Help!

[EveryRose]

⦁ Being a child of God does not mean that we can sin. And God still reacts to our sinning. Romans 1:18 says that God's reaction is one of anger. As a Christian I have thought to myself that because I am a Christian and that all my sins are forgiven through Christ that somehow that makes me exempt from the rules.
⦁ v18 clears this lie up. v18 says, paraphrasing, that God DOES react to "all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." He does not make a distinction between believers and non believers. This makes sense when I read Romans 1:7. v7 says we are "beloved of God." We are also God's children. Naturally I am assuming that God is like any other loving parent. He must not want the children that He loves to engage in something that He hates.
⦁ When I read this I get two emotions. I feel some relief because learning this truth has given me more clarity about God and who He is. But the other emotion is a horrible one. It is like dread and sorrow. For the last few months God has been revealing to me certain things in my life that He is not happy with and wants me to stop. However I feel like the more effort I put in to stopping and the more I try to stop the less progress I make. This makes me feel frustrated and hopeless and sometimes I contemplate giving up on God completely. This contemplation only antagonizes the sorrow because I know turning my back on God is the wrong road to take.
⦁ One of the reasons I joined this forum was to meet other Christians who know God better than I do and who have a more experienced walk with Christ. If you are reading this my question to you is, have you ever experienced this type of battle before? What did you do? How did you become victorious?

Any advice is much appreciated.

-EveryRose

 

[Hidden In Him]

⦁ One of the reasons I joined this forum was to meet other Christians who know God better than I do and who have a more experienced walk with Christ. If you are reading this my question to you is, have you ever experienced this type of battle before? What did you do? How did you become victorious?

Welcome to CF!

I still face certain problems, actually, and that's after walking with the Lord for over 30 years. But I believe while He convicts us of our sins and our need for repentance, His mercies are nevertheless new every morning. And as long as we are willing to continue waking with Him, He is willing to keep walking with us and keep guiding us to our deliverance, so long as we sincerely keep desiring to be what He is pleased with.

 

[PropheticTimes]

⦁ Being a child of God does not mean that we can sin. And God still reacts to our sinning. Romans 1:18 says that God's reaction is one of anger. As a Christian I have thought to myself that because I am a Christian and that all my sins are forgiven through Christ that somehow that makes me exempt from the rules.
⦁ v18 clears this lie up. v18 says, paraphrasing, that God DOES react to "all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." He does not make a distinction between believers and non believers. This makes sense when I read Romans 1:7. v7 says we are "beloved of God." We are also God's children. Naturally I am assuming that God is like any other loving parent. He must not want the children that He loves to engage in something that He hates.
⦁ When I read this I get two emotions. I feel some relief because learning this truth has given me more clarity about God and who He is. But the other emotion is a horrible one. It is like dread and sorrow. For the last few months God has been revealing to me certain things in my life that He is not happy with and wants me to stop. However I feel like the more effort I put in to stopping and the more I try to stop the less progress I make. This makes me feel frustrated and hopeless and sometimes I contemplate giving up on God completely. This contemplation only antagonizes the sorrow because I know turning my back on God is the wrong road to take.
⦁ One of the reasons I joined this forum was to meet other Christians who know God better than I do and who have a more experienced walk with Christ. If you are reading this my question to you is, have you ever experienced this type of battle before? What did you do? How did you become victorious?

Any advice is much appreciated.

-EveryRose

First off, welcome

Now to your question -

I myself went through this very thing years ago, even to the point of throwing away everything I felt God would not approve of if He saw I had it (which of course He sees everything but you know what I mean). It seemed the harder I tried, the further He seemed and I wondered why I was trying at all (sound familiar?). That is when I met someone on these forums who helped me to understand my situation (he has passed away but left the love of Jesus he showed me with me).

This is what he told me, and how my outlook changed -

I was trying to do things to reach God, whom I thought was "up there" looking down at me and wagging His almighty finger at every little thing I did or didn't do. I had a very distant earthly father so this is the only type of father I knew. But, He isn't that kind of Father. God is loving, and forgiving, and He is always with me. I was trying to reach HIM, not fully understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ that enabled me to see that HE came down to reach ME. Yes, we are to avoid what He hates. Will we mess up from time to time? Yes. Our life is a journey of sancitification, of being made more and more into His image. When we mess up, we truly repent out of the sorrow of our heart and we commit ourselves to never doing it again. Yet, when we do fall, we are covered in His merciful grace. Jesus was fully God AND fully man and He understands what human life is like.

Also, never forget that satan (I refuse to capitalize his name, he doesn't deserve that) is always trying to pull us back to his side...always tempting, always tossing doubts into our minds, always making us question God (like in the Garden of Eden, "Did God really say that?"). I find that sitting in a quiet place for a few minutes and thinking of, and thanking God for, all the blessings He has given me, even the tiniest little things like that bird singing outside my window, and just thanking Him and praising Him will lift my spirit. Above all, don't take your eyes off of Jesus, because it is when we do that that the devil gets his claws in us and we find ourselves skidding in our faith.

I'm sorry if that was long-winded. I hope it helped.

 

[St_Worm2]

Hi EveryRose, you might want to read v18 in the context that it's written again, which actually includes Romans 1:18 - Romans 3:23. Verse 18 is the beginning of St. Paul's great discourse on the condition of ALL, be they Jew or Greek, who are not in Christ.

Just looking at the verse itself for a moment however,

Romans 1
18 The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.​

1. True Christians are saved from two things, our sin (and our sinful selves .. though sadly, we all will continue to fall to temptation and sin this side of Glory, though hopefully to a lesser and lesser degree as we grow up in the faith), and from the wrath of God .. e.g. Roman 5:8-9; Romans 8:1; John 5:24 God does not reveal His wrath against "Christians", because God's wrath is one of the two (principle) things that Jesus came here to save us from

2. Christians are not among those who make a lifestyle out of "suppressing the truth in unrighteousness".

So St. Paul in NOT referring to Christians in v18

Yours and His,
David

Romans 5
8 God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.​

 

[Bro. Daniel]

⦁ Being a child of God does not mean that we can sin. And God still reacts to our sinning. Romans 1:18 says that God's reaction is one of anger. As a Christian I have thought to myself that because I am a Christian and that all my sins are forgiven through Christ that somehow that makes me exempt from the rules.
⦁ v18 clears this lie up. v18 says, paraphrasing, that God DOES react to "all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." He does not make a distinction between believers and non believers. This makes sense when I read Romans 1:7. v7 says we are "beloved of God." We are also God's children. Naturally I am assuming that God is like any other loving parent. He must not want the children that He loves to engage in something that He hates.
⦁ When I read this I get two emotions. I feel some relief because learning this truth has given me more clarity about God and who He is. But the other emotion is a horrible one. It is like dread and sorrow. For the last few months God has been revealing to me certain things in my life that He is not happy with and wants me to stop. However I feel like the more effort I put in to stopping and the more I try to stop the less progress I make. This makes me feel frustrated and hopeless and sometimes I contemplate giving up on God completely. This contemplation only antagonizes the sorrow because I know turning my back on God is the wrong road to take.
⦁ One of the reasons I joined this forum was to meet other Christians who know God better than I do and who have a more experienced walk with Christ. If you are reading this my question to you is, have you ever experienced this type of battle before? What did you do? How did you become victorious?

Any advice is much appreciated.

-EveryRose

You're absolutely right in all aspects here in this post. You're experiencing conviction from the Holy Spirit. We are not supposed to sin intentionally. (Romans 6:15) Jesus even said "sin no more". (John 8:11) Not one spot or wrinkle can make it into Heaven. Keep thyself pure (James 1:27, Ephesians 5:27, Revelation 21:27, 1 Timothy 5:22)

Two things are happening when you experience this:
1.] God is pushing you to be closer to Him
2.] You're about to receive a blessing, miracle, breakthrough, deliverance, a reward, spiritual promotion etc.

When this happens satan turns up the heat by ramping up the temptation but... you have to ask God for more strength in the area of weakness or sin you're dealing with. (2 Corinthians 12:9) You can also rebuke the temptation as you have authority in Christ. (Luke 10:19)

Sample Strength Prayer: Father God, please strengthen me doublefold from comitting (name of sin/area of weakness, i.e. profanity, lust, lying, etc.) in Jesus' name, Ahmen.

I have to apologize as I had to edit some things out because God said the info I provided earlier was too much too soon. Plus Chosen_and_blessed made a good point. Things do not change overnight, which is true.

Dedication to God is the first mission for Him to trust you. We are supposed to give our lives to Him to overcome the world and come out of it. (2 Corinthians 6:17) We become willing vessels and live for His will and not our own. (John 5:30, John 12:49) Establish a relationship with God and draw near to Him. (James 4:8) Pray inquiry prayers: Father, what is my calling? (Ephesians 4:1) What is keeping me in sin? What is blocking me from hearing Your voice? Father God, is there anything blocking me from getting closer to You? and many more...

I've experienced this battle and it's daily. I can say you are definitely headed in the right direction as God is not a man who should lie (Numbers 23:19) and cause your ears to itch. (2 Timothy 4:1-4)

Sin is obviously easy. Being with God isn't at first and it's a very narrow road. (Matthew 7:13-14) Sometimes things will become a bit challenging but it won't be anything you can't handle once you learn what and how to pray giving Him your burdens. (Matthew 11:30, Jeremiah 29:11) Anyone who tells you different has not been opened to the spiritual realm, has not talked or walked with God personally (John 10:27), nor has true fear of Him. (Psalm 25:14, Matthew 10:28) They've probably never heard of a five-fold ministry nor have the full ministry in their churches as I've seen today. (Ephesians 4:11) They lack power, couldn't deliver a demon to save their life nor ever seen one before and God warns us to stay away from the powerless. (Matthew 12:28, 2 Timothy 3:5)

Best advice is to start small, take it slow, keep the faith and ask God to get rid of any fear, doubt, worry, anxiety, and double-mindedness. Do your best to keep your lamp full meaning stay in prayer asking God for things to help you in ALL you do (Matthew 21:22, Mark 9:23, Philippians 4:13). Praying in tongues helps, if you don't have them, ask God to give you the Spiritual Gift of Tongues. Try your hardest to sin less (no-one is perfect plus you get deliverance). Repent daily as we sin knowingly and unknowingly and to say we don't is a lie. (1 John 1:8). Fast more as it breaks away desire (Romans 8:13, Colossians 3:5). Give God first fruits by praying between 3am-6am and tithing 10% of your life, and give additional offerings are whatever you can spare to ministry that God approves of or help others out with God's approval. Even if you receive a penny, you have to tithe on it. Read the Bible daily a lot as this builds up, edifies and feeds your Spirit. (Proverbs 20:27). Asking God what to read in the Bible before you start means you trust Him and He likes that. Wait on Him and He'll tell you what Book/Chapter/Verse to go to.

Some would say this is extreme, but their relationship and heart aren't in it like they should yet and most likely need deliverance of whatever is hindering them.

Day by day God will oversee and push you through everything with His strength. The Bible is full of secrets, mysteries and revelations that begin to open little by little the more you establish a relationship with Him.

Sample Prayer Before Reading the Bible: Father God, I thank you for providing my daily bread, quenching my thirst and nourishing my spirit. Please give me knowledge, understanding, wisdom and high discernment to reveal any secrets, mysteries or anything You wish me to learn today and I thank you and I receive it in Jesus' name. Ahmen.

Any additional advice, feel free to contact me. There are prayers and answers for everything as God knows it all.

Shalom and blessings sevenfold in Jesus' name,

Bro. Daniel

(Numbers 6:24-26)

 

[Sarah G]

I want to say that the post and advice on Bro. Daniel's comment is one of the most extreme views of Christianity that I have personally ever read. I pray that it doesn't make you run 100 miles in the opposite direction.

I think the serenity prayer is useful: God give me the serenity to accept, the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference.

Short of a full blown miracle it is very, very difficult to change everything over night. My advice is to drop one bad habit at a time. When God sees that we are serious in our endeavours He helps us with the other things, more and more. Pray continuously and be open with Jesus. He loves us and meets us where we are at. It surely isn't God's will that you work yourself into a nervous breakdown. Be nice to yourself, don't punish yourself for past mistakes, they are forgiven. Jesus loves you!

 

[DreamerOfTheHeart]

⦁ Being a child of God does not mean that we can sin. And God still reacts to our sinning. Romans 1:18 says that God's reaction is one of anger. As a Christian I have thought to myself that because I am a Christian and that all my sins are forgiven through Christ that somehow that makes me exempt from the rules.
⦁ v18 clears this lie up. v18 says, paraphrasing, that God DOES react to "all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." He does not make a distinction between believers and non believers. This makes sense when I read Romans 1:7. v7 says we are "beloved of God." We are also God's children. Naturally I am assuming that God is like any other loving parent. He must not want the children that He loves to engage in something that He hates.
⦁ When I read this I get two emotions. I feel some relief because learning this truth has given me more clarity about God and who He is. But the other emotion is a horrible one. It is like dread and sorrow. For the last few months God has been revealing to me certain things in my life that He is not happy with and wants me to stop. However I feel like the more effort I put in to stopping and the more I try to stop the less progress I make. This makes me feel frustrated and hopeless and sometimes I contemplate giving up on God completely. This contemplation only antagonizes the sorrow because I know turning my back on God is the wrong road to take.
⦁ One of the reasons I joined this forum was to meet other Christians who know God better than I do and who have a more experienced walk with Christ. If you are reading this my question to you is, have you ever experienced this type of battle before? What did you do? How did you become victorious?

Any advice is much appreciated.

-EveryRose

You sound like the last poster I just responded to...

To get a better understanding of scripture, you really need to read the entire bible.

In this case, you are looking for an answer, but severely limiting your options by only considering a very areas in a book from Paul.

There is the rest of the Bible that must be considered for context. And then, we should trust and look for the Spirit to 'teach us all things', and give us guidance as we seek the truth.

Seeking the truth is a real process of the way, and Jesus specifically speaks on the subject as such.

We see it is simple. Perseverance is required. And trust, such as trust God won't give us a snake when we ask for a fish.

Otherwise, sins are not accounted against us, this is true. However, we can be punished for our sins for educational purposes. Such as what happened to David, for instance.

Punishment is something to try and avoid.

It was also noted by an apostle that 'many [in an early but major church] of you are getting sick, this is because of this sin you are doing'.

But, we are called to live by faith, as Jesus did. So, there are very many strange and not yet understandable viewpoints as yet possible. Which very well may mean that how you have been weighing good and evil may have been really off.

That is, a major early step to take, is to question the moral system you came in with. How you judged everything and everybody.

You can assume, then, your perspective of 'what is sin' and 'what is not', or 'what is a mere functional error' and 'what is a moral sin' will all change.

 

[1watchman]

Hello Everyrose. Yes, our flesh is always with us and Satan always seeks to stir it up to dishonor God and stumble us. God tells His saints He "...will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on (Him)" ---Isaiah 26:3. We need the Lord Jesus in our heart with devotion to Him, and be walking and talking with Him daily. That pleases the Father and will bring peace and joy and much care. Confess all failure to Him every hour and go forth praising the Lord Jesus, who will come one day soon to call up His saints to glory.

 

[paul1149]

⦁ Being a child of God does not mean that we can sin. And God still reacts to our sinning. Romans 1:18 says that God's reaction is one of anger...

⦁ When I read this I get two emotions. I feel some relief because learning this truth has given me more clarity about God and who He is. But the other emotion is a horrible one. It is like dread and sorrow. For the last few months God has been revealing to me certain things in my life that He is not happy with and wants me to stop. However I feel like the more effort I put in to stopping and the more I try to stop the less progress I make. This makes me feel frustrated and hopeless and sometimes I contemplate giving up on God completely.

Hi @EveryRose, I hope you are still here.
It's true that God hates sin, and indeed must deliver its consequences. But there is a fundamental difference between the Saved and Unsaved. The penalty for sin has already been laid on Christ for the believer. And there is no double jeopardy.

As you say, that is not a license to sin. Rom 6.1 makes that clear. But when we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous. According to 1Jn 1.9, if we confess, He forgives and will cleanse.

The difference is sonship. We have been adopted into the family of God. Yes, we are disciplined, and that can be grievous (Heb 12). But it is in the context of love.

And indeed, there is a place for fear of the Lord. Though sin may not break our salvation, it still brings consequences. And in that regard, there is no partiality with God. But being children of the King, we can still make appeal to His mercies.

Your last paragraph is very telling. It is a mirror of the last part of Romans 7, in which Paul details struggling against sin in his own strength. The more he tries, the worse he does and the worse he feels. It is only when he accepts the grace of God in ch. 8 that he finds freedom.

Beware of performance salvation. It doesn't work that way, and it is a very subtle but harmful error that denies the Cross. Study Rom 6-8, 2Cor 3, the books of Galatians and 1John with regard to grace v. law, and the freedom we have in Christ. As you pray your way through it, seek the balance between a healthy desire to avoid sin, and walking in grace.

 

[MishaMarie]

⦁ Being a child of God does not mean that we can sin. And God still reacts to our sinning. Romans 1:18 says that God's reaction is one of anger. As a Christian I have thought to myself that because I am a Christian and that all my sins are forgiven through Christ that somehow that makes me exempt from the rules.
⦁ v18 clears this lie up. v18 says, paraphrasing, that God DOES react to "all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." He does not make a distinction between believers and non believers. This makes sense when I read Romans 1:7. v7 says we are "beloved of God." We are also God's children. Naturally I am assuming that God is like any other loving parent. He must not want the children that He loves to engage in something that He hates.
⦁ When I read this I get two emotions. I feel some relief because learning this truth has given me more clarity about God and who He is. But the other emotion is a horrible one. It is like dread and sorrow. For the last few months God has been revealing to me certain things in my life that He is not happy with and wants me to stop. However I feel like the more effort I put in to stopping and the more I try to stop the less progress I make. This makes me feel frustrated and hopeless and sometimes I contemplate giving up on God completely. This contemplation only antagonizes the sorrow because I know turning my back on God is the wrong road to take.
⦁ One of the reasons I joined this forum was to meet other Christians who know God better than I do and who have a more experienced walk with Christ. If you are reading this my question to you is, have you ever experienced this type of battle before? What did you do? How did you become victorious?

Any advice is much appreciated.

-EveryRose

You never change habits, you replace them. Instead of trying to stop doing something, try doing something that results in its complete replacement. Then you can be mindful of both habits and decern why you do one and what could fill the void.

 

[1watchman]

Good thought, Marie! We need to replace our carnal thoughts with God's thoughts from His Word toward us in this age, and stay in communion with God through His "...beloved Son" ---the Lord Jesus, the Christ of God.

 

[messager777]

There is sinning-in-thoughts which is often involuntary or inborn(eg immoral lust, hate, greed, jealousy, fears, doubts, etc), and there is sinning-in-deeds which is voluntary(eg blasphemy, idolatry, murder, adultery, rape, stealing, lying/cheating, etc).

ROMANS.5:12 says that the fact that all humans are born with Adam's Original Sin necessitates the need for them to be saved from hell by Jesus Christ. This means all humans are born with evil/satanic/sinful hearts and minds and will be sent to hell when they die.
....... Adam's Original Sin resulted in all humans often sinning-in-thoughts involuntarily.(JOHN.8:44 , MATT.16:23 & 23:27, MARK.7:21 , 1JOHN.3:8)

While humans are on earth, God or His agents, eg the police/government, will only curse/punish them for their sins-in-deeds, ie not for their sins-in-thoughts. Hell only comes into effect after death.

 

[MishaMarie]

Messenger, where does Jesus fit into your ideas?

 

[messager777]

Messenger, where does Jesus fit into your ideas?

.
"ROMANS.5:12 says that the fact that all humans are born with Adam's Original Sin necessitates the need for them to be saved from hell by Jesus Christ."

Death in Adam, Life in Christ
12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— 13 (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. 16 And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. 17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)

18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.

20 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, 21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

[Goatee]

Interesting posts. Thanks for sharing them on here.