Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Renew a loyal spirit within me.
11 Do not banish me from your presence,
and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and make me willing to obey you. - NLT
I heard someone talking about this the other day and it really got me thinking. I have been chewing on their words for a while now and it has really encouraged me. It has also challenged me.
In this passage King David has written a prayer to God after having been caught in sin with Bathsheba.
Psalm 51: 1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge. – NIV
David knows he is in sin and he feels the separation this sin has caused between him and God. He cries out in verse 11 “…don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.” This is the part that I want to address.
At the time that David was writing this we know that Christ had yet to walk the earth. He had yet to die for us and ascend to Heaven where He now sits at the right hand of the Father. At this time the Holy Spirit had not been released to dwell within us on the earth. Because of this David did not have the same in dwelling of the Holy Spirit that Christians have today.
In the Old Testament and even in the first parts of the New Testament Gospels there are references of different times when the Holy Spirit or “Spirit of God” was released into the lives of people. These releases were for the accomplishment of certain task in the service of God. These releases were usually temporary except in an example such as John the Baptist who was “…filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth.” (Luke 1:14 NIV).
David did not have a permanent in dwelling of the Holy Spirit. When he sinned the Holy Spirit would have left him. He new this and he was desperate to have the Holy Spirit restored to him. David never wanted to have this experience again; he never wanted the Holy Spirit “taken” from him again.
This portion of David’s prayer does not have to be said now; it does not pertain to a person who has accepted Jesus Christ as his or her Savior. Look at what Jesus says in the following scripture:
John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. - NKJV
Jesus promised that he would send us a Helper and He would abide in us forever. God will never take the Holy Spirit from us, He will never leave us. “For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” (Hebrews 13:5 NIV)
It doesn’t matter what we have done or what we will do. We have a promise that He will not leave us. His love is unconditional and we can do nothing to make Him love us less. We can also do nothing to make Him love us more. So we do not have to ask the Holy Spirit to return to us or to not leave us once we have Him in us.
However; our sin, if left unrepented, can cause our hearts to become hardened toward God and the Holy Spirit. This drives a wedge between us and makes us less sensitive to them. In John 10:4 Jesus said “When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.” (NIV) When we sin and our hearts become hardened it is almost like putting cotton balls in our ears to the voice of the Father. His voice will first become muffled and eventually be nonexistent in our lives. This causes a feeling of being abandoned but it is us who has abandoned the Holy Spirit, not the other way around.
Also, the guilt and condemnation that we feel from our sin causes us to feel separated from the Father and the Holy Spirit. It is not because they have left us, it is because we have turned away from them and built a wall between us and them. The longer we continue to live in this sin the wall becomes higher and deeper and our hearts get harder and harder. We must repent of any sin in our lives and repentance involves more than just saying “I am sorry”. It requires a 180 degree change, a complete turning away from the sin. This repentance will tear down the walls that we have built. Repentance brings restoration of the relationship with the Holy Spirit.
While it may feel like the Holy Spirit has left us we must rest assured that He hasn’t and never will. The Lord promises “Come near to God and he will come near to you.” (James 4:8 NIV) The passage continues with “Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” So repentance and a movement by us toward God and the Holy Spirit will mend the rift between us.
Remember, the Holy Spirit will not leave you. Your prayer should be one of repentance not “where did God go?” Jesus died on the Cross and took all of our sins, future, and past, suffering the ultimate pain of His Father forsaking Him. He suffered this pain for us so we would not have to. If we turn our hearts to God and make them ready for Him to change them, to soften them, He will turn to us and the relationship will be restored.
Thank you; I need that.
ReplyDeleteSo what would be the next step, I've repented, but keep falling, I try to read the word and spend more time in prayer,however its a real struggle to even pray, its like my spirit says I need to pray, but I'm not really wanting or interested in praying anymore, the desire and the passion I once had is gone and can't get into the spirit or encourage myself to move forward. Thanks;Wayne
ReplyDeleteMany times when we have royally messed up, we ask for forgiveness, but we can never rest in the truth that God actually extended it to us. We beat ourselves up. We let lies come between us and our Father who desperately wants fellowship with us!
ReplyDeleteThe enemy is going to strive to keep you from feeling like you are receiving from reading the Word or praying, but God NEVER says in His Word to only read or pray if we feel it's producing something.
He says do it. We obey...immediately. Then, we trust Him for the results. Is our faith going to be based on His actions or His Word? Are we going to give him a certain amount of time to perform a breakthrough for us that we like or are we going to trust Him even until our dying breath...EVEN IF He never moves they way we want?
Faith is believing what we cannot see. We must believe that our reading and our prayer are doing something, even when we cannot see or do not feel that it is.
As my husband said in this post, God promises that IF we will draw near to God, HE WILL draw near to us! We may not see it or feel it immediately, but we have to believe Him...that if we will not grow weary while doing good, in due time we shall reap...if we do not grow faint (Galatians 6:9-my life verse)!
Sometimes life is hard until Heaven...that is what sin did in our world, but it doesn't make God any less God! It doesn't mean that He doesn't love us or care about every single thing in our life. It means exactly what He said: His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. Sometimes we just won't understand this side of Heaven why things are allowed to go the way they go...but will we trust anyway???
I know it's hard Wayne. I know that God knows it's hard too! Even Jesus knows how hard it is, and He was tempted in every way that we are. Remember when He called out, "Father, why have you forsaken me?" There are many times we feel like God is nowhere around, and though our situations are different than Jesus', we can be sure that God is there and has us in the palm of His hand...whether we feel it or not.
I know this is lengthy, but one more thing if you will. Realize that your ability and freedom to pray and read God's Word is a privilege. There are people dying around the world for even owning a Bible or reading a Bible. There are people who cannot utter the name of Jesus without the fear of dying for it! It is our absolute honor to be able to call upon the Creator of the universe and come boldly before His throne through the blood sacrifice of His Son! It is our gift to be able to read His Word and have direction!
Don't give up brother! Put on the full armor of God and stand! Consider fasting as well. Show the Lord that you want nothing and no one to come between the two of you! He longs for you. His thoughts toward you outnumber the grains of sand on the earth! He rejoices over you with singing His Word says! Ask God to help you read His love letter to you with fresh perspective...read it with the eyes of a child! Believe what you read, without trying to analyze or figure out how it can be possible. Just believe because He says!
Well, this is my womanly point of view:) I'm sure my precious husband will mostly likely offer you greater wisdom and how-to.
Many Blessings Friend
Wayne, I hope that you read the comments my wife posted as well as this post and the ones I will make in the future.
ReplyDeleteWhat my wife has said is exactly what I would say. I also want to include a statement that I made in one of my other posts to this blog. "If you turn on the hot water at the kitchen sink do you immediately turn it off if isn't hot or do you wait with it running until the hot water comes out?"
If I had the same response to my hot water as I often have to God I would turn the water off immediately. Why do I have more faith in my hot water heater than I do in God? Why do I give up on seeking Him when I don't immediately get a response from Him or when the response wasn't what I wanted?
I am not trying to be trite or trivial. I truly understand what you are going trough. I have had many instances in my life where I repent and then stumble again, repent, stumble, ... rinse and repeat, the seemingly never ending cycle. Even Paul, "the chief of all sinners" and author of nearly two thirds of the New Testament talked about wanting to do things and not doing them and not wanting to do things and then doing them. "The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak."
The first thing I would recommend is surrounding yourself with strong believers. You need to find people with whom you can be completely honest, and then be honest with them no matter how embarrassing or humbling it is. Feel free to contact me, I may, or someone I know may, know people close to where you live. If not I will do whatever I can to help you through this time. My email is attached to this blog so feel free to contact me.
I will post more after I have had more time to pray about you and your situation.
Thank you for your prayers and quick response. I believe everything you have just said, and I know I have to walk by faith and that my feelings and emotions cannot be trusted.
ReplyDeleteI truly had a much better day today than I have for a while.
There was a time a few years ago when I couldn't feel the presence of God for months at a time. I would eventually come out the other side, (so to speak ) and my relationship with Jesus would be better than ever.
Each time this happened it got easier to deal with, because I knew in a matter of time I would get through it even though not feeling the presence of God was agonizing .
This is so different because instead of not feeling God; I felt no desire for Him or been able to pray effectively. The enemy has had a great time convincing me I wasn't really saved or that I had grieved the Holy spirit and He had departed from me.
In my heart I know as long as I have breath God Loves me and that there is hope and that I just have to walk by faith like I said earlier; I have just felt like my feeling and love for God has just disappeared.
Thanks again for your web site, and your response, Im not giving up. I'm pressing in even if I don't feel like it.
Praise God and many Blessings to you and yours:
Wayne
I get your point Wayne. I've been meditating on it all day. I don't think I have ever lacked the desire for Him since I started really walking. I bet Tom has though. I think mainly because he grew up knowing and living this way. I didn't, and I am still on fire to learn more and more. So, I am asking God to help me understand where you are, how it feels, and show us all an example in Scripture of someone who walked through this. Still praying for you! Hang in there!
ReplyDeleteHi. I feel God's Spirit has left me, and I don't know how to get Him back. I feel like I am damned to hell. I don't understand what is going on at all. I am not convicted of sin anymore. I think perhaps I need to repent of smoking cigarettes, but God's power is no longer in me to help me quit. I would have to do it on my own and it is so hard. But if quitting smoking is what would bring Him back - I would do it - since I would rather have Him in my life than worthless smoking. Please help me figure out what to do.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth,
ReplyDeleteI want to start by saying that smoking is unhealthy and I think everyone should quit. I used to smoke along with a lot of other stuff and I realize it is very difficult to break habits and addictions. With that being said, where in the Bible does it say that smoking is a sin or that by doing it you will be “damned to hell”?
The Bible does say that my body is a “temple” for the Holy Spirit, and I want the Holy Spirit to have a clean place to dwell and anything that pollutes or shows bad stewardship of what God has given us would be sin. However, I would be willing to bet that most people who would try to condemn you for it don’t exercise properly or over eat or over indulge in some unhealthy way and they are just as guilty of any sin as you would be.
The bible also says, in Romans 8, “1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you[a] free from the law of sin and death.” It does not say there is no guilt or conviction, and from you statements, the Holy Spirit is convicting you of bad habits in your life (one indication that the Holy Spirit hasn’t left you).
The difference between guilt and condemnation is, guilt says “what I have done is bad”, and condemnation says “what I have done makes me a bad person.” Guilt, or conviction, is the Holy Spirit’s way of getting you to stop doing what is driving the wedge between you and Him. Condemnation is the way the enemy, or Satan, tries to make you feel like you are not worthy of God’s presence thus driving the wedge farther in.
The Apostle Paul, the man who wrote the majority of what we now call the New Testament under the direct influence of the Holy Spirit talks about his own struggle with sin:
Romans 7: 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
And in 2 Corinthians 12, Paul talks about a “thorn in the flesh” that he asked God to take away. I don’t know what that thorn in the flesh was, but God’s answer was “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
You said “I am not convicted of sin anymore” but yet you also said “I think perhaps I need to repent of smoking” so you are being convicted. I don’t want to sound cliché but you have to realize it is God’s grace that empowers us. It is our weakness that shows His perfect power. He has promised He will never leave you or forsake you.
I am going to write a post on grace and what it means. I hope that you will come back and read it; I think it might encourage you. In the mean time, don’t let the lies of the enemy continue to condemn you. God is there with you. He loves you and is just waiting for the opportunity to display His perfect power in your life. He said that if you draw near to Him, He will draw near to you (James 4:8).
I pray that God brings peace into your life as you begin to draw near to Him.
I had somewhat a similar experience about 4 months ago. I felt lots of condemnationand was worried that I grieved the Holy Spirit away .
ReplyDeleteI was saved 2 1/2 years ago and I was extremely sensitive to the Holy Spirit.
I had such a fire for Jesus and love for others and a desire to worship and serve the Lord.
I use to get a grieved feeling in my chest if I would even watch someththing on tv I was not suppose to.
4 months ago I was laying in bed and I had a sharp pain in my heart it was a physical pain as though someone cut through my heart with a sword.
I felt paralized with fear and my body started to tremble and I heard a voice that told me I had fallen from grace.
I started to look up what it means to fall from grace. I was not sleeping for days and finally had to go to the doctor because of the fear that tormented my mind day and night it affected my body and I started going into depression. Every time I would read scriptures I felt condemned.
I would be sleeping at night and would be awakened to hear a voice that told me my time was short and my light had been taken.
I have been pressing in to read Gods word and I have been trying to renew my mind with Gods truth.
Please pray for me I have been still having trouble with sleeping through the night but my days are getting a little better.
Do you know if any one has ever gone through what I did and why God would allow it?
tadtrott - I am sorry that it has taken so long to respond to you. I have been thinking about this since I read your comment and I wanted to make sure I answered you in a way that would bring some comfort.
ReplyDeleteEphesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.
Grace is God's gift to us. It is not something we earn, it is not something that we lose. Neither I, nor you, can "fall" from Grace. That is an archaic term that was brought about through a religion that required continued works to prove salvation.
Sin does open the door to the enemy in our lives. It allows him to enter and bring condemnation. He only has one weapon in his arsenal, his lies. He lies to us through condemnation. He wants us to think that we have done something that would cause God not to love us. Nothing we can ever do would make God love us any less, or more, for that matter. He loves us so much that He gave his only son for us. It is unmerited love.
We cannot, and should not let this grace be an enabling factor to continue sinning but we cannot allow the enemy's lies to drive the wedge deeper between us and our loving Father. Just remember, grace is just that, it is grace. You cannot lose it, you cannot fall from it. God wants you to have it, so receive it freely.
I have now posted a more in depth discussion on falling from grace which gives a better description of what I believe Paul meant in Galatians.
ReplyDeleteHello,my situation is one you have heard before as well.However i seem to get into some weird cycle even after been saved for since 1982 and struggled in this relationship with God .I have
ReplyDeletegone in and out back and forth and with tears begged the Lord to in any way you would imagine to soften my heart to do whatever he wants and at times i felt as though these prayers i meant meaning i didnt struggle through them as have in the past I think at times i have hardened so much a whole host of emotions from feeling dead to feeling like Im being drawn to Him and the thing really that scares me Is the thought that i have sinned too far and cant get back to Him or at times not hungry i recently have become so desperate for Him because of all these years of being sick of being lonely and feeling far from God has left me with a desperation inside that says God please do with me whatever you want ,this is all due again to the notion I could fall away and that scares me being cut off from Him so now I still go through this fight and was wondering have i been given up to a particular sin because you see there is like no restraint in the area of sexual lust in porn addiction and have begged Jesus to take all my heart and that hhe would be all he wants to be to me and that my soul,spirit and body belong all to Him and yet still this struggle in my total being that plagues me to where i get a sense of His presence or hunger returns anyway and then it all starts again the sin cycle all over again and steals the level of hunger that was there please pray for me that He has His way with me and brings me out of this 30 year bondage and that i would come to encounter Him in a new way,thanks ,Charles.
Hi Charles, I have read what you have said regarding the sexual immorality.. It is something that the flesh does not want to let go and the devil knows that. He will do all he can to keep you from reaching God and the only way you can get it to stop is the hardest part... By choice.. Often God will remove one sin from your life only to assure you that He is with you. He might remove your smoking addiction or in other cases your sexual lust... But His main goal is to grab your attention and for you to be willing to let it go for Him to show your love towards Him and the Son Jesus Christ. It's hard to do it on our own and we need the strength of the Lord Jesus to overcome the one evil that has a hold in our lives. But we as Christians need to go 50/50 with Christ.. It's easy to give your life to Christ.. But harder to remain there. What I am trying to say is that Jesus will help you, if you take the first step in faith, knowing that if you try and do something to stop the lust, He will start to move towards you and that He will then help you to fight the devil.
ReplyDeleteSo my advice to you my friend, start to pray to Jesus that you need His help and you cannot do this on your own, but then commit yourself to stopping the addiction as well. Jesus only Heals those who are willing to assist Him in the healing.. That is why we often can't heal others without His Magnificent Name being mentioned... Hope that you understand and I pray that Jesus will help you with the one hold that the devil has lied about for 30 Years. God bless you and in Jesus Name, may you be free from this Hold. Amen
50/50 meaning He will meet you at the half point.. and the most amazing part of all... You only have to meet Him half way so that he may be with you ALL the way
ReplyDelete