Fountain of Living Waters Ministries (FOLWAMS)

GRACE AND SIN

ROMANS 6:1

Grace is the very life of God that we receive at new birth, that is, when we gave our lives to Jesus.

Grace is a divine deposit of life that enables us to live the God kind of life. Without grace we can't live life in the spirit.

It takes grace to pray, fast, worship, study the Word, preach and live a life that is pleasing to God.

It is grace that helps us to say no to ungodliness and live righteously, Titus 2:11-12.

Grace is received in a measure at new birth but it multiplies as we grow in our walk with God through knowledge, John 1:16.

I remember when I started my walk with God, I can't fast beyond 12pm. However as grace was multiplied unto me I could fast for longer period of time.

Same thing with prayer. I could only pray for few minutes at the onset but as grace was multiplied unto me my prayer time began to increase.

Even though God has given us grace to live above sin, grace does not make us to abound in sin. Rather grace makes it possible to live above sin in a sin permeated environment.

One of the corrosive effect of sin on grace is that it weakens it. It deadens your ability to say no to sin and live righteously.

Sin has a very pungent effect on our spiritual life. The wages of sin is death so the first effect that sin has on grace is that it leads to spiritual death, that is separation from the life of God. You can be alive physically but spiritually dead.

Sin hardens our heart and make it insensitive to spiritual impulses from the Holy Ghost, Isaiah 59:2.

Sin constitute weights that pulls us down spiritually and makes spiritual activities difficult.

You can't be living in sin and enjoy prayer, you will be easily overcome by your flesh. Instead of changing levels in prayer you will be getting tired and more tired until you sleep off or give up praying altogether.

You can't be living in sin and enjoy Bible study, you will keep falling asleep and losing track of what the Bible is saying. You won't have revelations.

If you attempt to fast with offences and bitterness in your heart, you will get hungry so quickly that you will wonder if it is not the same you that has been doing dry fast in the past with little hunger felt.

Sin will make your flesh to overcome you rather than your spirit overcoming your flesh. Sin makes spiritual activities difficult, Hebrews 12:14&15.

Don't be among those who live in sin and claim their spiritual life continues as usual because they can still pray, fast and study the Bible. You can do all those things but they won't amount to fellowship with God.

There is a spiritual activity that is full of life and there is another one that is dry and lifeless, just a monotonous repetition of the same things, John 5:39&40.

The Bible talks of some whose sins are open beforehand, going before to judgement and others whose sins follow after them to judgement, 1Timothy 5:24. May we not be part of the latter in Jesus name.

You are not lucky if sin is hidden in your life and you are able to cover it perfectly without nothing changing in your spiritual life to alert you that something has gone wrong.

This usually happens to people that have religious activities but not the participation of the Holy Spirit(koinonia)

If you finish beating your wife or commit adultery and you can still pray and preach perfectly well, then all you have from the onset is religion, not a spiritual life.

Your inability to do those things should be a signal to you that something has gone wrong, which is good for you because you can quickly amend your ways.

Not only the obvious sins affect our spiritual life, even the sins of the heart like offences, grudges, bitterness and unforgiveness affect our walk with God, Isaiah 55:7, Hebrews 12:15.

When you lose contact with the leading of the Holy Spirit in your spiritual activities the first thing is that the flesh will want to take over and tell you it doesn't matter, you can still go ahead without the participation(fellowship) of the Holy Spirit.

If you yield to that leading, your heart will be getting more and more hardened and you won't know it because you are still doing something spiritual in the physical that gratifies the flesh and makes you feel you are okay, Colossians 2:23.

In the book of Ezekiel the priests were still busy with their worship activities, offering sacrifices and burning incense whereas the glory has departed from the temple and they were not aware, Ezekiel 10:18.

Why did they not know the glory had departed? Because they were worshipping God in the flesh (physical activities) not in the beauty of holiness(heart worship) Psalm 96:9, John 4:23&24.

You can do spiritual activities by a supply of energy that comes from the Holy Spirit and you can also do it by a supply of energy that comes from your flesh.

The difference between the two is that one is lifeless while the other one is full of life. The wages of sin is death, Romans 6:23. Same thing with being carnal, the wages too is death, Romans 8:6&7.

Don't listen to the lie of the devil that those that are spiritual always lag behind in life. Being spiritual will always give you an edge in life that those that are not spiritual don't have, 1Timothy 4:8.

Ask Jacob, Joseph and Daniel, they rose to the top by divine revelation. Elisha consistently saved the king and the entire nation of Israel from war.

He was able to beat the king of Syria to his games and schemes by divine revelation, 2Kings 6:8-13. It is called sight advantage!

Being less spiritual will not make your life better because life in itself is spiritual. You need light to navigate through the darkness of this world, Job 29:3, John 11:9&10. It is called sight advantage; ruling and reigning by revelation, Galatians 2:2a.

To be spiritual you must set your mind on things above not on earthly things, Romans 5:5, Colossians 3:1&2, Galatians 5:16, Romans 8:6&7.

This message is a wake up call for as many that have noticed that something has gone wrong in their spiritual life.

Spiritual activities that they use to enjoy and it comes easily to them before now becomes an arduous task and very boring, it is time to do a heart check.

This does not mean anytime something goes wrong in your spiritual life it is as a result of sin in your life.

Not always, sometimes it could be an attack or a season of dryness or some other things. But this teaching has come to deal with when it is as a result of sin.

Sometimes what constitutes these sins are not general physical sins like stealing, lying, fornication, cheating, adultery and the rest. It could be offences, holding grudges, unforgiveness, bitterness e.t.c.

These things looks harmless but they harden your heart and make it insensitive to the Lord, Hebrews 3:12&13.

Even though you may have every right to be offended but you have to let go of that right because of the effect it will have on your spiritual life first and then your physical life eventually, Matthew 5:23-26.

All these things are weights that we can't afford on the journey as they bring death to our spiritual life and make the grace of God of no effect in our lives.

What you need to do is to acknowledge those things and confess them and repent of them.

Then ask the Holy Spirit to help you. Don't sojourn into the new year with all those weights on your shoulder.

Travel light into the new year and enjoy the unceasing participation and leading of the Holy Spirit all the way.

I pray for you that the grace of God that enables all men to say no to ungodliness and embrace godly living will appear unto you afresh in Jesus name.

Whatever sin you are struggling with there is grace to overcome, for where sin abound grace abound much more, Romans 5:20. But grace does not abound to continue living in a sin that you enjoy, Romans 6:1.

SALVATION PRAYER

Anything short of you being born again and living a life of holiness and purity hurt Jesus so much. But you can make things right here and now by saying this simple prayer and mean it genuinely from your heart:

Lord Jesus I come to you today. I acknowledge that I am a sinner and I cannot help myself. I repent of all my sins and I forsake them. Jesus, I invite you into my life, be my Lord, be my Saviour.

Wash me by your precious blood, forgive my sins and write my name in the book of life. From this day, I promise to follow you all the rest of my life. Help me Lord, in Jesus name, Amen. Congratulations you are now born again!

PEACE

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