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(Note:
The following message is a companion article to a message
which originally aired on Autism One Radio. To hear
the broadcast at any time, please go to:
http://autismone.org/radio/?archive=1639&bg=&FromA1
and click on the arrow above “Listen to Jack and
Rebecca Sytsema.”)
SIN:
THE ENEMY’S GREATEST THIEF
“In
him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s
grace” (Ephesians 1:7, NIV)
LAST
WEEK WE TOOK A LOOK at God’s sovereignty and established
that His plan for our lives does not automatically occur
(to view that article, click
here). This week we are going to take an honest
look at one of the main ways our lives can get off the
course God set for us. God wants us to be successful,
effective men and women of destiny in His kingdom. He
longs for us to be fruitful in our lives and continue
to increase. He has an inheritance for us on this earth,
just as He did for Adam. Yet, just as in Adam’s
case, sin is the factor that will cause all that God
has for us to come to a grinding halt. How can sin have
such an effect? There are probably many ways, but here
I want to mention four ways that are important to understand:
1.
SIN SCATTERS.
Sin has a profound effect on our being as a whole. When
we sin, pieces of the person God intends for us to be
are left behind. We trade something God intended for
us (a blessing, peace of mind, self respect, intimacy
with God or those we love, even physical health) for
a sin we have committed. Parts of the blessed, whole,
successful person God intended for us to be are, therefore,
left scattered along our life’s path at every
point where we have sinned and not come back into a
right relationship with God and those we’ve sinned
against.
Scattering
can have devastating effects in our lives. Here are
some possibilities: Our relationships, both with God
and others, may be difficult, or we may have experienced
many broken relationships. Our life’s path may
be unclear, and we seem to flounder, hoping for some
direction. We are not firmly rooted in who we are in
Christ and may be easily tossed around by new doctrines,
or simply not able to stand for what we know is right.
We may move around quite a bit looking for that perfect
job, perfect spouse, or perfect city that will finally
make us happy. Scattering produces an unsettling, dissatisfied
feeling. We know there must be more, but success always
seems just out of our reach. Sin is often the root cause.
We cannot walk into all that God has for us to be until
we have dealt with sin and allowed God to heal the fragmented,
scattered parts of our lives.
2.
SIN STEALS OUR FREEDOM.
When I know that I am obeying God, I walk in freedom.
When I know that I am in sin, I am in bondage. It’s
that simple. For instance, if I have filed an honest
tax return I don’t think about it much past April
15th. If, however, I know I’ve cheated I wait—sometimes
years—to see if I will get caught. I wonder if
I will get a letter from the IRS stating that they not
only caught me, but now I owe the original taxes plus
whatever penalties they impose and interest on the whole
bill. I wonder if they will audit me and find other
problems resulting in more taxes, penalties and interest.
My cheating has put me in bondage, first to my own thoughts
of getting caught, and then to the IRS for a lot more
cash than if I’d just been honest up front.
With God
and the spiritual realm, however, we don’t have
to wonder if we’ll get caught—we already
are. We cannot walk in the same freedom in our relationship
with the Lord because there is something between us.
Any sin we commit is first and foremost an offence against
God, and until it is made right, we cannot expect to
have an intimate relationship with Him. That is one
way we are in bondage.
3.
SIN MOVES US OUT FROM UNDER OUR COVENANT PROTECTION.
Another bondage that sin produces is an open door or
“legal right” for Satan to steal what God
has for us. How is that so? It is because one of the
trades we make when we choose to sin is spiritual protection
over a certain part of our lives. It is an aspect of
the law of reaping and sowing. For instance, tithing
is a biblical command. The first ten percent of all
our increase belongs to God whether we give it to Him
or not. If we choose, however, not to obey God by giving
Him what should already be His, we have robbed God.
Based on the law of reaping and sowing, we are now subject
to being robbed ourselves. That choice can now open
us and our family to poverty that may either keep us
in from having enough, or cause us to fear that we will
not have enough.
God’s
covenant plan for us may be to bring us great prosperity,
but we have made the choice to move out from under His
covenant protection in the area of finances by not obeying
His command to give tithes and offerings. Until we get
that part of our lives in order, we cannot experience
God’s full blessing for us. The same
is true for any area of our lives in which we have sinned.
We reap what we sow, and if we have sown outside of
God’s will for us, we will reap the same.
4.
SIN BUILDS A NEW BELIEF SYSTEM WITHIN US.
When we sin we begin to move away from the heart of
God and from the principles He gave us for living our
lives in His blessing. As we move farther away, our
conscience becomes affected to the point where our belief
system begins to change. Therefore, those things which
were once black and white are now varying shades of
gray. We may come to believe that those little white
lies aren’t so bad or that a little flirting with
our spouse’s friends is harmless. Our minds and
our judgment becomes affected so that we can rationalize
our behavior rather than confessing it as sin to God.
OVERCOMING
SIN
So, how do we move out of sin and back into our covenant
place with God? The answer is through repentance. True
repentance is undergoing transformation by the renewing
of the mind. Romans 12:2 says, “And do not be
conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and
acceptable and perfect will of God.”
THE
MIND AND THE HEART
“I will put My laws in their mind and write them
on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall
be My people” (Heb 8:10). There is a correlation
between your mind and your heart. The word “mind”
in the Bible is often synonymous with the word “heart.”
It is not uncommon to see two translations of the same
verse in which one is translated as “heart”
and the other as “mind.” Being transformed
by the renewing of our mind does not just mean our brain.
It also means our heart. Here in Hebrews 8:10, we see
how our minds and our hearts relate to our covenant
with God. He puts His laws in our mind and writes them
on our hearts. In other words, He establishes His boundaries
within us. That’s how covenant is formed. As we
submit to those boundaries, God gives us the power to
keep that covenant by being our God, as is promised
in this passage. When we break that covenant through
sin, those laws need to be reestablished within us—both
in our minds and our hearts.
REPENTANCE
THROUGH TRANSFORMATION
Repentance is, of course, at the very core of ridding
sin from our lives. It has been taught that to repent
means to turn and go in a different direction. That
is true. But the first step is to change our minds about
the matter. We must first decide the sin is not worth
the price we pay, not only in our own lives, but in
the lives of future generations. Then, once we’ve
changed our minds and turned, we must allow our minds
to be totally transformed and renewed by God.
Let’s
take a look at the word “transformation”
in order to understand the process we go through when
allowing the Lord to renew our minds. Trans means to
cross over or go to the other side. Form means composition
or structure. Transformation, therefore, means to cross
over, or completely change composition or structure.
When we allow God to transform us, we change our appearance
to look more like Him. As we do that, we also change
in potential. With a new structure, we have new potential
that begins to unlock in our lives.
There is
a great battle over our minds. God is longing to transform
us so we can return to our place of covenant. The enemy
tries to keep us in the bondage of sin in order to keep
us from having an effective relationship with God. We
must learn, therefore, how to resist Satan in our minds
and hearts. One important weapon we have to do this
is the Bible. That is a key to not only resisting the
devil, but allowing our minds to be transformed as we
saturate our minds with the truths written on the pages
of Scripture. As we cultivate deeper relationship with
God, He will bring healing to our minds and hearts,
but we must fight the battle of persistence in pursuing
relationship with Him and shutting out the lies of Satan.
FORGIVENESS
Another crucial factor to moving out of sin is to walk
in forgiveness in our own lives. Jesus Himself taught
us to pray saying, “and forgive us our sins, just
as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us.”
(Matt 6:12, NLT). Immediately following these passages
on how to pray, Jesus admonishes, “If you forgive
those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will
forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your
Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matt. 6:14,
15 NLT). Why is it that God will not forgive our sins
if we will not forgive others? Again, it is the law
of reaping and sowing. As if not receiving God’s
forgiveness weren’t enough, there are other ways
we pay for unforgiveness. One is that it hinders our
prayers from being heard by God. In Mark 11:24-25 Jesus
says, “Listen to me! You can pray for anything,
and if you believe, you will have it. But when you are
praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge
against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive
your sins, too.”
Unforgiveness
also allows a bitter root to grow in our hearts. As
we choose not to forgive, we have allowed a seed to
begin growing within us. That seed, watered by Satan
who loves to accuse, can take deep root within our hearts.
The fruit of this growth is bitterness which can lead
to addictions, despondency, rage, hatred, resentment,
or controlling behaviors to name just a few. We will
never walk into the fullness of our inheritance while
bitterness lives in our hearts.
Furthermore,
if we do not forgive others, in a sense we bind ourselves
to that person and to that event so that we cannot move
forward in all that God intends for us. In his book
Spiritual Warfare for the Wounded, Dr. Mark Johnson
confirms this by saying, “When we harbor unforgiveness
we are—in essence—continuing to allow the
person we won’t or ‘can’t’ forgive,
to control us. Until we forgive that person, we can’t
learn to live entirely in the present because we are
not yet finished with the pain of our past. In forgiving
our abusers, we take back the power that God intends
for all human to have—the power to choose to live
wholly for Christ” (Servant Publications, p. 162).
It can be
incredibly difficult to forgive, especially when we
feel that it is our children that have been wronged.
But, if we will purpose in our hearts to forgive, and
allow the Lord to help us in the process, that forgiveness,
obviously, will produce the opposite effects of those
we have just described. God can and will forgive us
and we can come under His covenant protection once again.
Our prayers will be far more effective. We can become
free from bitter roots. We free the other person from
their debt to us, which propels us into our own future.
Forgiveness produces freedom! And freedom is essential
to possessing all the inheritance the Lord has for us
and for our children. Not only that, it gets us back
on the course God intended for us from the beginning.
With blessings,
Jack and Rebecca Sytsema
©2007,
Children of Destiny. All rights reserved.
(This
article has been adapted from the book, Possessing Your
Inheritance, by Chuck D. Pierce and Rebecca Wagner Sytsema,
published by Renew Books, 1999).
To
receive each new topic via email as it becomes available,
please send an email
to us at prayer@childrenofdestiny.org.
To view the Scripture Guide, please scroll down.
SIN:
THE ENEMY'S GREATEST THIEF
SCRIPTURE GUIDE
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then
you will be able to test and approve what God's will
is-- his good, pleasing and perfect will.
(Romans 12:2, NIV)
I will put
my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God, and they will be my people.
(Hebrews 8:10, NIV)
Forgive us
our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And
lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the
evil one. For if you forgive men when they sin against
you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But
if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will
not forgive your sins.
(Matthew 6:12-15, NIV)
And when
you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone,
forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive
you your sins.
(Mark 11:25, NIV)
I will sprinkle
clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse
you from all your impurities and from all your idols.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in
you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and
give you a heart of flesh.
(Ezekiel 36:25-26, NIV)
All the prophets
testify about him that everyone who believes in him
receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
(Acts 10:43, NIV)
For we know
that our old self was crucified with him so that the
body of sin might be done away with, that we should
no longer be slaves to sin--because anyone who has died
has been freed from sin.
(Romans 6:6-7, NIV)
Therefore,
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old
has gone, the new has come!
(2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV)
Therefore
do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you
obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your
body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather
offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought
from death to life; and offer the parts of your body
to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall
not be your master, because you are not under law, but
under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are
not under law but under grace? By no means!
(Rom 6:12-15, NIV)
But you know
that he appeared so that he might take away our sins.
And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps
on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen
him or known him.
(I John 3:5-6, NIV)
Here is a
trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners-- of whom
I am the worst.
(1 Timothy 1:15, NIV)
But he was
pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our
iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was
upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like
sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his
own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of
us all.
(Isaiah 53:5-6, NIV)
In him we
have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace
(Ephesians 1:7, NIV)
This is my
blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many
for the forgiveness of sins.
(Matthew 26:28, NIV)
___________________________
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