When Jesus taught His disciples
about the evil effects of bitterness, unforgiveness, and
offense, He also told them how to uproot and remove
offenses and unforgiveness from the heart. Praise God that
Jesus didn't just identify the problem and then leave us
to figure out our deliverance by ourselves! He took it one
step further and gave us the secret weapon for jerking
those roots clear out of the ground and sending them to a
place where they will never again produce their
wicked fruit in us.
Jesus said, "If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed,
ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up
by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should
obey you" (Luke 17:6). Notice Jesus said, "...Ye might say
unto this sycamine tree." In order to get rid of these
destructive devices, you have to rise up and take
authority over them!
Jesus specifically said that you must literally speak
to the sycamine tree. The word "say" used in Luke 17:6 is
the Greek word lego, which means to speak,
but the tense that is used depicts a strong,stern,
serious, deeply felt kind of speaking. In other
words, this isn't a person who mutters thoughtless
nonsense; this is a person who has made an inward
resolution and now speaks authoritatively and with great
conviction.
Your voice represents your authority; therefore, when you
raise your voice, you release your authority. That
is why you must speak to these attitudes and not
just think about them. You can think all you want
about removing those poisonous roots in your life, but
your thoughts will not remove them. But when you get so
tired of living under the stress and strain of bitterness,
unforgiveness, and offense that you lift your voice and command
these foul forces to go, they will finally begin to obey
you!
I promise you, friend - if you wait until you feel like
speaking to those ugly attitudes, you'll never do it! If
you depend on your feelings and emotions to motivate you,
you'll never be free of offense and unforgiveness. Your
feelings and emotions will tell you that you have a right
and a reason to feel the way you do. Your flesh will talk
you into hanging on to those unprofitable, harmful
attitudes. So make the choice not to listen to your
negative emotions anymore; then start exercising your
God-given authority by speaking to yourself !
It is time for you to accept personal responsibility for
your inward condition. Stop blaming everyone else for all
your bad attitudes, and acknowledge that there is
something inside you that needs to be removed!
Jesus said you must speak to that "sycamine tree"
and tell it to go!
- If you don't speak to your emotions, they will
speak to you.
- If you don't take authority over your emotions,
they will take authority over you.
- If you don't rise up and conquer your flesh, it
will rise up and conquer you!
- So quit letting your emotions tell you what to
think, what to do, and how to react.
- It's time for YOU to do the talking and to take
command of your own thought life!
You have to treat bitterness, resentment, and
unforgiveness like they are enemies that have come to
corrupt your soul. You must see them as bandits that have
come to steal your joy, your peace, and your
relationships. Would you throw open the door and allow a
bandit to ravage your home? Of course not! In addition to
using all the power available to you for removing that
bandit, you'd probably command him to get out of your
house! And I seriously doubt that you would whisper at
him; most likely you would yell and scream as you ordered
him out!
Likewise, you must decide not to tolerate this spiritual
pestilence any longer, not even for a second. It's time
for you to raise your voice of authority and declare to
these attitudes that they will no longer dominate you.
And if you must, speak to these attitudes and command them
to go again and again and again and again and again -
until they are finally uprooted and removed forever! You
have to go for the roots! If you want to be free, it's
going to take an attitude that says, "I'm going to get to
the roots of this beast and yank them clear out of my
soul, and I'm not going to stop until I'm totally free! |