There are sins in our culture that are considered unforgivable. It’s a growing list! In fact, there are certain offenses that violate common sensibilities when we forgive them. Forgiving these things can actually offend those closest to us so much that they will often try to talk us back into unforgiveness. We have actually witnessed people coerced into repenting of their forgiveness, which brings the torment back to a more intense level. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, the results are heartbreaking.

Satan wants to steal our freedom. He knows he cannot steal our Life in Christ, but he can steal our freedom—if we let him. He can steal our peace, our joy, and our trust in God, just to name a few. And he does so through unforgiveness.

At Forgiving Forward, we believe that if you take people to the Cross of Jesus, they will find freedom. If you take them anywhere else, at best, they get an anesthetic.

In a simple but hard ten-minute span of time, we witnessed 17 years of torment drop off of Brad. Brad reached out to us, after someone on a social media site, had recommended our book Forgiving Forward to him. For 17 years Brad had been seeking help from any person, any source, any place—including social media, that would help him get free of the torment that gripped him day and night. “It’s the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning and the last thing I think about when I go to bed at night.”

We met Marike Veldman in Jerusalem in March 2017! Her story is a powerful one of choosing to believe God's promises and forgive in the midst of a crisis!

Victor Marx hosts Bruce Wayne Hebel, author of Forgiving Forward: Unleashing the Forgiveness Revolution. Bruce shares his deliverance from torment due to unforgiveness over “horrific wounds” suffered at a church he pastored. He and his wife now help others get free through his book and “Forgiving Forward” course. If you’re experiencing issues with anxiety, depression, addiction or anger — or know someone who is — unforgiveness may be at the root, so be sure to tune in!

Brad and Molly came to us in crisis. Three weeks earlier Molly had discovered Brad’s pornography addiction and his multiple affairs, including Molly’s best friend, Brad’s best friend’s wife and prostitutes. She was shocked. A couple of days after the initial confrontation, Brad picked up his Bible. As he began to read something inside him broke. For two hours he tearfully read the Bible and, for the first time, understood the grace of God and the forgiveness provided for him through the blood of the cross. He was dramatically transformed. Heart cleansed. Desires changed.

When we are faced with sorrow, grief, uncertainty, suffering, and pain, the way to respond that is most fitting for a disciple of Jesus is to surrender to His will and to die to ours. Jesus is showing us how to agree to His plan and give up ours. When I yield and pray, “Father, glorify Your name in and through me in this situation. Reveal Yourself. Lord let me see You.” I experience peace amidst the sorrow. I find myself filled with strength and hope knowing that God will glorify Himself in my life.

Sometimes God sets boundaries to protect us, yet other times he sets them to give us the opportunity to display our faith by honoring His authority. Humility is reflected in faithful submission to God. Pride makes us unfaithful. In The Four Cardinal Virtues, Josef Pieper wrote, “Pride refers to man’s relationship with God. Pride is the anti-realistic denial of the relationship between creature and Creator; pride denies the creaturely nature of man… It is a turning away from God.”

When we devalue the blood of Jesus and the sacrifice of Christ that He paid for for us, the Father is not okay with that. He gives authority for us to be tormented, which literally means that demonic forces have authority to torment us. We've got this tormenting spirit in our life competing with the Holy Spirit so we can't really hear the Holy Spirit because these tormentors are there under the authority of the Father to fight us. I'm convinced you cannot fully abide in Christ effectively when you have unforgiveness in your heart because there's a competition involved.

The insufficiency of the animal sacrifices gives way to the sufficiency of the Lamb of God who was slain from the foundation of the world. As we reflect on these High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, let’s celebrate that the ultimate Day Of Atonement was accomplished over 2000 years ago on an old rugged Cross where the spotless Lamb of God was slain for the sin of the world. It never has to be repeated!

Jesus Christ himself identifies with that because when he forgave it cost him greatly. And so, no, it's not OK. But, forgiveness does say that it was already paid for. They don't owe me anything because Jesus already paid for their sins against me.

There! I said it! Unforgiveness is a sin. It really is. “I know I know it doesn't feel like a sin. I mean, come on. They hurt me. It wasn't my fault. So it's my choice whether I forgive or not. I have a right to be upset because they owe me.” All of that may be true, but unforgiveness is still a sin. And it's a sin that keeps us in torment.

Our speaker today is Dr. Bruce Hebel. He is the international speaker with a compelling message that is revolutionizing the hearts of people from all walks of life. Raised in a pastor's home and educated to pastor the local church, he is now following God's call to the church at large.

What if I told you that forgiveness isn't a process, it's a decision? And what if I told you that you don't need a lot of time to make that decision? And what if I told you, the concept that's out there that, "OK, it's going to take time to deal with this wound and process it and get through it"...  What if I told you that's exactly the opposite thing that you ought to do? And what if I told you that the purest evidence of the Christ-Life in us is when we choose to forgive instantaneously?

He recognized that the revelation of Jesus is the key to overcoming problems and that there is nothing the nearness of Jesus does not cure. This article is foundational in understanding why Forgiving Forward uses the coaching model rather than the traditional counseling model.

Who is Jesus? We believe this is the most important question for every person to consider. It is a question that people have wrestled with for over 2000 years since Jesus walked on the earth. Jesus Himself saw this as the crucial question.

I think the main thing that people struggle with when they think about forgiving is the issue of justice. We hear it all the time: “There’s no justice, no peace.” Because there’s a concern that the person who wounded me needs to pay. There’s a debt that incurred because of that wound.

If you really want to know that you have forgiven, you bless them. If you cannot bless someone, you haven’t forgiven. Because blessing means I no longer want them to pay. Because Jesus has already paid! I want them to be blessed, because it is the kindness of God that brings us to repentance. So the way that you know you’ve forgiven is that yo’ve specifically dealt with the wounds and you’ve chosen to bless the person that inflicted them.

Thank you for saying yes to God by accepting His blood as payment for the wounds you have experienced. Thank you for forgiving the most painful of wounds. Thank you for glorifying God by choosing to forgive.