Christians-I know that you can lose your salvation by turning away from God?

Question

I have been so lazy in my prayer life, and I do not go to church as I find most of it boring, and I do not read my bible as much as I should. I have had a very close walk with Father, and in return has blessed me with dreams and visions from him. Now since I have gotton lazy is that walking away from God? I am not doing it on purpose. I am worried if I died I will end up in hell. I love Jesus and believe he died on the cross as we all would be going to hell if he did not come onto the world. I believe he is the son of the living God, and I have repented for most of my sins. I feel that this may not be enough. Even going to church you are not gauranted to be saved. I am not a church goer. Each to their own right? Anyway I want genuine replies only, no smart asses. Christians if you are not going to be genuine do not respond, because if you do judge, you are not the christian you thought you were, you would be a hypocrite instead. Nice christians only please.

Answer 1

Leanne, (long but please read)

I have come back to add more. I spent nearly 2 hours typing, not once but twice..both times Internet explorer shut down because it encountered a problem causing me to lose all my work and typing..I was very tempted to give up as it is late and I am tired but I am doing this for one as I think it will help and so I hope you will reread this answer if you already read it. Of course, it will be impossible to get it like I had it as I will forget a lot, but I will do my best.

THE ANSWER

The good news is that we cannot lose our salvation by our works.

The bible says "you are saved by faith not works lest any man should boost."

This means nothing you do (good things/sins) or don't do (good things/sins of omission) can make any difference in whether we get to heaven or not. I know this sounds shocking but that is what the good news is all about.

If we can after our salvation lose or gain it due to our actions, then why do we need a savior. Why would God send His only, dearly loved son to suffer horrifically to propitiate (appease, make peace with, conciliate) for us. If we could do it ourselves, then what need have we of him. If it is a free gift of salvation, we cannot earn it..no more after salvation than before. Period. It is ALL dependent on his finished work on the cross and our faith and belief that He died in our place taking upon himself the sins of man. By His stripes we are healed and by His blood cleansed white as snow.


Let me put it in the form of a human story to try to get the point across in a way that is understandable. Let's suppose you are in a plane crash and survive..you are lost in a jungle in the middle of nowhere. You have badly broken legs and internal injuries, but if you can get to a hospital, a place of safety, you can survive. You are depressed and worried..you don't want to die. then you remember the co-pilot telling you about a man who lives in this area. The man is dependable and caring.

You pray he will come as you will die without His help and then suddenly, your prayers are answered and he appears. He picks you up and carries you (like in footprints) and promises He will never abandon you--that He will do everything necessary..everything in His power to save you.

"Do not worry" he tells you for I love people and long to help them. I will carry you to safety and a place of help and rest where you will be saved from certain death. He tells you about a cruel man who lives in the area..as man who has killed and tried to prevent him from helping the people in need before...but assures you he is strong and totally committed to saving you and your life. I will prevail; it is my life's mission.

He sets off and you rest against Him believing He will
indeed save you. Suddenly there appears the evil man and he tries to persuade your savior from helping you--offering him money, power, whatever he wants on earth..but the man who carries you rebukes him and proceeds in his rescue of you. The more he sees you weaken, the stronger he becomes in his resolve to save you..the more you travel, the closer you become...the more He feels your hurts and pains and the more tenderness he feels for you..the greatest His desire to save you and your life. But then ...

Suddenly he sets you down and says.."friend, I will leave all the rest up to you..the hospital is 500 miles to the east..try hard and you may make it..."I am sick," you protest.."I am weak beyond measure"..."please don't leave me for I will surely die on my own"...but

he leaves..you try with all your strength and heart to make it..unable to walk, you crawl and roll..and are able to get 2 blocks in a day..next day you try harder, as hard as you possibly can, and you get 4 blocks but next day, you weaken and fall
back down the hill you have struggled with all day the day before ..try as you might, you will die as you will lose too much blood...you will grow weak with hunger and thirst and you will die (in your sins).

Would you, LeAnne, feel that this savior you had been told about loved you...loved you enough to keep His word. that .I will do anything to save you," he had said that ..and for a while He did...He struggled mightily miles after weary miles, but then as hope filled you, He then left you to your own devises and works to save yourself. Left your to save yourself when knowing that was impossible as you needed a savior.

.Would you feel He was your Savior if you died anyway...if He left it up to you knowing it is impossible for someone in such bad shape to make it on their own. Oh, some people He had helped had been stronger...they covered a mile a day, but still died...some had been weaker and only gotten a few feet...but they ALL died and this savior was not enough.

Do you feel Jesus is a savior like this man in the woods...ones that struggles mile after mile appearing to love you greatly only you abandon you in your weak and lost condition...only to put the burden back on you? or do you feel He can be trusted when He says that all the powers of hell cannot snatch sinners He loves from His hand..

Do you feel this savior cannot save you all the way but only half way=saved not from future and present sins which he counts against you but only saves you of the past ones--weren't they all future sins when He nailed them to the cross 2000 years ago and said "it is finished"...the long awaited lamb of the world taking on himself the sins of man..by His stripes we are healed..by His blood we are saved. Is Jesus a liar or is Satan the father of lies...He who like the evil man in the woods longs for your destruction and death and that of any humans he encounters lost and afraid and injured..by the trials of life. Jesus does not lie when He says..nothing can separate us from the love of God..when He says by faith you have been saved (not will be, not might be, but have been as in already passed back on the cross. He will not rest until he sees you safe in the heavenly places..His blood will be there when the angel of death stands at the judgement waiting to see if you will be judged under the law (10 commandments/ golden rule/ etc) --and all thos trusting in their own good works will die eternal death for there is"noone holy, no, not one, all have gone astray" Romans tell us or iwaiting to see if you will be covered in the blood of Jesus (looking to the power of the blood rather than the awfulness of your sins) and thus, you will be under grace having once trusted God to save you and He is trustworthy..his part was dying out of love--our part is believing what he says and placing our very souls upon that rock of salvation--on what He did not what we did/do. If we are the latter, then, praise God for the good news that
He will passover all these who are saved..and they will go on to paradise.

Would the real God..the jesus who wept for the death of his friend Lazarus,
loved the children, healed the lepers and blind out of love and
mercy and compassion --would He leave you because you were weak or a sinner...did he not have mercy on the adulteress and the theif on the cross..if He did it for them, He is honor bound by his fair nature to do the same for you for while we were yet dinner He died in our place..how much more will He do for us now that we are His children..

Trust His words and look to what He is doing, not you..when you realize just how free that salvation is..that it costs you absolutely nothing..not giving up things...not doing a bunch of good things, the paradox is then when you stop trying so hard to save yourself and let Him carry you, you will become so grateful, you will find yourself wanting to do better out of your love for Him. But even if you don't, He still loves you..do you stop loving your dearly loved child because he disappoints you, messes up, or even doesn't love or appreciate you. As a mom, I tell you, no, you might worry about the child or even allow them to experience the consequences of their wrongs but you still love them. If they say they are sorry, you forgive them..if human parents do this, so does God but more perfectly. So stop worrying...remember "it was grace that taught my soul to fear (hell) and (then) grace my fears relieved (when I learned I am not going to hell after all, not because I am good, but because He loved me and did for me what I could not do for myself..just like the guy in the woods did but God delivers..you will once this sinks in deeply and understanding comes never again sing the words "how precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed>" the same way.
The fact is God no longer looks at us and sees the sinner..he looks at us and sees the blood that covers us and is satisfied. If He loved us enough to die for us while we were yet sinners, how much more now that we are children of God.

In Romans we learn two things happened on that cross at Calvary..one was Jesus took away our sins (and that includes all our sins of our lifetimes even though then ours were all future and in our time some are past and some are still yet to be committed..at Calvary they were all taken to the cross and paid for with the innocent blood of the Lamb. This acceptance by God of the blood sacrifice was foretold throughout the Bible beginning with the acceptance of Abel's lamb and rejection of Cain's vegetables and fruits. The blood sacrifice was accepted and Cain was jealous and slew Abel. Then we see the foretelling of what god would do in sacrificing his only son in the story of Abraham, but what Abraham was asked to do (sacrifice and kill his son) was stopped but God did what He did not make Abraham do (suffer seeing His dear son die). then when Moses was doing the plague..the israelites were told to put the blood of a lamb on the doorpost and the firstborn of the household would not die when the angel of death came but they would be passed over when the angel saw the blood (the blood protected them from physical death as Jesus blood protects us from eternal death). This was known as the Jewish passover and at the final judgement after Satan (the accuser of the breathren) reads the lists of crimes and sins against each of us, God will look to see if we had ever believed in Jesus as our savior and if we were covered in the blood of the Lamb our shephard, Jesus. If we are covered in the blood...if it is on the doorpost of our hearts, He will passover us at the final judgment.. Then when Moses and company wandered the desert for 40 years, again the blood sacrifice came into play...the high priest would go into the holy of holies and offer an animal blood sacrifice and for one year, God would not hold people's sins against then..he would allow the innocent sacrifice to stand in and take the punishment but it was only good a year. We needed an eternal sacrifice..once for all time and for all sins of mankind..so jesus was the true lamb of God so long awaited and foretold. He took our place of death for the wages of sin is death but the free gift of salvation comes through Jesus work on the cross for us. He died in our place...so you cannot be charged with something Jesus already paid in full...for it was the same words He yelled from the cross when He said it is finished..

In those days, a prisoner would be sent to jail for his crimes..after he had served whatever many years of his sentence he had been given..the list of his crimes was given to him..across the list of sins and crimes, the word that Jesus yelled from the cross was stamped on the prisoner's list of crimes. If he was stopped for this crime, he need only produce this paper and show the words stamped over the crimes that meant "paid in full" It is this word jesus breathed from the cross just before e died..paid in full. Since he paid for you being lazy or whatever sin you are worried about, you cannot be charged with it ever again..he produces a paper of your lifetime of sins and stamps paid in full with His blood upon it..so instead of worrying, LeAnne, about going to hell...instead thank and praise God for His great love for you and for all poor sinners in forgiving fully and completely all your sins. He gives a free gift of salvation..our job is to take it and this is called faith..the only thing that can keep you out of heaven is if you never had faith...but if you trusted Him to save you at any point ion your life, it was then you were saved and now nothing (no laziness or sin of the present or future) can keep you from the love of God. Let this sink in for this is the fabulous truth of the good news. For further info read Hal Lindsey's book Amazing Grace (amazon) where I first heard it presented in this way. Also seek out websites about cannot lose salvation. The devil wants you fearful and worrying..so He can get His foot in the door.
But now you know the truth and the truth will set you free. God bless.

ps--the 2nd thing that happened on the cross in addition to our many sins was removing our sin (nature)..He did this when he became the second Adam..when He died we died becasue we were "in him"..this is like if your grandpa died in war before he had your dad there would be no you for when he (grandpa) died, you died because you were in him..when jesus went to the cross, he died and took our old man (adam--that you that loves to sin and is drawn to sin) to the cross with Him..and when He rose, we rose with Him..but not only is the old man dead but he gave us the enchanged life and rexchanged our filthy rags of sins with his own righteous..now when we look at ourselves we see the sinner but when God looks at us not only does he see us clothed in the blood of the lamb but the very holiness and righteousness of Jesus who he clothed us in ...he looks at us and sees us as if we were already in heaven in our holiness and robes of the saints...it is a hard concept to underatand and this 2nd part of us dying and rising with Him isn't talked about or explained in churches much but it is in the bible clearly. Again see Hal Lindsey's book.

Answer 2

I don't believe your walking away from God, but you certainly aren't progressing either. I know too that I'm the same way. It's good to go to church though, for fellowship with others, but if you really feel you can't go, then the best you can do is pray. Anyway you won't go to Hell for not going to church (that's basically dogma from Catholics.) Remember that there is no sin that cannot be forgiven (with the exception of the denial of Holy Spirit which is basically not becoming a believer.) So it seems to me that your pretty much saved, though I would suggest reading the Bible sometime. Well, keep faith, and God bless.

Answer 3

I hope being lazy is not walking away from Father God because I am guilty of that myself. I find that He wants my heart the most. I might suggest that you try learning just one or two verses a week from the Bible and try to remember to thank Father God for something a least once a day. I promise that He has a long reach and just a tiny step toward Him will bring a Giant step from Him toward you. And another thing, tell Jesus everyday that you love Him. Faith in Jesus has a way of growing all over again.

Answer 4

Hello, It is natural in this day and age to be disappointed with the church, but you must remember, that Christians are the church and as a whole it is good to join together and worship, and fellowship in Christ. To admonish eachother, to learn and teach, to worship, - if you are disatisfied with the current church you were attending... there's nothing stopping you from going to another. Just because of one bad apple, doesn't mean they are all tainted.
Let me share something with you... you will never ever find the perfect church, you must remember what is most important is your own personal walk with God, DAILY. With prayer and study and gaining a closer walk with God , the Holy Spirit will guide and lead you where you should go, and also teach you and give you discernment on what is right or wrong with Christian thinking as a whole, and steer you in the right direction.
It is true, once saved not always saved... we are encouraged to not just feed off the milk of the word, but eat the meat of the word as well... we who are no longer babes should know better that we cannot go by the infant teachings we once knew when we were first starting out. You can't live on the lyrics " Jesus loves me this I know" all your life.
You need to repent for all of your sins my friend, even if you are ashamed, He knows them anyway. He knows what we do in secret, there is no hiding and no running away. But that's okay, Jesus tells us to " come as we are" rags and all.
I understand all to well of having dreams and visions from God, and I tell you I yearn for it! I enjoy the closeness so much, and I too have felt that they wane when I am not in a daily walk with CHrist!
Ask yourself, what is stopping you from gaining that closeness with God again? It's only you, and it's up to you.
God does not like idleness, really it's a waste of time, you may not be doing it on purpose, but the effort is no longer there. You have to make the effort, and it takes at least 3 months to create a bad habit... It takes just as long to create a new one!
If you have to, set some time in the morning in a journal for study or prayer, or to think about God and who He is to you. 15 minutes isn't long to pray or give Him your time is it? Start out small, and soon you will find that a half hour has gone by, and then 45 minutes... and then longer!
Take time out to read the bible, Before bed is a good time to start. It allows you to relax and Who better to think of before you lay your head down on the pillow! You can do this, you just need alittle help. It's hard finding God and staying at His side alone, if you need some company along the way, feel free to email me.

Christians are to judge but not harshly. We are to help those fellow brothers and sisters who are backslidden and need help.
I encourage you to make it a daily occurance ( if not already ) to pray and take time for God.

God Bless,
Your sis in Christ, Shannon

Answer 5

Dear friend,

Don't despair. It's not about what we do that gives us salvation. We can never be good enough or go to church enough to be saved. All God requires is that you believe that Jesus is God, ask for forgiveness of your sins, and ask him to be in charge of your life.

As for going to church, we do this because He calls us to be in relationship not only with him, but with other believers as well. He wants us to fellowship, worship with others and to be encouraged in our growth. Check out Acts 2: 42-47. This is what the church SHOULD look like. Unfortunately many churches don't. We have recently started doing house church because it just fits us better. We feel like the relational part of church is much stronger in a smaller setting.

So be encouraged. We all go through dryspells in our journey with God. Just like any relationship, it takes work. Unlike any other relationship, it's harder to feel connected because we can't see God.

I will be praying for you as you seek freshness in your relationship with God. I've been there many times, and can relate to your struggle. *hugs*

Answer 6

My friend, I have heard questions very similar to this often.

First I would point out that many have a problem with "serving" God because they are not saved in the first place. They think they are because someone asked them if they believed that Jesus died for their sin and when they said yes, they declared them to be saved. This would only give a head knowledge and they would only know about God. To know GOD, one has to have a relationship with Him. You can see how in the link below.

If you know you have this relationship and still fall flat when you try to serve GOD....my suggestion is to STOP serving HIM and stop working for GOD and simply....learn to LOVE HIM!

If we love someone, we want to do the things that please them and it is no longer a chore to do those things.

Eternal Life! Eternal Or Temporary?
http://www.shatterdmen.com/eternal_life.htm

Answer 7

We are Christian soldiers, and G-d takes us through various courses in our life. Each of us has a different walk with the L-rd and we are not to judge one another. You yourself must answer to what He is calling you to do. G-d has taken me by various paths and I know that I can feel the tug to do greater things for Him, even more then just answering questions here. Yet this may be a proving ground, for me as it may be for you. Challenge yourself in this, then, see how much you can do for Him. Chances are, if churches bore you, it is because you are called to do more then warm a pew and that He has given you the wherewithal to serve Him in some capacity.

Answer 8

Only you know whether you're saved or not. If you have truly repented, asked for forgiveness, and asked Jesus Christ to come into your heart, then you are saved. If you're not happy with the church you're in, then find another church, one thats not "boring". And start praying again, there's nothing like the power of prayer.

Answer 9

I believe that once a person exercises saving faith in Jesus Christ, he or she is forever in the family of God. God never kicks anyone our of his forever family. A number of Scripture passages support this view. For example, in 1 Corinthians 12:13 we are told that at the moment of salvation the Holy Spirit places us in the body of Christ. Once we are infused into the body of Christ, we are never excised from the body. In fact, Ephesians 1:12 and 4:30 indicate that at the moment of believing in Jesus Christ for salvation, we are permanently "sealed" by the Holy Spirit. At that point, we are God's everlasting property. That seal guarantees that we'll make it to heaven.
Moreover, we read in John 10:28-30 that it is the Father's purpose to keep us secure despite anything that might happen once we have trusted in Christ. Nothing can snatch us out of His hands. God's plans cannot be thwarted (Isaiah 14:24). Further, Romans 8:29-30 portrays an unbroken chain that spans from the predestination of believers to their glorification in heaven.
Another fact we need to keep in mind is that Christ regularly prays for each Christian (Hewbews 7:25). With Jesus interceding for us, we are sucure. (His prayers are always answered!)
Of course, the fact that a believer is secure in his salvation does not mean he is free to sin. If the Christian sins and remains in that sin, Scripture says that God will discipline him or her just as a father disciplines his children (see Hebrews 12:7-11).
Source(s):
The Complete Book of Bible Answers by Ron Rhodes

Answer 10

We can lose our Anointing, but not our Salvation, the only way of losing our salvation is to stop believing. To believe in Christ and how he died for our sins, and came back to life.... To believe that he is your Savior and That God is your Father, and the only way to the Father is through Christ. If you believe in all of that.... Your Salvation is secure, regardless of "performance". But the key is the Relationship you have with your FATHER, and not the work of our hands, for we will not produce anything worthy of praise from God without God

Answer 11

Some some Protestant sects think that you can never lose your salvation. I think we all sometimes grow lazy and neglect God, and although that certainly is not good, I don't think it immediately cancels out our salvation. Take the weakest part of your faith and work on it.

God's weakness is stronger than man's strength.