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For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. Once a person feels distant from God, for some reason or another, their interests are often directed elsewhere because they are discouraged in their relationship with God. This often leads to depression, addictions, obsessions crafts, movies, sex, sports, etc.
After a while, the person loses more and more interest in their relationship with God, until they simply don't even bother to pick up their Bibles and spend time with Him. This is how Satan will use discouragement to destroy a person's relationship with God. The whole reason that Satan who works through evil spirits wants us to feel discouraged, is because he wants to get us to a place where we will give up. He wants our relationship with God to just seem "impossible" and too hard to maintain. This leads a person to lukewarmness, and deflates their faith in God, because they have no confidence in their relationship with God.
The Bible tells us to draw near to God with assurance, having our heart's sprinkled clean from an evil conscience! Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. The reason that Satan tries to attack is with guilt and shame, is for the very purpose of destroying our confidence in our relationship with God.
Satan will also work diligently to convince a person that because of a certain failure s in their past, that they cannot be restored in right standing before God. This often involves one sin in particular, such as abortion or fornication.
Even though the sin has been repented of confessed as sin and turned from , the enemy will continue to badger the person with guilt and shame over what they have done, as if they never repented of it! This is known as false guilt, because once a sin is repented of, that failure is washed away by the Blood of Christ. In other words, Satan is pointing at something that is no longer on your account! God's Word tells us that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us. This is a promise! If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
In the above verse, we also find that he won't just cleanse us of certain sins and not others, but we find that He is prepared to cleanse us of ALL unrighteousness! It's those sins which we fail to confess, which are not covered by this promise. We know that Jesus is an exact representation of the Father John Therefore, the way that Jesus handled this woman caught in adultery, is the same way that He would handle you or I, if we were in that same situation.
Just look at the compassion, love, and forgiveness that flowed out of Jesus' heart for this woman who was caught sleeping with other women's husbands! And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him.
But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.
So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: If you want to learn more about the true nature of the Jesus of the Bible, then I encourage you to read my teaching entitled, " The Jesus of the Bible.
One of the common means by which Satan works to pull us away from God is through a combination of guilt and materialism. It could be money, book reading, television watching, sports, etc. If it's trying to fill a void in your life that should be filled with a genuine relationship with God, then something is wrong!
Unless stated otherwise, all articles and posts on this site are the work of the author, Danni Moss. The message, in short, was: One other quick point, I know there is some level of controversy in theological circles right now about whether God punished Jesus for the sins of the world. Because our free will is not fully experienced in this life, there is a spiritual dimension to this process that remains a mystery. We do not, or at least I do not see God as less loving because he does not accept everyone into his kingdom. Verbally confess them to yourself! And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:
What is acting as a blockage between you and your heavenly father? Do you feel unworthy to fellowship openly and freely with Him? Do you feel dirty inside or not fit to be in His presence for one reason or another? Look into those things and get them cleaned up. It is through the Blood of Christ that our sin might be washed away and our conscience cleansed! Here's a blog entry that I posted recently about the power of imagining the truth about God seeing you through the eyes of love, compassion, forgiveness, and acceptance.
Satan and evil spirits are always eager to make a person feel as if God is angry with them. These things, of course, leads to a backsliding relationship in no time.
No wonder Satan wants us to feel like God is somehow angry or disappointed in us! It will loosen up the tenseness on your whole system once you begin to see things as God wants you to see them. He's always calling us back to repentance, so that He can restore our relationship with Him.
I can't tell you how powerful that imaginations can be when used for God's glory instead of Satan's. This is a powerful key to freedom and healing for many! Many feel that if they do enough good works, that God will finally love and accept them. This is nothing more than the legalism fruit of a mindset bound in dead religion.
I have an eye-opening teaching titled, " Exposing Dead Religion " that I recommend reading. The Bible is clear that Jesus loved us, before we did anything to earn His love and mercy. We were still in rebellion when He reached out, and gave His life so that we could be given right standing with God! It is clear by the verse below, that we were loved not because of anything we've done to deserve His love, but because of who we were:. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Those who constantly struggle with guilt and a sense of shame from their past mistakes, are overlooking or underestimating the power of the Blood of Christ.
They somehow have this lurking feeling that they aren't truly forgiven of what they've done; that somehow their sin is greater than the Blood of Christ, although they would never openly say such a thing. One key to freedom is to honestly face the facts: Do your failures outweigh the Blood of Jesus, or does the Blood outweigh your failures? Just how powerful is the precious Blood of Jesus to you?
Is it stronger than all your failures? Is it so strong, that it will wipe away even the sins of a cold-blooded murder, such as the one who hung on the cross next to Jesus? And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.
Could the compassion and mercy of Jesus, be so great that it looked past the terrible sin of adultery which was JUST committed! Or do you feel as if your sins are too great for the Holy Blood of the Son of God to remove? How dare we degrade the priceless value of the Blood that the Son of God has shed for us! Thank you so much Jesus. I feel pounds lighter. Protected from Highway Accident One morning, my son was driving on the fast lane of a 4-lane highway.
View All Praise Reports. Special thanks and appreciation to all who have sent in their testimonies and praise reports to us. Kindly note that all testimonies are received in good faith and edited only for brevity and fluency. We all need God's forgiveness and help. But it is important for you to realize God loves you like a good parent loves their child, even when the child does wrong.
God is there right now, listening and waiting for you to call on Him for His help. God has already forgiven you. Now you just need to reach out to God and receive His forgiveness so you can be free from the burden of guilt and shame that has kept you from fellowship with God. No matter what your past has been -- no matter how terrible you have been -- no matter what you have done -- God still loves you and desires for you to turn to Him.
This is the reason Jesus died on the cross, to show you the greatness of God's love for you, and to make a way for you to be forgiven and not separated from God any longer.