There are churches around the world where god is moving in a mighty way. We received a report during our annual meeting of more than 25,000 people each day coming to know Jesus in India. One church in the Denver area has baptized 225 people in the last 3 years.
God is at work in many churches and in many individuals in a mighty way. We might ask ourselves the question, “Is God at work in our church in a mighty way?” You might take it a step further and ask yourself, “Is God working in a mighty way in my life? Am I experiencing God’s mighty power in my life?”
If the answer is no, then the question might be, “If I know that God is still at work, and He is performing great things in other places, then why not here, why not in me?”
The good news is this church can experience God’s power and you can experience God’s power individually. God wants to work in each of us. So what is the reason that we lack the power of God in our life? Let’s go to Scripture for the answer.
Isaiah 59:1-2
1Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.
2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.
What keeps us from experiencing God’s power in our lives and in our church is un-confessed sin. We see this even more clearly in Psalm 66:18.
18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear.
The reason we don’t experience God’s power in a mighty way is because of our lack of understanding about what sin does to our communication with God. Much of the time our prayer life consists of a shallow time of confession. We have the attitude that God knows what we’ve done, so we move quickly through our prayers without acknowledging our sin to God. I am certain that we aren’t aware of how often we quench the Holy Spirit because of our lace of confession.
But God wants to have fellowship with us and has made every provision for forgiveness.
1st John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We can have a close relationship with God if we learn to confess our sin. God has also made a provision for us to be able to see our sin for what it really is. He will search our hearts to reveal our sin to us if we ask Him.
Psalm 139:23-24
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties;
24 And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.
Our prayer should be “Search me oh God.” We should regularly get alone with God and get clean so that our prayer time will be powerful. God wants us to know that sin should not win in our lives. We are told, beyond a shadow of a doubt that sin should not be a part of our normal life after we have accepted Christ into our heart.
Romans 6:12-14
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
Sin shouldn’t rule our lives.
Romans 8:37 tells us that we are more than Conquerors.
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
So the remedy for a poor relationship with God is:
1. Refresh your relationship with Him daily.
2. Ask Him to search your heart.
3. Have faith in His forgiveness.
4. Then pray with faith expecting God’s power in your life.
This post today reminds me of a saying that I still use quite often. "If you're not as close to God as you used to be, who moved?"
God is glorifed when He is enjoyed by the believer. We cannot enjoy Him when we do not delight in Him and in ALL things that He does.
John 17:17,
Ray
Posted by: Ray Earley | 11/07/2011 at 07:55 PM