This is exactly what I needed as we entered the second day of our Celebrate Jesus conference, to be refreshed. The Holy Spirit was working on me and i desperately wanted to respond to where He was leading me.
Sin has a way of causing a person to become spiritually dried up and cracked, much like our skin if we do not keep it clean and moisturized.
Peter in the second and third chapter of the book of Acts gave two sermons and the people either responded in the positive (receiving) or the negative (rejecting). Our guest speaker spoke with an authority and a finality that left nothing resembling a gray area.
God leaves no gray area when it comes to sin...get rid of it. These acts of rebellion will hinder us in our relationship with the LORD. I was in a place now where I was sooooo tired of being tired. For long stretches of time i would seek God and inquire "what is going on with me?"
Many more questions followed, but still no answers to those questions.
Our speaker continued on and on. I felt my spiritman rising up within me and proclaiming "This is it. Now is the time to inquire of The Lord and He will answer you." Precious few other times in my christianity have I wanted to stand in the presence of God and hear His voice like I did that morning. I will let you in on a little secret. Never. Never. Never have I felt so drawn to God as I felt that morning. Never. My being drawn by the Spirit to making Jesus Lord and Saviour of my life was nothing like this.
Hold on. Although my need was great to accept the free gift of salvation, my need was greater to not fall back into that lifestyle of sin. Hebrews 6:4-7 will bare that out. I had finally been broken and was ready to give my life to Him without reservation. I confessed my sins before God and man. There was no pretense, no forethought, no holding back. My spiritual heaviness and physical weariness was lifted. Praise the Most High God. I was clean again. Not perfect, but clean. My spirit has been refreshed by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit.
Read how Naaman (2nd Kings 5) responded when he came up from the Jordan river after dipping himself seven times and being cleansed and freed from leprosy a deadly disease. Naaman immediately acknowledged there was only One True God in Israel and began to praise Him.
Naaman was restored and made clean. And now, so had I.
Never before had the presence of The Lord felt and tasted sweeter.
(Only one more to go). See you at the Potter's Wheel.
No comments:
Post a Comment