Our Continuing Conversations

Over the past few weeks I've been preaching about Revival. One of the main points that I hoped to get across is that personal revival always precedes corporate revival. We have to change things in our lives before we can expect revival to occur in our church. Unfortunately we pray "God please revive my church." But won't change anything in our own lives to help our prayer be answered.

My friend Chris and I have been having an ongoing conversation about this so I thought I'd give you the benefit of our "GREAT" wisdom - try not to giggle!

Here's some of our email

Hey Trent,
Just wanted to say thank you for the sermons that you have done the past two weeks. They have been really good and are words that I have needed to hear. You've talked about personal revival and this past week about how we need to get rid of the junk in our life. I must admit though that the "cold turkey" aspect of getting rid of the junk in my life wasn't real motivating ha ha. But it's the truth.
I also just wanted to share a devotional from Oswald Chambers that I read today. "I claim God's promises for my life and look to their fulfillment, and rightly so, but that shows only the human perspective on them. God's perspective is that through His promises I will come to recognize His claim of ownership on me. For example, do I realize that my "body is the temple of the Holy Spirit," or am I condoning some habit in my body which clearly could not withstand the light of God on it? (1 Corinthians 6:19).
"God formed His Son in me through sanctification, setting me apart from sin and making me holy in His sight (Galatians 4:19). But I must begin to transform my natural life into spiritual life by obedience to Him. God instructs us even in the smallest details of life. And when He brings you conviction of sin, don to "confer with flesh and blood," but cleanse yourself from it at once (Galatians 1:16). Keep yourself cleansed in your daily walk."
I just wanted to pass that along, as I really thought it related to what you preached about on Sunday. It's definitely hard to get rid of the junk that we've been holding on to for long periods of time. But it's something we must do. I think the question really comes down to the memory verse for this week. Do we desire righteousness or do we desire the things that keep us from the close walk with God that will fulfill us in ways we can't even imagine?
Sorry for the long e-mail, but I also wanted to throw in a prayer request that God would give me a true desire to get rid of the junk in my life and a desire to get closer to Him.


Chris
Thanks so much for the encouragement. I appreciate it a bunch. I think that God gave us freedom of choice from the beginning in having the ability to choose Him for salvation. But I don't think that God takes away freedom of choice once we receive Him as our Lord and Savior. We still have the choice every day to choose Him as our Lord. If we truly received Him as Savior - God knows that and I believe that it will show, But that doesn't mean that a month down the road when I'm tired and sick that I don't choose against Him. I don't lose my salvation but I certainly lose the fruit of the spirit that could have been mine for that day and the days to come until I decide to return.
I also believe this is why God chose a marriage as the picture of the relationship that He has with us. The bride doesn't lose her mind (although I'm sure there have been some that think they may have in the days following their marriage.) She also doesn't lose her will or identity. She choses to place her will under the protection and guidance of the groom. She chooses to identify with the groom. The book of Hosea shows us that it is possible to renig on that choice but that doesn't cause God to quit loving us or pursuing us. He loves us even though our hearts are far from Him.

The thing that we have to keep in mind is that there are always consequences to our choices. If I choose to be fulfilled and thus satisfied with God and His provision - then there is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, and all the other fruit of the Spirit because we have chosen to let the Spirit work. BUT if I chose to find fulfillment in something else that the Holy Spirit has warned me was wrong - then I will live with a sense of guilt and fear that someone will find out. Because I have a real sense of guilt and fear - that shows itself in a lack of patience with others, no love for others because all my focus is on me and protecting me. I have shut down the Spirit's work in my life.

Does this make sense?
Please pray for me - I'm still very sick and getting very tired of being sick!


Trent,
It definitely (does). Everything is a choice. We consciously or unconsciously in some cases choose what we are going to do and who we will follow. One thought I had after reading your email was how I think we sometimes choose to "fulfill" our lives and desires with worldly things because it is a more immediate fulfillment.
Sometimes we pray for things and God may choose to wait to respond to our requests and petitions. But instead of waiting on God to fulfill us, we find something that will immediately fulfill us. Again though, it's the choice we make. Our Sunday School lesson this week is on the story of Lazarus and how Jesus received word that he was ill, but it was 4 days later before He arrived. Does that mean he loved Lazarus any less or that Lazarus messed up somewhere or that Mary and Martha were being punished? No, but there was a reason why Jesus delayed His response. Because of His delay, He was able to do something greater than just heal a man. He brought him back to life.
If we would just learn to wait on God and not seek our own fulfillment, God will bring us back to life as well.