So what I'm doing now or what happened last week came about because I chose to deal with stuff a long time ago. There are courses we have, there's the Freedom Retreat and Restoration Retreat and there are other courses we run. If you've got issues don't look back in regret and resentment and then keep multiplying those problems. Young people, if you've got issues with parents I can tell you now resolve them now! Or you'll repeat them in your future and you'll have to resolve them then - or if you don't ever resolve them they will steal much of the potential God had planned for your life, cause unnecessary pain and hardship. So it's always a decision. There's two people come to mind as I think about this. In 2 Samuel 6 there's a story of David's restoration of the ark into Jerusalem. Now at this very point in time what was happening is years ago when David was a very young man a prophet came and lay hands on him and said I have a plan for you. God has anointed you to be king. You have a destiny to shape a generation!
And so this young man of course was very excited about the dream, excited about the destiny and then he went out and he slew Goliath and he became immediately famous. Then he married the king's daughter and the king became jealous of him. So the king decided to kill him, so King Saul attempted to kill him. His wife helped him escape because she loved him and so David went this way and his wife went that way; both of them treated unjustly by Saul. Years later David has gone through every kind of hardship. He's been a notorious criminal, he's had to survive by share wits and leaning on the presence of God. He's suffered all manner of things - but finally his hour comes when the promise of God is about to be fulfilled, and his heart is free of bitterness, free of resentment, free of negativity. And the Bible says he [joyed 00.08.54] and rejoiced.
Michal, his wife who loved him, never got over what happened to her. She became bitter. She became angry. She came to believe you could never trust any men. She became bitter against God and in the hour when she should have been fulfilling her purpose and coming to the highlight of her life, she was bitter and never entered into it. The Bible said she remained barren, unproductive, unfruitful. She missed her destiny, because she never dealt with the issues of the past. She never dealt with hurt. She never dealt with wrong beliefs. It's one of the things if we're going to go forward, you have to make the decision that you're going to choose to let go of past hurts, going to choose to let go of bitterness and negative thinking, begin to start to be the kind of person that thinks possibilities. Will you be such a person? You have to choose that. No one's going to choose that for you.
You can look back; oh, you don't understand how badly I was treated. You don't know what happened to me and all this stuff. Listen, no, I don't know what happened, but I do know if you don't get over it it will shape the rest of your life. Some of you I really admire because I've sat with some of you - and I won't expose or reveal who you are. That's your testimony, that's your right to do that. But I've sat with many here and heard horrendous stories of what's happened in your lives and I've watched so many of you stand up and courageously face it and move past it. And I just really honour people that have done that. I had one last week I met and it was in my room and there was a counselling situation. There was a confrontational situation and a resolution of something going back years, and I just really admire that young person for the courage to do it.