“Go to Jerusalem.” That’s what Toni Hebel says she heard while having her quiet time with God just a month ago. She sensed that she and her entire family were supposed to go and take the message of forgiveness to the Jewish people in Israel.
For anyone else, that might be an overwhelming vision. But for the Hebel family, overwhelming visions are becoming common.
Bruce and Toni Hebel head Regenerating Life Ministries based in Fayette County. While in pastoral ministry for 30 years, they say they have had many opportunities to forgive personally and have helped many other people forgive as well.
“Having been set free ourselves, we began to coach other people to freedom through forgiveness,” the Hebels say.
Many broken relationships have been restored, families have been reconciled and some people have even received physical healing through forgiving. Many who have received this gift of freedom have then walked others through the protocols of forgiveness, something the Hebels call “Forgiving Forward.”
Their approach to forgiveness was so fresh, and their results so dramatic, they were urged by a friend to leave local church ministry and focus exclusively on teaching the message of forgiveness to the world. That friend was Bruce Wilkinson, author of The Prayer, of Jabez.
Wilkinson told Bruce Hebel to write a book on forgiveness. Hebel told Wilkinson “‘You’re ‘Bruce the writer’; I’m ‘Bruce the reader’— you write it.” Wilkinson insisted it was Hebel’s book to write.
So Bruce and Toni published Forgiving Forward: Unleashing the Forgiveness Revolution in April, 2011, and were sent out by the church they had planted in Tyrone to begin teaching forgiveness full-time.
They’ve since coached many wounded pastors, ministry leaders and people on the street through forgiveness, both here in the states and around the world.
But teaching Jewish believers in Israel is something new, as is having all three kids ministering with them overseas. When Toni first told Bruce of the idea he said, “That would take several miracles!”
Thankfully, the Hebels say they serve a God of miracles. They knew in order to go, they had to have someplace to speak and the resources to go. Their son Andrew, currently studying in Israel, connected them with a Messianic church he has been attending there. Around 600 Jewish Christians will be on hand for the forgiveness seminar on July 23, which will be taught through a Hebrew translator.
Andrew is also arranging other ministry opportunities for the Hebels including ministering to a group of gypsies.
Within a week after the Hebels started praying about the trip as a family, a seminar participant in North Atlanta offered a large gift to the family that covered most of the plane fares. So they are on their way.
Still, the most astounding provision for this trip was not a venue or a check, they say. It was a verse.
While preparing to speak for a recent ladies’ conference, Toni says she heard God’s voice again, saying, “to the nations.” When she opened her Bible to begin her preparations, she was surprised to read Luke 24:47 where Jesus says, “repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” The Hebels had included this verse in their book Forgiving Forward and their seminars, but never imagined the phrase “beginning in Jerusalem” would become a literal directive for their family. It has.
The Hebels will chronicle their trip through their website, ForgivingForward.com, where followers can order their book, subscribe to their blog or link to Forgiving Forward on Facebook and Twitter.
