Reckon ourselves dead to sin.

As we seek, and ask for revival and respond to the Holy Spirit's leading. He will lead us to genuine repentance. As we contemplate what Christ has done for us, how He died upon a cruel cross so that He can forgive and save us, our hearts are softened and we see sin in its hideous reality. How can we continue in sin, when our sins have caused Christ to die?

Romans 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Do we believe this?

True repentance means sorrow that we have sinned against God,. Our sinning is against God. Our heart's cry is "Psalms 41:4 LORD, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee. It means giving all our sins to Jesus, not just to grant us a legal forgiveness, but cleanse us from those sins. And the promise is that He will forgive. Jesus died the penalty of those sins, they no longer condemn us to death, we have been redeemed, justified! Declared righteous!

Now what? Do we simply enter a cycle of sin, repent, sin, repent?

How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? (Romans 6:2) Before repentance and justification, we were trapped and "dead in sin". (Eph 2: 1) But God, in His grace, has freed us from sin. When we repented and gave it all to Christ, He justified us (just as if we had never sinned) Baptism symbolizes this! Dying to the old carnal nature we ?died to sin? and are alive in Christ. (Rom 6:2) It is therefore absurd to think that God's grace has given us a free license to sin; to live as if we were never justified and still in bondage to our flesh and fallen nature.

Romans 6: 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life....6 knowing this, that our old man {carnal nature} was crucified with Him, that the body of sin (all our binding sins might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.

Romans 6:11 Likewise you also, [consider]reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Reckon and count as true our status in Christ. We are to reckon, believe ourselves as being dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. To reckon is an imperative to believe we have been rescued from sin and its condemnation, and clothed with robe of Christ's righteousness, freed from sin and its power, and in no way do we want to go back into that bondage again, thus we continually lay hold of our status in Christ.
We desire to be in that group pictured in Revelations 3:4 that walk with Christ and have not soiled their robes.

When we count it to be true in our lives, it changes the way we live. Reckoning is not a command for us to try to die to sin, but to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to righteosness.

In simpler terms.
A person who has been pulled out of a hopeless, degrading situation, and believes they are set free, with a bright future full of acceptance, love and enablement, isn't as likely to go back to their old ways,
While a person who insists their hopeless, degrading situation is impossible to change, even if pulled out, is likely to sink right back in.

Jesus came, not only to forgive us of our sin, but to break the power of sin and set us free to serve Him.

What happens in the new birth is not a sudden sinless life, it is a complete change of thinking. There is still a battle, but it is a Spirit-empowered, persevering, clinging to Christ, hating sin, new being, We belong to Christ, no longer slaves to sin and we will, by the power of the Holy Spirit, though we may slip, keep sin from getting a grip on us again,

The new creation in Christ is a fighter. Paul said at the end of his life, ?I have fought the good fight? (2 Timothy 4:7), and he tells Timothy, ?Fight the good fight? (1 Timothy 6:12). And he means the fight for holiness, the fight to stay closely connected with our Redeemer and Savior,

To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isaiah 8:20.

We are warned that last great delusion is soon to open before us. Antichrist is to perform his marvelous works in our sight. So closely will the counterfeit resemble the true that it will be impossible to distinguish between them except by the Holy Scriptures.{DD 36.2} By their testimony every statement and every miracle must be tested.

We need a spiritual revival of full commitment to Jesus our Savior, a letting go of all worldly interference that draws away from Christ. And it will come for all who seek it. The Holy Spirit will be poured out, it is promised.

BUT

Before that revival comes to God's people.
Satan will bring in a great counterfeit! He will endeavor to prevent people from fully giving themselves to Christ in full obedient submission, by introducing a counterfeit.
He will make it appear that God's special blessing is poured out; there will be manifest what is thought to be great religious interest. People will be singing and praising God with enthusiasm. There will be much talk about love and unity, tolerance and peace. The protest or any conviction that one group has the truth while the rest don't have the truth, will not be tolerated. After all, people will say, isn't everyone receiving the spirit, whether they uphold God's commandments or not, whether they believe the Biblical testimony or not, whether they repent or whether they don't, aren't they all experiencing this religious emotional high?
In the counterfeit revival the emotion signifies acceptance, any protest against this is expected to die, all must embrace each other in love and unity based on the emotion.




Do we know the difference -

Worship is the issue in Revelation:

Worship God	False Worship
Rev. 14:7 Worship Him Who made heaven and earth.	Rev.13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who [is] like unto the beast?
	Rev. 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Rev. 15:4 Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for [thou] only [art] holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.	Rev. 13:15 And cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
	Rev. 14:11 they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.