Falling Down

What happens when a Christian sins?

I ask because after getting so suddenly moved by God, I relapsed. Fell down. Returned to an addiction. I could feel how separated I was from God. The Holy Spirit was gone from me. I lost my peace, my joy, and had traded it for pleasure and evil.

I knew that I had to confess to God, even if He knew what I had done. He sees all. Hears all. He knows our every thought.

In Genesis, chapter 6, v. 5 and 6, we have this startling event:

⁵ And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

⁶ And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

Sometime in the Younger Dryas period, the glacial melt made the waters rise in a single day. Now, more and more evidence shows a sedimentary layer, which proves that this melt was part of the Deluge. Rain for forty days and nights finished the job. The sudden glacial thaw is thought to have been caused by a very large comet fragment that got through the atmosphere and caused a major strike catastrophe.

No, the Ark has not been found. But, imagine the Lord being so heartbroken that, except for Noah and his family, God didn’t find another single person worth sparing.

Humans had gone so bad that their every thought was of evil.

They were abominations.

When I backslid this week, I felt as if God must be feeling the same way about me. It’s a lonely, dirty, heartbreaking thing, being crushed by sin.

After that, I noticed that a few curse words slipped through my mouth. I felt anger, guilt, and deep shame. It was so bad that my depression came back with more pain than I could bear. I wept.

I was afraid to pray. If I tried, I felt like it was useless. What had I done?

Suddenly, I wanted to rid myself of every single thing that bridged the gap between salvation and sin.

And if you’ve accepted Christ, trust me. You can lose your blessings and salvation.

When we first accept Jesus as our lord, we are all charged with leading clean lives, gaining peace of mind through the Holy Spirit and faith. A faith that is supposed to make us hate sin. To turn away from temptation and flee from it, so we can ask Jesus for help. In Him, there is comfort, and in the Holy Spirit, we have protection.

I kept trying until finally I could pray. Guilt and shame are burdens we weren’t supposed to carry for long periods. Pray with faith, and God will restore you every day, and you’ll learn a lesson, as I have. Once Jesus is truly in your heart, tell others. Then, walk the walk like the true Christian you are.

That means praying for people you disagree with and being kind. Be a good example. Show your joy. Put things out of your life. Get rid of idols and graven images. They have the quality of angering God and being things that evil can attach to. What evil I mean is the attachment of demons.

You may not be aware of or believe that you are constantly watched by demons. They’re everywhere, watching and waiting for you to give them a doorway.

A spiritual doorway could be opened by using an ouija board or by any practice of magic, witchcraft, and other means.

Cursing someone is possible. You can use anger and hatred to augment a spell or to give them some object, like a “gift,” and it may be possible to stand in the distance and watch them suffer.

But you don’t need magic to curse another person. I once knew a couple who had been married for decades. The husband was volatile and quick to voice anger. His wife once said of him, “I hope he gets cancer and dies.”

She even began cheating on him. And he got diagnosed with late stage bladder cancer. And he died.

Even a few words uttered in anger can bring demons into your house, and these can and do cause misfortune like sickness and poverty. Look no further than the book of Job to see proof. There’s a proverb:  He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise in heart (Proverbs 11:29).

I don’t know if she remembered her words when her husband was taking his last breaths, but if she did, I have no doubt that she felt great remorse. She was a Christian,  but she never attended church, and I’m fearful that she never repented.

She was also very fearful of evil. She seemed terrified of demons and gave them the superstitious and frightened energy that they love. To her, anything evil could be fought by using holy water to anoint the forehead of anyone around her.

There isn’t much reason to have holy water, but if it makes someone stronger in their faith, then fine. If you get it online, you’ll likely have to pay for it. Jesus kicked over the money changers’ tables and drove the animal merchants out of the temple for such sins. And Jesus didn’t use holy water. Remember how He made the blind man see? He spit into dirt and mixed it into a kind of mud, applied it to the man’s eyes, and told him to rinse them in the pool. The pool where people washed was never described in the gospels as being particularly holy, but it certainly was filthy. Still, the Son of Man, who commended the waves and the wind to be still, could make anything holy. The blind man washed off his eyelids and face, and he could see.

He healed the man, but He didn’t need the mud. We know that the centurion’s servant was cured, and Jesus didn’t need to touch or even see the servant.

Your faith and your heart, when full of guilt because of sin, will call that same blessing to you when you repent. The Lord knows when you hurt because of guilt. He longs to show you mercy and love, but you have to mean it. The burden of sin is guilt, shame, and a distance between us and the Lord that the Bible warns us not to seek.

Pray, fast, and read the scripture for strength. Then accept the blessings of forgiveness and stop feeling so much shame. It doesn’t belong to you anymore. Reading scripture gives us strength to learn and to live in accordance with those words. Stay away from evil people. If you pray that anything unclean in your home be revealed, you’re going to find some. Get rid of them. Stay away from the occult, including all horror movies. Don’t go to garage sales or yard sales. You may end up with something in your home that will bring you nothing but misery. I wouldn’t even touch anything at flea markets, yard sales, or on eBay.

Have time set aside for prayer. Stick to that plan. Fasting is very important for your spiritual life, but it doesn’t count for much if you brag about it. Don’t even talk about it. Prayer and fasting is between you and the Lord, and is nobody else’s business. This keeps the act more spiritual. It pleases the Lord.

And be unfailingly good to others. Those who irritate or anger you deserve better from you than what they give to you. I know it’s a tall order, but remember that you will have the Holy Spirit with you. You can’t do it alone, for if you are alone, that gives the devil and his minions a chance to get in.

And really, haven’t you had enough of them? They can’t help you, but are always happy to hurt you.

Finally, don’t be afraid. If you’ve sinned, you can’t wait. Get somewhere alone for five minutes and repent, telling God that you’re sorry and ask for the strength of the Holy Spirit to come and help. Do these, and you’ll be forgiven.

Have no fear of evil. Don’t give in to superstition. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. If you fall down, Satan will try to keep you down. But with prayer in earnest, the Lord will pick you up.

I pray that your week will be safe and that you will get the kindness you give others back in full measure. May God bless you all, amen.