God knows. He is outside of Time. He knows not only the Beginning and End of Human History – He Created it all – every detail – He knows every moment and outcome before we are even aware of what is on our path.
He wants us to embrace His doctrine, His will. That embrace is our salvation.
He knows we are sinners. He knows how dark it is here. This is why He sent His son, Jesus. Jesus came into this world as a human to fulfill His mission here. The mission of Truth – forgiveness, love, and salvation. Jesus died for us and cleansed us of our sins. His Blood is our Salvation. Covered with the protection of the Blood He Shed? Then we can say We Are Property Of The Messiah. Nothing can change that. Ever.
But we are human. We were born into a dark world. We sinned and that led us to Christ. However…
We should never dwell on the sins, perpetuate them, and wallow in afterthought. Jesus died in order to pay for all of our sins. If we remain in a state of just focusing on the sins, it is as if we don’t believe Jesus died for us. Once we are born again we need to let go of that toxic past which Jesus cleansed and God forgave. The worst thing we could do is to focus on what we did. We lose sight of God’s will. And we lose the opportunity for metanoia.
God knows we sin, have sinned, and may sin again. We live in darkness. This world is run by the devil. The devil will manipulate situations, attempting to make sinners feel unworthy of God and to make the cleansed, reborn followers of Christ fall away from metanoia.
Metanoia – a Greek word that comes from μετα (meta = post/after) and νοια (from νου = mind). So, metanoia is to be in the state of mind that results afterwards. In the case of metanoia, it means the state of mind of a Christian post-rebirth, post-forgiveness, post-cleansing.
It is the state of metanoia that allows us to grow as Christians.
- In metanoia, we learn to forgive those in our lives who have wronged us, and that enables us to understand what it means to be forgiven by God.
- In the state of metanoia, we understand our human nature, understanding where we went wrong, able to prevent ourselves from making the same mistakes.
- In the state of metanoia, a spiritual cleansing occurs. This cleansing allows for our relationship with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit to reveal itself to us as being of greater dimensions – one of more depth, insight and connection – because we are now in a ‘cleaner’ less toxic ‘place’.
- Our spiritual self becomes the lens through which we perceive our earthly surroundings, as well as allowing for a deeper connection with the Divine.
The devil? He hates seeing humans in the state of metanoia.
The spiritual cleansing of rebirth and forgiveness, of our salvation, creates a light to shine from within, steadfast love for God to ground our existence on this dark planet, and the understanding of our true identity and our real ‘power’ as God’s children, as His creation.
Those in metanoia are most often spiritually attacked. The devil does not want to see this spiritual growth of God’s children. Once reborn and cleansed, we embrace a truth the devil wants hidden from the masses. The spiritual growth and change of the spiritually cleansed and forgiven. The reborn experience this.
This newfound state of saved people makes us vulnerable to one of the devil’s plans to thwart this spiritual growth, this state of metanoia. One of the most common ploys to trip us out of ‘metanoia’ and back to the dark is a form of spiritual attack, a very powerful yet subtle one. The twisting of truths.
God always takes care of His children. Those of us who approached Him, asked to be cleansed, forgiven and reborn, are vulnerable to a particulary subtle twisting of truths while we are on our new path. Those that chose Jesus as their King and Shepherd, and experience the presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling within them and guiding them through every step, are helped by God in every step we take – even though we aren’t aware of it.
One of the most important things God does once we enter the state of metanoia (or post forgiveness state of mind) is the safe zone.
God creates a safe zone for us.
He takes us away, removes us, from what is now too toxic and dark for our evolving spiritual state.
Where is the attack?
We often don’t perceive our transport to a ‘safe zone’. We undergo a ‘separation’ or ‘removal’ from the mud. It’s not necessarily a physical distance. But we don’t often perceive God’s hand in this protective space he built around us because at this very time he ‘seperates’ us from what is harmful, we can only see that we find ourselves suddenly on the firing line – being criticized, slandered, picked on, hated or shunned. And it feels and appears to us like a hurtful personal situation.
Therein lies the attack. That ‘perception’ of a conflict with those around us is actually a manipulated one, from the dark side.
What we see, the hate, the slander, is real. We may have just woken up to it, and it could have always been there, or it just developed after we became saved.
Why do we suddenly see it when we are born again? Because the light and the spiritual cleansing of ‘metanoia’ literally made us ‘different’.
Even if we never discuss anything spiritual with anyone – it’s evident. Our ‘frequencies’ aren’t harmonious with more toxic beings. That energetic disonnance creates a ‘rejection’ reaction in these toxic people around us. God allows this to roll out, as he ‘removes’ us from them in this way. It’s not their battle cry and their bullyism or hatred that is ‘strong’ – it is our victory that prevails. Their behavior is the catalyst we need to move on. God provided that. The toxicity surrounding us may have always been there. But we changed. Now we see it. We were able to cleanse and rise above that darkness. And that is God signaling us to move on, to move away from that.
Christ taught us to keep our distance, and we understand that teaching best after our salvation, our cleansing, in the metanoia state of thinking, because we can see our surroundings differently.
“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.
-Matthew 7:6
Christ knew we would be ‘attacked’ even by our ‘loved ones’. Those family and friends we gave of ourselves to, now attack us openly. Spiritual Dissonance. Jesus warned us of this. So Jesus went on to say…
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Matthew 7:7
Jesus said this knowing that we would be feeling bewildered, alone, insecure, shaken from our interactions with the world around us – even though we feel the joy, warmth and security of being saved.
Because this is the ‘time’ Jesus spoke of in Matthew 6 & 7…when we must turn to Him to help us. We feel as if we now ‘need’ other things, as the worldliness of our surroundings appears meaningless. We are constantly growing, living our daily lives in a new way that is ‘together’ with God – having been saved and able to grow in His protection.
Saved? Redeemed? Covered by His blood? Reborn by God through Jesus Christ? Then we are abiding in Christ, and the Holy Spirit is dwelling within us. And God is now directing our lives, protecting us as we grow spiritually, seeing the world through the spirit. We are united with the Divine, with our Creator.
My friends, stay strong…these times are more perilous than ever.
in Christ, Sosanni
The Narrow Way 