Spiritual Death- losing Gods inner voice

I had the opportunity to meet up with a friend this evening and talk about a vast amount of topics… As we sat there and discussed many subjected we started to dig deep into some spiritual theology.

We discussed several things, from our personal walk with Christ to what has God done for us in our daily lives. It had been weeks since we last met, so as we had fellowship we realized that many of the things that had been circulating in our minds were similar. For instance, this Saturday I wrote a blog about lukewarm Christians….interestingly enough, he had been thinking about the topic of lukewarm Christianity for weeks. He found it very odd that I had written something that had been on his mind for weeks.

But this is how it often works, the Holy Spirit intercedes in our life for specific reasons. Often the Holy Spirit may give you some sort of divine revelation and speak through you to help others, or vice versa.

We were astonished that God was able to share our walk in him, although we were completely out of contact for weeks.

We forget how amazing God is, something so simple can mean the world to us, to see Gods ability, the fact that God actually hears us. The fact that God actually uses us. I get overwhelmed with joy when the Spirit opens up things to me in my daily walk. Its always nice when our relationships are strong and when God is using us. When we can hear God talking to us, through the Holy Spirit.

But is there a way you can break contact with God? Is there a way you may lose that voice inside your heart? That ability to hear God all the time, anytime?

Yes, you may indeed.

This is the sad reality but there are sins out there that may actually kill your spirituality. I don’t know how many of you have actually experienced this, but you can lose the vivid sound of the Spirit convicting you of sin. You can lose your ability to access your Spiritual gifts. You can lose access to Spiritual serenity, you can lose your daily divine revelation’s…

I remember several years ago when I started to talk about God, the Holy Spirit would intercede and I would begin to say things above my recognition. Often times the people I wold be talking to would ask, where did you learn all that? What passage is that from the Bible and I would be able to tell them, without personally being aware of what I was saying. Many people might not believe me, but this is not that big of a task for the Holy Spirit. He does this all the time, the reason that many Churches are dead today because people don’t preach…they teach. There is a huge difference. When you preach, the Spirit intercedes and gives you divine Revelation and opens up the word of God to the people. This typically happens supernaturally and most of these preachers that have these experiences are Godly individuals. The ability to simply teach takes practice, preparing a sermon, practicing your sermon and so forth…what most big churches do these days. However, this isn’t always divine revelation (although on occasion it may be).  It is always planned out months ahead of time, and is practiced and perfected.

The idea of preparing a sermon to me seems to be a little generic. I think that the word should be God breathed, and should come from the heart and spoken through the power of the Holy Spirit. However, this would mean, the person that is in charge of these sermons would always have to be righteous in front of God, because for the Holy Spirit to be able to talk through you, you have to walk righteous in front of God.

Did Jesus sit down and practice what he was going to say? Did Paul? Did he stand in front of his understudies and practice what he would tell all the different churches? No, he didn’t, because Paul’s entire life consisted walking in front of Christ and he never allowed himself to die Spiritually.

Our churches today many live two lives, one sitting in the audience, or on stage. The other, living and conforming to this world. Participating in things like; concerts, parties, clubbing, bar hoping, casinos, and so forth…

We have to realize, that these things may not be done simultaneously. We cannot serve two masters. We are created to only be able to serve one side. similarly to a dog, when a dog has more than one master, it will not be able to take neither of them seriously. A dog needs to be able to hear one voice, it needs to know one master that tells the dog what it is doing wrong or right. Whats interesting, is even a dog has a moral compass. Think about it, what happens when you get home and your dog welcomes you, it typically means the dog has been on its best behavior, however, if its hiding most likely it has done something you wouldn’t approve of.

What happen to Adam and Eve when they ate of the forbidden fruit (after they sinned)? What did they do next?

They hid…think about this for a second..why did they hide? They felt naked, why did they feel naked? They never felt like this before, why now?

“the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked.” (Gen 2:1)

When God said to Adam: “If you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you will surely die,” this is what He was saying: Adam, if you eat of the tree which I have prohibited, in that day you will die, that is: you will be separated from Me. If you disobey me you can no longer have a close relationship with me. I am holy and I cannot tolerate sin or those who reject my way. I expelled Lucifer (Satan) and his angels when they sinned, and I will expel you too if you sin. Also, if you eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree, your body will begin to grow old and, eventually, it will die, that is: your soul will leave your body. And that is not all. If you disobey me, not only will your body die, but your soul will go to the place created for Satan and his angels. And there you will be separated from me forever and ever!

Thus, we see that sin produces three horrible separations. First, your soul is separated from God here on earth. That is, you have no relationship with God the Holy One because of the sin in your heart. Second, your soul will be separated from your body on the day you die. That is, your body will die and your soul will meet God for judgment. Third, your soul and body will be separated from God forever in the lake of fire.

Based on the authority of the Word of God, what is death? In short, death is separation from the God of Life. Sin separates man from God, the source of true life. God is holy and cannot coexist with sin. The soul that sins is like a branch of a tree that is cut off and cast away. What happens when a branch is no longer part of the tree? A branch that is cut off, is it alive? No, it is dead! The leaves do not become instantly dry, but they have begun to die. Similarly, if you have not received the way of forgiveness of sin which God has provided, you may think that you are alive, but the Scriptures of the Prophets say that, before God, you are “dead in your transgressions and sins.” ( Eph. 2:1) “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you.” (Prophets, Isa. 59:2) You are “like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.” (John 15:6)

So even from the beginning we notice the separation between God and Adam. Adam, because of his transgressions had killed himself. He committed spiritual suicide by taking of the forbidden fruit….

How many of us have done this…We get offered to got to a party and we go…we participate in things like drinking and doing drugs, never considering the consequences. We have to remember sin has consequences. We have to remember that we can kill our Spiritual relationship if we aren’t careful.

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (Romans 8:13)

There are many sins that will kill your spirituality instantly. Sexual immorality is a good example, people that practice unnatural sex, premarital sex, sex with partners outside of their marriage, etc..  People that are drunkards, people that do drugs…even things that seem to be a little more subtle; lust, anger, greed, envy, worry, anxiety, fear, and so forth (these things will start to kill you if not repented).

We also have sins that kill the heart; “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, blasphemies…” (Matthew 15:19).  

So you see, sin is a huge deal if not dealt with in your life. I think many churches need to emphasize the severity of sin. The fact that sin can keep you from God….

I have encountered spiritual death in my life, for many different sins. Let me tell you something, just like you disappointing a significant other and apologizing and moving on but never forgetting, this also happens in your walk with God. Don’t think you will ever have a healthy relationship if you keep killing yourself spiritually…..because with sin comes consequences, sin is never forgotten, forgiven but not forgotten.

You think if your spouse caught you cheating on them they would ever forget it? No, they wouldn’t, and the consequence of the transgression is the shame and guilt. If they ever decided to forgive you and work things out, you would have to work overtime to rebuild that relationship. Because to build trust takes a lifetime but to break it might take one poor judgement. Don’t let the short lived desire and lie of Satan cause you to die Spiritually.

It’s not worth losing your connection with God over a few hours or seconds of satisfaction whatever your temptation of choice may be….

Sources:

http://www.theabrahamconnection.org