I have to add that I raised this questions so we ponder on them. I am in no way trying to dispute the post. I simply want to learn. And if the questions seem a bit too basic, pardon me for I am just a learner.

Amen ???

Hi, thanks so much for reading. I will say yes to all your questions. God won’t impose himself on anybody. He expects us to WILLINGLY surrender our wills to his. Therefore when one is willingly indulging in sin, and refusing to heed to the inner promptings of the Holy Spirit, it will reach a time when the individual cannot hear God anymore. The said individual, if not careful will assume he/she is still serving God when he/she isnt. Such people will walk up to God on judgment day and expect to be given entry into Heaven. Maybe because they were performing miracles in God’s name while on earth. But he will say to them, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. Miracles are very good and a strong proof of God’s power. We need the supernatural in our ministries. However, the FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT are what we are supposed to bear and they are the greatest proof of the transformational power of God. God is good. Grace is available in unimaginable quantities. Therefore we are sure we can come back to him when we faulter. Let’s heed to the voice of the Holy Spirit always.

Ikr? I am even shocked this blog got the sort of attention it got. Not in terms of numbers, but in terms of people expressing their opinion of it to me.

This discussion can go on and on, it’s actually exciting! ?

This is such an amazing comment. And I agree with Tozer. I believe this is what the story of the prodigal son represents. A son takes half of his father’s wealth, goes to a far country and wastes it all on irrelevant things. THE FACT THAT HE CAME TO HIS SENSES, means there was still hope. I believe you have spoken so much about this in your comment. The fact that the promptings are still there. This son was ready to become a servant in his father’s house for he knew even those servants weren’t at the point where they were being tempted to taste food for pigs. I believe this is what qualifies one for GRACE: accepting the fact that you don’t deserve what you used to have or what the master is offering you. In the story though, Ravi points out that Jesus said something that might have caught the people who heard it off guard. He made mention of the fact that middle-eastern fathers are known to be very abusive and strict on their kids. The father running with arms opened wide to receive the prodigal son when he was almost home, represented a father’s love that Jews weren’t used to.

I like what Tozer said concerning “to what extent has the person fallen away”. How far has the person gone? Very very important. And true, “sinning willingly” and making a practice of refusing to heed to the inner promptings will slowly lead you to apostasy. I think this is so gradual that the believer might not notice. But I believe the fastest route to apostasy is to verbally denounce Christ. I don’t know if the said individual will get inner promptings immediately afterwards. But i think it is a big deal to convert and denounce Christ and accept another ‘god’. And oh, what Tozer said about ‘Pharasaical pride’ being one of the most common ways to fall away – that is an eye-opener too. Self-righteousness is a killer. Usually, when I think of falling away, i think of Judas. He is a clear example. I think he got to the point where he couldn’t be prompted by the spirit anymore. Or hr felt like he wasn’t worthy of being restored to his forner position. Did he not hear the parable of the prodigal son from Jesus? Funny how Peter broke down and cried after betraying Jesus, Judas did same, but never got restored. He cried too oo. Isnt that remorse? Sometimes I think it is because the outcome was prophesied by Christ himself, how Judas would turn out after betraying him. Prophesy is a prediction of the future. It doesn’t set you up and forces you to play along. It simply tells you what will happen in the future. Therefore, I conclude that Judas was beyond the reach of the spirit.

The most important thing I am taking away from your comment is ‘how far has the believer fallen?’. Is he still redeemable? I believe that there is hope once the person still receives an inner-check, other than that, I might say that chaley, that’s it for him/her. Thanks for the comment.

Reading about ‘falling away’ here reminded me of something I’d read from Spurgeon some weeks back, I think the title is ‘A Defense of Calvinism’ or so, where he touched on Falling Away. I’d like to know your thoughts on it, it’s article-length and the soft copy can be found online.

Now I have been on Tozer’s ‘A Disruptive Faith’ for the past week and not long after I read your post, the next chapter I was reading in the book touched on falling away. (These are the coincidences I was talking about).

I am not particularly disagreeing with some of the things you’ve said, but let me quote what Tozer said here, because I am interested in your thoughts on that as well.

“What does the scripture mean by “fall away”? And just how far does a person fall? Is this talking about backsliding? Well, if it is, then I see several difficulties. Two of the outstanding backsliders in the New Testament were Peter and Mark, The scriptures tell us that both of these men backslid but then repented, were forgiven and came back into full fellowship (see Mark 14:66-72; Acts 15:36-41). Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost gave birth to the Church. After Mark’s repentance, Paul found him useful for the ministry. So, I have a difficult time seeing this ‘fall away’ to be backsliding… Certainly this is not what Hebrews is talking about at all… Let me give you a little rule here that might prove helpful. I am sure this rule will hold throughout the whole church of God around the world, for all time – If you worry about committing the unpardonable in, you have not committed it. The person who has gone far in apostasy that there is no hope for him never worries about it. In Matthews 12:3, the Pharisees gave vent to certain words, which Christ branded as evidence of the unpardonable sin. Yet, these Pharisees were not the slightest bit worried about it. They believed themselves to be righteous. There was no penitence in them, no compunction, no sorrow, no humility, no meekness. They were bold believers in their own righteousness. Jesus said they had committed an unpardonable sin in that they had attributed the work of the Holy Spirit to the devil. So, if they had feared they had committed it, they would have been humble, lowly, meek, frightened and would have come like the jailer, shaking and trembling, and saying, “Lord, what must I do to be saved?” But they had no thought of this at all… The very fact that you are worried about it indicates the Spirit of God is moving in your heart; the Spirit of God does not move in the heart of a man who has committed a ‘sin unto death’… If only we knew what “fall away” meant. It must mean something that goes so far that the man does not care about it, does not worry about it, has no further feeling concerning it and shrugs it off as a foolish thing.”

What I think of this in relation to what you have written is this;

Let me use myself as an example. I was a ‘believer’ when I was neck-deep in all manner of rot, some I willingly committed, like the hymn says;

I have long withstood His grace,
Long provoked Him to His face,
Would not hearken to His calls,
Grieved Him by a thousand falls.

This was Charles Wesley. And man, this was me through and through two years ago. But by the Grace of God I grew sick of my sins, and here I am, forgiven – I know it to my very soul! So yes, I did backslide. There were phases in my ‘lost years’ that I doubted greatly a lot of things, and may have thought or said some things, I would shudder to think or say now, but here I am. A thousand falls, Charles Wesley said…a thousand! Yet, when you read the rest of the hymn you will see what the poet here was talking about. He couldn’t believe that there was still Mercy enough for him still – Title of the hymn is – Depth of Mercy. I have written about this before. There is a famous story about this hymn, where a woman who played in theaters and lived the life of a prostitute, basically grew so sick of her sins, she got on stage one day and instead of saying her lines, burst out singing this hymn….part of the audience were angry, part were moved. But this woman quit the theater, dedicated her life to the church afterwards. A thousand falls.

I think I get what Tozer was trying to draw our attention to. He redeems, oh He redeems the vilest offender…but there is a point that a man gets to that ‘there is no hope’…because there has been a dying of something inside that leaves the person unfeeling. I agree that this can happen when one willingly sins over and over, keeps ignoring the promptings of the heart, till someday, there is no compunction (not even the slightest bit of it). This is not to say that so then believers can ‘feel free’ to backslide and not fear that they cannot return, No. Absolutely not what I am saying. But the believer who has backslid, comes to and grieves all the way down into his heart…there is Mercy still reserved for that one…because as Tozer said, it indicates the Spirit of God moving that heart. Whenever someone asks me how or why I became born again. I can only say… God favoured me. Really, cos…oh I can’t begin to describe what was happening with my heart that night I went down on my knees and surrendered all…I can’t begin to! Mercy! But then there is the point at which one falls away…and we must not be silent about that.

This is quite a lot to meditate on, and trust me, it has been in my thoughts for days now, but as I said, I’d like to hear your thoughts on all of these.

Thanks a lot for reading. I am encouraged.