A lot of believers struggle with forgiveness and a lot of people who do not follow God believe it’s more than just believing in forgiveness. Both these parties are sadly in darkness. I am writing to both. To the believer how can you start with grace and end in flesh? Shall you believe in the blood and then curse yourself with the Law? If you have received the revelation thus far, you can say “I see it! I am a brand new person in the Holy Spirit, old things have passed away and all things have become new. As Jesus is right now so am I in this world. My spirit, the real me, is righteous and Holy”. Since this is the case “I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?” Galatians 3:2 NIV. Many believers who have seen and acquired the truth and knowledge of the word of God find themselves in some of the negative situations or patterns they were once in before being born again.
There are two reasons for this, one is choice and the other is newness. No one who becomes new can all of a sudden live right. That is an impossible task you have placed on yourself and the fastest way to condemnation. Your newness is permanent because of the Holy Spirit but your actions and your mind are now playing catch up, they will change with the power of the spirit but with time. It took the Holy Spirit 40 days in the wilderness with Jesus where he had no contact with anything, but you now want to do it overnight. That is not practical. Now as the second which is choice occurs as you grow and give the spirit room to control. It is your surrender and conscious choice to put to death with the power of the spirit in you all forms of disobedience.
You think due to your “relapse” your “backslide” your “sin” that maybe you were changed once, but you have blown it. You say “I am no longer saved”. You foolish child! How dare you! Do you think that the blood is so fickle, so thin, so sparse that it cannot cover you? NO! YOUR WRONG? The blood of the lamb is perfect, full, vast and deep. As Paul an apostle prayed, I pray for you too “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-19 NIV. To the believer I have good news for you, “him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,”(Ephesians 3:20), what he did in your spirit at salvation always remains constant and unchanging, regardless of fluctuations in performance.
There is a good portion of us that although we know this we still imprison and condemn ourselves. Let this not just be information but knowledge, for knowledge impacts our decisions. This is because of an incomplete comprehension of what Jesus actually did and what you continue to do after being born again. You wake up the next day and realize you’re still broken hearted or the mess your in is still there, your pain or anger is still there or even worse, everything has gotten more difficult and problems are worse. Discouragement, doubt and fear become ever so present and real. You get confused thinking nothing happened. I will say two things. One be of good cheer for the word of God surpasses your emotions, your circumstance and everything else. Root yourself in the word which is love. Two, you must comprehend what it means to be born again. Your salvation is sealed by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13). You and I are born of God. All of his righteousness, holiness, goodness is departed in you and sealed. Good in bad out. “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. Remember your spirit is what is born again, that’s what is redeemed and that’s who you are, hence we have been commanded walk by the spirit. That is our identity. When you sin, your spirit is untouched, does not participate. It remains holy, pure and righteous. If you don’t get this your heart which does not know greater than God will eventually condemn you, thinking you have lost fellowship with God. “So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”” Galatians 3:5-6 NIV. The answer is by you believing, the faith is accredited to you as righteousness. This truth is essential to our walk and identity. The righteousness received in Christ through faith stays pure. God who is spirit always connects with you in spirit. Therefore regardless of performance you and I can always approach the thrown boldly.
To the unbeliever what shall I say to you? Firstly I apologize, for many of the body of Christ have not been faithful representatives displaying the manifold wisdom of God. I personally apologise for I have not always represented the Lord faithfully. For this I am sorry and your forgiveness is up to you and is a gift I will readily accept. Do not use it as a crutch to despise the truth. You have heard it said, “believe in Jesus and…” but the Lord who calls you says “believe in Jesus.” That’s it. The church is supposed to be a hospital, caring for the lowly, the sick and the hurt, united by the death and resurrection of Jesus and now grows together in unity and love thanks to the Holy Spirit. Love is the growth factor for the body of Christ. Without it the church of Jesus loses its vitality and relevance.
Unity is the glue that holds diverse and different people together. The Holy Spirit is the one who fills his people with love and promotes unity against all odds. On our own even the best of us would find it hard to thrive in community. Sadly there are many churches that are without love, unknowingly and knowingly. Keeping the self righteous in and the sick out, for profit and gain, simply without love. Many unbelievers have been hurt by said church and deemed the head of the church our Christ not worthy to be followed or given time of day. I beseech you brothers and sisters do not allow false representation to blind you or steal your joy and opportunity to fellowship with the Holy Spirit.
Truly I say to you, it is yourself that you do a disservice with “church hurt”, it is not the people or God. For God is God and no man can add or take from his glory, he declared himself that he is the I AM THAT I AM. We are the ones that attributed good and bad. I say to you pick up the word for your self. It is not a religion but a relationship. I dare you to speak to him, pick up his word and learn more about him for yourself and pray, see if he will not show himself to you. “Come near to God and he will come near to you.” James 4:8 NIV. Take it into your hands for it is life and death. If you need help start with John. Tells you about the life of who you will lay down your life for. Read all the versions, NIV, AMPC, KJV, NKJV, ESV and the rest. Get a well rounded view and understanding. Each believer is a member of the body of Christ and is to “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” (But don’t very often and guide the unbeliever the wrong way, away from the Lord) “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” Ephesians 4:2-4, 6-7, 11-16 NIV.
The body of Christ, the church is to be this huge, ever increasing community of passionate followers and lovers of Jesus, graced with men and women, with tremendous gifts that help to edify and equip the church at large. Apostles, pastors, prophets, teachers and evangelists are some of those who are given these gifts by Christ himself with the express purpose of training up his people and growing them into His likeness. Know this, God loves you, it’s as simple as that. Go, find out who he is, what that love is and why. I leave you with this “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”Romans 10:9-11 NKJV. May the heart of God draw you.