i am very scared

I have told everyone my problems many times and i hate to tell people this but they have only got worse. I am so scared. Then i just read this by charles finney and i have become even more scared about everything. I have seen my self just grow worse and worse, my heart has become hardened and i can't hold onto my faith at all anymore, even when i try it is impossible. I am seeing myself fall back into my old sins and not being able to get out of them. I have this hatred in my heart towards people and i do not serve god anymore, and if i tried it would be fake. I mean when the lord came into my life 5 years ago i was changed, my desires and my life towards him, but not even 2 months into it i fell into sexual sin, got married 3 years later to an unbeliever and since then it has been as if i have been living a curse, i get attacked by demons all the time and do not have no power over them. I have had me and everyone pray for me to no avail. I have thought about killing myself but i am afraid i am going to be in hell on the other side. Was it my lack of knowledge that got me in this and why has God not forgiven me and given me the ability to have faith, has he given me an evil spirit to not believe. Was i even saved from the beginning or was i only awakened? I see my flesh taking over me and me being desirable to sin more than living for the lord.Am i dooomed as charles finney says.

III. The consequences of grieving the Holy Spirit.

1. One of the consequences of grieving the Holy Spirit is to be abandoned by him. If you continue to grieve the Holy Spirit you may expect him to abandon you forever. God's Spirit will not always strive with man. He gave up the Israelites because they vexed and grieved his Spirit. He abandoned the old world for the same reason. And many individuals, and families, and nations, in every age of the world have been given up because they grieved the Holy Spirit.

2. Spiritual blindness. This follows as a matter of course from the absence of the Spirit's influences. Men are naturally blind and deaf to all the great truths which should sanctify their souls. Not that you have not naturally eyes and ears with which to see and hear were you well disposed, but "having eyes you see not, and ears, you hear not." And being unwilling to retain God in your knowledge you blind your own eyes, and deafen your own ears, and harden your own hearts. And when once the Spirit of God has given you up, your blindness though voluntary is as certain and eternal as your existence.

3. A conscience seared as with a hot iron is another effect of grieving the Spirit. This will naturally follow from your great spiritual blindness. A silent or seared conscience is a state of mind to be infinitely dreaded. For if its voice be silenced you may go on in security crying peace and safety until sudden destruction cometh upon you. It is an unspeakable blessing to have a quick and tender conscience--one that will enforce the slightest obligation with great power. But you should by all means, as you would the murder of your own soul, avoid that which will silence your conscience and hush its warning voice.

4. If God abandon you, you will become the confirmed and complete slave of that sin, whatever it be, on account of which he has given you up. If it be some vile indulgence in some form of intemperance--the love of money--the love of pleasure--passion under any form--or infidelity or error--in short whatever sin has been persevered in until God has given you up or the Holy Spirit departed from you, that sin has become your master. It will chain you like a slave, and rule over you with a rod of iron. It will impose on you its galling yoke until you shall be filled with your own ways. How many cases of this kind have come under my own observation, where persons have tempted God by indulging in some form of sin, until he has given them up to its reigning power; and then how feeble are all their efforts to overcome it. Their resolutions are as yielding as air. Every breath of temptation carries them away. And finding themselves all weakness and swept away by temptation as with a flood, they throw up the reins, and drive furiously to destruction.

5. If the Holy Spirit abandon you, you may expect God to "send strong delusions upon you that you may believe a lie, that you may be damned because you obey not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness." It is said that an "evil spirit from the Lord troubled Saul," and that a "lying spirit" was suffered by the Lord to deceive Ahab to his own destruction. A man who grieves the Holy Spirit--who is hiding away from the light, receives not the truth, but has pleasure in some form of unrighteousness. It is remarkable to see in how many ways the providences of God will help a man, in this state, forward to some fatal delusion. Infidel books or lecturers--universalist ministers or publications--wicked companions and associates--and often times the prince of hell, is suffered to delude and lead such a soul into impenetrable darkness, and destructive delusion.

6. Self-disgrace may be and often is a consequence of being abandoned by the Holy Spirit. It is remarkable to see when an individual has grieved the Holy Spirit, how blind he is in regard to the light in which his conduct is and will be viewed by those around him. If this be your case you will probably go from step to step, beginning perhaps with indulgence in levity--next you will discover an irritable spirit, and show that you have no command of your temper--then a spirit of worldly-mindedness may develop itself--next a spirit of licentiousness may be plainly discerned by those around you--then some form of intemperance may get the mastery of you--then a spirit of exaggeration and perhaps of lying may take possession of your soul--and thus in the midst of your blindness wander on until you find yourself deeply disgraced in the eyes of men, and forever lost in the eye of God.

7. You may be left to inflict the deepest disgrace on your family and friends and perhaps ruin many over whom you have influence. "A little leaven leaventh the whole lump." Men naturally have great influence over each other, and with great facility do "evil communications corrupt good manners," because wicked example so falls in with the corrupt state of the human heart. It is exceedingly easy to influence individuals to sin, because they are already so inclined to sin. A slight amount of temptation therefore may lead those around you to follow your example, until all together, at last you sink to the depths of hell.

8. If you are a professor of religion, and the Holy Spirit leave you, you will of course greatly wound and dishonor Christ.

9. You may be given up to Satan "to be led captive at his will." I have already adverted to the case of Saul and Ahab as being given up to Satan for their wickedness. Paul speaks of having delivered a certain man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, and it doubtless often occurs when the Spirit of God has left a man, that Satan takes full possession of his heart. Christ seems to teach this in the following language. "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none. Then he saith, I will return into my house whence I came out and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first." Now here it is plainly taught by Christ himself that when the Holy Spirit has left a man, his heart is like a room swept and garnished waiting to entertain the devil, and that he may be expected to take possession, to exert over him at least sevenfold more influence than ever before.

10. If the Holy Spirit leave you, you may expect to become very insensible and blind in regard to the state of your own soul. You may be left to think that you are engaged in religion, and mistake the silence of your conscience for the peace of God, and the absence of all concern about your soul for a good hope through grace. It doubtless has often occurred and I think I have myself seen cases, where persons seem to have the most undoubting assurance of mind that they were in a gracious state, when their temper and conduct manifest any thing else than the [S]spirit of Christ. Christ himself represents some as being in such a state of delusion as to carry their false hopes and delusions to the very bar of God. He represents them as saying, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works?" But hear his answer. "Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

11. If the Spirit leave you, you will have no heart to offer prevailing prayer, and if you attempt to pray, you will find that your mouth is shut, and if opened it will only be opened to mock God. And you will find as a matter of fact, that instead of being benefited you are only hardened by engaging in prayer.

12. You will wax worse, and worse if abandoned of God. This may be true of you and still you not observe it, and yet if you will be honest with yourselves, if any of you have grieved the Holy Spirit away, by comparing your recent with your former experience, you may see that you are waxing worse and worse.

13. If the Spirit leave you, your damnation is certain, God has said. "Woe unto them when I depart from them." If left to yourself, remember that you are as certain of being lost as if you had already been a thousand years in hell.

14. If the Spirit abandon you, all things will work together for your destruction. The very means that should make you better will make you worse. The efforts that God makes to save those around you will only confirm you in your sins. In short all God's providences, with all the influences of his grace which surround you will be but so many stumbling blocks to your poor blinded soul. The Sabbath with its cheerful light and solemn stillness, will rise upon you but to harden your heart. "The sound of the Church-going bell,"--the voice of the living preacher--the song of praise--everything in the sanctuary--every thing within and without yourself, will conspire to work out for you an exceeding great and eternal weight of damnation.

Dear bible1985,

Please please listen. You are NOT doomed. You have a conscience and a desire to serve God. You have not crossed over the line to unforgiveness. I was in exactly the same state as you about 8 years ago and was terrified that I would never be free.

I was in an adulterous, marraige, drank excessively, smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day, and had a horrendous online gambling debt that in the natural would have meant bankruptcy. I could not speak without profanity emerging from my mouth because of an unclean spirit. Now, you are talking about a woman who had experienced a grand salvation and turned from the Lord after falling into sin.

It was through much seeking of the Lord AND a willingness to allow Him to cause things to happen to free you from this prison. I know you can be set free because I was.

First, please stop listening to or reading sermons that will damn you. Satan loves this and would want to lie to you that this is beyond God. With Him, nothing is impossible. Stick to the Word of God. Read about David and how he was forgiven and delivered. He actually set up and killed a man which was worthy of stoning. I know the Lord included this in the Word to let me know that I was not alone.

Daniel 11:25 says that some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end. Dear saint, that is you and I. You must understand that He is greater and a wonderful Shepherd. It will not be easy but you will be a polished stone once you are refined.

He is coming to seek you out AND deliver you. Satan is doing his best to lie and tell you it can't be fixed. If He could deliver me, he will deliver you. Remember, that most of these sins are demonic in nature, and will not be intense as they are as the Lord delivers you. I wish you could see my before and after pictures, maybe some day.

Definitely stop reading what will put condemnation on you. None of us are worthy. He knows my wretched state daily, but I have given myself to His refining and not my own. It is the washing of the water of the Word and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.

His Spirit has not abandoned you because you despise your sin. It is simply a spirit of fear that is hounding you.

I will pray this morning for that cloud to break and the truth of God's forgiveness to be revealed. He is so patient and faithful and safely deliverers his wandering sheep.

May you rest in His mercy. Please keep us posted.

God Bless, His forgiven servant, Kathleen

I agree with Kathleen. Might I suggest you do something? Burn whatever material you are reading by Charles Finney. As beneficial as he can be sometimes, I believe he only brings about more confusion than good, especially if you don't read what he says with a grain of salt. The man had little concept of grace and faith, and indeed, held some view points that stand in outright contradiction to God's word.

Ultimately this is what you need to do. You need to do as the apostle Paul taught in Philippians 3:1-18. Forget the things that are in the past, and put no confidence in the flesh. Don't trust in how good or how bad you have been. Instead, let your only confidence only be in the righteousness of God that comes by faith. You see, it's not about what you do or don't do. According to Romans 5, it's about what Christ did, and "the obedience of the One." It's not about your obedience, it's about Christ's obedience.

Once you truly have that mindset, embrace what Paul taught in Phil 3:10, "that I might know Him." Let that simply be your heart's burning desire. Stop trying to stop sinning and start trying to simply know God and hungering for Him. Such is the true path to victory. All else becomes fleshly exertion and law based living, instead of Spirit based living. Determine to only know Christ and the power of His resurrection, and with it His sufferings and death.

Paul reminds us also in verse 12 to never come to a place that you feel like you have "arrived." Instead, always strive in your faith to know Him better and better each day, not looking back to your past, but looking forward towards Him. Press on in this, run in this, and you will do well.

Listening to Finney will only cause you to become a hamster than is running on the same wheel day in and day out, getting you nowhere and leaving you exhausted and full of despair. As mighty as Finney was used, his teachings are very carnal and often in grave error, and stand in staunch opposition to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the true liberating power that it brings. Finney's teachings induce law based and flesh based living, which only leads to slavery to the flesh and to sin. It is not Spirit based, and will never bring about the freedom, joy, and peace that you seek, which can only come from living a life relationally with the Spirit of God, who will help you in putting to death the deeds of the flesh.

So like I said earlier, burn your books by Charles Finney, and drown yourself in Philippians 3.

Do yourself a favour, ditch Finney and everyone else for that matter, and stick with the word of God.

Psalm 138v2, '...for You have magnified Your word above all Your name.

Since God has given such power to His word, how is it we have a hard time believing Him? As though He were a liar, which He is not.

Another thing is, do you operate according to your emotions?

So many do, and sadly, emotions can dictate how we react to all sorts of things, anything that comes our way.

James 4v8 tells us to draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

Is that a promise or a fact? Does it say we will see, feel or hear anything? No.

If God says He will, He will, what more is there to it?

It is just a matter of whether or not we believe what the word of God says.

Follow the example of the apostles in Act 6 who gave themselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the word.

How many chapters or how much time do you spend reading the word of God daily?

How much time in prayer?

These are foundational to our Christian walk, without them we are no better than we were before we got saved.

If you didn't want God, you would not have written what you did.

Just one last scripture.

Psalm 34v6, 'This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles'

God bless.

Bible 1985,

Conviction of sin is from the Holy Spirit. If you had sinned away your salvation and grieved away the Holy Spirit, you would not be under conviction as you are now. John 16:8 "And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." The same Spirit who is convicting you of sin will lead you to Calvary. Stay in the Scriptures, which point you to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, and do not be decieved by Charles Finney, who will tell you to look to yourself for salvation. As a young Christian, a sermon by Charles Finney shattered my faith, destroyed my confidence in the Bible and I walked away from God for many years. Finney taught a false gospel known as Pelagianism. He denied the atonement, justification by faith, original sin and the new birth. Don't be led astray by him.

Do as others have said, read scripture and not Finney.

God wil never desert you. Jesus said, 'I am with you always to the end of the age'.

You are a son of God in whom he is well pleased. You cannot disappoint him as He knows everything about you already (what you have done and will do) and He still loves you, just as he still loves me whatever I have done, do and shall do in the future.

Nothing you do can make God love you more but nothing you do can make God love you less either!

A voice that is telling you that you are worthless and goading you towards suicide is that of the enemy, Satan. Please do not listen to such unchristian nonsense from anyone not from Finney nor anyone else. He was way off beam.

This from www.spurgeons.org (now Spurgeon WAS a great christian):

Charles Grandison Finney was a heretic. That language is not too strong. Though he excelled at cloaking his opinions in ambiguous language and biblical-sounding expressions, his views were almost pure Pelagianism. The arguments he employed to sustain those views were nearly always rationalistic and philosophical, not biblical. To canonize this man as an evangelical hero is to ignore the facts of what he stood for.
Don't be duped by sanitized 20th-century editions of Finney's works. Read the "Complete and Newly Expanded" 1878 edition of Finney's Systematic Theology, recently published by Bethany house Publishers (the unabridged 1878 version with a couple of Finney's later lectures added). This volume shows the real character of Finney's doctrine. (The unabridged 1851 version is now online, and it also exposes Finney's errors in language not toned down by later redactors.) By no stretch of the imagination does Finney deserve to be regarded as an evangelical. By corrupting the doctrine of justification by faith; by denying the doctrines of original sin and total depravity; by minimizing the sovereignty of God while enthroning the power of the human will; and above all, by undermining the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, Finney filled the bloodstream of American evangelicalism with poisons that have kept the movement maimed even to this day.
That's why you'll find Finney listed in the "Really Bad Theology" category of my bookmarks, and in the "Unorthodox" wing of The Hall of Church History.

May God's Blessing be upon you and His Love for you be ever more real to you.

GordonM

My Brother... God is not an absentee Father. He will not say something and then change his mind. He will not leave you like others have left you in the past. He will not promise you something and then lie to you. His word IS truth. His word IS life. He IS salvation.

He gives salvation to us without charge because of who HE is, not because of who you are.

[u][b]Ephesians 2:8-9 NKJV[/b][/u]

[i]For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.[/i]

I stand in agreement with our brothers and sisters here. Burn all other books that you have except the Bible. Fall into His word, and His word alone.

If you are going to read anything, I would suggest sticking to the NT at this time, specifically the writings of Paul. I believe that Paul understood Grace almost better then anyone on this earth, at anytime. King David would be another.

You are saved by Grace my brother. Grace. Grace. Grace. It is the gift of God to all mankind. Accept it my brother, then walk in it.

[u][b]Revelation 3:20 NKJV[/b][/u]

[i]Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. [/i]

thank you guys so much, i had no idea finneys teachings were considered heretic. I have to get to sleep, but i want to talk about this issue in detail on this tommorow. I want to be saved so bad and i just want to thank you so much, i believe that the lord is finally revealing my sinfulness finally this past few months, but i will get back to you.

I can sympathize with your anguish, please don't fall any further into the trap of believing that your justification before our Father is nullified every time you sin, this is a dammnable heresey! Read 1 John and meditate on it, read Romans 6 and 8, meditate on it- if you are born again, these chapters ARE the reality of a child of God. Do not depend on your feelings, they are too easily effected by Satan.

bible1985,

Praise God you have such comfort in the Lord's saints for He has sent them there to assure you that you have a faithful Shepherd. It's been so long that I had forgotten how much terror I had lived with early after my return to the Lord. None of this began until I repented. I now realize that Satan's attempts to fool us that we have "Done it this time!", are his efforts to cause us to give up the battle.

May you gain strength from His Word and the exhortations here.

Thanks also brethren for speaking about Finney. I had to stop reading his sermons because of the darkness I would feel. I wondered why he was so praised and why I felt so terrible from what he spoke. Bless the Lord. There is now therefore no condemnation...

I wondered why he was so praised and why I felt so terrible from what he spoke.

Finney is praised by those who have a penchant for hard-nose hell fire preaching and railing against sin as if this were the gospel itself. He's praised by those who have a mindset of picking yourself up by the boot straps and being a self-made man. He's praised by those who are impressed by the practical application and results of his ministry. It's a hard thing to deny the numbers he saw, and not easily be impressed.

Even the great A. W. Tozer who thought poor of Finney's doctrine's thought at least God used Him to bring about a genuine revival. I was not alive then and have not absorbed myself in Finney's teachings, so, I will not say with absolute confidence that he saw genuine revival through his ministry.

Ultimately though he is a man who thought through his personal obedience to the law of God he would be saved. Yet Paul reminds us that we are saved by grace apart from the works of the law. Even firm Weslyean-Arminians such as myself realize such is a false gospel.

If you are depending on your personal obedience to the law to save you, such as some who were trusting in circumcision for salvation, then Paul says we have been severed from Christ and fallen from grace. Romans 5 is such an important chapter to truly grasp. For when one truly grasps it, one will see it's all of Him and none of us. It is "through the obedience of the One" that salvation is attained. Contrary to the ideas of some, this does not make room whatsoever for a "greasy grace" or anti-nomian thought. For a faith that trusts in Him to the uttermost for salvation is a faith that brings an end to self. And when one comes to the end of self, as saving faith is calculated to bring one to, then one will stop living for self and instead live for God. A radical transformation has thus occurred. In this we lose our lives so that we might gain and live His. Our "obedience" is merely the outworking of the saving faith that brings an end to self.

Continual disobedience, no doubt, is evidence that one has never had or has at some time walked away from this faith that brings an end of self. But such lawlessness is merely the symptom of living for self that issues out of a lack of faith. If one is in such a state, the solution is not to fall on your knees and tell God you'll do better and obey Him now. Such a mindset will only further enslave one to sin and to the flesh. Rather, the solution is to turn to Him, and trust Him moment by moment for all things, including your salvation. Only when this happens will one walk in obedience to God and His commandments, which is merely the outworking of our salvation which has already been obtained by Christ through His obedience on the cross.

finney may be unbalanced in much of his writings, he wrote much that is true and much to be for our benefit to read. but as all men he was unbalanced in some areas. i feel i want to share a sermon by t a sparks called the grace of god. download it and listen, its less tjen 30 minutes buy it will help you understand things better.

Thanks Old Joe.

You've been a great help.

here is the link brother, i urge you to take time to listen to it, mostly because much of what you have written i once feelt and struggled with and sometimes still do, this sermon released something within me and it bis one of the best messages i have ever heard. Also the best defenition of Gods grace i have ever read or heard.

so i beg you to take time, and if you have an ipod or something put it there go out to the woods with an open heart and seek God. I pray you will return a changed man.

I did after this sermon.

God be with you

edit: forgot the link! [url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?lid=1373&commentView=itemComments]the grace of god - t.a sparks[/url]