When the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin or
wrongdoing, it is always done gently and lovingly as a father would disciple
his children. When a father disciplines his children it should be not only
correct the misbehavior but to offer love and forgiveness afterwards. God
corrects His children as a loving father would, with His goal to bring you in a
closer relationship with Him.
When the enemy condemns you for a wrongdoing, you feel
bad about yourself. Condemnation pulls you away from God because you feel
unworthy of your failures, weaknesses and sins in light of God’s Holiness. The
enemy will began playing “visual” and “audio” tapes over and over in your mind
to cause you to feel not good enough or like a failure. Condemnation prevents
you from moving forward by causing you to stay stuck in your past defeats.
Reflect
and ponder: Do you feel like you have been in a boxing
ring with the enemy, as he pounds you over and over with past failures? Have
you asked God to forgive you of any wrongdoing? If you answered yes, then it is
the enemy who is making a list of your prior offenses and accusing you.
Counselor’s
Corner:
How do you know when the Holy Spirit
convicts and the enemy condemns?
1. The
Holy Spirit convicts you of sin quickly, He does not wait months or years down
the road to bring up past sins (unless you have never repented of a particular
sin but even then when He brings up prior sins it is done quickly). When the
enemy condemns he brings up the past so you can stew on all your wrongdoings
and failures. When you stew over something you already confessed it gives place
to the enemy to plant “seeds” that you were not forgiven, or that you are not a
“real” Christian. Stewing over past sins causes discouragement, doubt, and
depression.
2. Through
condemnation, the enemy assaults you with false guilt, shame and regret. If you
have asked God to forgive your sins, then going back and replaying what you
could have done differently opens the door even further for the enemy to build
strongholds through the lies you believe. Once you believe the lies,
strongholds (fortresses in the mind) are formed that can take a very long time
to tear down.
3. The
voice of condemnation is nagging, intrusive, harsh, constant and demeaning. You
end-up feeling like a total failure and want to give up. You don’t see a way
out. The Holy Spirit speaks softly, gently, suddenly, and lovingly. The enemy can
use people to speak condemnation to you and the Holy Spirit can use people to speak
life and blessings over you.
4. When
condemnation attacks you, past memories of sin, guilt and shame are dug back
up. The Holy Spirit never brings your past up without applying hope that He has
not only made a way to forgive your sins but now He can use what was in your
past for good. The enemy stirs and looks for your weaknesses and past failures,
but God uses your weaknesses when you are submitted to Him. The enemy hopes
that shame and regret from your past failures will keep you from moving
forward, but God always wants you living free from your past and going forward.
MEDITATE
ON THESE SCRIPTURES:
There
is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
Romans
8:1
For
whenever our heart condemns us; God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything.
1
John 3:20
No comments:
Post a Comment