The Final Awakening is Beginning....

[Gideon]

What is being witnessed here on this forum in the last month or so is exactly what is about to occur over and over in the church, worldwide. I am sure it already is in many places. If you have not noticed, it is coming to a head and the sides are polarizing more and more. As the truth of what Jesus has bought for us is shared fully,  all will understand what this means and will react accordingly.... and differently. 

First, what has Jesus done for us? Yes, He has forgiven us. We are told that if we confess our sins and turn from the evil, He will forgive us. But we have up til now missed the second part of that promise. He will cleanse us of all... ALL.... unrighteousness. Glory! It is not up to us to cleanse ourselves. It is not up to us to crucify our flesh. It is up to us to yield fully and the believe His promises unwaveringly. And if we will do that, then no matter how weak we have been, no matter how addicted, no matter how cold our walk has become, God will cause us to burn brightly.... and purely... before He returns.

But we have grievously erred here, sadly, and we have been taught from most pulpits and come to believe that our walking in righteousness is simply “positional”, that holiness is not actually supposed to be manifested in our lives, and that victory over the world, the flesh and the devil is .... well... play like. We have been taught that overcoming sin in our lives is impossible, despite a myriad of promises by the master Potter to keep us from falling, and to purify unto Himself vessels fit for HIS use.  We have been taught wrong.

Any attempts to combine faith plus works has been viewed as legalism, and attempting to add to what Christ accomplished.  And truthfully, up till now, with no real way to become truly holy, I understand the error. But the reaction from some, instead of having us cry out to a God for pure hearts and for real victory, has been to angrily lash out at any who suggest God will keep us from falling and make us victorious over sin, labeling them as false teachers and unsaved. These have no patience, no kindness, no concern for the strugglers. They simply want a gospel that allows sin to still exist in our lives sis by side with Christ. It is an impossibility.  

And as the revelation of our new nature begins to come into view, insuring that our walks are fruitful ones, full of good works, the holiness God requires of us is now understood as a promise that excites us, for it is God causing us to be fruitful. As we abide in Him, not only do we not fulfill the lusts of the flesh, as we have been clearly promised, we also come to understand that as we are changed into His image from glory to glory, it will be impossible to not do good works. Why? The potter forms us to do them!

This teaching that sin will never be overcome until physical death accomplishes what Christ’s death could not, has led to stoic religiousness and carnal Christianity, with 500+ denominations all pushing their ‘brand’. And sadly, it leaves us with hard hearts that cannot bear fruit. Willful sin, so clearly warned about in the Word, has been explained away and taught to be the same as the sins we hate but cannot seem to get victory over. Listen. They are not the same.

In the sins like Paul’s of Romans 7, a huge battle with guilt and conviction is lodged deep in ones heart. The Spirit is telling us we need to stop but we do not know how. It is a miserable place to be. trust me, I know. And I am convinced of the Lord, that those who find themselves walking there are about to find true overcoming victory.... the FREE INDEED that Jesus promised to all of us. If they are not there already, they will arrive at the place where they truly hate their fleshly old nature and long to be swallowed up in God’s protection and victory, abiding in Him all day, every day. They will willingly, joyfully, agree to lose their life to allow Christ to dwell in them and reign over them.  They will step out in their new natures and fully understand that the old carnal them died with Christ on Calvary. The joy that understanding brings cannot be understated. 

But as this awakening occurs and the children of light realize that they can, by faith, light their lamps simply by the words of their testimony, those who refuse, who see not need to be so ‘radical’ as to hate their lives, who pride themselves on their walks with the Lord, but with unrepented of sins still hardening their hearts, will see the message of the new nature as a threat to their belief that sin has no more ill effects on us if we are saved. Light is even now beginning to  testify that the ground we have been stranded on ever since the early rain ended in the book of Acts cannot bear good fruit. Life cannot thrive here and God wants us to experience true overcoming life, the glorious liberty of the children of God! What do we need to bring forth MUCH  fruit? The latter rain , and it’s first drops are already here. 

This attempt by many to minimize sin continuing in our lives is nothing short of Satan’s attempt to try to keep real true children of a God to remain in their prison cells even though the doors have been blown off their hinges. Lest we forget, sin is what put Christ on the cross.... OUR sin. God did not send His Son to die in our place only to have us continue to sin and to defend our hypocrisy by telling the lost that our sins that we continue to do with little resistance will not count but theirs will send them to hell. The world is unimpressed with what we have shown them. It is time they saw what real Christianity looks like.

The bride is awakening, dear fellow believers. We have, up til now, been going through the motions of Christianity. We have been visionless, passionless and yes.... lukewarm. We have been given no weapons with which to fight off the enemy when he attacks us with either temptations or accusations. We have been led into pasture that cannot support true overflowing life. But our God loves us far too much to leave us in defeat, in compromise, in worldliness and with secret sins, big or small, holding us down so that we cannot truly abide in Him.

All that is about to change. And it is beginning....now. The valley of decision is now here. Nothing will stay the same. Everything is about to be ahaken and for those who love the Lord and long to please Him , this shaking will leave only Christ in our hearts and the joy we will experience will simply be mind blowing.

Blessings,

Gideon 

[Not me]

10 minutes ago, Gideon said:

What is being witnessed here on this forum in the last month or so is exactly what is about to occur over and over in the church, worldwide. I am sure it already is in many places. If you have not noticed, it is coming to a head and the sides are polarizing more and more. As the truth of what Jesus has bought for us is shared fully,  all will understand what this means and will react accordingly.... and differently. 

First, what has Jesus done for us? Yes, He has forgiven us. We are told that if we confess our sins and turn from the evil, He will forgive us. But we have up til now missed the second part of that promise. He will cleanse us of all... ALL.... unrighteousness. Glory! It is not up to us to cleanse ourselves. It is not up to us to crucify our flesh. It is up to us to yield fully and the believe His promises unwaveringly. And if we will do that, then no matter how weak we have been, no matter how addicted, no matter how cold our walk has become, God will cause us to burn brightly.... and purely... before He returns.

But we have grievously erred here, sadly, and we have been taught from most pulpits and come to believe that our walking in righteousness is simply “positional”, that holiness is not actually supposed to be manifested in our lives, and that victory over the world, the flesh and the devil is .... well... play like. We have been taught that overcoming sin in our lives is impossible, despite a myriad of promises by the master Potter to keep us from falling, and to purify unto Himself vessels fit for HIS use.  We have been taught wrong.

Any attempts to combine faith plus works has been viewed as legalism, and attempting to add to what Christ accomplished.  And truthfully, up till now, with no real way to become truly holy, I understand the error. But the reaction from some, instead of having us cry out to a God for pure hearts and for real victory, has been to angrily lash out at any who suggest God will keep us from falling and make us victorious over sin, labeling them as false teachers and unsaved. These have no patience, no kindness, no concern for the strugglers. They simply want a gospel that allows sin to still exist in our lives sis by side with Christ. It is an impossibility.  

And as the revelation of our new nature begins to come into view, insuring that our walks are fruitful ones, full of good works, the holiness God requires of us is now understood as a promise that excites us, for it is God causing us to be fruitful. As we abide in Him, not only do we not fulfill the lusts of the flesh, as we have been clearly promised, we also come to understand that as we are changed into His image from glory to glory, it will be impossible to not do good works. Why? The potter forms us to do them!

This teaching that sin will never be overcome until physical death accomplishes what Christ’s death could not, has led to stoic religiousness and carnal Christianity, with 500+ denominations all pushing their ‘brand’. And sadly, it leaves us with hard hearts that cannot bear fruit. Willful sin, so clearly warned about in the Word, has been explained away and taught to be the same as the sins we hate but cannot seem to get victory over. Listen. They are not the same.

In the sins like Paul’s of Romans 7, a huge battle with guilt and conviction is lodged deep in ones heart. The Spirit is telling us we need to stop but we do not know how. It is a miserable place to be. trust me, I know. And I am convinced of the Lord, that those who find themselves walking there are about to find true overcoming victory.... the FREE INDEED that Jesus promised to all of us. If they are not there already, they will arrive at the place where they truly hate their fleshly old nature and long to be swallowed up in God’s protection and victory, abiding in Him all day, every day. They will willingly, joyfully, agree to lose their life to allow Christ to dwell in them and reign over them.  They will step out in their new natures and fully understand that the old carnal them died with Christ on Calvary. The joy that understanding brings cannot be understated. 

But as this awakening occurs and the children of light realize that they can, by faith, light their lamps simply by the words of their testimony, those who refuse, who see not need to be so ‘radical’ as to hate their lives, who pride themselves on their walks with the Lord, but with unrepented of sins still hardening their hearts, will see the message of the new nature as a threat to their belief that sin has no more ill effects on us if we are saved. Light is even now beginning to  testify that the ground we have been stranded on ever since the early rain ended in the book of Acts cannot bear good fruit. Life cannot thrive here and God wants us to experience true overcoming life, the glorious liberty of the children of God! What do we need to bring forth MUCH  fruit? The latter rain , and it’s first drops are already here. 

This attempt by many to minimize sin continuing in our lives is nothing short of Satan’s attempt to try to keep real true children of a God to remain in their prison cells even though the doors have been blown off their hinges. Lest we forget, sin is what put Christ on the cross.... OUR sin. God did not send His Son to die in our place only to have us continue to sin and to defend our hypocrisy by telling the lost that our sins that we continue to do with little resistance will not count but theirs will send them to hell. The world is unimpressed with what we have shown them. It is time they saw what real Christianity looks like.

The bride is awakening, dear fellow believers. We have, up til now, been going through the motions of Christianity. We have been visionless, passionless and yes.... lukewarm. We have been given no weapons with which to fight off the enemy when he attacks us with either temptations or accusations. We have been led into pasture that cannot support true overflowing life. But our God loves us far too much to leave us in defeat, in compromise, in worldliness and with secret sins, big or small, holding us down so that we cannot truly abide in Him.

All that is about to change. And it is beginning....now. The valley of decision is now here. Nothing will stay the same. Everything is about to be ahaken and for those who love the Lord and long to please Him , this shaking will leave only Christ in our hearts and the joy we will experience will simply be mind blowing.

Blessings,

Gideon 

True repentance is not just turning from our sins to God. It goes so much deeper, it’s turning from the “sin factory” to God. And the sin factory is “us” or “self”. For self is all the evil that a believer possesses.  Until the axe is felt at the root of the tree, self will rule. 

Much love in Christ, Not me 

[Gideon]

Just now, Not me said:

True repentance is not just turning from our sins to God. It goes so much deeper, it’s turning from the “sin factory” to God. And the sin factory is “us” or “self”. For self is all the evil that a believer possesses.  Until the axe is felt at the root of the tree, self will rule. 

Much love in Christ, Not me 

Amen to that! It is one thing to think we need to repent about this little sin or that big one we did last week, but it is quite another for sin to become exceedingly sinful to us and see our old nature as that ‘sin factory’.

But praise God, when we do and like Paul, realize that we are truly wretched men and women as long as we are content to live out our lives in our old natures, we are at the end of our journey in the wilderness and we are ready to cross over into the land God has promised us. 

God has had brand new natures for us, obedient natures, capable of bearing MUCH fruit, natures able to abide in Him intimately all day, every day, ever since the day we were saved. 

But we had not learned the hard lesson we all must learn. We must learn to HATE our life, our self serving nature, our rebellion, our pride, our inability to love as we need to, our weakness when it comes to sin. This is a huge part of what we are awakening to, and the true children of God will run to get freed from the old man and to put on the new man, Christ in them. 

And  to our joy and amazement, God will begin to grow His Son that has been there the whole time, outwardly, and fruits will come to the surface that we KNOW are not of us. 

Blessings, my dear friend

Gideon

[Sower]

10 minutes ago, Gideon said:

What is being witnessed here on this forum in the last month or so is exactly what is about to occur over and over in the church, worldwide. I am sure it already is in many places. If you have not noticed, it is coming to a head and the sides are polarizing more and more. As the truth of what Jesus has bought for us is shared fully,  all will understand what this means and will react accordingly.... and differently. 

First, what has Jesus done for us? Yes, He has forgiven us. We are told that if we confess our sins and turn from the evil, He will forgive us. But we have up til now missed the second part of that promise. He will cleanse us of all... ALL.... unrighteousness. Glory! It is not up to us to cleanse ourselves. It is not up to us to crucify our flesh. It is up to us to yield fully and the believe His promises unwaveringly. And if we will do that, then no matter how weak we have been, no matter how addicted, no matter how cold our walk has become, God will cause us to burn brightly.... and purely... before He returns.

You do not know me, nor my church, nor the millions of believers out there. You make all inclusive statements, based upon your personal beliefs. You stated;
First, what has Jesus done for us? Yes, He has forgiven us. We are told that if we confess our sins and turn from the evil, He will forgive us. But we have up til now missed the second part of that promise. He will cleanse us of all... ALL.... unrighteousness. Glory! It is not up to us to cleanse ourselves.
You brought this up on another thread and I replied to you about it. You did not respond. I Brought up to you in your statement that we are cleansed by the Father, the vine tender, when we abide, and not ourselves as YOU stated. You did not respond. Now you state it is NOT up to us. I could go on.But it would not bear fruit.
John 15 is a special chapter for me in the bible. I have spent much study in it. I saw your misunderstandings about abiding and being cleansed by God. At least you got that part down. Now.

26 minutes ago, Gideon said:

We have, up til now, been going through the motions of Christianity

Give us a break, please. Almost every time I read your posts, I sin.  (I'm not perfect, yet, like some.)

[Gideon]

28 minutes ago, Gary Lee said:

You do not know me, nor my church, nor the millions of believers out there. You make all inclusive statements, based upon your personal beliefs. You stated;
First, what has Jesus done for us? Yes, He has forgiven us. We are told that if we confess our sins and turn from the evil, He will forgive us. But we have up til now missed the second part of that promise. He will cleanse us of all... ALL.... unrighteousness. Glory! It is not up to us to cleanse ourselves.
You brought this up on another thread and I replied to you about it. You did not respond. I Brought up to you in your statement that we are cleansed by the Father, the vine tender, when we abide, and not ourselves as YOU stated. You did not respond. Now you state it is NOT up to us. I could go on.But it would not bear fruit.
John 15 is a special chapter for me in the bible. I have spent much study in it. I saw your misunderstandings about abiding and being cleansed by God. At least you got that part down. Now.

Give us a break, please. Almost every time I read your posts, I sin.  (I'm not perfect, yet, like some.)

Brother, if you find my sharing to be offensive, and some will, simply ignore it. I do not share things to hurt any or to make them sin. I share so that those who hate the fact they still sin and want to know how to be kept from falling, may find it and walk in victory. 

Blessings, 

Gideon

[Not me]

42 minutes ago, Gideon said:

Amen to that! It is one thing to think we need to repent about this little sin or that big one we did last week, but it is quite another for sin to become exceedingly sinful to us and see our old nature as that ‘sin factory’.

But praise God, when we do and like Paul, realize that we are truly wretched men and women as long as we are content to live out our lives in our old natures, we are at the end of our journey in the wilderness and we are ready to cross over into the land God has promised us. 

God has had brand new natures for us, obedient natures, capable of bearing MUCH fruit, natures able to abide in Him intimately all day, every day, ever since the day we were saved. 

But we had not learned the hard lesson we all must learn. We must learn to HATE our life, our self serving nature, our rebellion, our pride, our inability to love as we need to, our weakness when it comes to sin. This is a huge part of what we are awakening to, and the true children of God will run to get freed from the old man and to put on the new man, Christ in them. 

And  to our joy and amazement, God will begin to grow His Son that has been there the whole time, outwardly, and fruits will come to the surface that we KNOW are not of us. 

Blessings, my dear friend

Gideon

Sin must become “exceedingly sinful” I like that. As long as we don’t hunger and thrist after righteousness, we will not be filled. But once,  righteousness/holiness is that thing we can’t live without, we “will” be filled, but not till than.  Oh that His body would hunger and thirst after righteousness in all we do, say, think, dream, hope, desire.

The desire of the soul turned toward God with all its strength. Would that heart be in every believer. 

Much love in Christ, Not me

[Gideon]

Many will judge that they, or their particular church, is doing just fine. And they may be. But doing fine and walking with the world, the flesh and the devil under our feet are not the same, not even in the same hemisphere.  

It is a hard thing to shine the light of truth on our lives and examine ourselves whether we are truly walking out what God has for us, and what He has revealed to us as His will for us. I truly understand that. 

But it is this very act that allows us to come to the point of hunger, of brokenness, of seeing a need for a far deeper walk with the Lord than we currently have. We are told that if we humble ourselves and cry out to him and to turn us from our sins and the resulting lukewarmness, it is then that He will hear from heaven and come and heal us. 

We have, like Laodecia, basically told God that we are quite content with our salvation and our reservation at the marriage supper, and feel we have bed of nothing. Sound familiar?  We have, overall, spent precious little effort in seeking how to be prepared to meet Him. We do not even belived that  holiness is possible so it is not even brought into our conversations or sermons. We have been told to DO anything is legalism. Scripture tells us otherwise. It tells us, before we do anything else to put off our old nature, have our minds renewed and to put on our new man which is created in righteousness and true holiness.

God tells us that nothing.... NOTHING... profits but a new creature. Why do we ignore Him?  He has died to forgive us and to see that the old us is truly dead, the one that likes to sin and run the show. We refuse to part ways through our unbelief and our contentment without truly possessing godliness. He was resurrected to insure that we are given brand new natures that love the light and hate darkness.... the old us. Yet, when we are told of such wonderful news, we run to defend our indefensible position. 

We must get rid of our old man. Darkness is coming, great darkness that will make Nazi Germany look like a Boys Scout camp. We are right now ill  prepared to weather that storm.  Light and darkness are separating here at the end of the age and we are now being brought to understand that we either make our tree good, or make it evil. It is time, as Notme said, to lay the ax to the root of the tree, rather than trying to knock off the bad fruit as fast as it appears. It is a losing battle, trust me.

We cannot crucify our self, our flesh. It will simply not allow us to. If we seem to have some measure of success, pride rushes in and fills the void. There is but one way out of our mess. It is not a ‘work’ where some will accuse me of being legalistic, and ‘earning our salvation’. God has made it to where any who longs to be free can do so, from the weakest to the strongest. He simply asks that we believe that the old nature died when Christ died and when Christ rose from the dead to newness of life, so DID we. He asks that we clothe ourselves with white raiment, our new natures, that can and will be caused to obey Him ,just as He promised. 

If we are trying to convince ourselves that we, or our church , or THE church are doing exactly as God wishes, I recommend simply re-reading the book of Acts. They turned the world upside down in one generation. Men would exclaim ”Behold how they love one another!” The word “hypocrite” was cast out of the church before it had a chance to take root, with the death of Ananias and Sephira. And we actually think we are walking in all God has for us? We need to get down on our knees and let God show us what He has for each one of us. Once we see it, our life will never be the same. But until we do, it is more laps in the wilderness of unbelief. 

Blessings, 

Gideon

 

[Not me]

1 hour ago, Cletus said:

It begun years ago.  how long back was the scripture popular 2 chron 7:14... If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

seems to me that here recently, justice is beginning to return to america.  its not perfect but lawlessness is not so prevalent.  Isnt God Faithful And True?  it seems like to me all the news was bad for awhile, very disheartening.  then all the sudden there was a reason to read the news again.  the world is still very dark.  for awhile i thought where is God in all this?  I believe He was eagerly waiting on His bride.... Hosea 2:7   And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.

God started me in the book of Hosea over a decade ago.  no one would hear my words when i shared back then what God showed me in this book.  now i know why.  it was not time.  God was showing and preparing me for whats coming.  God desires His bride more than anything we can perceive.    anything. 

He's got the whole world in His hands..... 

he would not command us to be Holy as He is Holy if He would not give us every tool to do so.  He is just. 

i recommend reading the book of Hosea.  the theme is, Return to God.  pay attention to the words sin, love, mercy, knowledge, and judgment. 

Hosea 6:6 is my favorite verse.

Like your Hosea teaching. God is/does want His bride spotless.  2 Cron. 7:14 is a favorite verse of mine. Thanks for your post. May God enlarge Himself in His body. 

Much love in Christ, Not me 

[Not me]

1 hour ago, Gideon said:

Many will judge that they, or their particular church, is doing just fine. And they may be. But doing fine and walking with the world, the flesh and the devil under our feet are not the same, not even in the same hemisphere.  

It is a hard thing to shine the light of truth on our lives and examine ourselves whether we are truly walking out what God has for us, and what He has revealed to us as His will for us. I truly understand that. 

But it is this very act that allows us to come to the point of hunger, of brokenness, of seeing a need for a far deeper walk with the Lord than we currently have. We are told that if we humble ourselves and cry out to him and to turn us from our sins and the resulting lukewarmness, it is then that He will hear from heaven and come and heal us. 

We have, like Laodecia, basically told God that we are quite content with our salvation and our reservation at the marriage supper, and feel we have bed of nothing. Sound familiar?  We have, overall, spent precious little effort in seeking how to be prepared to meet Him. We do not even belived that  holiness is possible so it is not even brought into our conversations or sermons. We have been told to DO anything is legalism. Scripture tells us otherwise. It tells us, before we do anything else to put off our old nature, have our minds renewed and to put on our new man which is created in righteousness and true holiness.

God tells us that nothing.... NOTHING... profits but a new creature. Why do we ignore Him?  He has died to forgive us and to see that the old us is truly dead, the one that likes to sin and run the show. We refuse to part ways through our unbelief and our contentment without truly possessing godliness. He was resurrected to insure that we are given brand new natures that love the light and hate darkness.... the old us. Yet, when we are told of such wonderful news, we run to defend our indefensible position. 

We must get rid of our old man. Darkness is coming, great darkness that will make Nazi Germany look like a Boys Scout camp. We are right now ill  prepared to weather that storm.  Light and darkness are separating here at the end of the age and we are now being brought to understand that we either make our tree good, or make it evil. It is time, as Notme said, to lay the ax to the root of the tree, rather than trying to knock off the bad fruit as fast as it appears. It is a losing battle, trust me.

We cannot crucify our self, our flesh. It will simply not allow us to. If we seem to have some measure of success, pride rushes in and fills the void. There is but one way out of our mess. It is not a ‘work’ where some will accuse me of being legalistic, and ‘earning our salvation’. God has made it to where any who longs to be free can do so, from the weakest to the strongest. He simply asks that we believe that the old nature died when Christ died and when Christ rose from the dead to newness of life, so DID we. He asks that we clothe ourselves with white raiment, our new natures, that can and will be caused to obey Him ,just as He promised. 

If we are trying to convince ourselves that we, or our church , or THE church are doing exactly as God wishes, I recommend simply re-reading the book of Acts. They turned the world upside down in one generation. Men would exclaim ”Behold how they love one another!” The word “hypocrite” was cast out of the church before it had a chance to take root, with the death of Ananias and Sephira. And we actually think we are walking in all God has for us? We need to get down on our knees and let God show us what He has for each one of us. Once we see it, our life will never be the same. But until we do, it is more laps in the wilderness of unbelief. 

Blessings, 

Gideon

 

There differently is a difference between the first century Church and what we see in our Churches in America. Can’t  speak for the Church’s in other country's. But from what I’ve read, there not much better. So the question would be,  what or why the difference?  It has to be something. God hasn’t changed, so it has to be on our part. So what could it possibly be? It is something,  but what? 

Much love in Christ, Not me 

[Gideon]

3 hours ago, Gary Lee said:

You do not know me, nor my church, nor the millions of believers out there. You make all inclusive statements, based upon your personal beliefs. You stated;
First, what has Jesus done for us? Yes, He has forgiven us. We are told that if we confess our sins and turn from the evil, He will forgive us. But we have up til now missed the second part of that promise. He will cleanse us of all... ALL.... unrighteousness. Glory! It is not up to us to cleanse ourselves.
You brought this up on another thread and I replied to you about it. You did not respond. I Brought up to you in your statement that we are cleansed by the Father, the vine tender, when we abide, and not ourselves as YOU stated. You did not respond. Now you state it is NOT up to us. I could go on.But it would not bear fruit.
John 15 is a special chapter for me in the bible. I have spent much study in it. I saw your misunderstandings about abiding and being cleansed by God. At least you got that part down. Now.

Give us a break, please. Almost every time I read your posts, I sin.  (I'm not perfect, yet, like some.)

We are told that every branch in Him that does not bear fruit will be cast into the fire to be burned. Perhaps this is the fire that will burn up all our works but we will be saved. Perhaps something more. But either way, the questions needing to be asked must be:

Why would we not want to do all God asks of us ? That part of us, that traitor,  is our old nature and we are giving it power to remain in control by not seeking God to free us from its grasp. 

Why would we risk either option by not seeking Him with all there is within us to free us from the power of darkness? 

Unbelief is the real culprit. The entire Bible, old and New Testament, is leading us to the one thing we can do to please God.... believe Him and the promises He gives us. Faith, real faith, overcoming faith.

He tells us that He will cause us to will and to do of His good pleasure , but it only works if we step out to believe Him for it, and we will only step out and believe Him for it when we hate our old nature with its failures, and inability to love as He has commanded us. 

Blessings, 

Gideon