Years ago at a Believers’ Convention, I was standing on the 2nd row when all of a sudden, Reverend Oral Roberts turned around to me and said, “You’re called aren’t you, but there’s something you’re not letting go of.”  He told me to put my hands up and started hitting my elbows saying, “Let go, let go.”

I have to be honest with you.  At that moment, I didn’t know what he was talking about.  In fact, I was embarrassed.  I didn’t know what to do.  That night I went back to my hotel room and started crying.  I said, “God, what is he talking about?  What am I not letting go of?”

The Lord began to show me that it was the guilt of my past.  The shame of certain things I went through and that I hadn’t let it go.

Have you ever wondered why we keep going to God asking for forgiveness for the same sin over and over again?  Why do we do that?  Why do we remember what God says He has forgotten?  His Word says that He will remember our sins no more.  He forgives us of our sins the first time we ask.  We are the ones who have a hard time letting it go.

But I want you to know that shame and guilt, not letting go of your past, will keep you from your calling.  It will completely stop you from doing what God put you on the earth to do.

Have you ever noticed that shame and guilt will cause you to carry yourself differently?  It does.  A lot of times someone who is feeling guilty or ashamed will have their head down, they will try to cover up their face.  Don’t you think it’s interesting that Jesus is called the “lifter of our head”?  Jesus doesn’t want you to walk around feeling ashamed of what you have done in the past.  You know, it’s interesting to me that the same devil who tempts us to sin is the same one who will fill you with guilt, shame, and condemnation after you did it.

When my dad turned the operation of his ministry over to me, I was coming out of a really hard time in my life.  I was struggling with the thought of taking this position because I really thought my dad had missed it.  I was crying out to God because I thought it was the worst time in my life for him to put me in this position.  So I was really struggling with it.

One morning as I was praying, I said, “Lord, what do I do?  I don’t want to take this position.  Look at all the mistakes I’ve made.  I need your wisdom.”

All of a sudden, I saw myself standing at the foot of the cross.  All I could see was Jesus’ feet.  The blood that was dripping off of His feet began to land on the top of my head.  As I looked up at Him, the blood was hitting my head and then it began to pour all over me.  I started crying.  Then I heard Him say to me as the blood was hitting my head that He was washing the memories away, He was washing the torment from my mind away.  As the blood got to my heart, He said, “I am the healer of the broken hearted.  I will restore your soul.”  As the blood got to my feet, the residue of sin was gone, and then He said, “I see you like that.  I see you through the blood of Jesus.”

That is how God sees you.  He sees you through the blood of His son.  He doesn’t see the past junk in your life.  It’s almost as if He has on glasses that are red.  He sees you through the blood of Jesus and there is no sin in the blood of Jesus.

Then He handed me a clipboard and some keys and said, “This is an assignment on your life and here are the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven to fulfill that assignment.”

You know, I needed to see that.  There is no way I could have ever lead a ministry feeling shameful, feeling like a failure.  And there’s no way you can fulfill the call on your life if that’s the way you feel.  Satan is the one making you feel that way.  Don’t waste another day of your life reminding yourself and reminding God of something that’s over!  As soon as the memories of the past roll over in your mind, say out loud, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus” (even if you have to say it 100 times a day).

Begin to see yourself through the blood of Jesus.  It’s time for you to fulfill the assignment on your life, but you must first get over your past.  Remember it no more.  Why should you?  God doesn’t.