Expert: Dr. Ronald E. Shultz - 4/3/2008

Question
QUESTION: hello,
ill make it short, over the past 10 months ive felt a serious disconnect from the lord.  i think i became a christian 5 years ago. i felt an undeniable draw and asked him to come into my heart and forgive me of sins.  however 10 months ago i believe i heard the spirit tell me to change my major or studies at an inconvenient time.  I felt convicted that he was speaking to me on this but wasn't entirely sure.  Anyways as the summer went on i kept saying no until i felt almost a departing feeling.  Since that time my desires to serve him, share, and pray are there but they all seem hindered.  I ask to be saved often in fear that He has cast me off forever.  What do you think happend. am i beyond retreival.  have you ever heard of this before.  I feel like god has answered some prayer in this time and has brought a very godly woman into my life but things like strong conviction over sin and feeling his tuggings has left me. what do i do??


ANSWER: While not changing your studies might have been disobedience and thus grieved or quenched the Spirit because you resisted Him it is by far not the unpardonable sin.  If you are in disobedience and don't have that issue settled it is not a surprise that you feel like God departed or that your desires seem hindered.  That is called broken fellowship but not an end to sonship.  

You seem to be quite convicted of the sin of not listening and if you had committed the unpardonable sin you would not care anymore about that or even pray so certainly there would not be any answer to prayer let alone some answer to prayer.

Let the feeling gig behind.  It is about the Word of God and truth not feelings or tuggings.  Shoot, since the devil knows that is what you want then he could could mock God and mimic the feelings you think you need to be in fellowship with God.  Everything about your conversion and fellowship is based on the Word, not any feelings.

You are out of fellowship so of course the pull towards sin is greater than the pull towards holiness.  You feel like you are lost and going to Hell so why bother resisting temptation and missing out on what fun you can get here?  That is exacting what the devil wants you to think so you will do the sin.

Convictions come from the truth of the Word. Does the Word say something is sin?  Then that is your conviction not some feeling weak or strong.  As you use your free will to stand against the sin and for the truth that conviction will become stronger in your life.

I also suggest that you read Grace Abounding For The Chief of Sinners by John Bunyan

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/654

Tell God that you are sorry that you disobeyed the leading to switch classes, IF He was truly leading you to do that.  If He was then do it now.  Then confess that you have been dinking around with sin and using the lack of feeling and tuggings as an excuse when you should have stood on the Word.  

You owe it to this woman in your life, as well as yourself, to get it together and get back in the fight rather than being dizzy from what might have been a case of disobedience that gave ground to the devil so he could sucker punch you into this morass of feeling like you screwed up so bad even God can't fix you.  That really is a form of pride.

If you did indeed get saved 5 years ago, then you are still saved and will be forever but you can live like you are in Hell in this life if you go by feelings rather than the Word.  Your choice.  

Once saved, you are always a son.  Yes, indeed I have heard of your issue before and below is what I answered another man who had this problem and it will be good for you to read as well.  
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Actually, I thought that I had committed this sin early in my Christian walk.  I went through a lot of torment.  I believe that was partly so that I could help folks like you.

First of all, if you are truly born again you cannot commit it.  The Bible clearly teaches eternal security and that we become a part of His Body and for a Christian to commit that sin The Father or Jesus would have to perform surgery and remove a part of His body and in essence He would then lose someone He died for making Him less than omnipotent and His salvation not totally sufficient.  If you are saved you can grieve, quench and resist the Spirit and lose power here and rewards later.  If you are saved, you're saved.

It is possible that no one can commit that sin today because they were basically seeing Christ perform miracles in the Spirit and said it was of the devil.  Christ is not present in the flesh so the exact circumstances cannot be reproduced.  However, if the Spirit is leading someone to be saved and they resist that leading until death they are in the same spirit of the sin committed by the people in Jesus' day.  They resisted Him and the Spirit is the one who leads you to Christ but if you do not follow you cannot be forgiven or saved.  It is a sin against the work of the Spirit and hence a sin against Him and unforgivable.

Mark 3:29-30
29 But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation:
30 Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.  (KJV)

Calling the Spirit unclean or devilish seems to be the exact sin.  If a satanist or someone would actually believe that then they may possibly commit it here and now and thus cannot be forgiven in this life or the next.  They cut themselves loose from the only lifeline they had.  Some people seem very, very hard to the Gospel and only the Spirit knows if these folks have committed this sin.

II Th 2:10-12
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.  (KJV)

The folks who are left behind at the Rapture in essence commit this sin.
If they have heard the Gospel and put off salvation or mocked it then when the Spirit leaves they have no second chance and are given over to believe a lie.

This leads me to you.  If you had committed this sin you wouldn't be worried.  Based upon the Thessalonian passage if you would have done so you would be given over to a lie or freely believe a lie and would not care and might even laugh and mock the whole possibility.  That you are worried proves to me that you haven't committed the unpardonable sin.

As a child of God, all sin is forgiven at the Cross.  Confession is for fellowship not sonship.  If the devil can make you take off your helmet of
salvation (assurance) he can beat you senseless and make your life
miserable and fruitless but he cannot kill you.

Put on the whole armor and fight.  Blessings to you as you see Him through His Word!!!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: hello again,

thankyou so much for the response. i really appreciate the time you took in responding.  part of my problem to is it feels as if in all this pain my desires have crept away to love the lord. i don't feel like His word talks to me. If i confess my sin to Him but that fellowship doesnt return does that imply something is fundamentally wrong ( like im not His) or should i just wait for His return in my life?



ANSWER: Sometimes God leaves us in the dark, so to speak, to see if we love Him or the gifts and feelings.  Remember satan accused Job of only worshipping God for the godies.  Paul said he was glad to hear that the Brethren were doing good even though he was not there with them.  

I would just stay in the Word regardless of how it feels or doesn't feel and even if you have trouble with concentration. It is like medicine. You may not see the effects right away but it is doing its job. Get to church whenever the doors are open.  Seek out the pastor's prayers and help.  See if he knows of a person that would become your mentor and prayer partner.

Consistency is a big thing.  Stick with it.  Pray without ceasing.  Spend all the time you can with the brethren. Read the Bible and skip TV or anything else until you get your reading time in.  Then wait upon the Lord who loves you more than you can imagine even if you don't feel it. It s not about feeling.  Some of the greatest men of God went through periods where they felt like God had left them or that they were the biggest sinners and failures that ever lived.  

Let God mold you.  You do your part by being consistent and trust. Trust in Him and His Word not your feelings.

God must have great plans to use you and those who are used are prepared sometimes by fire.  May God turn you into a flaming fire for Him!!  Blessings to you.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: hello,

thanks again for the response, i really appreciate it.  Just out of curiousity, what did the devil convince you that you did to commit the unpardonable sin?

Paul

Answer
I had been writing out a verse and I had misspelled the word spirit and I said to myself, “How in the word could I misspell “expletive” spirit?”  I was immediately terrified that I had blasphemed the Spirit and spent years in mental torture.  Albeit, the word spirit was speaking to man’s spirit not the Holy Spirit but the devil knew my greatest fear and used my ignorance of the Word to trap me emotionally so that I could not “see” my intellectual error.  

Peace be unto you!