Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer is heard and I join my faith with yours in the name of Jesus. Thank you for bringing this man before the Lord with such care and reverence for the cross. It is right to begin with praise for what Jesus has done, for without His sacrifice there would be no hope of deliverance, no cleansing, and no new life.
Scripture teaches that when we put our faith in Jesus we are joined to Him. Our old life was crucified with Him so that the power of sin would be broken and put out of work in us. We are no longer bound to live for ourselves but are bound to Him in a new covenant, and that bond is a law of love that is greater and stronger than the old law. The law itself is not sin, but it shows us what sin is. It reveals the narrow path God has set and makes clear when we have turned aside to follow our own desires.
That is why the struggle you describe is so real. A person can feel a strong pull or desire and think it is not serious until it is acted upon, but God sees the heart and calls us to turn from both the desire and the deed. Many try in their own strength to be free and find only defeat. The place of victory comes when we stop trusting our own effort and surrender completely to Jesus, reckoning ourselves dead indeed to sin and alive to God through Him. Then sin no longer has the right to reign as a king in our mortal body, for Christ reigns instead.
The Bible pictures this bondage as being like captivity in Egypt. Sin holds a person tightly and makes him a slave, but God delivered His people out of that bondage and He still delivers today. Christ is our Passover Lamb. His blood was shed so that sin might be purged like old leaven that must be cleaned out of the house. To walk in newness of life we must be willing to put that leaven away, to be separated from what defiles and to pass through the waters of identification with Him into a new life.
There is hope for this man because the blood of Jesus cleanses from all sin. If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves, but if we walk in the light as He is in the light, that blood continually cleanses us. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has set us free from the law of sin and death. That freedom comes not by excusing sin but by looking to Jesus in faith, believing that He bore our sin and its judgment on the tree, and receiving His life in place of our old life.
This is the true identity you are praying for him to see. In Christ he is not defined by the false identity he took on when he entered sinful relationships and activities outside of God's design. God created intimacy to belong only within the lifelong covenant of marriage between one man and one woman, and any path outside of that brings bondage rather than freedom. His true identity is as one who can be made new, forgiven, and made one with God through Jesus alone. There is no other way to have fellowship with the Father, and there is no sin so great that the blood of Jesus cannot cleanse it, except the sin of refusing to believe in Him.
So I pray with you that God will break and soften his heart, take away the heart of stone and give a heart that hears His voice. May the Lord open his eyes to see the depth of God's love and also the danger of the path he is on, and give him a holy fear of the Lord that leads him to depart from evil. May God grant him courage to choose the narrow path even when it is costly, and separate him from ungodly influences, even those close to him in his household, who would keep him in control, fear, blackmail and danger. May he come to see that those controlling and hateful entanglements are not love, and that Jesus breaks every chain and sets captives free.
Continue to hold him before the Lord in prayer, trusting not in persuasion or pressure but in the finished work of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit to bring light where there has been darkness. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked but calls all to turn and live. As you pray, rest in Christ yourself, knowing that you stand before God in His righteousness alone, and that He is faithful to hear and to deliver those who call upon Him through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Scripture teaches that when we put our faith in Jesus we are joined to Him. Our old life was crucified with Him so that the power of sin would be broken and put out of work in us. We are no longer bound to live for ourselves but are bound to Him in a new covenant, and that bond is a law of love that is greater and stronger than the old law. The law itself is not sin, but it shows us what sin is. It reveals the narrow path God has set and makes clear when we have turned aside to follow our own desires.
That is why the struggle you describe is so real. A person can feel a strong pull or desire and think it is not serious until it is acted upon, but God sees the heart and calls us to turn from both the desire and the deed. Many try in their own strength to be free and find only defeat. The place of victory comes when we stop trusting our own effort and surrender completely to Jesus, reckoning ourselves dead indeed to sin and alive to God through Him. Then sin no longer has the right to reign as a king in our mortal body, for Christ reigns instead.
The Bible pictures this bondage as being like captivity in Egypt. Sin holds a person tightly and makes him a slave, but God delivered His people out of that bondage and He still delivers today. Christ is our Passover Lamb. His blood was shed so that sin might be purged like old leaven that must be cleaned out of the house. To walk in newness of life we must be willing to put that leaven away, to be separated from what defiles and to pass through the waters of identification with Him into a new life.
There is hope for this man because the blood of Jesus cleanses from all sin. If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves, but if we walk in the light as He is in the light, that blood continually cleanses us. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has set us free from the law of sin and death. That freedom comes not by excusing sin but by looking to Jesus in faith, believing that He bore our sin and its judgment on the tree, and receiving His life in place of our old life.
This is the true identity you are praying for him to see. In Christ he is not defined by the false identity he took on when he entered sinful relationships and activities outside of God's design. God created intimacy to belong only within the lifelong covenant of marriage between one man and one woman, and any path outside of that brings bondage rather than freedom. His true identity is as one who can be made new, forgiven, and made one with God through Jesus alone. There is no other way to have fellowship with the Father, and there is no sin so great that the blood of Jesus cannot cleanse it, except the sin of refusing to believe in Him.
So I pray with you that God will break and soften his heart, take away the heart of stone and give a heart that hears His voice. May the Lord open his eyes to see the depth of God's love and also the danger of the path he is on, and give him a holy fear of the Lord that leads him to depart from evil. May God grant him courage to choose the narrow path even when it is costly, and separate him from ungodly influences, even those close to him in his household, who would keep him in control, fear, blackmail and danger. May he come to see that those controlling and hateful entanglements are not love, and that Jesus breaks every chain and sets captives free.
Continue to hold him before the Lord in prayer, trusting not in persuasion or pressure but in the finished work of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit to bring light where there has been darkness. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked but calls all to turn and live. As you pray, rest in Christ yourself, knowing that you stand before God in His righteousness alone, and that He is faithful to hear and to deliver those who call upon Him through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
