I believe most believers are in denial and most non-believers are quite delusional when it comes to those of us who have a relationship with the Lord, not a religion, but a relationship.
To think because we say we believe in The Trinity, the Bible and all that it contains that we are exempt from making mistakes/bad choices/missing the mark is delusional to the non-believer and denial to the believer.
It seems that as soon as one declares the above they are put on this pedestal by both believers and non-believers yet as soon as they makes a mistake/bad choice/miss the mark they get kicked off of it. Just because believers believe what they believe it doesn’t mean they are perfect, have got it together or get it right all the time. They deal with everything the non-believer deals with, however, depending on their place of position, with a platform as well as the responsibility knowing that their mistakes/bad choices/missing the mark doesn’t just affect them but everyone connected to and around them. For some this is thousands of people. This already is not an easy thing to carry, and both believers and non-believers make it that much harder by posting these individuals faults on every social network and media outlet. Religion punishes them by forcing them to remain in and be surrounded by their mistakes/bad choices/missing the mark while Kingdom forgives them. We must understand that we, believers, will never be perfect. It’s a fact, we are human and we are going to sin/err so we may as well come out of denial / delusion and except this. It happens. It exists. The first word in Man/Woman of God is Man/Woman. And if someone claims to be a believer their relationship with God is just that, their relationship with God. We have no idea the cost some pay to truly walk in what God called them to do. The only thing that should matter to the believer or non-believer is, ‘are they doing what God called them to do?’ If they are, then allow the Holy Spirit to deal with them and the rest. After all, one never knows when they too may be in the hot seat and we reap THAT which we sow. Despite our mistakes/bad choices/missing the mark there is always a way out, even if we find ourselves in that same mistake/bad choice/missing the mark more than once.
The perfect example of this is the story of Kathryn Kuhlman, one of the greatest healing evangelists of all time. At the hype of her ministry she lost everything. She met a man and despite pleadings and warnings from those who cared for her, despite the promptings of the Holy Spirit within her telling her that it was a mistake, despite having no peace and not being able to find the will of God she married him. Her story further goes on to share how she lost her church, close friends, ministry and how even her relationship with God suffered due to putting her desires before His. Even though she immediately knew it was a tragic mistake she felt there was no turning back and so she stayed for years in what she called the deepest and darkest valley of her life. Of course because of the grace of God people were saved and blessed under her ministry during this time but the life went out of both she and her husband. No matter how she tried to rationalize her decision, the truth gripped her heart like a vise. Because of her own stubborn will, she had drifted from God's call and was dying (spiritually). The call on her was so deep, so irreversible, that after so many years she could stand the misery no more, she was fooling herself. She was preaching and seeking God's blessing without living God's precepts. She had sinned. She was tired of trying to justify herself. She finally confessed her transgressions and received the assurance of God's forgiveness. She gave up everything, including her marriage and died (spiritually). She became a seed willing to fall into the ground and be buried. It is here that she came out of the wilderness and moved into the promise land with her ministry superseding where it was when it was at its hype. Those who knew Kathryn will even testify that she didn’t truly move in the Anointing she was moving in when she passed on (physically) until she came out of that deep and dark valley of her life.
We all have CROSSES to bear in our lives. But our crosses are just that, our crosses. It is that place where the Holy Spirit deals with you (individual) and puts His finger on those places or that place in your (individual) life that needs changing / fixing, that place where more of self (individual) needs to die, that place where you (individual) might have been operating in disobedience (like Kathryn). I used to believe that Kathryn went through what she went through because she joined herself to the wrong person because I had never heard of a marriage being referred to as sin. But as I study her ministry/life more I realize it was mainly her disobedience. Disobedience can cause you to deal with things you should have never had to deal with, it can cause you to be blindsided and deceived. Her life reminds me that there is life after death (spiritual). So grateful religion didn’t force her to stay in the state she was in because I truly have learned from her life and her ministry even though I have never met her or sat under her ministry. Had she remained in that who knows how many lives would have missed out.
Without condoning some of these mistakes/bad choices/missing the mark we need to leave room for individuals to have them. If we did, I believe we would see more things become right and more individuals truly delivered, healed and set free. I often wonder how many people are choosing to live in the wilderness, like Kathryn did for some time. I wonder how many have remained in their mistake/bad choices/missing the mark, like Kathryn, trying to justify who they are, rationalizing what they did, living a double life out of fear of being stoned. We need to practice the greatest commandment, which is love, so that these individuals who are in the wilderness can have the boldness and the courage to break out of their mistakes/bad choices/missing the mark (wilderness) and enter into their Promise Land.
Truth is, and believers know this, once God forgives it is as if it never happened, only people or the individual can keep it alive. Kathryn chose not to, ”At one point the Lord asked her, ‘Kathryn, have I forgiven you.’ She answered, ‘Yes.’ God said, ‘I have forgotten it, and in My book it never happened.’ From this moment on, until late in her life, Kathryn never spoke of the matter, treating it as God said He had.” Let’s do the same.
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