Tag Archives: faith

Walk in Forgiveness – Not Guilt!

by Saved 2 the Utmost aka Mom
Original Image by: Brett Jordan

Original Image by: Brett Jordan

It is a sad fact that many Christians are struggling with guilt from past sins in their lives which has already been forgiven. The truth is that they have not yet learned to absolve themselves. The question is how do we view sin? How we see sin will either free us through the wonderful forgiving power of God or bound us by the power of guilt sent by the Accuser, Satan.

I am sure if King David was alive he could give a seminar on the bitter root of guilt, the blessings of repentance and the power of God’s forgiveness as well as the power of self-forgiveness.

We know David sinned:  he took another man’s wife; impregnated her and had her husband murdered to cover up his sins. It seems when David decided to sin he went all out! But the wonderful thing about God is that in Him hope remains.

When God sent Nathan to David to uncover his sins (2 Samuel 12) David cried out to God for forgiveness and a clean heart and to renew a right spirit within him – God did just that. He forgave his servant freely. David could have reacted in many ways, he could have carried a weight of guilt and shame; after all he killed a good man! BUT, he elected to trust in the God he knew to be bigger than anything, even his sin. He received God’s free forgiveness and forgave himself. Glory to God! David got his joy back, a clean heart, a right spirit and most of all his relationship with God was restored! David came out with a testimony! Hallelujah! Look what God can do if we only let Him.

Precious hearts when we become our own judge and jury, we condemn ourselves to a prison built of guilt, shame and unhappiness. This is not God’s will for His children. He wants us to have joy in our souls; peace in our minds and praise for Him in our hearts, testifying to the world of His love and compassion. Wasn’t it Jesus who asked the Father to forgive His murderers?

Luke 23:34 (NIV)

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Even as they taunted Him as he bled to death for them on the cross, Jesus interceded for their forgiveness! His murderers didn’t ask for forgiveness, He asked for them. What more will He forgive us our sins when we ask?

Let’s look at it this way, because God has commanded us in His word that we must forgive others their transgressions against us doesn’t it make sense that we must forgive ourselves? Forgiveness is Forgiveness. Dear hearts it’s time to pluck up the bitter roots of guilt, self-condemnation and shame, throw them out of our lives and leave them where God has cast them – that place we’ve come to know as the sea of forgetfulness.

Micah 7:19 (NIV)

You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:19 that we should be rooted and grounded in love – not guilt. We must keep in remembrance that once God has filled us with his Holy Spirit he has washed, purged and cleansed us from every (not some) sin that we ever committed. It doesn’t matter how foul, vulgar, degrading, shameful or unspeakable we think they were God has no more remembrance of them. They do not exist to Him – they never happened. That’s how complete God’s mercy is! God wants us to see our past sins and misdeeds the same way – nonexistent. Let them go! Exchange that guilty conscience for the mercy you’ve been given. Walk into it right now! Believe what God says in His word, “I remember your sins no more.” All that remains for you to do is to say, “Thank you Jesus!”

Stop second-guessing God. We will never comprehend the immensity of God’s love for His children. It’s too deep, deeper than the sea. It goes far beyond human imagination or expression. All I can say is that there’s no one on earth who can love us like God. We can’t even love ourselves as much as He does. If we did forgiveness would be easy to accept and we’d live a guilt-free life.

I have two beautiful daughters whom I love more than anything in this life. Still, God’s love for them surpasses my own. Glory to God! That’s some kind of Love! Who can really explain it? When we can’t trust the love of the people who are in our lives for whatever reason, or someone has caused us to mistrust them, we can always trust in God’s love for us. It’s the greatest love of all. Haven’t you heard and seen it for yourselves? He loves us with an in-spite-of love, an everlasting love: it’s unfailing and always proves itself faithful even when we are faithless.

Dear hearts I know firsthand what bitter roots can do to you when they’re allowed to grow-up like vines in the heart. I was shrouded by the spirit of guilt for years and was unnecessarily tormented by my thoughts concerning myself. God had pardoned my sins but I kept myself in bondage. Bitter roots are poisonous if they’re not plucked up and thrown away. They will slowly kill you spiritually, sapping you of the abundant life God has promised. Learning to leave our past behind us and never picking it up again is the key to self-forgiveness.

Once we’re born again of the Spirit we become the inheritors of God’s characteristics; His Spiritual DNA is infused in us. We are molded and shaped by the Master’s hands and we slowly take on His image. In fact it takes a life time. No matter the time it takes to see His work complete God molds us thoroughly. God will perfect that which He has started and He started a good work in us!

Little becomes much in the hands of God. The impossibilities of man are the certainties of God.

Matthew 19:26 (NIV)

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

It was impossible for me to change the negative thought-pattern I‘d held all of my life. It took God to do that but I had to have a willing mind. Unless we’re willing to let the Lord change us and be patient with ourselves we will remain the same. Remember taking on His image takes a lifetime!

We have a God of great compassion, mercy and love. It’s been over 2000 years and He is still proving himself faithful. What more can He do to prove His love for us? What more can we ask of Him?

Lamentations 3:21-23 (NIV)

21 Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:

22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

I pray that those of you who feel like I once did will make a conscious decision to walk into your forgiveness:  embrace it and receive it as the treasure that it is!

Dear hearts we must learn to show the same kindness, patience and forgiveness to ourselves as we do to others. After all we are the children of the most High God and we are worth every drop of blood Jesus shed for us. I don’t care what our emotions tell us. Stop listening to them and start listening to what the Holy Spirit has to say unto His children.

“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Hebrews 8:12 (NIV)

“Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.” Isaiah 38:17 KJV

What Do You Believe?

by Saved 2 the Utmost aka Mom
Image Credits: BabaSteve and Imagens Evangelicas @ Flickr

Image Credits: BabaSteve and Imagens Evangelicas @ Flickr

From the very beginning Satan has worked to overthrow man’s faith in God’s holy word. I am convinced that he has been working overtime to fulfill his mission; he’s had much success in twisting the minds and hearts of mankind to the point where ‘right’ has become wrong and ‘wrong’ has become right. Those of us who are filled with God’s Holy Spirit know that God’s word is true and that it is the only truth we should live by and believe.

Of course Satan, being who he is, will use every tool at his disposal to fight against us, even the Word itself. That’s why it is important for us to know the Word for ourselves and to know how to use it. It is our weapon against Satan, in short:  knowledge is power.

The Devil, like most sociopaths, is very intelligent. So much so that he knows the Word better than we do and he has personal knowledge of the Word of God; he lived in heaven with the Living Word before he was kicked out!

It is because he knows the Word so well that he felt emboldened to use it against Jesus Christ who is the Living Word, the hope of Glory.

Matthew 4:1-7 (NIV)

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’  Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

If Satan had the audacity to do this doesn’t it make sense that he will make the attempt to use the Word against God’s children as well?

Yes just as Jesus was tempted in the wilderness we too are being tempted, unfortunately many of us are not resisting Satan’s devices. Why? Because too many of us are not rooted and grounded in the Word of God. We rely too heavily on preachers and teachers, books and mega-conferences to feed us our spiritual bread. Thus we remain ignorant of the tools Satan has formed to use against us. We cannot rely solely on preachers and teachers to provide us with the knowledge we need. Rather, it is to the Word of God that we must turn to for knowledge: it is the only thing that stands between us and destruction (Hosea 4:6 NKJV).

In these last and evil days we must, with all diligence, guard our hearts, minds and souls so that we will not be deceived by the messengers of Satan. This is why the word of God exhorts that we should know those who labor among us! These are they who come to entice us away from the truth; they are like their father the Devil, they twist the Word of God which is all truth into a lie. These are they who creep in unaware! (2 Timothy 3:6, Titus 1:10-11)

Let us not be deceived by false doctrines dear hearts; those doctrines that are mixed with a little truth but consist mainly of lies. The disease of false doctrine was introduced to the body of Christ in the early days of the church. The apostle Paul had to address this very issue during his ministry.

Galatians 1:6-9 (NKJV)

I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, 7 which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.

Jesus Christ alone is to be the head of our lives. He is the author and finisher of our faith. It was God who sealed us, claimed us and marked us as his own. He took us from Satan’s clutches and gave us his guarantee in the form of his spirit that his promises to us would be fulfilled (2 Corinthians 1: 21-22 Amplified). Thus it behooves us to guard our hearts against the tricks of the adversary and hold on to the truth of God’s word.

1 John 4:1-3(NKJV)

4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

The Antichrist has been here for ages. He has brought division in the body, contorted the Word, sent false prophets into the world and gathered to himself teachers and preachers and believers who have no discernment of spirit (because they do not have the Holy Spirit).

We who would live Godly have to keep this thought in our hearts, ‘What we believe determines our destination, what we do with our belief determines our destiny.’ I encourage you my Christian family to hold fast to the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord, spread the Gospel according to the word of the Lord and continue to bless his name forever!

A Surrendered Heart

by Saved 2 the Utmost aka Mom
Original Image by: Saxon Moseley

Original Image by: Saxon Moseley

You know dear hearts, it has taken most of my saved life for me to really understand what it means to have a heart of total surrender. To have a surrendered heart is to be able to give up our desires for his will.

The prayer to surrender was a very hard prayer for me to pray because I really didn’t want to know his will or purpose for my life. It wasn’t hard because I didn’t love our Lord rather it was fear that I wasn’t capable of doing His will that made it hard for me. I didn’t want to disappoint Him. Therefore, I stayed in my self-imposed comfort zone for years, content not to seek God for his purpose in my life.

Our Heavenly Father, blessed be his name, has a way of knowing how to get our attention! He endured my reluctance with much love and longsuffering patience. His everlasting love and kindness brought me through every struggle, test and trial that could have destroyed me and with time he humbled me so that I would be able to pray for a spirit of acceptance – the ability to accept his will by surrendering my own.

Once I began to learn to not struggle against his will I received an answer to a prayer that I had prayed over ten years ago. His answer to me was, “No.” I accepted his answer by saying, “Thank you Lord.” This no-answer kept me from making one of the biggest mistakes of my life. He also showed me the reason he didn’t answer with “Yes.” To this day I praise our God for being wiser than I. Dear hearts every blessing that we receive doesn’t always have a ‘yes’ In front of it. Not when our prayers are answered by the wisdom of God!

We can only see what’s in front of us but God sees beyond our limited view. We live in the present but God has already stepped into our future to prepare the steps that he intends for us to follow. We must learn to trust our heavenly father’s thoughts toward us as he guides us into his will.

Jeremiah 29:11-13

11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.

13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

There’s nothing wrong with having dreams and aspirations or having a desire to be successful in one’s life as long as it doesn’t interfere with God’s will for our life. I could have been a fashion designer but there was something missing that I couldn’t find in that kind of success. It wasn’t until I met a young lady who is deaf that I realized that I so desperately wanted to be able to communicate with her.

The desire inspired me to study the beautiful language of sign. I purchased some books and dictionaries, prayed for knowledge and wisdom and this time God’s answer was “Yes.” He allowed me to pick up the knowledge quickly. I am so thrilled when I learn a new sign because only this awesome God can give this kind of knowledge to man. To be able to communicate with others by talking with your hands is a miracle! Recently I found out that my daughter’s school offers sign language classes, all I can say is “Here I am Lord, send me!”

Dear hearts, our Heavenly father knows all about our struggles, doubts and fears. Jesus Christ, God’s only son, had to surrender his will to the father’s will in the Garden of Gethsemane. He spoke these words to the father, “Father if it is your will take this cup away from me: nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done.” Are we greater than our Lord?

My sister told me years ago that God will never allow us to do more for him than he will do for us – we can’t out-give God! The years have proven her words to be true. If you don’t remember anything else I’ve shared with you, remember this, once you surrender your will to the will of God, everything else will fall into place. Surrender your heart and watch God work on your behalf.

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A Word of Thanks –

Rebecca and I count ourselves blessed in having such a wonderful extended Christian family in the faithful followers of Saint in Training and our many visitors. If there wasn’t a “You” there wouldn’t be an “Us”. Your prayers and support mean so much to us. Your encouraging testimonies are priceless. We love to be a blessing to our Christian family by offering words of encouragement and love but we too need a word of encouragement and you never fail to do just that.

With heartfelt love and thanks,

Ma Chris and Rebecca