It is inevitable that Christians be plagued with guilt feelings and for people God is proud of to feel hopeless moral failures. Condemnation and shame are powerful, potentially lethal illusions afflicting us all and yet we will discover that these very feelings have propelled famous Christians to spiritual greatness. To understand why every child of God suffers these devastating feelings, we need to understand the nature of spiritual reality and the under-hand tactics of our spiritual enemies.
I am acutely aware that almost always there are natural psychological factors behind a nagging conscience. Understanding the non-spiritual component of our affliction is so vital that I dare not fail to address it. It could literally be a matter of life or death for some readers. Before getting there, however, I’d like us to peep over the fence and glimpse the other side.
Whether we admit it or not, we live in a war zone, with all the danger and horror that implies. In the deadly clash between the two spiritual superpowers, Planet Earth is perhaps the most strategic place in the universe.
We fight not flesh and blood – not beings that show themselves and follow the Geneva Convention – but supernatural intelligences so determined to ruin us that there is no level of evil to which they will not stoop. Relative to us, these malicious, nonphysical life-forms have terrifying powers. Relative to the Almighty, however, they are pathetic. They are powerless to stop God from loving us, forgiving us and keeping all his glorious promises to believers. These enemies of truth cannot change reality. They can only look on in frustrated fury at all the blessings God has for us.
There is only one thing these jealous ghouls can do. They can fight dirty by trying their utmost to trick us out of everything that is rightfully ours.
For insight into the supernatural power games each of us is thrust into, imagine yourself in the following natural situations. Suppose:
* You have a check for a million bucks in your hand, but you believe it is worthless.
* You are languishing in a dungeon, wrongly believing that the unlocked door is wired to blast you to pieces the moment you touch it.
* You could become the greatest pop star, but after years of being ridiculed by your family, you believe your voice is so pathetic that you feel too ashamed to use it.
* You are madly in love with someone who is equally over the moon about you, but you are too shy to make this discovery because you believe that person despises you.
* A sickly weakling seeks to humiliate you, threatening you with a harmless imitation of what you believe to be a deadly weapon.
Once our beliefs are affected, we can be robbed, stripped, cheated out of almost anything. You can be conned out of the spiritual equivalent of a billion inheritance unless you believe the right thing.
Ultimately, our beliefs drive our actions. So even more important that what anyone does, is what a person believes.
Your belief system is both the engine room and the control center of your entire existence. Your destiny teeters on what you believe, and the spiritual lowlife who lust after your destruction, know it.
So your beliefs about God and about what he has done for you is the key area of spiritual attack. The enemies of your soul know that you will inevitably act, not according to the astoundingly wonderful things God has done for you, but solely according to what you believe God has done for you. As important as reality is, reality will do you no good if you are tricked into not believing reality.
God’s spiritual enemies want to cheat us out of all the love, dignity, power, freedom, fulfillment, peace, and every other extravagant gift that Jesus shed his last drop of blood to lavish upon us. Demonic, hate-crazed con artists long to hoodwink us out of priceless things that are rightfully ours, and they succeed more often than we dare think.
Astounding things happen to everyone serving a God who promised to work all things together for good. With a God able to outsmart the devil at his every turn, the devil’s attack could even become God’s secret weapon.
People have become outstanding men and women of God precisely because they were hounded by severe guilt feelings. Had assurance of salvation been an easy thing for them, I cannot imagine them becoming the great achievers for the kingdom that they are now famous for.
Likewise, I believe your torment could be a sign that you are headed for spiritual greatness. That’s certainly what history suggests.
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