We don’t know what to do with this awful feeling of guilt, when a demonic assault is hitting…
We try and find out what we did wrong. It is so haunting and depressing we recognize it as oppression. You do nothing to open the door to it. Sometimes you are into it before you realize it has hit you. I know that it is not right. We have lived with too much that we do not have to live with, but now we are taking a step to shut the doors to this oppression in the Body forever.
“Whatsoever is not of faith is sin,” Romans 14:23 tells us. Even if you do the right thing but you do not do it with faith and confidence toward God, you will find yourself still open to condemnation. I have observed some things through the years; and in the Pentecostal churches I noticed that many could have fantastic experiences—they could jump and shout and talk in tongues—yet those same people lived constantly in self-condemnation. You see, when you have done everything that you feel you can do—the best you can, fail or not, at least with confidence you tried to obey God and go ahead—the enemy comes in afterwards and tries to drive you into something else. Then you find yourself going on and on and on to a point of exhaustion because you are trying to go back and “pick the leaves off the mint bush” and be sure that you have done everything just right.
The devil has accomplished his purpose when you go back to another set of standards that are entirely the false conscience of the Pharisee, “straining at gnats” (Matthew 23:23–24) and missing the main thing God wants.
We are determined to lay hands on people so they can go to their churches full of the fire of the Spirit of the Lord, anointed of God, with no condemnation. We are going to have a breakthrough. We must have a breakthrough. But the thought is in my mind, “What is a breakthrough?”
This is my opinion—a breakthrough is where something ends, totally, and you never have it again, and something new starts immediately. You may not know what is going to start, but you sure know what has ended!
It would be good to read Philippians the third chapter and refresh our minds how Paul came to the end of being a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was so through with being a Pharisee that anything of that other life, that other way of thinking, to him was but refuse—dung, nothing—and it had to go, completely and totally, irrevocably (verses 5–8). He shut the door on it forever.
The accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10) dabbles in that which is dangerous to us, trying to revive things that God really did end. We are going to shut that door! It is important for us to see that we are going to shut the door on that.
I walked in self-condemnation; I did everything that I could to do right and still felt that false guilt. An impartation had to come to deliver me from a condemning spirit that was hitting me. I know that my heart was right before God because the brothers who ministered to me discerned that it was, but I could not even discern whether I was serving God or not serving God. They delivered me from the spirit of condemnation, or the enemy hitting me, which caused me to believe the devil fifty percent of the time that I was failing. Then I realized that that is what I needed to repent over!
Forget all the condemnation that you have gone through and repent for not believing God’s Word that He really loves you (Romans 8:37–39), and that He is caring for you (I Peter 5:7). Believe that you have done what He wanted you to do. If there is something you really need to repent for, then get down and repent for it and get it out of the way and go on with God. But do not languish in unbelief, because it does not do any good. It does not work anything for righteousness (Romans 4:3; James 2:23). It does not do anything for the Kingdom; it just makes you wallow in your own self-pity. You can waste a lot of time in this way.
We must deal with false guilt. We are going to judge the thing. This spirit that has been hitting God’s people must come to an end, because without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). We cannot enter the next phase of the Kingdom of God without the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3).
We are going to get deliverance from false guilt. We are going to focus on it and get rid of it.
It is surprising what little things can disturb you. “I left something undone. I should have done this, or something.” You really need to have faith, even for your failures. Do as much as you can but do it in faith. What about the things that you did not get done? God does not slumber or sleep (Psalm 121:4); He can do it.
This is nailing that religious, pharisee spirit. It is always easier to believe for the other guy, but you must believe for yourself also. You have to be delivered; and the Word delivers you (John 15:3; John 5:24; Hebrews 4:12). This Word is uncovering something religious in our own hearts that comes against God.
Once the deliverance has been worked in your spirit, you will go through things, but you will be able to discern when God is dealing with you and when He is not. You will know the difference between self-condemnation or introspection and the deep conviction of the Holy Spirit. Because you are not hardened in your conscience, God will not have to take a two-by-four to get your attention!
Would you like a good, safe rule to follow? Anything related to the Word, hear it. Hear it with a deep, open heart; and if it rips you open, then cry about it. Hurt. Pray. But do not hear it with unbelief, for repentance is not unbelief. There is a sorrow and a grieving and a false guilt and a self-condemnation that absolutely is not repentance. Repentance is grieving over something that God’s Word tells you is wrong, but seeing also in that Word a provision to correct you and change it right there. If it is right to cry over a thing, then it is right to keep crying over it until you laugh about it. If it is right to pray about a thing, it is right to pray until you have prayed through.
God was ministering to some of our spirits as we were in intercession. When we hit certain impasses, we had to break through to the next dimension of effectiveness; and always the Lord was faithful to bring it to us. But it was sickening when we hit this one area of self-condemnation in our lives. As we were ministered to on this particular issue, I began to see how nauseating self-condemnation really is to God, because it is unbelief in action.
The devil does not care how much you mentally accept the truths in the Word of God; if you languish in a state where it has not been made real to you in the grace of God, you still are not anyplace. The Word is effective when you believe it, apply it, become it, speak it, do it! You must be a doer of the Word (James 1:22).
There is only one answer to the accusation of the enemy, and that is faith. We have tried a million other ways to appease him or to have some kind of detente with the enemy. There is only one way to answer him: “Thus saith the Lord.” In the Living Word tape, “Is There an idol in Your Saddlebag?” we learned that the spirit of division is most effective when you do not believe your brother when he tells you that he loves you. And that is so about our believing God. God speaks that He loves us (John 13:34); He speaks that He forgives us (Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 2:13; I John 2:12). He keeps speaking these things to us, yet we keep saying, “Oh, there must be something wrong. Surely I’ve done something I shouldn’t have.” Actually, when we identify the source, it is a spirit of division. When you see it working in a relationship, it makes you react in your spirit because you hate that condemnation, and you can feel the division coming in as a result of it.
We read in I John 4:16a: And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. That is oneness. If we believe this Scripture, if it lives in our hearts, we can fight the enemy every time he comes.
The way I have sinned is in giving people a way to back out. “If you want to back out, you can.” You knew that I loved you, but I never put you on the spot; I always gave you a chance to back off.
He does not want to impose on people. You have to really want to walk with the Lord, and then he will respond to that. He always gives people an open door, so that they can walk away at any time. We want to reach a point where we reject forever the privilege of walking away.
Everyone is willing up to a certain point. And then they feel there is a danger of a personal involvement in which you take advantage of another person. And that I hate. I have seen people do it so much that I leaned over the other way, and I did not give people the privilege of really serving. But that is over. You are not running anyplace; I am not running anyplace. We will stay with this thing and have faith for each other to follow through. What are we going to expect of each other? Every time I set the Word before you, with faith you will rise to it. That is what we will do for each other. But if you condemn yourself or beat yourself down, it is not long until you give others a chance to beat themselves down too.
That is really true. It is very contagious.
Do not look for something wrong; that is the opposite of what we want to convey. Do not be so introspective that you develop a pharisaic conscience or a conscience for dead works; you will wind up straining at gnats and missing the whole will of God (Matthew 23:24).
God is speaking to us that the problem comes because we do not recognize the Lord. At times, it is actually the enemy coming to us, but we attribute it to God. That is why we misinterpret it. When the enemy, who is the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10), comes to you with this lie, you are accepting Satan’s accusation as the Word of God.
The enemy has distorted Christianity so much in the western world; and our culture, our morals, and everything that has been imparted to us as we have been growing up has so conditioned us that we must go through a process of unconditioning. When we hit an impasse, the Word comes to teach us, “Here is what you’re thinking and feeling, and here is what you’re going to do”; then immediately you begin to walk in the breakthrough. Every time a breakthrough comes, you are immediately back on your face before God, seeking Him again, saying, “Lord, how do we relate to You? How do we know You?”
It is the very nature of Satan to oppose God. He is a twister, a transferrer. He transfers to you what his very nature is, and all he needs is that little open door. As we know God we close that door. More and more we will know the true nature of God. We have to reach in to know Him. He must be real to us.
Prayer: We reach in by faith in Your Word. Lord, You have said that we are of God, and that in whatever our heart condemns us we can assure our hearts before You (I John 3:19–20). We reach into the fact of who You are. We reach into the eternal Word which You have spoken, which framed the heavens and the earth (Hebrews 11:3). We draw that Word in faith and apply it to our own hearts, breaking down the condemnation in the name of the Lord. By faith in Thy Word, O Lord, we assure our hearts before You.
You are going to take a big step of faith: which is no more condemnation nagging away at you!
In this new step, you will be able to see where the cranks and the critics are. They are the ones who should be condemning themselves, but they condemn everyone else (and yet you are not condemning anyone but yourself). Let’s get it straight: There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus! (Romans 8:1.)
I know we keep living in Romans 8; it is important for the sons of God to know that this is the chart for us to follow. Listen to this: Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Romans 8:34.
Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. Romans 8:33.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Romans 8:35. But these things will not be effective with any of us who love the Lord, who have the Word in our hearts. Where pride still rules people’s hearts instead of the Word, they do not want to be associated with that which they feel will cause them to be humiliated by persecution. The devil has a real inroad there, and that is why some people defect. They do not want to face up to it.
You are in this walk with God because you want to face up to it. You want to be counted.
No condemnation. No false guilt. If something is wrong, we repent; but no false guilt.
You are believing. The climate of faith creates such a force that you cannot do anything but come forth in the Word of God. The battle is all won when you say, “Yes, there is a Word over me. Lord, I look to You to help me with anything that is wrong. I am going to receive confidence and faith.” I am not concerned about anything but what God has done to you, what God has said to you, what He has made real to you. I do not think you can abandon the Word; it is in your heart. I impart to you that you will not be condemned, but you will reach up in God and claim what God has for you—without any phony guilt, without any holding back, but with one declaration: “I believe God’s Word!”
We just have to determine what the Lord wants, then go at it and do it, with simple faith. I impart this to you: no more of that false guilt, a conscience condemned and conditioned by Satan. We will have no pharisaic conscience. We accept a release and boldness to believe what God has done, and to give it with faith in the name of the Lord.
Have confidence in what the Lord has spoken. If you believe God’s Word, you must also believe in the relationships He has established and in the oneness He is bringing forth. Have confidence in what God has said, in what He has said He is doing, in what He said He has done, and in what He said He is going to do.
When you get into condemnation, the full intensity of your faith is frozen like a valve that sticks, or like a governor on an accelerator. No matter how you shift, you can get only so much power behind it. I want you to break loose from that. Turn your faith loose! Turn it loose! If we are going to be obnoxious, let us be obnoxious because we believe so much. Let us not be fearful and unbelieving; then we not only have persecution, but God does not approve us either (Revelation 21:8). Let us believe Him! Without faith we cannot please Him (Hebrews 11:6).
This is your complete, total turning point in the name of the Lord. Take it: it is yours! If you believe it, it happens. If you believe it, whatever you ask is done (Matthew 21:22). Claim it now. No condemnation now. No false guilt. No gnats, and no camels. This impartation to your spirit can turn you into a different person. We have all taken a step together into this.
However, I must answer one objection: “But I know where I keep stumbling. I know the sin that doth so easily beset me (Hebrews 12:1). What am I to do about it?” You must face the fact that your self-condemnation or false guilt has prevented the real repentance that could bring the deliverance, or you would not be falling into it in an endless cycle. You stumble, then you go back to the self-condemnation, and stumble some more, because it is all in the realm of unbelief. When you start believing God, it all changes. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119:11, KJV. Believe it.
You may have been hung up in self-condemnation for many years. Get rid of it! Dare to believe for a miracle! Dare to believe for the greater works of God! (John 14:12.) Faith is yours! That dedication you are capable of, you are not to be ashamed of it. Do not draw back; let it be as intense and real as it will be. You are not going to condemn yourself for the good thing God has done or for that which hasn’t been done yet. You are going to believe!
Be what God said, with no condemnation. You will be every bit of what He says! There will not be anything that you cannot do, because it will be as unlimited as the Word of God itself over you.
We have no enemies but one. It is not Satan, because he is a defeated foe (Colossians 2:15). It is not sin; the Lord died for it (Romans 6:10). There is only one thing we must fight: unbelief. The whole fight is a fight of faith (I Timothy 6:12). And no matter what the other obstacles or symptoms are, it always comes back to believing God. It is all, “Thus saith the Lord”; it is all the Word from the Lord. Everything is won right there.
Do not hear this Word and say, “We’ve made it.” Just say, “From now on, everything that God has done in us will be more effective in its working” (I Thessalonians 2:13). It will not be crippled, slowed down, or watered down by unbelief. We are free from that false guilt, that phony condemnation. That day is over, once and for all. Say it! “No more false guilt.”
The whole purpose of God is not the end of the old; it is a new heavens and a new earth. “Behold, I create all things new” (Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:1–5). It is to open up the creativity, the glory of God, for His Kingdom to come forth. It is all based upon the Lord being glorified. We are just getting rid of the negative that would hinder and we are moving into the faith that says, “We close the door on that. We do not know all it will be, but we know one thing: we will be reaching in positively; walking in everything God has ever provided for us, everything He has ever said over us, every gift He has ever given us.”
The false conscience of the pharisee strains at gnats and misses the righteousness of God.
The accuser of the saints tries to revive what God has forgiven and forgotten.
What defeats us is not our weaknesses or problems; our unbelief defeats us. Self-condemnation is the torment of unbelief.