Strategy 5: Your Past

Psalm 103: 12
He has removed our sins as far from us
    as the east is from the west.

Ever seen an interrogation room? Yeah, yeah, like the ones on Law and Order. I have spent my fair share of time watching criminal justice shows. Most of these shows will have a scene or two in the interrogation room. Normally, the scene starts with a sad looking soul, the accused or the suspect, sitting in a room. Maybe accompanied by a table and another chair, but they are definitely alone. Suspenseful music plays as they wait for the investigator to walk into the room and start hounding them with question after question. In the mean time, they are left alone with their thoughts. You can feel their sense of dread and despair.

The enemy would love for you to think that you are sitting in that chair waiting for Jesus or an Angel to come in and sit across from you. The enemy wants you to think that they can not wait to interrogate you and ask you about every sin that you have ever committed. Satan’s goal in all of this would be to make you feel guilty, ashamed and worthless. He wants to give you the illusion that God is standing behind the two way mirror, judging you and deeming you a loss cause. You can’t see behind that two way mirror, but the father of lies has made you feel that God is back there just looking down at you in utter disappointment.

Noooooooo!!!! Remember, Priscilla told us that the enemy loves to live in the past. The past that we have been forgiven of, but the enemy just can’t let go. The past that Jesus died for, but the enemy wants you to think that was not for you. Satan’s lies could not be further from the truth. Psalm 103:12 tells us that God cast your sins as far as the east is from the west. Hebrews 8:12 reminds us that God remembers sin no more. Isaiah 43:25 says God wipes out our transgressions. Hear me say this loud and clear. There is no interrogation room. Remember, the woman at the well in John 4 and the woman caught in an affair in John 8. Their sin was laid out in front of Jesus and did he condemn either of them? No, he used one to make more believers and the other he told to sin no more.

But, I don’t know what you have done.

And you are right.

Priscilla talks about how Satan wants you the think your sins and your past are the worse than anybody else. I can only hope you find solace in Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Did you catch that? ALL have fallen short of the glory of God. Not, just you, but all. Then, verse 24 goes on to tell us that all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. All are justified. Justified = made righteous in the sight of God.

So please, don’t stand in the mirror and watch replay after replay of your past. Don’t focus on what you could have done differently, don’t obsess over how you failed, don’t think how could you have been so foolish. God does not remember your sins, so why are they haunting you? That mistake you made, that lie you told, and that test you cheated on does not disqualify you when it comes to God. 2 Corinthians 3:5 reminds us that we are not qualified to do anything on our own, but our qualifications come from God. You are free to turn and go the other way, never having to relive those mistakes, those missteps, or those mishaps.

So this week, when the enemy comes for you and tries to turn on that footage of your worst mistakes, your past blunders, or your shortcomings. When he is bringing up everything about your past that you are trying to forget. Try reminding him of his future. Matthew 25:41 tells us that his eternity will be spent in an eternal fire that was made for him. That will be one hell of a reminder.

1. Now, go and read the chapter if you haven’t. I swear I haven’t spoiled it for you.
2. Pray that God reveals to you what past sin or failure has the devil used as a stronghold making you believe that you are unqualified. Ask that he reveals to you what lies that you are believing about your past are keeping you in bondage and unable to walk in the fullness of your inheritance as a child of God?
3. Read the story of the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 and then flip over to John 8 to read about the woman caught in adultery. Both stories are evidence that prove that your past does not disqualify you or define you.
4. Start crafting your prayer strategy. Get specific.
5. Pray, fervently. Adding and taking away from your prayer strategy as you see fit.
6. Last type it up and print it out. Then go hide in the places where you need to be reminded that your past has no place here. Reminded that you have been forgiven. Reminded that you have not been disqualified.