BREAKING FREE FROM THE BONDAGE OF GUILT AND SHAME PT 4

People who once were concerned about their sinning and grow to NOT care about their sinning are in a very dangerous place with Elohim (God). If YOU have reached a point in your life where you no longer care about your sinning against Elohim, you can consider it most likely that the Holy Spirit may well have departed from you, because it is the Holy Spirit who convicts us of our sin. Yet remember -- All sin is forgivable, if we acknowledge it to YAHWEH Elohim and ask His forgiveness for it, and then remain diligent in asking and trusting Him to help us to stop committing the same sin/s over and over and over.

Those who truly belong to Yahshua Messiah (Christ) CARE about their sinning. A heart so hardened that they could care less what Elohim has to think about their sinning is walking in a very dangerous place with the Redeemer Master.

A note of warning here: Followers of Messiah need to be extremely careful to not allow anger, frustration, bitterness and resentment be reasons for growing cold toward Elohim, as we move closer to the return of Yahshua Messiah. Suffering from demonic attacks - persecution - disillusionment within the Body of Messiah - discouragement of various kinds due to financial and political and civil turbulence - military conflict - terrorism - fear; etc. ... These things are only going to increase globally!

Okay, let's move on. Here is another favorite scripture verse of Satan. He loves to have other Believers quote it to us, out of context:

Whoever has been born of Elohim (God) does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. (1 John 3:9 NKJV) Now read the identical scripture passage in a different bible translation:

No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. (1 John 3:9 NIV)

If you have been a Believer for very long, which of the two above translations would you be most at peace with?

Let's use a little common sense in understanding this scripture passage. Go to any congregation/church on this planet on a Sunday morning and ask if there is anyone there who believes they can’t sin, and if so, to stand up and identify themselves. Everyone will remain seated, if you have a church full of honest people.

Do you consider yourself a Born-again Believer? If so, do you believe YOU can sin, or do you believe it’s impossible for you to sin?

Through just some common-sense logic and reasoning, we should quickly see that the wording used here in 1 John 3:9 needs to be understood in the context that a person who is truly born again does not make it an indefinite regular practice to sin. He won't because he or she is walking too close with the Holy Spirit ' knowing how much it will grieve Elohim if we do sin. However, that in no way precludes that we can't sin, or will never sin. It simply means that we don't continue practicing sinning ' we don’t continue engaging in sinning indefinitely - like we did before we were truly born again.

Thank YAHWEH ELOHIM for his patience and mercy for each of us ......

Because we must also realize that it sometimes takes years before one or more major strongholds of sin can be put to death in the life of a born-again Follower of Messiah. Just because a drug addict is delivered of his/her addiction once they become saved does not mean that they won’t give into temptation to fall back into that sin ever again. If you’ve dealt much with Christian addicts, once delivered from one's addiction no way assumes one will never fall back into that addiction ever again. Elohim gives grace for situations like this, and we must never become too judgmental or so predisposed to doctrinal stances that we forget that 'mercy triumphs over judgment.' (See: James 2:13)

Beyond understanding all the Heavenly Father wants to reveal to us regarding forgiveness to deal with guilt and shame, another key to helping stay free from the bondage of guilt and shame is to learn all one can about Elohim’s nature, and all one can about Satan's nature.

ELOHIM’S nature is love, mercy, compassion, kindness and forgiveness, (though He's also the Elohim of justice and wrath against evil, and we must never forget that). He’s the Elohim (God) of second, third and fourth chances in this dispensation grace we currently are in. No matter what we've done after we've become a disciple of Yahshua Messiah, Elohim will restore us back to Him in good standing if we're willing to admit our wrong to Him and do everything we can to not let it happen again. Even if it should happen again, He'll never stop taking us back. (Satan of course never wants you believing that to be the truth, especially if you’re in a severe backslidden state with Messiah).

NEXT. . .Satan's nature