If anything, pray for my soul

Dear members of SI,

It's been a very rough patch for the last 5 months. I entered into heavy areas of backsliding and areas of demonic oppression I believe. There are many times I've doubted my salvation not knowing whether I'm saved or not for the last two years. It's the darkest area of my life at the moment. I seriously don't know if I ever had intimacy with the Lord in my life, knowing that my prayer life has been horrible. I'm not saying that I haven't prayed for long hours or never prayed at all, but I'm very inconsistent. Persecution has had me flinch in many areas of my life, and I really question if I really knew the Lord Jesus Christ. I felt that I lost all my zeal for God. Fear has gotten me and guilt and shame consumes me. If anything, please pray for my soul to be saved just in case, if I really am not. I don't know if I am the rocky ground in the Parable of the Sower, yet I do not want to fall away. Have mercy on me, O God.

I hope I'm in Christ,

- Michael Liao

I have experienced dark times over the years where I wondered if I was truly saved....I don't think that is a bad thing (we are to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith), though it is anguishing when you are in the midst of it. Will be praying for you...

Brother, One thing that has helped me is the knowing that salvation is by faith in Christ alone. If we have a desire to come to Him, to know Him, to seek Him out, and we do so in faith, in diligence, putting to death the works of the flesh then we will be saved.

It's His promise from God Himself unto mankind.

Joh_6:37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

Brother I am there now. Life has crushed me. I have doubted many of the things you mentioned as recent as yesterday. I know it drives me to my knees, to repentance and tears. i know one thing....well a couple...flesh doesn't drive us to true repentance. Anguish of inconsistancy and lack of intimacy with the Lord doesn't come out of me...its been a drawing of His to a deeper place and a leaving off of more of the world and its ways. A call to holiness and sanctification is where this is going...........

Luk 1:68-75 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,
And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;
As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:
That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;
To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;
The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,
That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,
In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.

I will pray. He has you in the hollow of his hand.

Brother,

I will indeed pray for you.

I would encourage you to continue to seek hard after God, whose mercies are new every morning, despite failings and weaknesses, inconsistencies and falling short of his glory.

He may be found again, and you may know the full assurance of salvation and the closeness of his presence, even though you will know how you have let Him down.

Continue to follow hard after God, resolving to put aside anything and everything that would hinder your obedience to God.

God bless you, Michael!

"Brother I am there now. Life has crushed me."

Praying for you too, Enochh....I am remembering back to when you said you and a friend drove quite a ways to hear Keith Daniel, and how the enemy tried to stop you....I have to think that something Bro Keith said that night was for you just at this time you are in.....

Thank you brothers and sisters for your encouragements and prayers,

The thing is however, I do not want to hold to a false profession of faith if I really am a false professing Christian, as I've been down the road of habitual sin and failure of obedience. I've gotten rid of some obstacles in my life to obey, yet fear and cowardice can hit me at times like a monster. Many times just falling into the fear of man rather than fearing God.

Brother,

When the Spirit of God takes a hold of a person in conviction of sin, the result is that person being reduced to utter ruin in the light of revelation. From here the enemy would sow despair, but God brings hope instead.

Let me amend the words of a well-known hymn for you - "the vilest re-offender who truly believes..."

Seek after God, lay before Him even what you have said here, lay before Him your fears and everything else, and throw yourself upon His very great and lasting promises.

Be encouraged by these words from G Campbell Morgan

"My grace is sufficient for thee." Upon that great word many a weary head has rested; many wounded hearts have been healed by it; discouraged souls have heard its infinite music and have set their lives to new endeavor until they have become victorious. That stake in the flesh, that messenger of Satan, is in My grace. It is part of My method. The stake in the flesh is sent. The messenger of Satan is My messenger. That is not something that is against you, but for you. This hard and difficult and trying circumstance is not something outside My providence, My economy, which you must overcome with My help: it is of My purpose, it is My plan. I am high enthroned above all the powers of darkness, and to the trusting soul Satan himself is compelled to be a means of My grace. All your suffering is in My economy. I have poised in My own hand the weight of your burden and know it. Everything that is imposed upon you is under My control. "My grace is sufficient for thee." It is enough for you to know that what you are suffering is part of My discipline, evidence of My love."

I pray that you may soon have the assurance of God's gift to you, and of your full and true redemption.

God bless you!

hi my dear brother,what you are going through is a battle of faith.satan is tormenting you with lies that run rampant on this site and throughout the church.your calling upon the name of the Lord and believing that God has raised Him from the dead has sealed your eternal life but has not interfered with reaping and sowing as wonderfully writen to you above. be sure your sins will find you out and you will pay for the sins of your flesh in the flesh and with torment on this earth. as an old man it has become easy for me after 50 years of being with the Lord to wallow in rest that is in Jesus....labor to enter in His rest...He has already taken the wrath of His Father on Himself at the cross for you and when He said it is finished He meant it.as i said earlier, there is a penalty for all sin and it is misery that you are going through that is part of it .if you can see Him looking down the eons of time and calling your name and deciding to die for you personally it might help.Jesus truly loves us and like the woman caught in sin ,He says "neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more"jimp

Dear brothers and sisters,

Please continue to keep me in your prayers, I went to the LORD about this, yet I'm full of confusion at the moment due to a lack of spiritual discernment. I do know one thing for sure is that I feel my spirit is being choked and that something is pulling or yanking my head in a certain direction. I know usually the Holy Spirit controls our spirit, but if my spirit is being choked, I just don't know if something evil wants to control me, which really gets me to doubt my salvation now. I need to figure out what might be causing this. Either sin or just an attack of the enemy might be causing this, and I don't know anything right now. God have mercy on me.

In Christ,

- Michael Liao

MichaelLiao wrote:
The thing is however, I do not want to hold to a false profession of faith if I really am a false professing Christian, as I've been down the road of habitual sin and failure of obedience. I've gotten rid of some obstacles in my life to obey, yet fear and cowardice can hit me at times like a monster. Many times just falling into the fear of man rather than fearing God.

Dude, do not let the enemy deceive you. If you have sinned, you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous!! Repent! If you think you were never saved to begin with, you have a remedy…. Jesus Christ the Righteous, REPENT!! When Christ spoke to me that day and when He first spoke to you and drew you to Himself, did you go let every single sin (or the life you lived), cripple you? I didn’t, I was so happy; I jumped in the deep end of the unknown! All I knew was that He loved me and wanted me no matter what my state.

Now, at the time, in the beginning, I knew nothing of theology of sin or of theology period. I gave Him my life and jumped in by faith which is what you have to do again. How can I tell you this? I had backslid (for 3-4 years), but it took me 5+ years to get over the things I did because I couldn’t forgive myself and Jesus was there all the time, I let Satan cripple me for 5+ years, that was precious time I gave to the enemy.

Maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about here with you but it never hurts to run to the foot of the cross and repent and WAIT on the Lord. Hide in His word and pray in the Spirit and let the Spirit wash over your soul.

God bless you,
Lisa

Hey Brother

Take heart in the sufficiency of Christ.
He is more than able to meet your need.

Please consider

Jesus the Great High Priest:
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews4 14-16)

and further:

22 Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant.

23 Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. (Hebrews7 22-25)

Brother, take hold of verse 25:

25Therefore He is able also to save to the uttermost (completely, perfectly, finally, and for all time and eternity) those who come to God through Him, since He is always living to make petition to God and intercede with Him and intervene for them. (verse25 - Amplified version)

What a wonderful saviour!

Brother, I too have suffered from the enemies nagging accusations at various times. The remedy, the only remedy is faith in Christ. You can continue to lament your short fallings but true repentance will lead to Christ, the victory you seek only comes from one place, Jesus Christ.

You will be in my prayers.

Hey guys,

Please continue praying for me, everything is just falling apart, and I'm not sure if I'm falling out (Hebrews 6:4-6) of the race. It's a real desert and not sure if I'm the good soil in the parable of the sower. I might just be the rocky ground.

In Christ,

- Michael Liao

I have been praying for you Michael...please know that you are not alone...

Hey Approved,

Just to make sure, the sermon is called "A Full Napkin and an Empty Basket" right? Or is it another, because there are other sermons on the list for the link you gave me.

In Christ,

- Michael Liao