It surprises me sometimes that I think of doing something completely out of character for me. It actually scares me when this happens because many times it is an action against someone I love and I don’t ever want to hurt my son or my wife or even my pets! But when this thought or feeling comes into my mind it is really scary. Why did it come into my mind? Would I actually do something like this?
When you read a book that has a group of people who are trying to do something fantastic, it seems there is always at least one character that just needs a little push or nudge in the wrong direction to cause a catastrophic failure that will take someone’s life. That is the problem with our “sin nature”. Each of us is only one nudge away from snapping and becoming some truly evil person.
Could a Christian do something like this? Satan will plant the thoughts in your mind but if you are mature in your faith you will recognize it and your Spirit will help you to resist it. On the other hand, people who are not saved or just think they are saved don’t have the Holy Spirit living inside to help us stop those thoughts. They may have a conscience that is telling them it is wrong but they don’t have a helper to give them the strength to truly resist that impulse.
I once thought that I could make it without the Holy Spirit and I tried, but it didn’t work because I could not control myself and my thoughts and actions without the Holy Spirit. Many people think that their conscience is the Holy Spirit and it isn’t because you can just push it away. Pride and covetousness will cause you to think that you are able to do things that you can’t do. You will want something or you crave more money to get something and this happens to Christians too.
You need to study about Jesus and seek Him to be your Savior and Lord. His ways and His teachings are the only way to become better than you were because of the Holy Spirit coming into your heart and changing your nature. The sin nature is still there but it is deactivated and the longer you study the Bible, the more strength you will get from God’s Word. I thought, before I truly gave my heart to Jesus, that I could never read the Bible because I couldn’t make sense of it. You have to have the Holy Spirit living inside you so you can make sense of it and get the wisdom you need from it.
Don’t push the prompting of the Holy Spirit away when you feel it. You might never feel it again and it would be sad that you missed becoming a Christian because you felt that you weren’t ready yet. You don’t get ready, Jesus knows when you are ready and He touches your heart to bring you to Himself.
In our life, God sends us in all kinds of different directions. Some of us go into politics, some are pastors or teachers and some are emergency workers. Issues arise when we want to know “why” this turned out this way. God knows the why but He is not disposed to let us know. Occasionally our prayers may be answered with a reason for our situation but God doesn’t usually tell us.
Why? Because He doesn’t have to tell us. I know it’s frustrating but God doesn’t owe us an explanation. He loves us and will lead us down certain pathways if we follow Him. But…He is not required to tell us why we are going this way. In my younger days, I thought I was following Him but I was going my own way. At the time I had not given my heart to Him. I had been “Baptized” but it was just a show. I thought it was real but it was all in my mind.
I didn’t know that we could convince ourselves of being called by God until much later in my life. It’s a scary thought that we can do this because some people could go to hell convinced in their mind that they are saved. Since I finally gave my heart to Him and even became a pastor back in 2011, I have met a few people who are so convinced of their “salvation” but they are living a life that doesn’t have the fruit that Jesus said a Christian would have. I know that isn’t proof of their salvation or whether they are even saved because only God knows the true condition of their heart.
I pray that every person who reads this will search their heart and the Bible to make sure of their condition. Why? Because of the time that we are living in. We are in the days directly before the beginning of the book of Revelation. So many things are lining up with prophecies and the coming of Jesus in the clouds could happen soon. When is a good question but the Bible tells us not to speculate about a “date and hour”. That has been done before and none of them were right.
Why do people reject the good news of Life found in Jesus Christ? Even when the gospel has been preached for 2,000 years in churches everywhere, the world still rejects it in favor of their idea of living. It seems that most people don’t want to know the good news. Many don’t care if there is a life after this one and they don’t care if there are circumstances for any of the sins in their lives no matter how insignificant they may be.
God’s Word tells us exactly how He views sin, even “little sins”. To God, all sin is disobedience and wrong. There are no little ones or big ones. What can we do to live with Him in His home? First, we must admit that we are sinners and we won’t even do that unless the Holy Spirit convicts us of those sins. When He does that, He gives us the faith to believe in Jesus and come to Him. Our response should be to obey the prompting of the Holy Spirit and accept our salvation as His gift to us for obeying Him. Most of the time we will respond that way but some people listen to their own “conscience” and choose not to admit anything. When that happens, they are listening to a suggestion from Satan.
Satan and his fallen angels, demons, are real and they don’t want you to accept Jesus as your Savior. Their mission has always been to corrupt God’s plans in any way they can. But…they can’t stop God’s plans. If He intends for you to be saved and give your life to Jesus, you will. It may be at the last moment, but it will happen. Please don’t turn away from the voice of the Holy Spirit because He is calling you to be a child of God. Some people will turn away and when that happens, they can’t be brought back to the point of knowing their need for Jesus. It is a sad thing for this to happen but it happens, even in the church.
Matthew 22:37-40 KJV [37] Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. [38] This is the first and great commandment. [39] And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. [40] On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. https://bible.com/bible/1/mat.22.37-40.KJV
Have you ever considered that God loved us before the beginning of the Creation? He lives outside of time and could see us long before we came into the world. Jesus came to bring salvation to each person that God calls to be His if we will accept it. It is a gift from God and it is nothing that we can do to attain this nor can we work toward our salvation. Jesus Christ already accomplished everything that is necessary for us to be saved. Don’t wait because you don’t know if you will be here tomorrow.
The Living Message of Christ 