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Conviction, Condemnation, or Confusion?
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"Lovely Lord"
(Petra Praise II - We Need Jesus)
Douglas Sands Christian Midi Collection
What is the difference? Does it even matter? Hey, if you are feeling bad inside you are feeling bad inside....what difference does it make what is CAUSING it, you just want to feel better! Right? Wrong. The cause can truly make a difference in how long you stay feeling bad and how you react towards that can make the difference in whether or not you ever get through to the other side.
Conviction is from God and is intended to bring you closer to Him. This is when you feel bad because you did something that your concience told you not to do. The concience is what the Holy Spirit has to work with and if we harden our concience through repeated episodes of ignoring it, then what we will have is a heart that seldom feels the conviction of the Holy Spirit saying "this is wrong, don't do it anymore". When God convicts our hearts they should feel a deep sorrow and desire to repent (change our actions and mindset toward something). However, this deep sorrow is very soon to be replaced by an awesome deep joy that floods our very soul when the repentance is complete. God's conviction brings us to a place of healing, restoration, and peace. It is not meant to keep us down but to lift us higher! God does not convict our hearts to punish us but to bless us. It is a blessing from His hand to be able to feel great sorrow for doing what displeases Him. We were created by Him for His pleasure, and that pleasure is not that we be "used and abused" but fully loved. That is what God gets pleasure in, seeing His children know His love.
Condemnation comes through many things, but is always the word of the devil. His plan has been to beat you down so far that you will not come to God out of fear of rejection. God's Word shows us what kind of things will bring our hearts into condemnation and open us up to this attack from hell:
Pride (1 Timothy 3:5)
Not speaking what God is speaking (Matthew 12:36)
Swearing on an oath/vow, not keeping your word or meaning what you say (James 5:11)
Hearing the Word but not believing Christ was sent by God for your sins (John 5:24)
Taking communion without regard for the Lord's death (1 Cor. 11:33)
Not believing that what you are doing is right before God (Rom. 14:21, 1 John 3:19)
Holding grudges, having unforgiveness towards others. (James 5:8)
Denying Christ by living in sin (Jude 1:3-5)
Not believing that God will help you (Is. 50:8-10, John 3-17-19)
Listening to the lies of the deciever (Romans 8:35)
Walking in the flesh (Romans 8:1-2)
Judging others (Romans 2:1-2)
Not believing in the Name of the only begotten Son of God (Jesus) (John 3:17-19)
Confusion comes in when we think that we have been convicted and it's really condemnation. We might feel guilty for things that others have done to us. God may want to convict us of holding them in unforgiveness for so long. He may want to convict us in order to free us of the problems that were caused by the unforgiveness itself and thus free us of our past hurts. But satan wants us to feel guilty because we were abused in some way that made us feel slimy. He would like nothing better than for us to so confuse the voices that we think that we are repenting of being "such a bad person to have this happen to me", when really that is only condemnation from the enemy keeping us in more bondage! I have also seen satan work at keeping someone so believing that they were not at fault (in the abuse they were not at fault) that they never repent for their reaction to it, which was to hate their abusers and wish them to go to hell, or hate themselves and wish they could die! Either reaction is wrong...and it is simply a mind game of the enemy being acted out.
If you are reading this and finding that there is a lot of confusion in your mind about things and don't know who it is that is speaking to you, ask yourself if it is the voice of LOVE or the voice of HATE? Pray with me now:
Lord God,
Right here and now I am covering my mind with the Blood of Jesus Christ as my protection from the advances of the enemy. I am handing my mind, my emotions, and my will to You completely with nothing held back. By the unbreakable Covenent between us, You have given me access to the Mind of Christ! I can think what You want me to think or I can think my own thoughts. I choose to think with the Mind of Christ, because Your ways are so much higher than my ways, and Your thoughts are so much higher than mine. You see and know the future and I don't even know all the past or present! You know what is best for me and for those I need to be concerned with, so bind and seal Your own thoughts to mine. Let them stick in my mind like glue. Come and heal my mind moment by moment and day by day as I give you full release to come as My Healer and love me to Yourself. Thank You, Lord for all that you are doing, even those things I cannot feel yet or see with my human understanding. Help me now to be determinded to confess and speak what the Holy Spirit says rather than which I might feel or think with my own reasonings. I pray this in the Name of Your Son, Jesus who died for me. Amen
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