Sin the Short Circuit

Dear Sons,

Have you considered what happens to many Christians that prevents them from experiencing the spiritual life that God has designed for all of His sons. It is not that different from what we know of the way electricity works. When everything is wired properly, with a "hot" leg (power), a neutral leg, and a ground, everything plugged into or wired into the proper circuit will function. One of the first things we do when an appliance stops working is to check to see if the outlet is still working or if power is still coming from the breaker box.


Sometimes things happen to cause a breaker to trip and therefore break connection with the main power source. Several things can cause this. Something could be wired wrong, like a neutral where a the hot should be or the copper ground wire making contact with the hot somewhere.


Whenever power is lost, we call it a "short"circuit-meaning that the circuit no longer works all the way from the power source.   Sin causes the same type of short circuit to occur in our spiritual life
Sin could be like driving a nail into a wire. Sin could be like cutting
through the insulation causing a short. Sin could be like connecting a wire to a wrong post. Whenever we sense that we have lost power in an area of our spiritual life, we need to begin to look for what has caused it. The answer is likely some kind of sin; a thought, a word, an action or reaction that was displeasing to the Father in Heaven.


The way we repair and restore the damaged connection is to confess our sins. Confession comes from the Greek words "to say" and "the same". Confession is saying the same thing about an action that the Holy Spirit says about it. Whenever we are tempted to sin, the Holy Spirit says don't do it, that will cause a short circuit. If we fail to listen, there will be a short and we will lose power in our lives.


Sometimes we don't even realize it at first, but it will soon become
evident that we have lost our connection with the Spirit's power. When we become aware of it we must remember what the Holy Spirit has said, where we failed to listen and obey, and acknowledge it by "saying the same thing" - this is what it means to "confess" our sins. We don't always have to confess to people, because sometimes other people were'nt involved. If our sin hurt others or effected them, restoring the connection will involve confessing our sins to the others who were involved.


A person who has not stopped doing what the Holy Spirit has warned against cannot have forgiveness. Saying I am sorry for doing something while still doing it is not saying the same thing as the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's warning always includes a clear warning to "stop doing" and "turn away" from a bad action. When we accept the Holy Spirit's warning, follow His instructions, and say the same thing as He did to us, then the Father forgives our sin, cleanses us from its bad effects, and restores the spiritual connection we lost between the Holy Spirit and the Father.


Without the power of the Holy Spirit God's promises stop working
in our lives. This is why many people are not filled with joy, peace
and power to do what is right. The bible is a spiritual book, a food
only the Holy Spirit really craves. Our flesh likes "junk" food better,
but junk food has most of the real vitamins and nutrients taken out. It usually tastes better, but leaves people weak and lacking energy. A good sign of spiritual health is a strong desire for the word of God.


David, a man after God's own heart put it this way - "Thy word is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold." If we have no real hunger for good spiritual food, its probably because we have lost connection to the Holy Spirit and have become dependent on"junk" food just to get us by.
Love,
Dad

The above picture is of Benjamin when we were in the process of building Daniel's home.  This would be their first experience in building projects. 
Letter to Sons