theologyandfishing
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I can agree whole heartedly to this; and I knew exactly what you meant since I read your first post on the matter. As I said, God had been convicting me of this for years but being raised under OSAS I wrestled with it. I do have some questions that would be best asked privately thoughThank you for your encouraging post. I would like to take this opportunity to clarify what I mean (and do not mean) about walking without sinning.
It does not mean "perfect", meaning there is no more changes to be made. It is not a state of being we "arrive at". It is a walk, continually abiding in Jesus. The truth is, true growth in grace will always continue, but as the years pass, we will be more and more laden down with spiritual fruits, characteristics of Christ in us coming to the surface.
We must get away from the "outside in" method of holiness whereby the Pharisees stumbled. It leads inevitably to legalism. It is death. In truth the vast majority of the church had fallen into this error, working on outer visible sins, and in essence trying to grow from fleshly men to new natured men. It simply does not work. After years, even decades of following this method, it should have dawned on us long ago that at th rate we are going, we will look remarkably like we did when we started, just more outwardly "religious". Our sins will be those hard to see one on the surface as we try to make a fair show in the flesh, but the self ruling heart is still firmly on the throne. And it will not fool God.
What we Ned to be awakened to in "inside-out Christianity". When a man obeys God and agrees with Him that when Christ died, he died, and when Christ came up new, so did he (the two things we must know as fact in Romans 6) and then ACTS on it by reckoning he myself as dead, confessing that deep in his inner being, he is no more fleshly nstured but a new man, it it then our new nature that has always been there is released. Finally, real progression begins!
Look. We will still look like we did the minute before our reckoning ourselves dead. Habits we had , we will still have. If a man was prone to anger, a situation arises and he may still get angry. The Spirit of God inside will be faithful to immediately convict him, and if he then lets it go, because now he can, he has not sinned! (Be ye angry and sin not. Let not th sun go down on your anger.) Now if after conviction, he holds onto his grudge, NOW he has sinned. Time for some repentance.
Walking without sinning is simply always saying yes to the Holy Spirit. No rules. It is the Holy Spirit a RULING, praise God! Our outside may still be flawed, needing spiritual fruits to replace fleshly ones developed over a lifetime of practice, LOL. BUT, he can still reckon he is dead to sin, for in his core being, his heart, he is new. That is inside out Christianity, almost unheard of,in the modern church but that is soon to change. We are being awakened to truth that works, truth that sets free indeed.
When we look into a mirror, who do we see? If we look into the mirror and see the glory of God inside us, new men, AND continue therein, we are changed from glory to glory, inner holiness growing towards the surface. But if we look into the mirror and listen to satan's accusations, we forget what manner of man we were and we begin to live again like men in the flesh. The lesson. Let us not be forgetful hearers but doers of the word. And when the men came to Jesus and asked him that question " What must we DO that we might work the works of God? Do you remember what He said "Believe on Him whom He has sent."
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Here is a huge lesson to learn. When Satan comes tempting or condemning, our minds do not hear him whisper "You are a lousy Christian". He whispers "I am a lousy Christian" and we hear it in a OUR voice, as if it is our thought. How cunning. So how do we defend against that? We raise our shield of faith that says "It is no more I that live but Christ who lives in me". We agree with God who tells us that we are no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit and that we owe the flesh a big fat nothing. Praise God. It drives Satan crazy, LOL.
Walking without willfully sinning is NOT perfection. It is simply avoidance of disobedience.... negatives. Positives have yet to be grown in us, and God promises to make them happen. And as we walk in this amazing faith, overcoming the world, the flesh and the devil by faith, standing fast in the faith, we will be amazed to see dormant buds of God's fruit in us start to swell and blossom. It will get to the point that the changes in us will be amazing, and the most amazed will be US! This works, guys, it really does.
So what happens if we slip? Not when, but if? People will stop me here and say "Bt if you are new, how can you sin? Easy. Our faith at the beginning is weak. But as we stand in faith and grow in faith and abide in Him, as we fight our good fight of faith, we become established in it. And since it is always according to your faith be it unto you, a man established in the faith will simply stop ALL sin. He can technically sin, but why? Who would want to after finally learning to abide in Him, and Him in us?
Ok, back to my point. IF we do fall back into a sin, we do not throw up our hands and say "Well, that didn't work." Nor do we deny the sin. We acknowledge it to our loving God. We repent of it and ask forgiveness. But there is one more thing we must...... MUST..... do. We must pick back up our shield of faith and reckon ourselves dead to sin and agree with God that we are new creatures nonetheless. Audacious faith, and it drives Satan crazy, LOL.
You see, he is not after just getting us to sin. He wsnts to pry our testimony out of our hearts and mouths. Why? Because a Christian walking in his new man is a dangerous thing to the kingdom of darkness. That man's joy, his peace, his singleness of eye is totally appealing to all who love th light and simply do not find it in Sunday go to meeting church. Right now it is one here, another there who are discovering with great joy how to walk pleasing to God always. We are beginning to wake up. But wait until we start popping like kernels of popcorn. The fields are ripe.
The church is a slumbering giant, but we are about to awake, arise, and put on strength. The real latter rain is about to begin. Multitudes of true believers have never been told who they really are. But there is a part of them, deep inside, just like you and your wife, dear brother, who long to be obedient, long to really love as God desires, and who are ready to give up the trying to be holy in their efforts, climb out of the boat, and walk on the water to Jesus.
The highway of holiness awaits us. It is for both the weak and the strong, and in that order!
In Revelations we are told that in the last days the saints would overcome the devil by the blood of the lamb AND the word of their testimony. We are being awakened to the second part of the gospel, hat aGod is looking for weak saints so desperate to please Her m that they will believe the unbelievable, that we have new natures that not only want to obey, but CAN obey, and do it with audacious joy. Man, I love yet hat word!
Be greatly blessed, dear brother. If I can be of help to you, you have but to ask.
Gideon
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