As we talk about our individual and national need to repent of sin (tearing down “idols” and “altars” to false gods) and to wholeheartedly return to God (rebuilding the “altar” of the Lord) to worship and follow Him alone, it’s important to emphasize that our purpose in calling for repentance and speaking about the changes the Lord has revealed must occur in our individual lives, the church, and the nation is not to condemn people who have experienced these things. The message of repentance is not one of hatred, but one of hope. It reveals that though we are headed to judgment, God is crying out to us to turn back to Him so we may be spared. His desire is for those who have experienced abortion, those bound in any lifestyle of sin, and for ALL, to turn from sin and receive the forgiveness, salvation, deliverance, healing, restoration, and life found only through a personal relationship with Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
The following testimony of God’s forgiveness, healing, and hope post-abortion is an excerpt from the first book in my series on the Holy Spirit:
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In this testimony, we can see how God may manifest multiple gifts through one person to minister to another. On this particular occasion I had the opportunity to minister healing to a new friend who was from a similar background to mine, but was open to hearing more about the Holy Spirit. One night, after sharing about a physical issue she suffered from, she agreed to let me pray for her healing. When I laid hands on her and prayed, I felt the tangible power of God; but I was still too young in my understanding of operating in the gifts to know whether I should ask her if she also felt God’s manifest power and if she believed she had received. Feeling something is not a requirement; many people feel nothing, but feeling something can quicken someone’s faith to receive. She thanked me for my prayer, but a few months later I learned that she had surgery for the issue for which we had prayed.
I was very troubled by this and began asking God why she hadn’t received the manifestation of her healing when I knew that His provision and power were available and that I’d even felt them manifest when I prayed. As I cried out in prayer over a period of time, God gave me a word of knowledge that she had not received because of self-condemnation from something which happened in her past. Her own guilt, not fully believing at a heart level that God had forgiven her, was blocking her from receiving His provision of healing that He longed for her to receive. As I continued to press in, praying for more specific revelation from the Lord, one night He supernaturally revealed to me that the self-condemnation was the result of an abortion. Again, because I was so new to all of this, I wasn’t certain that these things I was hearing in my heart and mind were actually from God, if it was just me, or even worse, the enemy.
I kept praying about it for months, wanting a confirmation that would remove all doubt. Though I never received that, neither could I ever shake the thought that I needed to “step out and find out” (as many say about walking by faith). When I finally stirred up the courage to approach her, I wrote what I thought God had spoken to me in general terms to test the waters. I didn’t mention the specific sin, but just said that I believed God had revealed to me that guilt and self-condemnation over a sin from her past had kept her from receiving the healing the Lord wanted her to receive, and then ministered to her about His forgiveness. She responded in amazement, confiding that she had just started to meet with a counselor to try to deal with something that happened over 20 years earlier. I was thankful that I’d heard at least that much accurately, but was still uncertain if I should share in further detail. I continued to pray about it for several more months.
Quite a bit of time passed in which we had not seen each other, but one day she came over on short notice for prayer and ministry due to an unexpected personal crisis in her life. Though she definitely needed prayer for the current situation, I felt the Lord impress on me that it was going to be unfruitful to pray for her unless we first dealt with the root of her self-condemnation. If we failed to address that root issue, it would continue to hinder her from receiving the answers and provision He wanted to give her ~ not because He wasn’t giving, but because she was unable to receive. Due to the critical nature of her current situation, there was no room or time for another failure. So I took a deep breath and stepped out in faith. There were actually two words of knowledge that I believed I had received. The first, I was less certain had been for her. I had received it while praying for both her and another woman, so I didn’t know if it was for one or the other or both of them. When I told her that word, she just listened, not confirming one way or the other. So it took everything I had to rally the courage to continue. By the grace of God, I stepped out further, telling her that I believed God had showed me that the root of her self-condemnation was the result of an abortion. As soon as I said it, she burst into tears. Then she confirmed that both words were accurate. She had kept these things secret from everyone for all these years, but the burden of guilt and shame was slowly destroying her.
The Lord led me to tell her that He did not reveal this to me in order to shame her or condemn her. He revealed it to me because He wanted her to be set free from the shame and condemnation that had been keeping her from experiencing His love and blessings for so many years. She believed she didn’t deserve them ~ and the truth is that none of us do! Thank God for Jesus! He wanted her to know that His forgiveness had been hers from the first moment she had repented, and that He had removed her sin as far as the east is from the west and remembered it no more (choosing not to hold it against her).
Because she knew that there was no way I could have known her past with my natural mind, she knew this was truly the word of the Lord. This enabled her to finally believe and receive His forgiveness. It is one thing to have mental information from God’s written Word (logos) that He forgives our sins; it is another thing entirely for the Lord to make His forgiveness a heart revelation. One personal word (rhema) from God can do more to bring healing than a lifetime of therapy and counseling. Mental information from His Word only becomes heart revelation that transforms our lives through personal relationship with Him ~ Word and Spirit working together.
She asked me for some Scriptures from my boxes of Scripture cards ~ knowing I had an entire arsenal of artillery for any occasion. As I began to reach for a box, suddenly the Lord reminded me of something. That morning I awoke earlier than normal and couldn’t go back to sleep, which at the time was a very rare occurrence for me. Usually, when I wake up (wide awake) during sleeping hours I get up to seek the Lord in case there is someone He wants me to pray for. That morning, I got up and went to my Scripture card box to meditate on a stack of Scriptures. I picked a stack that I hadn’t looked at for quite a while, and as I was going through it, found two cards that had the same Scripture. I pulled out the duplicate card and set it on the coffee table, thinking that I would re-file it under a different category later. Here in the moment with my friend, as I reached for my box, the Lord reminded me about my time with Him that morning and told me to give her the duplicate Scripture card on the coffee table. It was the exact Scripture she needed and was further confirmation of what I had ministered to her.
The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him…. Psalm 103:8-13
That morning at 5 a.m. I had no idea that later that day I’d be sitting there with her, but God did! It was an amazing and powerful time. I felt like the Lord also gave me some prophetic words about her destiny that she said confirmed things He had spoken to her in the past couple of months through various other people. All of this was just what she needed that day to convince her not to give up on life. In the natural realm, this was another situation where I was in WAY OVER MY HEAD and would have been utterly helpless. But thanks to the Holy Spirit and His supernatural gifts, He provided just what was needed to bring healing to the brokenhearted in a way I never could on my own.
I’m also thrilled to report that after being set free from self-condemnation, she was then able to receive supernatural healing on several other occasions when I prayed for her. On one of these occasions the physical healing was also accompanied by further emotional healing when she shared a dream that had troubled her. The Lord gave me a word of wisdom to interpret the dream which helped to free her from more of the trauma she had been through and to restore her joy. She fell in love with the Lord like never before because of how He made Himself known to her in such personal and powerful ways.
We pray all who have had abortions will find this same forgiveness, healing, and restoration through relationship with Jesus Christ, and will one day be able to be reunited with their children who are now enjoying the perfection of heaven with the Lord.
Copyright © Laura Jewell Tyree
