Secret Sin in the Secret Place

I recall God pressing this topic on my heart earlier in the year when we preached repentance in our churches. Beloved, the secret sins have to go. Our hearts MUST be pure before God. What is posted up on the walls of our hearts? Is it the name of God and all manor of His word written (Jeremiah 31) or are there vile images covering over the word (as it were; Ezekiel 14:1-8). There has to be a coming clean before God and a forsaking of every secret sin.

Amen brother. You're right on target.Psa 24:3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? Psa 24:4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. The secret sin is the greatest sin in a man's heart because he loves that particular sin and wants to stay in it (a paraphrase from Brother Reidhead). There is an element of self-deception in it as well, because we obviously can't deceive God.May the Holy Spirit shine His light on our hearts so that we can walk clean before the Lord.

RobertYes sir, that is so true. My own experience with secret sin (pornography) brought into light a whole life outside the will of God. The reason it abounded for so long was the fact that it was, on the surface, secret. It was choking the life out of my spiritual walk. Everything else was straining in a vain attempt to cover that up. I wasted prayers and fasting on myself (I say wasted because I was, in retrospect, trying to make penance for my sin, this was a tragic waste of spiritual energy and entirely unbiblical) to when I could have been praying and fasting for others.What is tragic is how this issue has never been brought up in any church that I have attended. My pastors have always been very gentle and quick to quote 1John1:9 (If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.). It is a wonderful verse and it would not be in the bible if it did not have it’s place, but let us also keep in mind the verse that come before it:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.When we sin in secret we also have grief in the secret parts of our hearts, we have condemnation from ourselves, which is absolute proof that we are outside the will of God. If our own unrighteous hearts condemn us then we can rest assured that God, who is pure light, is not happy with us. The Holy Spirit of God, the Almighty One, The Ancient of Days, The Great “I am”…his Spirit lives in us? Have you ever sat down and marveled at the implications of that. I say this now because I look back and I realize that I had not… There is a reason why God gave us his Spirit was to guide us in ALL righteousness. Jeremiah31:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.The Spirit is not just a spectator in our lives but a divine guide and he writes the laws of righteousness on our hearts…therefore if our hearts condemn us it is because we are doing something contrary to that which is written on them. It is a good sign when your heart is not completely hardened. The reason I write all this is to allude to the following verses which have been (in my opinion) misquoted to me throughout my life:1 John 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. 19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. 20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. 21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. 22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. That is to say: if we do the wrong deeds and walk not according to the truth, then our hearts will most assuredly condemn us. People would always say to me, “do not condemn yourself brother, if you do you will not have confidence before God and your prayers will be ineffective”. It is now that I look back that I realize the futility of that statement… you can barely keep in subjection your own thoughts if you are walking in darkness, and these people would have me believe I could undo the condemnation in my heart at a whim! The way to avoid condemnation in ones heart fellow siblings, is to walk in the light, in deed and in truth, by the power of the Holy Ghost, through faith in Jesus Christ. Or as Paul said to the Corinthians:2 Corinthians 6: 4 But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, 5 In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings; 6 By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, 7 By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, 8 By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; 9 As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; 10 As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.The men and women on this site brought me to the light by their posts and testimonies. The sermons on this site brought me to the light by the authority which these Holy men of God spoke, yet all these things were not the light themselves, but Jesus was that light. All the religion in the world cannot create the light, but if the Spirit of the living God moves through our bodies indeed it can bring the light to us. Just as praying and fasting; worshiping and praising are not the light, but a means to get to the light… when I discovered these things my walk became dramatically more fruitful. I was actually less active than I was before but the presence of the Spirit added meaning to these activities and I can say with confidence now, “I know in whom I have believed!”People tend to shy away from me when I tell them about my ordeal with pornography…they feel as if I have been cheating them, and in a sense I have and it brakes me when I think of it but, what is even more tragic is that I was cheating God. It is for this reason that I prolong this post maybe more than I should but as Robert said in his post, “Beloved, the secret sins have to go. Our hearts MUST be pure before God.” I could write on this topic forever but I am convinced that the Spirit of God can help the infirmity post and complete what is lacking in it. Your son in Christ James

..or are there vile images covering over the word (as it were; Ezekiel 14:1-8).This is well put for when we are hiding sin and think we're OK, we are imagining that God is something other than what His Word reveals; we are creating and worshipping an idol in our hearts.Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them? (Ezekiel 14:3)These vain imaginations of our hearts are so dangerous and need to be searched out daily and brought into the obedience of Christ;Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;(2 Corinthians 10:5)This is why I pray Psalm 139:23-24 very often.Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.In Christ,Ron

I'm reminded of this scripture Jam 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. It's that need for confession to the folks here at SI. I will do the same before my church on Thursday during our intercessory prayer time.One of the things the Lord is demanding of me is that my reputation must go on the altar, along with everything else. So I pray that I will make no attempt to justify my behavior in any sort of way.About two years ago, the Lord spoke to me as I was sitting outside (not in an audible voice, not that it matters) smoking a cigarette. He asked me a very pointed question: "Do you love that cigarette more than you love me?"I quickly said in my own heart that couldn't be the voice of God but I decided to do a search on smoking and Christianity and I ended up ordering a pretty good book on the topic. I tracked down this man's email address and began corresponding with him. In retrospect, I know realize now that I was looking to poke holes in his arguments, so that I could stay in my sin.I raised the issue with a few pastors I know and they told me "You love Jesus and that's what is important." What wasn't said was that I loved my sin more than I loved Jesus. If not, why didn't I run to Him instead of the cigarettes.Then I recently switched churches just over two months ago. One of the prayers I had prior to that switch was that I would experience a baptism of fire. The fire has come and has exposed my sin.The Holy Spirit showed this sin in my heart for nearly 35 years. It goes back to when I was a child and I made my spending money working in tobacco. At that time, I rationalized that well I don't smoke, chew. It's a job that all.We have an hour of prayer before our worship services begin and meet in a circle and pray together. I didn't mention this sin in any prayer, either privately or publicly.The Holy Spirit has been constantly convicting me of this sin and here are just a couple of instances where I've been convicted on this very sin in the last few days. I was at the grocery store on Saturday when I looked at the isle next to me. There stood a lady probably mid-to-late 70s in the Express Lane (10 items or less). She looked at me with intense anger and said "I have 18 items and I'm not leaving this isle."The Holy Spirit told me "Ed that's your heart." You want in YOUR way. You can no longer continue to call yourself a Christian while destroying the temple of the Lord. I quickly left the store and pondered those words carefully.Then yesterday I went to a smoking area at work and lit up and grabbed the Washington Post, hoping to escape the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. I looked at the bottom of the front page and saw an Asian man's picture. He said "We have sinned."Suffice it to say, my heart was pierced on both occasions. I am praying for deliverance but need to pray through. If I were delivered, I think I would know but since I'm uncertain I must not be.In addition, this sin is attached to some others as most sins are. The Holy Spirit has shown me this ungodly desire for junk food (and cigarettes) is connected to smoking. I've been praying for deliverance from this as well, as well as a Godly hatred for my sin.God graciously answered this prayer, regarding the junk food. I got some junk food yesterday and less than 45 minutes later I got an attack of diarrhea and was doubled over in pain at my desk. The candy I bought literally tasted like gravel in my mouth and the soda was something akin to Liquid Plummer. Praise God for His faithfulness.The tragic thing about secret sins is that if they go unrepented of, they will harden our heart. All unrepented sin will harden the heart. A little yeast leavens the loaf, and a secret sin (although we may consider it "minor") will harden our heart and destroy our relationship with Jesus. Mat 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. Yes, our relationship with Jesus and others will wax cold. It will also prevent our prayers from being heard "Psa 66:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:"I have spent a lot of time in the prayer closet on this topic over the last couple of weeks but need to prevail in prayer. I want to apologize to everyone here for that sin.Although God will graciously clean us from sin through the precious blood of Jesus, we must be willing to stop. I need a Holy hatred of this sin. I'm afraid that God will stop speaking to me if I fail here. One thing the pastor told us the other night is that we will never have victory over sin, unless we hate it.God bless you all.

Praise God for your honesty and obedience to confessing sins. Lord Jesus, please help these here continue to draw strength from Your Holy Spirit and Your Holy Bible. Help them and all Your children dig strong roots in You and resist temptation. Help them develop good habits to replace the habits that only bring death. Give them new ways to obey you, new things to do with their time, continue to strengthen them and give them hearts that desire to please the Father more than the flesh. Allow the conviction of sin to do its work, to bring repentance and wholehearted trust and dependance on You Lord, who promises to answer prayers with our perserverance and obedience to You. Help us in our witness, make us sensitive to the stumbling blocks we may be giving to those around us, those precious lost ones who may be seeking truth. Lord Jesus, forgive us for our sins and weaknesses, thank you for forgiving us. Please help us draw strength from you. Lord please strengthen your church body, help us resist temptation. Help us be effective evangelists. Thank you for hearing my prayers Lord. Lord Jesus, you are such a great example of longsuffering and obedience and love and graciousness and holiness and righteousness. Help us to grow closer to You and Your likeness and to do what is pleasing in the sight of the Father, Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. Thank you for your service, we are not worthy, but the blood of Jesus is. Thank you Lord for your help and Your presence. Not my will be done, but the will of the Father in Heaven through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The way to avoid condemnation in ones heart fellow siblings, is to walk in the light, in deed and in truth, by the power of the Holy Ghost, through faith in Jesus Christ. Or as Paul said to the Corinthians:I had a thought cross my mind when I read this. We cannot walk in darkness and expect God's provision. The only thing that can cleanse the conscience from dead works is the blood- and if we must "walk in the light" in order for that blood to be applied, we can deduce from that that no amount of penance will silence the voice of condemnation crying out in our heart.People tend to shy away from me when I tell them about my ordeal with pornography…they feel as if I have been cheating them, and in a sense I have and it brakes me when I think of it but, what is even more tragic is that I was cheating God.Brother I had to come utterly clean before God myself in areas of compromise. I reached such a state of repentance and brokeness under the hand of God that I posted an repentance memorandum in the Kansas City Star. I speak as a fool, but it was the enemy that would condemn me for my confessions of sin and not God. I called people up that I had sinned against 18 years ago. That may seem radical- but I had to come clean completely. I had to do what I felt God was telling me to do. When all this took place God poured out His Spirit on me in a way you can't imagine- and I'm Pentecostal to begin with. No weird stuff either- just a fullness of the God I had grieved for years. Pornography is a sin that I believe the Devil has used to silence the modern day prophets or revivalists of God. I studied it out once and found that in the early nineties there was a feeling of God moving and a lot of piercing preaching was coming from certain preachers. Then the Internet showed up and it is rare to hear a piercing message in the mainstream now. Why? You can't preach repentance anointedly with secret sin in your life. You may do it out of envy and strife, but not in the right Spirit. Fleshly lusts still war against the soul. Our natural God given desires are enflamed by the world. The natural desires that God created to be good are soon out of control. This goes for all sorts of natural desires that when increased to unnatural levels leads to vices from pornography to gluttony and every other thing. TV feeds the fires of the natural desires into an inferno. Soon we are battling the flesh. I appreciate your candid testimony. Maybe others will be helped to come out of their secret sins and let God heal them.

we are creating and worshipping an idol in our hearts.Hi Bro. Ron,For me the sobering passage is also in Ezekiel 16 when God shows Ezekiel a picture of what the leaders had been doing in the darkness. The vile images that they had put up on the walls. Then they erected a wall so no one could see what they were doing. All the while God was moving away from the Temple and separating from that sin. Soon He was afar off and as He departed judgment came. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear (Isaiah 59:2)You pray a good prayer! Let it be all of ours.

One of the things the Lord is demanding of me is that my reputation must go on the altar, along with everything else. So I pray that I will make no attempt to justify my behavior in any sort of way.Hi Bro. Ed. The Lord will give you the victory over every unclean thing. The same Holy Spirit that convicts will also give you the power to change. I will agree with you in prayer today for God to do a work. My pastor prayed a radical prayer over 40 years ago for God to deliver him from smoking. He prayed it would make him deathly ill. He got in a car and someone lit up- the smoke hit his nostrils and they had to pull the car over so he could orally discharge his dinner. That was the end of his smoking. Your other comments are well received.

Lord Jesus, please help these here continue to draw strength from Your Holy Spirit and Your Holy Bible. Help them and all Your children dig strong roots in You and resist temptation. Help them develop good habits to replace the habits that only bring death. Give them new ways to obey you, new things to do with their time, continue to strengthen them and give them hearts that desire to please the Father more than the flesh. Allow the conviction of sin to do its work, to bring repentance and wholehearted trust and dependance on You Lord, who promises to answer prayers with our perserverance and obedience to You. Help us in our witness, make us sensitive to the stumbling blocks we may be giving to those around us, those precious lost ones who may be seeking truth. Lord Jesus, forgive us for our sins and weaknesses, thank you for forgiving us. Please help us draw strength from you. Lord please strengthen your church body, help us resist temptation. Help us be effective evangelists. Thank you for hearing my prayers Lord. Lord Jesus, you are such a great example of longsuffering and obedience and love and graciousness and holiness and righteousness. Help us to grow closer to You and Your likeness and to do what is pleasing in the sight of the Father, Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. Thank you for your service, we are not worthy, but the blood of Jesus is. Thank you Lord for your help and Your presence. Not my will be done, but the will of the Father in Heaven through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.Amen!

Thanks, James.I pray that the Lord will embolden me re that sin I shared. It should be easy for me; I am very spiritually 'transperant', but when it comes to this morbid subject, i am a coward.Porn is the chief sin problem of 1st world males today, IMHO.

Hey MloaksThank you for your words of encouragement. Confession is very hard on the flesh but it is wonderfully liberating for the Spirit. You may not feel very good at first but in the end, you are the better for it. I remember the first person I told was my older sister and I felt absolutely awful, but that was just the flesh being mortified. Walking in the Spirit is an active process and it is very enlightening. I wish there was a crash course in this sort of thing but the Spirit leads individuals in slight different ways:Romans 8:10-16 10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. 12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:Quote:I pray that the Lord will embolden me re that sin I shared. It should be easy for me; I am very spiritually 'transperant', but when it comes to this morbid subject, i am a coward.Porn is the chief sin problem of 1st world males today, IMHOWell friend, confessing fear and reluctance takes great confidence. Believe me if it must come out it will come out and no one, not even you will be able to stop it. You are in my prayers…In Christ James

NeilginI thank you for your loving attitude brother. It is a pleasure to feed off the fruits of the Spirit in you, and it encourages me to preach my testimony with boldness. Thank you again!In Christ James

RobertQuote:I appreciate your candid testimony. Maybe others will be helped to come out of their secret sins and let God heal them.Sir I thank you for starting this thread…I have wanted to post this for weeks but I have had “cold feet”. After the onslaught of the accuser it is refreshing to be encouraged. I just want to add to others that, if you confess your sins to the righteous savior, and with your whole heart repent that feeling of guilt will depart. Unfortunately, in most cases sin still carries its consequences, so brace yourselves and do not faint when chastened by the Lord.Hebrews 12:4-17 4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. 5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: 6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. 9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. 11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. 12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; 13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. 14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: 15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; 16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. 17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.In ChristJames

Speaking of secret sins, I had to reply to all this on Other Speakers, Rick Joyner...

I confessed this sin on October 28 to my congregation and they prayed for me and God answered their prayer.I'm so thankful. I was warned that the rod would come (Hebrews 12) if I went back to smoking and on October 29 (foolish and rebellious sheep that I am at times), I felt a strong desire for a cigarette so I had one before I left for the day. I became deathly ill but fortunately was able to make it to the elevator with the contents in my stomach intact.As I got on the elevator looking to cling to anything as I was quite dizzy, all I could say was thank you Jesus. So I just wanted to say it again, thank you Jesus. That was my last cigarette.I certainly have never done (nor will ever do) anything that merits the grace of God but He does answer prayer. I'm thankful that God chastens his sheep.

Hi GideonsI'm reminded of this scripture Jam 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.The letter of James was written into a synagogue/assembly setting. The reference to elders is a sure indication of this. Public confession, if that is what is meant here, was within the circle of the local family of God's people. The context too sounds as though it is addressing the need to be sure that sin is not the grounds for sickness. This admonition of the scripture was not intended as a global instruction.

Gideons,I started to answer your first post on smoking, (copied and pasted it into wordpad even :-P) but then said naww, let's wait. Let me encourage you, to stand firm. Stand on the Word! Jesus said, when he was tempted of the devil, It is written and then quoted scripture. Stand on the enemy's neck of addiction, cravings lies. For greater is He who is in you than that addiction. The flesh is in opposition to the Spirit and it does want it's way! With my last cigarette on 3/9, I sat there talking to the cigarette. I quoted scripture after scripture. I repented and cried out to God for deliverance. I sat there and did warfare against any spirits the Lord showed me was there and stood on the Rock! Had anyone come into the room they would have thought I was off my rocker but I didn't care, I wanted free! Praise God, I awoke the next morning and was delivered. It was as if I had never smoked in my life. My taste was immediately back, my smell was wow, I could smell again! :-) I know I can never pick up another cigarette, no matter what the temptor may bring my way. I along with you rejoice because the Saviour came to set us free!Stand on the Word any time the suggestion comes to mind that you need a cigarette. That suggestion is the enemy looking for a way back into the vessel he was cast out of! The battle ground is your mind, will, and emotions and the enemy will use those to come against the Truth and tell you his lies. What does the scripture say about a demon who is cast out? You have "by faith" said you are free! October 29th was Your day of deliverance! Jesus did indeed come to set the captives free!!! Praise His holy name.I thank you for your humbleness and courage to speak on this subject. Too many do not want to acknowledge addictions as sin. Those addictons may be to food, cigarettes, pornography, controll, overeating. It does not matter what name is placed on it, it is sin in God's eyes and needs to be repented of.I leave with this note: If My people which are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray.... He specifically says My people!!!I send strength your way and prayer that You may find this victory in all areas of life.Blessings to you,Am_Lovin_HIM