Identity in Christ - part 1

Identity in Christ - part 1

BY Argie Simonis  

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

The phrase “in Christ” is a terminology that is used over 300 times in the New Testament, always referring to a deep, true relationship with God. Once that takes place, you become a new creature. Some translations actually say “a new kind of species.” Understanding this scripture will help us to walk in power and victory as christians, because sadly today "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" says the Lord in Hosea 4:6.

 Where did that change take place?

• -         It did not take place in the physical realm. It isn’t talking about your physical body, saying that it completely changes, that your looks change. If a person was fat before they were saved, they’ll still be fat afterward, unless they go on a diet.
• -         It also isn’t talking about your mental or emotional part—what most people consider to be the real “them.” If you weren’t too smart before you were saved, you won’t be too smart after you’re saved, but you will still have a lot of the same memories and thoughts.      

In 1 Thessalonians 5:23  Paul is praying for the Thessalonians, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

Here we see that there is a third part, and by process of elimination it has to be the part of us that is changed, our spirit man.

That passage shows that we have a spirit, soul, and body. The body part is very obvious. It’s the part of us that is seen, our outward persons. We all recognize that there is another part beyond that—our emotional, mental part—which Scripture calls the soul. I can hurt you by knocking you on the shoulder but I can hurt you with my words  without physically touch you. Most people are in tune with the physical and soulish parts, but according to Scripture, there is another part, which is the spirit. The spirit is the part of us that is changed and is new after salvation. It is actually the life giving part. James 2:26 says, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”

That shows that it is the spirit that actually breathes life into our physical bodies. It is where our life comes from. In Genesis 2 when God created Adam and Eve, Adam’s body was complete, but then God breathed into him the breath of life. This word “breathe” in Old Testament Hebrew was the exact same word that we use for breath, and it is translated “spirit” in other places. God created the physical body and the soulish person of Adam, but then He breathed into him the breath of life and he became a living soul. Genesis 2:7. The spirit is the part of us that gives life. Prior to salvation, before a person made a total commitment of their life so that the Lord came into them, the spirit within them was dead. Ephesians 2:1 says, “And you has He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins” 

We know we were alive before we were born again, but the word “dead” is referring to the spirit. Death in the Bible doesn’t mean ceasing to exist, as some people today think of it. It literally means “separation.” When a person physically dies, they don’t cease to exist. The Bible teaches that they go immediately into the presence of God or into the presence of hell. The soul and spirit continue to live, but there is a separation from the physical body, which dies and decays. When Genesis 2:17 says “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.” it didn’t mean they would die physically but spiritually, that they would become separated from God. The spirit, the part that God breathes into us, which actually gives life and motivation, became separated from God’s supernatural life…His holy and complete life. Man then began to degenerate. He still functioned, but he was functioning independently, separately from God. That’s really what causes all the problems in our lives and all of our emotional stress. 

When a person comes to the Lord, they receive a new spirit and are born again (click here), which is the terminology Jesus used in John 3:5. In the same way man is born physically with a spirit, soul, and body, when he is born again, he receives the Spirit of Christ. Galatians 4:6 says, “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.”

God literally places His Spirit inside of us, and we now have a new quality of life, a new identity, and are a totally new person in our spirits. The rest of the Christian life is learning in your soulish, mental realm what has taken place in your spirit. The truth is, one-third of your salvation is over when you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord. Your spirit becomes completely changed. It is the exact same spirit you will have throughout eternity. It already has love, joy, peace, and is full of the presence of God (Gal. 5:22) There is no lack or inadequacy in your spirit, but you have to perceive that, which is the reason studying the Word of God is so vital to the Christian life.

You are a totally brand-new person, but until you get knowledge, you won’t change!

Victory in the Christian life comes when you are able to look into the Word, which is Spirit and life, see who you are, see what God has done, and begin to believe it.

Amen!

To be continued ...

The nature of God

The nature of God

BY Argie Simonis  

In order to have a positive relationship with the Lord, we must know His nature and His real character. Is He angry because of our sin, or is He a merciful God who wants to give us His life and blessing, independent of our performance?
Let's take as an example the raising children. They have to be told the rules and, if they break them, be disciplined. They may not understand the concepts, but they can understand that if they repeat the action, they will be punished.
In a sense, that’s what the Lord did in the Old Testament. Before people were born again, they didn’t have the spiritual perception we have under the New Covenant, so He had to give laws and enforce them with punishment, sometimes even death, to turn them away from sin.
Because Satan was destroying people through sin, there had to be restraints placed on sin, and they had to be enforced. Although this left the false impression that God didn’t really love us because of our sin, that is not what the Word of God teaches.
 Romans 5:13 says, "Until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed where there is no law." "Until the law" means until the days of Moses when God gave the Ten Commandments and other ceremonial laws that applied to the Jewish nation. Up until that time, sin was still in the world but wasn’t imputed. The word "impute" is a bookkeeping term. For example, you go to a store to buy something and then it is charged on your account and the purchase is imputed to you. If they failed to impute it, that means it wasn’t recorded and held against you.
This verse is saying that until the time the Ten Commandments came, sin was not being held against people. That’s an amazing statement!
Look at Genesis 3 and 4. Most people believe that when Adam and Eve sinned against God, because He was holy and man was now sinful, He could have nothing to do with sinful mankind. They think God drove man out of the Garden to remove him from His presence because a Holy God couldn’t have anything to do with unholy man. This is not Jesus message. In Genesis 4:9-15 you can see that God was still fellowshipping with man, still talking with Adam and Eve even after they sinned. In Genesis 3:22-23 we see that driving them out of the Garden of Eden was an act of mercy and not punishment. God didn't want man to live eternaly in sinful bodies subject to all emotions and diseases that sin brings. 

Romans 5:8 says God commended His love toward you, and while you were yet a sinner, Christ died for you; so the New Testament teaches that God extended His love to you while you were living in sin, not after you have cleaned up your act. One of the great truths of the Gospel that will change your life is to understand that God loves you just like you are. He loves you so much that if you receive His love, you won’t want to stay as you are. You will change, but you’ll change as a byproduct of God’s love not in order to get His love. God talked with Cain and Abel, and when they came to offer sacrifices to Him, He spoke to them in an audible voice. By their reaction, we can see that they were used to hearing His voice, and it didn’t scare them.  All this says is that God was still fellowshipping with mankind and had not broken fellowship, as is commonly believed. He was not imputing man’s sins to him. Around 2000 years have passed between the Fall and the giving of the Law. Abram was not killed for marrying Sarah, his half sister, nor killed for sleeping with her servant Agar. Jacob also was not killed for marrying his wife's sister. Does that mean that God approved their sins? No, that’s the reason He eventually gave the Law. God had to give the Law to bring man back to a proper standard. In Galatians 3:19, 23-24 we see that the Law was a temporary way of dealing with sin. 

God had to show man that he needs a Savior and that he has to humble himself and receive forgiveness as a gift. Sadly, religion has manipulated and controlled these things to teach that the Law was given so you can keep it and thereby earn God’s forgiveness and acceptance. No! The purpose of Old Testament Law was to magnify your sin to such a degree that you would despair of ever saving yourself and say, "God, if this is your standard of holiness, I can’t do it. Forgive me, have mercy on me." The overall nature of God has always been love.
Amen!

Relationship with God

Relationship with God

BY Argie Simonis  

It is very important to understand that if you want to relate with a person you need first to understand that person. The same principal applies with God. You need to understand God's nature and character in order to have a healthy relationship with Him. Failing to follow this principal can lead to many problems. This is excactly what happened in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve were tempted by the serpent:

"Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, Yes, has God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.  And the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die:For God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." (Gen 3:1-5)

Satan came against the nature and character of God and by using a lie he said that God didn't want the best for them. Actually this is the very first lie ever said from the day of creation and that's why the devil is called "the father of all lies" (John 8:44). Sadly he still deceives people today in the same way, convincing them that following God and not experimenting with all these things that are contrary to His Word makes your life boring and you become unhappy and empty. Many people fall into that and by the time they realize that drugs, alcohol, sex, rebelion, success in jobs and all other things they tried didn't satisfy them, they have already destroyed their lives, their families and their health. God is a good God and His will for us is only good (Jer 29:11). When satan tempts us, he is not coming with something new. He uses the same temtptations on us today that came against Adam and Eve or even against Jesus when he temtped Him in the desert. There are only 3 major temptations he always uses throughout the centuries and "serves" them in different ways: The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1John 2:16).
I can make a lot of comments on this, but let me ask you this first: Why do you think satan didn't choose a big and strong animal like a lion or an elephant to scare  Adam and Eve and force them to eat of the forbidden fruit?
It's because he had no power to do that.Satan's only power is desception and he managed to deceive them and get them destroy themselves. That's the way he works with us too. We are the ones who destroy ourselve because we fall for his lies.
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6)

Sin is first conceived and then it gives birth; just like a baby.
"when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death." (Jas 1:15).
The best way to stop the birth of sin is to stop its conception. We can do that only by focusing on God and making His Word become personal to us. That is I believe the reason that satan aproached Eve first and not Adam, because she had knowledge of God's command secondhand. Therefore, it would have been easier to Eve to doubt Adam's credibility in presenting God's command accurately. The command not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was given to Adam before Eve was seperated from him (Gen 2:16-17). Eve was innocent and didn't realize that satan was trying to destroy her. However she should have become suspicious when the serpent questioned God's Words. She should never get involved into that conversation. That may also apply to us. Thoughts contrary to God's Word should be rebuked at once. Something else that we must notice is that comparing Eve's words in Gen 1:3 with God's direct command in Gen 2:16-17, we see that Eve added to what God had said. She said that she couldn't even touch the fruit, or she would die. Religious traditions cause people to feel that God's Word is irrelevant to us today, which of course is not true. Eve broke her tradition first. She touched the fruit,  she didn't die, then she broke God's commandment. We need to reject tradition and line up with God's absolutes.
"Thus have you made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition." (Matthew 15:6)

God’s heart is to reconcile mankind to Himself not to judge them…not to impute their sins…not to hold their sins against them. That’s the heart of God for people in the Bible and also His heart for you today. You need to understand His real heart, that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). He seeks to take away your sins and anything that would separate you from Him. He’s already done it through Jesus, and He’s offering you relationship today, not based on your performance but on your faith and acceptance of Jesus bearing your sins. You can have relationship with God today regardless of the failures in your life. All He asks is that you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen!

The way you think is the way you will be.

The way you think is the way you will be.

BY Argie Simonis  

"For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he" (Prov 23:7)

We cannot consistently operate differently than what we believe in our hearts. We may lie to gain an advantage, we may even try to lie to convince ourselves for something that is not true, but our actions is the fruit of how we think in our hearts. So if we want to change our actions we need first to change our hearts. Anything else than that is just a cover-up, a modified behavior. It is not a true change and it will not last long.
The way we think in our hearts is not just random thoughts. It is more like an act of meditation. Regardless of what is happening in our lives, in our bodies, or our circumstances, if we can think and believe strongly enough, everything can change. We need to focus to what God says and we must not forget that if the Word is not mixed with faith, it profits us nothing (Hebrews 4:2). If our situations aren’t changing for the better, then we haven’t truly seen it on the inside in our imaginations. Things which are seen were made of things which are not visible (Heb 11:3). We have to see it on the inside before we see it on the outside.  
How do you see yourself today? Are you the victim or the victor? Are you a cat or a lion?
God bless you!

The rigthousness of God

The rightousness of God

BY Argie Simonis  

"But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ to all and on all them that believe: for there is no difference:
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:21-23)
 
Many people today wonder: "What do I need to do in order to go to heaven?". The most popular answer would be to keep the 10 commandments, be faithful to your wife/husband, live a moral life, and a number of other things. You need to realize that in order to be in God's presence you need to have a rightousness that equals God's rightousness and only one man had such rightousness, and that is Jesus Christ! None of us in our own selves have ever kept the Law or the commantments perfectly (Rom 3:23).
You need to understand that the Law was not given to produce justification but to give us the knowledge that we were sinners and needed salvation (Rom 3:20). We can not be the saviors of ourselves. The only way to obtain salvation is to put faith in Jesus and what He did for us as our savior. We are justified by faith without the deeds of the Law (Romans 3:28)
There are two kind of rightousness. The rightousness of man and the rightousness of God. The rightousness of man is a person's best behaviour and the good works they do. The religious Jews have come to think that the only way for God to grant them forgiveness was through them fulfilling the Law as much as possible and then offering the appropriate sacrifice prescribed in the Law for any sins. Paul here is not putting forth a new doctrine but expounds the true doctrine that the Old Testament Law and prophets had advocated all along. Justification through the Law was never God's intent. They had misunderstood and misapplied the Law in this area.
The only difference between Jew and Gentile, or the moral and immoral, is in the sight of people. From God's point of view there is no difference. Being a liar doesn't make you better than a thief, and being an adulterer doesn't make you better than a murderer. Sin is sin and all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23)
A rightousness according to the Law is a rightousness of doing, earning and achieving in order to be accepted before God. All the world religions today think you have to earn your acceptance by God by your own performance. The word "gospel" in Greek means "good news" and the good news is that God is offering His rightousness as a gift to those who believe in what Jesus Christ has already provided on the cross, which is the restoration of our broken relationship with God, and our salvation and the forgiveness of our sins which is a by-product of this restored relationship.
A common mistake that people make is comparing themselves with other people. According to 2 Cor 10:12 this is foolisness. Everyone is going to be compared to Jesus, who is the glory of God, and therefore everyone will come up short (Rom 3:23). We all need a savior.
God is offering you the gift of rightousness (Rom 5:17), a gift of right standing with Him. A gift does cost something, but not to the person that receives it. If you paid to receive something, then it wouldn't be a gift. God is offering that gift for free and the only thing you have to do is to receive it by putting your faith in Jesus Christ and what He did for you.
Don't waste time. Make Jesus your Lord and savior today! (Rom 10:9)

Words have power

By Peggy Simonis____________________________________________________________

Prov 18:21 Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Prov 18:20 From the fruit of his mouth a man’s stomach is satisfied; he is filled with the product of his lips.

Do we have the power of life and death to our tongue?

Is it possible someone to curse or to bless him self? 

When we pray to God and we say: "I can't stand anymore" "I am weak" 'I'm sick and tired" "I'm not good enough" "I'm not gonna make it" and so much more negative talking, this can produse a certain atmosfaire in our life.

Our words can become our reality.

Do you believe this? Is this biblical? Let's go to the Word of God:

Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Gen 1:3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Gen 1:6 Then God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters, separating water from water.”  

And if you continue reading the 1st chapter of Gennesis you will see that God made everything with the word of His mouth!

And then He created man with His hands .

Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

4 times in 2 verses the bible says that we are made in God’s own image! It's like God wanted to be sure we will understand that we are like Him.

So if we are made according to the image of God that means that in the same way God spoke and everything had to obey under His command, this is exactly what is happening to our lives, know it or not! What we speak must happen!

So the devil in order to steal our authority and dominion the Lord has given us, he comes with suggestions. If we believe these suggestions in our heart and confess them out loud, that's it, we have cursed our selves... and maybe our spouses, or our family or our friends!

The bible says

Rom 10:8 “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);

Rom 10:9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Rom 10:10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

In the exact same way someone can curse him self!

By believing in the heart the negative suggestions, and by confessing them out loud  with the mouth.

How powerful! 
And how dangerous if we do the wrong use of the tongue. 

Let us all be aware of the power the Lord has given us to use it for our benefit. For blessing and life!

Prov 18:21 Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

The gifts and callings of God are irrevocable.

BY Argie Simonis    

God has created you with special gifts and talents and everything about you is formulated for a purpose.

"Before I formed you in the belly I knew you; and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet to the nations." (Jer 1:5)

Some people are so multi-talented though, that it is really hard to seek God because they can do so many things by themselves. Jeremiah was called to be a prophet far before he was quilified to be. The gifts and the callings of God are not according to your abilities. God's plans for your life were made before you were even born, before  you have ever developed your skills or done anything else. We see the same with Paul in Galatians 1:15: "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace..."

In Romans 11:29 says that the gifts and callings of God are without repentance. God never takes it back. Before you did anything good or bad, God had already a plan for your life. This plan never changes because God never changes. Even if you make a mistake and get off track, God has always a way to place you back on track again. Like a GPS. It doesn't matter what kind of a mess you got your life in.
I would like to use as an example the lives of some Bible heroes  to encourage each one of you that did make a mistake and fell off track from God's will. 

- Abraham
He really messed up many times, but God still had the same plan for his life. Abraham and Sarah thought they were getting too old and so they decided to help God out. So Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, after having sex with Abraham (Genesis 16:1-15). It turned out that it was not God's will. Ishmael became the father of all Arabs and the whole Arab-Israeli conflict we have today started back with Abraham because he decided to do things on his own and he messed the whole thing up. But God still brought His will to pass and it was 18 years later that Isaac was born when Sarah was 91 years old and Abraham was 100 (Genesis 16:16-17:1). God still did it, even when Abraham almost gave Sarah to Abimelech's harem (Genesis 20:1-12). He wasn't a perfect example. He messed up so many times!

- Moses
Moses knew what the will of God was for his life, but he stilled messed it up. At his 40's he kills an egyptian because this is how he thought God would use him to bring deliverance to the people of Israel (Acts 7:22-25). This cost him 40 years suffering in the wilderness and 30 more years of suffering to the Israelites.

- David
He commited adultery and when he tried to cover it up he became a murderer (2 Samuel 11:1-17)

- Elijah
In 1 Kings 17:17-22 we see Elijah raising the widow's son from the dead. That's the first time this happens in the Bible!
In 1 Kings 18 he calls fire from heaven and he turns an entire nation to God (verse 39). Then he broke the three and a half years drought and runs and beats Ahab riding his horse in a 20 mile run! Then Jesabel sends him a note and he saw himself dead and he ran away. The Lord told him to go and anoint Hazael to be king over Syria, Jehu to be king over Israel and Elisha to replace him because he had messed up (1 Kings 19:15-16). The revival Elijah caused didn't last because he ran to hide into the mountains. And then he only went to anoint Elisha without doing the other 2 things that God told him to do. He gave up.
We see Elisha doing these things later, when Elijah was gone (2 Kings 8:13, 9:1-6).
We also see that Naboth gets killed by Ahab (1 Kings 21:1-14). Ahab wouldn't be king if Elijah had obeyed God in the first place.
If Elijah had done what God told him to do (anoint Hazael to be king of Syria, Benhadad wouldn't have done all these things mentioned in 2 Kings 6:24-25,28.

You can't have messed it up more than Elijah did! But he still was walking with God, still had a relationship with God, he still splitted Jordan river in two and on the other side a chariot of fire took him in Heaven (2 Kings 2:11). He never died! That is one of the 2 incidents ever recorded  in the Bible! Enoch was the first (Heb. 11:5).

- Apostle Paul
Paul was seperated from his mother's womb (Galatians 1:15). He may didn't throw stones to the first christian martyr Stephen, but he was complicit (Acts 7:58)
He got so zealous against the christians that he went everywhere and he arrested men and women, threw them in prison consenting unto their death. He was killing christians. Saul was the number one persecutor of the christians (Acts 8:1-3).

In Acts 9 while he was on his way to Damascus, God appeared to him in a light and knocked him down to the ground and said "Saul, Saul why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the pricks." (Acts 9:3-18). And the Lord revealed Himself as Jesus. Saul humbled himself and went in. It took a renewing of his mind. He spent 3 and a half years in the deserts alone, and then another dozen years or more in Tarsus just renewing his mind, re-adjusting all of his theology from the wrong things he had been taught, but he came back stronger than ever! His name was changed to the apostle Paul.  This is a man who was totally off track, who was killing christians and yet he wrote half of the New Testament!

- Samson
In Judges chapters 13-16 we see Samson, another guy who was anointed by God, and seperated from his mother's womb. An angel came and appeared to Samson's parents and told them that she was going to conceive a supernatural child and that this child would bring deliverance from the Philistines and from the day of his birth he was seperated unto God. He was a Nazarite to God, and he couldn't shave his head and so he went out and he began to start bringing deliverance. He conquered the Philistines on many occasions. But he had a lust for women. He married a woman who God told him not to marry, a woman outside of the Israelite faith. He married a Philistine and all kinds of problems came. They came and took his wife away and because of it he got mad. He fought the Philistines and then he had a number of sexual problems. He had a serious sexual addiction and finally he ended up with Delilah, who sweet talked him into giving away his secret. They shaved his head and instantly lost his power. It was his covenant with God. It was a spirit of might that came upon him. He did things that were humanly impossible. He picked up the gates of a city and walked off with them! This was God's anointing. He was a man seperated by God and given a special gift of supernatural strength to bring deliverance to the Israelites. He took a jawbone of an ass and killed over a 1.000 people with no weapon! He was mightly used by God not because he was a perfect man. He had serious problems but God used him anyway. 

When they shaved his head he lost his power. Some would think at that point that's the end of it. He broke his covenant. And they actually punched his eyes out and they tied him to a wheel that they used to put an animal to and walked around to grind corn. The mighty man of God was reduced to being humiliated. The Philistines brought him into their coliseum and they wanted to mock him. Many people would think that after all these God was not with him any more. But Samson told this young boy who was leading him around to put him next to the 2 pillars upon which the whole house was built and after this young boy did so and Samson repented for his rebelion towards God and he said 

"God strengthen me just one more time and let me die with the Philistines".

God heard his prayers and he literally pulled those 2 pillars down. Again the same anointing, not his natural strength, this God-given ability came upon him and all of the Philistines in the coliseum died. He actually ended up slaying more of the enemies of God in that one act than he had in his whole life up to there!

David wrote a huge amount of the Bible. He wrote all the psalms and much of the Bible was written about him (1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 1 Chronicles).
Moses is the one who wrote the first 5 books of the Bible (Genesis, Exhodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), and he also wrote psalm 90. Paul wrote half of the New Testament. If you put these 3 people together, just Paul, David and Moses, do you know that all 3 of them were murderers? And yet, half of the  New Testament was written by a murderer, Paul, half of the Old Testament, Psalms, Proverbs, the first 5 books of the Bible, was written by people who murdered people!

If you think that what you've done has just stopped God and that God could never use you, then you aren't reading the Bible accurately. The gifts and callings of God are without repentance. It doesn't matter what you've done. God has a destiny for you and you are never too late to find it. Moses was 80 years old when God finally started using him and went back to Egypt and started bringing deliverance to the Israelites.God used him up until he was 120 years old:

"And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated." (Deut. 34:7)

At his 120 years he was still fulfilling what God had called him to do! I will say it again: It doesn't matter who you are, what you've done, how much you have messed it up. God has a purpose for your life.  I am not saying that you can just live however you want to and it will still come to pass. You may cause yourself a tremendous amount of pain and suffering if you get off track. But if you will repent and if you will humble yourself and say 

"God I believe Romans 11:29 and whatever you've called me to do I believe You can still get it done through me". 

If you would ask God "Father here I am, take this mess that I've made and somehow use me, get me back on the right track". 

If you would do that, if you would be sincere, it's not too late God can still do awesome things through you! And now that you know that you have messed up and that you no longer are self-confident and you are no longer going to do things your way, if you allow God to flow through you and if you will be God depentent, I believe that your later years can be better than your former years. You can actually see more things happen than you could ever have imagined! God's plan will always be better than your plan, and He has a way to do it.

Amen!