Bitterness grows in older relationships, in couples that have been together for a really long time, in relationships between children and parents. We can see the growing bitterness in all and every kind of relationship. Today, we are breaking open the cause of this root! It is so simple, but it is so easy to neglect. A covenant with bitterness can turn into a prison of your own making and make you sick. We don’t want to become like a porcupine. We want to be a fruitful vine. So many things cause bitterness, but the main root cause is holding on to offenses and trespasses, not forgiving, and withholding love. The root cause is denying the cross.
Let’s read Ephesians 4:26-32. Things may not go our way, and we get angry, BUT the Word says, SIN NOT. God loves us unconditionally, but don’t be mad at Him when He deals with our condition. If we sin under anger, if we don’t go to the cross before the sun goes down, God will deal with us! How do we grieve the Holy Spirit? With our mouths, with cursing words, when we say things - evil speaking, corrupt communication - and we can’t take it back once it lands on the target! The target must deal with it as well! Always remember, God loves us unconditionally, and because He loves us, He chases us and deals with us. Don’t let the devil tell you that God does not love you because you cannot feel His love. We do not go by feeling but by the Truth.
Are you a fruitful vine or a bitter herb? Or both? Bitterness manifests in different ways with different people: some people raise their voice, others keep themselves quiet, but all are bound by bitterness! Do you know where bitterness comes from? It comes from unforgiven offenses, from unforgiven situations!
Why would people not forgive? This comes from self-righteousness, pride, and from not seeing our own need to be forgiven; from a victim mentality, from trauma, and from thoughts that turn into imagination. Offenses will come, but we need to deal with it (Matthew 18:7). We want to live in the kingdom, correct? So, we must deal with it! We can’t stop this from happening, but we can deal with it in a righteous way! It is going to be up to you to stay in the Kingdom, and it is going to be up to them to forgive you and get right back into the Kingdom! The Kingdom is within, so is the fight! We do not fight against flesh and blood.
Read Matthew 18:20-35 and look at how out of nowhere Peter asked Jesus about how often should we forgive our brother? Jesus, in other words, answered: always and every single time! Then, here comes the Word about the kingdom of heaven being like a certain King! “…The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son” (Matthew 22:2). Who is this King? The Father. Who is this son in this parable? Jesus. The King who will take account of his servants (Back to Matthew 18, verse 23). It is not about what they did; it is not about your past; it is not about your present! It is about you obeying the Word of God! Once you forgive those who spoke those curses, those words under anger, these word curses will die and will have no effect on you! Give it back to the devil. Love is always the answer, but we can’t love without Him. That is why He came and died, so we can follow Him all the way to the cross.
When you hold onto something, you will never be able to give out what you have received from God. When you don’t follow the Word of God, you are thrown into a prison (verse 30). This is a spiritual prison in the heart, in the mind, and in the spirit. We are born again, reborn from death to life. Do not go back to following the law or the ways of old, but follow Christ. Love fulfills all things; love obeys Jesus’s words. They are not suggestions, but they are Spirit, and they are life!
It does not matter! Sin is sin; if you are forgiven much or a little, it does not matter. He called us wicked servants when we pay evil for evil (verse 32). The tormentor is satan! If you are not forgiving, you will be delivered to the tormentor because the Lord is wroth with your attitude. He turned you over to push you to repent or to forgive. The same way our loving Heavenly Father will do to us: “So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.” Verse 35
Your thoughts turn into imagination. You start imagining a way out of the situation, avoiding at all costs releasing forgiveness! Words are the seeds. Thoughts are also seeds from the devil, so the enemy can also sow them from wrong words as well as curses. The enemy can use our mouths to say words. It is time to learn to control our mouths, but for that, we will need the Holy Spirit to empower us. In the book of James, chapter three, he speaks about the tongue, but only the Holy Spirit can help you to tame your tongue. Give our hearts to Jesus, then that abundance of your heart will come out of your mouth (Matthew 12:34); so, give Him all of your heart. Jesus and bitterness have no fellowship with one another. This means you have taken back what you had once given away. This is the reason by which you are denying the cross. So, do not let what has happened to you affect what is inside of you. Jesus made a way!
Meditation is watering those seeds. So, stop thinking on those words; stop meditating on them. What does help you to forget? It is forgiveness, and it is repenting. Or suddenly, you start believing facts instead of the Word of God. When you focus on facts and reality, the enemy starts building a stronghold in your life! Then, if it does not get cast out or cast down, it forms that stronghold, and that is the opposite of what God has for your life… Facts are temporal. The Truth is eternal!
In 2 Corinthians 10:1-7, it shows us that if our warfare is carnal, we will always be waiting for somebody to make amends with us, to ask for forgiveness, to apologize, or to feel better; this shows we are doing war in the flesh (verses 3-4). There is a mighty weapon through God strong enough to pull down strongholds: The Word of God, the blood of Jesus, the cross, mercy, and grace! You and I need it as much as anyone else.
How to uproot bitterness? Verse 5: “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” This is what the Holy Spirit is expecting us to live by! We want God to love us unconditionally, but we love conditionally. The cross is really for you; it is not for others! He tells us TO PICK UP YOUR CROSS and does not tell us to make sure YOUR BROTHER PICKS UP HIS CROSS!
We must revenge all disobedience. I cannot go by my own bar, my own heart, or by my own righteousness! “And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled” (Verse 6). God sent His son, but indirectly, He sent Himself clothed in humanity. What are you talking about? Let me explain it. If Jesus was the visible image of the invisible God, if Jesus was the Word of God, and the Word and God cannot be separated, that means that He sacrificed Himself in a visible form because of love, because of forgiveness. So, what can the world say or do about it? Nothing. So, believe, receive, and give what you have freely received. The power of love and resurrection is in us; if God forgave us, we must forgive to be with Him!
So, Christians imprison themselves in this cage and continue drinking poison lies and thoughts from the devil! This is why the cross is for everyone! The cross is for those who must forgive and for those who need forgiveness. Period. If we are trying to forgive, we are in un-forgiveness! Forgiveness is about releasing others because we have been released by God, and it is not about doing our best to keep the peace. If you are always waiting for someone to ask for forgiveness first before you can or even will forgive them, you’re already in denial of your need to be forgiven by God, and you forfeit what was freely given to you! You have exalted yourself and your situation above the Word of God! Now, God must hold you in contempt of court or in your situation. God keeps warning you! Now, you are in contempt of court! Off to prison! Well, now we are in this spiritual reality. It is what Jesus spoke about in all of His parables, and now all of them have become spiritual Truth. You now set yourself out of your own freedom. Who the Son sets free is free indeed (John 8:36). But now you don’t feel free. Now you have no peace. Now you feel the heaviness of the cross. Now you start losing the fruits that were coming from abiding in Him, from abiding in freedom, and from abiding in love. Now you are trying to be righteous, holy in the flesh, and it is still as filthy as a dirty rag in the sight of love. There is only ONE WAY, ONE TRUTH, ONE DOOR. His name is Jesus!
Now you have cut yourself off from the vine, then the devil starts to sow tares in your heart, in your life, and in your relationships! Not because of what was done to you, but because you have refused to forgive that person or that situation! Because of that, God can’t release you, work for you, and make your fruit abound!
If we do not obey His words and follow His ways, we can end up in a place far from the narrow way. “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and FEW there be that find it” (Matthew 7:14). The FEW forgive to find their way; they must go His way. If we disobey, if we do not forgive or manipulate our hearts and deceive ourselves by putting ourselves back under the law, then we become reprobates to the faith and to His righteousness, creating our own way.
Then, we become our own God; now all sin is no longer under the blood because you're putting self under the law, eye for an eye, no Grace, no love, no mercy! Now you’re the one that needs to repent, and now you were the one that was accursed or betrayed or hurt or attacked or assaulted! Now it is like double jeopardy. I have seen so many taken out, becoming thorns and thistles, then they are cast off! This is the most important thing in our walk with Christ. This is why He is so adamant about it and about love and about denying self! Because He loves you, and the Word cannot be changed. When God said in Romans 2:11 that He is no respecter of persons, that means He must follow His Word.
In this passage in Hebrews 12:10-17, we see Paul telling us to make a straight path for our feet! We must be careful that we fail not of the grace of God! “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled” (verse 15). We see in verse 16 the mention of Esau and of fornicator. What does a fornicator have to do with bitterness?
You are fornicating with your own flesh! We forfeit our birthright because of our need to be right! When you are waiting for somebody to pick up their cross, you are under the law; you are living eye for eye! You will drop tears for what they did to you, but you yourself found no place of repentance, no place of forgiveness. We need to confess with our mouths, but our hearts must be aligned as well! The Holy Spirit and the Word of God are telling us what to do. We must just do it! When you forgive, you will see all His perfection being manifested in you, and God does the healing automatically! The pain will always be there if you don’t forgive! Once you forgive, the pain will go away! But the more you wait for the pain to go before you forgive, the more and stronger the pain will be! It will put you in torment in the spirit. The bitterness will go away with the pain at the very moment we forgive! Healing oil is who He is. Do not say, “IF…”, “WHEN…”, or “IN THE FUTURE…” Faith is now! Obedience is now!
During the Passover Seder, the Jews eat the bitter roots, which are bitter herbs, as part of the Passover Seder. Maror is symbolic of the bitterness and hardship of the Israelites' slavery in Egypt. It is reminiscent of what they went through in Egypt, but Jesus took the bitter away! He remembered our past no more, so shall we do the same! There is no need to remind ourselves and others of the past, of what we did or what they did!
Let’s go to 2 Peter 1:1-10. You can’t have bitter roots and walk in brotherly kindness! You will be barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ! You get blind! And you have FORGOTTEN that YOU HAVE BEEN PURGED from our old sins! And the same FORGETFULNESS you should extend to those who trespass against you! Sometimes, that bitter root can get worse. All you need to do is ask Him to pluck it out! And after that, start applying what you have heard above and during this message. If we do these things, WE SHALL NEVER FALL! “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.” 2 Peter 1:10
Once you deny yourselves, when you pick up your cross, the fruit will be manifested! “Father, rip out every bitter root!” If we face that pain still, if we battle with thoughts based on hurtful words spoken and trespasses done, all we need to do is to release them all at the cross! “Father, help us to forgive everyone.” We don’t want to just ignore offenses! We need to face it and repent of it. “Heal us, Father, because we have been forgiven! Heal us, free us as we shall free others! We shall no longer eat bitterroots, but we will eat your Flesh and drink your Blood!”
Shane W Roessiger
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