Free Spirit Top Ten Tip No. 10 - Nothing Hidden
This is really important. It's important to me because I have watched
personal friends crash to the point where they will never be able to
fulfil everything God had planned for them here on earth. All because
something was kept hidden.
The simple and amazingly powerful answer is confession. Confessing our sins to one another is about walking in the light and having nothing hidden..
Right now I can confidently say that there is really nothing hidden in my life. The worst, the very worst things about me are known by somebody. As painful and difficult as it is - I am known.
I’m not telling you, because I'm proud like I have achieved something.
I am not proud of the rubbish and the bad choices and the deliberate actions that I've done, I am telling you, because it's so liberating.
The things that were in the darkness have been brought into the light. This brings peace and freedom and safety from accusation.
Anyone who keeps stuff hidden, keeps it in the darkness. These are the very things that the enemy can use to accuse us, and rob us of all that God has promised, and even cause us to trip and to fall!
I cannot advocate this highly enough - the practice of a personal confession to a fellow Christian, preferably of the same sex, whom you trust. This is what 1 John chapter 1 is all about - walking in the light.
First of all John talks about ‘The Life’ and tells us that Jesus is the Word of Life. He is the Risen One, who brings life to us and puts life back in us. It’s like John is saying "we have seen him and touched him; he’s the one, the Word of Life. We have fellowship with God. We walk with God…..and we want you to
experience the same thing, and we would be so excited and grateful if you did".
This is the message - God is the light, in him there is no darkness at all.
In Chapter 1, verse 7, he says "if we will live in the light, we will have fellowship with one another, and we will be cleansed and made pure by the blood of Jesus (verse 9). If we confess our sins this will be forgiven, if we claim we have not sinned, we are deceived, we are lying and that very Word of Life cannot come into our lives".
This is my quick overview:
John is saying that The Life is in us, and anything in us that is in darkness needs to be brought into the light.
The way that God has ordained to do this is to confess it to one another and then humble ourselves before one another so that together we are keeping in the light. Nothing hidden.
We become more aware of God’s grace in our lives, rather than some proud and arrogant “look at me, I can do it all by myself” attitude. And it really is amazing as people go through the fearful process of confessing to one another, abandoning the fear of what others will think and coming out the other side, there really is so much light and freedom and awareness of God's love for us.
I want to be someone who has nothing hidden.
May you not go through the life holding on to stuff that is holding onto you and dragging you down when Jesus has called you to freedom
Love Martin
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