A Pastor’s Experience With Sin – @Brotherransome At the cradle of my Christian ordeal, I was more concerned with DOING than with BEING, more meticulous of what I should do rather than who I am. I did all I was told with continuous zeal and innermost calm. I lived almost 2 decades of my Christian life thinking being a Christian is all about having a CHANGED LIFE. But I gradually reach out on my own accord to get a glimpse of the truths with several hours of contemplation in the inner light. I was thrilled as words from the other realms flooded my soul and I finally got the answers for the numerous questions I have always asked. What God offers the believer was not a CHANGED LIFE, rather an EXCHANGED LIFE. The life of a believer was not ATTAINED but OBTAINED. True victory is not in a suppressed life, but the expressed one. My life was not changed but exchanged. I did not give my life to Jesus Christ, He gave me his life. But before, all I ever knew was that Jesus died for my sins, once I have believed and confessed, then that would be all. But far beyond that, Jesus did not just die for my sins. I gradually understood that He took my place (Of sin, sickness, poverty etc). It was not just the understanding alone, the experience followed suit several months later, and this was the beginning of my transcendent life. So what am I to do now? Does God still want me to keep the 10 commandments? What is Grace? What is the Law? Is the Law inferior or superior? What or who is a new creation? These were prevailing questions in my heart then, but all vanished just as the dust before the wind or better still in a flash. You either learn by knowledge or experience. But in my case, I learnt by tears and joy. Below are few of them: Of my entire struggle, the highest of them was not with sin per se but the consciousness of sin. I tried to do what has been done, and undo what can never be undone. Nothing has done more harm to me than having an awareness of sin consistently. But I found that God’s way of deliverance is different from my approach. I tried to suppress sin by seeking to overcome it. I mourned over my weakness, thinking that if only I was stronger, all would be well. But God’s approach is not by making me stronger and stronger; rather, it is by making me weaker and weaker. God fixed my sin consciousness not by helping me do anything to come out of the situation, but by entirely removing me from the scene of action. I felt I must always to something for God, but I realized it was not based on what I should do, but what has been done. As long I try to do anything, He can do nothing. It was because of my trying to do that I failed many times. (Reference: Galatians 2:20) God does not hate the sinner, He hates the sin, He does not remove the sin out of the sinner, He removes the sinner from his sins (from the scene of action) so he would cease to sin. I prayed as a lad several times that God would remove my weaknesses and sin consciousness. The more I pray, the more it increased. DEALING WITH SIN AND SIN CONSCIOUSNESS The Christian is not supposed to deal with sin. It has been dealt with. My salvation was completed in two twofold works: I was saved from the penalty of sin, then from the power and the control sin had over me. But sadly, I only took advantage of the former abandoning the latter. I thought God’s word said the old man was washed and that was all, but little did I know that the old man was corrupted beyond repair. The only way God dealt with my old man was to put it to death. My old man was not crucified by a touch, or some sense of feeling or a physical death, but a spiritual one. My old man was crucified by “RECKONING, REGARDING and CONSIDERING” (Romans 6:11), and whenever I fail to reckon or fail to consider or disregard this fact, my old man would revive again, because Satan is always looking for an opportunity to reactivate my old man. Each time I commit sin. It produces two major effects in me. First, the pleasure of sin, and second, the craving for more sin. I attempted to hold on to victory several times with my strength, but as soon as I am tempted, I easily err and miss the mark. I have been to cross; I know the address, the exact spot where all my stuffs were nailed. The cross terminated my first creation, and out of death a new creation came into being. This is the ultimate of glorification. I have been taken and the journey was worth it. Of a truth, It is possible to live without sin. This is not self righteousness; it is not the case of trying, but of trusting, not of struggling, but of resting on Him whom all things are opened before His eyes. I stop to do what I cannot do myself, I have ceased to live, and He now lives in me. What is in Adam can sin, what is in Christ cannot. I never worked for my salvation, why should I work to maintain or keep it? But Brother Ransome, didn’t the Bible says: …Work out your salvation with fear and trembling? Even Faith without works is dead? God never looks at good works; He looks at the source of the good works, and the motivation behind what you are working out. If Abraham was justified by works, he had something to glory of and boast about, but not before God. What is the source of your good works? Self or the Spirit? Satan is not afraid of Christians with good works, he is afraid of the Christians doing the will of God. My Friend be encouraged, of writing many words, there is no end. For His time is at hand and Glory to His name, even us. Grace to your heart. For The Millions Yet Untold, Brother Ransome
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 07:00:14 +0000
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