As believers, we have the Holy Spirit inside us and because of this, we have been empowered to forgive. We have the power to forgive, not because of our human ability, but because the Holy Spirit inside us is always willing to extend forgiveness and will do it through you if we will allow Him.

Bienvenido Alegria, who pastors Iglesia Pentecostal Unida Hispana in Gastonia, North Carolina, was at home when he heard a loud noise outside, CBN reports.

Rushing out, he saw that a large delivery truck had crashed into their church. In fact, the box truck had hit the building with such force it had smashed through the wall and was partially inside the building.

The force of the crash was so powerful, that it had even blown a hole in the wall opposite, meaning the church now had two large gaping holes inside it. There was chaos inside the building as pews and debris were scattered all over the floor.

“I was impacted in my soul,” Alegria said in an interview with WSOC-TV. “I feel real, real sad. You go inside (and) you only see sad things.”

The driver was thankfully not seriously hurt, but then the police delivered the bad news that the man’s driver’s license had not only been revoked, but he was also uninsured.

In her article for CBN, Talia Wise writes, “Instead of getting angry, the pastor offered forgiveness and decided to look at the driver as if he were a member of his family instead of a criminal.”

“I say, maybe my son or my nephew or somebody else,” Alegira said. 

“Later, he told the man who wrecked his church, ‘I love you,'” Wise adds.

In John 14:26, Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit whom God would send describing Him as the “Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name.”

Jesus uses the Greek word paraklētos to describe the Holy Spirit, which in the NIV is translated as advocate. Other versions translate the words as ‘Helper’ or ‘Comforter.’

But the word ultimately refers to ‘one called or sent for to assist another’, and one who has been ‘summoned, called to one’s side, especially called to one’s aid.’

The word speaks of one who comes alongside a person not to change the situation, but rather to help the individual go through it. The Paraklētos is there to strengthen and provide guidance and wisdom as you navigate a difficult situation.

Paul writes in his letter to the Romans that the Holy Spirit will come alongside and help “us in our weakness” (Romans 8:26), like when an uninsured delivery driver crashes through the wall of your church building.