Come on, let's have a look in Matthew 18 and see - it's the other person next to you needed to hear that. I told you that someone needed to hear this. [Laughter] It's good you knew it all. I know that. Isn't that right? I know that. There's lots of things I've known, I've had to learn them over and over again - just keep forgetting. [Laughs] Let's have a look in Matthew 18. Very, very clearly, he's in the context of talking about heaven and the earth; and in verse 15 he said: if your brother sins against you, he actually has done something wrong; not just something you thought was wrong - go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. Now that's Jesus teaching, so Jesus teaches: if someone creates a problem for you, does actually do something wrong; not perceived wrong, or they didn't do what you wanted or that kind of thing, actually did something wrong; you should go to them, and sort it out quickly. Go to him, and go alone; just go and talk to them alone, find a way to talk to them. Now if you're going to do that, here's the thing you have to realise: The goal is to have a reconciliation. The goal is to stop breaches in relationship. The goal is to draw people together. The goal is to unite; because when there's agreement on the earth, then there's a blessing flows from heaven. Now God has set it up,, that if we're in agreement on the earth, then blessing flows from heaven. If we're believing in Jesus' name, blessing flows. Have you ever thought of this, that if we agree on earth concerning offence, we bind the offence, and demons can operate? Have you ever thought that when you shared that thing with someone else, and came into agreement and spoke against someone, that now you've allowed in the realm of the spirit, demonic powers access to that person you were talking about? You agreed to it. We agreed to release judgement rather than grace. You see, when anyone shares something to you about someone else, their failures or perceived miscomings or whatever, at the end of the day whether it's true or not, grace needs to come into that situation.
One, you need to make sure you've heard the other side of the case, the other side of the story; two, you listen properly before jumping to conclusions. That's the hardest thing of all, is to listen properly, and try to find out what the real issue is; that's a whole skill of it's own, that requires a heart willingness to listen to people, and find where they are. So you've got to make a decision, so Jesus said: go to the person; so how do we do it? Let me give you two or three things, how you can solve this issue straight away, very, very quickly. Number one, if you have a difficulty, there's something that's gone on, now if it's with God, and He didn't do things the way you thought, well then you've got to take that up with God. You've got to go talk to Him about it, always it's go talk with Him about it. Here's number one: bring it to the Lord first, ask the Holy Spirit to help you, and this is what you're looking for. This is what you're looking for - expose your feelings. This is what I'm feeling. You have to talk about your feelings with God, got to talk about your feelings with Him. You've got to get your heart clean before the Lord, first of all.
Then if there's any judgements or any issues you're holding in your heart, because often we get upset because, we think they meant something, and they didn't. We actually assume that they did it for some reason; so sometimes a person can overlook you, do something, and they had no intention of doing it; but when you think they intended to do it, because they don't like you, you've judged them. You've got something in your heart to deal with. Well, we can deal with it easy. We come before the Lord; Holy Ghost, what's my part in this? Holy Ghost, help me to see what I haven't seen. Lord, help me to see, and I'll just share my feelings: I'm really hurt, I'm in pain over this thing. I don't know what to do. Now Lord, is there any part that I've played? Is there any beliefs or judgements in my heart I need to deal with? Lord, I just bring them out and deal with them before you. Now Lord, help me to go to this person, so I can restore and rebuild the relationship.