Guilt

Sit

212. Guilt – enemy or friend?

Shame; the counterfeit.

We all have heard about guilt. Most Christians have heard that guilt is not something that is healthy, but so many of them still struggle with it. Guilt, just kind of, hangs on to them. Is there a healthy guilt? Is there an unhealthy or a false guilt? I think the answer is yes to both. What some call “false guilt” is actually shame.

What is guilt?

Vine’s Dictionary defines guilty as: Enochos: “held in, bound by, liable to a charge or actions at law, brought to trial, under judgment.”

Guilty and enochos are also translated in the Greek as “danger.” “Held in, contained to, have bound under obligation to, liable to, subject to, connecting a person to his crime.” The big verb is bound, bondage like one who cannot even obtain bail during the trial, imprisoned.

Justified is the opposite of guilty. Justification comes from Jesus but is confirmed in the courtroom of God while we are standing and confessing the Word against the antagonist Satan who is trying to steal our justification. Even though Jesus justified us, we cannot stand during our trials if we are under guilt. Satan attempts to keep us in guilt and/or shame so that we will not finish the process of bearing fruit and standing on the Word of God.

How and where does guilt operate?

Our soul has three functions, the will (volition), the mind or intellect, and the emotions. In much the same way our spirit has three functions, those being conscience, intuition and communion (with God or the spiritual world). 1 “I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 9:1).

Guilt works on our spirit functions, it causes callousness of the three functions and they set up like concrete and become hard. “Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:2).

“To the pure all things are pure: but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled” (Titus 1:15).

Even when we are earnestly trying to walk in the Spirit we can get tired of repenting for the same issues over and over again, and we can be paralyzed by guilt. This is Satan’s scheme.

Guilt is good.

God did not make a mistake when it comes to guilt. Guilt comes from what we believe we did wrong, breaking rules or laws. Guilt does not condemn us as bad people it only convicts us that what we did was wrong. It is designed to react to God’s laws and make us feel like we need help when we fall short. When we break a law, we are supposed to feel guilt so that we may come to Jesus and be cleansed. God set us up with the law in our hearts. Adam lost it, but Jesus got it back. If we break the law, we are set up to feel guilty. We broke the law, and the judge and court tells us “guilty.”

“For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10).

Under the Hebrew covenant, guilt was supposed to bring the people to the Day of Atonement with joy so that their sins would be blotted out. This had to do with the blood sacrifice that died in their place as they watched the priests kill the heifers, the goats, and the other animals.

What does guilt do?

If it is not dealt with according to God’s plan, guilt builds up a wall and blocks your contact with God. It is difficult to hear Him speak. It is difficult to pray, and the Word seems lifeless. If you read the Word all you feel is condemnation.

Guilt numbs our conscience, intuition, and communion. If we are going to be overcomers, we must continually hear God speak, we must have that sweet communion with Him. Otherwise, we cannot know who we really are in Christ, we cannot walk a godly life, and we cannot stand against the devil.

“Healthy” guilt should drive us to repentance and to Jesus because we see our need for the blood sacrifice and for His justification. “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death” (2 Corinthians 7:10).

The sorrow of the world is sorrow due to shame, and the end of sorrow due to shame is death, or in other words, separation from God. Death always means some type of separation.

Guilt and shame feel like a stain in your soul and spirit, and often you can even feel it in your body. Adam experienced guilt when He disobeyed God’s Word.

Shame is disguised as guilt.

It is a counterfeit of guilt perpetrated by Satan. Evil people and satanic beings have learned how to use this gift of guilt against us. If Satan cannot stop us from coming to Jesus to obtain forgiveness for those things that we did wrong, then the next tool he will use is shame.

People use shame to manipulate. My wife and I have both seen this in action. Satan, evil people and demons perpetrate shame and cause us to believe that it is guilt.

Shame builds a horrible wall between God and us just as guilt does. We cannot have intimacy with Him, our conscience feels condemned and our intuition is put out of order. We are separated from God and He cannot minister to us. We cannot sense His presence, we do not believe the Word, and we think we are unworthy, good-for-nothing sinners. We are paralyzed.

Pastor Jack Hayford of Church on the Way in Van Nuys, California told a story of a lady who desperately was seeking the baptism in the Holy Spirit but could not seem to break through. When he ministered to her for the cleansing of shame, she immediately began to praise God in tongues.

Shame blocks intimacy in marriage. Not only does shame block intimacy with God but it blocks it with others as well; the most important, being intimate in marriage.

Here are some of the attributes of shame.

Shame has no resolution; one cannot repent for anything because shame is not about what one did, it is about who one is. Shame is the result of not meeting the expectations or approval of others, or being looked down upon by others.

Shame says, “Don’t talk, don’t tell anybody,” it is a painful internal feeling. Shame tells you that you are useless, inadequate, worthless, valueless, dirty, never good enough, no good, bad, alienated, abandoned, damaged, different, defective, alone, and dumb.

I have often wondered why so many people cannot be honest and cannot express themselves. I sense that perhaps a lot of it comes from a learned behavior of keeping “shameful things hidden.”

Shame cannot be “fixed” because it’s about who we are, not about what we did.

Shame is a belief about yourself that there is something inherently wrong. You feel like you are hopelessly flawed.

Shame brings self-hatred.

People put shame on us, sometimes on purpose, sometimes innocently. Have you ever heard these shame statements?

Shame on you.	You cannot be honest.
Do not get upset.	Act like a nice girl.
Don’t cry.	Don’t betray the family.
Be good.	Be seen and not heard.
Be nice.	You did that after all I have done for you?
Be a man; act like a lady.	You make me sick.
Avoid conflict at all costs.	You are doing that same old thing again. Won’t you ever change?

Shame can be transmitted by sexual abuse. It does not even need to have been a physical abuse; simple emotional abuse will bring shame.

Sexual promiscuity will bring guilt and shame.

Shame can be transmitted by family patterns. One can learn how to manipulate people with shame because they were manipulated or because they learned the behavior from their parents.

Some people are experts at manipulating with shame. They do it unconsciously. They just seem like they put out some sort of “spiritual powder” that fills the air with “Can’t you see how bad off I am?” or, “Do you see how I have been done wrong?” or “Please feel sorry for me.” Before you know it you become their slave, serving them out of their own self-pity, doing things on their behalf that you should not be doing.

Queen Victoria, queen of England during the 1800s, studied the subject of how people controlled others. She concluded that people with evil hearts know how to manipulate people with good hearts with guilt and shame.

Good news for “bad” people. We have been justified!

“Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him” (Romans 5:9).

The good news of the Gospel is meant to set us free from guilt and shame so that we may fellowship with Jesus. Being in His presence and in His Word is the only way that He can clean us up. Sure, we all have areas where we still are law-breakers in one way or another, but instead of condemning us, Jesus wants us to come to Him so that He may eliminate our “flesh behavior” and reveal His character in us.

You will become addicted to His presence.

Once you have tasted the fresh clean breeze of being cleansed by Jesus from guilt and shame, you will become addicted to Him. The result will be that you will continually come to Him and He will continually keep you cleansed. Living in His sharp and awesome presence will keep the Word of God alive to you, it will keep His will to be your will and you will worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Do not allow guilt and shame to keep you from the weight of HIS glory!

God’s plan is for us to be in such close touch with Him that He may lead us through our intuition, that our communion with Him will be fresh and real based upon that fact that our conscience is cleansed by His blood. Ministers of all types are a gift from God, however, God wants you to hear Him for yourself.

Look at what Hebrews 8:10-12 says about the New Covenant. Basically it says that because our sin is taken away, as well as our guilt and shame, that we may KNOW the Lord for ourselves. “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Hebrews 8:10-12).

Our Pastor Emeritus Dr. Paul Walker always used the ministry style of showing his people that God does not condemn them. He emphasized the Good News. He knew that if he could remove their guilt and shame that they could connect with God for themselves and that Jesus would finish the work in that person’s life.

That cannot happen if you are paralyzed by guilt or shame. If it is guilt, then simply repent, confess your sins, ask God to help you to hate them, and He will cleanse you and forgive you. You will then be free to sense His presence and move on to maturity.

If it is shame, then appropriate the blood of Jesus and its cleansing power to wash you as white as snow.

Jesus took our place so as to eliminate both guilt and shame.

“He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify [make free from guilt and shame] many, For He shall bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:11).

We were guilty, we did commit the crime of sin, separation and disobedience, but Jesus kept the law and yet was judged guilty for our crime, He went to jail, nay, to the Cross for us. He was judged guilty when He was innocent so we could be judged innocent even while guilty, provided we accept the transfer. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Jesus bore our shame on the Cross.

“I gave My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting” (Isaiah 50:6).

Jesus offered Himself to shame for you and for me so we could be free.

“but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:7-9).

Hebrews 12:2 says that Jesus took the shame for us, ignoring, or despising it as something that He was happy to do for us. Being hung naked as a criminal in front of a crowd of mockers will bring shame, shame of many varieties, even the variety that has been put on you.

“looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

One of Jesus’ primary missions, as recorded in His mission statement of Isaiah 61 was the removal of shame. “Instead of your shame you shall have double honor, and instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double; Everlasting joy shall be theirs” (Isaiah 61:7).

Condemnation is a sense of final judgment coming from guilt and shame.

“There is therefore now no condemnation [judgment leading to guilt or shame] to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1-2).

Walking in the Spirit simply means to live an honest life before Jesus, knowing that His law is in our hearts, having a heart to obey Him and live right, and when we fall short simply confessing our sin and going on.

Forgiveness takes away both guilt and shame. To forgive is to cut away and remove. Guilt and shame both leave stains on one’s spirit and soul, and perhaps it is even experienced on the body. Forgiveness removes that stain.

Justification by the blood of Jesus will cleanse your conscience.

Conscience is a function of the spirit, but it will also cleanse your soul and body.

Hebrews 10:16-23 says, “‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,’ then He adds, ‘Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’ Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience [guilt and shame] and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”

Hebrews 9:14 says, “how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

How do we accept this gift?

1. Make Jesus and His Word your master or Lord.

You must determine to believe the Word instead of your feelings and your old flesh patterns. You must determine to obey the Word, or in other words, Jesus as Lord. Romans 10:9-10 says, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

2. Be honest with God about your condition.

All things will be cleansed in the light, all things will be kept under bondage in the dark. You must bring your condition to the light, to Jesus in honesty. If you can agree with another person, that can be powerful. However, use great caution with your confidence in others!

Cleansed by light.

“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world [put guilt or shame on the world with judgment], but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed” (John 3:17-20).

3. Forgive others and receive your own forgiveness.

4. Accept yourself for who you are, knowing that God made you his “workmanship” which is also translated “poiema” or his original one-of-a-kind poem, Ephesians 2:10.

The Israelites in Nehemiah’s days are an example of guilt and shame turning into joy.

Nehemiah chapter 8 tells us that Ezra was reading the Law, the Torah, to the Israelites for the first time in a long while. They began to weep. I believe that they were coming under conviction for their sin, which is what the Law is supposed to do. However, they were feeling guilt and/or shame because they had not totally understood the Torah.

This was the Day of Atonement, the day of fasting, humility and repentance. However, as it is stated in Leviticus 23:26-44, this only lasted for five days, then came the Feast of Tabernacles, wherein a party was held with rejoicing.

This is why Nehemiah, along with Ezra and the priests, needed to interpret Scripture and teach about the lamb (Lamb) who took away their sins, guilt, and shame. They probably spoke about the guilt offering, the scapegoat who took their sins into a deep pit never to be dug up again. He told them to go obtain good “fat laden steak,” some sweet drink and have a party in order to celebrate this good news. Then he told them, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Scriptures from Nehemiah.

“Now all the people gathered together as one man in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate; and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month. Then he read from it in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate from morning until midday, before the men and women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law” (Nehemiah 8:1-3).

“And Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, ‘This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn nor weep.’ For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the Law. Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our LORD. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.’ So the Levites quieted all the people, saying, ‘Be still, for the day is holy; do not be grieved.’ And all the people went their way to eat and drink, to send portions and rejoice greatly, because they understood the words that were declared to them” (Nehemiah 8:9-12).

Justification or guilt?

A justified person has joy. If you were the accused in a court of law, and then you heard the “not guilty” verdict, I know that you would have joy!

If all your sins are taken away from you, then all you have coming are blessings and no curses. If you are holding your sins, or if the Lamb had not been offered for them, then all you have coming are curses and no blessings.

The opposite of this condition is guilt or shame. When one experiences guilt or shame then he/she knows for sure that only evil and curses are coming. It is a horrible feeling. It is something that is built into your psyche by God.

Joy comes from knowing that your hope and expectations are only blessings. In Scripture, joy seems to be the result of having your guilt and shame removed.

The joy of the Lord comes from God’s unconditional and amazing love that He, our King would die for us!

Ezra read the law to the Israelites and they felt guilty, until Nehemiah explained that this was the Day of Atonement and that it is a celebration, so that the joy of the Lord is their strength.

You must have joy to make it through to your overcoming promise no matter how bad things look.

Guilt or shame will make you think that God has forgotten you and that you are not in contact with Him.

In Matthew 25, there were five wise and five foolish virgins. The foolish gave up while waiting for their Lord to return (and I add, with their overcoming promise). The difference was their supply of oil, or Holy Spirit level, or their joy. In order to inherit our promises we must often wait a long time, and joy is the ingredient that will give us strength for standing longer than we think we can. The wise virgins knew the character of their Lord; the foolish did not have enough revelation to give them joy.

How we treat others is a major issue.

We all need to be careful that we treat others in a way that the Lord would want us to treat them. We need to treat others with justification and not with condemnation and guilt. If we use guilt, shame and condemnation on people, even with good intentions, we are doing the work of the enemy and perhaps helping to cut off the life of God from the people we are trying to help. There may be times that the Lord would use us to help “lovingly convict” certain people for their good. I have experienced that, but one should be extremely careful to know for sure that it is the Lord who is leading this effort, lest we fall into horrible error and inflict terrible injury on another.

Jesus does not put shame on us.

“If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5, NIV). The Amplified version says, “without reproaching, or faultfinding.”

In John Steinbeck’s book, “Cannery Row”, there is a great study about guilt and shame. Doc, as a young baseball player, had thrown a pitch, which inflicted permanent brain damage on the batter (I forget his name, but we will call him Joe). Joe wandered the beach as a bum the rest of his life. Motivated by guilt, Doc would go out to find him to feed him and care for him. Doc was building a marine museum and almost had it finished. Once, when Doc was out of town, a drunk, using the place for a drunken party, broke up all his aquariums and destroyed Doc’s dream. When Doc discovered that this drunk had done the damage, he immediately forgave him, knowing that putting guilt and/or shame on another being was too terribly painful, even more painful than losing his life’s dream. It was amazing to see the sensitivity of not wanting to paste guilt and/or shame on another. If you have ever been delivered from guilt or shame by Jesus, you will be very sensitive to protect others from its horrible effects.

Ruth and Boaz.

Notice Boaz’s heart when he wanted to feed Ruth. First, he did not give her charity, but rather allowed her to glean in his fields. Then, he told his men to make sure to allow her to glean not just in the corners of the field, but even among the sheaves. Finally, he instructed his men to make sure that they did not inflict shame on Ruth as she was going about this task.

“And when she rose up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, ‘Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her’” (Ruth 2:15). The word for reproach in Hebrew is shame, the same word used when describing that Jesus bore our shame.

2 Prayer.

Shame leads to self-hatred. Where there is self-hatred we must first confess and repent. “Lord, I confess the sin of self-hatred. I repent for any self-hatred I’ve carried in my body, soul or spirit. Please forgive me and wash me clean of all self-hatred. I bring all the old ways of thinking, believing, feeling and acting to the Cross and ask you to bring that old man to death with all its shame. Resurrect Your likeness in its place. Give me Your ways of thinking, believing, feeling and acting. Renew my mind and transform my soul.”

“Jesus, You are my Lord. I confess to You my guilt and shame. I bring to You what others have done to me, what I have done to others, and those deeds that I did that were sin before You. Thank You, Lord for Your blood that was shed so that all of these deeds could be forgiven and removed. Thank You, Lord for bearing my shame and guilt even though You did not deserve it. Thank you for being called guilty and for being shamed and abused while You were totally innocent and I was totally guilty. Now I simply believe Your Word which says that I am not condemned and that my conscience is cleansed.”

“Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully” (Psalm 24:3-4).