PAUPER OR PRINCE?
Joyce Meyer once said: “Unforgiveness is like drinking deadly poison and hoping someone else dies from it.” When you forgive, you let yourself free. This teaching touches on important aspects of our identity in God and how it influences the way we perceive ourself.
Credits: Teaching by Pastor Kris Vallotton, BSSM First Year 2015/2016
BSSM LECTURE NOTES
You do not have a right to think bad about yourself. God created you. He helps you. He gives you strength. God gives you glory. By being amazing, you give glory to God. The angels long to see who you are because you were made in His image. You were born to rock! You need to be an original. Fall in love with yourself. When you fall in love with the One who made you, it won’t lead to arrogance. It is time to become princes and princesses because we are a royal priesthood. God is our Daddy.
YOU ARE A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD
Sometimes things happen to us and we say: “That changed my life!” It usually means something influenced your life.
Receiving Jesus should change your life, if it doesn’t, you should maybe question your Christianity.
“The earth can not hold up to a pauper when he becomes a king.”
Jesus told Kris Vallotton (a pastor at Bethel Church in Redding, California) that he is a king but that he acts like a pauper.
Moses was raised as a prince so that he could free His people. God told Kris that he was raised as a pauper but now he is a prince. Kris was raised by an abusive step-father who ruled the house by fear and manipulation. God said to him: “Unlike Moses, you were raised to be a slave, but now it is time to change who you are.”
UNFORGIVENESS IS LIKE DRINKING DEADLY POISON AND HOPING SOMEONE ELSE DIES FROM IT
You don’t become what you want to become – you become what you see in your imagination. When you react to who you don’t want to be, you can become like the very person you hate. Unforgiveness is like drinking deadly poison and hoping someone else die from it.
“Yes, but you don’t know what they’ve done to me. How am I supposed to forgive them?”
Understood. But understand this: when you forgive somebody, it doesn’t mean you need to trust someone. Forgiveness doesn’t mean you don’t have pain when you encounter the person – it simply means that you don’t require that person to “repay” you for hurting you. Forgiveness is the first step out of pain, not the last.
You cannot love others if you don’t love yourself. So turn a new page and start forgiving others today.