Church At Ephesus
Heart Condition of Believers at Ephesus
The church at Ephesus was comprised of believers who were noted for having fallen from God’s grace and who were engaged in religious works. They grew judgmental and critical while they languished in their “self-righteous” mental condition that caused them to look down on others. They falsely supposed that they deserved God’s blessing more than others because of their religious zeal for the Lord.
There are numerous believers who have fallen into the same bad heart-condition as the believers of the church of Ephesus had done. This seems to be a sin which is common among many “mature” believers who have been saved for decades and have gained a lot of bible knowledge and over time have slipped away from their first love which they previously had for the Lord back when they were newly saved.
All mature believers should guard themselves from this dangerous heart condition that was evident in the believers in the church that was located at Ephesus. Jesus gave his rebuke to these self-righteous and religious old believers and these words of rebuke were recorded by the Apostle John as a warning to all believers in the following generations to beware that their hearts also do not fall from their first love. Mature hard-hearted believers can easily become defiled by a root of bitterness and they can become judgmental and critical and self-righteous in their religious service to God. Those contaminated by such a religious attitude are those who have become void in their love for God and stand only in their religious zeal.
The Church at Ephesus was like this because they became religious and they viewed others with contempt.
Rebuke for Believers at Ephesus
Below is a rebuke given by the Lord to the believers who were located in the church at Ephesus. These are the words of the Lord Jesus himself so they carry great weight and authority and have pertinent application to any mature believer in present times who also has fallen from grace and has grown religious and critical and holds others in contempt.
Revelation 2:1-7 (NIV)
1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands:
2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.
3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.
5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
6 But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
These believers at Ephesus indicate by their behavior that they were not novice or immature believers.
Hebrews 5:13-14 (NASB)
13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.
14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.
It is a quality of a mature believer that they have gone beyond the milk of exhortation of God’s word and are able to handle meat-teaching which includes rebukes and calls to repentance. Those who are mature spiritually have their senses trained to discern both good and evil. They know that even those who appear righteous outwardly can be defiled by evil motives from within.
Revelation 2:2 (NASB)
2 ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false;
These believers at Ephesus demonstrate by all attributes that they are mature believers. They did not tolerate evil men but put those to the test who were claiming to be Apostles but were not. They exposed them as being false ministry intruders who had no calling or gift from God.
This is the behavior of those who were mature believers who know by experience that those who claim a ministry gift but are unable to demonstrate its fruit are not called to the ministry. However immature believers generally cannot tell the difference between a false prophet and one called by God. Babies will put anything into their mouth and immature believers will also receive false doctrines without testing what is being said. But mature believers know to test everything before they receive teaching which has fallen from grace.
Galatians 2:4 (NLT2)
4 Even that question came up only because of some so-called Christians there—false ones, really—who were secretly brought in. They sneaked in to spy on us and take away the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. They wanted to enslave us and force us to follow their Jewish regulations.
There were religious leaders from the group of the Pharisees who wanted to subvert the congregations of believers among the Gentiles who were won to the Lord by the preaching of Apostle Paul. These religious men sought to spy out the freedom these believers had by living in God’s grace and even sought to ensnare them into legalistic religious bondage by their false teaching.
Acts 15:1-2 (NLT2)
1 While Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch of Syria, some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the believers: “Unless you are circumcised as required by the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
2 Paul and Barnabas disagreed with them, arguing vehemently. Finally, the church decided to send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem, accompanied by some local believers, to talk to the apostles and elders about this question.
These were Jewish religious proselytizers who sought to bring the Gentile believers under the same religious bondage that they themselves were ensnared in. Apostle Paul knew well about this sort of religious bondage which was based upon human self-effort to gain their own salvation by works. Paul and Barnabas were saved from this sort of religious bondage and they would not permit for even one second that these religious men should try to bring the Gentile believers away from grace and ensnare them into religious bondage based solely on human self-effort!
Mature Believers Call Out Fallen Preacher
I know of a man who had had experienced great revivals and a move of God in many nations and he even was brought before kings and presidents during the time that he had formerly walked with God while in God’s glory. But the same man later in life met a beautiful Levite woman who was seeking some sort of ministry outlet but she had none without a Levite husband to endorse her into the ministry. She then latched onto this guy in order to use him as a means to have some avenue for the ministry. The problem however was that he was already married and had children. He however divorced his wife of many years and abandoned his own children in order to marry this beautiful Levite woman.
See the link “Levite Woman” for more details.
When he did this however there was a great uproar among the mature believers who could see immediately that this former great man of God was deceived by Satan to do this.
Mark 10:11-12 (CJB)
11 He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against his wife;
12 and if a wife divorces her husband and marries another man, she too commits adultery.”
The mature believers who knew this man when he formerly had walked with God were quick to call him out on his deception that he was now living in adultery as a divorced man whose original wife was yet alive.
This man however grew defensive saying publicly, “I have not done anything wrong!” I have not committed murder or stole anything!” He even tried to justify himself that God was still with him despite the fact that he has never again seen the moves of God that he once experienced before falling away from God and divorcing his own wife.
The point of the matter here is that immature believers were perplexed and confused when this former minister testified that divorcing his wife for no reason and marrying another woman was not a sin. But the mature believers were having none of it and they openly called him out on it because they know the scriptures and were not buying into his self-justification of his living in adultery as a divorcee!
This shows that these believers who called out the fallen preacher were mature believers who by their knowledge of God’s word and real-life experience were able to discern between good and evil (even despite the false claims of this fallen preacher when he said that he had done no wrong).
Mature Believers Call out Denial of Christ
Another example of mature believers calling out a fallen preacher was when a well-known pastor of a huge church was invited to preach in a Buddhist University. When the pastor was confronted by these Buddhists with the question, “Is Christ the only way of salvation?” then this preacher could not clearly say yes! Later his recorded speech given at this Buddhist University was posted publicly on Utube and mature believers called him out for the fact that he had refused to say Jesus was the only way of salvation. All the while that he was giving his Buddhist University sermon, this pastor was beating around the bush so profusely that he was not making any sense whatsoever! But all during his speaking time he refused to come right out and say to the Buddhists that there is no salvation outside of faith in Jesus Christ.
Later this man also got defensive and stated publicly that he never denied Christ but in fact he had refused to publicly declare that Christ is the only way of salvation (when he was put on the spot before an entire audience full of Buddhist practitioners).
The mature believers (who have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil) knew that to refuse to acknowledge Jesus publicly like that was in fact a denial of Christ! It did not matter if he was the pastor of a huge church and a world renown preacher because the mature believers knew this was in error despite of his claims to the contrary. Yet this fallen preacher insisted that he did nothing wrong and that he did not deny Christ! But refusing to acknowledge Christ as the only way of salvation when confronted by false religious people is in fact a denial of Christ in blatant manner for someone who was a believer for many decades like this man was and who served in the role of a “General” in rank among believers.
See the link “Sin of Denial” for more details.
All of this is an illustration that the believers at Ephesus were of the category of being “mature” and they had their senses exercised to discern good and evil and they were quick to call anyone out who asserted otherwise.
Mature Believers Call Out False Preachers
Revelation 2:2 (NIV)
2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.
Again, it should be noted that the believers at Ephesus were of the “mature” category because they were able to call-out those false preachers who were not speaking the truth!
Steadfast like a Machine
Revelation 2:3 (NIV)
3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
Another attribute of a mature believer is that they are steadfast and immovable and they operate day in and day out with the faithfulness of a machine! The mature believers at Ephesus persevered and they endured hardships for the Name of the Lord and they did not grow weary in doing what was right.
Revelation 2:6 (NIV)
6 But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
It was even something to their favor that they possessed a hatred from the wicked practices of the Nicolaitans and the false religion which these perverse people had invented. The Lord also hated the same thing so these mature believers in Ephesus hated wicked things just the same as the Lord also hated them.
This sounds like these believers should be commended in every way because they were knowledgeable and did not compromise and they were steadfast in service to the Lord on a daily basis and they hated wicked things just as the Lord also hated.
But the problem with these mature believers was that they had fallen from God’s grace and were operating by religious “self-effort” and this disqualified them from everything that they were doing.
Revelation 2:4-5 (NIV)
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.
5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
The thing that the Lord held against them was that they had forsaken their first love for the Lord which they had once had back when they were newly saved. They were previously walking in the glory of God but later they fell from those great heights of glory and were now wallowing in the mire of self-effort and dead religion.
When a believer falls from first love with the Lord then everything that they do becomes defiled. When they love the Lord then they read the word with great delight but later when they get over into religion, they only read the word only out of duty or “service” to God. This however squelches revelation of God’s word because they are no longer seeking the word out of love for God but it is just “religious duty” as if to earn God’s favor with this work of self-effort.
Everything in the life of a believer becomes polluted when they fall from grace. Even going to church is no longer for fellowship with God but only a duty to earn favor with God. Prayer is the same and instead of communicating with God as a friend it is only becomes a dead work of self-effort to earn God’s favor.
Such mature believers typically become self-righteous and critical and judgmental even if they are correct when they see the sin of fallen preachers and call them out on it. They are not seeking the truth nor are they seeking to help anyone but are indignant that others fell when they would never do such a thing!
My Own Example as an Apostle/Teacher
When I first arrived in Tulsa Oklahoma in 1986, I was enjoying the presence of God and walking in fellowship with God just like Enoch once did! It was as if I died and went to heaven and it was the best time of my entire life on earth and I was enjoying my first-love time with the Lord.
But then after several years the Lord began to operate the revelation gifts of “Discerning of spirits” and “Word of Knowledge” and “Word of Wisdom in my life.
See the link “Spiritual Gifts” for more details.
At this time in my life I had received no teaching whatsoever about the operation of “Spiritual Gifts” and frankly speaking I had no idea what was happening to me! It was not until many years later that I learned of the operation of these gifts and could understand what was happening back when these gifts first started to manifest in my life.
These gifts began to operate while I was attending a large church in Tulsa. Suddenly I would know things in the spirit and could discern the heart motivations of anyone who stood in the pulpit. It worked for visiting preachers or musicians or singers or choir members or even those who just gave announcements before the service started. I would know if they had a good heart motive or an evil motive that was self-serving. I would know if they were unclean spiritually or harbored secret sin. I would I know if they had a good and had a pure heart before God as well.
When there were guest speakers (many of which were world renown) I would know if these speakers had fallen out with a spirit of greed (just like Balaam had done who sold his ministry gift for money). I would also know if they were liars telling sensational fibs about past moves of God (that never occurred) just to collect big offerings from the audience.
Many of the things I perceived about these men were later proven true when they were exposed publicly. This served as confirmation that I was not making this up from my own imagination nor was I just being suspicious of these men. It was confirmed that God had revealed to me these things by the operation of the category of “Spiritual Gifts” called the Revelation Gifts.
But at this time, I had a problem because I met no one who could counsel me and at that time I had no idea why God was showing me these things. What occurred is that I got angry and bitter at all of the fraud preachers and their lies and deceit and greed and the secret sin that was occurring among them. I however was not one of those types of people who were just looking for an excuse to get offended at God and quit because I loved the Lord with all of my heart. I only wanted to quit “fake-Christianity” but never wanted to quit on God in any manner because I loved the Lord. It did not matter to me if the whole world denied Christ or fell away from God because I determined that I would never do that myself!
But I did get offended and angry at the fake-Christianity that was revealed to me by the operation of Spiritual Gifts and concerning those things which were shown to me about well-known ministers of the gospel.
It was many years later that I learned about how the gifts operate and that God was revealing these things to me so that I could experience how these gifts operate. When these things were proven true then it was a confirmation that I was indeed hearing God and this experience was not just a product of my own imagination. This occurred repeatedly rather than just once or twice so I knew it was no coincidence!
But my frustration was also present when I knew that I had no authority to cast out the offenders because I was not in charge of the church and I was not the one who invited these people to speak to the congregation. I know now however that it was not God’s purpose for me to expose the guilty parties. These experiences served only as a demonstration of the operation of the Revelation Gifts to give me some experience with them and to confirm that they were working in my life. This showed me that I could indeed hear God’s voice through the avenue of the inward witness.
See the link “Led by the Spirit” for more details.
I knew what was going on by the operation of Spiritual Gifts but I had the wrong response. I instead of rejoicing that I had the gifts operate I instead became judgmental and critical about those with whom I possessed secret knowledge about.
My gift is that of an Apostle/Teacher and God used numerous examples of these types of people as illustrations in prayer journals and in dreams that he gave to me which communicated spiritual truth. He did not expose them for me in order to inform the world about them but rather as a means of illustration of spiritual principles.
If I use these people as examples of illustration then there is no sin involved in it but if I become critical and judgmental and fall into human anger then this is a sin and a wrong response to having gaining knowledge of these things.
This should be a warning to all Levites who operate in “Spiritual Gifts” not to allow themselves to grow bitter or judgmental or critical against those whom God has revealed things about. It was not God’s purpose to reveal such things only to make the Levite angry or critical toward them. They are only an illustration of spiritual truth for those who have a calling like Apostle/Teacher who can use these people as examples for illustration of spiritual truth in their teaching lessons.
When God reveals what such people are doing in secret it is generally not for the purpose of exposing them. This does occur with the “Prophet” however who will often expose people publicly and this causes others to fear God and repent before they are also publicly exposed of harboring secret sins. But for an Apostle/Teacher these revelations are generally given only for illustration purposes that serve to assist him in writing teaching lessons concerning related subjects.
I wish now that I had knowledge about what was happening to me so that I would not have slipped into getting angry (with human anger) toward those whom were exposed to me by the operation of Spiritual Gifts. Now I can instruct other Levites who have a gift of Apostle/Teacher not to get angry (with human anger) but only use what they know as a way of instruction and definition in their teaching lessons. These things were not revealed to them just so they can assert themselves upon the Judgement Seat of Christ and become critical and judgmental of others! That would be an incorrect application of handling the revelation that God has given to them as Levites.
Falling from Grace
The point to make here is that when I was walking in God’s grace it was glorious as I enjoyed the presence of God in a strong manner. But when I become judgmental and critical then it spoiled this glory time because I was no longer walking in grace as I had been before.
But the good news is that mature believers can repent and they can recover themselves from the snare of the enemy that made them bitter or critical and they can be restored back to fellowship with God again.
Revelation 2:4-5 (NIV)
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.
5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
The scriptures above speak of a believer falling from their first love but there is also an admonition that they are to repent and do the things that they did at first. This means that mature believers who have fallen from grace can return to their first love again. They are called by God to repent and return to their first love otherwise they will have their lampstand removed from its place.
The lampstand is represented by the seven-branched Jewish Menorah (which represents the seven-Spirits of God). To have the lampstand removed speaks of having the Holy Spirit removed from the mature believer who has grown critical and judgmental and religious and has fallen away from God’s grace. This means that salvation can be lost if they do not recover themselves from the snare of the enemy which has defiled them with a root of bitterness and caused them to become critical and judgmental of others.
See the link “Christians in Hell” for more details.
Two Cases of Mature Believers Falling Out
Embittered Pastor
I personally know a man who walked with God in a tremendous way during his first love experience. I stayed with him when I visited Tulsa during the time, he was attending bible school. As a young man he carried the presence of God with him everywhere he went and people loved to be in his presence and the glory of God even filled his little car as we drove along!
But later in life (after he became a pastor) this same man began to grow bitter and critical and judgmental. This critical attitude began to destroy relationships everywhere he went. Many years later I visited him when he was working for a large television ministry and at that time, he grew bitter against the people who were running this ministry and critical of all of their fraudulent means of fund-raising for their Christian television station. The founder of that ministry was a true man of God but his own sons were evil and corrupt just like the sons of Eli who only used the ministry for gain.
Everything that this man said about these fraudsters he worked for was completely true. However, his bitterness toward them was affecting his own relationship with God in a negative way. He became critical and judgmental and offended and quit that ministry to go to work for yet another ministry. But this did not last long before he also fell out with this ministry as well. He carried that spirit of bitterness and offense everywhere he went and it spoiled relationships with everyone he knew. Eventually this man became so bitter angry at the whole world that he even divorced his sweet wife and abandoned his own children!
This man is today out of the ministry and his countenance has changed and he has become exceedingly dark and is now void of the Spirit of God. No one could have imagined that this is the same guy who walked in the glorious presence of God back in 1981 (when I first met him)! Gone is the light of God and the presence of God he once carried and now he is nothing but a bitter and offended man who is full of darkness and anger!
Hebrews 12:15 (CJB)
15 See to it that no one misses out on God’s grace, that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble and thus contaminates many,
This scripture speaks of believers who miss out on the grace of God and have had a root of bitterness spring up which causes them trouble. This type of thing contaminates many believers. This root of bitterness causes them trouble with everyone they meet and causes conflict and once contaminated by it then it is hard for them to escape it.
See the link “Root of Bitterness” for more details.
Embittered Missionary
I know a number of mature believers who formerly walked with God in the beginning but today have gone over into perdition. Another case of a man who fell out is that of a man from my own home church who went to Guatemala as a missionary. He grew bitter and offended at the leadership of the organization for which he was serving. My mother invited this man and his wife over for dinner on our farm and I was shocked when he spewed out all of his offense against the mission’s director in Guatemala (which I also know). By the way he talked, someone would have thought that this mission’s director must be the “Antichrist incarnate” by the way this offended man was speaking against him! But when I questioned him more about what this man did to offend him then it seemed he was unable to identify anything clearly criminal in his behavior. This offended missionary had simply taken on a spirit of offense and was defiled by a root of bitterness. But in this case, (the mission director which he was offended at), really did nothing wrong whatsoever! When a mature believer becomes offended, they can take offense at anyone whether their so-called “offender” has done anything wrong or not!
This offended missionary man also ended up divorcing his sweet wife and abandoning his own children saying that he was justified because he was “offended” but in his case he was actually offended at nothing! He also become darkened in countenance and it appears that the Holy Spirit was removed from him when he crossed over into perdition. The two men in my examples both came from the same church so this type of thing is actually quite widespread and I have personally met many former believers who had become like these two men and are today fallen away from God and have crossed over into perdition!
The point to make here is that a man does not need any “real-offense” in order to justify himself in taking on offense. Whether the offenders were real “scoundrels” like the sons of Eli or even if the so-called “offender” did nothing wrong whatsoever, this still gives no excuse for mature believer to be offended and to take on a root of bitterness as a result.
My perception of this offended missionary was that he had fallen from grace and became jealous of the mission director with whom he had worked for (who was enjoying God’s grace). Such men feel angry that God is blessing someone when they have been working so hard and do not receive the same great blessings as those who walk in grace are receiving. This thing seems to be the bottom line of why this former missionary was offended at the blessings from God that his senior mission director was enjoying. It seemed unfair in his mind that he worked so hard and received no such blessings while this other guy was blessed without even trying! This example also serves as an illustration of the offense of Cain!
Sin of Cain
Genesis 4:3-7 (NIV)
3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD.
4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering,
5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
6 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?
7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”
Cain offered crop produce to God but his bloodless sacrifice of vegetables and grain was not acceptable to God. Cain put forth a great deal of labor in order to produce a crop. Cain toiled under the heat of the sun and by the sweat of his brow to plow and plant and cultivate a crop. He had to pull weeds and thistles and protect it from varmints and carry water for it when there was no rain. All of this labor and work to produce a crop as an offering to the Lord represents human self-effort to earn favor with God. This self-effort represents all religious works of humans laboring to earn their own salvation.
But Abel brought the fat portions of his flock as an offering to the Lord meaning that he butchered these sacrificial animals and shed their blood in order to make his offering to God. This represents the blood of Jesus who sacrificed himself as a sin offering as the Lamb of God and shed his own blood for the sins of the whole world!
Hebrews 9:22 (HCSB)
22 According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
God’s laws established the principle that blood was required to make atonement for sin. The innocent dying for the guilty was a principle of blood-sacrifice that pointed to the time when Christ would come shed his blood and die for the transgressions of all humanity.
The offering of Abel represents salvation that comes to humanity by grace. Abel tended his flocks and watched over them but for the most part the livestock would reproduce themselves and grow of their own accord and Abel was not laboring by self-effort to make the livestock grow (as Cain did with growing his crops under the curse of Adam).
Cain Represents False Religion
Cain and his self-effort in trying to please God represents false religion. Since the beginning of the human race men have sought to earn their own salvation apart from God’s prescribed way. The same was true of Cain who thought he could earn God’s favor by human self-effort while Abel received God’s favor by doing little (except to follow God’s prescribed manner by making a blood sacrifice). This speaks of salvation by grace and ceasing from human self-effort to receive salvation as a free gift from God!
First Example of False Religion
Genesis 11:1-4 (NIV)
1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.
2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.
4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
The tower of Babel was created by humans out of self-effort. They used man-made bricks of clay which represent human self-effort just as the first man Adam was made of dust of the earth (clay). So, these clay bricks represent human self-effort in attaining their own man-made salvation. These people were trying to build a tower that reached into heaven which speaks of false religion trying to invent its own way of salvation so that these humans could reach heaven by their own self-effort. The hundreds of millions of bricks all speak of the hundreds of millions of man-made religions that falsely claim to offer salvation (apart from God’s only prescribed method through Jesus Christ).
The thing with man-made false religion is that they are all falsely assume to earn their own salvation by self-effort seeking to build their own way to heaven by labor. This has fallen far away from God’s grace and far from the free gift of eternal life offered only by faith in Jesus Christ.
But even mature believers who once walked in grace can later fall away and become engaged in self-effort just like the pagans who built the Tower of Babel trying to reach heaven by their own man-made self-effort. We call those believers who have fallen from grace and are again ensnared into self-effort as being “Martha-Type” Christians.
Martha-Type Christians
Luke 10:38-42 (NIV)
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.
39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.
40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,
42 but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Martha was distracted by her continual labor of trying to serve Jesus while her sister Mary was sitting at his feet to hear his word. This can be used to depict how mature believers often fall from grace and become like a Martha-type Christian and suppose they can serve God out of self-effort. They fall away from their first love and instead become ensnared in self-effort. This is like Cain trying to please God by his own self-effort by offering a bloodless sacrifice but he was rejected. The same is true for mature believers who fall from grace and leave their first love and engage in non-stop self-invented labor as they seek to please God by self-effort (like Cain). The Martha-type Christians are the same as Cain because they left grace and are engaged in serving God out of self-effort and they constantly invent so-called “ministries” out of their own imagination with which they suppose they are serving God with.
Revelation 2:4-5 (NIV)
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.
5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
Again, this is an illustration of the mature believers at Ephesus who had fallen away from their first love for the Lord and went from being a “Mary-type” and were ensnared into self-effort in serving God like a “Martha-type” instead. This is exactly like leaving being an “Abel-type” and pleasing God by grace to becoming a “Cain-type” who assumes to serve God out of their own self-effort.
Cain-types however make the mistake of assuming God is supposed to adapt himself to their ideas and accept their labor of self-effort and endorse their works. This is self-deception because God does not adapt himself to suit human plans or agendas but humans are instead supposed to adapt themselves to God’s plan. God’s plan is salvation only by grace and by faith in the blood of Jesus. No humans can earn it but can only receive it as a free gift.
Whenever humans try to earn something that is free, then they cancel out that thing which is based only upon grace. The mature believer can also cancel out their first love relationship with God by falling into self-effort and becoming like a “Cain-type” or a “Martha-type” who seeks to earn God’s favor with their own self-effort. But this self-effort cancels out God’s favor and removes God’s presence from them the moment they fall from grace.
Romans 11:6 (NASB)
6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.
The moment that a mature believer falls away from their first love and joins the Cain and Martha-types then they have also fallen away from grace and have become ensnared in human self-effort to earn God’s favor. This is the source of all false religion which seeks to make their own way to heaven by self-effort (just as the builders of the tower of Babel also attempted to do).
But when religious people who have become like Cain/Martha-types see someone else enjoying God’s presence freely (like Abel/Mary-types) then they will become jealous and angry. They will seek to ensnare those who are enjoying God’s grace and try to get them into dead religious works. But the moment they do this they fall from grace and cancel grace and have become a Cain/Martha-type which will end up in hell because they forsook the only salvation available that exists only in grace as a free gift.
Therefore, dead religion (comprising human self-effort to reach God) has always carried with it a spirit of murder. Cain killed Abel because Abel was enjoying God’s grace and God’s presence and God’s favor without earning it! This enraged Cain who thought that his hard labor qualified him more for God’s favor than Abel who did basically nothing except to receive God’s favor by grace.
1 John 3:12 (NIV)
12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.
The scriptures clearly say that Cain’s works of self-effort were evil in the sight of God while the work of grace (simply receiving God’s free gift) is righteous. Those who are involved in dead religion (like Cain) will always want to murder those who are living by God’s grace.
All throughout human history those who are involved in false religion have sought to kill and destroy and persecute those which are true believers who live by God’s grace. False religion carries a spirit of murder for this reason.
Religion is a Spirit of Murder
John 16:2-3 (NIV)
2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.
3 They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.
Jesus warned his disciples that they would be put out of the synagogue by those who are religious. These religious people pride themselves in their own self-effort in earning their own way to heaven just as Cain sought to do. When someone proclaims salvation as a free gift from God in Jesus Christ then these religious people will become insane with jealousy and religious indignation! They think, “How dare someone suppose they can be saved apart from all of the self-effort which we ourselves are laboring with in unceasing manner!”
These people will actually kill anyone who supposes to enjoy salvation and God’s blessing apart from their religious works! Jesus warned his disciples that a time would come when such religious people would seek to kill them supposing that they are doing God a service with their religious zeal! Jesus said that these religious people will do these things because they do not know God the father or Jesus. But those who know God understand that salvation only comes by grace not by religious self-effort.
Saul and his Religious Zeal
Acts 26:11 (NIV)
11 Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. In my obsession against them, I even went to foreign cities to persecute them.
Before Paul was saved, he was a religious zealot who thought that he was doing God a service to arrest and imprison and torture those Messianic Jewish believers who came to salvation by faith in Yeshua (Jesus) their Jewish Messiah. Paul as a former religious zealot was not content with just killing them but he even tried to torture them to compel them to blaspheme God in an attempt to damn their souls to hell!
This is the type of behavior that can be found among people who are engaged in man-made religions worldwide. They carry a spirit of murder and want to kill those who are enjoying God’s favor by grace just as Cain also killed his brother Abel.
1 Corinthians 15:9 (NIV)
9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
Paul suffered remorse for his past bad behavior as a religious zealot who tortured believers and even killed them for enjoying their salvation by grace apart from the religious self-effort which Paul himself was ensnared in as a former religious zealot.
Acts 9:21-23 (NIV)
21 All those who heard him were astonished and asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?”
22 Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ.
23 After many days had gone by, the Jews conspired to kill him,
After Paul was saved on the road to Damascus then he began to preach salvation in the Name of Jesus (the very Name he formerly tried to destroy as a religious zealot). But the religious Jews who were still ensnared in dead religion wanted to kill Apostle Paul because he had departed from their man-made religion and their system of “self-effort” and Paul had joined those who were saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
Again, the spirit of murder was evident in those who were involved in dead religion and they tried to kill Paul every time they laid eyes upon him! Only God kept Paul alive as he escaped the murder attempts of the religious bunch on many different occasions.
Dead Religion and Murder
Those involved with dead man-made religion are part of the same bunch of murderers who have killed righteous people since the beginning of time with Cain killing Abel all the way down to the present generation of religious who will murder whenever they have the opportunity to do so.
Luke 11:47-51 (NASB)
47 “Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them.
48 “So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs.
49 “For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute,
50 so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation,
51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.’
Jesus rebuked the generation of religious people who were running the religious system centered at Jerusalem. When God sent Apostles and Prophets these religious people had the same response and would try to persecute them in order to silence them and if that did not work then they would kill them. Jesus said that all of the blood of the righteous (those who walked with God by grace) would be charged against this generation of religious people. The first one killed by dead religion was Abel but the spirit of murder did not cease and until today religious people seek to kill anyone who is enjoying God’s favor by grace. If religious people (could legally get away with murder) then they would not hesitate to kill the righteous the same as Cain killed Abel. Religious people consider it preposterous that anyone could enjoy God’s favor without engaging in the self-effort and labor that they themselves are in bondage to within false religion.
Jerusalem Hijacked by Religion
Jerusalem is the city of God but religious people tried to hijack Jerusalem in order to gain a “corner-on-religion” by asserting themselves between God and those worshippers who seek God. As with all religious people they carry a spirit of murder just as Cain carried toward his brother Abel who enjoyed God’s favor without earning it by self-effort.
Luke 13:34-35 (HCSB)
34 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! She who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
35 See, your house is abandoned to you. And I tell you, you will not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘He who comes in the name of the Lord is the blessed One’!”
Jerusalem is called the city of God but it became the most religious city on earth and it was hijacked by the religion of self-works that seeks to destroy those who live by grace. Jerusalem is the religious city that kills the prophets and stones those who were sent to her. They will not see God until they say “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.” This means that they can have no salvation until they receive the messengers who bring “salvation by grace” to them. They must repent of being religious and leave man-made religion of self-effort (Babel-type) and receive salvation found only by grace in Jesus Christ.
John 7:19 (NLT2)
19 Moses gave you the law, but none of you obeys it! In fact, you are trying to kill me.”
The religious bunch was trying to kill Jesus because Jesus offered salvation by grace as a free gift of God without having to keep the law of Moses. Religious people want to earn their own salvation by works rather than by receiving it by grace.
John 8:39-40 (NIV)
39 “Abraham is our father,” they answered. “If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do the things Abraham did.
40 As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things.
So, they sought to kill Jesus because He told them the truth. Religious leaders hated the truth because it exposed their self-righteousness and reveals that they will go to hell in their false religion which is based upon human self-effort.
Acts 7:54-59 (NASB)
54 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him.
55 But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God;
56 and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
57 But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse.
58 When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”
Stephen preached a powerful sermon and exposed the “self-righteousness” of these religious people and then turned the guns upon them and said, “You are guilty ones!” This caused these religious people to gnash their teeth in a rage! They cried out in a loud voice and covered their ears as they yelled at the top of their lungs in order to drown out the words of Stephen. His words cut their heart like a knife and they could not stand to hear another word! They shouted and rushed on him and drug him out of the city and stoned him to death. These are those who are religious whose “self-righteousness” was exposed by the truth of the anointed words of Stephan’s preaching.
Religion is full of murder because religion is full of self-effort and it has been so since the days of Cain who tried to earn his approval from God by “self-effort” instead of depending on grace. All that humans have to do is repent of this and receive their salvation by grace. But if they do not repent, they will end up in hell!
Spirit of Cain Among Mature Believers
The spirit of Cain was found among the mature believers of the church at Ephesus. They fell from their first love and fell from grace and become proud of their religious works and this caused them to become critical and judgmental.
Revelation 2:1-7 (NASB)
1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this:
2 ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false;
3 and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary.
4 ~’But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
5 ~’Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.
6 ~’Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate
It is evident from the description of these mature believers at Ephesus that they possessed the following qualities:
1. They engaged in religious toil (Cain-like labor to earn God’s favor).
2. They persevered in their religious toil like a machine that never shuts off.
3. They could not tolerate anyone who was evil and resisted them as a religious zealot would do just as Paul had formerly done before he was saved.
4. They were quick to identify and disprove anyone who was false to the point of becoming critical and judgmental of everyone.
5. They hated the evil works of the Nicolaitans being zealous for the truth.
The problem with these mature believers at Ephesus was that they had fallen from their first love for God so they went from being an “Abel-type” into becoming like a “Cain-type” instead. They fell from fellowship with God like a “Mary-type” and now were engaged in being a “Martha-type” who served God out of human self-effort! They fell from grace and were again ensnared in the mire of human religion based upon human “self-effort” in serving God!
This made them critical and judgmental and caused them to be spiritually proud as if they deserved God’s favor more than others because of their great non-stop labor in serving God out of their own self-effort.
Without knowing it such people can drift away from salvation by grace and fall away from God by engaging in dead religion and human “self-effort” which disqualifies them from salvation and separates them from God’s presence.
2 Timothy 2:25-26 (NIV)
25 Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth,
26 and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.
These scriptures above speak of gently instructing those who have fallen away from the truth and it can readily be applied to those mature believers who have fallen from God’s grace. They have a chance to come to their senses by gentle instruction so that they might escape from the trap of the devil who has taken them captive to do his will.
Those believers who fall away from grace and get ensnared in human “self-effort” are typically used as pawns of Satan to ensnare other believers out of grace and into legalism and dead religion which is based upon human self-effort.
Spying out Liberty
Galatians 2:4 (NASB)
4 But it was because of the false brethren secretly brought in, who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage.
There were religious men who posed as brethren but their intentions were evil and they came only to spy out the liberty that the believers were enjoying by standing in grace. They sought to bring these believers away from God’s grace and ensnare them into religious bondage of the devil.
Man-made religion sends millions to hell and these religions are in fact an invention of Satan himself. Satan has hundreds of millions of false religions on earth just like the Tower of Babel which was made out of hundreds of millions of man-made bricks (as humans sought to build their own way to heaven rather than submitting to God’s way based upon faith).
Satan can also use old believers who drift away from God’s grace and these mature believers can seek to draw other believers out of grace and into the works of self-effort as well. All believers must be on guard in this area or they can easily slip out of grace and become ensnared by self-effort and fall into dead religion as a result.
Acts 15:1 (NASB)
1 Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
So, these religious people tried to teach the believers in the churches Paul started that they must be circumcised according to the custom of Moses or they could not be saved. They tried to pull the Gentiles out of grace and into the works of the law which would have cancelled out their salvation. Humans cannot earn salvation because it is by grace and if they try to earn it, they will fall from grace. If believers fall from grace then they cannot be saved because there is no salvation outside of grace. So, this heresy could damn all those who are deceived by it.
Acts 15:2 (NASB)
2 And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue.
Paul was an expert in Jewish law and he had a great debate with these religious people who sought to bring the Gentiles under bondage to keep the law of Moses. This was a lie and it was dangerous heresy that could cause these Gentile converts to go to hell if they were deceived by it.
But the point I want to make here is that this religious attitude can cause a person to fall from grace and in the end, it can actually result in them losing their salvation. Almost all of these religious rulers ended up in hell because they could not let go of legalism in order to flow in grace.
Legalism Cancels Salvation
Revelation 2:4-5 (NIV)
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.
5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
These mature believers fell away from their first love and they fell away from grace and the Lord warned them if they did not repent and return to their first love, they would have their lampstand removed. This speaks of the removal of the Holy Spirit (represented by the seven-branched Jewish Menorah) which speaks of the seven-Spirits of God.
The sobering threat here is that if believers fall from grace and do not repent, they are in danger of losing their salvation because they left grace and engaged in self-effort (which is a part of false religion).
Restoring Contaminated Believers
Psalm 25:7-14 (7KB)
7 Do not remember the rebellious sins of my youth. Remember me in the light of your unfailing love, for you are merciful, O Lord.
8 The Lord is good and does what is right; he shows the proper path (to return to God) to those who go astray.
9 He leads the humble in doing right, teaching them his way.
10 The Lord leads with unfailing love and faithfulness all who keep his covenant and obey his demands.
11 For the honor of your name, O Lord, forgive my many sins.
12 Who are those who fear the Lord? He will show them the path they should choose (for returning to the Lord).
13 They will live in prosperity (like Job and Abraham) and their children will inherit the land.
14 The Lord is a friend to those who fear him. He teaches them his covenant.
The scriptures above contain the essence of what is needed for believers to return to God again. This has application for those mature believers who are like those at Ephesus who became critical and judgmental and have fallen away from God’s grace and are living in self-effort. They left their first love and went from being an “Abel-type” living in God’s grace and are now like a “Cain-type” who exists in a religious manner by human self-effort.
Resorting to God’s Mercy
Psalm 25:7 (7KB)
7 Do not remember the rebellious sins of my youth. Remember me in the light of your unfailing love, for you are merciful, O Lord.
The rebellious sins of the youth speak of drifting into pleasures and sin in passive manner until they find themselves far away from God and no longer know how to get back again. But this can also apply to how a mature believer also drifts away from their first love with God and they leave grace and become religious and self-righteous. The same process that the youth drift away from God can also describe how a mature believer drifts away from grace.
The mature believer who has fallen into dead religion and has become critical and judgmental must forsake these bad attitudes and return to God and ask for his mercy and for forgiveness for allowing themselves to drift away from their first love with the Lord.
The mature believer is to acknowledge God’s unfailing love and that God is merciful and then resist any satanic thoughts that would try to say that there is no more hope for them. Any believer can repent as long as they have not crossed the perdition line and any mature believer can still return to God with sincerity of heart.
Psalm 25:8 (7KB)
8 The Lord is good and does what is right; he shows the proper path (to return to God) to those who go astray.
God shows the proper path to return to God for those who have gone astray. All independence is sin just as a sheep going astray from the shepherd.
Isaiah 53:6 (NLT2)
6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all.
This sin of independence was paid for by the atonement of Christ so the mature believer can apply the blood of Jesus by faith and be cleansed from all unrighteousness. This is the first step in returning to God to repent and forsake sin and return to the Lord with all sincerity of heart. It is a sin to drift away from their first love and they can acknowledge this sin and repent and return back to grace again and return back to their first love experience.
Psalm 25:9 (7KB)
9 He leads the humble in doing right, teaching them his way.
When the mature believer humbles themselves before God this means they drop their self-righteous attitude and all “self-justification” and acknowledge openly that drifting from their first love with God is a sin.
Doing what is right is to return to the first love they had when they were newly saved and to forsake the religious attitude of trying to earn God’s favor by self-effort. When they do these things then God will again speak to them and teach them the way to return back to God again.
When a mature believer realizes that they have drifted far from God and far from God’s grace then they can humble themselves greatly and the presence of the Holy Spirit will be restored to them once again as it was in the beginning. Keeping a humble heart before God is the key to restoration for the mature believer who fell from their first love and fell from God’s grace into self-effort.
At this point they must resist any attempts of their sin nature within to justify themselves or point at the faults of others. This is just a survival mechanism of the sin nature to distract away from the real problem which is the believer’s own personal repentance in this area.
The way that Abel appropriated God’s grace was offering fat portions which speaks of blood-sacrifice. Asking for God’s forgiveness based upon the blood of Jesus atonement for their sin is the way to be restored to God again.
They must resist the sin nature however because the human sin nature loves to embrace “self-effort” rather than relying upon the grace of God. The mature believer should be aware of this and resist the sin nature that seeks to thwart them in sincere repentance in order to keep them in bondage to “self-effort” like Cain.
Psalm 25:10 (7KB)
10 The Lord leads with unfailing love and faithfulness all who keep his covenant and obey his demands.
When the mature believer humbles themselves greatly before the Lord and applies the atoning blood of Jesus to their sin then they will be restored again to God’s grace. They must however acknowledge that drifting away from grace is a sin and it is the same sin as Cain committed and the same sin of the builders of the Tower of Babel. This sends millions of humans to hell who rely on human “self-effort” and forsake the grace of God for salvation. It is a sin that must be acknowledged as a sin and then forsaken and repented of.
After the mature believer has repented and humbled themselves and acknowledged their sin of drifting away from grace then they can be restored to God. This is like a stray sheep returning to the fold again and God can once again lead them with his unfailing love and faithfulness as the good shepherd. Then they will keep God’s covenant and obey his demands out of grace rather than by self-effort of dead religion. The secret is to depend upon the Lord with humility of heart and forsake all human “self-effort” of Cain.
Psalm 25:11 (7KB)
11 For the honor of your name, O Lord, forgive my many sins.
The repentant mature believer is to know for certain that God has forgiven them and has cleansed them from all unrighteousness. Typically, the enemy will seek to attack their minds with fearful thoughts that they have already crossed the line of perdition and there is no more hope for them so they may as well just give up. But this is a satanic lie that must be resisted and the believer should stand upon the atonement of the blood of Jesus capable of cleansing all human sin (including the sin of falling from grace and falling from first love). By pleading the blood of Jesus, they can keep and maintain their righteousness by grace and be completely restored to God again.
At this point they must repent of being critical and judgmental of others and assuming themselves upon the judgment seat of Christ. The blood of Jesus can wash away all sin including the sin of being critical and judgmental of others.
Psalm 25:12 (7KB)
12 Who are those who fear the Lord? He will show them the path they should choose (for returning to the Lord).
The fact that the mature believer is praying this prayer shows that they want to return to the Lord with all of their hearts and this shows that they still fear God. God will show those who fear him the proper path to take in returning to the Lord. So, God will show these people with a good heart the path that they should choose for returning to the Lord. This is the pathway of Abel and applying the blood of Jesus to their sins and walking with God in fellowship.
Psalm 25:13 (7KB)
13 They will live in prosperity (like Job and Abraham) and their descendants will inherit the land.
Living in prosperity (like righteous men such as Job and Abraham did) speaks of those who have their heart motives right and seek God for fellowship and not for material possessions. God is free to prosper them because they have the right heart motives. These restored believers can live in both spiritual prosperity and financial prosperity when they have their heart stayed upon the Lord. The key here is to focus inwardly because when they do this, they will sense the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon them.
Those mature believers with an analytical mind must beware however because the devil can use it against them at this point. If they start analyzing themselves excessively, they can become caught in circles of logic like a dog chasing his own tail. The devil can entangle them in mental circles of self-analyzation which can cause them to have torment and fear that they will never get back to God again.
They must stop and focus inward because they will sense the presence of the Holy Spirit within. If they will focus inwardly, they will escape the mental realm and then look to the inward witness of the Holy Spirit who bears witness with their human spirits that they are saved.
Romans 8:16 (NASB)
16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,
It is the Spirit of God who testifies with the born-again human spirit of a believer that they are a child of God. The believer is to remain in this witness of the Holy Spirit within them rather than to live in the mental realm. The devil has access to human minds and can insert demonic thoughts to terrify them that they have been abandoned by God and there is no hope.
The believer is to resist this and go toward the inward witness because the devil has no access to the inward witness of a believer. This is where the believer can find the peace that passes all understanding (even if their human mind is panicked over thoughts or outward circumstances).
Psalm 25:14 (7KB)
14 The Lord is a friend to those who fear him. He teaches them his covenant.
Finally, the believer is to know that the Lord is a friend to those who fear him and since they are seeking for the pathway to return to the Lord this shows that they still fear God. He teaches them his covenant which speaks of the blood of Jesus and the New Covenant which cleanses them from all sin.
So, the believer is to remain in that righteousness and live in that grace by focusing inward toward the inward witness of the Holy Spirit who bears witness with them that they are a child of God. Doing that means they are walking in the Spirit.
The believer can walk with God in the comfort of the Holy Spirit simply by focusing inward toward the inward witness of their own human spirit on the inside.
See the link “Led by the Spirit” for more details.
The restored believer is to walk in that grace and live in that grace and that is what it means to be restored to their first love again. They are not to be moved by satanic thoughts or bad dreams or terrors of the enemy which seeks to shake them from their faith and stand of grace.
Satanic thoughts and terror do not come from their inward witness so the mature believer can reject all external sources of thoughts and feelings and lean upon the inward witness of the Holy Spirit who testifies that they are saved. If they will do this then they will walk with God again in the comfort of the Holy Spirit which is a place of fellowship and first love and grace with God.
Romans 10:8-11 (NIV)
8 But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming:
9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
11 As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”
The scripture says that the word is near them and this also has application to the mature believer looking toward the inward witness because the kingdom of heaven is within them. If the believer will focus inwardly, they will live in the presence of the Holy Spirit continually. That is how the believer can walk with God because in fact they are a temple of the Holy Spirit and He dwells within them. God’s presence is made manifest to the believer by the Holy Spirit within them. If they will focus inwardly, they can enjoy God’s presence at all times.
This is the pathway for a mature believer to be restored again to their first love and escape dead religion of self-effort which is the way of Cain and only leads them to hell!