay with us here at Stand in the Gap today. Well, welcome back to this very important Stand of the Gap today as we examine the subject of forgiveness. Dr. Ray Pritchard is our guest. He’s authored a book entitled The Healing Power of Forgiveness, sadly to say it’s out of print, but you can get a copy online and I would commend you to do that. Ray, as I was thinking through this program, one of the questions that came to my mind was the issue of why we don’t forgive. As Christians, we know we need to forgive, but why is it that we struggle so and make all kinds of excuses? And I know that as a pastor, you probably heard plenty of those excuses, but in essence, why don’t we want to forgive or why won’t we forgive?

Ray Pritchard:

You know, Jamie, when we have been deeply hurt by a spouse, by an ex- spouse, by close friend, by someone in the church, someone we trusted, when someone we believed in took a knife, so to speak, and stabbed us in the back, nothing seems more natural than anger. Nothing seems more satisfying than bitterness. Nothing seems more appropriate than holding a grudge against someone has hurt us. And I suppose the thing that as a pastor I heard most often was, “Well, they don’t deserve to be forgiven.” And I know what people mean when they say that, but here’s the truth. If you wait until people “deserve to be forgiven, you will live in anger and bitterness forever.” And I suppose the best way for us to think about it as Christians is to be glad that Jesus didn’t say, “I’m going to wait until they deserve it before I die for them because Jesus would never have gone to the cross.” Friend, aren’t you glad Jesus didn’t say, “Clean up your act, get right and then I will die for you.”

He said, “No, I am going to the cross for my enemies, for the ungodly, for sinners who want nothing to do with me. Jesus gave himself for us when we did not deserve it. ” So my friends, I think the best way for us to at least begin to get a handle on it is to take our eyes off the other person who has heard us so deeply and take a good long look at the cross. After all, we’re taught in the Bible that we are to forgive as we have been forgiven. Just go and do for others what Jesus has done for you. So I think, Jamie, there’s the first step. We got to stop looking at the other person and at the offense we’ve got to take a good look at the cross of Christ.

Jamie Mitchell:

Ray, like you, when I was a pastor many times as I was talking with people who had to deal with some of this stuff and especially when they had to forgive people, they would say terms like this, “Well, I need time or I’m not ready to forgive.” And we hear that and again, we kind of understand what they’re trying to say, but what is the potential problem with that kind of thinking and how can we help those who use that type of excuse to recognize how detrimental it is to wait like that?

Ray Pritchard:

I’m reminded Jamie of the story, this particular parable is extremely helpful to me. The one in Matthew 18 where Peter comes to Jesus and says, “How many times shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?” And this story is so wonderful. I mean, Peter, the man with the foot, shape, mouth, he doesn’t wait for Jesus to give an answer. How many times should I forgive him? And Peter volunteers the answer seven times. Now what’s behind that is the rabbis in the first century taught that you should forgive somebody three times. They do it once, you forgive them, they do it twice, you forgive them. They do it three times you forgive them. But number four, pow right in the kisser. And you can see what Peter’s thinking. “Oh, look, I’ll double what the rabbi say and add one. Seven’s the number of perfection.

How many times should I forgive? Peter says seven and Jesus just blows him away. I say to you, not seven but 70 times seven and Peter’s doing that mental calculation of zero seven 490 times. And that clunk you just heard is Peter falling over in a dead faint 490 times. Look, understand Jesus is not saying 296, 297, 298, 299, 300, but boy when I get to 490 after that it’s power right in the kisser. No, Jesus is saying forgiveness is to become a way of life, continual forgiveness, unlimited forgiveness. And I say to other people what I say to myself, forgiveness must for the Christian eventually become a lifestyle, a habit, a way of life. I remember some years ago a single mom, lovely lady, part of our church in Illinois, she came with her two sons. I didn’t know much of anything about her ex- husband, never met him, but she was really wonderful, doing a great job raising her sons.

And one day I was, I don’t know, I was up in the balcony talking to somebody and I saw her and said hello and somehow maybe it was when I was preaching those sermons on forgiveness, but the topic came up and she was talking about some problem with her ex and she said, “I guess I have forgiven him a million times.” And she smiled and I said to her, “And you know you’re probably going to have to forgive him a million more times.” Some people would say that’s not realistic, but I think that really goes to the spirit of what Jesus was saying, that we’ll never really be free until we learn to forgive and forgive and forgive, to do for others what Jesus has done for us.

Jamie Mitchell:

Ray, waiting is only either hurting yourself and I know of what people think this idea of needing time or I’m not ready, you’re in some respects, you’re almost like you’re trying to punish the person who’s hurt you, but in the long run, you’re really hurting yourself by waiting because if you know you need to forgive, you could do it right away. Isn’t that the case?

Ray Pritchard:

There’s somebody listening to us right now who is nodding their head right now, just as you said that, Jamie, probably a whole lot of somebody is right out there going, “That’s right. I could and I need to … ” And you know who it is. I don’t know who it is, but you know who it is. You’re listening to this program and you’re thinking, “I really do need to forgive, but I’m not sure where to begin.” And it’s easy to make the excuse, “Well, they are miserable people. ” Look, you don’t get any argument from me. Yeah, there’s a lot of miserable people out there. There’s some bad people, Jamie, some bad people out there who will just come and stick the knife right in you, walk away laughing and come back and kick you while you’re down just to make their point. I don’t want to say anything to lessen the guilt of unkind people.

So this is my argument. Maybe this is really the argument of the whole book. Jamie, I don’t know if I put it this way in the book 20 years ago, but it’s what I’ve come to believe that in the end we are to forgive for two primary reasons. Number one, because God told us to and number two, because we desperately need to forgive and there are good people. I mean, there are pastors and there are deacons and there are elders and there are worship leaders and Sunday school people and a lot of leaders and I mean just great good people in our church who are chained to the past because they will not forgive. So I want to make the appeal. I want to make the appeal, Jamie, to the folks listening to this program, good people right now, you got your hand. Look, do this for me.

Take your hand and make a fist. I’m making a fist right now, Jamie. People can’t see me, but that’s what I’m doing. Okay. That’s what it is to hold onto this guilt and this bitterness and this grudge that we have now open your hand and just open your palm. That’s what forgiveness is. You’re opening up and you’re releasing those who’ve hurt you from what they’ve done. You’re letting them go free. Remember, remember, bitterness is like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies. You’re only hurting yourself by holding on to that grudge. I’m not saying it’s easy and I’m not saying this is magic. I’m saying in many cases, you’ll have to open your hand over and over and over again. And we’re in the end of all this, Jamie, we are driven back to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is where the Christian life begins, where it continues and where it ends.

And you say, “How many times should I forgive my brother, my sister who sinned against me just forgive them as many times as Christ has forgiven you?

Jamie Mitchell:

” You know, Ray, I don’t have a Bible verse to back this up, but it’s just from personal experience that when I had people hurt me and they didn’t come to me and say they were sorry and seek forgiveness with me, the pain of that was so sad. It was so deep, but it also made me aware of how quickly I should forgive others. And friends, that’s what we’re trying to do today when it comes to forgiveness. There’s no better time than right now delaying the inevitable, pushing things down the road, it only hurts yourself and often we don’t forgive and the consequence of unforgiveness is greater. People refuse to forgive. It only gets worse. When we return, if you don’t forgive, it turns into long term bitterness. And I’ve been in the church a long time. It is the number one problem in the church today.

Stay with us. Well, welcome back. If you’re just joining us, Dr. Ray Pritchard is our guest today and we’re looking at the Healing Power of Forgiveness book that Ray wrote 20 years ago. Ray, we probably should be transparent about our friendship. We’ve been friends since 2009 when you came and you spoke at our church and then you started to speak at one of our favorite Bible conferences, the Americas Kesik in Whiting, New Jersey. And well, this summer you and I are together. That’s going to be one wild week. But Ray, people don’t go to Bible conferences like they used to. They should because you speak at a lot of Bible conferences. Why should some of the people listening here today say, “Hey, I’m going to take a week this summer and I’m going to attend a Bible conference.” They might not even know what it is.

Explain why they should do that.

Ray Pritchard:

Well, first of all, Jamie, thank you. Let me give the dates here. You and I are going to be at America’s Kesik in Whiting, New Jersey.That’s I guess about an hour and a half east of Philadelphia, beautiful part of America Southern Jersey. We’re going to be there, you and I, July 26th through 31. Friends, I remember what Vance Havener said and he quoted the words of Jesus, come apart and rest for a while. And if we do not come apart and rest for a while, we will simply come apart. I don’t know about anybody else. I’ll only tell you where I am today because of a lot of stuff going on. I usually have about, I don’t know, 17 balls in the air. It’s pretty hard to manage, but a lot of stuff is happening in my life right now and it feels like I got about 35 balls in air and I’m just trying to keep them from not hitting me on the head.

And you say, “Why do you mention that? ” Because look, we’re all under pressure. We live in a pressure packed world and it’s a really good thing every once in a while to take some time, take a week. Now look, friends, you can spend all the thousands of dollars and go to one of the big theme park resorts down in Florida. And if that’s what you’re going to do, God bless you. We hope you have a great time, but for a lot less money, you could come to America’s Keswick for a week, programs for the children, for the young people, for the adults, Bible teaching, great games, great athletic events. It’s one of the most refreshing, enjoyable things that you could do. If you don’t know what you’re going to do for vacation yet this summer, come on and join us at America’s Kesik, July the 26th through the 31st, great Bible teaching, great fellowship, great fun, good for the body, good for the soul, good for the spirit.

Jamie Mitchell:

Now, Ray, I don’t know what you’re going to speak on. We haven’t had that conversation yet, but I obviously, I always say to you, forgiveness is at the top of the list. So here’s the deal for this segment. I look back in that book of yours and there was a chapter called Breaking the Cycle of Bitterness. As I look at the church, Ray, bitterness is throughout the body of Christ. What is bitterness? Where does it come from? How does it relate to forgiveness? And when you say breaking the cycle of bitterness, what did you mean by that?

Ray Pritchard:

Well, we start this way. There are a lot of angry people out there and I don’t mean just in the world. There’s a lot of angry people inside the church. There’s a lot of upset people who … Well, we could talk about this, Jamie, from a lot of different angles, but a lot of people in America are angry. It just feels to me like you just scratch right. If you just scratch a little bit, it’s just right under the surface and when anger is not dealt with biblically, anger hardens into bitterness, into rage, into clamor, into wrath, and ultimately into malice. So what starts with just a hurt feeling becomes a deeper sense of resentment and that resentment hardens into bitterness. And I’ll tell you what, pretty soon you have a wounded spirit that is somebody who not only is hurt but they are nursing their hurt if you want to say it that way and the bitterness clouds every relationship.

So they were hurt over here in this part. I’m pointing my finger, Jamie, to make a preaching point. Over there in that part of their life, they were hurt, but now they’re bringing their anger home. They’re bringing their bitterness home and it affects their marriage. It affects how they raise their children. It affects how they treat their friends. Jamie, you and I both know this. It can happen to spiritual leaders. It can happen to pastors. And in the interest of full transparency, there was a time in my life as a pastor when I felt I had been done wrong by someone or some group and there came a time when I realized because I wasn’t dealing with it properly, it was impacting my ministry on Sunday morning and it was not until I got on my knees and began to release others, began to release them from what they had done that the burden was lifted.

Maybe some people say, “I don’t want to forgive.” We ought to talk, Jamie, shouldn’t we? About what do you do if the other person will not admit that they have done wrong? What do you do when they don’t want to confess their sins or you send them an email or you write them a note, what do you do then? This, Jamie, I think is a really big problem that we ought to be talking about.

Jamie Mitchell:

Well, Ray, let’s do that. In light of that, this issue, you said something that it clouds all your relationships. That’s what I’ve seen with bitterness. You don’t forgive or an injustice happens in your life and nobody comes to you and no one asks forgiveness of you and you hold onto this thing. And as Hebrews 12 says, that root of bitterness takes hold. And then it begins to spill over into other areas of life. And so it just continues to metastasize like a cancer. And if you don’t go back and deal with the original hurt and say, “You know what? This is where it all started. I got to deal with it here.” But Ray, you make a great point. What do you do? Right now, personal disclosure. I have a number of people, I probably have a handful of people who have hurt me terribly but never came and said they were sorry.

And I’ve had to deal with that and give that to the Lord. But Ray, if I didn’t and for a little while I didn’t, that began a root of bitterness. But what if they don’t come to you? What do you do with that? What if they don’t see that they did anything wrong to you?

Ray Pritchard:

Okay. That’s a very fair question. And here is my answer. I got people like that too. I’ve got people that I love and respect who for whatever reason have never felt the need to come and quote, make things right with me. Okay, what do you do? What do you do when the other person won’t? Okay, here’s one, Jamie. What do you do when the person who hurts you so badly they’ve died? So there’s no way they can come back and say, “What do you do with that? ” Well, I got some help from Dear Old John Calvin, one of the great fathers of the Protestant Reformation. I was reading through his commentary on Matthew 18, the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant and he comments, makes a comment in his exposition, very helpful to me. He said, “Really, forgiveness works on two different levels. The best kind of forgiveness is where you have been deeply hurt, but your brother or sister realizes that they come to you in humility and repentance and they ask you for forgiveness and you forgive them in Jesus’ name and because they have repented, there is healing, there is cleansing, the relationship is restored.” And Calvin very wisely says, “That’s the best kind of forgiveness there is, but it doesn’t always happen.” And he said, “Even when the person cannot or will not admit what they have done, even if they refuse to admit what they have done, you can still forgive in the sense that you let go of your anger, you choose to let go of your bitterness, you choose not to hold it against them.” And then Calvin goes on to say, “In that case, you have got On as far in forgiveness as you can go the relationship is not restored.

It’s not going to ever be what it was because they do not want to admit they’re part of it. But at least if you think of it as a two-way street, you have taken care of matters on your side of the street and you are then set free. So I say forgiveness is always appropriate. It’s best when the person comes and asks for forgiveness, but you can still forgive and you can still be set free by deciding for Jesus’ sake, by taking it to the Lord, letting go of the anger, letting go of the bitterness and in Jesus’ name, you forgive them. You are then set free.

Jamie Mitchell:

Friends, forgiveness is one of those rubber meet the road issues in Christianity. We need to release the dead. We can’t delay it. To be unforgiving is hurting ourselves. And if you let things go, bitterness creeps in and it starts to affect everything. Well, when we come back, we want to talk a little bit about how do you actually say you’re sorry? How do you receive forgiveness? And is it possible to love your enemy? Don’t go anywhere. We’re talking about matters that matter. Well, what great program this has been today as we’ve attempted to discuss the issues related to forgiveness. Dr. Ray Pritchard’s been our guest. Ray, before I sign off or we have a couple of last questions here, tell the audience how they can find you, your ministry. And is there a way for them to find a copy of this book online?

Ray Pritchard:

Well, Jamie, first of all, thank you for having me on. This has been an enlightening discussion. And as far as our ministry, folks, just surf on over to keepbelieving.com. Keep believing.com. You will find a wide range of biblical resources written, audio, video. It’s always free. All of it’s free all the time. So come to keepbelieving.com. And this book, by the way, Healing Power Forgiveness, it is out of print. But if you go to Amazon, you can order copies from the secondary market, meaning copies somebody else has used and sometimes a little bit marked up. We’ve been thinking about reprinting, rewriting and reprinting this book, Jamie. And so this discussion today has convinced me we need to do that because the truth, not so much the book, but the truth that’s in this book needs to be in the hands of Christian people everywhere.

Jamie Mitchell:

Amen. And if you need somebody to write the foreword of it and to give testimony of the power that this book has had in people’s lives, you know where to call, my brother.

Ray Pritchard:

Hey Ray,

Jamie Mitchell:

In the scriptures, the Bible is replete with passages about forgiveness, but there’s always one that’s troubled me and it’s this one where it says that we are to love our enemy. We’re talking about forgiveness today. Is that even possible?

Ray Pritchard:

Well, I suppose the answer is if you do it by yourself in your own strength, no, it’s not really possible. After all, if you have a real honest to goodness enemy, somebody who doesn’t like you, somebody who’s intent on harming you, somebody who is trying to destroy you, there are many things you probably want to do to that enemy, but loving them is probably not on the list. And yet Jesus said, and that go to Luke six, you ought to read that friends. Friends, take your Bible. And when this program is over and go to Luke six and start to read down there about verse 27 and go to about verse 38 of Luke chapter six, where Jesus just lays it open and he says twice, love your enemy. And because he knew we would try to wiggle out from under it, he said, “Do good to them.

Do good to them.” He defined it. Then he says, “Pray for them.” And then he says, “Bless those who curse you. ” Now, it’s not the blessing part that’s so hard. It’s the being cursed part that’s so hard. I mean, nobody wants to sit there and listen while some evil minded person is cursing you out figuratively, literally, metaphorically and yet that’s what Jesus said we are to do. So are there any practical ways we can do it? Well, number one, we can refuse to speak evil of our enemies. Number two, we can reach out and actually take a step of faith. Now, I often tell people, if you want to confuse your enemy, go up and greet them, greet them. We just like the last thing you want to do. Somebody’s really hurt you. You want to go the other direction, but just go up and greet them.

Do something kind for them. Write them a note, bake them a cake, send them a chocolate pie, tell them that you love them and above everything else, pray for them, pray for them.

The story is told of a pastor in World War II who was thrown in jail by the Nazis because of his taking a stand for Jesus Christ, a stand for the gospel and opposing the Nazi movement. And while he was in prison, he had the habit of praying out loud, loudly for his captors and he would pray all the way up the chain of command all the way to Adolf Hitler himself and pray by name for his enemies. And his fellow prisoners said, “Pastor, you’ve lost your mind. Don’t you know? Don’t you know what these men have done to you? You’re in prison because of them. Why would you pray for them after what they’ve done to you? ” And the pastor wisely replied, “Do you know anybody who needs my prayers more than they do? ” So I want to say this, if you have an honest to goodness enemy, well, here’s some practical … Let me make that as practical as I can, Jamie.

For all of our listeners, when you pray for your enemies, don’t just say, God, bless them, ask God to do for them what you’re asking God to do for you. If you’re asking grace for you, ask grace for your enemies. If you’re asking hell for you, ask health for your enemies. If you’re asking guidance and joy for yourself, ask it for your enemies. And there have been times when I have really felt up against it that I have prayed this way. Oh Lord, I have an enemy. I’m asking you to bless them. And Lord, if you got to make a choice, bless them first, which sounds counter-cultural and counterintuitive, but there is something about praying that way that at least for me has set me free. So yes, Jamie, we can love our enemies. If we do it in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let me say one final word. It begins with the cross. It continues at the cross. It ends at the cross. If you focus on your enemy, you’ll marinate in bitterness until your soul is destroyed. Lift your eyes away from your enemies. Take a look at the bleeding dying form of Jesus who loved you enough to die for you while you were still a sinner. And just go and do for your enemies what Jesus has done for you.

Jamie Mitchell:

Ray, I asked that question because probably most people in their mind don’t have a real enemy, but if that is what we can do if we had genuine enemies, if that’s the kind of forgiveness and the kind of action that we can take to try to resolve that, then anything below that that we may be holding onto, those hurts, those things that have nicked our soul, we can do something about it. Ray, the late John MacArthur said something has wrong in my mind over and over and over. He said this, “When we forgive is the moment when we are most like God. We are most like God. We all want to be godly. We all want to be Christlike.” Well, if you forgive somebody, you receive somebody’s apology. We are most like God. Ray, you’re a treasure, my friend. You’re a treasure to me and my wife and we love being with you and Marlene.

We’re going to see you in July in America’s Kesik. And who knows? Maybe I can get you to speak on forgiveness. You think that’s a possibility? Well,

Ray Pritchard:

You know, I was just, just 30 seconds ago thinking maybe I should do this forgiveness series at America’s Keswick. That’s a wonderful idea. Thank you.

Jamie Mitchell:

There you go. Well, we will look forward to that. Friends, get ahold of Ray’s book, The Healing Power of Forgiveness. You can find it online. You will not be disappointed, but I do have a disclaimer. When you read it, the spirit of God is going to touch you and going to reveal in your heart people that you’re going to need to forgive and people who have hurt you that you’re going to need to release to the Lord. And if you don’t, there is long term effects. Look, we want you to find peace, wholeness, and joy. And to do it, you’re going to need courage. So until tomorrow, live and lead with courage. See you in 23 hours for another stand in the gap today.