Today I want to write about what I believe to be the most profound truths I have discovered and can presently offer regarding the nature and power of forgiveness and its benefits to the human condition and soul. 

The true good news of the gospel is the message of reconciliation and the power of forgiveness. To attack what God has made and judge others as guilty is what causes the loss of peace. The key to unlocking the peace of God in your heart is to see the world as innocent and forgiven, to see others as God sees you. We must do for others what has been done for us. Allow me to explain…

There is only truth and ignorance of the truth. Anyone who commits evil is doing so because they do not actually understand what they’re doing. They are lost in a delusional world of the ego’s making. In truth, you could say that there is no evil but only sanity and insanity. Thus why Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” If people only knew that every action they commit affects themselves positively or negatively, then the choices they made would be easy. If they only knew that every single thing they sow, they shall also reap upon themselves, they would give pause and consider their actions more carefully. However, the ego convinces people that they can be at peace by choosing fear and by choosing to hate, judge, gossip about, and attack others. This ideology is total madness that only a sick mind could believe. It also further emphasizes why the scriptures articulate Jesus’s emotions by saying, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Matthew 9:36

Difficulties in this world come to both the just and the unjust, and often our trials bring with them profound gifts for our spiritual growth and expansion. However, many of these struggles come consciously or unconsciously as a result of poor sowing of negative, destructive seeds. People walk around every single day wondering why their life circumstances keep yielding them difficulties when within their hearts, minds, and actions, they have failed to love their neighbor as their self. One of the reasons their life circumstances continually judge them with negative consequences is because their hearts and mouths are continually offering the same to others. 

“For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Matthew 7:2 

The above is simply a universal divine law. It simply is.

Everyone is just where they are. Everyone has to learn the same lessons, and some people are just further along than others; thus, why judgment is always meaningless. You cannot expect a second grader to pass a calculus test, and you cannot expect a person that believes the insane thoughts in their mind to behave sanely. A person’s actions are always reflecting the quality of their consciousness. So, if they truly knew better, they would behave better. 

What God sees is a sick person in need of healing, but what the ego sees is an evil person in need of punishing and judging. This is why the ego feels justified in attacking people with the thoughts in their minds. The truth is that everyone wants the same thing, which is the desire to find happiness and peace. The desire for happiness and peace is inescapable because happiness and peace are what God is and is, therefore, our true nature. People are always doing what they believe will bring them happiness. 

What you fight, you strengthen.
What you judge you perpetuate because
perception is creation.
To judge the sinner is to create more sinful behavior.
If you choose to see someone as an evil person,
then you are only empowering what the ego has created.
To see the truth within someone, a truth that they have forgotten,
is to open the doorway for healing to occur. 

You can’t solve a problem from the same level of thinking that created it. But if you can forgive someone, then you are refusing to define them by the hallucinations they have made. This is why love is always the correct response to someone who is behaving wrongly. 

Whatever you love, you heal. 
Whatever you judge, you cannot love. 

The less a person knows that they are a child of God, the more insane their actions will become. So, if they don’t know they are a child of God with access to His divine power and peace, then it is our job to show it to them. Do not side with the sickness in another person, even if they believe it to be true. 

Your acceptance of God abiding in others acknowledges the love of God that they have forgotten.
Forgiveness is to remind someone of who they truly are. 

Forgiveness always has healing and rehabilitation as the end goal and not mindless punishment. The only way to heal an insane person is to perceive the sanity within them. 

In addition, all judgment is ultimately self-judgment. The subconscious mind sees everything as itself, so any judgment or mind attack that you levy against someone else will ultimately apply to you. If you judge another person for any reason, you are also committing violence against yourself. Likewise, when you judge yourself for any reason, you are committing violence against yourself. Thus why ancient scriptures teach, “Do not judge, or you will be judged.” Matthew 7:1

As the saying goes, “Holding unforgiveness against anyone else is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” 

“Accept as true only what your brother is, if you want to know yourself.
Perceive what he is not, and you cannot know what you are, because you see him falsely.”
~ A Course in Miracles

Just as the story of Noah’s ark articulates the animals boarding their ark of safety and fleeing destruction two by two, likewise, heaven is also entered two by two. The only way to get to heaven is through loving the person standing right in front of you; thus, we are told the second greatest commandment in all the universe is to love our neighbor as ourselves. If you make the person standing before you guilty in your mind for any reason, then you are making yourself guilty and taking away your peace. “ So IN EVERYTHING, do to others what you would have them do to you.” Mathew 7:12

“Love one another.” John 13:34

And remember, “There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” James 2:13

The nature and TRUE essence of you and your brethren is innocence. A person might be ignorant of the truth. They might be hurting. They might be seeking vengeance to get rid of their pain, but they are not evil. What everyone ultimately wants is union with God. Their souls longs to return home, to be one with God, to no longer feel separate from their Divine nature. Thus why Christ prayed, “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one —as you are in me, Father, and I am in you.” John 17:21

If people only knew what their true nature is and that what they truly are is love, then they would be incapable of error. To see this truth in another person is to see it in yourself and to set yourself free. 

 “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:8

Furthermore, whoever does not love does not know themselves and does not know they are love and that God abides within them because there is.. 

“…one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and IN ALL.” Ephesians 4:6

The gospel was the message of reconciliation. Even in extreme cases, when we must lock someone away that has wronged another, we do so in love to prevent them from doing more harm to others and themselves. In addition, our ultimate goal should be an attempt to help their soul find restoration. 

We separate ourselves from God in our minds, but God is not counting our trespasses against us. God did not come to condemn or judge you but to liberate you and reveal to you a path of abundant freedom (John 3:17) Instead, God would have you see yourself as you truly are. St. Paul said many times, “Do you not know that Christ is in you?” Meaning, “Do you not know that you are a son of God? Do you not know that you are a child of God, a drop to the wave, a royal heir, a vessel housing the Divine?” This is the meaning of the passage in 1 John 3:8 which says, “For this reason the Son of God was made manifest to destroy the works of the Devil.” 

The Devil is an ancient world term used to describe the ego. This was the reason that you were made manifest, to destroy the works of the ego, and to remember who you truly are. The works of the ego are guilt, shame, and condemnation. They are anti-gospel tools from hell. 

Guilt says, “I’m not forgiven.”
Shame says, “It’s still who I am.”
Condemnation says, “God is angry with me.” 

According to Christ, the kingdom of heaven is not something that will appear or something you go to when you die. According to Christ, the kingdom of heaven is within you. Have you discovered it? Have you obtained it? Do you live in the kingdom of God every day of your life?

“Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is WITHIN YOU.” Luke 17:21 KJV

If heaven abides within you, then hell can also abide within you. It, too, can be a state of being that others can exist in every day of their lives. Cast it out. Stop trying to obtain heavenly bliss by riding the world of evil and insanity. Lookin within and rid yourself of it. Rid yourself of anger, unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment, and hatred towards others. Love one another. Forgive as you would want to be forgiven. Stop wasting time trying to convince others of what to believe. Focus on eliminating and casting down your own wrongful imaginations and thoughts that set themselves against the knowledge of pure divine truth. Clean your house. Rid yourself of the demon that has you bound. Expel your own ego. Blessed are the pure in heart, for these are the ones that see God. 

As the saying goes, “Religion is for people who’re afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for those who’ve already been there.” Wisdom is realizing you can escape the hell you are currently existing in and live in an inward kingdom of heavenly bliss despite what life circumstances you may encounter. 

Judgment is ultimately the attempt to make yourself innocent by making someone else guilty. The fastest way to have inner peace and freedom is to forgive everyone in your life who has wronged you and to see them as perfectly innocent. If you believe someone else can hurt you, then you must first give your power over to them to do so and see yourself as weak and fragile. You must believe that their insane behavior is actually sane. But if you offer them perfect forgiveness, then you must have already forgiven yourself and accepted your own innocence. This is freedom. This is knowledge Christ wished for you to obtain. 

See the world as guiltless. Walk into every moment with an open heart seeing and giving only love. This is only possible when you see that judgment is useless and holy without reason. If you judge no one as guilty, then it is impossible to judge yourself. 

By offering freedom, you will be free. 

Therefore, forgiveness is not really for others; it is for you. Forgiveness is releasing yourself from the painful illusion that you’ve actually been harmed. Once this truth becomes your reality, I can tell you from personal experience, you can’t even begin to imagine how beautiful people will come. You will see no guilty stain anywhere you look. Though they may be painted in scarlet errors, you will only see them white as snow. When you see a liar or a thief in front of you, you will not see an evil person, but you will see the Son of God shining in all His radiance, one whom no guilt has ever touched. You will see others as God sees you. And once you see God in them, you will allow them to begin seeing it too. And in the light of this truth, you will understand why God’s love is always unconditional because the Son of God is only innocent. He is only Light. There is no darkness in Him anywhere. You will see the sins of others as but hallucinations. You will see their errors as past tense, and you will see and love others as only God sees and loves you when you stand before Him – as who you are in the present holy instant – perfect, without blemish, and free. 

This is what the crucifixion ultimately represents. The cross is the symbol of the forgiven world; thus, the cross becomes to us the gates to heaven through which true, authentic freedom can be found. 

The whole world has gone mad with guilt, and if we are to heal the guilt of the world, then we must begin by showing others who they truly are. We must show them that there is a place within them that knows no guilt or sin. It may be covered up by many illusions of fear, but it is there waiting to be discovered, and perfect love casts out all fear. Only forgiveness can heal the world. This was demonstrated perfectly at the crucifixion by Christ, who forgave His murderers while they were murdering Him and who demonstrated the power of perfect love by submitting Himself into the hands of angry and violent men. Instead of wrath and judgment, His response was, “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.” 

Your protection against negativity or what you deem to be evil people is simply to feel love for them. Love your enemies. Pray for those that persecute you. See them as an extension of yourself, someone that simply went down the wrong path and ended up where they are now. See them as a person that lives in almost constant suffering and turmoil, sort of like a strung-out drug addict living in a back alley, only their drug of choice is fear, greed, and hatred. I like to imagine these people as someone I love from the future, such as my daughter or sister, or perhaps even myself, who simply went down the wrong road and is now doomed to a terrible existence. Then, I can begin to feel compassion for the person and for their soul. 

The above approach to forgiving and loving others is your protection against all darkness and fear and the shield through which no evil thing can ever penetrate or harm you. If you can just do as Jesus said and love your enemies, you could ensure your protection against any negative entity that would seek to disturb you. Love is the strongest magic in the universe. Love conquers all.