Are you experiencing Godly sorrow?

"For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death." - 2 Cor 7:10

Are you experiencing real grief in your heart? Not just merely feeling bad about something you have done but real grief and sorrow? Do you recognize the depth of pain your sins have caused to God's heart and to others? Are you under the heavy convictions of the righteous judgment your sins deserve?  Well, praise the Lord!

God's Holy Spirit is convicting you of sin, righteousness, and judgment! He is causing you to see the error of your ways and to seek Him. No one can save you but Jesus Christ! No one can forgive your past and teach you to live according to true righteousness like the LIVING GOD.  People may try to invalidate this reality you are experiencing. They may just pin it up to a psychological happenstance -- to undermine you, the reality of sin, and the power of God. You may even begin to think nothing of it to try to silence what God is speaking to your conscience. But don't!  Listen, instead, to the Spirit of God! 

Yield to the Spirit of the Lord and let Him guide you. Your sins are your enemies. God wants to deliver you from them and teach you how to fight and overcome them every day!

From SINNER to CHILD OF GOD

It is imperative for everyone, no matter their culture, race, gender, and upbringing, to turn to Jesus Christ and confess to Him their sins for forgiveness. Everyone must repent from their sins and draw nearer to the Lord to learn His way of Holiness and real living. The conditions for mercy are confessing and forsaking those sins. One becomes justified by the Lord when they truly confess from their heart,  believe Jesus forgives them of those sins, and as a result turn away (repent) from their sins. 

Godly sorrow leads to a real forsaking of what causes grief to God and produces a desire to seek the Lord diligently. This is faith, and that initial belief and diligent pursuit of Christ, out of love, actually empowers one to actively overcome sin. One is baptized in water, not merely for traditional or cultural purposes, but as an answer of a good conscience toward God. It is fitting in fulfilling all righteousness as Jesus expressed and demonstrated. You become baptized when you have made the decision of repentance and understand you are yielding to God's will moving forward, and not because someone is coercing you to do so. From there, one is to seek and grow more in the love and ways of the Lord and to pray for the Holy Spirit to dwell in them.  The Spirit of God empowers us to live in true fellowship with God, to overcome and pursue His righteousness and perfection. 

These are not listed as checklists or steps to arrive at God. Rather, these are describing the progression of a heart that wants to serve and love the Lord. A child of God, justified by faith in Christ, continues in learning and doing what is pleasing to the Lord as well as repenting from unknown sins that will emerge as the heart is continually purged and examined. They are no longer sinners doing their will but rather, they do the righteous works of God as they learn from Him.  The whole walk with the Lord is to love Him.  And we obey Him and do His will as a result of this love. We are to seek Jesus -- the real Jesus -- and to build our life on Him as the foundation, in doing and keeping His word which is truth. Make no mistake; no sinner will inherit the Kingdom of God. All who desire to dwell with the Lord must cease from sin. Jesus teaches us how to cease from sin and to be righteous as He is righteous. The unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God. 

9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.  11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. - 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Works of the Flesh

The flesh is the desires of and the execution of the human will outside of the law and will of God. The works of the flesh do not produce the righteousness of God but are contrary neither do they originate from real love. We learn to overcome the flesh by denying it through discipline rather than engaging in its desires. And this discipline is not any regular discipline but rather discipline by Jesus Christ and by His Spirit. We are to grow in the mind of Christ and thus in executing His will out of real love. 

It is important to mention that there are more works of the flesh than listed here which is why we are to be led by the Spirit of God. We are able to discern unrighteousness when we are living following God's righteousness. The Spirit of God leads us into ALL TRUTH and reveals the many areas of unrighteousness that are not specifically listed in Scripture but their essence mentioned and are to be avoided by the child of God living in His Spirit.  

But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these;  Adultery,  fornication, uncleanness,  lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. - Galatians 5:18-21

Study the WORD

Grow in discerning the voice and will of God, seek to know and be known by Jesus Christ, pray to be filled with and led by  His Spirit & live consciously according to His Righteousness.