Silencing The Accuser (Part 4)

Silencing The Accuser (Part 4)

The first lie of the accuser is doubt. The second lie of the accuser concerns your destiny.  If you stand victoriously against these first two attacks, Satan markets his third accusation, denunciation, which means criticizing and condemning.  He wants to make you an accuser instead of an intercessor.  He wants you to impose guilt on others by criticism and condemnation.

It is true that there are plenty of failures around to target with our denunciations.  There are many believers and great leaders who have lied, deceived, and committed immorality.  This was true in Bible times also for the Scriptures detail several "great men of God" who experienced tremendous spiritual defeat:

-Moses was a murderer who fled into exile to escape Pharaoh, yet called of God to deliver the Israelites from Egyptian bondage.

-David committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered Uriah, yet this man is called a "man after God's heart."

-Jonah was commissioned by God to evangelize the city of Ninevah, he deliberately headed the other direction. Yet God restored him and he preached the greatest revival in history and the whole city repented.

-Peter denied the Lord, turned his back on his calling, and returned to his previous lifestyle. Yet this man became one of the greatest leaders in the early church.   

Many denominations today would never welcome these men back into the church fellowship.  The spirit of accusation says to these people:

-"You committed adultery.  You cannot return to leadership."

-"You took another man's life.  This disqualifies you for Christian service."  

-"You turned your back on God's call.  You are a deserter and not worthy to be a minister."

Medical science used to declare about cripples, "If they are lame, let them stay lame. Don't waste time trying to rehabilitate them."  The problem with that approach was that eventually the cripple's limbs began to atrophy.

Too often this has been the attitude of the church.  We make offenders withdraw and their "limbs" become atrophied.  Yes, there should be a time of rehabilitation, but there should also be the opportunity to be used of God again.  We should be like Peter and John at the temple gate saying to those who are spiritually and emotionally crippled by shame, "Rise up and walk!"  The Scripture says in Hebrews 12:12, 13:

"Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed."  

We should strengthen those who are feeble and whose hands are weak in the battle.  We should make paths for the feet of these errant ones, humbled and repentant yet still bound by shame.  We should encourage them to rise up and walk again!  

After the incident with Bathsheba and Uriah, King David sought and received forgiveness. He cried out to God:

Psalms 51:7-12 "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow...Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities.  Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit." 

After David acknowledged his sinand repented, he received a new passion for God.  Immediately he began to minister to others:

Psalm 51:13 "Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You."

David said "then", but when was “then”?  Immediately after he was forgiven and restored.  It was "then" that he began to teach sinners and they were converted to God.

We often brand offenders with the "scarlet letter," so to speak, and they are marked for life, but the Apostle Paul details how we should deal with repentant, fallen believers:

Galatians 6:1 "Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted."

When believers fall we are to restore them. The word "restore" in the original Greek means "setting of a broken bone."  Restoration does not mean glossing over the sin, treating it lightly, or pretending it did not happen.  Instead, like a doctor dealing with a broken bone, you deal directly with the injury.  Amputation is not the solution for a broken bone!