Hebrews 6:4-6 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

Apostasy is one of those ugly words we do not like to talk about, unless you are a Pharisee Christian and then you gleefully use it to keep the troops in line. In fact these very verses have been used against me by those mind control individuals. But since we are free in Christ, let us not allow the spirit of bondage to creep into this discussion.

If you focus on words like impossible and renew you will miss the main issue at hand. Just as a magician uses distraction to draw your eye away from “the trick”, focusing on these two points distracts you from the real issue.

Have you been touched by the powers to come? You very well may have tasted the good word for all who have confessed Christ have done so. But the power, that is another issue all together. Not all have tasted of the power. I would say few do. So if you have never tasted the power, none of this applies to you. Never allow anyone to use these verses against you if you have not partaken of the power to come.

Now to deal with the few who have touched the power line. Apostasy is open rebellion. If and only if you are in open rebellion are you cut off from the power. Why? Because you have lost the trust of the Lord. Now let us deal with the impossible renewal since the issue here is trust. Since salvation thru repentance is a single issue event where you moved from the realm of the enemy into the glorious light. There is no going back. Rebellion is not going back to the enemy camp, it is a failure to follow orders.

The end result is with loss of trust is that no orders will be given to you to move in power. That says absolutely nothing about your eternal salvation. You will never be trusted with the power again. Is it worth it?

2 Timothy 2:13 If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.

Believe not equals failure to follow orders, but you still belong to Him.

Exodus 14:20 And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night.

In this I am reminded of old World War II movies I watched as a youth. A destroyer would sail across the advance of the armada laying down a smoke screen so that the enemy could not take dead aim on our ships. That was ancient warfare but still holds a practical application of personal behavior.

We as sinners do not like to have anyone taking potshots at our sin. We lay down a smokescreen of sorts to hide from others. We put on a brave face to hide our pain. We do good works to disguise our sinful nature. We make excuses and rationalize continually to justify ourselves rather than do anything that might just change our hearts. I’ve done it, and I doubt I am alone in this.

A faithful man of God who knew me would set me down and ask me what was going on in my life. I would talk, laying down that smokescreen, heaven help if I should tell the truth. But then this gifted man of God would use the gift of spiritual discernment to cut thru my smokescreen and make a direct hit on my problem.

I know I did not say anything that would expose myself. I was very careful, but there I was exposed and vulnerable. The God who knows my heart revealed me to another. My secret darkness was exposed to the light of truth.

This is true spiritual discernment. Others that have declared that gift have been found to be nothing more than judgmental. You will not find judgment in discernment, only truth telling, with love, grace and mercy.

Do you know the heart and mind of another? Examine yourself as to how that came into being.