When I Stopped Going to Church

The LORD will fulfill [his purpose] for me; your love, O LORD, endures forever--do not abandon the works of your hands.> Ps 138:8

Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger.> Prov 19:15

 “And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”> Rom 10:15

The Bible says that the feet of those who preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ are beautiful. This speaks of the Soul Winner. Proverb 11:30, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.”

It is interesting that God calls the “feet” beautiful. God could have called the lips beautiful, or the mouth; but he said, “the feet.” Why the feet? It's because it is with one's feet that they carry the Gospel of Jesus Christ to lost sinners.

The most eloquent speaker in all the world is useless if he has idle feet.

I stopped going to church after at the time seemed like a huge attack and I was depressed. Everything seemed to be going wrong and I kept messing up so I let myself get discouraged and even after a warning from God to hang on, I stopped going for 6yrs. Except the occasional church visit to a couple different ones a little bit, but wasn't consistent or even close to it.

I ended up very effected by this and got worse and worse and finally a sickness that I couldn't bare came along and once again the doctors couldn't help. So I was desperate to have some pain relief called healing. Enough was enough. I had finally had enough misery at every level and in every area of my life. I now knew from my own seeking God and having a relationship that their is a huge difference seeking God and not. Obeying and disobeying. It all equals health or sick, peace or no peace, want to live or want to die.

I had already been studying a lot because I was so miserable from not seeking God, and I was in physical pain so I really had no other solution.

To explain I had stopped going to church and seeking God for years. My hands started hurting and I couldn't even fold clothes or pour milk without crying and freaking out because I needed my hands to do everything. I even had to have help putting my clothes on.

And all I heard God say over and over gently was "Idle hands". Even the doctors I had access to was of no help at all! Then my feet started hurting. I had to switch my shoes, but still my feet we're hurting bad. God said to me "beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Gospel of Jesus".

I knew exactly what God meant by these statements I wasn't serving Him, and I had quite preaching the Gospel of Jesus. So I had big open doors to allow my hands and feet to be attacked through unbelief ,rebellion and a whole lot of lack of knowledge.

I started then seeking God again because I had to have my hands and feet working correctly and already knew that God could and would heal me just as He had in the past of other illnesses that the doctors couldn't fix. The more I studied and was seeking God, the better my hands and feet became. It was funny the more notes from sermons I took the better my hands we're getting. My hands were before that point hurting bad even if I tried to write.I thank God for restoring my hands and feet, but God let me know it would come back if I walk away from Him again.

I remember 2yrs before this that I was up one night and was thinking about when I was on fire with God's spirit. Remembering it was the best time of my life. Then God told me when I was standing in the kitchen turn on the burner of the stove & I did. He had me put my hands out over the heat and step forward and backwards away from it over & over. Saying that it was me that walked away from Him and not Him from me. That He was still where I left Him and all I had to draw close to Him again. Very simple example but God does use simple things to explain himself so we have no reason to not understand His message to us.

Since then God has given me the ability to walk away from other sinful things and strengthened me in many areas. Now He is going after my whole heart and is requiring that it is cleaned and purged to ensure that it won't continue to entangle me and cause me to stumble.

let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.> Heb 10:22

It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation.> Rom 15:20

For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.> 1 Cor 11-15

Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God,> Heb 6:1

He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.> Acts 19:2

For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.> John 3:34

Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble [you], and thereby many be defiled; > Heb 12:15

Jesus said to him, "“If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”" Immediately the father of the child cried out with tears, “I believe. Help my unbelief!”> Matt 9:23-24

For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter might have tempted you and our efforts might have been useless.> 1 Thess 3:5

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? > Gal 3:1

But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.> 2 Cor 11:3

If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us;> 2 Tim 2:12

Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.> Is 58:1-2

They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.> Titus 1:16

And ye shall seek me, and find [me], when ye shall search for me with all your heart.> JER 29:13

This is what the LORD says to the house of Israel: "Seek me and live;> AMOS 5:4

Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.> Ps 34:8

Have you learned about the goodness of Jesus. Do you know that God's power is something you can know. Not just guess. Are we letting God be God?

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.> Rev 2:2

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.> Rom 5:17

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.> Heb 4:16

We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing.> 2 Thess 1:3

We are not looking for a bunch of rules but for the wisdom of God.

We want to know what God has for us, after all he created us!

We can never let a preacher or teacher lead us into a dead religion with God's presence.

He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. John 21:17

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.> Matt 23:27 We won't come to know God or have a relationship with Him if it's about laws.

"Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it."> Luke 11:44

A lack of knowledge and not knowing the word of God is the number one reason for people leaving the church. A lot of them were in churches that had a form of godliness but were not do or seeking God's will.

We must come to him through grace. Not this type of if I sin God will strike me dead because I broke a law. We come to God to learn how to know Him, seek Him, love Him and how He loves us.

For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.> Rom6:14

[This matter arose] because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves.> Gal 2:4

If you are not getting closer to God and gaining more wisdom, than pray to God in Jesus name for a different church. The church God wants you to be at will feed you spiritually, it will be in season for you.

My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.> 1 Cor 2:4-5

He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.. And these signs WILL accompany those who BELIEVE: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; [18]...they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”> Mark 16:15-18

What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him? And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food, and one of you tells them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled;” and yet you didn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself.> James 2:14-17

But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.> IS 40:31

Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.> James 1:3

Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.> Heb 11:1

He said to the woman, "“Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”"> Luke 7:50

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.> 1 Cor 16:13

So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,> Eph 3:17

But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him:> 1 John2:5

In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.> Eph 3:12

Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches." > Matt 13:32

This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There isno difference, >Rom3:22

For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."> Rom 1:17

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world: your faith.> 1 John 5:4

My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you've been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You're deeply rooted in him. You're well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you've been taught. School's out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.>Col 2:7

Are you hot, cold or luke warm? How much of you have you given God?

'I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth.> REV 3:15

How high is your you know that you know that God is all power and loves and deliver His people?

So Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am [the one I claim to be] and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.> John 8:28

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,> Eph 1:18

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:> 2 Cor 5:18

Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.> 1 John 3:3

They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.> Rev 12:11

Are you confident that you have a relationship with God or are you without a clue?

We are to come to know without a shadow of doubt nothing will and can separate you from God or His love.

I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.> John 10:28

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.> John 3:17

Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, "Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him,> John 7:28

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. > Matt 25:34

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.> John 15:9

Gain wisdom to on the battle we are fighting. Get wisdom on how to have a peaceful, sucessful life even in trials and tribulation.

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. > John 16:33

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.> Matt 5:10

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. > Rom 8:37

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.> 2 Cor 2:14

Don't be lazy and desire something from God and not be willing to seek Him for it.

A sluggard does not plow in season; so at harvest time he looks but finds nothing.> Prov 20:4

But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. > James 1:6-8

Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.> Phil 1:6

 He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.> 1 Cor 1:8

Knowing your enemy is important so you won't be deceived.

Behold (see, understand), I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. Matt 10:16

"Stay alert. This is hazardous work I'm assigning you. You're going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack, so don't call attention to yourselves. Be as cunning as a snake, inoffensive as a dove> Matt 10:16 (the message)

Adversaries are promised when you do step out and seek God.

^17-20"Don't be naive. Some people will impugn your motives, others will smear your reputation—just because you believe in me. Don't be upset when they haul you before the civil authorities. Without knowing it, they've done you—and me—a favor, given you a platform for preaching the kingdom news! And don't worry about what you'll say or how you'll say it. The right words will be there; the Spirit of your Father will supply the words.

^21-23"When people realize it is the living God you are presenting and not some idol that makes them feel good, they are going to turn on you, even people in your own family. There is a great irony here: proclaiming so much love, experiencing so much hate! But don't quit. Don't cave in. It is all well worth it in the end. It is not success you are after in such times but survival. Be survivors! Before you've run out of options, the Son of Man will have arrived.

^24-25"A student doesn't get a better desk than her teacher. A laborer doesn't make more money than his boss. Be content—pleased, even—when you, my students, my harvest hands, get the same treatment I get. If they call me, the Master, 'Dungface,' what can the workers expect?

^26-27"Don't be intimidated. Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are. So don't hesitate to go public now.

²⁸"Don't be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There's nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life—body and soul—in his hands.> Matt 10:17-28

So are we just going to fall by the way side and stop belieing when it starts to be a challenge? Will we cling to the word and promises of God when everything is going wrong?

God wants us to grow up and be strong in Him. He does not want us to faint during trials. - Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.> 1 Cor 14:20

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.> Eph 4:15

God will use each and every trial for His glory and purpose. God will train you and led you into your calling by purging the old sin nature out of us.

To be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.> Rom 15:16

If we do not allow God to keep cleaning us, going deeper and deeper into our hearts, than we will not be fit for kingdom use.

But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased> 1:15 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God > Rom 1:1

God test us in fire, purifies us as gold, washing us with the word of God. All of this to clean us up and purge the sin , the very thing that God can't be around. Just to be able to work through us to use us for His glory. All he really wants for us is to bless us.

"Finally, my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.  Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand Eph 6::10-13

I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy.> Luke 10:19

But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. > James 3:17

My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.

Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.

Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. > Duet 11:18

Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.> Prov 4:6-7

Will we follow the wisdom of Solomon who said, "The tongue of the wise brings healing"

(Proverbs 12:18) and "The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life" (Proverbs 15:4)?

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart> Heb 4:12

[Is] not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer [that] breaketh the rock in pieces?> Jer 23:29

My son, here are my instructions for you, based on the prophetic words spoken ... May they help you fight well in the Lord’s battles.Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked >1Tim 1:18-19.

You will return to God, And if you thought you were really seeking God the right way before and now have learned you wasn't. You can really have a real relationship with God and know then with out a doubt God is with you and is and can use you. God will make His presence and existence a real thing, it won't have to be guess work anymore. God will touch you and you will feel it and know that God is awesome!

Then they asked him, "Where is your father?" "You do not know me or my Father," Jesus replied. "If you knew me, you would know my Father also."> John 8:19

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.> John 6:37

Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy FIRST LOVE. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the FIRST WORKS; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.> Rev 2

You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you.> Ps 86:5

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.> 1 Cor 3:17