12. AFTER REPENTANCE – DELIVERANCE FROM GUILT & SHAME

In Psalm 119:59-61, the writer states, in relation to the true and living God:

“I thought on my ways, and TURNED my feet unto thy testimonies. I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments. The bands of the wicked have robbed me: but I have not forgotten thy law.”

After you have genuinely repented of your sins, God has forgiven you but you may still face an uphill road to the path of complete deliverance. There may be areas within your flesh that may rebel against you, you may find it difficult to let go of the guilt and shame you still feel and because the enemy does not want you to be completely free and profitable to God’s Kingdom again, he will use self-righteous, prideful people to perpetuate this feeling and to discourage you.

YET, God’s Word the Bible is your authority, not man’s. People may have their own self-serving, prideful agendas but God’s heart has always been about RECONCILIATION and RESTORATION.

People may desire to see you perpetually suffer and stay down and rejected by God because of jealousy, their own insecurities, unforgiveness, maliciousness, their pride, self-righteousness and a failure to understand the extent and power of the workings of God’s grace.

YET, God wants you to stand tall again (in humility) and to continue serving him. He still desires to use you mightily and to do a GREAT WORK in you and through you, for his Kingdom.

It is written in his Word:

“For a just man falleth seven times, and RISETH UP AGAIN…” (Proverbs 24:16)

“IF we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

“Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are MORE THAN CONQUERORS through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:33-39)

“…we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, AND LIVE? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he FOR OUR PROFIT, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore LIFT UP THE HANDS WHICH HANG DOWN, AND THE FEEBLE KNEES; And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; BUT LET IT RATHER BE HEALED (Hebrews 12:9-13).

Despite your past and how much you messed up therefore, once you genuinely went before God and confessed your sin and repented of it with godly sorrow, turning away from it and resolving in your heart, not to ever go that path again, God can and still wants to use you mightily. You are still His child and He will never abandon you. People may leave you and want nothing to do with you but the Lord has promised to never leave your or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5)

In Isaiah 49:15-16, he told his children the Israelites, through the Prophet Isaiah:

“Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.”

In Isaiah 46:4, he assured them: “And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.”

Once you have genuinely repented of your sin, God has forgiven you and is able to give you a FRESH START, a NEW BEGINNING. He is able to write NEW CHAPTERS OF RADIANCE and VICTORY into your story, that bring Him Glory.

The time has come for you to let go of the guilt and shame. You have carried it for long enough. Leave the sins you have confessed to God in the sea of forgetfulness, where He has placed it and look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith.

You may be undeserving yes but truth be told, so is the most pious of saints. Jesus has made us worthy through His blood and has clothed us with His perfect righteousness because of a truth, the best works of the very best of us are still as filthy rags in His sight (Isaiah 64:6).

LET GO OF YOUR PAST TODAY, lift up your head, straighten your posture, put back on your crown. Walk boldly forward (but humbly), for you are a precious daughter of the King.

If you have repented, then, as a Preacher stated a few weeks ago, as a child of the King who has been redeemed and now restored, you are beyond condemnation (Romans 8:1), beyond accusation (Romans 8:33), beyond separation (Romans 8:35,38-39) and by the grace of almighty God, beyond defeat (Romans 8:31,37).

Use God’s Word as an arsenal when the enemy seeks to keep you trapped in your past through guilt and shame. Be not at all ignorant of his devices (2 Corinthians 2:11). He will go to great lengths and use anyone (even the Christian who allows himself to be used), to keep you in this place and to stifle your usefulness in God’s Kingdom agenda. He knows where God wants to take you, what He has put in you and how he desires to use you and he will work overtime, to try to thwart HIS purposes.

He does not want you to think of yourself as FORGIVEN but as a perpetual FAILURE.

YET, “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.” (Isaiah 59:19).

I know of no higher or better standard than the Word of God. This is the sword of the Spirit. Hold steadfast to your faith in Jesus Christ and who you KNOW you are in Him therefore, so, as to quench every fiery dart of guilt, shame and doubt of the devil. Then, apply the Word of God as your spiritual sword, to deal a death blow to the enemy’s attacks.

It is important to remember, that once you have returned to the Lord, you are NOT a second rate citizen of the body of Christ. Don’t allow anybody to be used by the enemy to make you feel this way. Like Peter, the Lord has not redeemed, forgiven and restored you to be a perpetual failure or to sit on a back shelf as less important than the rest of his children but to be MORE THAN A CONQUEROR through Jesus Christ, who loves you and to go on BOLDLY in the POWER and STRENGTH of the Lord, to do GREAT exploits for His Kingdom (Romans 8:37; Daniel 11:32).

Now that you have thought on your ways and TURNED to the Lord, in applying 2 Corinthians 10:3-6:

Remember, that though you walk in the flesh, you do not war after the flesh.

Remember that the weapons of your warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;