Maybe you've been slacking on your devotion to the Lord. It could be that you think you've lost too much time and you're wondering if you can ever walk in the call of God again. Maybe you think your mistakes have disqualified you.
This message is for you. I want to talk to you about restoring the anointing on your life. But first, I want you to comment in the comment section.
It's a new season. And I want you to say that by faith with a heart filled with expectation because God is good. Because God is merciful.
You may have those insecurities. You may wonder about your calling. You may think you've made too many mistakes.
Our God is a good God. Does he correct sin? Absolutely.
Does he convict us when we do wrong? Absolutely. Should believers live holy?
Absolutely. But we should thank God that he forgives. We should thank God that when we repent that he restores.
Now, maybe you've had a full-on fall. And by that, I mean a moral failure that has absolutely disqualified you in biblical standards. Maybe you're walking in just some compromise that you know you need to correct, but still in the back of your mind, you know that compromise is there.
Or perhaps you've just experienced this subtle weakening in your spiritual life. You're not as committed to the word as you used to be. You're not as committed to prayer as you used to be.
You're not as connected to fellowship as you used to be. Well, this message is for you because I believe that God is still with you. John 14 16-18 declares, "And I will ask the Father and he will give you another advocate who will never leave you.
" He's talking about the Holy Spirit who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him because it isn't looking for him and doesn't recognize him.
But you know him because he lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans. I will come to you.
There's this damaging teaching that I used to believe. I used to embrace it. I used to teach it and I used to be tortured by it mentally and emotionally.
And that teaching was that if I made a mistake that the Holy Spirit would abandon me. Now I'm not talking about the once-s saved always saved debate. There's lots of different discussions on that.
But what I am talking about is the fact that whether you believe in once- saved always saved or you believe that you can lose your salvation. All of us can agree that in the life of the believer there will be mistakes that are made. And we can thank God that the Holy Spirit doesn't come and go based upon every little mistake that we make.
And some of us live under the bondage of that legalism to where we think that if we have a bad day or we have a bad week that the Holy Spirit is going to remove from us his presence and his power and his influence and that he'll never return to us again. or that God is somehow going to curse us beyond restoration or that God is going to reject us despite the fact that we may repent. That is a damaging teaching that's based on legalism that's based on self-righteousness.
And we understand that though the believer ought to live holy, let me say that again. Though the believer ought to live holy and though there are consequences to sin, we can thank God that the Holy Spirit abides with the true believer. Why?
because he remains to convict. He remains to correct. He remains to help us to get this right.
And so the judgment of God in the life of the believer is for the sake of restoration. When God chastises the believer, and he does chastise, when God shakes things up in the life of the disobedient believer, this is always for the purpose of restoration. Not necessarily always for the purpose of restoration.
into ministry, but for the restoration of that soul unto himself, for the restoration of their confidence in their salvation, for that restoration uh for their fellowship with the Lord to be unhindered, we often make up our own list of wrongdoing. And we tell ourselves, in order to get back to where I was, as if it was based on performance, I have to go down this list and do all of these good deeds in order to make up for what I believe I've now lost. Now, again, and I want to emphasize this balance because I'm responsible for the words that come out of my mouth, and I'm responsible for believers listening to this who maybe are new in the faith.
And I don't want you to misunderstand what I'm saying. So do bear with me as I reiterate what I've already reiterated once before. You ought to live holy.
There are consequences for sin. God's grace is not a license to sin. However, this idea that we live based on our own performance and that our relationship with God is there because of our own performance, that's just not biblical.
your confidence in that connection, your enjoyment of that connection, your ability to receive of that connection, yes, that is determined by your lifestyle. But the connection itself, the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, that is by the grace of God. So you want to restore your anointing or God's anointing on your life.
What do I mean by that? Well, the anointing is the power of God. Every believer has been anointed by God.
Every believer has the Holy Spirit. Every believer has this power that has been deposited on the inside. You have that if you are born again believer.
There's not something extra you have to do to earn that. Now, whether or not you make use of that power depends upon how surrendered you are to the Holy Spirit. So when I talk about the restoration of the anointing, I'm not saying God took it away and might give it back if you perform properly.
I'm saying that God has left that deposit in you, but you're only going to be able to make use of that deposit if you walk in obedience to God. So number one, maybe you've experienced this this falling away in your heart. Maybe you've experienced this weakening of your spiritual life.
Maybe you've experienced this compromise. Well, number one, you need to repent. You need to repent and turn from your wrongdoing.
1 John chapter 1:9 says, "But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness or wickedness. " Now, what's important about this particular scripture is that it touches on two major themes. Number one, God is faithful to forgive you in that he will do it consistently.
And number two, God is just to forgive you in that he does it legally. based upon the sacrifice of Christ. This is a lifestyle of repentance.
This is a lifestyle of rejection of sin. This is a lifestyle of alignment with God. What does it mean to repent?
Now, I'm going to tell you the true definition of repentance. And when you hear it, maybe because of what you've heard so often, you might initially want to reject the definition because in your mind it might be a compromising statement, but it's actually not. Because true repentance goes much deeper than just your actions.
Yes, we should renounce sin. That is turned from sin. But we have to go further than that.
We have to also repent of sin or repent from our sins. What does that mean to repent? Repent means to change your mind.
In the context of repentance from sin, to repent means to change your mind or a change in the mind that results in a forsaking of sin. So often we try to reform our behaviors before we've addressed our mindset. And because we try to reform behavior before we address the mindset, we're fighting against ourselves.
We're fighting against what we believe in the back of the mind. So what does it mean to repent? It means to turn in your mind to change your thought process.
So let's apply this. the sin in your life, you have to now come into agreement with God and say, "God, I agree with you that this sin needs to go. God, I agree with you that this sin is wrong.
God, I agree with you that this sin needs to go in all forms, in all measures, for all time from now on. " like no compromise, no provision for the flesh, no loopholes, no outs, no relief, nothing in the future that would indicate that maybe I'll taste of it again. But you have to say no to the flesh and say you're not getting what you want now.
You're not getting what you want then. And I'm not even going to entertain the compromising thought patterns that you tried to instill in my mind in order that you might get what you crave. I am turning from this.
I'm done with it. Because many times believers will regret their sin, but they don't repent from sin. Let me say that again.
Many time believers will regret their sin, but they don't repent of their sin. In other words, they feel bad for it, and they want God to remove the bad feeling that results from it, but they don't want to give up the behavior itself. They want to be freed from the consequences of sin, but not from the confines of sin.
They want to be free from the penalty of sin, but they don't want to be free from the practice of sin. They say, "God, give me relief in my mind and my emotions and in consequence, but I'm going to hang on to this just because I enjoy it so much, and I may come back to it from time to time. " No, my friend, true repentance says, "God, I align my thoughts with your thoughts about sin.
God, I align my mind with your mind about sin and I choose to reject that sin in all forms for all time in all measures from now on. That is true repentance and it goes deeper than our actions. Because if you try to again to use just behavior modification or discipline which are good practices, you should instill principles like discipline and accountability of course but add to that the root that will give you victory which is repentance.
Repentance goes down to the root whereas behavior modification just addresses the results. So you need to repent of the sin and renounce it but you cannot renounce it that is turn from it. By the way, renounce doesn't mean that I get like a little piece of paper and I I read off all my sins of my sins and my grandparents sins and Adam and Eve's sins.
No, no, no. That's not renouncing. That's that's uh that's just reading off of a piece of paper.
Renouncing is when I turn from sin. We can't use lukewarm watered down definitions for these terms. Renouncing means I turn from that wrongdoing.
So, I repent first. That is I change my mind. There's a shift in my thought pattern and then I renounce, then I turn from, then I forsake.
That's number one. You got to do that. Otherwise, there's nothing left for you in this process.
If you're not willing to repent, you're not willing to be restored. If you're not willing to repent, you're not willing to become a tool in the hand of God. If you're not willing to repent, you're not willing to live for God's glory.
You have to start with repentance. change your mind and say, "God, I want none of it anymore. I just want you.
" And that's the beginning of it. Not just regret, not just anger at the consequences, not just being upset that um you're you're feeling emotionally guilty or that you're feeling mentally strained or tormented because of that guilt. That's just surface level.
but to actually say, "God, I want to be set free from the practice of this sin, not just the penalty of this sin. " Next, you need to return. In Revelation 2:es 2 and onward, I'll read down to 5A.
I know all things all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don't tolerate evil people.
You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles, but are not. You have discovered they are liars. You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.
But I have this complaint against you. You don't love me or each other as you did at first. You don't love me or each other as you did at first.
Look how far you have fallen. Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. Many people know how to repent.
Even fewer know how to return. Repent. You change your mind.
You change your actions. But now it's not just a matter of not doing what you shouldn't do. Now it's a matter of doing again what you know you ought to do.
Not just giving up wrongdoing, but picking up right living. And I'm talking of course about the basics of the Christian faith or of the Christian life I should say to where now we begin to embrace again the reading of the word, prayer, attending church, accountability, worship, a lifestyle of repentance. Now some however have trouble with this because they embrace their past as a part of their identity.
In other words, they think constantly about the mistakes that they've made and they think they have to wear the shame of that for the rest of their lives. Now, look, we've dealt with repentance here already in this message. So, after you've gone over repentance, after you've repented and renounced that sin, after you've turned from that wrongdoing, now it's time to face forward and move on.
Now, it's time to begin to pick up again the basic practices of the Christian faith. the basic practices of devotion to God. But here is what's going to stop you.
And this is where many believers get stuck because they have self-doubt. They feel they're disqualified. I've made too many mistakes.
I've waited too long. I've lost too much time. And now they're at this place where they begin to identify with those past mistakes.
And no matter what they do, they can't seem to break free and embrace again the practices of Christian devotion. Why? because it's shame or the perception of the perception of others.
Now, that that is very subtle. That's very nuance what I just said there. It's your perception of the perception of others that changes the way you think about yourself.
I'll give you an example. I had a friend who was in ministry who fell into sin and was disqualified from preaching because of that sin. Now, not all believers are going to have pulpit ministry from which they can be disqualified.
But many believers struggle with things that disqualify them from walking in what God did call them to do, at least for a season. And so, this individual I'm speaking with, he's he's he's he was just so down on himself. He had already repented.
He got it right. He was restored um in terms of his repentance and renouncing and forsaking the wrongdoing. But in his mind, he couldn't get past what he thought other people were still thinking of him.
And so he wore that shame. Now, he didn't know that we were all cheering for him. He didn't know that we were glad to see him get back on the horse, so to speak.
He didn't know that we were all praying for his restoration. Now, of course, there will always be a loud minority who comes from that Phariseaic mindset of legalism, and they attack people who are being restored. You know, they're very loud, but very small group, and they really can't do much anyway.
There's not much being accomplished by yelling at someone like that. Um or or raising your voice against someone's restoration. But this individual couldn't get past what others were saying.
He couldn't get past the way others perceived him. He couldn't get past the shame. he think he he he thought that he carried in the eyes of others.
It was the shame he carried and it was the perception of the perception that others saw. Now it was almost like social anxiety where he was trying to think for them. Sometimes the belief that you're somehow marked with that shame will cause you to live and think and feel like you're rejected of God when you're not because you may still think in terms of that mistake.
And some people will never let you let it go. That's they do the work of the devil for him. Most Christians, however, recognize the process of restoration.
Most Christians recognize that we should gently restore someone who's been ins snared into sin, that we should welcome them into the family of God if they repent. Now, if they persist in sin, that's a different story. But this restoration sometimes is hindered because they can't return to the basic practices of the faith because of the shame that they still carry from having messed up.
And this really is the difficult part because they they view themselves now as marked. They view themselves now as just like stamped with this shame that they just can't get out of. And then they go on thinking everybody sees them in that way.
They they walk into a room and they feel that anxiety. They walk into a room and they feel that shame. They walk into a room and they feel like all eyes are on them and all whispers are occurring behind their back pointed at them and they sense that insecurity.
That insecurity comes from identifying with that mistake. That insecurity comes from identifying with your past wrongdoing and not being able to give it to God and wearing it like a coat and you think you have to wear that coat as a part of the punishment when Christ already bore that punishment. Again, this belief that this somehow defines you now from now on or that it's always going to be a major part of who you are or that it will always be told as a major part of your story.
I rebuke the lies of the enemy in the mighty name of Jesus. You need to return to prayer despite the guilt. You need to return to the word despite the frustration of the time that you lost.
You need to return to holiness despite your blemished record or in your mind what is a blemished record. You've got to return to Jesus. You've got to return to those places of prayer and of worship and of devotion to the word and of church attendance and of fellowship with other believers.
You have to return to that place where you find your foundation, but you have to do it in faith, knowing that once you've repented and renounced, then now God is working something new in you. It is a new season. Don't wear the shame like a coat.
Don't wear the past mistake as a part of your identity. Stop looking over your shoulder and looking back at the past and fretting over it and worrying about it and regretting it and shaming yourself for it. You can't change what happened.
You can't change the action. You can't go back in time and reverse course. What's done is done.
What good are you doing by worrying about it? What good are you doing by regretting it? What good are you doing by living in the shame of it?
When God says come out of the shame? God says forgiven. How can you call yourself unforgiven?
God says accepted. How can you call yourself rejected? God says anointed.
How can you count yourself out from the call? God says useful. How can you say you cannot be used?
Don't live in the shame of yesterday. Don't wear your mistakes like a coat. Stop seeing yourself through that lens.
And who cares about the voices that rise against you? Who cares about the satanic accusations? Who cares about the people who perceive you a certain way because of what you've done?
Instead, now you move forward. You repent. Lord, I agree it's wrong.
You renounce. You turn from that sin. And now you need to return to prayer.
Return to the place of worship. Return to the house of God. Return to devotion to the word.
Return to living in holiness. It's time to return. So number one, repent.
We could actually say number one is repent and renounce, but you have to repent. Number two, return to the place of prayer and the word or Christian devotion. Number three, and here's the real psychological warfare.
The enemy is great at psychological warfare. Number three, you have to realize. You have to realize that you're forgiven.
It's time to let go of the past. Legalism says you have to bear the punishment now. Now, yes, there will be consequences.
Like, if you take someone's life, sure, God will forgive you if you repent and you don't do that anymore. Uh we may even have someone watching us from prison right now. And you will be able to tell, you can testify, yeah, there are consequences.
You're still in prison. And if you take someone's life, you're going to go to prison. Or if you steal, you might go to jail.
anything really that you do, you you lash out in anger, you may have emotionally and mentally harmed someone and they may just carry that against you and that's that's something that's a consequence. Okay? So, there are consequences to the wrongdoing.
But you have to realize that God has forgiven you. You do what you can to make amends. You do what you can to make things right.
But then you have to realize that God is ultimately the one who forgives. Psalm 103:8-14 says, "The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. " Watch this now.
Verse 9. He will not constantly accuse us nor remain angry forever. We can stop right there just for a second.
So if God is not the one who constantly accuses us, who is? It's yourself. It's the voice of the satanic.
It's other people. You know, people are people can be bitter. People can hold grudges and that's just part of human nature.
But that's the voice of the satanic. The constant accusations. I know of a woman who came to me just totally distraught.
She was so upset about something that had occurred in her past. And I think you might know what I'm talking about. She she took a life.
Of course, in some places they say that's legal. And she was so filled with guilt because she couldn't go back and have the baby. She couldn't go back and take back that action.
And she was so filled with that and she just couldn't get past that. She just saw herself through that lens. Now, of course, we understand that's a sin.
Absolutely, it's a sin. Um, no, no debate there. The Bible is the Bible.
The word of God is the word of God. Truth is truth. But is there mercy for someone like that?
Absolutely. As long as there's true repentance, as long as they renounce, as long as there's this turning, this contrite approach to the presence of God. But I I pointed out something to her because she kept that that I mean, that accusation was just constantly on her.
She thought it was God's way of punishing her for her wrongdoing. But the Bible says he will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever. So that voice that's constantly accusing, accusing, accusing, you did this, you did this, you did this, you did this, you did this.
That nagging, persistent, tormenting accusation cannot be God because the scripture says he will not constantly accuse us. Who's the accuser? It's Satan.
Satan is the accuser. Verse 10, he does not punish us for all our sins. He does not deal harshly with us as we deserve.
For as unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him.
For he knows how weak we are. He remembers we are only dust. Again, not a license to sin, but hope for those who've made mistakes and want to get it right.
There's two sides to the Lord when it comes to our wrongdoing. When you're humble and repentant and contrite and filled with regret and godly sorrow, there's mercy and compassion and forgiveness and restoration and a withholding of that harshness and a withholding as much as he's able to. I mean, some things again are just set in motion by our actions um from from the wrongdoing.
But then on the other side of that, if there is this pride, this arrogance, this resistance to the voice of the Holy Spirit, well, then there's going to be harsh punishment. Then there's going to be a strong correction. The most difficult part about the restoration process is realizing you're restored.
It is the psychology of regret, that psychological warfare that the enemy engages with uh concerning your emotional and mental well-being. But there's grace even for those who knew better. There's grace even for those who knew what they were doing was wrong.
Just ask David. Ask any number of the patriarchs or prophets or kings or or disciples or apostles in the scripture. Look at their stories.
God uses broken people. God uses people who make mistakes. And if God only used perfect people, there'd be no one left for him to use.
Thank God that you can come to the realization that you are forgiven. Listen to me now. Let it go.
Move on. Number four, reach ahead. Once your soul has been restored, you've repented and you've renounced.
You've returned to devotion to the Lord, worship, prayer, scripture, holiness, church attendance, fellowship with the believers. You've returned now to that place. And then you've realized the forgiveness of God.
There's restoration and healing that has taken place. Now it's time to reach ahead. Only the Lord can determine the time frame of your promotion in ministry.
But that doesn't mean that he's done using your life. Reaching ahead to your future in God is something that you need to do once you've gone through that process. Philippians chapter 3, I'll read verses 13 and onward.
No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved, but I focus on this one thing, forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God through Christ Jesus is calling us. Verse number 15.
Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. But we must hold on to the progress we have already made.
Now, looking at this scripture, I want you to pause for a moment and I want you to visualize in the spirit that behind you are your mistakes. I mean, not I I want you to actually see that timeline. You cannot reach on to what is ahead.
You cannot strain and stretch forward to achieve in Christ if you are so preoccupied and obsessed with what was. Let me say this again. There's no going back.
There's no doing it again. There's no time travel available to us. Reach ahead.
Leave the past in the hands of God. Leave the past on the mercy of Christ and reach ahead. Get back into serving.
Get back into ministry. Get back into reaching the world for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Repent and renounce.
Return. realize you've been forgiven and reach ahead to your future. Father, in Jesus name, help them do it.
I come against every lying spirit in the mighty name of Jesus and I rebuke the accuser in the name of the one whom I serve. Holy Spirit, when those accusations arise, shout them down with truth. Let your voice resound above all other voices.
In the name of Jesus, we pray. I want you to type it. If you agree, type forgiven.
And it's time to move forward. Indeed. If you think others need to hear this, make sure you leave a like on the video.
You never know who's going to hear this message because you left a like. A message like this needs to get out. So, please do your part.
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Thank you again. I appreciate you. I love you.
I pray for you.
