Popular Post Gideon Posted April 3, 2018 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 14 Topic Count: 79 Topics Per Day: 0.02 Content Count: 1,177 Content Per Day: 0.31 Reputation: 826 Days Won: 1 Joined: 10/04/2013 Status: Offline Popular Post Share Posted April 3, 2018 What Do I Mean About Being Able to Walk Without Sinning? I think a part of this great gap between sides on this subject is that there may be a misunderstanding of what what I am talking about when I say a man can indeed walk in a place where he does not sin. I am going to give you my thoughts on the subject and hopefully some here will say "Oh, that changes things." 1) Walking without sin, and walking in holiness is NOT moral perfection. It is not never making mistakes. As Paul said, he had not yet attained, BUT he pressed forward to attain. No one is perfect like that, save Jesus. 2) Undeveloped spiritual fruits is not sin. Patience is a fruit of the spirit. So is being impatient sin? Not in and of itself, no. We have to abide in the Spirit in order to let the Spirit of God grow patience in us. But we are not sinning in the process if we are keeping our hearts soft towards Him. If this is not the case, then not having peace, or gentleness is a sin for that is a fruit of the spirit as well.Anger in and of itself is not sin. It is not letting it go when the Spirit whispers to us to do so that crosses the line into sin. Anger in and of itself is not sin. It is not letting it go when the Spirit whispers to us to do so that crosses the line into sin. 3) Oh, this one is important. Sin is NOT having bad thoughts. It is letting them become a part of us, believing they came form our own hearts, accepting them as ours instead of sown there by the enemy to see if we will bite. In my case, where lust was like iron chains, the lustful thought would come. No shield of faith met it to resist. I accepted it as ME, and thought how crummy I was and that I could never resist it, and proceeded to give in to it. Now I have sinned. But today, I may be walking down the street and see a woman with an attractive body and face, and keep that thought from going anywhere. That reaction is simple the natural state of the man's psyche. There is nothing wrong with it. I smile at God's creative ability, Period. You talk about a difference! Is such a thing really possible for a child of God? Possible?? It is promised! But we must know this. There is a hook hidden in that bait if we bite on it as our thought. This is Satan’s greatest lie. He does not confront us with forked tail, horns and wisps of acrid smoke tempting us. Oh, no. He plants the thought in our head, and here is the kicker. He does it in OUR voice and words it in the first person, as if it is OUR thought. And if I accept it as my thought, I am already defeated. My shield of faith is down. If I play with that thought, dwell on it, bodily lusts are stirred up because even though my spirit is no longer fleshly, I still dwell in a fleshly body. So if I do not resist, steadfast in the faith as to who I really am, then lust is aroused in that body and the end result is sin. We can literally be bombarded with terrible disgusting thoughts, to the point we do not even feel saved. But if we have planted our flag in the truth that we really are new creatures…right now….then once we understand that they cannot come from within us, for we are new creatures, the battle is won. Our shields of faith WILL quench all the fiery arrows he casts at us, as he tries to getus to accept that we are not new at all, but the same old sinners we were before we are saved. He is a liar. So what is sin, at least the sin that I referred to in my OP? The Bible says that for us as believers, whatsoever is not of faith is sin. So, what does that mean? As Christians we all have the Holy Spirit within us. Christ lives in us. He is our "umpire". He is the one that convicts us (not condemns) when we are going the wrong way. Now, with the leading of the Holy Spirit telling us to not go somewhere or perhaps to do something...anything.... and we feel that "catch" in our spirits, and we all know what that feels like, and we proceed onward anyway? NOW it is sin for we cannot in good conscience say that we believe we are following God. So, the question really is this. Can we say yes to God every time He leads us...to do something, to let something go, to avoid a certain place....truly, it can be anything God is leading, Do we long to obey Him? The ability will come from God. That is all 'walking without sin" means. It does not mean perfection. It does not mean having bad thoughts...unless we dwell of them. Satan is a master of throwing bad thoughts our way. It is what we do with them that determines if we are sinning. Is such a walk possible? Of course it is. Our sins are not caused by our weakness but by our un-yieldedness and unbelief, for God has clearly stated He will not allow us to be tempted above our ability to resist. He says that He will keep us from falling. So there is but one reason for us to say no to God. We either have not fully surrendered or we do not believe He can indeed keep us from sin. Jesus has taught us to pray "Deliver us from evil". Paul tells us we have been delivered from the power of darkness and that sin shall NOT have dominion over us. God is asking us to believe Him, just like He asked the Israelites to believe Him in spite of armies facing them in the Promised land. He had told them that He HAD...past tense.... given them the land of promise and that every step they took would be their possession. God has always looked for faith in His own. It is no different today. So, do we believe that we can actually possess our own land of promise, a life of saying yes to God, being delivered from the world the flesh and the devil? God has made a way through the wall of impossible. It is called a new nature and THAT man can....and will.... say yes to God all day, every day. And by our abiding there, with God having full possession of us, He can then begin to grow the fruits of the Spirit in us...without fail. Sanctification means being fully set apart. So when we are encouraged by God's promise in His word that He will sanctify us wholly, body, soul and spirit, and that he will then preserve us blameless unto His coming, can we do anything but rejoice? I cannot emphasize enough the need for yieldedness..... total surrender. It is not a word at all. It is a state of heart. Andrew Murray called it absolute surrender. It should have been emphasized at our conversion, but was not for most of us. God is a master potter. He has promised to fashion us into people even we will not recognize. BUT, He must have full access to us. We must be centered on His potters wheel so that He will do His miracle. Surrender is not optional if we are to enter heaven, and kept from sin in the here and now. Ultimately, it comes down to faith.... or unbelief. For seasoned Christians, unbelief is not a weakness as it is for new converts. It is willfully believing in us, thinking that our way is better, and that God will wink at such a heart... that grace will overlook our unyieldedness, and the real root, unbelief. So what IS our responsibility? Jesus told us that we must make our tree good. Not hang artificial fruits on ourselves. Make our tree good. What does that mean? It means to put off the old nature we all have walked in, the one who wants to go at our pace, do our thing, and obey when it is convenient. It means to put on our new natures.... REAL natures that are now us, because of what Christ did in His death and resurrection. And when we are good trees, God can indeed cause us to walk in obedience, just as He has promised us. Making our tree good is done in Romans 6, when we actually reckon our old man as dead and put on the new nature than can bear fruit instead. It is time we escaped our wilderness, realizing that in all our "growth" we are still in the wilderness. God wants to bless us far more than we can even comprehend. His will for us IS good, it IS perfect, it IS easily acceptable, and if we fear yielding to Him, we are calling Him a liar, and the sin of unbelief needs to be confessed and left in the past with our old natures. We ARE new creatures, men and woman who can indeed say yes to God. We have a God who wants to love us, live inside us, rule and reign over us for our blessing and for our safety? He wants to transform us to be virtual fruit markets, and of all who will be stunned at the change in us, we will be the most amazed. So, can a man or woman stop sinning? You are darned right we can. Grace is far more encompassing than we have ever even imagined. We serve an awesome God! Blessings, Gideon 1 2 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayne222 Posted April 3, 2018 Group: Worthy Ministers Followers: 32 Topic Count: 471 Topics Per Day: 0.17 Content Count: 6,542 Content Per Day: 2.30 Reputation: 7,619 Days Won: 9 Joined: 06/12/2016 Status: Offline Share Posted April 3, 2018 We can stop sinning of course if we walk in the spirit. Keep your minds on things above. Kill what is earthly in you. But if we do sin confess it right away. I john shows he will cleases us from all unrighteousness. The child of God does not practice sin. He practices righteousness snd loves his brother. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gideon Posted April 4, 2018 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 14 Topic Count: 79 Topics Per Day: 0.02 Content Count: 1,177 Content Per Day: 0.31 Reputation: 826 Days Won: 1 Joined: 10/04/2013 Status: Offline Author Share Posted April 4, 2018 (edited) 48 minutes ago, Wayne222 said: We can stop sinning of course if we walk in the spirit. Keep your minds on things above. Kill what is earthly in you. But if we do sin confess it right away. I john shows he will cleases us from all unrighteousness. The child of God does not practice sin. He practices righteousness snd loves his brother. I appreciate your comments so much. May I help clarify something, for if we err here, we can spend years trying to figure it out. Heck, I did for almost four decades! LOL. Trying to kill our old man is why I failed miserably. When I finally got to the point I had no strength, no confidence in my fleshly efforts, only then could I do the one thing God has asked us to do....believe that I already am dead, just as Paul tells us in Romans 6. So when Satan comes tempting us, what do we do? We resist him steadfast in the faith! We hold up our shield of faith declaring that we are new creatures and that the old us is not slowly dying by our weak efforts. We ARE dead! And what happens is that as we abide in Him, He is the one who keeps us from falling! Glory to God! Do you see? God promised in Ezekiel 36 to not only give us new hearts, He promised to cause those new hearts to obey Him! Whoa! Blessings to you, dear brother, Gideon Edited April 4, 2018 by Gideon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayne222 Posted April 4, 2018 Group: Worthy Ministers Followers: 32 Topic Count: 471 Topics Per Day: 0.17 Content Count: 6,542 Content Per Day: 2.30 Reputation: 7,619 Days Won: 9 Joined: 06/12/2016 Status: Offline Share Posted April 4, 2018 2 minutes ago, Gideon said: I appreciate your comments so much. May I help clarify something, for if we err here, we can spend years trying to figure it out. Heck, I did for almost four decades! LOL. Trying to kill our old man is why I failed miserably. When I finally got to the point I had no strength, no confidence in my fleshly efforts, only then could I do the one thing God has asked us to do....believe that I already am dead, just as Paul tells us in Romans 6. So when Satan comes tempting us, what do we do? We resist him steadfast in the faith! We hold up our shield of faith declaring that we are new creatures and that the old us is not slowly dying by our weak efforts. We ARE dead! And what happens is that as we abide in Him, He is the one who keeps us from falling! Glory to God! Do you see? God promised in Ezekiel 36 to not only give us new hearts, He promised to cause those new hearts to obey Him! Whoa! Blessings to you, dear brother, Gideon The bible says to kill what is earthly in us. The old man is dead but you still feel his nature. The inpotant thing is to put on the new man. I said this before in posts. Walk by the spirit. Keep your mind on heavenly things above. Its a daily walk. I have put sin out of my life. And have walk in righteousness. Its through christ. Rom 6 yield to righteousness as one raise to life. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gideon Posted April 4, 2018 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 14 Topic Count: 79 Topics Per Day: 0.02 Content Count: 1,177 Content Per Day: 0.31 Reputation: 826 Days Won: 1 Joined: 10/04/2013 Status: Offline Author Share Posted April 4, 2018 16 minutes ago, Wayne222 said: The bible says to kill what is earthly in us. The old man is dead but you still feel his nature. The inpotant thing is to put on the new man. I said this before in posts. Walk by the spirit. Keep your mind on heavenly things above. Its a daily walk. I have put sin out of my life. And have walk in righteousness. Its through christ. Rom 6 yield to righteousness as one raise to life. Brother, you are correct. Thank you for your additions here. They mean so much. May we all come to the point where we long for that closeness with Jesus that sin robs us of. Yes, we can be forgiven, but our heart gets a little harder each time we fall back into willful sin. Again, thanks, Wayne. Gideon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayne222 Posted April 4, 2018 Group: Worthy Ministers Followers: 32 Topic Count: 471 Topics Per Day: 0.17 Content Count: 6,542 Content Per Day: 2.30 Reputation: 7,619 Days Won: 9 Joined: 06/12/2016 Status: Offline Share Posted April 4, 2018 1 minute ago, Gideon said: Brother, you are correct. Thank you for your additions here. They mean so much. May we all come to the point where we long for that closeness with Jesus that sin robs us of. Yes, we can be forgiven, but our heart gets a little harder each time we fall back into willful sin. Again, thanks, Wayne. Gideon Yes sir if you pratice sin your heart will get harder. Falling to a sin and confessing it is diffrent from praticing sin. But sexual sins or idoltry should not be named once among christians. To give in once is a shame for those brought to life. But for those who fall to this repent and turn right away. God will restore you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neighbor Posted April 4, 2018 Group: Worthy Ministers Followers: 18 Topic Count: 940 Topics Per Day: 0.35 Content Count: 13,412 Content Per Day: 5.02 Reputation: 8,958 Days Won: 6 Joined: 12/04/2016 Status: Offline Birthday: 03/03/1885 Share Posted April 4, 2018 "3) Oh, this one is important. Sin is NOT having bad thoughts. It is letting them become a part of us, believing they came form our own hearts, accepting them as ours instead of sown there by the enemy to see if we will bite. " That is an interesting declaration, one having to be made evidently to counter the very clear declaration of Jesus that states otherwise, though I don't see how anyone can stand on that declaration in the face of Jesus making clear that thought is sin as surely as is an physical act. There being no difference in the motivating heart. As for myself, I will consider Jesus the higher authority. Jesus stepped up the responsibility, or the understanding of it, when He made it clear that not only is the physical act of doing a sin punishable, but also so is the thought. With that standard there is not likely a person that can walk without sin, and it is true that all have failed, and all are in need of the sacrifice made by Jesus to cover the thought of sin within each of the elect, those given to Him by the Father of which He does not lose a one. For though all have sinned and fallen short, of the Glory, of God,all that have been given jesus are given specific call to repentance by the Holy Spirit,see tat Jesus is Lord God and savior and become clean in the sight of God the Father through the work of the faith of Jesus. That is the only way to be seen as perfect in the sight of God. Jesus is the way the truth and the light. No one comes to the Father except by Him. Secondly; sin does come from the heart of every person. No one has excuse, neither by innocence, nor by ignorance. All have failed perfection's standard, even from before birth mankind is capable of sinning. No one seeks God at all. Instead all run from God, until God the Holy Spirit first calls out specifically to each individual that becomes repentant and is saved in acknowledging Jesus as Lord God and savior. upon the reveal by the Holy Spirit. Man's inherited state is sin. Man is sinful from the getgo. Every person has need of the shed blood of Jesus the perfect sacrifice, the passover lamb, made once. He is the permanent cover of sin in all that have been called out for their salvation. All of whom have been known to God from before the beginning; and those known were also predestined to be turned about to their salvation away from eternal destruction, and instead saved to eternal life with God. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gideon Posted April 4, 2018 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 14 Topic Count: 79 Topics Per Day: 0.02 Content Count: 1,177 Content Per Day: 0.31 Reputation: 826 Days Won: 1 Joined: 10/04/2013 Status: Offline Author Share Posted April 4, 2018 (edited) 44 minutes ago, Neighbor said: "3) Oh, this one is important. Sin is NOT having bad thoughts. It is letting them become a part of us, believing they came form our own hearts, accepting them as ours instead of sown there by the enemy to see if we will bite. " That is an interesting declaration, one having to be made evidently to counter the very clear declaration of Jesus that states otherwise. Though I don't see how anyone can stand on that declaration in the face of Jesus making clear that thought is sin as surely as is an physical act. There being no difference in the motivating heart. As for myself, I will consider Jesus the higher authority. Jesus stepped up the responsibility, or the understanding of it, when He made it clear that not only is the physical act of doing a sin punishable, but also so is the thought. With that standard there is not likely a person that can walk without sin, and it is true that all have failed, and all are in need of the sacrifice made by Jesus to cover the thought of sin within each of the elect, those given to Him by the Father of which He does not lose a one. For though all have sinned and fallen short, of the Glory, of God,all that have been given jesus are given specific call to repentance by the Holy Spirit,see tat Jesus is Lord God and savior and become clean in the sight of God the Father through the work of the faith of Jesus. That is the only way to be seen as perfect in the sight of God. Jesus is the way the truth and the light. No one comes to the Father except by Him. Secondly; sin does come from the heart of every person. No one has excuse, neither by innocence, nor by ignorance. All have failed perfection's standard, even from before birth mankind is capable of sinning. No one seeks God at all. Instead all run from God, until God the Holy Spirit first calls out specifically to each individual that becomes repentant and is saved in acknowledging Jesus as Lord God and savior. upon the reveal by the Holy Spirit. Man's inherited state is sin. Man is sinful from the getgo. Every person has need of the shed blood of Jesus the perfect sacrifice, the passover lamb, made once. He is the permanent cover of sin in all that have been called out for their salvation. All of whom have been known to God from before the beginning; and those known were also predestined to be turned about to their salvation away from eternal destruction, and instead saved to eternal life with God. And if we are talking about the old nature, you are spot on correct. But we are told that we can bring every thought not the obedience of Christ. Why? Because as new creatures, we are told we have the mind of Christ. Our good fight of faith is to renew our minds. If we are double minded, we have no confidence in God to keep us from falling into sin. We cannot serve both God and evil. And if that bothers us because we find ourselves trapped in Romans 7 and no one is telling us HOW to become FREE INDEED, then it behooves us to fall on our faces and cry out to Him fro the answer as to how to walk in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our lives. Your mentioning that you will take Jesus as a higher authority is commendable. But shall we not actually use the entire words God has given us? Did He tell us that our shields of faith would quench ALL the fiery arrows of the enemy? Did He not promise in every temptation that He would make a way of escape? Is He not the God who can cause us to will AND to do of His good pleasure? Are we not told to “purify your minds, ye double minded”? Have we not been delivered from the power of darkness? By faith, are we not to walk in total victory over the world, the flesh and the devil? How can we obey Him if actual obedience is impossible? Not knowing how to gain victory in one’s thought life is one thing. But resting content there when evil thoughts assail us and we accept them as ours and label them in as “unavoidable” because we are still just sinners saved by grace is dangerous ground indeed. We WERE those thing. We ARE no longer. We are new creatures and can stare down the devil in every single temptation. I pray we all hear. The grace we have been taught is incomplete. It can forgive but we have been taught it has no power to actually cleanse us of ALL unrighteousness. Real grace teaches us that “denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we are to live soberly, righteously and justly in the present age.” That is what God has for each one of us, from the weakest to the strongest.... and in that order. Our problem has been a heart hunger issue. Even if we now believe it is impossible, the real question is... do we WANT to be free? If we do, in these last days, God is going to move mountains to get to us and show us the HOW of holiness. All who truly love the light will be shown how to light their lamps. But if we are content with just forgiveness but have no real hunger to get freed from vile thoughts and unloving actions, we need to realize no change will ever come until we cry out for it. And if we dig in our heels and say forgiveness is enough, then that which we think we have will eventually be taken away from us and given to another. My prayer is that none here are found in that group on that day, when God examines the thoughts and intents of our hearts. Blessings, Gideon Edited April 4, 2018 by Gideon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enoob57 Posted April 4, 2018 Group: Worthy Ministers Followers: 35 Topic Count: 99 Topics Per Day: 0.02 Content Count: 40,789 Content Per Day: 7.95 Reputation: 21,262 Days Won: 76 Joined: 03/13/2010 Status: Offline Birthday: 07/27/1957 Share Posted April 4, 2018 Because of the reality of truth, which is non effect by lie as to substance and continuance,- we reckon our first birth dead and all that was gathered with >till< belief and regeneration... It is dead and we grow to realize literally that it has nothing of life within it. This brings us to new motivations that are formed by faith received from The Scriptures a substance of hope (yet unsatisfactory to flesh) furthering the reality of newness of life in God (the body is not regenerated)... We don't belong anymore to the beginning that we were but to the beginning of when God elected us before ever the world was created... it is a pure faith fully rested upon God and His Word ready to be revealed in the appointed time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Still Alive Posted April 4, 2018 Group: Royal Member Followers: 4 Topic Count: 13 Topics Per Day: 0.01 Content Count: 3,015 Content Per Day: 1.34 Reputation: 1,220 Days Won: 3 Joined: 02/05/2018 Status: Online Share Posted April 4, 2018 13 hours ago, naominash said: Yes. That was one of the most brilliant description's of sin in the life of a believer I've ever heard. I agree that we should not accept sin as just part of us because we are a new creation! Thank you for sharing. Sin is working in our body, as Paul pointed out. Sin is not me. It is sin working in my body. And Jesus made the stakes so high that it is impossible to not sin. He turned "You shall not commit adultery" to "if you even look at a woman with lust in your heart...". And being in flesh, the only way for a young man to NEVER do that is to be turned into a eunuch. It's quite literally how the human body functions and is what motivates procreation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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