I feel like it is time you all knew a little more about me and some secret passions of mine.
If you have read more than one post of mine then you realize that music is a big part of my life. I do not profess to sing beautifully but I can carry somewhat of a tune! 🙂 In recent years I have come out of hiding that my favorite songs are by TOBY MAC! I just absolutely love the guy!

We went to see him a couple of weeks ago in concert! Our family was mesmerized! We jammed with the best of them! I love music but music with a strong beat and a powerful message about Jesus is my beverage of choice! Seriously!

I just know that Jesus shows up when I am belting out these songs out in my garden with Toby shouting the message of TRUTH to the heavens! It might even help my tomatoes out – they seem to have issues. Since I am sharing issues…

I have felt God pressing for me to share more about “my issues”. Many times when you are a teacher of some sort, people get the strange notion that you are perfect.

I am not perfect.

Growing up as a church-goer, I have always had the impression that everyone inside the church was…well…perfect. I would try to convince myself that surely this wasn’t the case. I mean, come on’, I have heard all the teachings on how the church is a place for the hurting. However, it seemed, subconsciously, that I believed the lie that you couldn’t let all your trash spill out to these church people.

It was beyond my comprehension that many of the people who I would see regularly in the church really had big problems. Problems like mine or heaven’s sake…worse. Many times I think we believe this lie without even thinking, due to masks that people wear to cover up what was really going on.

After hearing all the stories of Jesus, I find that He really liked to get to the heart of the matter with people who He met. He would bring to the surface what some would like to keep hidden. It was at that point that healing could take place from the bondage those people are held captive to.

JESUS came to set the CAPTIVES FREE!

John 8:36 “So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.”
Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free.”

So here lies the teaching of confession…it is good for the soul.

Today I want to share with you that

I struggle with sin.

I don’t want to! I don’t have to either! God has come so that we can have access to the power (Holy Spirit) to overcome sin and be forgiven from it.

This is a humbling place to sit in when you realize that God is greater than we are and He has sent His only Son to forgive us of the sin that can so easily entangle us. GONE! FOREVER!

I struggle with selfishness, pride, and even in donning the mask of perfection to so many people, kinda like the “perfect people who I believed only were in the church. Funny how that works huh?!

I have even housed the sins that are hidden in places the sun doesn’t shine. They are hidden good. Real good. These are the ones that I am talking about today.

Satan has told me the lie that if I “just confess these to God and yourself…you don’t need to share those with others…if others knew what I know (Satan) – they may think differently of you.”

I kept telling myself that if I confessed them to God and I know I am forgiven, then why do they keep coming back and slapping me in the face?

If you have asked these question, then let me tell you that you need to read 3 things really fast…
1 – THE BIBLE
2 – SHATTERING YOUR STRONGHOLDS by Liberty Savard
3 – BATTLEFIELD OF THE MIND by Joyce Meyer

When the lights would go out and it was just me and Jesus…I would say quietly, “I just have some small issues.”

Jesus didn’t die for our issues, He died for our sins!

This is when I began to fall into the category of those people who are Christians and still struggle with bondage AND sometimes don’t want others to see these “issues”. I was a hypocrite and didn’t even know it.

Therefore, I am stepping outside the box. I am confessing, sharing the junk, airing my laundry!

I decided it was time to meet with someone wiser than me and begin to work through these confessions…you know the ones that are hidden. This person was very grounded in the Word of God and could ask the hard questions that I needed to hear.

The verse that kept ringing very loudly in my ears was:

James 5:16 says, “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”

The consequences of concealment are far greater than the consequence of CONFESSION.

As I heard someone say once, “Sooner or later our junk comes out in the wash.” So I began to unveil the mask that I used to cover these things. The enemy was not happy!

You see when we begin to bring into the light those things that are in darkness…Satan gets his panties in a wad; but My God started to move more powerfully than I had ever witnessed.

I could physically feel those chains begin to drop off of me. There was a freedom I felt like never before in my life.

Look at that scripture… Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

HEALED! Really?! I was all over that! That was pretty simple… or so I thought.

Bearing my soul to others was very difficult! But I have found that not only does God heal my heart through the confessing but GLORY… what He can do with how that testimony helps others has been what astonishes me to the core! The thought that something so horrible and bad – God can turn around and allow others to see Jesus and come into more of a deeper walk with Jesus is a MIRACLE!

The second part of that verse is just as powerful and healing… “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results”.

That is why you confess to someone who is wiser than you. Righteous people are those that are in Right Relationship with Christ. The prayers of those people are the ones that I want. They produce results! I want to be one of these people too! Daily, this is my hearts cry.

I have a friend that walks in the spiritual gift of intercessory prayer. She is compelled to go before God and literally spend hours praying for your need. Fiber sucking kind of prayers! Now that is a friend! I praise God for Susan many days!

Ephesians 2:4-6
“But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.”

WE ARE DEAD in our sins, but God has raised us from that PIT when we accept Jesus into our life!!! Do you get it!? Dead to all that funk! And we are seated with Him in heavenly realms…I bet the view is INCREDIBLE!

Ephesians 2:8-9 goes on to say, “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.”

Whew! That takes me to my knees friends! I thank Jesus that I can confess those sins and know they are DEAD! I can tell others those sins and know that God did the work of the redemption, not me. He is the Savior that can break the bondage and chains that consume us some days.

Watch this video today of Sidewalk Prophets singing, “He Loved Me Anyway.” I was gonna slip in one of my favorites by Toby Mac but while writing this post this song kept RINGING loudly through my head. There is a strong message in it that I would hate for someone to miss that is struggling with this same thing. (Don’t get distracted by the 10sec. advertisement that plays first.)

Bless you as you seek the face of God today and allow Him to bring revelation of what Sin’s you are calling issues and ignoring… It’s time to come clean and throw out the TRASH! God says he can make something beautiful out of it.

My next post will be more confessions…so come back please. We’re friends now!