BOOK: Building Your House On The Word Of God

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9

Confess your sins to God, not to man

In the new covenant church, Jesus makes the way for us to go directly to God through HIM through prayer.  We do not go to God through another human.  We go to God by faith in that which Jesus did through HIS own blood, making way for us to communicate with God.

And we have the following promise from God:

I Jn. 1:9 ... If we confess our sins, HE is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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Confess your sins directly to God and depend on God to forgive you.

Put your faith in God, not in another human.

Trust in God.

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After you are born again, do the following continually:  Walk in the Light of the Word

God promises us:

I Jn. 1:7 ... 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.

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Picture it like this:  If you take your car to car wash, the car stays on tracks provided for the car and rolls through the car wash being continually cleansed.

As long as the car remains on the tracks the cleaning continues.

As long as we walk in the light, the blood of Jesus is continually cleansing us.  If we step out into the darkness:  lying, stealing, committing sexual sins ... then we walk in darkness and not light and the cleansing stops much as the cleansing of the car would stop if the car got off the track at the car wash.

So walk in the light of the Word from God and live in faith that HE will cleanse you from all  unrighteous and do not go out into the darkness which is death to your soul.

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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But what about James 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.

I asked God about this and I heard one word:  "faults"

Faults are not the same thing as sins.

- a character problem

- inadequacy or mistakes

Primarily "fault" is a mistake.

Sin is defined by works of the flesh as follows: 

Gal. 5:19-21 ... 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.

But we are born again, new creations in Christ (the Word).  We once committed these many sins of the flesh and were as the world, walking in our own lusts, but now we are children of God.  For a season, we may have these same temptations of the flesh, but now we can turn to God in prayer and get help from God and overcome our flesh through God.

I have a friend who was a drunkard.  She had tried many times to stop drinking, and failed.  One day something happened to her.  She was born again. She told her husband she was going to stop drinking.  He didn't believe her, having heard that before. But this time it was different.  Now she wanted to know about God.  She began reading the Bible and caring about what God said. She began listening to radio preachers, wanting to know about scripture and God. (She came across my broadcast, Joan Boney, in Houston, Texas and found what I said very interesting.) 

She continued drinking, for a time.  At one point, God by HIS Spirit said to her: 

"You are in the valley of decision."

She stopped drinking.

(She is trained as a nurse, medical background.  But she said she always knew drunkenness was not a disease as the medical people like to say.)

Drunkenness is listed as a sin in Galatians 5.  It is not a disease.  It is a sin of your flesh.

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A fault is a character flaw, often conditioned in the individual.

You might choose to take this to "a righteous person" asking that person to pray for you.

An example of a fault:  inordinate shyness might keep you from boldly speaking the truth of the word of God.  Certainly you should first pray to God. 

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If you are committing adultery, fornication ... This is not a fault ... that is a sin of your flesh.

Confess your sins directly to God.

David committed adultery and murder.  Afterward David wrote the following.

Psalm 51:4 ... (To God) ... David says ...

Against THEE, THEE only, have I sinned, and done this evil in THY sight:

Put your faith in God, not in man.

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When you realize you are tempted:  

STOP ... PRAY IMMEDIATELY ... ASKING GOD TO HELP YOU WITH THE TEMPTATION, TO NOT DO "THAT".

Often I have asked God to not allow me to say "that" ... or to stop me from doing "that" ... and always God has stopped me from yielding to my own flesh.

God is faithful!

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If you need wisdom in the midst of the temptation, ask God.  We have the following promise that God will give us HIS wisdom when we ask in faith in HIM.

James 1:5 ... If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 

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