 Hello, this is David Diger Hernandez, and you're watching Spirit Church here on the Encounter TV Network. I'm going to minister a word right now that's going to challenge your heart. And I want you to be open and say to the Lord, search me, oh God, as we explore these truths. This is important now, because now more than ever we need to be spiritually prepared and we must get rid of every root of bitterness. But first, Stephen Mockezuma is here with me. He's going to lead you in some very anointed worship. And then we're getting right into this message. The thing about bitterness is people who are, be it some interaction that caused them to feel pain, or be it some rejection that they felt from someone they loved. Bitterness can find its way into the heart through many different things. And again, I want to emphasize this, people who are bitter are bitter. I'm not saying that to scare you. I'm not saying that everybody's bitter and they just don't know it. I'm simply saying that I think somewhere deep inside the people who are holding unforgiveness know that they're holding unforgiveness. But the deception of the flesh keeps them from acknowledging this truth and working to get rid of this deeply rooted darkness. So as I said, this can occur in our everyday interaction. Maybe someone in the church hurt you and you no longer attend church. Maybe someone in your family made a comment that you took a certain way and you've disconnected from your family. Or perhaps you had a friendship that was thriving that God was using to influence your spiritual life. And maybe they weren't there for you in the way that you thought they should be. Or maybe they didn't come through for you in the way that you thought they should have come through for you. Regardless of how bitterness got in, bitterness will corrupt you. Bitterness will destroy you. And so I want to take a look at the scripture here right now. And I want to show you some simple truths regarding bitterness. Number one, bitterness is a root. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 15 says, look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many. Again, that's Hebrews chapter 12 verse 15. Bitterness is called a root because bitterness, once it gets in, begins to produce all kinds of fruits of sin. Bitterness produces anger. Bitterness produces rage. Bitterness produces mindsets that isolate us. And I'll tell you this, once that root has set in, that root begins to corrupt and choke the life out of everything around it. Maybe you felt your spiritual strength waning. Perhaps you feel isolated, disconnected, in a darker place than you've ever been before. Maybe you might feel justified in being offended with an individual or justified in the fact that you've left a church. And there are some situations where you should cut some people off. But then this is why we must search our hearts, isn't it? This is why we must consider each situation for what it is. And we must be open to the idea that maybe there might be some root of bitterness in us and we cannot become defensive. We cannot become defensive because as soon as we become defensive, any truth that comes to us, we reject immediately because we don't want to deal with the issue. Now, the other day, if I'm being honest with you, I'm not much of a cook. I can't cook anything. My wife tries to teach me. We have nights where I'll be in the kitchen and she'll try to teach me. It's not one of my spiritual gifts. And no, it's not a spiritual gift. I'm just joking. But I must be honest with you. Don't ask me how, but I burned my hand making oatmeal. And I remember when I burned my hand, there was this certain part of my hand that was very, very, very sensitive. I didn't even realize how badly I burned myself until someone went to shake my hand. And when they shook my hand, I felt the pain. Immediately, my reaction was to pull away because of that sharp pain that I felt pulsing through my hand. I didn't realize I was burned that bad until someone tried to shake my hand. Many of us are like this spiritually. We don't realize how hurt we are until someone tries to get close again. We don't realize how hurt we are until we're challenged to reconnect. We don't realize how hurt we are until we're challenged to forgive. And then when someone touches upon that area of pain, the first reaction, pull back. Don't touch me. Get away. That's why bitterness produces defensiveness. And if you are defensive, lower that defense, I don't want to be insensitive because I know there's someone watching me who has every right to be angry, every right to be hurt, every right to never want to talk to another human being again. I understand that. But may the Holy Spirit rescue you from that isolation. May the Holy Spirit bring you to the place to recognize that you are strong enough to face what you need to face. Often when we don't confront something, it can never be healed. When we are defensive, we prevent our own healing. And again, I emphasize to you this is why we must lower our defenses. So I'm coming to you as someone who loves you in the spirit, as someone who's ministering the word of God to you because of that love. And I want to make this clear. It's time now to lower the defense. I know, I know, I know. It's a scary thing. I know it can cause you to be reminded of the times you've been hurt. But I want to challenge you today to break out of this prison now. You've been a prisoner long enough. And it's time to come out of bitterness and step into the love of the Holy Spirit. So number one, bitterness is a root. Remember, it produces all kinds of darkness in our lives. Number two, bitterness and anger are partners. Anger is a manifestation of bitterness, but that doesn't mean all anger is rooted in bitterness. Ephesians chapter four, verse 31 says, get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Anger is often an attempt to protect yourself from being hurt again. And by demonstrating those acts of anger, you are doing things that you know push people away because you do not want to be approached because you do not want to be hurt. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, harsh words, harsh words. Harsh words are a manifestation of bitterness. Slander is a manifestation of bitterness. You know when you're hurt, you want everyone to know the story. You want everyone to believe that the one who hurts you is bad. You know it's bitterness when you can't just deal with it personally. You know it's bitterness when you have to go around warning people, oh, that person's like this, and you want everybody to hate the person that you hate. You want everybody to be angry with the person with whom you have issues, wanting them to take sides, hoping that they'll be loyal to you, whispering about these people. That's an act of bitterness. So number one, bitterness is a root. Number two, bitterness and anger are partners. Number three, bitterness pollutes your spiritual life. James chapter three verses seven through eleven say, people contain all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and fish, but no one contain the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right. Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water? Does a fig tree produce olives or a grapevine produce figs? No. And you can't draw fresh water from a salty spring. Again, that's James chapter three verses seven through eleven. Bitterness wants to hang on to the issue, won't let it go. And bitterness doesn't want to believe anything good about the person who offended them. Now, I understand, as I said earlier, that there are instances where you have every right to be bitter. And I'm going to show you how to deal with that in a moment, too. But more often than not, bitterness comes about not because of an experience, but because of your interpretation of an experience. You see, once you've been hurt, now you have to really get this because this is so key. And this is how bitterness can become detrimental. Once you've been hurt, once you've faced an issue where you've been hurt in your soul, in your emotions, then you begin to see things through the lens of that hurt. I'll give you an example. And this is a trivial example. And I'm by no means trying to trivialize what you might be facing. But you need to hear this. This is just an example of how bitterness works. Situations may vary and situations may often be more serious than what I'm about to say. But imagine that somebody who grew up facing rejection their whole life comes to church. And as they're walking into the church, an individual doesn't shake their hand or greet them properly. Now, any other individual in that situation would say, oh, okay, maybe they're having a bad day, or oh, well, if that's how they want to be, that's how they want to be, that's on them. But an individual who's suffered rejection after rejection after rejection is going to face that situation with a much different perspective. Because they've been hurt by rejection so often, they now have a lens through which they see everything. And when that individual doesn't greet them properly, or doesn't shake their hand properly, or isn't projecting a kind tone, then that person is going to take it as this person hates me. This person's mean. I don't like this individual. And what happens from that point on is they make an initial judgment. You know that people who make judgments based upon first impressions usually have an issue with bitterness. In other words, if their first impression of you is that they don't like you, and that's it, that you're stuck in that category of people they don't like, that's a bitterness issue. That's because of past hurt. That's because they've grown to have that defense because of something they faced in the past. Now, they keep that filter on. So no matter what anybody does, now that filter is there. Now, now watch this, that same individual in that church. And I'm not talking about anyone in particular, which is why I'm using a trivial example. Now, say for example, after having that encounter, that hurt is agitated, that soul wound is agitated. Now, it's no longer that person, it's this church. And then it stops being that church, and it goes to being this pastor, or that group, or all Christians, and it begins to form our perspective. So if you've had one bad encounter, that one bad encounter can hurt you to the point to where you're carrying around this lens through which you see all things. And no matter what is actually happening, you will always interpret that situation as something that's against you. That's why I say that when we have these experiences, they cause us to carry these hurts. Now, your experience is not always the issue. It's often how you interpret these experiences. And then what happens is you begin to build a case against people. Everything they do now is judged more harshly than anything else anyone else does. And then that piles on and that makes that lens and that judgment much more harsh. And then no matter what they do, even when they begin to do kind things for you, even when they reach out to you, even when they do something that's loving, it doesn't matter because all things that you see in them are now seen through that lens. And no matter what they do or say, it's going to be twisted against them. It's going to be twisted in a way where it makes them look negative because bitterness tries to hang on, it pollutes your spiritual life. It chokes out your joy. It chokes out your peace. It chokes out your love. It takes away your gentleness. And now what begins to happen is as that bitterness begins to grow, that lens becomes more powerful and everything becomes interpreted through that lens. Remember again, it's not your experience that causes bitterness. It's your interpretation of the experience as well as what you choose to do with the experience. And yes, there are instances, please hear me very clearly, there are instances where people have done things to hurt you. Maybe a spiritual leader hurt you. Maybe a friend hurt you. Maybe a family member hurt you. And it's so easy at that point to just give up, call it quits. But we have to learn to take this lens off. Number four, bitterness disrupts your friendships. Proverbs chapter 17 verse 9 says, love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends. It can destroy your friendships, which brings further isolation, which agitates the wound, which makes that lens more powerful. Now watch this pattern because it begins to become something that overtakes your entire life. When that bitterness is allowed into your heart, you see, as I said, through a lens. When you see through that lens, now you develop anger to protect yourself. And when you develop that anger to protect yourself, watch this now, it goes from just that defensiveness to now an attack. Now you attack your friends, you attack your loved ones, you attack everyone around you, you attack whatever it is you hold bitterness against, you attack because now that's another layer of safety that you've created for yourself. So instead of just protecting yourself from it through defensiveness, instead of just isolating yourself through anger, now you're attacking through accusation. You see, when it comes to our own mistakes, we demand mercy. When it comes to the mistakes of others, we demand revenge. When somebody hurts you like that, you want them to fill the pain and the guilt of that mistake, and you never want to take it off of them. Because here's the truth. Somewhere deep in the soul, you believe by keeping them under guilt, you're keeping them under control, and by keeping them under control, you prevent them from ever hurting you again. So now it goes from that defensiveness to the anger that brings isolation to the attack, and then the guilt that you want to hold over them, because now you control your world around you with guilt. And you cause others to be very careful. And if people have to walk around you like they're on eggshells, everything's very sensitive, they're afraid of what they might say around you, there's an issue there. But see, you've created that environment around you because of the bitterness. Now, number five, and this is the final point on bitterness, and I want to show you what the Bible says about getting free. Number five, bitterness disrupts your relationship with God. Mark chapter 11 verse 25 says, but when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins too. Forgiveness is a river. The moment you stop, stop letting it flow out from you, you stop it from flowing to you. And the forgiveness of God can no longer flow through you, and it becomes a reservoir which becomes polluted. A river remains fresh because it's constantly flowing. But when you stop that river of God's forgiveness in your life, because you're not releasing it the same way you're receiving it, it becomes backed up, it becomes static water, it does not move, and that static water becomes polluted. Let the river flow through you, receive forgiveness from God, and release forgiveness to your loved ones. Now, of course, if somebody is repeatedly doing things that offend you, and they're cruel to you, and they're, maybe you're, they're taking advantage of you in ways they shouldn't be taking advantage of you, perhaps they're using you for your finances, they're using you for your connections, whatever the case may be. Obviously, there are some unhealthy people with which we are to disconnect, but I'm talking about the believer who is stuck in isolation or even in anger. Maybe you are connected to people, but you've all kind of gathered around and you have your little angry group and you're all very bitter with everyone else. That's dangerous too. If you're united with them in bitterness, those relationships too will eventually become bitter. Now, I want to talk to you about getting free, the cure for this bitterness. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 32. Instead, be kind to each other, tender-hearted, forgiving one another just as God through Christ has forgiven you. Now, how does God forgive me? That's Ephesians chapter 4 verse 32. How does God forgive me? God forgives me again and again and again and again. Now, I want to emphasize once more that if someone is intentionally taking advantage of you, that's a different story. But if someone has an issue in their own heart and they're working through it, or someone has a hurt themselves or bitterness themselves, obviously you want to help them work through that. But we ought to forgive others as God has forgiven us through Christ. To Colossians chapter 3 verse 13, I love this verse, make allowance for each other's faults. An allowance is something you do beforehand. Make allowance for each other's faults and forgive anyone who offends you. Even the word forgive, before anything happens, give them that grace. Before anything happens, before, give them the grace. Forgiveness. It's forbearance. In other words, it takes place before. Forgiveness is not something that occurs after someone has offended me. Forgiveness is my state of being. Forgiveness is not something that happens after someone has wronged me. Forgiveness is a predisposition. It's a condition of the heart so that when offense does come, I've already given that allowance. They already have something there. People often talk about overdraft fees from their bank account. It's because there wasn't enough in the account to cover the balance. We ought to make allowance for each other's faults. In other words, carry enough in the relationship account to cover the balance of any withdrawal they might make through an offense. If I have enough in that account, then they can make some withdrawal. My friends have some good deposits made. When they offend me or hurt me, I say, don't worry, they have enough in the account to cover that. How much should we put in that account? Well, the Bible says this in Matthew chapter 18 verses 21 through 22, then Peter came to him and asked, Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me seven times? No, not seven times, Jesus replied, but 70 times seven. And he's not just talking about in general. He was talking about in any given day, 70 times seven. So if they offend me, I forgive them 70 times seven even in one day. The same way Christ forgives me, I ought to forgive others. Now I want to finish reading Colossians 3.13 just real quickly, where it says make allowance for each other's faults and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, here we go, this is key. Remember the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. You absolutely must. Bitterness seeks revenge. Forgiveness seeks reconciliation. Bitterness seeks to prove a point. In other words, I'm not going to forgive them until they get what they did. I'm not going to forgive them until they acknowledge, my philosophy is this, we need to forgive faster than they can apologize. When Jesus was being crucified, what did he say? Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. He didn't say, I'll pray that later because right now they're sinning against me. Right now they're crucifying me, so I'll wait until they come to me and apologize. And then I'll, no, no, what did he say? Father, forgive them now for they know not what they do. Forgive them now even before they ask for forgiveness. Now, I'm not making any implications on the salvation theology. Of course, we know that repentance is a part of forgiveness, but as it goes with one another, we are to have this forbearance. Forgive faster than they can apologize. You're stronger than you think you are. You can forgive. Bitterness is a prison. It's time to come out of that prison. So I'm going to pray with you right now, and I'm going to ask the Lord to help you to release, not wait for the apology, not wait for them to understand what they did wrong to you, not wait for them to pay for their mistakes. This is, this is not the biblical way. When we forgive one another in the church, we're just to cover each other. Love covers a multitude of sins. Christ is the advocate. Satan is the accuser. Don't do his job for him. Don't do the job of the accuser. Don't accuse instead forgive, forgive, forgive, forgive. Now believer, it's time to reconnect. Maybe you've disconnected from people because you've had disagreements or because you didn't see eye to eye on something or maybe you've had disagreements because of maybe a mistake they made. We need each other in the body of Christ and I know it's difficult, but it's time to forgive and be reckoned so. So I want you to pray this prayer. Say, Father, say it with me much in life right now. I want you to say, Father, help me to forgive. I want you to say their name after I say forgive. Say, Father, help me to forgive and then say their name. Lord, we pray you give them the grace. Release them from that prison. In the name of Jesus. I want you to say it because you believe. Say amen. Look, someone said, someone might say, well, wait, you're not going to pray any longer than that. Look, the Holy Spirit can do more in one second than you and I can do in hours and hours of striving. And I believe this forgiveness is a decision. It's not a feeling, it's a decision. It's a decision to act as if that offense never took place. And you may, you may still feel something in your heart, but God will heal that as you choose to forgive. Pray for the one who hurts you. Love those who come against you. That is it for the lesson. I want to welcome now the new members of Spirit Church. There you are up on the screen. We love you. We are praying for you. I always say that because I always mean it. If you like information on how you can join the Spirit family, now almost 15,000 members strong. Spirit Church is almost 15,000 members from all around the world. Go to DavidHernandezMinisteries.com Spirit Church is 100% free to join, go and join the Spirit family today. And now to your comments, these comments are from last week's teaching, Angels, Heavenly Beings. Now that was quite an interesting teaching. I had a lot of fun teaching it. I talked about the different classes of angels. I talked about even a little bit concerning the origin of fallen angels and what exactly happened there in the heavenly realm when those angels were cast down. You're absolutely going to enjoy that lesson. Go and check it out. And while you're at it, be sure to subscribe. If you're watching here on the EncounterTV YouTube channel, click the subscribe button and don't forget to click that notification bell. And if you possibly and you want me to possibly read your comments on next week's edition of Spirit Church, go ahead and leave a comment in the comment section right now. Here are the comments again from last week's teaching, Angels, Heavenly Beings. Priya Scott writes, Stephen's voice is very anointed. Every time I listen to his voice during worship, I feel the Holy Spirit. You know, I've often heard people say that Stephen sounds like what they imagine a seraphim would sound like. If you want to know what a seraphim is, make sure you watch this teaching. Build up comments. Amen. Love the e-courses. I wish you, your team and family all the best of luck. Well, they're talking about the new HolySpiritSchool.com, 100% free Bible education program. You can actually begin taking the course right now by going to HolySpiritSchool.com. Jesus Flame comments, That man angel disappeared. That's very mysterious and exciting at the same time. Today, I've signed up for HolySpiritSchool. Jesus Flame is talking about a story I told about what I think was actually my encounter with an angelic being. Again, that's on last week's teaching. And the final commenter, Chunga writes, To be honest, you and Stephen are just God sent to my life. I really had struggles with putting my spiritual life together. I recently joined and since then, I have realized there are no other places I want to be than in the presence of Jesus. After a few days of joining and going through most of your videos, my life has changed in a way I can't even explain. Everything about your channel feels like home. I am already addicted to the channel and I am hoping to catch up with all the videos that were posted before I joined. May God continue blessing you with more wisdom. You are love. Well, thank you, Chunga, for writing into us. And this is just one example of lives that are being impacted from all around the world. We're talking nations of the world are being changed. I want to challenge you to do something. You know, there's a saying that goes, you can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. When you support this ministry, it's as if you're taking your resources and giving it to Jesus himself. I had one of our ministry partners tell me today, you know why I give to your ministry? They said, I give to your ministry because it's as if I'm giving to Jesus himself. They said, I'm giving to Jesus through your ministry. And that really is what you're doing. When you give to the work of the gospel, you're doing it unto the Lord. Now, our ministry doesn't charge for videos. Our ministry doesn't charge for the Holy Spirit School. Our ministry doesn't charge for the events. All of it is given away for free. Freely, we've received, so freely we give. So how do we pay for it all? We pay for it with the support of our monthly ministry partners like you and one time givers. So I'm going to challenge you today. Sign up right now to become a partner for $10 a month at least. Now, if you partner with me for $10 or more a month, you're going to get access to a live video conference, a Zoom video conference on a monthly basis. That's with Stephen, myself. You're going to get 10% off all ministry apparel. You're going to get event seat reservations at all ministry events. By the way, all partners get that. You're going to get that exclusive monthly ministry email with updates just for our partners. And you're going to get a beautiful Dove lapel pin so that you can show your support of the gospel. If you give $30 or more a month, you're going to get all of that plus your selection of either carriers of the glory encountering the Holy Spirit in every book of the Bible or 25 truths about demons and spiritual warfare. I'll sign it and send it to you as an initiation gift. And if you partner for $100 or more a month, you're going to get all of that plus your discount will be doubled from 10% to 20% off all ministry apparel. It's your discount for the lifetime term of your partnership. And we're going to actually send you all three books and that will be our initiation gift to you. Of course, we know you give because you love Jesus, but I want you to know that we love you too. And that is how we honor you, our supporter. So go right now. Here's all I'm asking you to do. Just do this. If you've been blessed by the content, go to davidhernandezministries.com slash donate right now. Go there, open up that giving form, put it up in front of you on the screen and say, Holy Spirit, what do you want me to do? And if he speaks to you to partner for $30 a month, do it. If he tells you to give a one-time gift of any amount, do it. If everyone just does, as the Holy Spirit leads them, then by faith, we will meet every need of this ministry. And this ministry won't just keep going. It will keep growing. You're going to see stadiums filled. You're going to see millions more touched by the power of the Holy Spirit to the preaching of the gospel. You're going to see thousands more students educated to the Holy Spirit school. All of it is based on your support. Think about it like a Netflix or Hulu subscription. But if you want to support the kingdom, then now is the time to do it. Become a partner with us. Let this be your subscription. You get all the content for free anyway, but your subscription doesn't just bless you, it blesses other believers from all around the world. Go right now, davidhernandezministries.com slash donate. And that is it for this edition of Spirit Church here on the EncounterTV network. Until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God. Also, help us spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Make a one-time donation or become a monthly supporter by clicking on the donate link now.