Dear Explorer,
Re-Read Matthew 5:21-22
Yesterday we asked the question, “Do followers of Jesus sin?” You and I both know that the answer is yes.
But we should immediately feel the Holy Spirit's telling us to stop and to confess it. Continually sinning will cause us to quit listening to the Holy Spirit's guidance and then we will miss out on one of the greatest benefits of being a follower of Jesus – His guidance.
If you can call someone stupid and the Holy Spirit doesn't cause you to feel sorrow, there's something wrong with your control center or your hearing! You need to examine and see if you have invited Jesus to be there in the first place. I believe that is the meaning to this verse
Let's go back to the Circle Models.
Here we see a model of an obedient follower of Jesus. He has invited Jesus to be in His control center and as a result, Jesus has taken away all his sin, guilt and shame and filled that empty God-shaped vacuum with Himself (the Holy Spirit). When Jesus gives an order, the SELF responds by passing it on to the BODY and everything goes smoothly. This follower is walking in an obedient relationship with God.
Below is a model for a follower of Jesus who has disobeyed a direction from the Holy Spirit (sinned).
He has invited Jesus to be in His control center and as a result, Jesus has taken away all his sin, guilt and shame and filled the empty God-shaped vacuum with Himself (the Holy Spirit). But when Jesus gives an order, the SELF responds by saying “No!” Then the SELF gives the BODY its own order! Uh oh! Now that follower of Jesus is operating exactly like someone who is empty! Jesus is still inside, but SELF has erected a barrier between itself and Jesus that makes it even harder to hear what Jesus is saying. That barrier gets thicker and thicker every time the SELF says, “No” to Jesus. Unfortunately, this is a model for many, many followers today.
It's so sad because they aren't being guided by the Holy Spirit, so they can't grow, and they are miserable. They lose all the benefits of having the Holy Spirit in their lives (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faith) because they have cut Him off. And they no longer feel His power or provision for their lives.
So, what should we do when we realize that we have disobeyed Jesus?
We need to confess it. That just means to admit that we were wrong and weren't listening to Him. Following SELF instead of obeying the Holy Spirit is the definition of sin.
Read 1 John 1:9
What two things happen when we admit (confess) our sin to Jesus?
According to 1 John 1:9, Jesus does two things: He forgives us and then He cleans up the barrier that is between SELF and Jesus. WHEW! We can be in a clean relationship again. Yay!
Will we ever get to the place where we don't sin?
Only when we go to Heaven. In the meantime, we've got to walk so close to Jesus that when we sin, we know it immediately and get it cleaned up.
I don't want you to doubt whether Jesus is living inside of you. But neither do I want you to miss out having Him inside you if you haven't invited Him into your life. Too many church attenders and good people have never asked Jesus to fill that empty hole. They believe, but they haven't received because they prefer to follow SELF and don't want to relinquish the control to Jesus.
We'll continue our study of Jesus' NEW WAY tomorrow.
In His service, dale
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