I had a fear of Holy Spirit leaving me and eventually His power really did leave and I got severely attacked by Satan, without my helmet of salvation on. I've been a fool so I deserve to suffer, but it is too much for one to bear.
I am just young and have my whole life to live, how can I live it without Him?
I am an evangelist and was ready to win 1,000's to the faith.
When did God move toward us to save us from our sins? When we were good people already, living holy, Christ-centered lives? Nope. When we were rebellious, sinful, unholy people, mired in wickedness, bound under the power of the World, the Flesh and the devil (
Ephesians 2:1-3). Our sin did not keep God from us. If it could do this, if sin could keep God from us, no one would ever be saved! But God is far, far greater than our sin and made a way for us to know and walk with Him, fouled by evil though we are.
Romans 5:6-8
6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die.
8 But God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Titus 3:3-7
3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,
5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
1 John 4:10
10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
If God was so determined to save us from ourselves, moving past our sinful filthiness to retrieve us from the darkness and terrible penalty of our sin, why do you think His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is less determined, less resolved, less committed to you than God the Father is? Why do you believe the Spirit has left you when God has gone to the incredible lengths He has to bring you into relationship with Himself? Why would God do all He has done through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus to save you from your sins and then drop you when you go awry as one of His children, removing His Spirit from you? That's not the God I see revealed in the Bible. Instead, I see a God who is just as faithful and persistent after He saves us as He is in order to bring us to salvation.
Hebrews 13:5-6
5 ...be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear...
Romans 8:31-39
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The devil only gets a crack at us by God's permission. The devil could not abuse Job except by God's agreement; Satan could not "sift Peter like wheat" just as he liked, but had to ask God for the freedom to do so. But this means God has a good purpose in allowing such a thing. Sometimes, He is showing us where we're really at with Him, removing our illusions about our walk with Him. Other times, He's giving us cause to crowd up closer to Him than we have been doing, depending upon Him more fully than is our normal habit. Still other times, God is simply helping us to train deeply into ourselves spiritual reflexes of submission, a constant, God-centered focus, an attitude of prayer and the use of Scripture as our "sword" in spiritual warfare. At bottom, in all things, God is seeking to make us more like Jesus. (
Romans 8:29)
Anyway, the great wonder of walking with God is that He doesn't ever give us what we really deserve. If He did, we'd all of us be in hell. Instead of casting us all straight into the torment of eternal punishment for our sins against Him, He bent down low to us, in His Son taking on our form, the form of a servant, and then died at the hands of wicked men for your sin and mine (
Philippians 2:5-8). What amazing grace and love God has shown to us! What mercy, and patience, and compassion!
This is the God who is your Heavenly Father, not the one you seem to have taken up who leaves you when you don't step just right, exposing you to the attack of the Evil One.
God doesn't just save you, then, but persists with you, knowing you are utterly weak without Him, unable to be who He wants you to be in your own power. And so, when you trust in Christ as your Saviour and Lord, God places you in him, in Christ, who becomes for you a "High Priest," who mediates between you and God, your Advocate with the Father.
Hebrews 4:13-16
13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
1 Timothy 2:5
5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
1 John 2:1
1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
It is because you are in Jesus, "clothed" in him (
Romans 13:14), that God accepts you (
Ephesians 1:6). And because Jesus is perfect, those in him are also declared perfect by God ("justified) and accepted by Him. Your acceptance by God, then, doesn't rest on you, on your ability to live right, but on Jesus and
only on him. What, then, of your idea that the Holy Spirit has left you, abandoned you, because you have sinned? How does this square with all that I've pointed out to you above?
One other thing: While you may have an evangelistic gift, it is ALWAYS and ONLY God who saves people (
2 Timothy 2:25; John 6:44). You are merely a "signpost," pointing the way to God. It seems, though, that you don't yet fully understand the Gospel and what being saved means, so don't rush into evangelism. It was
nearly twenty years after his experience on the Damascus Road before the apostle Paul was ready to serve God in the Early Church. Only when we are well-settled into Christ and spiritually mature are we of much use to God. Be patient, then; God would make you into a "mighty oak," not a squash. It takes decades for a mighty oak to develop, however - unlike a squash that grows to full size in about four months. Which would you rather be?