DIVINE AUTHORITY

Dear One, Jesus was very thrilled with the ministry of the Holy Spirit that was going to be available to My children after He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven to live with Me. He taught at length about the ministry of My Spirit, who He is and the ministry of what He was going to do for My children. Jesus said that My Spirit is the Spirit of truth. He said that My Spirit is called the counselor, one who counsels My children in one-on-one counseling sessions, He said that My Holy Spirit reveals mysteries which had been hidden. He said that My Spirit would be a guide to keep My children from danger and on the narrow path. He said that My Spirit would live inside of My children instead of merely being alongside of them. He said that the same power that had empowered Him to minister to others would be inside of My children to empower them. All of that teaching on the Holy Spirit came before Jesus went to the cross. After Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to His disciples, He breathed on them and told them to receive the Holy Spirit.

 Then he told them something that He had not previously told them. He said, "Whose sins you forgive are forgiven and whose sins you retrain are retained." Not until the disciples received the first fruits of the Holy Spirit did they have the power to forgive the sins of others. They had been taught about forgiveness, but they did not have the power to completely forgive sins until they breathed My Holy Spirit into their lives. When they willingly breathed in My Holy Spirit, they became new creatures, born anew of the Holy Spirit who forgives sins, just like I do and like Jesus did. As new creatures with My Holy Spirit inside of them, they had new motivation to forgive the sins of others rather than holding others accountable for their sins. That anointing that was given to the disciples of Jesus was the anointing that Jesus had when he walked the earth. If you will remember, He often told people whom He healed that their sins were forgiven. Those statements angered the religious leaders because they proclaimed that only I can forgive sins. I had passed that pleasure and delight of forgiving sins on to My Son Jesus and He passed the pleasure and delight of forgiving the sins of others on to His disciples. That is one of My ways to defeat the evil one is to forgive the sins of people who have obeyed his temptations. You breathed My Holy Spirit into your life when you were born of My Spirit, You have the pleasure and delight of forgiving the sins of others, just like Jesus did and just like He commissioned you to do immediately after He rose from the dead, having defeated satan in hell and being empowered by My Spirit to rise from the dead. He told His followers that they had the authority to forgive the sins others. My children become mission-minded instead of forgiveness-minded. The very first thing Jesus authorized you to do after rising from the dead is to forgive the sins of others. He knew that with My Spirit inside of you that you would have the motivation and the authority to forgive sins, just like I do. Jesus said when you forgive sins, your sins are automatically forgiven. You dont want to retain the sins of anyone. If you do, you retain your own sins. Do what Jesus first called you to do, forgive the sins of others. You might be the only person in their lives with the authority to forgive their sins. Your Loving Father John 14:15-33; John 16:7-15; John 20:22-23; Matthew 9:2-7; Matthew 18:21-22; Mark 2:6-12;