Dove Love or Pigeon Religion

I heard a teaching the other day on GodTV by R.T. Kendall-
He told this story.

He was standing in front of a large group of people, worshiping God, singing with the congregation, "Praise the Lord, the God of Heaven," when he looked out and saw someone in the crowd who had done irreparable emotional damage to one of his children. He began to get very upset as he thought about what they had done. "How could they have done that? How can they stand there and worship God?"

Then the Lord spoke to him and asked, "You are praying for revival, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"Would you rather that I judge that person or would you rather have revival?"
"I want revival."
"Pray for them."
"Lord, I pray for them."
"That's not good enough. Ask me to bless them."
"Bless them."
"Say it again."
"Bless them."
"Say it again."
"Bless them."
"Do you mean it?"
"Yup."
"What if I really bless them?"
"Lord, you wouldn't do that, would you?"
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It was through that personal interchange with the Lord, that he was able to get up and address the crowd with peace in his soul, rather than torment.
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John 1:32-The account of John baptizing Jesus-"And John bore witness, saying, "I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him."

John knew that Jesus was the Messiah because the Holy Spirit came down like a dove and rested on Jesus and stayed .

A dove is a shy, peaceful bird. It won't stay around if it's treated unkindly.
The Holy Spirit, like the dove, will fly away if we grieve Him.

A pigeon is not as reserved as a dove. It's more pushy and insists on having its own way. But people confuse the dove and the pigeon because they are similar in appearance.

The Holy Spirit will not come down and stay with a person who is bitter; who is always pointing the finger. When we point the finger, the dove flies away and we are left to ourselves.

When we totally forgive the one who did us wrong, we won't tell anyone what they did.

We punish people with our tongue. We can't bear the thought of anyone looking up to them anymore. The lack of control of the tongue causes the dove to fly away. Too often, we just have to say something to get it off of our chest.

John the Baptist said, " I knew He was the Messiah, because the dove came down and stayed."

Sometimes, we think that people need to know what they did; that we shouldn't forgive them unless they ask to be forgiven. But on the cross, Jesus said, "Father, forgive them. They don't know what they are doing."

Sometimes, people not only don't ask for forgiveness, they don't even know that they've hurt us. Our problem is, we want to make sure they know.

When the ungrieved Spirit in me recognizes the ungrieved Spirit in you, our fellowship in the Spirit is sweet.

We keep records of wrongs and we lose the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
Tear up the record of wrongs. Denying that the person wronged you is not walking in forgiveness. Face the awfulness of what they did, and then forgive them. Forgiveness is an act of your will. This does not mean that we trust the offender. We forgive them. We let them off the hook. But we are not foolish with our trust. (The speaker forgave the one who offended his child, but I doubt if he allowed him to have a relationship with his child again.)

Do you want the anointing of the spirit more than you want personal vindication?

If our church body and the body of Christ became void of bitterness and walked in forgiveness, who knows what could happen to this part of the world, because we want His glory and His honor more than we want to look good and be right?!(RTKendall)
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We cannot make a peaceful home for the dove to remain if we are bitter and unforgiving. We waste our breath, praying for revival, asking for the Holy Spirit to come, if we have not cleansed our lives of 'pigeon religion', the appearance of the dove without its pure heart.

Sometimes, we might forgive a person, but make an inner vow to never let anyone ever hurt us like that again. Other people are held at a distance because of what someone else did to us. If we are truly going to love others and be loved by them, we have to take the risk of being hurt again. If God gave us grace to forgive once, He will give us grace to forgive again. If we withhold fellowship from others because of our fear of being hurt, we are rejecting them in another's name, and we give them something to forgive in us. And, we may miss a great blessing that God had in store for more than just us. If we truly believe that it is 'all about Him', we won't be so afraid of having relationships with others. We won't be so fearful of being hurt. Jesus related to Judas and He knew he would betray Him. This is no easy task. I don't know a human being on earth who hasn't said in his/her heart, 'Never Again.'
Sometimes, that's good. Sometimes, it isn't. God give us discernment beyond the hurt in our heart.

Help us, Lord, to love one another with a pure heart.
Help us to forgive, as You forgave.
Let Your Spirit come to us and remain.
Let Your Dove alight on us and stay.