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Faith

The Jewels in Your Crown: Forgiveness Part 1


And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. EPH 4:32 KJV

Definitions: 
kind – χρηστός – chrestos – good, be ye good…., gracious, be ye gracious…., easy, take it easy on each other.
tenderhearted – εὔσπλαγχνος – eusplagchnos, – pitiful, tender-hearted.  Have pity. The Greek workd picture here is a picture of it coming from your guts.  The Greeks felt that strong emotion, passion and genuine emotion came from your guts.  Have pity flowing out of you.  Have tenderheartedness flow from you. 
forgiving – χαρίζομαι – charizomai – to grant as a favor, that is, gratuitously (freely, undeservedly), in kindness (see def above), pardon or rescue: – deliver, (frankly) forgive, (freely) give, grant.
Keep on becoming kind to each other. Have pity, and favor, and grace, however undeservedly, forgive even as God forgave you for the sake of Christ.
A few years ago, a brother in the Lord told me he forgave me.   He had been very angry with me.   Somehow I was not convinced that he meant it, but I accepted the effort, as I love this person, and want to grow in the Lord with him.   Later on, I went to his property to help him with an electrical problem.   I did the work, shook his hand, and left.  That evening, someone else told me that the whole time I was there, he was bad mouthing me to anyone who would listen, and that he had been bad mouthing me all over town.   As I suspected, I knew that that brother was still angry with me.

Forgiveness isn’t easy.

I am not talking about whether I forgive him, because I honestly do.   I honestly love this person.  I am telling you something that I would normally not consider any of your business in order to illustrate a point.

Forgiveness is not easy.

The root of unforgiveness is anger.
The root of anger is fear.

Anger is a chain that binds you to sin.  Sometimes we get angry with others over things we know we ourselves are tempted to do.  Sometimes we get angry for a genuine wrong committed.  Sometimes we get angry because we are afraid.  We know in our heads that perfect love casts out all fear.  But how do we get that into our heart?  How do we let go of Anger?

It is a process.
Some people do not even know they harbor unforgiveness.  They remain slaves to the unforgiveness.  Unforgiveness will stop you from growing spiritually.  Eventually, the poison of unforgiveness will consume you untill you become heard hearted and bitter.  It will rot your bones.
So a decent definition of Anger that leads to unforgiveness is that Anger is a strong feeling of INTENSE displeasure or indignation or hostility as a result of a real or imagined threat (fear), or insult (pride), or frustration (impatience), or injustice toward yourself or someone who is very important to you.
Forgiveness is the willful giving up of that rage, displeasure, indignation, hostility, threat, insult and frustration.  You give up the “right to get even”.
Unforgiveness is a deliberate refusal to forgive.  It is the belief that you have the right to hold a grudge because: Someone has got to pay!,  He has hurt me. , She lied to me. , She said I was this or that.,  She didn’t say “HI” to me yesterday.,  He is two faced.,  He lies about his faith by saying one thing and doing another.
However, saying you forgive, and experiencing it are two different things.
Forgiveness says, “I give up my right to pay you back.”
Look at the book of Mark 11:25 –
And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you your tresspasses.  But if you do not fogive, neither will your Father which is in Heaven forgive your tresspasses.  Mark 11:25
 
Until we can forgive, we have to lay down our progress, our gifts to god, our growth in the Spirit of God, our effectiveness to demonstrate grace, love and mercy.
 
What are the obstacles to Forgiveness?  There may be many, but they can be reduced, by thoughtful analysis to 4 things:
1.  YOUR WILL – It ias to be your WILL and Desire to forgive.  Unwillingness and not wanting to forgive are deliberate acts.  You have to do this on purpose.
2.  PRIDE – The arrogance of pride gives you the self righteous attitude that says, He or She should come to me to ASK for forgiveness.  I shouldn’t have to go to them.  Or if you are the one who needs forgiveness, you say to yourself, “Sure it bothers me that this happened, but I don’t think I did any harm, and besides, I was right when I did it.”
3.  REHEARSING – This one is something every humand being does.  This takes real discipline to overcome, and can be overcome by a lot of prayer, and realization of just how much GOd has forgiven you.   The more you go over it in your mind, the farther from grace you get.  You rehearse in your mind and heart the wrongs or offenses done against you.  This will only strengthen the chains that bind you, and will eventually become a poison that turns into a well spring of bitterness.  The Joy of the Lord evades you.  happiness becomes a memory.  Anger becomes your reputation.  You get stuck right where you are in your spiritual growth.  Eventually, you become content with stunted growth, or your heart becomes so hard that you no longer desire a working relationship with God.
4.  FEAR – Wether you are the one who needs to forgive, or needs forgiveness, FEAR can stop you dead, too.  Maybe you are afraid you will be taken advantage of by the person that you need to do business with.  Maybe you have a fear of being rejected.  Perhaps you are afraid of rejection.  These fears are real, and it is possible that these things will happen.   But you have to have the courage to face this fear and do the right thing.  THere is nothing you can do to control the reactions of others.  You can only obey God, and leave the rest to him.  This is letting go of fear.
Dealing with these 4 things above will give you FREEDOM from the enslavement of Anger and Fear.  It will free you from the spirit and heartlessness of Unforgiveness.  The flow of living water will return to you, and you will know the joy of your salvation again.
Sometimes forgiveness is stalled by the following things:
Friendly but bad advice.  Your brothers and sisters in the lord love you, and they mean well, but they are just as human and fallible as you are.  They will tell you, “Well, if I were you, I’d…”, or “He needs to suffer…”  “Why don’t you just leave him, he is not good for you…”, or “Buddy, we need to go have a talk with him ‘in love’ and straighten him out”
Have you been told this?  Have you said it to others.  Friends mean well.  You should always be glad of the number of friends you have.  But you MUST ask yourself, “Is this FRIENDLY advice GODLY advice?”  Do nothing that will contradict the nature of God, or reflect poorly on your walk with God.  Taking matters in your hands, with the heart felt endorsement of your friends, is till wrong.
PARTIAL FORGIVENESS.  
Maybe he or she did several little things, or one big and several little ones, or some combination like that.  Do you list them (rehearse) and say, “Well, I can forgive that, but not this, and I can forgive those, but not these!”?  Partial forgiveness is just like partial obedience.  Partial forgiveness IS unforgiveness.  Partial obedience is DISOBEDIENCE.  Don’t take half measures when God showed His love for you by going all the way to the cross for your sins.
MAKE EXCUSES. This little fox is a sly one.
This is what some people do to avoide genuine forgiveness.  They might say things like, “THey probably didn’t mean that.”, or. “It was probably a mistake.”.  If you use excuses to justify someone elses wrong, not only are you deluding yourself, and setting yourself up for more of the same, but you short circuit your ability to discern between right and wrong, and you stop the other person’s chance of learning from his mistakes.  Forgiveness is just as much an act of love, as it is an act of grace.  When you love the unlovely, it pours coals on his heart, and will ultimately lead him to repentance. This is the same behavior you hear about when you read the testimony of the battered woman.  She made excuses for the batterer.  Forgiveness is not for sissies.
Unforgiveness puts you in danger of the judgement of God.  “But if you do not forgive  neither will your Father which is in Heaven forgive your trespasses ”  Mark 11:25  
 
You risk your growth in the Lord.  You risk having God stop dealing with you until you have done business with those who you need to forgive, or who you need to seek forgiveness from.
Forgiveness sets you free.  It cleanses your soul.  It teaches you about Godly love in a way that no other action will.  You will become like Jesus Christ the more you obey.
I will finish this up in part 2, at least this part of the facet on the gem that is Forgiveness.  There is more, and it is not all fire and brimstone.  Hang in there.  It gets better.
OH!  And yes it is a process.  How long does it take until you can come clean and forgive?  I don’t know.  Sometimes it takes a long time.  It took me a very long time to forgive someone I used to know.  The hurt was deep, and God had to do a work in me.  With that brother who said he forgave me, but didn’t, I am good with that, and I forgive his dishonesty, and his gossip.  I am free of the harm he has done.  I love this person and would take a bullet for him without hesitation.
I have to keep in mind this verse: Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken; lest thou hear thy servant curse thee: For oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise hast cursed others. Ecc 7:21-22See you next time for Part 2 of this facet on Forgiveness.
I love you
David Perkins

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HOW GOD SEES IT


“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.  
In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
Proverbs 3: 5 & 6  NASB

HOW I SEE IT
When someone reading your blog describes it as “interesting”, they mean, “Which Zoo donated the monkey for this experiment?” In  certain countries, my writing is considered a social disease, and it might be the real cause of all the trouble in the Middle East.  None-the-less, I have actually had 10 readers, and a couple of them are now subscribers.  Please accept my gratitude, the check is in the mail.

HOW GOD SEES IT
A recent career debacle has left me seeing that, after almost 20 years doing the same thing, I suddenly have to reinvent myself.  What I wanted to do when the rug was pulled was to run around like my hair was on fire, panic, grow a healthy crop of ulcers, and basically be an insomniac.  What I did instead was pray.  Really, I prayed.   And, this is the truth, I immediately felt a peace about all of this.  I knew that since I was radioactive in my career, I would not be able to do what I had been doing anymore.  I had to be remade.  I wasn’t worried because, after 20 years of running from God, I had spent the last 4 years slowly returning. I found out when I did that that I had not done anything but cross the palm of God’s hand.  Some of my recent blogs described my return to God, and how you can return too.

So, here I am, career-less, and wondering what to do.  My wife and I prayed and prayed about this.  Just a couple of weeks after being home, in between job searches, I had the overwhelming compulsion to start writing again.  I had not written a thing in 20 years.  Writing was not even my first love.  Music was my first love.  But, suddenly, I got an overwhelming desire to sit and write.  So, I prayed again.  God let me know through several confirmations that I am to write something every day.  Not only that, I am to write a blog.

I know this might sound crazy to you, but eventually, you will see that this stuff really happens.  It happened to me.  Here is where Proverbs 3:5 & 6 comes in to play.  I needed a new path, and God has given me a thing to do.  I am doing it.  I honestly do not understand the why’s and wherefore’s of this, but one thing God has made clear to me, I am to write.

I am writing this for you.  I don’t know who you are.  I don’t know what you have been through, or are going through.  But I know that, as I obey God and write, He will empower my writing.  He will do this because of you.  Like me, you had given up on God, friends, family, and basically life itself.  To tell the truth, that 20 years of working in various jobs, for various companies, doing the same or related things, was not even related to who I really am, or what I really want to do with my life.  Chances are you are there now.

God restores all of us if we let him.  He is calling you.  The reason I am doing this blog is two fold.  1. I am obeying God.  2. God wants you to know you are not alone, that someone out here gets it.  And he wants you to know that He cares for you, and wants you to come home.
You do not even have to clean up to return to Him.  He will take care of that for you.  All you have to do is come home.

HOW I HOPE YOU SEE IT
Personally, I hope my blog eventually takes off, but that is not my real goal.  Over time I will be writing about several issues that may reach you.  This is for you, not me.  What I want out of this exercise is irrelevant to what God wants to accomplish.

You see, a revival is about to break loose, and God wants you to be a part of that revival.  You have a role to play.  You and I have to put down all our anger, desire for revenge, hate of the church, grudges, and whatever sin besets us.  We need to get our own lives in order so God can equip us to lead in the upcoming revival.

By my own understanding of things, I should be panicking because 8 weeks later, I am still unemployed.  But as I understand God, I simply have to trust Him, and HE will direct my paths. This is what He wants to do for you, too.

I have no illusions about being a “Great Writer“, but I know this is what I am supposed to be doing right now.  I am doing this out of Love for God, and in obedience to Him, and out of a genuine desire to see you return to God, too.  I do this because God has changed my heart.  I no longer feel the anger I felt.  I no longer hate.  I now love because He who is in me IS love.  And I love you, and want to see you join the battle and lead from the front in the upcoming revival.

Who ever you are, I hope this letter finds you.

Your Brother in Jesus Christ

David
sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

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FAITH TO BE RECKLESS


“FAITH IS NOT BELIEF WITHOUT PROOF, BUT TRUST WITHOUT RESERVATION.” – Anon

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Heb 11:1 – ESV

FACTOID: “The assurance of things hoped for (elpizomenōn hupostasis). Hupostasis is a very common word from Aristotle on and comes from huphistēmi (hupo, under, histēmi, intransitive), what stands under anything (a building, a contract, a promise). ” From Robertson’s Word Pictures

In this case, it is used as a contract of deed. Faith is the TITLE-DEED of things hoped for. It is the document that states clearly that you can have confidence in God‘s promises.

 FIRST THINGS FIRST

Faith is the Title Deed That says, “Because you have believed in Jesus Christ, you have inherited eternal life.” Almost everyone knows John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” That is the language of the Title-Deed.

The details of that title deed are detailed in the verses that follow:

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” John 3:16-18 – ESV

Here you can see that there is spelled out a distinction between who inherits and who doesn’t inherit. Because you have believed, your first inheritance is Eternal Life. Those words are from Christ Himself. You can rest assured of your salvation, which is the language of the second half of the verse: “the conviction of things not seen.” Heb 11:1 – ESV

The number of Humans who have been to Heaven and returned to tell about it are few and far between. Chances are that you and I are not in that group. Because we hold the title deed to an eternal life, we can hold to the conviction that it has already been granted to us. You don’t have to stop what you are doing and go see the real estate. It is already your inheritance. Nothing in the world can take your inheritance away because it was signed over to you in the blood of the one who promised it to you.

BUT WHAT ELSE?

THAT is the bazillion dollar question!

The reason we were not raptured the second we accepted Christ as our Saviour and Lord is because he has a work for us to do here. Jesus has given you the authority to do those things. Jesus said to the Disciples: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” John 14:12 NASB

Anyone with one eye and half a brain can tell things are going terribly wrong on this planet. THe reason we are still here is so we can bring the gospel to anyone who will listen. We have been given the authority to do that by Jesus Himself. You do NOT need your church’s permission to obey Christ. You do not need anything but a solid understanding of the scripture and faith. And Jesus has guaranteed that you will have all the tools He had at your disposal, PLUS more.

These facts are in the Title-Deed of our inheritance. While we are still here on this planet, we have the promise of salvation, and the promise that, if we believe, and obey, we are empowered to do all that Jesus Himself did to bring others to Himself.

BUT IT IS HARD!

Yes. It is hard. And most likely, people will think you are insane. People will hate you. People will run from you. People will lie about you, try to trip you up, and basically call you nuts…and it may begin with your family.

I can attest before God, I have, on more than one occasion, seen people try to kill me for the sake of the Gospel, but God always delivers. In fact, one of the would be assassins became a Christian, and later his wife became a Christian. Today, they live in California, and have a pretty good church going out there. They reach people that most ordinary Christians would run in fear from.

These things can be done because FAITH is your Title-Deed that assures you that whatever you ask in Jesus name will be done for you, if you are praying in God’s will. This assurance is the conviction of the thing hoped for.

“Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. “ – Mat 18:19 NASB

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” – Mat 7:7

“For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” – Mat 7:8

BE RECKLESS ABOUT IT, TOO.

My favorite devotional is written by the daughter of Oswald Chambers. Chambers was the Chaplain for the British Airmen during WWI, while they were stationed in the Saudi deserts. Chambers wrote a diary that later became the famous devotional book called “My Utmost For His Highest”.

In several of the devotionals, Chambers describes this faith, this assurance, this conviction of things hoped for, as something we have to throw ourselves into with “reckless abandon”. Have no thought for yourself image, for your safety, for anything other than being willing to take that one step off the cliff, knowing that God is there to see you through to a path of His design.

There is a child like freedom in this kind of faith. When my daughter was a toddler, she had no problem or hesitation about running as fast as she could and jumping into my arms. She knew without hesitation that I would catch her. We have to put aside our practical worldliness. We have to put aside all concerns for how we will look to others. We just have to have the Joy of our salvation, and the faith that whatever it is that God asked you to do, you can do it with out fear or concern. Jesus promised you that you have eternity as your reward, and all the power in the Kingdom of Heaven to accomplish what God has asked you to do.

Do we really want revival? Start with yourself. Be recklessly abandoned to the assurance of the things hoped for, and stand on the conviction of the things not seen.

We need revival in this land. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit to do that thing that God has asked us to do. We can do this because we have our salvation. We have our salvation because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. The fields are ripe for harvest. Let’s be about it.

 

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The Ethics of Hell


[NOTE: I have kept a copy of this article preserved and encrypted in the event that it is somehow altered by a person or persons other than me.]

“Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work. “Ecc 3:16 -17

THE SETTING:

Ray Charles can see that the Government of the United States has abandoned all that is holy, moral, legal and right. Oftentimes, I stand in stupefied wonder that “We the People” have let this happen.

The condition we are in today didn’t happen overnight, either. I remember vividly, in the 1960’s, when God was being kicked out of school. Today, there is a concerted and overt effort to remove Christianity from the common arena.

What dumbfounds me is that:

A: What passes for a representative republic openly demonstrates, with great pride, every effort it can to destroy all that was considered good, all that was considered right, all that is constitutional, all references to the Living God, and His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

B: What passes for government today openly calls Christians, and tea party members “terrorists” while giving a free pass to the people who want to kill us.

And

C: We are tolerating this behavior.

MY REACTION

I have no doubt you are aware of the same things I am.  This has been a real struggle for me. I was raised in the South where being an American is just as important as being a Christian. In fact, a lack of patriotism usually meant that your neighbors will question your salvation.

I was raised to believe that we are a Constitutional Republic, not a democracy. That the Constitution IS the baseline by which all laws are measured, and no law will exist that takes away from the constitution, in any form, shape or deed.

I was raised to believe it is honorable to die for your country, that the flag will not be desecrated under ANY circumstances, and that this nation exists because of the Living God.

Now that we have kicked God out of our lives, our nation has fallen to a very dark place.

So, my gut reaction is to be angry at the Government. My gut reaction, my real heartfelt reaction, is to take matters in my own hands. That is my gut reaction. I have this reaction because, in the 1980’s I swore an oath that includes this phrase:

“I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God.” 

That oath keep crashing against the shores of my conscience, and I am overwhelmed with the desire to keep that oath.

There’s just one problem with that…..

THE ETHICS OF HELL

“The thief (Lucifer, Satan) comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I (Jesus) came that they (you and me) may have life and have it abundantly.” Joh 10:10

This part took me a while to see.  Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am very patriotic, that I am very willing to risk my life for my oath, that I have been harboring deep hatred and resentment in both the government for all of its blatant display of corruption, and a nation that tolerates it.

But I took my anger to God.

And I prayed.

And prayed.

All this time, God listened to me rant and rave. My anger had been kindled, I wanted to pour out MY wrath on these people.

This is when God reminded me of the ethics of hell.

The enemy of God doesn’t care where fear, anger, confusion, distrust, and treachery comes from, AS LONG AS IT IS THERE. I might feel perfectly righteous being angry, but my anger tempts me to run into sin, and not wait on the Lord. No other patriot would blame me for my feelings, either.

This scripture came to my mind: “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” Pro 25:28

Anyone of us can justify our patriotism. We can even look down our noses at anyone who doesn’t feel the same hatred and indignation of our corrupted government.

God showed me that my anger is misdirected and I was sinning in my heart by the things I imagined should be done to fix our government.

The ethics of hell means that you will be tempted to sin, and you will be able to justify it in ways that hardly anyone else could condemn.

My willingness to lose self control opened a chink in my armor. My anger was not God’s anger. My desires for action were not Gods desires for me. And no matter how well I could justify my attitude, all I did was open a door that allowed the enemy to breach the walls of my heart. And thoughts of evil piled on top of thoughts of evil, until all I became was an animal waiting to be unleashed to his prey.

Satan does not care how much you read the bible, pray, sing in the choir, as long as you are willing to be angry and sin. As long as you give harbor to fear and confusion, as long as you take your eyes off Christ, and look at the waves you are walking on.

Satan is the author of confusion. Satan speaks death in to everything he touches. Satan divides. Satan destroys. And he is especially happy when he can distract Christians away from God. Satan knows that if we ever stop being willing to sin, if we ever approach God and confirm God’s will on our lives, and if we ever remember that our first call is Love, then Satan loses this skirmish.

MY RESPONSE

“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” Isa 1:18

“Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good”. – Rom 12:17 – 21

After praying, and God pointing out that my fleshly response will not please Him, I asked, “Then what should I do?”

God laid it on my heart that my anger does not serve the kingdom. That taking matters in my own hands is not the will of God. God reminded me of my calling, and the fundamentals of all of our calling. Those of us who seek the Lord with all our hearts, who know that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God, and have accepted that free gift of salvation, know deep down that God’s ways are not our ways.

It is the ethics of Hell that demands you take matters in to your own hands. It is the Ethics of Heaven that reminds us:

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Eph 6:12

In God’s army, our battles always begins on our knees before Him. We are to listen to Him, and obey whatever he leads us to do, no matter how contrary it may be to our human reasoning. The mightiest weapons we have in God’s army is prayer and praise.

God reminded me of the battle in II Chronicles 20 (A good read), where the battle was not won with swords, but with praise. This is where we become the most effective in the service of God’s army. Praise and prayer will bring the changes we need in our nation. Unrighteous anger just adds to the overwhelming noise that exists on this planet. But prayer and praise are inhabited by the Living God.

Knowing this, then, here is what I did.

I prayed for the Salvation of Obama. I prayed to God, and the more I prayed, the more it made sense to love my enemy. I prayed for the House and the Senate, as well as the Judiciary. I prayed that the Spirit of God descend on them, and everyone in Washington D.C. that they will be convicted of their sin and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. That the powers that be have the courage to face the consequences of their actions, and to confess to the Lord, who will be faithful to forgive them.

I prayed this prayer, and it was one of the hardest things to do to say that I genuinely love Obama and care about his eternal soul.

It is not my place to attack anyone in the government. Not even in my prayers. As a warrior of God’s army, my battle begins with me getting out of the way of the will of God, and praying for my enemies in a way that is pleasing to God.

It is the will of God that no man should perish.

But for the most part, I needed help from the Holy Spirit to teach me how to pray for people that I so sincerely despise. It is written:

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” Rom 8:26

and

“For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside.” 1Co 5:12-13a

Do I want my sense of vengeance, or do I want revival in the land? I want revival.

Revival will begin when I pray that God forgive my attitude, and when I ask God to fill me with HIS desire for our nation. If we pray for the tyrants who rule over us, we will see a revival in our nation. But this revival must first begin when we, as warriors to God, start the battle on our knees.

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The Return to God, Part II: God Will Then Let You Know He Is Aware of Your Situation


Part II: God will then let you know he is aware of your situation.

(All Bible quotes used herein are from the ESV, by means of the excellent software: e-Sword. )

I think the thing that slowed my return to God was me…my thoughts, my fears, the dread of being judged as irredeemable.

I was in the way of my own redemption. I had strayed pretty far. I didn’t know how to return to where I was. I didn’t know the way back. I could recall the day of my Salvation. But it seemed a lifetime ago, and I had done SO many things, much of it on purpose, to anger the Living God. I figured I had become irredeemable. Incurable. Incapable of being acceptable to God. Chances are you might feel that way too.

I had completely forgotten what Jesus said about any who are saved.

John 6:37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

John 10:28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

Do you remember the day you were saved? Maybe it was a long time ago, and you have not lived the “victorious life”.  Maybe the burden of separation from God seems like it is too much for you.

But take it from me, one who recently returned, Jesus meant it when He said: I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. And: whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

I had forgotten this. I can remember the day of my salvation. But I had forgotten the above. When I recalled these verses, and finally realized what these verses mean, I realized that A: When Jesus said, ” and no one will snatch them out of my hand. ” He also meant that I myself cannot snatch ME out of His hand.  Jesus said repeatedly throughout His ministry that we can curse and blaspheme God and Jesus, and do all manner of wickedness, and be forgiven, as long as we have not blasphemed the Holy Spirit.  I knew I was saved. My doubts of being able to be forgiven was standing in the way of my redemption to God from my sins.

This Psalm describes how I was feeling:

Psalm 42:1- 2: As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

I missed God. I missed serving Christ. I knew I was lost, and thirsty for the sweet presence of God in my life. I had to get out of my way. and that is when the changes started to happen.

First, I prayed:

Psalm 5:1-2: Give ear to my words, O LORD; consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray.

AND

From Psalm 51: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.

This is what I discovered:

Psalm 145:8 – 9: The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

So I unloaded everything on God:

Psalm 55:22 – Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

And, Psalm 57:2 – I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.

I have to confess. I mean I was prepared to hear Him tell me to go to hell. And I felt I deserved it. But God let me know he has been aware of what I had been up to all along, that he had never taken His eyes off me. And He didn’t do it in a way that was accusative. He did it in a way that let me know I can stop it now, and be forgiven. He knew anyway.

Psalm 44:20-21 If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart.

And:

Psalm 138:8 The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.

Psalm 145:8 The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Psalm 145:9 The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

Because you were saved, and because of the Blood of Christ you can rest assured:

1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

You will suddenly know: Psalm 40:1- 3 I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD.

God knows you are in a plight. He always knew. He quietly intervened on your behalf, in ways you will discover after your return to Him. He led you to the point where you understood how far you strayed. No one who belongs to Him is irredeemable.

You discover: Lamentations 3:21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Understand this, when you began to feel the weight of your guilt for leaving God, it was God making you aware he knows what plight you are in. It was God drawing you back to Him. It was the Holy Spirit convicting you of your need to return. He was letting you know that He knows. That you were the only thing standing in your way.

God gives you the strength and courage to confess, to return, to repent. You have earned this right because you were and are saved by the blood of Christ Jesus. Jesus has made it possible for you to go before God and do business with Him:

Hebrews 10:19-21 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Christ prayed for you. That you will never be snatched out of His hand. He came after you because of His love for you. The fact that you began to miss God, and desired to return to Him is a sure sign that the Spirit of God was at work in your heart. HE KNEW your plight and came after you.

Matthew 18:12-13 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.

You are home now. God went out of his way to find you, and heaven itself rejoiced over your return to Him.

THIS is where things get really interesting.

Stay tuned for Part III: God has made you exactly the way you are, so that you can do exactly what He intends for you to do.

If you would like prayer, please write me at: sammysnardfarkle@gmail.com

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