We need to understand that it is very possible to have all our i's dotted and all of our t's crossed on our grasp on the doctrine of salvation and of grace, have a nice tidy religious answer for all who would dare question if we could possibly be in error, and still have our hearts blinded to the truth of where we are in the Lord, and how far we are from walking as God intended. Why? Sin continuing on in our lives hardens our hearts.
THAT is the danger of promoting a grace that does not expect a response. Not a response of works but a response of heart. Walking in grace with not be wary of the devil and his devices, and with no hatred of sin, is a big open door by which satan has decieved millions. Eventually, our hearts get leathery and tough, our repentance less and less genuine, and our heart..... our spiritual center point, cannot see clearly any longer. We do not repent of limiting the Holy one of Israel by our unbelief in His power to deliver us from evil, yet we faithfully pray it, just as we have been told. We literally cannot see our error. And we have no fear of our error, for that is forgiven too!
It is our hearts, guys! He sees! He knows! What He does NOT understand is why we will not admit it and get this monkey off our backs? Does it seem too impossible? Your victory, my victory, is child's play to the Lord we serve. Do we not realize that the same power God used to raise Christ from the dead, the VERY SAME POWER, is available to us??
Shall measley drug addiction, or an out-of-control sexual appetite be too hard for God to corral and bring down to size?? Ha! NO weapon formed against us shall prosper! He can change our hearts. He WILL change our hearts, if we will but admit our going through the motions, cast off our unbelief and step into the robes He has for each of us, new natures that can stare down temptation without plucking out our eyes or cutting off our hands. Let each of us simply return to the Lord, turn our eyes FULLY upon our God, and ask God to DO IT FOR US!! He will, I promise. How do I know? He has promised it, and he is not a man that he should lie!! Praise God!
Fellow saints, I am talking about the condition of our HEARTS. Not our state before God. IN our state, as forgiven creatures, as sons of God, are we walking as the prodigal did, looking upon salvation of all the stuff WE get, foolishly thinking our way will be better than His, or, have we finally "come to ourselves", realized the most joy-filled and best place is safe as a bond servant to God, with Jesus as both savior and lord, and fully surrendered our hearts to be re-ignited? We do not have to drum up feeling one, or shed one tear. We simply have to admit our great need..... and ASK.
Satan has snared all of us to one degree or another, with me as chief. 38 years of walking as a "believer" and I spent most of it a prisoner to a sin I detested..... and yet loved. Perhaps this is you. Perhaps not. But make no mistake, our flesh is NOT improvable. Nor is it able to be morphed into spirit man by the passage of time. We are either flesh.... or we are spirit. Old man, where sin still reigns, or new creatures in Christ, where the promises work, where He indeed keeps us from falling.
Jesus told us that new wine must be poured into new wineskins, and we have been trying to pour new wine into our old wineskins in hopes it can soften the skin up. Instead, it allows the wine to leak out. We have been commanded by the one we love to either make the tree good or make the tree evil. We are not to "grow from darkess to light. It is a choice, a testimony of who we believe we are inside, either old men trying vainly to become new men (and it never happens) or new men who then grow IN grace.
I so long for the day the believers finally realize that God has more for us to believe for than just our forgiveness. There is a war to wage for each of us, a war we have been pre-destined to win. It is our good fight of faith. It is here that we learn to light our lamps and to finally put on the new man and become light in the Lord. No work. Just faith. ONLY believe. We are not in the flesh. God said it. Shall we disagree? We owe the flesh NOTHING. God said it. Now, will we believe it?? When we do and see how desperately we need to be kept by the power of God through faith, our entire lives will be revolutionized.
Our book of Acts awaits us. Time to light our lamps.
Blessings,
Gideon
THAT is the danger of promoting a grace that does not expect a response. Not a response of works but a response of heart. Walking in grace with not be wary of the devil and his devices, and with no hatred of sin, is a big open door by which satan has decieved millions. Eventually, our hearts get leathery and tough, our repentance less and less genuine, and our heart..... our spiritual center point, cannot see clearly any longer. We do not repent of limiting the Holy one of Israel by our unbelief in His power to deliver us from evil, yet we faithfully pray it, just as we have been told. We literally cannot see our error. And we have no fear of our error, for that is forgiven too!
It is our hearts, guys! He sees! He knows! What He does NOT understand is why we will not admit it and get this monkey off our backs? Does it seem too impossible? Your victory, my victory, is child's play to the Lord we serve. Do we not realize that the same power God used to raise Christ from the dead, the VERY SAME POWER, is available to us??
Shall measley drug addiction, or an out-of-control sexual appetite be too hard for God to corral and bring down to size?? Ha! NO weapon formed against us shall prosper! He can change our hearts. He WILL change our hearts, if we will but admit our going through the motions, cast off our unbelief and step into the robes He has for each of us, new natures that can stare down temptation without plucking out our eyes or cutting off our hands. Let each of us simply return to the Lord, turn our eyes FULLY upon our God, and ask God to DO IT FOR US!! He will, I promise. How do I know? He has promised it, and he is not a man that he should lie!! Praise God!
Fellow saints, I am talking about the condition of our HEARTS. Not our state before God. IN our state, as forgiven creatures, as sons of God, are we walking as the prodigal did, looking upon salvation of all the stuff WE get, foolishly thinking our way will be better than His, or, have we finally "come to ourselves", realized the most joy-filled and best place is safe as a bond servant to God, with Jesus as both savior and lord, and fully surrendered our hearts to be re-ignited? We do not have to drum up feeling one, or shed one tear. We simply have to admit our great need..... and ASK.
Satan has snared all of us to one degree or another, with me as chief. 38 years of walking as a "believer" and I spent most of it a prisoner to a sin I detested..... and yet loved. Perhaps this is you. Perhaps not. But make no mistake, our flesh is NOT improvable. Nor is it able to be morphed into spirit man by the passage of time. We are either flesh.... or we are spirit. Old man, where sin still reigns, or new creatures in Christ, where the promises work, where He indeed keeps us from falling.
Jesus told us that new wine must be poured into new wineskins, and we have been trying to pour new wine into our old wineskins in hopes it can soften the skin up. Instead, it allows the wine to leak out. We have been commanded by the one we love to either make the tree good or make the tree evil. We are not to "grow from darkess to light. It is a choice, a testimony of who we believe we are inside, either old men trying vainly to become new men (and it never happens) or new men who then grow IN grace.
I so long for the day the believers finally realize that God has more for us to believe for than just our forgiveness. There is a war to wage for each of us, a war we have been pre-destined to win. It is our good fight of faith. It is here that we learn to light our lamps and to finally put on the new man and become light in the Lord. No work. Just faith. ONLY believe. We are not in the flesh. God said it. Shall we disagree? We owe the flesh NOTHING. God said it. Now, will we believe it?? When we do and see how desperately we need to be kept by the power of God through faith, our entire lives will be revolutionized.
Our book of Acts awaits us. Time to light our lamps.
Blessings,
Gideon