Healed Only When You Forgive

Healed Only When You Forgive

by Mary Virginia Parrish

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

You know, it’s really interesting when you walk through a door and you’re going to talk about one subject and then suddenly you are not going to talk about that subject at all. And that has happened right at this moment. So let’s pray.

Father, we would be so yielded to You that truly Your Spirit has Your way within us in everything that we do and think and say, in our attitudes, Lord, in our thoughts, in those careless things so glibly spoken. Oh, God, forgive us. Forgive us, Lord, for the many times we’ve hurt another, for the many times in which we’ve been so full of self that we’ve been insensitive to another’s need or to another’s position.

And so, Father, we ask tonight that You do a thorough cleansing and healing in us as we learn more about Your forgiveness, as we learn more about our need to ask for forgiveness of one another. Father, Father, we thank You that You do a thorough cleansing and healing in us. And we thank You that in Your Spirit, You enable us to do that which humanly we could never do. And so we give You thanks, Lord, that You teach us to pray. You teach us to forgive. You teach us to desire the same life that Jesus lived, to not only live within us, which He does, but to be manifest through us. And so tonight, take this hour, Lord. Take this time and do with us a new thing. Let not a one of us go from this place without being totally healed of any relationship that is not a right according to Your standards.

Father, we thank You that we have the absolute standard of Jesus Christ. And not only the absolute standard, but we have His Spirit, the enabler, the equipper, the manifester. And so just take us, Lord. Speak to every heart tonight and speak through my lips. Bring the thoughts to my mind that You want spoken. Let my mind be Yours, Lord, this night. I pray in the holy name of Jesus. Amen.

I may talk about that other some other time, but Henry said something that made me realize that that wasn’t what God wanted me to talk about. So there’ll be a little sharing out of my personal experience. And also, I pray that there’s going to be cleansing of every one of us, because as we think about our world and the oneness of that world, the closeness of that world, the fact that we are a one world, and we’re beginning to recognize it more and more, we see that the words of Jesus become not only something nice for us to do, but essential for our survival. So we’re thinking about the Lord’s Prayer. And we are thinking about the essential things in that Lord’s Prayer, held up just one particular thing tonight. But I would like to read it to you. You remember that the disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray.” They watched Jesus come forth from prayer. And prayer was an essential part of the life of Jesus. According to His custom, He went out every morning before it was day and prayed alone. We know that He prayed with His disciples and He prayed with His own little private prayer group, Peter, James, and John. And so they realized that of all the secrets of His life that they wanted to know the most, they said, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

Now, these were praying people, understand. They can be praying people, but not prayer right. Many people today, in today’s world, are talking about praying and talking about prayer. But a lot is counterfeit. And we need to discern the difference. And if you are seeking any gift of God, I say right now, you seek the gift of discernment and wisdom before you ask for another gift, because without it, it’s all used to detriment of yourself, God’s kingdom, and your relationship with other human beings. There’s insensitivity among people today. And we’ve got to become more sensitive. I’ve seen people even praising the Lord and totally insensitive to the person next to them. Totally insensitive. So we need to know when to praise and when to keep our mouths shut. We need to know when to be still and when to speak. We need to learn to listen to people, listen with our hearts. And you’ll never learn to listen to people unless you learn to listen to God. Now, by learning to listen to people, there are certain techniques which are helpful. But only when you listen with your heart can you minister to a person. You may hear what another person is saying, but you won’t hear behind the words what their heart is saying. And we’re talking about a heart message, because the Christian message is a heart message. And until that in our head sinks into our hearts, then we don’t have it.

And so we need to learn that just saying the words, just saying the words, I don’t care how well you know the words, that’s not the point. We must get those words down into our hearts, because prayer is rearranging our minds. Prayer is reordering our lives. Prayer is reaffirming who we are in Christ. Prayer is reaffirming our lives. And they said, “Lord, teach us to pray.” And they were praying people. So just praying is not the answer. We must pray like this: “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” “Forgive us our debts,” or “our trespasses, as we forgive others their trespasses.”

I remember pondering that scripture and wondering, what in the world? Why wouldn’t God forgive me until I forgave others? And see, a lot of people ask for forgiveness and are unwilling to forgive. But see, I cannot forgive another. I cannot accept forgiveness until I’m willing to forgive others. Do you know psychologists teach us today that the three greatest barriers to inner healing, the healing of our memories, the healing of our subconscious or unconscious, whichever you call it, the healing of our bodies, until we learn how to forgive, until we learn how to accept forgiveness for ourselves, and until we learn how to love ourselves in the way we should love ourselves. See, inner healing, we can’t just pray for inner healing, and it’s going to come in a magical way. We so often pray amiss. And we pray not knowing that there are conditions that we must meet. And the foremost condition that we must meet is forgiveness. Absolutely forgiveness. I was in a camp just a month, a short time ago. I won’t tell you how long because you’ll figure where I was. But this woman came to me for counseling. And I’d watched her face during the days there. And I could see, you know, because I’ve learned to look at people and tell pretty much.

And she said, “I hate my husband.” And I said, “Well, you do, huh?” She said, “Yes. And my sons hate him. And we have hell at home.” I said, “I imagine you do.” She said, “Now, I’ve been having some physical trouble.” I said, “Not surprised. I’m not surprised.” “And I’d like to be healed.” I said, “Well, you won’t be. You won’t be.”

I said, “You’ll never be healed until you forgive. You’ll never be healed until you forgive.” And I said, “You know, Jesus asked that man at the well a very significant question. And He asked every one of us that question, too. ‘Do you want to be healed?’ Do you want to be healed?” It seems obvious that anybody would want to be healed. But that’s not true. That’s not true. We really like to wallow in our sickness. It helps us. We get attention. And we have something to talk about. And, you know, compare notes with our friends. And, you know, just a whole lot of things. Besides, I’d have to be responsible for a lot of things if I were well.

So we don’t all want to be healed. But if you want to be healed, Jesus always has conditions. And somehow we have been just saying, well, claim it, say it, claim it, stuff. Not a truth in it. You’ve got to meet the conditions that Jesus laid down. And you cannot accept His forgiveness until you’re willing to give that forgiveness. Do not just those you like. Not those who just maybe make you mad every once in a while. But those you really hate. Those you really hate. And you’re capable of hating people. And don’t act so powers that you’re not. Because, humanly… See, we forget. And when we become people seeking the life of prayer, we think that suddenly we become like angels. And we don’t. And lots of people can’t accept their own humanity. But see, Jesus did. He’s different from us. And He came into our humanity. And that humanity remains, with all the temptations, with all those desires, with all those things. But He lives within that. He lives within that. And we’ve got a choice all the time. Are you going to be Lord of my life? Or are my desires going to be? My humanity. And so He keeps reminding us. He’s always reminding us of something, to just let us know.

You’re still pretty much a human being. You don’t think you’re so pious and ready for sainthood. So we need to realize that there are conditions that we must meet if we would be healed. And nothing is more important than this night for every one of us to go from this room forgiven and accepting ourselves for who we are in Him, that I’m a loved person, and I’m a chosen person. I’m a child of God. God has chosen me. And He’s forgiven me. He’s given me everything that He gave Jesus, so long as I’m willing to give it out, so long as I’m willing to be the healer, so long as I’m willing to be the forgiver, so long as I meet the conditions that are said, so long as I abide in Him and He abides in me, until there’s no distinction. And it looks as if I’m doing it and He’s doing it all the time. This… This is the vine and the branch. This is the whole business. And it’s a relationship that is so mysterious and so wonderful. But until… Until we are willing to meet the conditions that He lays down. And He says, of all things you must forgive. Well, I told this woman who came to me. And she said, “Well, I don’t think I can.”

And I said, “Well, no, you can’t. You really can’t. And that’s good.” Do you know that Jesus said, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.” Father is the forgiver. I used to think that Jesus forgave those people that nailed Him to the cross. He didn’t say that. Even Jesus said, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.” And of course, no one knows what they’re doing. No one knows what they’re doing if they have hate in their heart. Because, see, we are all one, whether you know it or not. All life. We’re all part of the same family. And you’re akin to me and I’m akin to you. And every one of us is. And so God made us so interrelated, until we know that I can’t hate you and not destroy myself. I can’t keep unforgiveness in my heart and not suffer physically. Physically. I don’t know whether you’re like me, but I’ve got a little something inside me that, boy, it goes off if I react. I know exactly. Because Christians don’t react. They respond to life. They live in such a yielded way that there’s no reaction. Reaction is when you get your fists up. You say something to me immediately. Well, I’ve got my fists up inside my fists up.

And see, this is the thing in this forgiveness business. And so we all want to be healed. And if we’re willing, we can be. We can be. I was raised in the most prejudiced town. No place in the South is more prejudiced in background than Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Growing up, it was an agricultural community. Most people had lots of servants. Most people, 49% of the population was black. We had beautiful relationship with blacks so long as they stayed in their place.

Do you know it wasn’t but about 10 years ago that it suddenly occurred to me what my father, who was a farmer, called men who worked in the tobacco. Because Hopkinsville at one time was the largest dark-fired tobacco place in the world, growing place in the world. If you ruin us with tobacco and liquor and horse racing, we’re done for economically.

You’re all going to have to come and take care of us. That’s true. That’s true. It’s too bad. It’s too bad. But I recognize that some word was used: “hands.” “Hands. I’ll go and get hands to work the tobacco.” It never occurred to me how that depersonalized people. Hands. Hands, if somebody else was going to tell what to do. Just hands. Hands. Hands. Not a mind to decide. Just using people. Exploiting people. Never seen them be unkind, yet the most unkind because of impersonalization. And see, our relationship is totally different from those who have not had that. Because all of us knew and loved black people. We didn’t call blacks then.

And then we had to become formal. Call them Mr. and Mrs. Then when you become Christian and friends, you would call them by name again. So it’s a whole conversion experience. But nevertheless, see, I never saw any unkindness as far as cruelty. But this was a pattern of life. One I didn’t recognize for years as prejudice. Deep prejudice. Inherited prejudice. And it was just a lifestyle. And then the Lord one day, as I was saying, “Our Father,” God said to me, “Don’t ever say that again until you can include the whole wide world. Don’t ever say, ‘Our Father,’ again.” I can remember doing a radio interview with a young man, black man, who was in Hopkinsville. Beautiful, brilliant young man. Had won that award to go to England. What’s the name of it? Rhodes. You know, I’m so happy the only two we’ve ever had from my county are black. And I just rejoice in it. Just rejoice, you know. A lot of people say it over it, but I rejoice in it. But anyway, I was interviewing him and he said, “Where in the world did you come from?” And I said, “Hopkinsville.” And he said, “What makes you think like you do?” And I said, “Well, one day, one day, the Lord said to me, ‘Don’t you ever say again, Our Father, until you mean it.’”

And so He took me through much, because it takes a long time. But I was willing, I was willing to be trained. And you know, God trains us in different ways. The first national CFO I ever attended. No, no, it wasn’t national CFO. It was the first full CFO I ever attended. I went and I’d gone to sit at the feet of Frank Laubach. And do you know the first person who spoke? It was a black man.

And all of a sudden, deep inside me, you know, I’d been working. And intellectually, I’d gotten free of prejudice. And inside of me started coming up all of this emotional feeling of, “What in the world am I doing sitting at the feet of a black man? Coming up here, way up here in Michigan. Sit at the feet of a black man.” But I had sense enough to know. See, a lot of people are giving the devil credit for a lot of things he has nothing to do with. And it was God who was saying, “Look, you are here for Me to work through that prejudice in you.” And I thank God I had sense enough to know it. And I went up to this man that I’d never seen before that caused me to have such a reaction. That’s reaction. And I said, “Where do you come from?” He lived in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where the camp was. And I said, “You talk like us.” He said, looked at my name tag and said, “28 miles down the road from where you live.” I thought, “Oh, God really rubs our nose in it, doesn’t He?”

And so I said, I told Bernie, I said, “Look, you’ve got to help me.” I didn’t know. I didn’t know. In my hometown, I’m the most radical person ever was. I’ve integrated or desegregated. I’ve learned now to know the difference. Church Women United and League of Women Voters and everything I can get my hands on. And I didn’t know I was prejudiced. But I said, “You know, I just couldn’t take you.” And so I realized that all that week, and finally I had to say to the council ring at the last of the week, “I came here to learn from Frank Laubach. But what I learned was that I had a deep prejudice of which I needed to be healed.” And I thank God that it’s Bernie Warfield that was used because he was so loving and so kind. And Bernie and I love each other tremendously. And I hope he’ll be in Australia. I just haven’t think of that. He lives in Hawaii now.

So all of us, I don’t care who you are. It may not be black. It may be something else. But we need forgiveness. We need forgiveness. I think of a council ring down in Peru. I was there at the… Last night. It was the second camp that I’d been in down in Peru. CFO. And all of these people had been so nice to each other. You know how council rings can act. And so…

They had been real nice to each other. But they hadn’t been honest. We’ve got to learn what it means to speak the truth in love. And so… The last night… It wasn’t the last night. It was two weeks after camp was over. They asked me the night before I was to leave for home to evaluate the camp. And I’d written down a whole list of things. Went in at 7:30 and all of the council ring met. And I was so glad to see them again, and hear all the reports of what was happening to different people from the camp that had had marvelous experiences of the Lord. And so… I thought I would start in. But do you know, before I got started… The Holy Spirit moved in a wondrous way over that room. Over that person. And a woman that I had wondered… What really is wrong with you? I’d been trying to find out for the two years that I’d known her. Because I knew that she had a deep hate in her heart. And so she suddenly started… She said, “I was raised a Roman Catholic. And I grew up to hate my church. And then I was an atheist. And then I married a Protestant. And I thought, well, I’d just go along with him.”

And so… “Now I’m sort of a believer. But…” She said this… As she wept and wept and wept. “But I don’t hate my church that I was raised in anymore. And all you Catholics, forgive me. Because I’ve projected that hate onto you. And have never said it before.” Oh, and she wept and wept. And… Oh, then… A little old woman right over here. I can just see them now. See every person in that room. She said, “I am a Roman Catholic. And I lived in the jungles of Peru. And once when my family had nothing to eat. Nothing to eat. My mother sent me over to this Protestant center here in the jungle, asking for food. We’d give them anything we had if they would just give us enough food to live on. And they refused. And I’ve hated Protestants ever since.” And she wept and wept and wept and said, “Oh, forgive me.” Every person in that room. Every person in that room was touched. And every person… I’ve never been in a service that… See, if the Spirit leads, you don’t have to work up enthusiasm.

I just get very… Well, little reacting. Ha. Be honest now. Speak the truth in love. Little reacting. When I see people trying to whip up the Holy Spirit. Ha. You don’t have to make it happen. You have to say with Mary, “Let it be.” And be sensitive. And He brings in His own time. And then it’s for real. It’s for real and the work is done. The work is done and it’s everlasting. He doesn’t do work just for now. It’s eternal healing. And so, throughout that room, 11:30 that night, I’d still never get into my evaluation. And I said, “You don’t need this anymore. You are now… You are now a council ring. Because you’re really one. You are one in the Lord. Because you’ve been honest. You’ve asked forgiveness. God has given you forgiveness. And you now can love each other.” Because before, there had been this facade. This pretense. And somehow, we do that in prayer groups. I know a prayer group that’s meant more to me than anything. They met in our home. A couple’s interdenominational prayer group for 10 years. We were the nucleus of the Kentucky CFO and brought it into being. And we, you know, we were trying so hard to be nice. That’s horrible. To try to be nice.

And we didn’t know how to correct each other in love. We didn’t know how to speak the truth to each other in love. And we have to learn to do that. We have to be sure that it’s in love though. In love. And that’s the key there. But see, God is a forgiver. And He forgives. I think of a man who was at that first Peru camp. A man who had been run out of Bolivia. His brother was a reporter for a newspaper. And the terrorists had killed him before Abel’s eyes. And as the brother was dying, Abel said, “I’ll revenge your death.” And then the terrorists threatened him. And he had to come into Peru. He was a worker with Ed Ruddell, who started the Peruvian camps, who is with World Neighbors down there. And so Abel came to CFO. Imagine coming right from watching the murder of your brother into a CFO. That’s quite a shock. And so Abel came and I never saw such an angry… Oh, you just… you know, he looked like you just thought, “Oh, I really like for him to be my friend.”

Because you knew that if he were your enemy… Oh, great big man. A part of India and a marvelous person. And as the week wore on, I saw what was happening to him in this climate of love. This climate of love. And so at the end of the sharing, he stood up and said, “I came here with murder in my heart. Hate filled. But I’ve discovered there’s something stronger than hate. And that’s love. And I’ve asked God to forgive me for the hate that was in my heart. And I have let His forgiveness flow out to my brother’s murderer.” This is the power of Christ. Don’t talk about the power of Christ unless you know something like that. Unless you’ve experienced something like that. You just wait until He heals you of some deep prejudice. Deep anger. Deep hurt. Hurt. Until you can love the person who will hurt you. Then you can dare to call Jesus as your Christ and your follower. We must learn that until it’s real in our lives. Until it’s gone from our lips and our head down into our heart. That inner knowing of the forgiver of all men. I had an experience, personal experience, that was so meaningful because just last November, I was in a hospital in Nashville, which is the nearest real medical center from my home.

There was a man at CFO. A man I really loved. A man that I’d taken CFO first. Took Ed and his wife there. At least was responsible for their going. Love him like a brother. But because Ed was trying to change the whole pattern of CFO. Because he wanted to make it into what he thought was a good idea.

Totally unwilling to let the history of 50 years of CFO and the program as it is stand. He was trying to manipulate it. I was in the wrong. I got fighting mad. And… I think of that every once in a while. Somebody says, “Oh, you’re a gentle spirit.”

Well… If it’s gentle, it’s certainly something new. But… See, I was still trying to control. I was trying to control because there’s my baby. That Kentucky camp. And I hate to see any camp go off because it’s proven. It’s a proven thing, how it works. Following… Simply the plan that was designed from the beginning. Because there’s balance and wholeness. And anything else can very easily get out of balance. But nevertheless, he tried to… And I got mad. We had a few words. And… That was it. I, of course, have walked this way long enough to know that… I had to go and ask his forgiveness. I couldn’t stand to go home. You know… The Lord won’t let me rest one night in a situation like that. Because I’ve gotten so sensitive to it. No telling what had happened to my body. Explode. And so… I ask his forgiveness, but… He didn’t accept it. And you know, I ask it sort of lackadaisically anyway. But… I received the Lord’s forgiveness in me. But you know, I didn’t realize what had happened. Until just last summer, his wife called me long distance. They lived in Nashville. And she said, “Mary Virginia, may I come over to see you? I want to talk about the fact that relationships bruised between us.”

And I said, “Oh, I’d love for you to. I’d love for you to.” And so she came and we shared and… You know… We’re able to really just feel as if all the healing had taken place. And I assumed that that was so with Ed, the husband. So I was totally unprepared for camp just last year. Just last year in Kentucky. When he said, “I’ve got to talk to you.” And I said, “Good, I want to.” Well, several days went past and you know, you get busy. And so he said, “I’ve got to talk to you.” And I said, “Sure, okay, let’s take this time and we’ll just walk around this circle here in front of the motel where we have camp.” And I was totally unprepared. That man suddenly let loose the greatest venom and hate toward me. And I thought it was just going to be a nice little patching up, you know, a relationship.

If it had happened yesterday, it couldn’t have been any fresher. And let me tell you this. When Jesus said, “Don’t let the sun go down on your anger,” that wasn’t just a nice little past thing for you to do. It’s a thing you had better do. Because this is the most important thing. Let nothing, hold nothing in your heart that will either boil or freeze.

And he had let that resentment freeze in his heart. And when it came forth, it was as fresh as if it was brand new. As if I just said it to him. And I was so surprised. And I was so hurt. And in the talking, he said many things that had no relationship to the incident. Because it had grown so mountainous. He said things about me that were just so ugly and awful. And it just broke my heart. And I just, like a woman, I just cried. And it just got him. I didn’t do it for that. Now, women sometimes have used tears to manipulate. But I just was so exhausted after listening that I just wept. And it hurt me so deeply. And also, I thought, “Lord, have I been any of those things that he said? Those awful things he says about me.” So we just wept and wept and wept and hugged each other and forgave each other. And just, well, it was just beautiful. Beautiful. And, oh, he felt so free. He said, “You know, you really don’t love me as much as I loved you. Because you would have felt bad about it.” I said, “I had to deal with it immediately. Immediately. And I’ve learned you have to.” But see, he’d been nursing it.

Just nursing it for three years. And there it had gotten until it was just huge. And so I remember the next morning he came to me and he said, “Oh, Mary Virginia, I realized how many things I said. They really had nothing to do with what happened. It was totally outside.” So we were forgiven and, oh, it was just so glorious. It’s always so glorious to have forgiveness. It’s always so glorious in the family. You know, just little things. If we learned to ask each other forgiveness. Every day. Every day. Well, not if you haven’t done anything. You don’t have to go around Santa Coo. You know, you don’t have to be groveling about it. But just, you know, if you do. If you do. And it’s hard. It’s really hard. I don’t know why it’s so blooming hard. But you think about it and you think, “I can’t say it. I just can’t say it.” But once you say it and once you really want to, the Lord just comes through in such a beautiful way. And interestingly enough, one week after that time, I was in the hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, critically ill. Ed came to see me every day, as well as his wife. But Ed and I have got a special relationship that’s very beautiful.

And so I thought, “Lord, suppose we’d still had that when I needed a friend over here. Suppose that’s still been going on.” So, forgiveness. And see, we forgive each other. And we forgive on a relational basis. But we’ve got to learn to forgive nations. We’ve got to learn to forgive nations. My daughter and I had a very nice first time that we’ve had a trip together for, well, really any length of time since she got married. And so last year, we had two weeks in England together. And she and I like to do the same things, you know, go to a lovely place and then go to a play and then go to Shakespeare and then go to, you know, all of these things that are fun. And so the place that was the spiritual high moment of my trip, and it wasn’t a trip for… It was a trip for fun, just for fun, being together and doing the things we like to do and just loving each other. Because we’ve always had such a beautiful relationship. And I thank God for… she’s a miracle, really. She is a miracle, not just really. But we went to Coventry. And I don’t know how many of you have been to Coventry. I don’t know how many of you have read The Fire in Coventry and were prepared for Coventry.

But, oh, I love that book, Fire in Coventry, and what was done there. And, oh, everybody else in this bus and tour were going down to see Lady Godiva’s statue or something or other. And I said, “I just want to stand here.” Because, you know, Coventry, the cathedral there, was the most nearly completely bombed out of raids during World War II. And they left the shell there, just all open, but just the shell. And then they built a new, a modern cathedral next to it. And I’m so glad they left that shell. And when I walked up to this altar, what had been an altar, and I saw this cross of nails, which they had used beams from the cathedral ceilings, and were there, and they put them there above this altar. And written on that was, “Father, forgive.” And I went. I thought, oh, how we need. “Father, forgive.” Forgive anger and hatred among nations. And as I went into the beautiful little chapel that’s been built for unity, where people from around the world have made contributions and ask you to pray for forgiveness of all of us. And I thought of a group of women in Germany. When Roz Rinker and I were in Germany in ’75, and working with military, US military there, we went to the Land of Canaan, which is where the Sisters of Mary, if you know Basilea Schlink’s work.

And their whole mission, when I discovered… I’d never heard of them before that time. When I discovered that they came into being, their whole order is for repentance of what Germany did to the rest of the world, what Germany did to Jews, what Germany did under Hitler. And they were forgiving. The whole thing is repentance and forgiveness. And I, as I stood there weeping, there in Coventry, and I thought of that group, Germans, the English praying for the Germans, and the Germans praying for the English. And I thought, this is the only way, only way, that we are going to really know the love of Christ. Because, see, we cannot be whole until all men are whole. We must learn that. We must learn that. And as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “I can never be totally free until all men are free.” So it’s not an isolated thing. We’re individuals, but we’re community. And until… See, we are interwoven in such a way that Jesus said, “You must forgive. But I’ll forgive through you.” And all we have to do… And it seems so easy to say it. And I don’t know why it’s so hard at times to do it. But just say, “Lord, I’m willing. I’m willing for Your forgiveness to flow through me.”

To those, start within your home. Start within your home. And work out from there. Until all of these people that we call our enemies. All of these people that we’re so ignorant of the things that make them prejudiced. As I discovered in the Philippines. Pepito’s prejudice toward me as an American was because he had thought of all Americans. Just like the businessman that he had seen. American businessman exploit his people there so close by in Orakita City. Where they couldn’t even get pineapples. And the pineapple plantations were worked, owned by American businessmen. And sent to the United States. The only way they could ever taste pineapple. Because they had no land in which to grow it. Was to buy a can. And of course they couldn’t afford it. They couldn’t afford it. Because it was too exorbitant. So this is the reason. And we need to be knowledgeable about why people hate America. We need to know that. Because it’s not loyalty to the country to be ignorant of it. And so we need to know that. But see, we are in the business of seeing the love of God which we know is stronger than hate. And the forgiveness of God just spread out to the whole world. And I wonder what would happen.

What’s going to happen. Not just would, but it’s going to happen. With each one of us being freed. Freed of whatever prejudice we have. And it may be so subtle. It may be so subtle. I was introduced in a church in California. And the minister got up and said these words. She said… No, he told me his announcement. I didn’t hear it. That’s right. He told me what he had announced. And he said, “There’s a lady coming from the south. And… She’s very southern. But she’s got some sense.”

I said, “You mean… I’ve got to overcome your prejudice against southern women?” And see, that’s true. I met a black man in California. And that took a harder job. His overcoming his prejudice toward me. Because my people had hurt him so much. And so that was a harder job. And I’m afraid not completely healed yet. So, each one of us, our relationship, if we want to be healed, we must learn how to accept forgiveness, to be forgiving, and to love ourselves. So tonight, let’s just get still for a moment. What time is it? Nine o’clock. It’s nine o’clock. Nine o’clock. This is a good time to conclude this. As we see, we can pray till who lasts the longest for peace on earth. And if there’s not peace in our heart, you stay on your knees until you are filled with the peace of Jesus. Because only the peace of Jesus in our hearts, just simply flowing out, flowing out to every person. Just think of, you know, we just love is flowing out like a river. Let’s just think of peace as flowing like a river out. But first, examine your hearts. Prayer is a time in which we take time for examination, to reflect on our lives before the Lord. So right now, just reflect on your life before the Lord.

Is there healing that needs to take place? Then ask yourself, who have I not forgiven? And don’t say, “I’ve forgiven someone else, but I haven’t forgiven myself.” Because you can’t do that. It’s all one package deal. So let’s just think about that. And then we’re going to think about this peace. See, Jesus came to give us His peace. He came to fill us with His joy. And that’s not just a flippant statement He makes. We remember that He was on the way to the cross when He said, “My peace I leave with you. My joy I give to you.” And so we know that that joy is different from that which we think of. It’s just happy times here. It’s a joy that we can have in the midst of sorrow. It’s a peace we can have in the midst of chaotic conditions. But I cannot hold His peace in my heart if I’m full of other things. So we need to be emptied. There need to be kenosis. Kenosis means emptying of ourselves. Emptying of self. In order to be filled with Him.

So Father, right now, deal with each one of us. Oh Lord, let us be instruments of Your peace. Begin with us. Begin within our hearts. Remind us. Remind us, Lord, as You have a way of doing, of those people that, my relationship’s not quite right. Or maybe it’s really wrong. Tell me what I can do in addition to allowing You, Your forgiveness, to pour through me now. There needs to be maybe a reconciliation of some sort. A confrontation without condemnation. Or speaking the truth in love. So Lord, we just thank You that You have assigned to us this terrific job, Lord, of being Your instruments of peace in our world today. And we know that that requires our forgiveness. Even as You forgive us. And we’re not asking, Lord, that You forgive us any more than we’re willing to forgive. Because we couldn’t contain it.

So Lord, now, in this quietness, we pray together for peace in the world. We pray, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We have all heard of peace. Peace is flowing like a river, flowing out from you and me, flowing out into the desert, setting all the captives free. Love is flowing like a river, flowing out from you and me.

Flowing out into the desert, setting all the captives free. Peace is flowing like a river, flowing out from you and me, flowing out into the desert, setting all the captives free.