a Dream

I had a dream last night of a man who has not been in my life for a very long time. In our conversation I came to realize, although there had long been forgiveness, that he still denied the consequences of his actions and how they had affected us in our lives.
When I woke I asked God why this man would appear in my dream after so long a time? What was He trying to show me about sin and it's consequences?

This is what He has said to me;

He gives us the gift of grace freely and to all who would come to Him for it. There is no sin too great and no man or woman who is unworthy. He desires that we all should come, and He desires that we all should give the same grace to those who ask it of us. Forgiveness is so important that He has made it essential to us.
Having accepted the gift we cross over into another land where His spirit then can be glorified. It is in this arena, after forgiveness has been accepted, that miracles can happen. The lame can walk. The blind can see. Dead men rise. It is here that the true identity of a man or woman is revealed. This is the land of the consequences of our sinfulness. Here we have the opportunity to allow the Holy Spirit free reign to convict us, not of the sin, but of the concequences that are the result of it. To accept the gift and then not enter this land is to grieve the Holy Spirit and nullify His work in us.
Yes, you are 'entitiled' to the gift of forgiveness, His and mine. But the greater gift is found in the guidance of the Holy Spirit after the gift has been received. When we deny the consequence of sin, or continue to inhabit the rewards of it, counting them instead as 'blessings', we nail Christ to the cross of our sin over and over. Christ makes His sacrifice to us gladly, but we will not find victory and release, or reconciliation until we lay down before Him all that our sin has brought into our life.

In my dream, after speaking to this man, I went out to the beach to reflect on why he would have the understanding (or lack of it) that he did about the events of our past. Why his perspective of it was so different from mine. As I sat there the tide came in so quickly that I was caught against a rocky cliff. The only way to escape the tide was to climb the rocks out of its reach. As I climbed I found loose rocks that I was unable to trust with my weight. I prayed for God to come and guide me which rocks to cling to, which path would lead me to safety.

There is an ocean that threatens us. The ocean of sin and the consequences of it. We can deny that it is there, but it will consume us. If not now then some time in the future. We do not know at what time the tide will come in. Only God can guide us in the right path to free us from its reach. We may grab hold of something that we believe will take us to safety and then find that there is no foundation behind it that we could place our trust in it.
We have all sinned in some way or another. No one is exempt. After accepting His forgiveness am I going to continue to sit on the beach and let the ocean consume me? Or cling to the loose rocks? Or am I going to grab hold of a solid foundation? Am I going to come into the land of the Holy Spirit and allow His guidance to bring what is dead in me to life?
That man has never faced the consequences of sin in his life. He has denied them and it is reflected in the integrity of his walk with Christ to this day. It is not the path that the Holy Spirit would have us take.