The Cleansing Power of Confession!

Christ said if you so much as lust in your heart you have committed adultery. One does not have to do the act to be called an adulterous by God, it only has to be in the heart. 

The act just proves what was in the heart that no one could see. So, do we divorce someone for what is in the heart? No, and we do not divorce them for their acts either. We remain committed to them with the prayer that they will repent. 

Many people have committed adultery without ever doing the act, just as Christ Himself said based on their heart. 

I am convinced there is not one person alive today who could claim they never pondered someone other than their spouse for a minute longer than they should. 

Come on now brothers and sisters, raise your hand if you have never lusted after someone in your entire life! What? No hands going up?

If anyone told me they have never done it then I would not believe them. 

Matthew 5:27-28 "27 You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. "

By the way, if you have lusted in your heart after someone don't be foolish enough to go and tell them. Confess only to God because He is the only One Who knew. And be wise never to tell anyone else, people cannot be trusted with these secrets. 

Someone might want to confess generically to their close friends without details and names, but to confess who and what is not wise when it was not public. 

If you have committed the act that is a different matter, then you will need help from the brethren to restore you. For the act, one must confess to one another and be restored. Please never confess to a jealous person who may use your sins against you later or someone who is likely to beat you down further when you are repentant. 

I recall a woman who went to her brother to confess the sin of adultery, not because he knew about it but because she thought accountability was a good thing. Sadly this brother used it to demean and beat her down to make her feel smaller than she already felt. She was weeping and broken over her sin. The brother harshly with anger in his voice asked her why she did it. She had no answer except that sin is pleasurable for a season. 

Asking a broken sinner "why" is a way of beating them down even more. All sin is pleasurable, we know why we do things that is not the issue. The issue is confession and repentance, a desire to turn away from the sin. 

The woman who had confessed would never go to confess anything to this brother again, it did not help her, it only hurt her further when she was already repentant. And, sadly it seriously damaged the relationship.

James 5:16
"16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."

Galatians 6:1-2 "1 Brothers, if someone is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him with a spirit of gentleness. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.…"
Notice that when someone is repentant those who are helping do not help by another and worse beat-down. They are forgiven and restored. 

When a sinner repents and is weeping over their sin our response ought to be to weep with them in their pain. And, rejoice too that they are being restored. This is the heart of authentic born again believers. 

May the Lord give us compassion for the broken and repenting sinner. So much so that we feel what they feel and desire to restore them to once again walk in holiness.
There are those who are so prideful that they do not believe in forgiveness for sin, or at least the sins of others that they think they have not committed. These people don't confess their sin to anyone, in fact they pretend they have no sin about anything. 

The sin of pride was the very sin that got the devil thrown out of heaven. This is the pride in the heart of one who loves to see others fail and takes advantage of that fall to elevate themselves as superior. 

May the Lord give us the right heart when we seek to restore a repentant brother or sister. 

Psalm 32:5
5 I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I did not hide;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”;
And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.
Hallelujah, cleansing comes when there is confession, and it comes completely and quickly!

Dependence on the Holy Spirit is the Key to Everything

Most people who mock our decision to follow Christ do so because they are convicted by it. They lack confidence in their own beliefs but want to hang onto them. So to build themselves up and validate their own belief they must tear down the other person who is confident. The narcissist's aim is to devalue others to be superior to them as well as causing doubt in their target. 

When we are confident in the Lord we will not be affected by the tricks of the narcissists. If we are secure in Christ we become sorry for and pity those who cannot stand alone in confidence. Believers who are confident in Christ do not need others to validate them.
Believers are confident just as Noah was when he built an ark in obedience to God. He did not need the validation of anyone else except God. 

When we are new in the faith we feel hurt when others demean us for our stand for Christ. As we grow in holiness and strong in the promises of the Bible we lose that sense of hurt from the tactics of others who wish to diminish us. 

Over time we become strong and so confident in Christ that we develop pity for those who live a superficial Christianity or are not born again. 

James 1:2-8
2 Consider it all joy, my brethren when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 

4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,
8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."

As born again believers our confidence is in Christ alone, not in any preacher, not in a writer of a book, not in anyone famous or prestigious, but in Christ alone. 

No one can teach and train us better than Jesus Christ Who lives in us. 

John 16:13-14 "13 However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you.…"

When we obey God's Word His way what we do will always glorify the father and reveal the Lord Jesus Christ to everyone around us. 

This is the purpose of depending on the Lord, that He might be glorified. And, remember just because rebellious people do not respond to our obedience with joy, they may even become angry, this is not evidence that we did not obey God. 

Many people will accuse us unjustly refusing to see that God worked in us to do His will, this is on the person who rejects God's word, not on us. 

There will be people who say we must have done something wrong because someone got angry. They hated the prophets, crucified Christ, and came against the truth of God's Word, they are speaking of themselves when they accuse us of wrongdoing. 

This has been one of the devil's favorite tactics all down through history, to accuse others of doing what the devil is doing and the others are not. It creates frustration in those who are righteous, if we remember this we can avoid being baited into wrong behavior. 

Ignore the arrow of the devil and the people he uses, bless those who curse you when you must be in their presence but remove yourselves if you can get away. 

Romans 16:17
"Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them."

Proverbs 1:15
"My son, do not walk in the way with them.
Keep your feet from their path,"

Those who are contentious and will not listen to the truth will infect us with their rebellion if we keep them as friends. 

1 Corinthians 15:33-34 " 33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.” 34 Sober up as you ought, and stop sinning; for some of you are ignorant of God. I say this to your shame.…"

Make your close companions those who love the Lord as much as you do. Come out from among those who do not love Christ. 

2 Corinthians 6:16-18 "…16 What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.” 17 “Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” 18 And: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”…"

Hallelujah!!!! May the Lord lead you in everything that you might glorify Him. This is not based on the responses of others but on the leading of the Holy Spirit.

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