Chapter 11

How to run back to the heart of God

 

There are two kinds of people in the world. It is those who have been captured by the devil through sin or those the devil is trying to capture through sin. Formerly all the people have been captured by the devil as all lived in sin. But the blood of Jesus set many people free from the bondage of sin. It released them from the power of the devil.

 

Salvation moved people from the kingdom of sin into the kingdom of righteousness. Indeed, salvation made them reject sin and its author and also made them love the righteousness of God, Jesus.

 

Anyone who loves Jesus loves righteousness. We cannot love sin and embrace righteousness at the same time. We can either be with Jesus or the devil. There is no spiritual fence-sitter. You either hate sin or love it. Those who hates sin hates the devil and those who love righteousness love Jesus.

 

The devil is the master of sin, and Jesus is the Master of holiness. Jesus gives us His holiness so that we may abide in holiness, and the serpent is the dispenser of sin, he is the one who wants to make us spiritually dirty by making us embrace sin.

 

Indeed, the serpent does not worry about those who are in his fold, as he has already made them his slaves. He is more worried about those who love righteousness, and he will stop at nothing to make sure that they are spiritually dirty.

 

Those who love righteousness are those who are still mindful of God and His will. They want to please Him in all things, and because of this, the grace of God will always be available to help them achieve this end.

 

God loves those who love righteousness, and His favour will always be upon them. There is nothing that God cannot do for those who have embraced the life of righteousness. When they pray, the Lord will always answer their prayers. The protection and the presence of God will always cover them, and the devil cannot touch them.

 

The Lord would always come through for those who abide in righteousness no matter what happens in their lives. As much as there are people who love righteousness, some will one day move away from the heart of God by running back to a life of sin. The devil will tempt them to abandon the kingdom of righteousness for his dirty kingdom.

 

The Lord is faithful to those who love Him, and he will always help them to overcome the power of the enemy. When we love Jesus, we will always have access to the grace of God. The Lord would fight for us all the time. When we decide to move away from the heart of God, we would do so not because there is something wrong with God. We would move away from the love of God because we would have given the devil permission to tempt us with sin.

 

The serpent tempts us all the time and many of us are able to stand against temptation because we still believe in the holiness of Jesus. When we believe in the holiness of Jesus, we will always chase after the will of God. The will of God will determine what we do or say. But when we are no longer mindful of the will of God, the devil will cease that opportunity to move us away from the kingdom of righteousness into the kingdom of the spiritually filthy.

 

God is faithful indeed, as he will never move away from us. We are the ones who might decide to desert him for the kingdom of darkness. When we fall into the hands of the devil, we must never blame God. The Lord could do all that we want Him to do for us, but He will never impose His will upon us. If we love His righteousness, he will give us grace so that we may abide in the beauty of His holiness.

 

How to break the bondage of sin

When we decide to go back to the world, the Lord will also respect that even though He might not like it. The Lord does not move away from us quickly. When we decide to go back to a life of sin, He would rebuke us so that He may correct our ways. He will do all that is in His power to stop the devil from stealing us from His heart.

 

But if we do not respond to the grace of God, by resisting temptation, the Lord will eventually relent. He will one day leave us to our own will, where He will allow us to do what we want to do.

 

There is no one like Jesus. The Lord would always to try to bring us back home even though we have decided to run back to the devil. He would still give us grace by sending people to speak to us on His behalf. He will do many things in the background to pull us from the fold of the serpent.

 

It is a very sad reality that the majority of those who have backslid will never come back to God. The devil will not permit them to do so. The serpent is very clever, as he does not play spiritual games. He is in the business of enslaving us to kingdom forever. As long as we do not run back to God, we would always be shackled by the devil.

 

There is a reason those who have backslid would find it difficult to come back to the Lord. The serpent is a master schemer, he pulls people into a life of sin, and he would do all in his power to keep them in bondage forever. Assuredly, it is wise not to fall into any trap of sin because when we succumb into that trap, the devil would most probably win us back into a life of sin.

 

The reason many backsliders fail to come back from a life of sin is the stumbling blocks that the devil has put in their way. When the devil tempts you to fall into sin, he makes you put stumbling blocks in your way so that these stumbling blocks could prevent you from running back to God.

 

What are these stumbling blocks that he makes you put in your way? These are trappings or accessories of sin. Anyone who has backslid has put a lot of stumbling blocks in his way. These stumbling blocks are what he has done or said to those who wanted to save him from falling into sin.

 

When you start to taste sin, sin would close your ears to all the sober counsel. In fact, sin would give you pride, which would make you hurl insults at those who might try to correct you.

 

When people try to correct you, they would do so out of love for you or because the Lord has sent them to pull you away from the hands of the devil. Sin would blind you to reality, as it would make you not to see their good intentions of correcting you. It would make you see them as people who have come to judge you or people who think they are better than you. Assuredly, sin would harden your heart and make you disregard any good counsel.

 

Every time there is someone who tries to correct you, pride would make you say or do many bad things to them. Everything you say or do to them would be a stumbling block that the devil has put between you and God. You might not realise what you would be doing because the devil would encourage you to put as many stumbling blocks as you could.

 

Sin would make you break off the important relationship you have with others or it would make those relationships weak. You would start to stay away from all the people who are trying to pull you away from the hands of the devil. More often than not, you would start to view all those the Lord has sent to correct you as enemies. These people would be friends who would be giving a hand of friendship to you. This hand would try to pull you away from the clutches of the devil.

 

After many months of committing sin, you would develop more pride and do or say more bad things to those who want to save you. Eventually, you would start to have new friends who love sin, and these friends would help the devil to sink you more into the pit of hell.

 

The truth has a way of revealing itself to those who are trying to run away from it. In time, you would start to notice the truth, but you would not have the power or wisdom to do anything about your spiritual life. After many months or years of backsliding, you might want to go back to God because the truth has dawned upon you.

 

The life of bondage would make you struggle with the things you did not struggle with before. As you try to figure out the cause of your problems or hardship, the Lord would reveal the reason for all your predicaments. He would tell you that sin has made you powerless and without the favour of God and others.

 

This reality would make you want to go back to God, but the road ahead would not be easy. The road towards the heart of God would be full of stumbling blocks you have put in your way. These stumbling blocks would make you ashamed of what you have said or done to those who tried to correct you.

 

All the bad text messages, all the acting, and all utterances you made to those who tried to correct you would make you feel very small. You would cringe when you think about all the bad things you have said or done to them. Not only would you be ashamed of what you have done or said, you would be ashamed of how you went about it.

 

Pride would have made you do all those bad things in confidence, the confidence of the lost. You would have done things or said bad things arrogantly without regard to anyone. You would have tried to show all who wanted to save you that you are better than they are or you know God more than they do.

 

Indeed, you would know that God has departed from you, but you would try to show others that you are still in close fellowship with Him. The more people backslide, the more they pretend to love God with their whole hearts.

 

As they pretend to be who they are not, everyone would see how naked they are. The devil can make intelligent people fools. When an intelligent person backslides, he would be the worst fool you have ever seen. He would behave like a brainless person who would be trying to show people that he has not backslid.

 

A backsliding person will always try to hide what cannot be hidden. He will be spiritually naked but would try to show people that he still has spiritual clothes on. There are few people who are good actors like the backsliders. Everything they do would be a fake. They would always fake who they are or how low they have fallen from grace. Indeed, they would always try to give the impression that all is well with God, whereas the opposite is true.

 

Humbleness is the secret of breaking free from the power of the devil Those who have backslid would struggle to break free from the power of sin because they do not understand spiritual matters. To break free from the yoke of sin is difficult, but it is not impossible.

 

Even though it is very difficult for backsliders to come back to God, it is possible to do so. Where there is a will, there is a way. You must desire with your whole heart to come back to the heart of God. If you desire to put things right with God, the Lord would meet you half way. God would do all in His power to help you to break free from the yoke of sin.

 

All things are possible for those who hunger to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord. Anyone who truly wants to break free from the shackles of sin can do so if they use the wisdom of the word of God. There is a secret of breaking all the shackles of sin, this is a virtue that Jesus possessed in tonnes. This secret is humbleness, which is a weapon that all Christians could use to defeat the enemy.

 

Jesus was humble like a Lamb hence the Father could do anything for Him. Assuredly, humbleness is the only spiritual tool that could bring any backslider back to the heart of God. It is a tool has the spiritual power to overcome all forms of bondage.

 

Humbleness is the only virtue that could help you to disentangle yourself from the power of the enemy. This great virtue is a virtue that is possessed by those who understand who they are in God.

 

When you are humble, you have the ability to count yourself as nothing and regard God as the only One who deserves all the glory. God is the only one who is perfect. He is perfect because He is God. The Lord has the ability that none of us have. Our Father is perfect and due to this He is infallible. There will never be a moment where God could do what is wrong, for He is holy.

 

The Lord knows our weaknesses hence His word encourages us to be humble in all situations. Anyone who is not humble cannot subject himself to the authority of God and His word.

 

If you are a Christian and you are not humble, you must ask the Holy Spirit to break you so that He could give you a humble heart. If you are not humble, you cannot follow God, you could only follow your own pride. Indeed, when you do not have a humble heart, you will never receive eternal life.

 

A life of a Christian is fraught with many challenges and temptations, and anyone who is not humble will eventually be spiritually dirty again. Repentance takes away all the sins we have committed against God. However, we cannot repent if we do not have a humble heart.

 

We must be able to ask for the forgiveness of God when we have strayed away from His ways. Not only must we be able to ask for the forgiveness of God, we must be able to ask for the forgiveness of anyone we have wronged.

 

We cannot be children of God if we are not humble. In fact, humbleness is a virtue that makes us children of God. If we do not have a humble spirit, we could only follow the evil desires of our hearts. Those who do not have a humble spirit will always try to find fault in others, their eyes would always be focused away from their wrongs. We could only repent of our wrongs if we have a humble spirit of a child.

 

Pride comes from the devil and humbleness comes from Jesus. Pride makes us reject the authority of God, but humbleness helps us to be obedient to the Lord. When pride increases in us, humbleness dies. The opposite is also true, when humbleness increase in us, pride dies.

 

Anyone who is humble is not afraid to ask for forgiveness, but those who are having pride will struggle to ask for forgiveness. When those with pride try to ask for forgiveness, they would not be sincere about it. Their act of asking for forgiveness would be superficial, it would be a fake forgiveness.

 

When you have a humble spirit, you would do more to bring peace between you and God, and between you and those who are around. Those who have a spirit of a child would ask for forgiveness even though they have not wronged anyone. To say sorry to others would come naturally from their heart, and when they do so, they would be sincere about it.

 

They would not apologise out of obligation, but their hearts would recognise the pains of those who are grieving about something. When they apologise to the aggrieved, they would do exactly what their Master did. Jesus agreed to die for the sinners even though He was pure, without any spot of sin.

 

To say sorry does not reduce you, it increases you in the eyes of the Father. When you say sorry for something, you become a peacemaker. Anyone who does not want to repent of their wrongs creates conflict.

 

The Lord has given us His righteousness through the blood of Jesus. Anyone who believes in the righteousness of God is supposed to walk in righteousness all the time. After we have been born again, we are not supposed to sin deliberately. When we sin or fall short of the expectation of God, we make ourselves spiritually dirty.

 

Our God is a good Father, who has made a way for us to be spiritually clean after we have committed any sinful act. When we sin and realise our wrong ways, we need to repent for such sins. Repentance is a spiritual tool that takes away the spiritual dirt and makes us right before the Lord.

 

Repentance is also a tool that made it possible for us to believe in the Son of God, Jesus. When we repent of our sins and declare Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, we are reconciled back to the heart of God. The Lord would count us as holy when we have confessed our sins and decided to give Jesus authority over our lives.

 

The cure that could fix any wrong doing is repentance, and humbleness is a virtue that helps us to repent of our transgressions. If we are not humble, we will not fix things between us and God, and between us and our fellow brothers and sisters.

 

In the same manner, humbleness is a virtue that helps us to break the yoke of sin in our lives. When we were born again, we were saved from the power of sin, but when we backslide, we go back to the life of sin.

 

Anyone who is born again has been saved from the kingdom of sin into the kingdom of the righteous. To backslide is to reverse what God has given you through Jesus. When you decided to come to Jesus, you rejected sin and its author, the devil. But when you decide to go back to the life of sin, it means you are rejecting Jesus for the devil.

 

Assuredly, backsliding is the spiritual condition or state of abiding in darkness, for sin is darkness. Anyone who has backslid has chased the presence of the Lord in their heart, and the devil has become the new master in their lives. The devil will remain their master if they do not do anything to trace the way that leads back to the heart of God.

 

When you are trapped into a life of sin, the devil would do all he could to make sure that you remain in bondage forever. If you have backslid, you are the only one who could do something about your backsliding. You must never listen to all the lies that the devil might tell you. God is merciful and there is no amount of sin that is too dark for his forgiveness. Jesus died so that you may be free from the bondage of sin. He was crushed so that no one could crush your head. He was ridiculed so that you could receive honour.

 

When you call upon the name of the Lord, He will hear you. The Lord is faithful to all of us. He is even faithful to those who reject Him. God will forgive those who have said and done many bad things against Him. We can never understand sin if we do not understand the cross of Calvary and what it has done for us. The cross of Calvary has not only cleansed us of all the sins we have committed, it has given us a new spiritual heart, a heart that is sensitive to God and His word.

 

The forgiveness of God is waiting to save you from the powers of the serpent. If you have backslid, the Lord has seen your cries and frustrations, and He wants to set you free from all the shackles the devil has put on you.

 

If you need Jesus to save you, He could do it today. Jesus wants to rescue you from the dungeon of sin the devil has put you in. Repent of your sins, and it shall be well with you. The devil is the liar, today Jesus could set you free.

 

The Lord has heard your cries, He has seen all your frustrations. He has seen the rejections you have experienced from those who used to be close to you. Our Master is stretching out His hand to save you. Take this opportunity to break the hold that sin has on you, and it shall be well with you today.

 

You might have done many bad things to others, but you must remember that Jesus loves you despite all you have done. He is your Father who wants to save you from the evil hand of the serpent. You might have wronged many people, but bear in mind that you live for Jesus. Jesus is the only one you must be mindful of. Do what is right in the sight of God and break every chain the devil has put on your neck.

 

It is important to bear in mind that people are people. People will always act the way people are supposed to behave. The devil has created a gulf between you and those who loved you. What you have done has made them reject you. Do not worry about their rejection, be mindful of doing what is right in the sight of God.

 

You need to break all the stumbling blocks the devil created between you and God. You could break them now by recognising what the devil has done to you and your spiritual life. Satan has embarrassed you with sin. The devil has made you a laughingstock, and due to this, many people are laughing at you.

 

If you continue to stay in sin, your situation would be worse. The devil will not hesitate to kill you because he is not yet finished with you. Indeed, the serpent would one day aim for your throat. If you do not run to Jesus today, one day the devil will kill you and you would have no one to blame but yourself.

 

It is time for you to do all that is necessary to break off any shackle the serpent has put on you. There is no better time than now to free yourself from all the shame the devil has caused you.

 

You were once highly regarded in heaven, but sin has shamed you in the eyes of the Lord. You have been in this sad situation for a long time. Jesus is crying out for your soul, and He is ready to save you. He wants to set you free from all the shackles of Satan.

 

Jesus loves you despite your situation, and He is ready to admit you back to His heart. You must remember that Jesus did not leave you, you are the one who went back to a life of sin. The Lord has been crying out for you for many months. He has extended His hand of salvation to you, but you did not realise this.

 

The Lord’s invisible hand of salvation has been trying to save you from the shackles of sin, but you did not realise this. Jesus’ blood was shed for you, and this blood is still speaking salvation. Assuredly, His blood wants to set you free from the bondage of sin no matter how low you have sunk into the pit of sin.

 

If you hear this voice that wants to save you, do something about it. Do not let what you have done stand in your way. You have done and said many bad things before, and it is time for you to do what is right. Do not let all those stumbling blocks you have created stand between you and God. You need to free yourself from the power of sin, and for you to do this, you need to break every stumbling block you have created.

 

Indeed, you could only break those stumbling blocks by being humble. You need to recognise the damage you have caused in your life. See the hurt you have caused to others. Not only must you see the pains you have caused to them, but you must also recognise that the bad reaction you received from them was in direct response to what you have done to them. Indeed, you have also caused great damage to your spiritual wellness. Sin has made you lose all the favour of God and man.

 

This is not the time to be proud, it is not the time to think about how people have hurt you. It is the time to humble yourself before God and those you have done wrong. Humble yourself and go to everyone you have aggrieved and ask for their forgiveness. It does not matter what you did to them, and how you did it, go and seek for their forgiveness, it shall be well with you.

 

We are fallible and we are able to stand against the devil because of the grace of God. Remember that you have done and said those bad things to them because of sin, not because you are a bad person. The devil is the only bad person around, and he is trying to destroy us by tempting us to sin.

 

The serpent trapped you into a life of sin and made you say and do all those bad things. You are not shifting blame by believing this, this is the truth. The author of sin is the devil. He is the one who makes us fall into sin. Satan is the only enemy that you have. In fact, the serpent is the enemy of everyone. He is the enemy of those who have been saved and he is still the enemy of those who have not yet found their way into the heart of God.

 

If you want to overcome sin and all the damage it has done to you, you need to repent for all you have done. It is time for you to go to every person you have wronged, and do not let pride stand in your way.

 

“Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not conceal my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and You took away the guilt of my sin” (Psalms 32:5, ESV)

 

A child of God must be willing to be ridiculed by the world. The world is full of people who do not understand spiritual matters. As a child of God, you would be accused falsely of what you have not done. They would try to hang you for what you have not done or said. This is part of the journey of every Christian. We would be hated for our association with Jesus. The world would reject us because it rejects our Master, Jesus.

 

We must be able to take everything that happens to us in strides. We must stand like men in all situations. What they do or say to us is of no consequence to us. Our only preoccupation must be to please our Master. We must do all Jesus expect us to do regardless of how they treat us.

 

We all need to do everything that our Master expects us to do even though we may think otherwise. Assuredly, every born again Christian is a servant of Jesus, and anyone who serves the Lord must live a life that pleases Him. We must follow the will of God, no matter where it takes us.

 

If you are willing to be crucified for the sake of the Lord, you must be willing to do all to make peace with those who have wronged you, or those you have wronged. To God, it does not matter who did what. The Lord is not interested in who is right or wrong, He is only interested in seeing us do what is right.

 

What is right is for you to go to ever person you have wronged or those you have a conflict with. You need to humble yourself before them and asked for their forgiveness. And when you do this, do it sincerely because God sees our hearts. We can fool others, but we can never fool God.

 

When you repent of all the transgression you have made, the Lord would forgive you for every sin you have committed against others. Some other times, people would reject your peace offering. Do not let their rejection get to you. When they reject your peace offering, God would not do the same. If you truly repent of all the bad things you have done or said, the Lord will forgive you unconditionally.

 

Many of those you have aggrieved will continue to say bad things about you after you have asked for their forgiveness, and some would continue to laugh at you. Let those who want to laugh at you continue to do what they think is right. If they want to ridicule you, let them do so. Do not let what they say or do hold you back from doing what is right before God.

 

In the midst of every dark and painful situation, we must desire to please only one person, Jesus. If they reject you or laugh at you, just be focused on making Jesus happy. All the people might reject you, but Jesus loves you very much despite all the bad things you have done.

 

When we try to make peace with others, we are really trying to make peace with Jesus. If Jesus accepts the peace offering you are making to others, this is what is important. What is important is to do what pleases the Lord. When God is pleased with you, it does not matter who is not pleased with you.

 

When you apologise to people for what you have done to them, some will ridicule you, and some will accept your apology. Others will continue to speak badly about you and what you have done, but this must not affect you.

 

People are people, and they will always have something to say about all of us regardless of what we have done to them. Many people speak ill of those who are innocent of any wrongdoing. Just ignore anything they may say about you, because in due time, they would stop speaking about you. In time, they would soon find something new to talk about.

 

When you have asked for their forgiveness, continue to do what is right in the sight of God regardless of what they do or say. The only thing that must count in your life must be to please God all the time.

 

Anyone who truly repents of their sins shall be forgiven by the Lord. The Lord is merciful and He will forgive every sin you have committed. If you have backslid and repented for your sins, the blood of Jesus would clean every spot of sin in you and you shall be holy as the Lord is.

 

Be alert because the devil will try to rubbish what the Lord has done for you. When you truly repent of all your sins, the Lord would forgive every sin you have committed. But Satan will do all he could to make sure that you do not find your way back to the heart of God, or he would try to confuse you.

 

The devil is a master schemer. After you have confessed your sins to the Lord, the serpent will always try to counter or steal the forgiven God has given you. He will try to make you doubt what the Lord has done for you. He would make you doubt the forgiveness you have received from the Lord and those you have wronged, so that the serpent could prevent you from assumin