We reprint this letter about obedience from The Christian Spirit Magazine first published in April 1995 from Mr. F. Candell

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Dear Staff,

I pray this letter finds you in his light, and that your burdens are light. (Matt 11:29, 30) I have enclosed a copy of a message I was guided to compose. I hope you find it suitable for print. It is a message that truly needs to be shared. In these end-times it is urgent that we, as God’s children, try to send messages that will help others to see the truths as our Lord meant us to. Yet a lot of Christians are very confused and are mislead. As Christ said “The Gateway to life is small, and the road is narrow and only a few will find it.” Matt 7:14 NLT I’m trying to shine a bright light on that narrow road so that others may find it. Although I am in constant struggle (Rom 7:15-25) and I am with­out fellowship, He has blessed me with the ability to see and understand many truths in his Word. I try to share them when I can. Well, may God’s grace and blessings be upon all who sin­cerely love our Lord, Jesus Christ (Eph 6:24). I will keep you and your m­inistry in my pray­ers.

UNPARDONABLE SIN

In Matthew 12:31,32 Christ said “where­fore I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men. But the blasph­emy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven unto men”. The message is clear. A person may cross the line that separates our Lord’s mercy and his wrath and not be able to cross back!

Are you scared that you could cross that line, and be severed from his love and forgiveness? Can we actually do some­thing so atrocious that even our Lord’s never ending love and mercy for us could be denied? Well ask Noah! Do you think it could happen again in our time? See Luke 17:26 “And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.”

It is not His will that any should be lost. But understand that His word is law! He has made a provision in His word that all can be cleansed and sanctified. 1 Jn 1:9, Isa 1:18  You might ask after read­ing the above mentioned scripture how then can there be an unpardonable sin? The answer is simple; God will not force his forgiveness upon us. Notice in 1 John 1:9 the word “if”, if we confess, confess in faith and repentance. The sin that is known to us in our heart is never forgiven if it is not admitted. Therefore unpardonable. Let’s define the word sin, so there can be no mistakes,1 Jn 3:4 “whoever com­mits sin t­ransgresses also the law. For sin is the transgression of the law.”

But it is also an offense against the Holy Spirit. Christ said the Holy Spirit would teach us all things, help us rem­ember His word, and guide us into all truth. John 14:26, 16:13 The Holy Spirit will either rebuke us or convict us of sin. (John 16:8, Eph. 5:18-21) So please understand that as long as we “allow” the Holy Spirit to teach, guide and convict us, we can never be guilty of the unpardon­able sin. HALLELUJAH! But if we refuse to acknowledge the Spirit and his guid­ance we insult the Holy Spirit.  The book of truth says that people insult the Holy Spirit three ways; they grieve Him, resist Him and despise Him. Eph 4:30, Acts 7:51, Heb 10:29  Dangerous business!

Why is it unpardonable? Because without the Holy Spirit we cannot be saved, without the Spirit we cannot truly repent! The Spirit makes us aware of our sins, (that little voice that quotes scriptures to your mind­) without the Spirit in our hear­ts it becomes hardened, our con­science gets dulled. When we refuse to listen to the Holy Spirit what hope can there be for us? Understand now why it is unpardon­able? There are three common ways man can commit the unpardonable. One is to say that they do not want to be saved. They are comfortable in their worldly materialistic liv­es, but their lives are not filled with the joy and peace, only those blessed with the Holy Spirit can know their lives are not abundant. Prov 28:13  The second way is most unfortunate be­cause these people honestly want to be saved and get right with the Lord. For one reason or another they procrastinate and end up not doing the very thing they so wanted to do, totally surrender to the Lord! The third group of unpardonable sinners are members of the Church -Chris­tians! Surprised? There is a greater danger of these Christians falling into unpardonable sin than any others. You see, sanctification is an ongoing process, a complete meta­morphosis, from caterpillar to butterfly. Some people, once they are saved, become comfortable and complacent. They feel secure in their chur­ch. But the more we let the Spirit guide us in the Lord’s Word, the more truth he reveals to us and also the more accountable we become for our actions. No one gets all of God’s truths re­vealed to them at once. As we grow we are guid­ed more and more along the path of righ­teousness! We must keep moving, growing, learning and guiding others, if we stop we could end up like the Church of Laodicea. They were filled with the Spirit, but be­came lax in His word and were allowed to be cheated out of salvation by being luke­warm and believing lies. Col 2:1, 4, 13,15,16, Rev 3:14-20, 2 Thess 2:10-11.  Is there one thing God’s word says is wrong in your life yet you rationalize it away as being “O.K.”? If so, you are clinging to sin!

Do not resist the Holy Spirit, when truth comes into your life, obey it! It comes from God. He would not give it to you if you did not need it. And know when he gives you truth, he gives you the power to follow that truth and obey the Holy Spirit. But know that the Spirit can­not abide in someone that willfully and deliberately disobeys the truth, God’s word! If I went to your house and you cook­ed me a wonderful meal with yo­ur mot­her’s passed-on recipes and you w­orked hard all week to obtain the funds to pur­chase this special meal. How would you feel if when served it, I set the plate on the floor for your dog to eat? Would you cast the truth God gives you in His Word thro­ugh the Holy Spirit aside? Jn 12:35  Listen to God’s word, not to man’s phi­losophies. Be not deceived, don’t lose your cro­wn! Rev 3:11, Col 2:8-10  Be firmly rooted in His Word as you have been guided and taught by the Spirit. Col 2:7 Refuse to follow His Word as you know it and by that sin you shall be judged, it could even get to an unpardonable extent. Ja 4:17, Jn 15:22, 9:41, Prov 14:12, Lk 13:24, Amos 8:12, Ja 1:22. In closing I ask you to look up the Scriptures quoted in my short message, let the Spirit guide you.

I procrastinated for almost 10 years putting off what I knew to be the truth but was not socially acceptable. I even went to prison and I thank the Lord for not letting me drift away by my heart becoming hardened. There were times I did not know him, but I asked forgiveness from my heart! And he knows our heart; he forgave me and blessed me with the Holy Spirit. I am not perfect in that sense and stumble all the time, some­times I don’t even think I’m a good disci­ple. Rom 7:15-25  It is a daily battle I fight, I do not always win the battles, but I will win the war because I have Christ watching my back! Eph 6:10-17 (Notice no back armor!) So put on the full armor of God, lift up the sword of truth, be a doer of the word and not only a hearer James 1:22 and wait on the day that we will hear his voice so softly saying, “Well done thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of the Lord.”  Matt 25:21

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Integrity Needed:

Obeying Holy Ghost is Serious Business
by Leroy Gardenier

Over the years, in my old life, I had practiced and performed religious rituals with as much sincerity of heart as I could muster. Nevertheless, when I came to know the Lord Jesus in a personal way and the Holy Ghost entered my heart, one of the earliest “leadings” I can recall was the Spirit’s stern warning to be scrupulously honest and straightforward about my real intentions whenever or wherever I gathered with other Christians in His name.

When I read, “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged” 1 Cor 11:30-31, I saw even more clearly that functioning as a member of the Body of Christ, being entrusted with the handling of His Word was serious business, indeed, and never, ever to be trifled with in any way. Eli, the priest, was smitten because of negligence. Saul, the king, brought destruction on himself and his house because of a presumptuous and rebellious attitude. Ananias and Sapphira were struck down separately for conspiring to lie to the Holy Ghost. There are many others as well, the prophet eaten by a bear, Aaron’s son’s incinerated for offering strange sacrifice, Simon Magus for trying to buy the Holy Ghost, etc., etc.

Proverbs 4:23 admonishes: “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” False teaching and bad example that encourages “the freemasonry of false fellowship”; preaching of the humanly-inspired social gospel of good works; and, promoting the pernicious twisting of God’s own Word – these are issues that can easily be cloaked in “Christian” garments but, inexorably, corrupt the heart. To worship Him “in spirit and in truth”, John 4:23 the Lord seeks solely and simply “honest inquirers with true hearts.”