I have a question for the elders in Christ

[Josh321]

God bless you all, i just would like to ask how have you learn over the rest to continuously surrender to God daily, because when i sin sometimes i'm so afraid to go back to God to ask for forgiveness because i'm thinking " i know the truth i know better how can i do this to God and i feel ashame to ask him for forgiveness " and it hurts me so bad and i get a terrible feeling inside... most of all i feel lonely when i don't feel the presence of God with me and it's not a good feeling, so how do you manage to stay close and connected to Christ?

 

[mystdancer50]

The Bible tells us to draw near to God and He will draw near to us. When we sin, we do react just as Adam and Eve did. We hide. But God knows exactly where we are and what we did. I have learned to just come to Him openly and honestly, confess, repent and seek Him to help me overcome. I have been delivered from many bondages throughout the years. Now, my biggest struggle is my attitude at work. But, so long as I focus on God and take it a day at a time, that bondage too shall fall away.

 

[Josh321]

The Bible tells us to draw near to God and He will draw near to us. When we sin, we do react just as Adam and Eve did. We hide. But God knows exactly where we are and what we did. I have learned to just come to Him openly and honestly, confess, repent and seek Him to help me overcome. I have been delivered from many bondages throughout the years. Now, my biggest struggle is my attitude at work. But, so long as I focus on God and take it a day at a time, that bondage too shall fall away.

it's very frustrating, God would deliver me from a bondage for example lets say today... and like maybe a few weeks later i wud still get myself back into the same thing.. very frustrating i just wanna be close to God forever...

 

[overcomer2]

I hope you don't mind that I jumped in here, but this very issue was just on my mind. I believe that what you feel when you sin is designed to bring you back to your God. This way you know you are far from him and you are far from him because when we are in Christ we are holy and have no sin but when we sin (any sin) the word says we sin outside the body of Christ. Giving us this lonely, bad feeling full of hurt, and this causes us to get back in our place (in the body). Through repentance and Grace we find our way back to his bosom. And because this hurt so much to be away from him we strive not to sin any more.
[h=3]1 Corinthians 6:17-18[/h]King James Version (KJV)

[SUP]17 [/SUP]But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
[SUP]18 [/SUP]Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

 

[mystdancer50]

I was bound in a horrible sin for many years, since junior high, in fact. I would do as you've said and quit for a few weeks only to find myself back in bondage. I think the longest stint I managed was a year or so and then I was back in the filth. One day, I had indulged in the sin again and I felt like dirt. I don't remember how I got there, but I listened to the song "While I'm Waiting" and I just started weeping profusely. I called out to God and repented.

That day, I made the decision to not just wait but to wait with purpose, not just live for God but to live for Him with purpose and focus and passion. I decided on that day that He meant more to me than the fleeting pleasures of this world. That was back in 2010 and I have been free from that bondage every day since.

Consider that this bondage began in 1992 or so. That is a long time to be bound in something. But today, I am free.

The only thing that opened my eyes and heart was that I had been cultivating a love relationship with Christ, realizing there is a difference between loving Him and being in love with Him. Ultimately, it just came down to the choice: Him or sin. But, as you can see, it took a long, long time for me to get there.

 

[Josh321]

I hope you don't mind that I jumped in here, but this very issue was just on my mind. I believe that what you feel when you sin is designed to bring you back to your God. This way you know you are far from him and you are far from him because when we are in Christ we are holy and have no sin but when we sin (any sin) the word says we sin outside the body of Christ. Giving us this lonely, bad feeling full of hurt, and this causes us to get back in our place (in the body). Through repentance and Grace we find our way back to his bosom. And because this hurt so much to be away from him we strive not to sin any more.
1 Corinthians 6:17-18

King James Version (KJV)

[SUP]17 [/SUP]But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
[SUP]18 [/SUP]Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

i don't mind at all everyone is helpful this is actually a nice thread also because i believe many also feel this way so it's nice to get advice from my fellow bros and sisters and that was very insightful thank you

 

[OneJack]

it's very frustrating, God would deliver me from a bondage for example lets say today... and like maybe a few weeks later i wud still get myself back into the same thing.. very frustrating i just wanna be close to God forever...

There is no escape in always coming to God to seek His forgiveness for the sins we have done daily, nobody but God can forgive us from our sins which we cannot avoid to commit in our daily lives.

 

[HeRoseFromTheDead]

God bless you all, i just would like to ask how have you learn over the rest to continuously surrender to God daily, because when i sin sometimes i'm so afraid to go back to God to ask for forgiveness because i'm thinking " i know the truth i know better how can i do this to God and i feel ashame to ask him for forgiveness " and it hurts me so bad and i get a terrible feeling inside... most of all i feel lonely when i don't feel the presence of God with me and it's not a good feeling, so how do you manage to stay close and connected to Christ?

Faithfulness, my friend. Faithfulness. You are a new creature in Christ. Stay faithful to what you are no matter what the pain or cost. Stay faithful to the one who called, redeemed and glorified you. Yes, it can get very lonely. Press on. God's not interested in you being perfect (because he knows you can't be); he rewards faithfulness.

 

[mystdancer50]

Another key to overcoming is to ask Holy Spirit to reveal your triggers. What triggers you giving into the sins that hold you bound? Once they are identified, remove them. I had to get rid of some things but I don't regret it. My freedom is worth more than anything I have to release and leave behind.

And, you will never be strong enough to have those triggers back in your life again. That is a lie from the enemy. If being alone on the internet triggers a gambling addiction, don't ever be alone while on the internet. If certain books lead to depression and suicidal things, remove those books and never read that genre/author again. It is a small price to pay.

 

[PennEd]

God bless you all, i just would like to ask how have you learn over the rest to continuously surrender to God daily, because when i sin sometimes i'm so afraid to go back to God to ask for forgiveness because i'm thinking " i know the truth i know better how can i do this to God and i feel ashame to ask him for forgiveness " and it hurts me so bad and i get a terrible feeling inside... most of all i feel lonely when i don't feel the presence of God with me and it's not a good feeling, so how do you manage to stay close and connected to Christ?

What you have described is truly one of Satan"s biggest weapons. He loves to lay guilt on us, hoping this will push us away from Jesus.
The key for this problem for me was prayer, and the holy Spirit giving me a little insight into the Grace the Lord has for us. I would recommend you read, study, listen to various expositions from Pastors on GRACE. It is a concept that is totally counter-intuitive for humanity.
Once I FINALLY got the message that Satan could no longer hurt me because ALL of my sins, past, present, and future, have ALREADY been forgiven, then it has freed me up to choose NOT to sin, thereby drawing me closer to the Lord, and if I do stumble, although I'm not happy about it, I KNOW I have been forgiven for it.

Peace, Joy, and Love to you. In Jesus name. Amen.

 

[HeRoseFromTheDead]

Faithfulness, my friend. Faithfulness. You are a new creature in Christ. Stay faithful to what you are no matter what the pain or cost. Stay faithful to the one who called, redeemed and glorified you. Yes, it can get very lonely. Press on. God's not interested in you being perfect (because he knows you can't be); he rewards faithfulness.

He himself will work in you what is pleasing to him. Yield to his working.

It is God who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Philippians 2:13​

 

[Isdaniel]

Psalms 40

11 Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.
12 For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.
13 Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me.

 

[Josh321]

Another key to overcoming is to ask Holy Spirit to reveal your triggers. What triggers you giving into the sins that hold you bound? Once they are identified, remove them. I had to get rid of some things but I don't regret it. My freedom is worth more than anything I have to release and leave behind.

And, you will never be strong enough to have those triggers back in your life again. That is a lie from the enemy. If being alone on the internet triggers a gambling addiction, don't ever be alone while on the internet. If certain books lead to depression and suicidal things, remove those books and never read that genre/author again. It is a small price to pay.

wow this is very true also i think this would really help with alot of things, it's best to prevent the temptation from even occuring so the sin doesn't

 

[Josh321]

What you have described is truly one of Satan"s biggest weapons. He loves to lay guilt on us, hoping this will push us away from Jesus.
The key for this problem for me was prayer, and the holy Spirit giving me a little insight into the Grace the Lord has for us. I would recommend you read, study, listen to various expositions from Pastors on GRACE. It is a concept that is totally counter-intuitive for humanity.
Once I FINALLY got the message that Satan could no longer hurt me because ALL of my sins, past, present, and future, have ALREADY been forgiven, then it has freed me up to choose NOT to sin, thereby drawing me closer to the Lord, and if I do stumble, although I'm not happy about it, I KNOW I have been forgiven for it.

Peace, Joy, and Love to you. In Jesus name. Amen.

i still struggle sometimes with salvation, the devil tries to make me think it wasn't real so i have to remind myself that it is, and remind myself how God changed me

 

[Agricola]

God bless you all, i just would like to ask how have you learn over the rest to continuously surrender to God daily, because when i sin sometimes i'm so afraid to go back to God to ask for forgiveness because i'm thinking " i know the truth i know better how can i do this to God and i feel ashame to ask him for forgiveness " and it hurts me so bad and i get a terrible feeling inside... most of all i feel lonely when i don't feel the presence of God with me and it's not a good feeling, so how do you manage to stay close and connected to Christ?

I call this Satans Double Whammy.
Step 1. "Satan" makes you sin.
Step 2. "Satan" tells you that God hates you for this sin and you are not worthy to even think about God, let alone having a relationship as God now hates you for what you did and will not want anything to do with you ever again.

IN short you have to learn to over come the guilt, sure you sinned, you did stuff, but with your walk with Jesus and Holy Spirit you will naturally begin to change, this could take decades so don't expect changes over night.

Things I used to do without thinking I now genuine disgusted with what I did and will never do those things again. I am still miles of from being anything like Christ as no one can be, but point is no one is perfect and its what you do about it which counts.

Jesus loves you regardless of what you got up to!

 

[overcomer2]

i don't mind at all everyone is helpful this is actually a nice thread also because i believe many also feel this way so it's nice to get advice from my fellow bros and sisters and that was very insightful thank you

Yes, good thread to help the body of believers.

 

[Josh321]

Yes, good thread to help the body of believers.

it is indeed, you have no idea how everyone has helped me out with their knowledge i'm very greatful

 

[2Thewaters]

If we sin, it is because we do not meditate on the savior's death at Calvary,
because we have practically lost the sense of his sacrifice.


we should each day, pour more closely over the word of God,
meditate upon the life of the savior, his death, his resurrection,
and preach Christ crucified, Christ resurrected.

Quite often, when we suffer, we forget how much Jesus also has suffered in our place.
We tend to overlook or forget the great sacrifices he accepted in order to redeem us.

Jesus suffered when he was fasting.
Today, do we fast with him in order to get the victory over our sins?
Our self-indulgence in eating and drinking, and in giving up our ego makes us weak.

Jesus fasted during 40 days,
but very often we hesitate to do it ourselves,
to seek the communion with him in fasting and prayer.
To recieve the victory!

When we have to endure trials,
are we looking to Jesus?

When the fire of the purification overtakes us, we are weak and cry out.
We do not want to suffer with Christ,
and yet it is for us
that our adorable savior died.

He says to us, "I died for you;
I gave my life for you!
Now I live!
I have resurrected from the dead
so that no one shall perish,
but that all may inherit eternal life."


Are we seizing hold of this grace?

This eternal life which is being offered to us?

We have a choice;
we either consider this death of the savior
as an ordinary death and continue to live in sin,
or else we consider that this death
is that of the son of God,
who died for us.
So we can be victorious over every sin!

It was shown to me that today the world is living
as if Jesus died for nothing,
and that there is neither hope nor salvation.

And even among ourselves,
some of us are in doubt
as to the soon return of Jesus;
and do not live the life of the savior,
but live complacently in sin.

Jesus loves us.
He carried his heavy cross,
and he drank the cup of bitterness
and pain in our place.

He tells us,
"Let those who believe in me
take up their cross and follow me." Matthew 16:24.

The Lord Jesus
carried his cross on his back
and held the cup of woe in his hands;
a crown of thorns adorned his brow.
What a terrible reality
inflicted on the son of God!

Jesus places in our cup
a drop of his sufferings.
Just one drop,
that is very little
when compared with
all that he had to drink in our place.
Don't we wish to share his sufferings when we ourselves are unloved?

when we share the insults he suffered?

when we want to remain faithful to him and are persecuted?

Jesus bore all those afflictions.


Some people want to be christians,
but not to suffer with Jesus
when the testing arrives.

Let us take up our cross
and follow him
whatever the weight of that cross,


whether heavy or light,

let us stay faithful to him
and not take our gaze from Jesus.

He is always the same;
he changes not.
By love he remained nailed to that cross,
for you, for me.
Is not that wonderful when we were lost?

Jesus suffered the most ignominious death that exists.

See the grief and suffering of Mary,
his mother,
overcome at the foot of the cross.
She, who had put all her hopes
on this gentle son, so tender,

had to see him die in that fashion -
she who had hoped, like so many others,
that her son would re-establish the kingdom of Israel.

Jesus will bear always
through eternity
the scars of the cross,


so that the entire universe
may understand the immense sacrifice
of his love for human beings.

He said,
"I am the living one,
I am the Eternal, your God."

If we meditate more on his death on the cross,
we will understand how God is love,

and we would draw on that love
in order to perfect our relations
between brothers and sisters.

Jesus told us,
"Love one another as I have loved you."

Let us live this love of the Lord in our hearts,

and let our lives be transformed

into the image of Jesus Christ's character of beauty, love.

Let us ever remain faithful and give up sin

it hurts Jesus to sin.

 

[reject-tech]

God bless you all, i just would like to ask how have you learn over the rest to continuously surrender to God daily,

Start by feeling the pain and heartbreak of other people and God. Feel it fully and for real. "Immersion" in "water."

because when i sin sometimes i'm so afraid to go back to God to ask for forgiveness

You don't have to continually ask for it. It's not a changing scoreboard. The only way to get rid of that feeling is to know you are forgiven, and ideally, stop the sin, or at least try the best you can. And "best you can" is much better than you'd think or be willing to admit, if you really don't want to hurt other people or God. It is definitely more possible than what you've been led to believe by various "how to excuse sin" sermons. It's not just self discipline, or discipline centered on trying to earn credit with or please God, it's discipline centered primarily on the well being of others. That is what pleases God.

"because i'm thinking i know the truth i know better how can i do this to God and i feel ashame to ask him for forgiveness "

That's fire. You're in it. You have to be able to be totally immersed in it and deal with it without it killing your heart, motivation, and relationship with a loving God.
Viewing and dealing with this effect properly is how you stand in the furnace and don't get burned. "Feet of brass."

and it hurts me so bad and i get a terrible feeling inside... most of all i feel lonely when i don't feel the presence of God with me and it's not a good feeling,

Change your mind about His presence. He is always there. He might be quiet, but He's still there.
If you feel lonely and want some communication, open the bible to a theoretically "random" page and read.
Chances are, if it doesn't seem like it fits the situation, you can keep reading it over and over trying to figure it out, or a little farther than you normally would and bingo.

so how do you manage to stay close and connected to Christ?

Change your idea of prayer from something that is a scheduled or spontaneous event, into something that is continually happening in your mind. Even while you do other things. It's still fine and advisable to have some special time, but be aware that God is always listening to you, and try to mold your thoughts to take advantage of that, and to make them clean in intent. Some things you don't like still just pop in to your head, but God is there with you to deal with them.
"walking" is to manifest what you are thinking. Does it add flavor to the phrase "walk in the way of sinners" ?

The more you set your purpose towards the welfare of your fellow man, the more you'll understand the thinking with part.
The OT heroes walked with, that is continually thought and acted with God. Their goals and spirit were in sync.
Might take a while, and never stops growing. You might even already do it and not realize it. Maybe even for as long as you can remember being alive.

 

[Cobus]

Josh the Holy Spirit will NOT STOP reproofing you until you STOP the sin. You say it is hard for you, but God says it is light and not grievious. It is hard only because you did not take the sin to Jesus YET. ASK Him to remove the sin for you. Read the Bible, in there Jesus tells you EXACTLY what to do.

Josh. replace the sin with a VERSE of the Bible that you love. So everytime the sin comes into your thoughts, REBUKE the sin with that verse. Let me share one of mine and you will know how to do it.... I was molested when I came into manhood. And with the molestation came a ungodly sex drive. That evil spirit that drove me mad with sex, had a ball in my life for more than 20 years. Then one Sunday God helped me to get rid of the spirit. We were two men praying for the same deliverance and God delieverd us. But that spirit goes through waterless places and he would still want to move back into my flesh. But god gave me something to fill the room where he lived.....

I used to LOVE beautiful woman dressed in almost nothing. Then god showed me it is the SAME spirit in me that wnats them in bed, that made them dress like that! So in stead of seeing a beautiful woman dressed for sex, I see a lost woman dressed by Satan. I recognise my weakness against the evil ungodly sex spirit, and how God made me free, and then I PITY the woman dressed badly.... There is no better anti-dode to ungodly sex, than God's delieverance.

I am not excited by woman dressed unmodestly, but I pray for them in quiet. I think they see my peace, and then they leave me in peace. If God leads me to adress the situation I do so. I might get a slap in the face, but then what is new? My friend here is the verse that comes up if I see too much skin and or shape.... In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety;

Some really are already at great discomfort in my presence..... I saw a woman pulling her short skirt down and there just was not enough metaerial. So if she pulls any harder she might pull it off. I could see she almost prayed for more material.... I bet that was the last time she wore that mini. And then a young girl wearing one of those stomache revealing t-shites... It just would not rech her beltline, but the shirt was almost stretched to its limits everytime she looked at me... HAHAHA... I just smiled at the discomfort she was in. And it all started when she saw me looking at her. I winder what she thought. She liked the admiration of the young fellas, but they were the old me... And when she saw me, she was ashamed and really discomforted.... I think I am getting to be quite ok in these situations... It is now 15 years since I last comitted adultery, even in my thoughts. So God really does make us free from sin when He f orgives us. I thinks God knows before us when we are finished with a sin, and we only later discover the victory He gave us over that sin.... It is GOOD!