My mind is completely messed up, I will be the first one to admit that. Not only does the bible explicitly provide this truth about the human mind, but my daily thought-life confirms this reality.

Some people seem to think I have it all together. This is eons from the truth. I struggle with doubt on almost an hourly basis. I constantly have thoughts coming into my head:

“How do you know all of this about Jesus is true? You can’t prove it.”
“Why would you trust the bible when you can’t prove God wrote it?”
“What is truth?”
“You’ve tricked yourself into believing a lie.”
“God doesn’t care about what goes on with you.”
“God is not involved nor interested in what goes on in this world.”
“He’s not listening to you.”

There was a time a few months ago when I collapsed under the weight of these conflicting thoughts. My mental capacity was overtaken with these thoughts 24/7. I doubted my salvation. I doubted the Word of God. I doubted Jesus. I doubted God. This all drove me away from the Bible. I didn’t want to read it because I didn’t want to have to deal with the pounding of the words “Lies. Lies. Lies.” in my head as I read the Scripture.

One night at a worship service, I wasn’t even able to worship. I could not escape the thoughts in my mind. I couldn’t escape the fear and the doubt. A friend of mine came over and told me, “You have more control over what goes on in your head than you think.” Could this really be true? I mean come on, I wasn’t asking for these thoughts to come into my mind. I didn’t have control over that.

But what I did have control over was how I handled the doubts. For so long I would feed them by rigorously over analyzing them. My thought life just kept going in circles, round and round and round, but not really getting anywhere. I was miserable and felt utterly defeated… by my own mind. I wasn’t trusting Jesus in the slightest.

But God was faithful, even in my faithlessness. I decided one day I was going to spend the whole day reading the Word, even if I didn’t feel like it. So I did……….and nothing happened. I didn’t feel any different or any better. I didn’t have some crazy super-spiritual enlightenment.

But a few hours later I realized that I had an unexplained peace that I had not felt in months. Immediately I realized how to defeat my unbelief! I had to kill it with truth. I had to invade the crevices of my fallen mind with the Word of God… constantly. More than just once a day. I needed to be flooded with truth. My mind needed to be renewed and transformed. Of course I “knew” that before. But now I really knew it. Sowing the Word into our hearts will always result in a harvest of faith, love, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

I still struggle with doubt, but now I know I am not helpless. I have the power to immediately take captive and kill any thought that comes into my mind that rises against truth and against Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). Rather than pondering on and over analyzing doubtful thoughts, I immediately speak the Word of God over myself and my mind. I speak the truth that conquers all lies. I speak light into the dark abyss of my soul. I speak life into the depravity of my heart.

“Jesus Christ is Lord. His Word is truth. Absolute truth. I will not allow my carnal mind to rise up against this truth. I will not let the opinions of others sway what I know God has confirmed in my heart to be true. I take captive and kill every thought that goes against what I know to be true. I will not let my life be dictated by my emotions and what I do and do not “feel.” My life will be led and dictated by TRUTH.”

I want to end this with a warning:

Satan is very real. And his army of demons is very, very real. He wants to deceive us. He wants us to doubt God. If Satan keeps us doubtful, fearful, and weak, what impact could we possibly make in this world? None. Obviously Satan could not mess with me or torment me unless God allowed him to. Does this make God mean or evil? Absolutely not. God is my Father. I believe He has allowed me to go through this in order to show me the strength that is inside of me, Christ in me.

If we believe we are weak and helpless, we will respond to demonic attacks in a weak and helpless manner. We can’t believe that lie! Every regenerated child of God has the power inside of them to tackle the devices of Satan head on. Christ Jesus lives inside of us. He CREATED demons. Does He not have dominion over them? Yes He does. And has He not given us authority over them? Yes He has. Through His power you can stand against the weapons that the enemy forms against us. The devil wants to destroy us, and although He can’t (because we are sealed by the Spirit of God until the day of redemption), he surely is going to try to make us believe that he can.

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me”- John 14:1.

“… I believe; help my unbelief!”- Mark 9:24

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“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.”- 2 Corinthians 10:4

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have had some chains that need breaking. Actually I do know about the rest of you, because you are human, just like me. We all have weights and chains that hold us down, regardless of what they may be.

The unbelieving world walks around completely unaware of the chains that subdue them. They think that they are free, when in reality they are in suffocating bondage to the evil spiritual forces of this world. But we, as believers in Christ, have had our minds illuminated by the Holy Spirit to see clearly the chains the enemy uses to bind us.

I have been through seasons in my short two years with the Lord where I felt as if I had shackles restraining my hands and feet. I’ve felt trapped in sin, unable to resist the sickening behaviors that I knew were inflicting damage on my soul.

Whenever we get caught up in sin, many of us automatically think that we are not “eligible” to come to God and Him readily accept us. Naturally, we keep score of our goodness and badness. When we think that we are doing really well and keeping all the “rules”, we feel as if we are acceptable to God and therefore step into His presence with boldness. But whenever we are not doing so well and give into temptation and sin, we tend to tell ourselves that we need to wait a while and make ourselves better before we can come to God like we did before. This mentality is in complete opposition to the gospel!

God accepts us, at ALL times, based on the merit and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. When you feel comfortable coming to God because of your “goodness”, you’re deceiving yourself into believing that your actions have made you desirable to God. In retrospect, because you have adopted this “works” mentality, you feel undesired by God whenever you’re not doing so good. But let me remind you, your best works and behaviors are filthy rags to God. It was never, EVER, your goodness that made you acceptable to God. It was CHRIST’S righteousness and CHRIST’S bloodshed. It is His blood that makes you forgivable. It is His blood that makes you beautiful in the eyes of God. It is His blood that makes you acceptable to God and earns you entry into the presence of God. And His blood covers you at ALL times, not merely when your perception of your behavior has a gold star next to it.

If you continue to remain outside the presence of God due to your feelings of inadequacy, you’re going to continue to place yourself in the firing line of Satan and his army of demons. They will relentlessly fire the bullets of false guilt and false shame at you. As long as they can keep you focusing on what you “do” and “don’t do”, the harder it will be for you to allow the REAL truth of the gospel to permeate your mind and restore your soul.

How does gospel truth restore your soul? By acknowledging this fact: your salvation has absolutely nothing to do with you (other than the fact God loves you) and everything to do with Jesus Christ. God sent His Son into this world to live the life that you couldn’t and wouldn’t live, then appointed Him to suffer the death and wrath that you fully deserved to endure for your sins. This was not against the will of Jesus, but in perfect harmony with the sacrificial passion of Jesus, who willingly laid His life down for His sheep.

When you responded in faith to the finished work of Jesus, God cast ALL of your sins from His sight, along with your guilt and shame. “Shame can not exist in the presence of God”- Ben Pirtle. Your eternal security was set in stone at that moment as you were sealed by the Holy Spirit for the Day of Redemption. Jesus has done it all for you. He fulfilled the law by living a life unstained by sin in full obedience to God. Jesus always loved God the Father as He ought to be loved. And He gives His righteousness to you, as a gift. You don’t earn a gift by good behavior. You receive a gift. And you received this gift of eternal salvation from Jesus by placing your faith in Him. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God”- Ephesians 2:8.

Whenever you fall into sin, you must remember that the sin has been paid for, whatever it is. God has extended His grace to you in such a way that nothing you could ever do could separate you from Him ever again. He will never reject you and you will not lose your salvation. There would be some of you that may disagree with me on that, but the Bible disagrees with you my friend. If you want to live your life in constant fear that God is going to revoke His promise to save you, it’s your prerogative. But I urge you to reconsider and accept this glorious gospel truth. You didn’t do anything to earn your salvation or God’s love, and there is nothing you can do to lose it. When I say Jesus did everything, I mean He did everything. He purchased you with His blood and that blood will not fail you. There will always be forgiveness for those covered by the blood.

When you fail God, as we all do, refuse to listen to the lies of the enemy and run to your Savior. Run to Jesus! Because He has forgiven you and loves you no less, no matter what you have done. <— Therein lies the power of breaking every chain. The fact that you are completely and eternally forgiven will always produce life in your spirit and hope in your heart, leading you to sincere repentance whereby which the power of the sin that once chained you down is eliminated.

This may seem “too gracious” of a gospel to some of you. And I hope it does. Because the true gospel of Jesus Christ is scandalously gracious.

But I will end with this with two things:

1) If you see this glorious grace of God as a license to continue on with your sin with no remorse, you have not been converted and are dead in your sins. Genuine faith will result in a life of good works and a pursuit of holiness.

2) In the words of Ben Pirtle, “This message is for genuine believers in Jesus Christ, Children of God. If you are not covered by His Sacrifice, you need to know that you are going to Hell. And the shame and guilt you feel is very real.”

( I thank God for allowing me to be able to attend Calvary 3 mornings this week and the Holy Spirit for enabling Ben Pirtle to refresh my soul with these truths. #shreveportlove )

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Homosexuality is sin.
Abortion is sin.
Sex outside of marriage is sin.
Drunkenness is sin.
Love of money is sin.

You’re a sinner.
I’m a sinner.
We are all sinners.
Jesus came to die for sinners.
But that doesn’t mean your automatically in the clear.

You must believe in Jesus and repent of your sin.

Oh what was that? Repent?
Haven’t heard that word in a while.
You mean I have to stop sinning?
But I thought God was love?
But I thought God was forgiving?

God is love.
God is forgiving.
God is merciful.
Toward His children.

If you don’t repent, you don’t believe.
If you deny you have any sin, you are blind & still in your sins.
Jesus is worth you stopping the blatant sin in your life.
If you don’t , it’s because you don’t know Him.
And He doesn’t know you.

The Christian will struggle with sin.
Key word struggle.
They will hate it.
They will fight it.
And sometimes they will lose the battle.
But they will get back up and keep fighting.
Because God lives in them.
He empowers them.
He justifies them.
He sanctifies them.
He loves them.
He knows them.

Does He know you?

This is disturbing, I am warning you now. But this is the first time that the REALITY that this is a living human being in the womb hit me. This is murder, and it must stop.