Unfortunately most people in the world have an inaccurate viewpoint of God and how much He loves them and they also do not have a healthy godly fear and respect for Him. There are not many churches who preach a balanced message on both as most either preach an ALL love and no fear of God message, or an ALL fear and no love from God. Most people will say that God loves them but are conflicted as what love actually is based upon how their own father or mother treated them when growing up and what the church taught them. If a child was not loved unconditionally from their own father or mother then it becomes very challenging to believe that God really loves them unconditionally and not based on their performance – but just because He is love. Many children were actually hurt deeply by their own dad or mom growing up because of their parent’s own wounds when they were growing up. When a child gets wounded growing up the enemy begins to torment them in their own minds with voices that cause them to have fear, anger, sexual impurity, pride, control issues, and many other challenges. Children can get hurt in many ways besides their own parents (step-parents, relatives, siblings, friends, teachers, pastors, etc).
Some children grow up with a father or mother who had religious spirits that condemned them constantly and caused them to have to strive to be perfect to earn minimal love. These children then have challenges with striving for perfection in everything in life because their parents would withhold any love until they achieved perfection. Unfortunately they can never achieve such lofty standards and get verbally disparaged by their dad or mom and thus believe that God gets angry with them when they aren’t perfect, which is a faulty viewpoint.
Some children grew up with no father (or mother) and cannot relate to anyone who would actually value them and want to spend time with them. They could become a casualty of the foster care system. They also have a challenge believing God actually loves them without them doing anything to earn it.
Then there are the churches whose pastors are not in balance and preach that God loves you so much that He would never correct you nor would you have any negative consequences if you chose to live a sinful life full of fleshly fruit. That you don’t even need to repent to God anymore when you choose to sin because God knows you just can’t do it and you don’t need to forgive anyone who hurt you or ask others to forgive you for how you hurt them or humble yourself from pride. God doesn’t have any expectations of you trying to live a more godly life so why try to do it. They never talk about consequences for sin and want to avoid ever talking about the possibility that Christians could remotely be affected by demons and to “just focus on Jesus.” Well… even Jesus knew that Satan and his demons were going to come against today’s Christians as He died on the cross to give us His authority to take over the demonic world. Deliverance is the Children’s bread which means that those who call themselves Christians need to pursue deliverance from the demons that torment them.
Mark 7:24-30 New King James Version (NKJV)
A Gentile Shows Her Faith
24 From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden. 25 For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 But Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”
28 And she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.”
29 Then He said to her, “For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”
30 And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.
Other church pastors come down with a more harsh “fire and brimstone” mentality and yell at you during the service to scare you that God is out to get you and hates it if you make any mistakes and wants to punish you constantly.
Then there is the proper view of God that He does love you no matter what but that He knows if you continue to choose to live a sinful life that you will have consequences that you will not want and could be eternally separated from Him. He gives us freewill to choose. He wants us to have a healthy fear of what could happen if we don’t choose to give our whole lives to Him. There is a heaven and a hell and those who choose to live a life full of sin will unfortunately be cast into the pit and it will be an eternity of pain and sadness. He also knows that when people are hurt when younger that because of their wounds their demons will begin whispering to them in their minds causing them to blame others for their pain, blame God for not taking them out of their pain and tempting them to continue to live a sinful life, often getting into alcohol, drug or sexual abuse. He has a loving compassion for them.
When a person has given their life to Christ, they next need to choose to get their past soul wounds healed and cast out the demons (deliverance) that have had legal rights to torment them in their minds before they will see peace, joy and love as a part of the fruit of the Spirit. They must be honest, humble themselves and truly forgive everyone who hurt them and repent for their own sin. Once that process has completed then they will have peace in their minds and be able to walk in the things of the Lord. They will have the fruit of the Spirit in their life because they won’t be tormented by 50-60,000 thoughts a day of which 80% of the thoughts are negative and 95% repetitive from the day before according to a 2005 study by the National Science Foundation.
Galatians 5:16-26 discuss what a life of a typical Christian is before getting their soul wounds healed and delivered and after as they are able to walk in the true fruit of the Holy Spirit after deliverance:
Galatians 5:16-26 New King James Version (NKJV)
Walking in the Spirit
16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Too many people are convinced that they will see heaven just by attending church and reading their Bible and ‘acting’ like Christians in front of other people yet the Lord looks at our minds and hearts. We have to show fruit of the Spirit and need a healthy fear of the Lord (not one based on continuing to live an impure lifestyle in every way and treat people horribly and see what we can get away with.)
Matthew 7:15-23 New King James Version (NKJV)
You Will Know Them by Their Fruits
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
I Never Knew You
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
God searches our hearts and minds and gives to us according to our ways:
Jeremiah 17:10 New King James Version (NKJV)
10 I, the Lord, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give every man according to his ways,
According to the fruit of his doings.
So we need to have a healthy fear of the Lord and not wanting to grieve Him or the Holy Spirit and to know that He truly loves us and wants to bless us and wants none of us to perish. If we get off on the “hyper grace and love” doctrine then we lose the healthy fear of the Lord. If we fall heavily on fearing the Lord in an unhealthy way and that He is out to get us – then we don’t identify that the Lord truly loves us unconditionally. Stay in proper balance and you will feel God’s love every day and have a healthy respect and fear for the Lord. The best way to do this is to get your past soul wounds healed by asking Jesus to give you a word to heal you and then take your authority in Jesus name and command the demons that had legal right to attach to you by giving you thoughts in your mind to go to the pit in Jesus name
Hebrews 12:14-16 New King James Version (NKJV)
14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: 15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; 16 lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.
