What
is sin? The answer
encompasses and goes beyond what is written in the bible; simply put, sin is
any disobedience to the voice of the Holy Spirit. You and I know what things
are written in the Bible and categorized as sin, but beyond that, the Holy
Spirit is the person that can define sin for each individual, as what is a sin
to you may not be sin to me. What do you mean Bro. Yinka? If the Holy Spirit
has told you not to play football again, it will not be sin to other people who
make their living playing football. But, to you it will be a sin to continue
playing football.
He who will be totally
free from sin on a daily basis is a person who will always obey the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit knows what lies ahead of you, and if you are going to
get into a difficult situation that will make you to commit sin, he will
forewarn you, It will now be left to you to obey him or not. Who is a prudent
man? A prudent man is a man who listens
to the Holy Spirit and obeys him. Oh, a prudent person foresees danger and
takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences
(proverbs 22:3, & Proverbs 27:12, NLT). That scripture was twice repeated
verbatim in the Bible for emphasis on your need to key in to the Holy Spirit.
My people says in
Yoruba language, ‘ma koja mi Olugbala, kii se orin adubule ko’, literally meaning
that you have to play your own part if you don’t want the Lord to pass you
by. So, what are the things you and I
have to do to live sinless daily?
Reckon
that you are dead to sin. Jesus healed a man that was born
blind, the Jews and the Pharisees confronted the man who had been blind and
told him "Give glory to God by telling the truth," … "We know
this man is a sinner (John 9:24, NIV)." They called my Lord a sinner. The world and the devil will call you a
sinner. It is God’s duty to tell you if you are a sinner or not. Who will accuse God's elect? It is God who
justifies! Who is the one to condemn? It is the Messiah Jesus… (Romans 8:34,
ISV version). Why am I saying this? Don’t allow the devil to harass you.
If you are walking on
the road and you happen to see a completely naked woman, and you didn’t have a
second look at her because you don’t want to commit sin, the devil may still
accuse you that you have committed sin by looking at that naked woman. You are
the one who will have to take your stand against his insinuations! How? It is by reckoning and telling him to
his face that you are not a sinner and that you are indeed dead unto sin. If
you don’t know this, you are likely going to be asking God to forgive you the
sin you never committed, and you keep going in circles. In the same way, you
too must continuously consider yourselves dead as far as sin is concerned, but
living for God through the Messiah Jesus (Romans 6:11, ISV).
Stop
claiming your right! Are you listening? Any Christian that
is not prepared to lose his rights on certain issues of life cannot stop
sinning. Sin is no longer your master,
for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under
the freedom of God's grace (Romans 6:14, NLT). What saith the scripture? ‘All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all
things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. All things are lawful unto
me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will
not be brought under the power of any (1 Corinthians 10:29, & 1
Corinthians 6:12, KJV).’ There is a power behind everything that people do on
earth. The powers that be are seeking to
control us as they make subtle suggestions to us to do certain things in a
particular way. Jesus having fasted for 40 days and 40 nights had all the
rights in this world to eat some food. He was in the wilderness where I think
that he couldn’t get bread to buy, but he himself had the power to turn stone
into bread, and I guess he would have done so, seeing he was hungry if not that the suggestion to do it came from
the devil (Luke 4:1-4). My friend, what are you doing with the devil’s
suggestions? What power motivated you to do the things you did today, God or
Satan? You are the judge!
Deal
with your own lust. Take practical steps to ‘deliver
thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the
hand of the fowler (proverbs 6:5, KJV).’ Every man has a lust, identify and
deal with your own. After I have given my life to Christ and
baptized with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues, one of
my old lusts caught up with me, I discover that it was
easy for me to masturbate. On Tuesday,
May 26, 1992 about 11pm after having masturbated in my room while alone, I
found myself asking ‘Is this the way I will continue living as a Christian? Is
it not possible to stop sinning completely? The Holy Spirit replied me and said
‘’you have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin
(Hebrews 6:4, KJV)’’. That was the
beginning of my breaking away from the sinful habit. In the early nineties, a
sister close to my heart was working with an establishment where she received a
salary of about a thousand Naira monthly as a cashier, yet daily she receives
at least a million naira as a mixture of raw cash and bank draft which she
takes to the bank to save for her establishment on a daily basis. This process continued for one year before
she started getting tempted to steal from the money she makes for her employer. According to her, she used to steal from
people and her parent as an unbeliever, but she stopped stealing after being
born-again. The urge to steal came back forcefully while she was working in
that establishment, after six years of her being a born-again Christian. How did she escape the temptation? She
confided in her pastor, telling him about her past history of stealing and
about the present temptation to steal. She can decide not to tell anybody because she
wouldn’t want anybody to see her as someone who is likely to steal any moment,
but because she wanted to hold firmly to her salvation with fear and trembling,
she confided in someone who could be a watch on her prayerfully and physically.
This helped her seriously!!! The thought of stealing went away after she told
her pastor. Listen to me; the more you keep your lapses to yourself, the easier
it is for you to continue in it. I pray
the Lord direct you to tell someone your secret sin or temptation as the case
may be, so you can receive all the help God has to offer and be completely
delivered, in Jesus Name. The truth of the matter is that once you have victory
over that particular sin that is common to you, it will be easy to deal with
every other temptation that the devil throws at you.
In America or Europe,
when you want to apply for a job, your employer demands that you bring a
certificate of good report (called ‘Background check’ in USA, called ‘attest
van goed gedrag en zeden’ in Belgium). What you will discover is that the
report is only valid from the previous years that you have lived in that
country until that particular day. Why? No one can vouch for your tomorrow that
you will not go against their law, thus nobody
want to give you a post-dated
certificate of good behavior. If you say you have no sin, you can talk of
now, I mean right now!!!! But, what happens after now? You may or may not give
in to temptation to sin.
My KJV Bible says in
first John chapter 1 verse 7 that the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth
us from all sin. The blood of Jesus cleanseth (present continuous tense) …as
you and I walk in the light (which light? The light of the revelation the Holy
Spirit gives you at that moment); the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sins
(1 John 1:9).
When you over speed while
driving your car in Europe and the speed camera catches you, you know there is
no way you will escape paying the government’s fine, you are therefore cautious
to obey the law of safe driving even when no policeman is there to watch you. But,
because God does not give you a knock on the head each time you commit a sin,
you are tempted to do it again. When a crime is not punished quickly, people
feel it is safe to do wrong (Ecclesiastes 8:11). You become weaker each time
you commit sin, and vice-versa becomes stronger each time you overcome.
In your country today,
there are people who do not commit sin. If you are sinning, that is your own
cup of tea, but I counsel you to seek for help that you may be delivered.
Please permit me to
stop here for now.
Questions?
Please mail to: perfectaword@yahoo.com
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