24/09/2026
Colleen Doyle teaching notes form Aglow Retreat Day 12th September 2026
Session 1: Restore on the subject of Forgiveness
The power of forgiveness
Matt 6: 12,14,15 The Lord’s prayer ‘Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
If you do not forgive, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive you.’
Matthew 18: 21 – 35 gives the parable of the wicked servant who would not forgive.
When we choose not to forgive, we choose the consequences- put ourselves in a prison some translators say ‘delivered to the tormentors. Best not to go there!
If we don’t forgive, we can end up betraying someone through gossip
We need to have a life-style of forgiveness.
God uses potentially bitter experiences to build forgiveness into us.
A thought: What would have happened to Joseph’s dream if he hadn’t forgiven along the way.
To live in forgiveness is to live in power!
Have we forgiven others? - for things they have done or said to us?
Have we forgiven ourself? - for things we have done?
Have we forgiven God? - where we perceived He was not acting towards us in kindness?
We can be free, by accepting God’s complete forgiveness and stepping out of the prison of unforgiveness!
In her communion message, Colleen talked about the two key aspects of forgiveness as seen in the structure of the cross. The vertical post represents God’s forgiveness toward us and the horizontal beam represents us walking in forgiveness with others. We need both.
Session 2: Renew on the subject of Discernment
We need spiritual discernment against deception in the last days.
Matt 13:30 the tares grew up with the wheat. They were only separated at the time of harvest.
Matt 24: 11 Jesus warns against deception in the last days
Acts 16: 16 - 18 the slave girl who followed Paul spoke the truth when she said, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who show us the way of salvation”.
It wasn’t the words that she spoke, but the spirit behind them that was against the Lord.
Her words distracted the people from listening to Paul. We need to be able to discern the spirit from which preachers/prophets are speaking. Is it from God or from the devil?
We need to be discerning. Watch out for sin being normalised inside the church.
Be attentive to what we allow ourselves to see and hear (the eye gate and the ear gate).
The enemy is like a python, wanting to squeeze the life out of the Western Church.
The church needs to WAKE UP and not be distracted by peripheral thigs!
Jn 10 :27 My sheep hear my voice
Jn 14:26 Jesus said, ”The Holy Spirit will teach you all things and remind you of everything I told you” (NLT)
Heb 5:14 God wants to give us solid food so we can discern between good and evil.
It’s not just knowing the scriptures but being applying them.
Session 3: Deeply Rooted on the subject of our Adoption
Jeremiah 17:8 is a promise for those who trust in the Lord
- they are like trees who send out roots by the river, who aren’t concerned in times of drought and who do not stop being fruitful.
If we are deeply rooted in the Lord, we can still be steady in our lives no matter what winds blow against us. It is a position of rest
Colleen linked this being deeply rooted to our understanding that we are not spiritual orphans, but we have been adopted by our heavenly Father to be His sons and daughters.
Understanding this adoption is of great importance.
Ephesians 1:4 ...we are chosen by God to be children of God
Gal 3:26,27 ‘ you are ALL children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.’
Romans 8: 15, 16
Orphans behave differently than adopted children.
They are insecure and restless, looking on the negative side of life, often expecting things to go wrong. They feel they have to make it on their own and may promote themselves. Whereas, children of loving parents have security and don’t need to prove themselves.
When we know we are adopted by God, we can rely on Him for everything: provision, open doors in housing and work, and for the healing of our minds, hearts and bodies. We are no longer rootless!
God loves me (you) just as much as He loves Jesus!
Sometimes we disqualify ourselves but God doesn’t disqualify us!
2 Tim 1:7
John 14:18 Jesus said, “I will not leave you as orphans” (comfortless, bereaved, helpless) (Amplified Bible)
