Salutations

I would like to expose the Spirit Of Bitterness. Many people walk around with their hearts shattered. They attempt to act normal or rather what they think normal is. How do I know? I used to be one of these people. See below in Ephesians 4.

Ephesians 4:30-32

30: And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
31: Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
32: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Allow me to share a little bit of my life with you...
It all began when I was working at the retirement community. I was really focused on my life and getting to know God better. One of my co-workers introduces me to this guy; I wasn't particularly impressed with him because he apparently was hottest thing at the work. All the younger women seemed to flaunting themselves all around him. Later, he shared with me that he was a minister, I thought to myself that's great.

Months went by and he eventially asked me out. I was very uncertain about going out with him because I had not been in a dating relationship in a long time. Plus I had never tried dating the christian way. So I finally did accept his offer and as faith would have it, we hit it off. It wasn't long before we became serious and began discussing marriage. Could this be it? Could he be the man chosen by God to love me? Though I was scared I decided to give it my all. We dated for about a year and were married.

Shortly after getting married we began having problems. I had become concerned about his relationships with other women. He was a musician and the worship leader in his father's church. I noticed he had became distant and didn't seem to be comfortable around me. I had never been one who was jealous but just new something was different. I began to pray for revelation..God answered quickly when the following morning I was about to take a bath. When this feeling came over me..I just somehow knew that he had broken our marriage vows. I comfronted him and he tearfully confessed to having had sex with another woman. I became overwhelmed and angry. I threw things knives, chairs, 2x4's..you name it;I threw it at him. I must admit that I can see the comical side of myself now..but then it was quite ugly.

I contacted her; Yelling and screaming obscenities into the phone. I didn't seem to be able to control myself. I never stop for a minute to ask God for the healing of his anointing. I just wanted to hate him and her. It was my job to make him pay for him lying and disrespecting me. I somehow knew that I was justified in holding him in unforgiveness.(NOT TRUE) I felt like I deserved to hate him and I wore the pain as a badge of honor (NOT TRUE). I was so emersed in my own self-pity that I didn't realize that the pain had become a covering of shame. Now, I had began to blame him for everything. My unhappiness, my lack of joy, my failure in life, lack of zeal for ministry..He was the blame for all of this....Not the ENEMY..SATAN..My ex-husband had single handly created a world of darkness where I had become the prisoner (NOT TRUE)..The entire incident was rooted in Darkness..SATAN WAS THE COLPRIT..I WAS HIS VICTIM..MY EX-HUSBAND..HIS TOOL

Over time he would often plead with me to forgive him. I would often tell him and counselors that I had forgiven him. However, honestly I had never gotten over the pain that the lies and the infidelity had caused. As our children grew so did the vine of bitterness which I had allowed to be seed in my heart.

We would never actually heal that marriage and we would later divorce as he continued to be unfaithful time and time again. Each offense would create a new shoot from the seed of bitterness. I would go to the alter for prayer time and time again. My heart was still flooded with the poison of bitterness and it had began to alter my concept on life and love.

Now, please don't miss understand; he was completely wrong for the behavior he displayed during our marriage. However, when someone lies to us, cheats on us, or just plain disappoints you. At that point when you find out that someone has wronged you; right then you must decide to forgive them..don't give it a second thought. Allow the healing anointing of God to mend your broken heart. That is the only thing that could save me. The precious anointing of the Holy Spirit, healed my broken heart and restored Joy to my miserable life.

Read below with me directly from scripture. Beginning in the New Testatment book of Luke.

Luke 4:15
15And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
17And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, 18 The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
19To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
20 And he closed the book, and he gave [it] again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
21And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

I often like to share another's points concerning what the Spirit of God urges me to share with you. So as the norm I a brief synopsis from Pastor Eugene Harder. The article below is entitled The Deadly Root of Bitterness

Let's refresh our memories of the details by reading Acts 8:14-24. God's power cannot be manifest in and through a life that harbours a root of bitterness. Today I will invite you to choose between bitterness and the indwelling presence of the holy Spirit.

Bitterness Is a Condition That Brings Devastation Into Our Lives

Someone said, "Bitterness is a devastating attitude sin. It triggers a wide range of other sins, such as: hatred, cruelty, antagonism, self-pity, unteachableness (implacability), vindictiveness and desires for revenge and prideful ambition (arrogance). Bitterness is characterized by an unforgiving spirit and negative, critical attitudes.

Bitterness motivates habitual complaining. (Job 7:11, 10:1) Bitter people find great delight in gossip. (Psalm 64:3 KJV) Bitterness fragments other peoples lives. "See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by it many be defiled." (Hebrews 12:15)

Bitterness is self induced misery, and it produces chain sinning. A chronically bitter person is his own worst enemy and difficult to maintain a relationship with."

Does any of this sound familiar? Do you know anyone that the above accounts remind you up? Tell them to tune in next time for more on Bitterness.