The Lord gently said to me one day, “There are still many areas in your heart that hold unforgiveness. You need to forgive deeply in order to soar.”

This is a season where My children must forgive – truly, deeply, completely. I am going deep into the hearts of those who would open to Me and reveal all the unforgiveness that is holding them back; unforgiveness toward others, themselves, and even Me. I will help them through to Deep Forgiveness, so that they can get free from the shackles and truly soar in the places I have called them to.

The Lord spoke these words, and a few days later He showed me the map to deep forgiveness. The kind of forgiveness that transcends the intellect + emotions + even spiritual warfare.

The Lord showed me the different stages of forgiveness, and here they are listed below.

Stage 1: Intellectual Forgiveness (immediate). We understand + believe the importance of forgiveness, and we make the choice to forgive even though it still hurts. We choose to obey God, trusting that as we forgive He will bring healing to the pain in our hearts.

Stage 2: Emotional Forgiveness (process). As we keep choosing to forgive, the sting of our wound begins to heal, and we can look back on that incident/person and bless them. We can say like Joseph did, “God was in that and He used it to make me a better person.”  The deeper the wound, the deeper the layers of forgiveness, the longer the process.

Stage 3: Spiritual Forgiveness (2nd heaven). There is a real battle in the heavenlies (Ephesians 6:12, Revelation 12:7, Daniel 10:13). Sometimes we need to wrestle for our hearts. The angels and demons battle in this realm, and we must make a choice which side we’ll fight on.  James 4:7 says, “Submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you,” an important principal to remember in this stage.

Stage 4: Supernatural Forgiveness (3rd heaven). This is the realm that transcends our intellect (Job 36:26), emotions (Philippians 4:7), and even the spiritual principalities (Ephesians 1: 20-22). This is the level where we find deep, lasting forgiveness + freedom in our hearts.

What does deep, supernatural forgiveness look like?

There are some wounds in my heart that don’t hurt that much, a little scratch that is soothed with a simple, “Lord I choose to forgive this person”.  Choosing to forgive any little offense on a daily basis helps keep my heart clean from the dust of traveling this road of life.

But there are the deeper wounds.

Careless words from a loved one, betrayal by those we trust most, rejection, failure. These wounds run deep, and I’ve found that all the years of intellectual, emotional, and even spiritual forgiveness haven’t healed those areas of woundedness. Have they helped? For sure. But not completely. For the deeper wounds, they are rudimentary solutions at best.

Deep wounds require supernatural healing.

We cannot heal ourselves at the deepest, most hidden bedrock of our subconscious. God must take over.

The Lord began to show me that when we pierce through the earthly + spiritual realms (stages 1-3) in worship, we enter into the place in Ephesians 2:6 where we are “seated with Jesus in heavenly places” (stage 4).

That’s where the throne of God is, seated above the earth + spiritual forces of good and evil.

In this place in the throne room, all strife and spiritual fighting cease. The flesh has been laid down (levels 1 & 2), the enemy silenced (level 3).

This is the no-war zone. It’s just God, and me. And this is the place where it’s so easy to lay it all down. Before His great throne, it’s so simple to put down all the deep hurts I never even knew I carried. Healing + surrender are a spontaneous response to His beautiful glory.

In this place, we no longer reach up to heaven to change our earthly circumstances. Instead, we are reaching down from where we’re seated in heaven to touch earth. We experience deep transformation because we are literally living on earth as it is in heaven.

And there is an invitation to all who would say Yes. Come up higher, press in to the throne room of your God. Push through your soul’s fears and worries, push through the enemy’s voice. There is a break through available to you. Come up higher into the holy place.

He has decreed it, and He will empower you to make His word happen.