One of the most important actions we will do on this prayer walk will be operating as God's agents, enforcing the victory of the Blood Atonement of Jesus Christ. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have life everlasting." Isaiah 53:10-11 "it pleased the Lord to bruise Him…My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities." This wonderful reconciliation was the Father's plan from the beginning and this truth shouts throughout the whole bible. We have been made ambassadors for Christ according to II Cor 5:20—government agents— for this new Covenant of reconciliation. With this in mind, I hope to lay a scriptural foundation for the dynamics of actually doing this.
After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples and He gave them a particularly powerful piece of His Great Commission in John 20:21-23:
"As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.' And when He said this, He breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you shall remit, they are remitted; whose sins you shall retain they are retained."
(Remitting sin and repentance are also linked together in Mark 1:4.)
Many times synonyms help to clarify a concept, so I give you these two important descriptions from Strong's Concordance and Webster's dictionary:
Remit: [action word] To send forth, to cry, to forsake; to lay aside, to send payment
for; to yield up, to acquit, to overlook; to absolve; to release, to pardon, to exempt; to forward, to deliver, to dispatch; to cry out or declare release
Retain: [action word] To be offended by; hold onto, withhold; control, tie up;
avenge, take revenge, get the upper hand; impose a duty on, make
responsible; repress, suppress, restrict; continue
Henry Gruver, a 40 year veteran of prayer walking, explains the practical concept of remitting sins in his book, Prayer Walking.
"By remitting, you lift the heavy load of condemnation off the people. God still deals with them. They will still have to personally confess their sins and be converted. Remitting is only a lifting the burden of condemnation/oppression so they can breathe again. If we see a person sin an obvious sin, then it is our responsibility to remit that sin (Jn 20:23). We have a choice, either to remit or retain. To take the sin personally is to retain it. To give it to the Father and to declare the sin has been paid for by the Blood of Jesus, is remitting it. Next we pray that the Father will send His Goodness to lead them to repentance (Rom 2:4). Then, ask the Father if you, personally, have any further responsibility for personal witness, prayer or confrontation. If you don't have peace to proceed with personal evangelism, then pray Matt 9:38: 'Ask the Lord of the Harvest to send forth laborers into His Harvest.' We must understand and base all of our intercessions on the solid truth of the Love of the Father. His heart says, 'I want you to be restored to Me. I want your fellowship and your communion with Me restored!' His heart calls to individuals, churches and cities."
This next scripture encourages us to DECLARE with all our confidence the Righteousness of God in the forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ. Rom 3:23-26:
"For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God; being justified freely by His Grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation (payment) through faith in His blood, to declare His Righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness, that He might be just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." Glory to the Lord!!!
Remission in this verse in Greek is "pareisaktos" (par-ice'-ak-tos) which means "smuggled in or brought in unawares."
This clarification uncovers another little nugget of wonderful truth: God smuggled in the hidden mystery of reconciliation through Christ Jesus' sacrifice. With the enemy unawares, God carried out the rescue of mankind through the atoning blood of the King of Kings. Hallelujah!
I Cor 2:7-8:
"the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory."
How wonderful and privileged we are to be called the Sons of God. We are joined to Him for all eternity!
Matt 26:28: "For this is My Blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for the remission of sins."
II Cor 5:20: "We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us."
This is how we declare His Righteousness: we remit any sin which we see with our eyes or sin which the Holy Spirit shows us. Once we have done this, the next step is to release the Goodness and Kindness of God over the land and those who are living there.
Rom 2:4: "The Goodness of God leads to repentance…"
We should then ask the Father to restore His creation. Ask Him to breathe His breath of Life on the people and on the land and to reveal Himself to His loved ones and bring forth true repentance and marvelous salvations.