NOTES TO SELF ON THE SECRET SINS OF YOUR AND YOUR SPIRITUAL FAMILY'S FLESH

NOTES TO SELF ON THE SECRET SINS OF YOUR AND YOUR SPIRITUAL FAMILY'S FLESH  

Theme SONG: TAKE ME IN

Your secret sins of the flesh have been: your hidden lack of love for people, your temporary disbelief in the eternal Covenant of love for yourself and your Spiritual family, your bent towards emotional impurity, depressed escapades in lonely places (which dad and mom have forbidden you to do and you have committed to obey and trusted God to give you good quality prayer times at home), manipulation, pride, narcissism, fear of physical pain/illness, fear of apostacy, and fearing mankind rather than God.

Your Spiritual family’s secret sins may include the same and/or secret materialism, physical lust, anger, malice, demonic oppression…

1. If you and they are truly His children, you will be persecuted and tortured in the body, mind, and heart to the utmost. Remember when you heard of persecution in China: first the finger nails were torn off, then the fingers were cut off, then the limbs…and God enabled them to bear His Name until their death. Similar persecutions are undergone by you and your Spiritual family around you but the attacks may come in different forms. For example, your brothers’ struggles with lust is a similar torture of the flesh and great strength, faith, and knowledge of His love will be required for them to avoid any hints of immorality. The pain will be great, but they must choose to never deny Christ in spite of the turmoil of the flesh. You may expect arrows of temptations and fiery trials to fall on you all. The devil seeks to steal, kill, and destroy the people of God. But those of you who know your God will ultimately stand firm. He knows our frame and that we are as dust. He Himself will enable His people to stand firm and appear blameless before Him.

12 Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 13 But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.14 You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 2 Tim 3

2. Engaging in any amount of secret sin is like wandering near the gates of hell. These types of immorality are damning. They are damning not because they are unforgiveable and not because a true Christian will never commit these sins, but because if they are continued in, they will result in an irreversible hardening of the heart after which repentance is impossible.

20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it
would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. 22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “ A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.” 2 Peter 2

3. Because You and they are His own, His Spirit will remove these sins. He will do it in His own way and in His own time. The secret sins of His servants will graciously be found out. You have believed that all secret sins of the elect will be brought out into the open in His due time (Num 32:23). How much better it would be for one of you to be disgraced now then to stand before His throne and hear Him say, “Depart from me you worker of iniquity, I never knew you!”. When a saint’s secret sin is revealed, the Spirit will grant repentance and that person will be shown mercy by the entire body of Christ. The fallen and repentant member or leader of the flock will be restored even unto the fellowship of the saints. The Father will not let His child be overcome with excessive sorrow after he/she has repented.

He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion. Prov 28:13

6 Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority, 7 so that on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him, otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8 Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. 9 For to this end also I wrote, so that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things. 10 But one whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did itfor your sakes in the presence of Christ, 11 so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes. 2 Cor 7

4. The Gospel is the only medicine for the illness of the flesh. In the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed that is imputed to all those who have faith. Remember when the Israelites were given the deadly plague as a punishment for their sin and when they looked to the fiery bronze serpent bound on the tree, they were healed (Num 21:6-9). Just as Moses lifted up the Serpent, the Son of Man has been lifted up on the cross. He became sin in our place. Those who look to Him and behold their life-long cumulative guilt, shame, and due wrath for their sin placed on the perfect Lamb of God are granted healing. The Spirit has promised them an eternal inheritance in the knowledge of Christ. The extent to which the true Gospel is believed is the extent to which you are given victory over the flesh. Above all else, seek to find God as He revealed Himself in the Gospel. Whatever sin or trials derail your soul, go to cross for your healing. It is a daily process, a second by second
process. The work of God to believe in Christ is never finished until you see Him Face to face.

9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, 10 and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;11 and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; 12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. Col 2

5. No one is immune to infidelity. As you have prayed for your leaders and companions you saw that the Godliest men and women that you know struggle daily with the secret sins of the flesh. You can see the weariness and fear in their faces at times. Often the demonic forces attack the greatest assets in the Kingdom: those who are walking in the grace, love, and power of Christ. These people are targets for the enemy. Never take the moral fidelity of the Godly people around you for granted. Rather pray for them daily and trust in the eternal Covenant of God’s love for their souls and yours.

12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. I Cor 10

6. Remember that the Excellency of the agape, delight, and splendor of Christ are yet to be displayed in full to your souls. Though you have not seen Him fully, you know that a single sight of Him would leave you enraptured for your life time. Your Father knows the intricacies of your heart, mind, and body. Because Christ was tempted in every way as we are, He knows the suffering of the flesh involved in resisting any and every of temptation. He has gone before you and empathizes with you in your weaknesses. He endured the worst pain because of the joy set before Him. He promises to make your joy complete, to reveal the Father to you, and to let you remain in Him and in His love. Your secret sins of the flesh are forms of disbelief in His promises. You must trust in Him as your only Way, Truth, and Life. You must trust that He will provide a way out, that He is able to sustain your deepest needs, big or small, moment by moment. Let His grace and love draw your weary, guilty, and ashamed soul back to Himself.

16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. 17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.2 Cor 4

7. Devote your and their secret sins of the flesh to destruction. Remember that destruction in the old testament refers to the irrevocable giving over of defiled items to God for complete destruction. Commit every sin revealed to you by the Spirit to God for destruction. Your Spiritual family may feel that their sins of the flesh are irresistible addictions, almost like a physical disease that cannot be healed with modern medicine, and yet you have seen the Spirit remove horrendous idols from yourself and others with all the roots of guilt and eternal consequence. He is able to perform sweeping acts of renewal and restoration. These acts are more precious than gold and are certain in their being granted to the elect. These acts will cure you from backsliding and pave the way for all of you to bear great fruit for His Kingdom.

For My sword is satiated in heaven, Behold it shall descend for judgment upon Edom And upon the people [idols in our case] whom I have devoted to destruction. Is 34

Dear Father,
I commit all of my secret sins of the flesh to You for irrevocable destruction. Let every hidden sin be brought into the Light. Let every sin that must be found out be brought out from me for all the days of my mortal life. Grant me grace and comfort to repent and humility to receive your grace. I pray the same for my Spiritual family, both the leaders and members of the flock. Teach us to regard our own holiness. Unless we fight daily for our own holiness, we cannot be concerned with and fight for the holiness of others in Your Body. Free us from the snares of destructive privacy. Let Your refining Presence dwell with us Father! Without Your powerful Arm, our infinite fragilities would damn us. But You are greater than all and no one can snatch us from Your Hand. Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but may we do so more and more as we see the Day approaching
In Jesus Christ’s Name,
Amen