Hi Mike, I have a question on INIQUITY.  I feel as if I’ve read a discussion of this on the site sometime a long time ago – it has only been a matter of concern or application to me now…  Letting go of our iniquity, our false idols by means of Christ is painful.  I would beg and cry to God to remove the idol from myself while at the same time fighting to keep it… abject misery.  My question is in my concern that these false idols will forever (in flesh) be in my recollection despite their purging… a stinging memory. 

(Job 11:16) “… thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away:”   

Is this while still in the flesh?  Does this really mean what it says?  I can’t read these words without feeling great hope and great doubt.  In this time I know I need to be thankful for trials. It seems so easy, for some reason, for me to forget that God brings me through everything out of love – for good.  I don’t know why my first inclination is to feel that He is trying to hurt me purposelessly.  Sometimes my lack of understanding of Christ leads me to being discouraged rather than fueled with a desire to understand…. Thank you for reading this, Mike.  Your brother in Christ, N____

Hi N____,
 The answer to your question about Job 11:16 is, Yes, it is true, but the key word is ‘remember.’ While our sins and miseries become “as waters that pass away,” we are still referred to as seraphim and beasts, even after we are perfected and are around the throne of God. It is the true repentance that makes our sins “as waters that pass away.” But Peter’s cursing and denying Christ, Saul’s slaughtering of the church, and your sins and mine will always be acknowledged as part of the flesh we once were and from whence we came. God calls light out of darkness. Darkness is not just the absence of light, darkness is a spiritual word for sin and depravity of the flesh which we all are. The fact that we are called beasts and seraphim, even as perfected men, tells us that we will always be aware of whence we came; “out of the ground… out of darkness.”
Your cries for deliverance are simply part of the process. It is very good that you are not complacent about overcoming. Just do not lose faith or patience. That is very important, and the Adversary wants you to give up and lose patience. God will be the one to decide when you have learned the Truth of this verse. Once this is known in the marrow of your bones, your trials and struggles in the flesh will be less severe, and you will then be prepared to do even greater things in God’s service.

Pro 24:16  For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
Luk 21:19  In your patience possess ye your souls.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike>