DEWITT TABERNACLE TEACHING SERIES

 

DELIVERED TO THE TORMENTORS

 

By C. W. Wood

 

March   2004

 

          There is a much overlooked parable found in Matt. 18: 21-35 that our Lord Jesus spoke and one that is drastically important concerning the matter of Faith. It has to do with the faith that we Christians need that will bring us our miracles in times of stress and trouble. After we have had the powerful revelation that we are truly Believers, and knowing that we are accepted by the Lord as such on the grounds that we have simply made the CHOICE to believe, there is yet a great obstacle that stands in the way of most of us, and it keeps us from receiving the Supernatural Faith that God must send in order for us to claim our miracle.

          We have taught, in times past, that all Born-Again people can believe God, and that we do so based on the revelation He gives all Born-Again people, which revelation is that He is a Perfect Person in every respect. He has a Perfect Love for His people and can therefore be trusted with our very lives, both Spiritual and Physical. We have also taught that even though we have this Perfect human trust in our God, this is only the first step in receiving the Supernatural Faith that brings a miracle.

          This Supernatural Faith must be “Delivered to us today, as it was once delivered to the Saints of Old.” (Jude 3) There is a channel through which this miracle working Faith must flow, and it must be kept open. If it becomes clogged then we know the flow is restricted. Our human unbelief is one thing that clogs the channel, but knowing that our Lord watches our DECISION to believe rather than checking our emotions, will set us free as Believers.

          This brings us to the other great obstacle that must be removed from the channel through which God’s Faith flows. IT IS AN UNFORGIVING SPIRIT. In the parable mentioned before, Peter had apparently been having a problem with a Brother, or Brothers, which prompted him to ask the Lord, “How oft shall my Brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?” (Matt. 18:21) Peter must have thought that to forgive a man seven times in a row would be stretching his human grace quite thin. And most of us would think the same.

          But, the Lord’s answer was to show us clearly that human grace must give way to God’s Supernatural Love. Our human love can never forgive SEVEN TIMES SEVENTY. (Matt. 18:22) As the parable unfolds, we see a man forgiven by his master for a great debt, which had reached to 10,000 talents. The man’s wife and children and other possessions were saved because of the Kings forgiving heart. But, then the same servant took a man by the throat who owed him only a very small debt, and because the man could not pay at once, he had the man cast into prison till he should pay the debt. I would, at this point, ask you to remember that this parable is about we Christians forgiving each other on an hourly basis, and keeping all grudges cleared from the channel through which God sends His own Faith. We can say without any doubt, that this is God’s way of keeping peace in His Church between His Children. There is great recompense of reward when we forgive each other all our debts. It is, in true fact, the saving of our own souls, for if we forgive not our Brother, then our own sins are not forgiven! (Matt 6:14-15)

          By refusing to forgive others and thereby retaining our own sins, we face a terrible consequence. Let us read it in the scriptures. “Then his Lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant. I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me. Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his Lord was wroth, AND DELIVERED HIM TO THE TORMENTORS, TILL HE SHOULD PAY ALL THAT WAS DUE HIM. SO LIKEWISE SHALL MY HEAVENLY FATHER DO ALSO UNTO YOU, IF FROM YOUR HEARTS YOU FORGIVE NOT EVERY ONE HIS BROTHER THEIR TRESPASSES. (Matt. 18:22-35)

          This writer has been made to wonder if the sin of unforgiveness has not hindered many of us, in times past, from receiving the desperately needed Faith of God! Generally speaking, we Christians do not usually commit adultery, fornication, or blaspheme God, or steal and lie, but I fear that we are often guilty of holding grudges against others. When this is true, then we ourselves are defiled before our God because our own sins are unforgiven! When the Lord sees that He cannot forgive us, due to our unforgiving spirit, this means He cannot send His Faith into our defiled hearts. The channel is clogged.

          All of us still have “A law of sin in our members” that likes to rise up and condemn others. We were born with that fault and the New Birth does not automatically do away with it. We must overcome it, and that means we have to keep putting that spirit down. In our daily walk we come into contact with people, and we see what we consider to be faults in them. For every seeming fault we see, there is a need to forgive that person. Rarely do we see a person who is living their life as we think they should. Therefore, there is a need to forgive them for not fitting into our mold.

          It is most amazing how the smallest thing in a Brother or Sister can become a large grudge in our hearts, as we continue to hold them by the throat, refusing them the right to “Work our their own salvation with fear and trembling.”

          Brother Branham gave a great teaching on forgiveness. He said that “FAITH IS BASED ON FORGIVENESS.”  

          QUOTE: PERFECT FAITH, PAGE 4, “And now, we're going to turn to Mark, St. Mark, the 11th chapter of St. Mark. And we're going to begin to read about the--the 22nd verse of the 11th chapter of St. Mark. And many of you know this Scripture; it’s very familiar. It was the Scripture I was thinking on, Brother Russell, when He spoke to me and said about those squirrels. And….That was just the very Scripture I was thinking of. It's always been a puzzle. He said, "If ye say"; not "If I say"; "if you say!"

          Now, let us read:

.... Jesus answering said unto them, “Have faith in God.

          For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

          Therefore I say unto you, What things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that ye receive them, and you shall have them.

          And when you stand praying, forgive, if you have ought against any: that your Father also... that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

          But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

          Now, faith is based on forgiveness then. And then, as we said this morning, trying to get the church into the place to where we could really see apostolic times moving among us, that's what we all hunger. And it's just laying right at the door. We see it, but we want to see more of it. We want it such a flow that it'll--it'll be a help to us, us flow out to others.” (End quote)

          Let us review what the Prophet said in the above quote. Faith, the Supernatural Gift of Faith, that must be delivered to us or we can never have it, the kind of Faith that brings miracles into our lives, and the lives of others, will only be sent to us as we keep all grudges toward others out of our hearts. He said this kind of Faith is only delivered to those who keep the channel into the heart cleaned out. When he said “Now Faith is based on forgiveness” he made reference to our forgiving each other, so that our Lord can also forgive us.

          I would like to share a story from the book, “THE REAL FAITH” as written by Brother Charles Price. It has to do with a woman whose channel of faith was stopped up by an unforgiving spirit.

 

A WOMAN’S STORY

 BY BROTHER

CHARLES PRICE

 

          How well I remember a woman who came to the meetings some years ago in need of healing and prayer. She seemed to be such a noble character, and her family loved her devotedly and dearly. One night we prayed for her in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and she went away seemingly happy. She said she was standing on the promises of God; but she was not healed. As the days went by, two of her daughters came to see me, and begged me to pray again. As a matter of fact, they were almost hysterical in their anxiety and desperation. They loved their mother, and they knew that God was their only hope. They asked me to anoint her once again. I did!

          Never shall I forget the pleadings, the importunities, and the frantic cries of those dear people as they stormed the throne of grace. They tried to believe; but it seemed to be all in vain. The poor, sick woman brushed the tears from her eyes as we sang, “Jesus breaks every fetter,” and went away from the meeting without any evident answer to our prayer. Two days passed. Then she came early, before the service, to the office door. Here was a different woman! Her face was illumined by the glow of the glory in her soul.

          “You have been healed!” I said.

          She smiled, as she answered, “No, not yet; but I shall be tonight. I have been prayed for publicly, and I believe my Lord wants to touch me by His power in the service tonight, so that all may see that He is faithful.” There was no strained, tense atmosphere; no struggle; but rather, sweet and beautiful rest in the Lord. Then she told me her story.

          Broken and crushed---almost in despair—she had gone home. She had come to the end of herself and she knew it. As she knelt by the side of her bed and prayed, she sobbed: “Dear Jesus, I have tried so hard to have faith and I can’t. I have failed, dear Lord, and yet I do believe in your promise and your Word. Brother Price has tried, and he has failed. The people in the meeting have tried, and they too have failed. Where can I go? What can I do? Speak to me, Lord. My only hope is in Thee.”

          Then before her came the thought of a woman who had succeeded her as the teacher of a young people’s class. Deep in her heart there had developed a feeling against that woman who had won the hearts of the young people, where once their love and affection had been showered upon her. Was it envy? Was it jealousy? She knew not; but she did know that with the passing of the months the feeling had become intensified. Now she thought of her. She saw then the true condition of her heart. Perhaps she heard the Master say, “And when ye stand praying, Forgive.”

          This very afternoon she had spent an hour in prayer with that woman, and God put in her heart a deep and beautiful Christian love for her. Sweet hour of prayer! Wonderful place of Communion, where we talk to God. And in which God talks to us! The wounds are healed! The envy melted away, and the Love of Jesus flowed in. when at last she arrived home, she told the family at the supper table that she would be healed that night. She knew it; but she did not know how she knew it. The consciousness of it was as real as life itself. There was no doubt about it. There was no intercession. That had been a work of the past. There was no agonizing and pleading. It was done; and yet it was not! That is the paradox of faith. Then she said to me, “My Brother, do you know what Jesus has done?”

          “I know that my Lord doeth all things well,” was my reply.

          “He has given me His faith,” she said, “Honestly, I do not know the moment I received it; but, praise His name, I know it is here.”

          And it was. That night the heavenly breezes blew. That night the Christ of the healing road touched, with the power of Omnipotence, the sick, weary-body of His needy child. That night a cancer was melted by the touch divine. A mountain was moved by the faith of God which had been imparted to a sick woman by the Lord of Glory Himself.” (End quote)

          And so, we see that FORGIVENESS is another great command that our Lord has given us. It is His way of holding our feet to the fire, so to speak, and keeping peace in His Body, the Church. The warning that He has given us is very real, and I do believe we see His judgment in operation in our midst more than we have realized. He has said that He will, “Turn us over to the Tormentors until every debt is paid.” That is to say, until every grudge be forgiven!

          Both small and large things must be forgiven. How often do we have need to forgive someone who will not believe our glorious Message? Every day we have to forgive the thoughtless words and deeds of others, and pray they are forgiving us for ours. Grudges build up in our hearts and we don’t even realize it. I have talked with people who are still holding things against people who are dead and gone. Of course the dead ones are no longer being harmed, but the living one is in great danger from the Tormentors. We know who the Tormentors are don’t we? The Lord speaks of the enemy of our souls, the Devil. The fact that a person is dead and gone does not relieve us from the responsibility of forgiving them!

          Now, what is our part in forgiveness? First, we need to see that we are not at all saying that the person we are forgiving is not guilty. Quite often they are! But, are we not wrong many times, sometimes daily? Forgiveness on our part is a simple DECISION to do so. We must not judge whether or not we have forgiven by an emotional test. We cannot control our emotions, but we can CHOOSE to obey God and forgive. When the Lord sees our heart felt desire to forgive He will sooner or later cause our emotions to fall in line with our decision. It is then that the gracious feeling of Love Divine floods our heart. Do not worry if this lovely feeling does not come at once, just hold fast to your decision and the Lord will certainly do His part.

          When the full revelation of what our Lord said concerning turning us over to the Tormentors strikes, we will be afraid to hold a grudge. I wonder how often an unforgiving spirit has separated us from that flow of Grace that we call Faith. If in times past we have been delivered into the hands of the Tormentors, because of an unforgiving spirit, may we now repent and clean out the channel so that His Faith can flow unhindered!

          There must come a time in our Christian walk when we understand that even though we have learned how to trust our God (We simply choose to believe, and He accepts our choice.), there must still be Delivered to us His own Supernatural Faith. We can only have this real Faith as He gives it! We may have won the battle in our struggle to Believe, and we may now understand that God has accepted our choice to Believe and calls us such, but we must also know that this human trust is not yet real Faith that brings us our miracle.

          Most of us have thought that our human believing, or trust, is all that was needed, but does not experience itself prove that there is something still lacking after we have believed? It is very true that we must first Believe, but we must also know that after we have Believed we must expect God’s Supernatural Reward, which is His own Faith imparted to us. Heb. 11: 6, “But without Faith it is impossible to please Him. For he that commeth to God must BELIEVE that He is, AND THAT HE IS A REWARDER OF THEM THAT DILIGENTLY SEEK HIM.”

          And so, we see that the Word says that our Believing will sooner or later be REWARDED with God’s own faith. Friends, this is meant to take all the struggle out of our minds. We can simply Believe Him with our human Faith, then wait in humble prayer for Him to send that real Faith, which though it be as small as a grain of Mustard Seed, will move our mountain. When we see this, we will no longer foolishly expect our own human trust to be all that’s needed.

          We may not be aware of the actual time that this real Faith enters our hearts. The floor may not shake, not the lightening flash and the thunder roll. We may not experience goose bumps on our flesh, but it could be that we just become aware that we know, that we know, that our God is taking care of our problem. If there have been disappointments and failure, they have been on our part, and not on our Lord’s. He wanted to make it so easy, but we have made it hard.  

          We are very close to the end of this world as we have known it, and we have been promised a Bride Revival before the Rapture. I can see that the restoration of the revelation concerning Believing, and then The Real Faith, will play a large part in bringing this Revival. Of course, we know that it will be a revival of the Bride only; the others have already had theirs.

          The great truth to remember is that we can Believe a promise, but not yet have the real Faith to see it fulfilled. No man can work up this faith, it cannot be manufactured. We can never Believe hard enough to see our miracle. So, we just simply keep Believing as we look up to the One who imparts His Faith. He will not disappoint us. With the channel cleaned out, we will sooner or later experience that Knowing. That is what real Faith is. Amen. 

 

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