January 22, 2019
Shhh….Secret Sins? Your Quickest Way to Breakthrough
By Kim D’souza
By Pastor Kim D’souza
Jeremiah, our six year old is a very sweet and helpful boy. He does a commendable job of tidying the house when I ask him to. But sometimes when he is not in a mood to help, he smartly shoves things out of place where my eyes cannot catch. So while the house does look clean, it is only matter of time before I find all things falling out from the hidden corners.
Many of us in our Christian life have a similar attitude. There are so many so called believers in the church who are shouting God’s praises from the outside but are hiding their struggles and temptations. They are broken and condemned from the inside and wondering why God’s plans are not working for them. And its only a matter of time before things start falling apart.
But never forget this – What you hide has power over your life.
The devil wants you to conceal things – whether it is lust, pornography, addictions, fears, depressing thoughts etc, and he will bring you reasons like shame, fear, guilt to keep you from exposing it.
John 3:20 says, Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
When Adam and Eve sinned, the first thing they did was that they hid themselves from the presence of God. But it was God who came searching for them. Similarly when Cain murdered Abel, it was God who initiated a conversation with him, even as Cain tried to hide the facts and act as if nothing has happened.
Hide nothing from God, HE knows it all.
If you are fed up with the way you are living and want a breakthrough in your life, the quickest way to get it is by exposing your struggles to God.
David wrote in Psalm 32:3-5 “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.“
David committed the sin of adultery with Bathsheba and schemed the murder of her husband Uriah. And God told him, What you did in secret, you will face the consequences of it in daylight before all Israel (2 Samuel 12:12). But we read in the next verse, David asks for forgiveness and IMMEDIATELY God forgives him!
If you are struggling with ‘secret sins’ and genuinely are hungering for a breakthrough in your life, here is what you can do.
1. Expose your struggles before God. Openly and loudly confess them. You see, the devil is not interested in just playing hide and seek with you. He has only one agenda and that is to knock you out of God’s plan for your life and to completely destroy you and the lives that are connected to you. So run to God, who is merciful, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. And once you bring your weaknesses under the blood of Jesus, it is covered. Don’t entertain any feelings of guilt or condemnation and don’t look at your past.
2. Share your struggles with a same-sex mentor, pastor or someone who is mature in the Lord, who can pray with you and guide you. The Bible says confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed (James 5:16). This person should be filled with the Holy Spirit and the Word and living a life glorifying Jesus. Also, don’t assume that your pastor or prophet should know what you are going through and offer help. People are not God, instead you make time and reach out to them.
3. Hide God’s Word in your heart: If there is one thing God is asking us to hide, it is not our sins, but His Word. David says in Psalms 119: 11, I have hidden you Word in my heart that I might not sin against thee! God’s Word is light. And this Word will keep us away from sin. Pick up Scriptures that deal with your problem and start meditating upon them. Spend time with God’s Word and let it not depart from your mouth.
4. Run away from small temptations that you think cannot trap you. It is these ”small things” that we think we have control over, that can make us fall in the long run. Stay alert, your enemy, the devil is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And above all guard your heart. Also very important, guard your eyes for the eye is the lamp of the body (Matthew 6:22).
5. Don’t cut away from fellowshipping with the people in your church. This is what the devil will want you to do – to run away from God, from men of God and people in the church. Don’t compare yourself to others and thus feel condemned. None of us is perfect, but God has created us to be fellowship beings. The Bible says, And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near (Hebrews 10:25).
Has God spoken to you? Is there anything hidden in your life that is worrying you? Remember the key to your breakthrough is not in hiding but in exposing it.
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