Special Guest Speaker: Pastor Vladimir Pisarchuk — Forgiveness, the Doorway to Freedom and Healing

Pastor Vladimir Pisarchuk teaches that the kingdom of God is not religion but freedom, and that forgiveness is the doorway into that freedom and into healing. Speaking as a special guest at NTC Ministries, he lists the pillars the kingdom stands on, then stops on the one he calls the least addressed and the biggest problem in the church: forgiveness and reconciliation. Unforgiveness, he says, becomes a stumbling block that keeps believers from advancing, while forgiveness lets God heal, restore and use them.

Below you will find the full video, a structured summary of the message, the Scriptures he uses (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline, and practical steps for walking in forgiveness this week.

Sermon at a Glance

This message was posted on April 15, 2025. Pastor Pisarchuk, who says he is Russian and has lived in America for 30 years, opens by honoring Dr. William, whom he met more than 13 years earlier and has often translated for in Russian-speaking churches. He calls him a father, a pastor and a leader to his family, and says that whenever Dr. William speaks, he speaks about the kingdom.

He leads a ministry he calls Anchor of Hope, which works with people he describes as the “broken, busted, and disgusted,” the ones many churches do not want. He had been teaching on forgiveness in his own church since January, and he says honestly that this short message barely touches a topic he had spent six months on.

From Religion to Kingdom Freedom

Pastor Pisarchuk says he was brought up in a very religious setting, and when he parted ways with it, he found freedom. “Kingdom of God is not the religion. It’s a freedom,” he tells the church. Religion, as he puts it, is man getting an idea and preaching rules and regulations, and it kills people. When the kingdom of God comes, it brings life. Since he received that revelation, he says, he does not want to preach anything else.

He uses himself as evidence. He jokes that his wife tells him he is handsome and he trusts her completely. Then he turns serious: he should be in a wheelchair, he says, but God restored his life. The man who was chronically ill all the time is now, in his words, “chronically healthy” because of the kingdom of God. When the kingdom comes, it changes everything.

He notices how quickly people accept a person’s opinion but resist what God says about them. He recently spoke with a young woman who insisted God did not love her. All God is expressing is His love, he told her. We see people, he explains, but we do not see God, so we grab hold of human opinions and push away God’s.

The Pillars of the Kingdom

He asks the congregation what the kingdom stands on. Someone answers faith, and he agrees: without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Then he runs through the pillars he had outlined before deciding to stop on one of them. The list below follows his order.

On righteousness he quotes the Bible’s warning that nothing unclean will enter the kingdom (Revelation 21:27), and laughs that when he asks for the righteous to raise their hands, everyone pulls their hands down. He wants to be there, he says, so his hand goes up. Righteousness, like grace, is a foundation the kingdom cannot stand without.

A Covenant Made at 4 A.M.

Covenant relationship gets a story. Pastor Pisarchuk says he caught the same passion for the kingdom from Dr. William and began traveling everywhere to spread it. But every time he left home, something went wrong: the water heater, the furnace, the air conditioning, the children. His wife would call him in Honduras to say they had a problem.

The night before a trip to India, his wife had a stroke, and he cancelled his flight. On the way to the hospital they prayed, recognizing resistance against the kingdom. Doctors sent her straight for an MRI; afterward, he reports, the doctor said he saw the problem, yet found nothing there.

Driving home at four in the morning, he and his wife held hands and made a covenant with the Lord. They told the Father they would go anywhere He sent them to spread the kingdom, but that while he was away he could not be worried about his wife’s health or his house, so God would have to protect them and bless their finances. “We never had a problem,” he says.

His encouragement is simple: you know your Father, so talk to Him and make a covenant with Him. He enjoys it, he says, because he keeps asking what else the Father has for him. It is a blessing to be in covenant with God.

Pastor Vladimir Pisarchuk on Forgiveness

At the start of the year, Pastor Vladimir Pisarchuk says, the Lord dealt with him in prayer and led him to teach his congregation on forgiveness. Everyone has been wounded, and Scripture requires you to forgive the one who wounded you. “Forgiveness it’s not what you deserve,” he says; it is the grace of your heart to extend love no matter what. If the other person deserved it, it would be payment, not forgiveness.

He points to John 3:16. God did not love only the church or good people; He loved the world, every person, however wicked. The price has already been paid for all of them; many simply do not know it yet. Religion, he says, makes people crawl. God says to anyone who asks, “You are forgiven. Welcome to the kingdom.” Because God has forgiven us, He requires us to forgive (Matthew 6:14–15).

In his ministry he has seen forgiveness and healing go together. He tells of nine or ten people who came to them with cancer and, he testifies, were set free by the grace of God, but they first had to be ministered forgiveness. He believes unforgiveness can lie behind a person’s sickness, and that without forgiveness you cannot advance in the kingdom; it becomes a limitation.

He estimates that in many churches 90 percent of people are offended. At a service in South Carolina, where people from several churches gathered, he again felt led to speak on forgiveness, and about ten pastors came forward for prayer. If the pastors are carrying that much hurt, he asks, what do the churches look like? Pastors are human and get hurt like everyone else.

Forgiving yourself can be hardest of all. One woman told him she could forgive everyone except herself. His advice: you made a mistake and may still pay a price for it, but move on and forgive yourself.

A God Who Swore Not to Be Angry

The passage he loves most here is Isaiah 54:9. Just as God swore in the days of Noah that the waters would never again cover the earth, so He has sworn that He will not be angry with His people or rebuke them. When God speaks, Pastor Pisarchuk says, it becomes law; when God swears, it is settled and He will not move from it.

“My God, he actually swore not to get angry at me,” he says. Understanding that promise helped him understand the pillars of the kingdom. God brought righteousness into his life without demanding a promise in return, and so he chooses to stick to righteousness. He calls forgiveness “the doorway to freedom and healing.”

Paul writes in Ephesians 4:31–32 to put away all bitterness, wrath, anger and evil speaking. He admits that sometimes we like our bitterness and camp in it, building on it until it grows. He also tells of a man in Washington who said he had forgiven someone but asked why God was not doing anything. What he really wanted, Pastor Pisarchuk realized, was to see the other man suffer, and that is not forgiveness.

God dealt with him personally too. As iron sharpens iron (Proverbs 27:17), he jokes, God gave him a daughter with his own character. One morning his wife told him she had prayed and that he carried a 25-year-old wound that had never healed. That same morning a minister in Minneapolis texted that God had been speaking to him about Pastor Pisarchuk. God positions people to help you, he says, but He never talks you down.

He illustrates hidden hurt with a video clip of a carpet installer who stomps down a lump in a new white carpet, only for a girl to ask if anyone has seen her hamster. It is a silly joke, he admits, but that is what we do with hurt: we sweep it under the rug and find a stain later. Hebrews 12:15 warns against a root of bitterness that springs up and defiles many. He recalls a man in Minneapolis dying of a brain cancer who vowed never to forgive and died at 49.

What Forgiveness Is and Is Not

We are called to imitate God (Ephesians 5:1), just as Paul said to imitate him as he imitated Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). One way we become like God is by forgiving as He forgives. Pastor Pisarchuk points to Jesus’ words that if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven (John 20:23), and calls bringing forgiveness into someone else’s life a God-given gift.

He tells of praying for a sick man by first releasing forgiveness over whatever was in his past; the man, he reports, got out of bed that night. When people came to Jesus for healing, He often said, “I forgive you,” because healing without forgiveness, he says, does not last. Christ died for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8), without waiting for us to ask. His small church, mostly former Baptists, now prays for people in stores and sees results.

When you pray, first forgive anyone you hold a grudge against (Mark 11:25). Admit the pain: the Lord is near to those who have a broken heart (Psalm 34:18), so stop hiding behind “I’m doing great.” And never take revenge, because vengeance belongs to the Lord (Romans 12:19). God’s answer to your enemy, he says, is often salvation. In Washington, two young men from rival Russian gangs hunting each other met at the same church one night, and both received Christ.

Forgiveness does not mean putting yourself back in harm’s way. He tells of a woman in an abusive marriage whose church leaders told her she had to take her husband back. He told her to keep the protective order in place and challenged those leaders to house the man themselves; none would. You forgive someone who hurt you in a dark alley, he says, but you do not walk back into that alley.

He closes the teaching with these distinctions:

• Forgiveness is a decision, not a feeling. It has nothing to do with whether you feel like it.
• Forgiveness is letting go of the right to get even. You stop waiting for the day you settle the score.
• Forgiveness is trusting God’s justice, not yours. His justice often looks nothing like yours.
• Forgiveness is not forgetting or excusing. Like the scars from his years in construction, the mark remains, but you no longer live there.
• Forgiveness is not denying the pain. What happened was real and may hurt for a long time.
• Forgiveness is not automatically restoring trust. Trust has to be earned again.

Walking in Forgiveness This Week

Why is forgiveness so hard? The weight of betrayal, the lie that holding on protects you, and the fear that forgiving means injustice wins. But God comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others (2 Corinthians 1:3–4). He chose us before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), and created us in His image (Genesis 1:27). Practical steps from this message:

• Name the wound. Ask God, and perhaps your spouse or a trusted friend, to show you hurts you have swept under the rug.
• Decide, then pray it out loud. Release the person into God’s hands by name, whether you feel like it or not.
• Forgive yourself. Accept the consequences of past mistakes without living under them.
• Forgive before you pray. Clear any grudge before bringing your requests to the Father.
• Bring forgiveness to others. When you pray for someone who is hurting or sick, start by speaking God’s forgiveness over them.
• Keep wise boundaries. Forgive fully while letting trust be rebuilt over time.

Pastor Pisarchuk ends by leading the church in a prayer: thanking the Father for forgiving them, deciding to forgive those who wounded them and releasing them into His hands, forgiving themselves, and inviting the freedom of the kingdom into their lives. Nobody can make that choice for you, he says; not even his wife could do it for him.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:02 Greetings and 13 years with Dr. William
• 1:31 Religion versus the freedom of the kingdom
• 3:47 From chronically ill to chronically healthy
• 4:54 The pillars of the kingdom
• 5:53 Lordship, truth, righteousness and grace
• 7:14 Covenant relationship and the hospital night
• 9:11 Faith, love, obedience and the rest of the list
• 10:51 Forgiveness is not what you deserve
• 13:31 Anchor of Hope and the broken
• 15:54 Ten pastors come forward
• 17:16 Forgiving yourself and Isaiah 54:9
• 19:47 God swore not to be angry
• 22:29 Ephesians 4:31–32: get rid of bitterness
• 25:06 A 25-year-old wound
• 28:46 Matthew 6:14–15 and imitating God
• 31:16 Healing and forgiveness together
• 34:51 The lump in the carpet
• 36:58 A root of bitterness and Mark 11:25
• 40:13 Psalm 34:18 and never take revenge
• 42:46 Two rivals saved the same night
• 45:09 What forgiveness is and is not
• 48:30 Why it is hard to forgive
• 50:32 Comforted to comfort others
• 54:03 A prayer of release

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Pastor Vladimir Pisarchuk?

He is a Russian-born pastor who has lived in the United States for 30 years, including 16 years in Washington State. He leads a ministry called Anchor of Hope that reaches people many churches overlook, and he has served alongside Dr. William for more than 13 years, often translating for him in Russian-speaking churches. He describes himself as someone God healed from chronic illness.

Is it wrong to want God to punish the person who hurt me?

Pastor Pisarchuk says that wanting to see someone suffer as much as you did shows you have not yet forgiven. Vengeance belongs to God, and His response is often to bring the offender to repentance and salvation. He admits our instinct is to want revenge, but God’s economy is different, and forgiveness means trusting His justice instead of demanding your own.

Can a pastor or church leader carry unforgiveness?

Yes. He says pastors are human, get hurt and carry the same issues as anyone else. At one meeting about ten pastors came forward for prayer about unforgiveness, and he also shares that his wife had to point out a 25-year-old wound in his own life. He believes leaders must deal with their own hurts so they can minister freely to others.

Scripture References

All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:

• Isaiah 54:9 — sworn not to be angry with you
• John 3:16 — God so loved the world
• Matthew 6:14–15 — forgive and be forgiven
• Ephesians 4:31–32 — put away all bitterness
• Hebrews 12:15 — a root of bitterness
• Mark 11:25 — forgive when you pray
• Psalm 34:18 — near to the brokenhearted
• Romans 12:19 — vengeance is the Lord’s
• 2 Corinthians 1:3–4 — the God of all comfort

How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.

Watch More Messages

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