No matter how good you believe yourself to be, you are depraved. I know, I know, no one likes to be in that camp, but fact is this side of Glory, we all are.
There is not a single day where you and I don't have to make the intentional decision to live for righteousness and then proceed through our day vigilantly on guard, listening to the Holy Spirit. The condition of our relationship with the Holy Spirit is KEY to both our success and our failure. For if we think we can grieve the Holy Spirit through willful sin, glossing over it, never repenting, we become dull of hearing, and duller with each passing day, until we are utterly deaf to His shaping, correction, and direction.
There is a movie line where a grieving husband references his marriage, "She was horrible to me sometimes; I was even worse to her." Then comes the question, "Did you love her?" He replies, "More than anything on Earth." Then come further questions about why the choice of infidelity. The husband replies, "I don't know; I just did it. Sometimes you just do things; you want to take it back, but you can't."
That's depravity.
"I was wrong to treat her the way I did, and she was wrong to treat me the way she did. Now, neither of us has the chance to say I'm sorry."
That's revelation.
Retained sin, persistent strife, velcroed offense, formidable pride all keep us unable to receive Holy Spirit revelation, and subsequent direction, until it is often too late to make amends. It is indeed a ploy of our enemy.
You see, light and dark can not coincide. Once the decision to even taste a morsel of evil is made, fellowship with God immediately breaks until acknowledgement and repentance come. Look at Adam and Eve. It took but a taste... a single taste... to break fellowship with God and send them running into hiding. Generations later, the Adams and the Eves of this world are still tasting, still running, still hiding....and still shattering one another in the process.
Question: Are you hiding from both God and spouse as a result of willful sin, trying to formulate a fix of your own making? It will NEVER work. Not with God. Not with your spouse. Fellowship will remain broken.
Understand, repentance and reconciliation are two separate events. Repentance ushers in God's forgiveness. God's forgiveness ushers in reconciliation. You cannot begin the PROCESS of reconciliation without genuine repentance before God.
To gloss over the repulsiveness of sin is at the very heart of human depravity. We must never cease in seeking to see as God sees. We must never cease in seeking to line up our heart with His. And we must never cease the all out pursuit of righteousness this side of Glory. For even Paul stated, "For now I know in part...", but in part beats willful blindness and deafness!
Begin by confessing known sin to God. Confession goes to work on a hard heart. There are over one hundred Bible verses pertaining to hardheartedness. Look them up. Study them. I am leaving HERE for you a link to Charles Spurgeon's sermon on grieving the Holy Spirit given in 1859. Powerful; if you are short on time, scan down to point three and read through it at least twice. Until you address hardheartedness and the effects of grieving the Holy Spirit, you will be both blind and deaf.
Life here is SO fleeting. I think about all the many years satan and his cronies successfully robbed me from a proper, righteous, loving relationship with my husband and he with me. While you and I do not possess the ability to control anyone or anything, we do possess the ability to control ourselves and our choices.
I edify you: do NOT participate with the enemy of God, do not be a spouse who persists in selfish, depraved living, who participates in shattering another's soul. Yes, God possesses the ability to heal, but willful wounding is very deep indeed and will leave scars. The only one who wins is satan himself.
"Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,
with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Get rid of ALL bitterness, rage and anger,
brawling and slander,
along with EVERY form of malice.
Be kind and compassionate to one another,
forgiving each other,
just as in Christ, God forgave you."
Eph 4: 30-32
You cannot do the above without GOD,
and GOD cannot be present and active
in your life with known sin.
It's that simple!
So, how's your hearing?
♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡
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