When he got saved he learned that God loved him unconditionally and made him in His image. He learned he could let go of the past, the bad memories, the pain, the bitterness and feelings of worthlessness. He became sure and confident and rightly so. He learned who God said he was. He learned who he was in Christ and what that meant. And that he had a heavenly father who loved him unconditionally and family in Christ who were his family alongside his earthly family.
He found peace and belonging in the Lord and witnessed to many, sharing with others the hope of Christ. And because of him many others received the Holy Spirit, and profited from the fruit of the Holy Spirit which are love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, patience, and self-control. Their lives were transformed.
He went out of his way to witness to people and share God's love and peace and hope because it had brought him so much relief and joy to accept Christ as his Savior and experience God's peace and love and live in direct fellowship with God. But old thinking patterns flared up and were left unchecked.
We are in constant warfare. We have to keep our minds in check and not allow ourselves to think about things that we know we shouldn't do or dwell on. Sin and mistakes start in the mind, in our thoughts, and in our heart. When we allow ourselves to sin or live in sin we will feel guilty and ashamed. It isn't until we learn God's love is unconditional and we can receive forgiveness that we can move forward. Getting saved is only the beginning. We spend the rest of our lives becoming better and better people, more loving and kinder people. Sometimes we have to start over every day. But the main thing is starting over. By starting over I mean forgiving ourselves and moving forward in God's love and grace. The past always belongs in the past whether it's what happened ten years ago or yesterday.
The man who had experienced so much joy in the Lord reverted back to his old ways. Once again he was unfaithful to his wife. His wife who kept taking him back for 27 years put her foot down and ended the relationship. Where before he had affairs, he cared about this woman and after his divorce he got remarried. This second marriage ended.
He entangled himself with people who did not believe in and worship God, Jehovah. From what he told me he lost his identity in Christ. He experienced a great deal of loneliness. And often he felt like he didn't have anyone.
The man who had once found peace, happiness, strength and joy from God and knew who he was according to God's word, a new creation in Christ, a child of God, cut the lifeline that kept him from living in self defeat. He cut ties with the Holy One who made him feel like he was never alone. He stopped dwelling on the good things that kept his heart and mind in perfect alignment with God who gave him strength to get through the hard times.
The man moved back to a city near his home town after his girlfriend said she could no longer live with him unless he quit drinking because it was causing her health problems. I can understand that. He got into some trouble and needed help. My husband and I brought him back to his hometown to live with us.
He brought idols into my home. I told him he had to remove them from my home and property or he would have to leave. I would not disrespect the Lord, my heavenly father by allowing them in my home or on my property.
They provoked him (God) to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger.
Deuteronomy 32:16 KJV
I am the Lord : that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
Isaiah 42:8 KJV
I fell in love with my heavenly father and his Son Jesus when I was a small child. I was verbally, mentally, and sometimes physically abused. Sometimes memories of the verbal and mental abuse try to resurface but I replace them with who God says I am and what is true according to God's word.
I learned as a young child that God is faithful and true and I was never alone. And I haven't been because he is always with me. I have felt his perfect peace that is beyond all understanding. He never leaves us nor forsakes us.
I have been miraculously healed more than one time, and have proof. I have been accused of things that I had not done but somehow my reputation remained in tact and others started a relationship with Christ because they saw him in me and my actions. There have been times that I got out in left field and lived in sin, but even then God watched over me and healed me. He knew my heart. He miraculously healed me from mitral valve prolapse and enlarged heart. Praise God for healing me.
God does not cause bad things to happen to us. Often though, we bring things on ourselves by making bad choices. We are not promised an easy life. We are not promised a life without pain, sorrow, or loss. But the Creator of the heavens and the Earth who created us in his likeness promises to strengthen us and promises he'll never leave us nor forsake us. He keeps his promises. He is not a man that he should lie.
That part of us that is made in his image is our spirit. Our body is a temple to our spirit. One day when Christ comes back to take us to our perfect eternal home, we will be given a new body that will not age or become diseased. We all feel as though there's an empty place in us, that is where God belongs. He completes us.
Here, on Earth, we are given the freedom to make our own choices. We are free to make our own decisions. We are free to do as we please. Unfortunately for some, that means killing, trickery, manipulating, lying, stealing, destroying, inflicting pain on others, and mutilating. In the Holy Bible we read:
The thief (Satan) cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I (Jesus) am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
John 10:10 KJV
The thief who wants to steal your joy, your hope, your faith in your heavenly father, and your relationship with your heavenly father presents himself in many forms. He studies you, knows how to push your buttons, and manipulates you so that you will completely turn your back on God, or live in sin while trying to have a relationship with him which doesn't work. In the Holy Bible we read:
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already it is in the world.
1 John 4:1-3 KJV
The man whom my husband and I brought home to help, got rid of his false God's. I gave him a Bible to read and he retrieved from storage some books he had gotten when he took classes on the Holy Bible. The demons that tormented his mind and heart again, and the old memories from the past that haunted him again were eventually overcome by him asking for forgiveness from our heavenly father, reconciling with Christ, acknowledging that he had been forgiven, acknowledging that he was loved unconditionally, acknowledging that he was a conqueror in Christ; and by putting on the mind of Christ which is the word of God.
He conquered his demons. He lived in peace and happy for awhile then something happened to steal his joy. Something dampened his faith and he started to become bitter and angry. He wasn't reading the Bible and listening to uplifting music and he started drinking more and more. 90% of our spiritual battles are in our mind, in our thoughts. We can let our thoughts run wild, we can dwell on the past or 'what if', we can dwell on pain from a loss, or we can put on the mind of Christ. In the God breathed word of God, the Holy Bible we read:
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Philippians 4:8 KJV
The man I've been telling you about found his way back to God. In the Holy Bible the Lord my God has many names. Some of them are Jehovah, El, Elohim, I Am.
The man was still in love with his girlfriend. He still hoped they would get back together. He thought eventually she would move to North Carolina to be with him or come get him and take him home. However, he didn't stop drinking and she didn't take him back. His attitude became worse. He could not or would not admit he was an alcoholic. He would not accept help for alcoholism. Who he was sober and who he was drunk were as different as day and night. There were times my husband and I were afraid to go to sleep because he would be drunk and in a rage for no apparent reason.
He periodically did things to break the law and was in jail many times. When in jail and sober, he remembered the Lord and his heart went out to the men who were incarcerated with him and he witnessed to them, sharing God's love and hope. This man who had God's love and our love and the love of many others pushed everyone away. He fed the anger and gave in to negative, life sapping thoughts, and bitterness.
Our thoughts and the sin we allow in our lives like pride can destroy us and our earthly relationships and put a gap between us and God. We can make anything a God to us by putting it, him, or her before our relationship, worship, and praise of our heavenly father. I will always love the man I've told you about. I won't tell you who he was out of respect for him and his memory.
I am so thankful that he got right with God again and felt his love and peace again before his life was over. And I am thankful for him witnessing to others and planting that seed of hope and salvation. In God's word, the Holy Bible we read:
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 KJV
If you live in loneliness, sadness, bitterness, anger, alcoholism, depression, drug addiction, cutting, or anything else that causes you to feel defeated; there is a way out. You have supernatural help. You are loved unconditionally. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. You need only to believe. Believing equals receiving. Lean on God, not your own understanding. We only see parts of our selves and our lives but he sees the whole picture.
Learn to keep your thoughts in check. It took me a while to learn how to do it but it is possible. When you have a negative thought, acknowledge it, and replace it with a positive thought, preferably with something from the word of God. Study the Bible. Claim God's promises. Learn who you are in Christ. Look at people who try to influence you or who do have an influence on you and your thoughts. Are they building you up or tearing you down. Deal with the ones who are tearing you down. That is not love. Find a church to go to and hear the word or listen to it online. Find like minded believers to spend your free time with. Listen to Christian, uplifting music. And believe. Faith is the key to salvation. In the Holy Bible we read:
Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. And without faith it is impossible to please God. Hebrews 11:1,6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understating, in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 1:6
Lisa C
