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PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT SERIES
PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH
In this message we want to talk about
prayer for spiritual growth. We will go through quite a lot of scriptures
before we do some teaching. We look at prayers for spiritual growth so that we
can grow spiritually. The average Christian learns how to pray for their needs.
But prayer for spiritual growth is a special department in itself. And
sometimes we do not grow because we do not know how to pray. The reason why we
are teaching on this is sometimes people have been Christian for ten or twenty
years, yet tey have not really grown much in the
Lord. They could have been faithful. Going to church about three times a week,
listening to sermons, have been in close fellowship with Christian friends and
yet after a period of ten or twenty years. They don't seem to grow spiritually.
Yet sometimes when one or two of them stumble on a prayer like Ephesians
chapter one, then when they started praying those prayers for six months or
nine months, suddenly they seem to grow like they have grown so far for five
years. What is wrong?
Is it that just through passing of time
you would just grow spiritually as you grow naturally? It is not. Some things
are not equal. The spiritual world is not measured in
time like the natural world. In the spiritual world time does not exist. You
could travel in the spirit into the future as much as into the past. Time only
exist in this natural world that we live in. Since it doesn't
exist. You cannot measure spiritual growth by time. You measure
spiritual growth by different measurement. Don't measure spiritual growth by
physical time like we do today.
Spiritual growth is measured by change, not time. If within ten years
your spiritual change in your life is only about one centimeter growth in your
spirit man. But you suddenly discover how to pray for spiritual growth and
within six to nine months, you pray the right prayer, you walk the right walk
and you talk the right talk, you grow one centimeter in your spirit man within
that period. It is equal to that growth in ten years. In other words it is not
automatic just because you have been a Christian for ten to twenty years that
you be more matured than someone who is one year old
in the Lord. The measurement is not that method. Of course if all things are
equal and all the experiences of each one of us are the same, then that kind of
measurement may be used.
You cannot measure growth by years. You
measure growth by change. If now after ten years as a believer, you are still
the same with problems and weaknesses as you have ten years ago, you haven't
grown. You are still the same. If you are not able to overcome some problems in
your life, some habits, some patterns, some sins in
your life for the past ten years and they are still causing a bondage in your
life, you haven't grown. You are still the same. No change has taken place at
all. But if change starts that’s when growth comes.
Even if within one month you began to grow and overcome that area, you have
grown. That is why the bible talks about how God can restore the years that the
canker worm, the pamper worm and all kind of worms has stolen. He is able to
restore. In other words that which you were suppose to inherit or overcome in
victory that you did not in the past five to ten years, by a miracle and
working of God within one month He can cause you to have all those things that
belong to you. All the time he intended for you to receive His plan in heaven
for these past ten years. Somehow because of situations and partly because of your
lack of knowledge in knowing how to pray spiritual prayers for growth, you did
not grow and you therefore did not partake of the inheritance of Christ. You
partake only five percent when you should have partake
a hundred percent of what is intended for you for the past ten years. God can
within one month cause you to inherit the 95% that you missed out if you pray
the right prayers. And you know how to pray those prayers to get it. That’s why
is so important.
Sometimes Christians have been praying the
wrong prayer for ten years and they haven't grown. Some of them are still
praying to Jesus. They have never learned to talk to the Father. There is
nothing wrong in praying to Jesus and having a relationship with Jesus. But
Jesus said He has come to bring us to the Father. There is a greater level of
growth that we could go in to. And some
do not know what to ask besides for their physical needs. They don’t know how
to ask for these spiritual areas of life. That’s why we are talking about how
to pray for spiritual growth. You pray correctly in the spiritual growth and
when God starts answering they are powerful.
First we need to lay some foundation and look
at how Paul pray those prayers and draw some teachings
from that and perhaps some of the other man of God. Lets go to Paul's prayers
in the book of Romans 1: 9-11 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my
spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I made mention of you in
my prayers, making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in
the will of God to come to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you
some spiritual gifts, so that you maybe established; that is, that I may be
encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. This
he prayed to God to make a way for him to go to the Romans. That’s a good
prayer for those who are praying for open doors.
Then lets look at First Corinthians 1:4-5 I
thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you
by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in every thing by Him in all utterance
and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so
that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless
in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice he prayed for them that they
come short in no gift. And he says that they have been eagerly waiting for the
revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Please take note of the words for the
revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are going to talk about that later.
Lets look at Ephesians 1: 17 that the God
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of
wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, The eyes of your understanding
be enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what are
the riches of His glory, His inheritance in the saints, and what is the
exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the
working of His mighty power which He work in Christ when He raise Him up from
the dead and seated Him at the right hand of God in heavenly places far above
all authority, power and domination and every thing that is named. I prayed
that prayer thousand of times. It’s a powerful prayer.
Ephesians 3: 14 is another powerful prayer. For
this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom
the whole family in heaven and earth is named that He will grant you, according
to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in
the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you
being rooted and grounded in love, may be able comprehend with all the saints
what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes
knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Notice here
that in Paul's prayer has he mentioned anything on finances yet? Has he
mentioned anything about asking for a house or land yet? Did he mention
anything about asking for physical food yet? Isn't it interesting that it is
modern Christianity that conceived the major portion of our prayers, which Paul
didn't pray? Most of the prayers of Christians are prayers concerning food,
clothing, shelter, and things in that realm. Not that we are not to pray for
those areas. There is a place and a time for that. But the thing here is that
these natural areas will begin to take care of themselves because of the impact
of our spiritual lives. It is possible to be blessed naturally and not blessed
spiritually, because you learned to keep some laws of prosperity. But it is not
possible to be blessed spiritually without being blessed naturally. Because
when you are blessed spiritually the natural will always follow. Every man or woman in the bible who walk with God have always been
provided with God's providence. Otherwise Jesus would not say in Matt. 6:33 seek
ye first the
When the disciples followed the Lord Jesus Christ
in the gospel of Mark 10 And after the rich turned
away from Jesus and did not follow Jesus, Jesus said how hard it is for a rich
man enter into the
Do you notice that in all these prayers
that we have read especially in Ephesians 1 and 3, Paul did not so much as ask
God to give us anything except the spirit of wisdom and revelation. In all his
prayers he is asking either we are established and be blameless or he is asking
for some sort of change to occur in us. Notice very closely Ephesians 1: 18 the
eyes of your understanding being enlightened. There must be a change in us.
Then he says that you may know. I want you to notice the same theme he
takes in Ephesians 3:18 may be able to comprehend. Look at verse
nineteen, to know. His prayers for spiritual growth always emphasize,
"know".
Lets look on to Philippians 1:9 This I
pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and in all discernment,
that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and
without offence till the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness
which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Notice that you
may abound more and more in knowledge.
Colossians 1:9 For this reason we also,
since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you
may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding. Look at the emphasis there, understanding, and knowledge.
The big word that stands out is "know". Sometimes there is something
in the bible there that we just keep reading and reading. And some of the
prayers you pray over and over, you forget that there is something there that
is standing out and we cannot see the forest for the trees. But it is there all
the time. We just need to bring it out in simplicity and spell it out so that
we see it is there all the time. Sometimes we don’t examine it carefully. We
don’t realize its there. Notice the emphasis on "know". And virtually
all prayers for spiritual growth lie in the area of knowing.
Paul in his own life after many years in
the ministry says in the book of Philippians 3: 10 That
I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His
sufferings, being conformed to His death. Paul desired after all those
years to know God. He still desires to know Him and all His works. See
virtually all prayers for spiritual growth is a prayer to know God. We know
that to know God is not just a superficial way. You can walk with God for ten
thousand years and you still find that you haven't known Him fully. What do we
mean when we say we know that person. We need to
understand fully the word know. See there are many degrees of knowing. There is
no end to knowing God. When we first meet God, we have only begun to know him.
Let me share my heart out. I am quite
benevolent and generous. But if you ask me whether you can stay in your house,
my answer may not be yes. It is qualified by what's your reason. It is
qualified by, "Do I know you?" The reason is because we have
experienced helping people but when you find that they do not want to be
helped, it is very hard to move them out. We must discern between agape love
and phileo love.
Philippians 1 shows that a love must be
with discernment. The bible does qualify that there are certain types of people
you don’t welcome to your home. In the letter of Third John it talks about not
welcoming those who have the spirit of anti Christ into your homes at all. In
the first place people wouldn't come to us unless they are spiritual leeches.
All they do is to live off the sympathy of other Christians. Such people are stumbling blocks in the
Let
me tell you in any big church there is always some. I fellowship with other
pastors and some tell me that there are leeches who go from one church to
another. We realize that knowing people is important. In the first place people
wouldn't come to you. I am sure a person would not come to me and say can I
stay in your house if they don't know me. So there are different degrees of
knowing each other. There are also different degrees of knowing God.
The
word knowing God is simple but profound. Jesus make
this statement in John 17. In His prayer He makes a profound statement about
eternal life. Let's read John17: 3 "And this is eternal life, that they
may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom
You have sent." Jesus made a profound but simple statement. Eternal
life is knowing God. But there are so many degrees of
knowing God. God changes not. He is always the same. If you look at the past
and now, you realize that it is not God who have
changed but you have changed in your knowledge of God. Your walk with God has
increased. Your knowledge, your knowing is greater than before.
So prayer in the spiritual growth is in
the realm of knowing God. Establish that fact first. It is in the realm of
knowing God. And every one in the bible who has grown spiritually is because
they have come to know God to a certain degree. We establish that as step one.
Lets move on to a second area there. The situation is like
this. How much we can know God depends on a change in our lives or something
done to us than to God. We cannot know God unless something happens to us.
There is something that is blocking us from knowing God. It was totally blocked
from the time Adam fell. And the problem of knowing God lies not with God but
lies more with us. For example you could come and go in a meeting and not talk
to anybody. And you could complain nobody knows me. Nobody loves me. Nobody
wants me. Nobody care for me. Have you cared for anybody? Have you loved
anybody? See part of the problem of knowing people in the natural is we
reaching out. Before somebody wants to reveal something about themselves, you have to reveal something about yourself. In
the same manner in the spirit realm God reveals Himself to us. But it takes
something from us to bring a revelation of God into our lives. Talking about
prayers to know God and the revelation of God, ever since Adam sinned man find it hard to know God. In order to know God
something has to take place in us.
Do
you notice in Paul's prayer in Ephesians 1, which comes first? In verse 17 That
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory may give to you the spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him that the eyes of your
understanding be enlightened that you may know. Notice
which come first. The enlightening or the knowing?
It’s the enlightening. The enlightening involves some change in us before the
knowing. There must be something that takes place within us before we can know
God. See the problem of knowing God lies within us not with God. If it were
possible God would have us know Him fully. What happened is something has to
change within us. And when it changed a greater revelation of God come. With a
greater revelation of God we are built up even more. We are changed even more. And as we are
changed even more and we yield in even more and more areas, then comes a greater revelation of God. It is proportional. Its just like in our life for example there are ten
different places in your spirit man where you could contain one liter of water
each. There are these ten compartments. But before the water can be poured into
you, you have to open the compartments. Open one compartment then the water
began to fill within you until its full. And no matter
how much water is poured it cannot be more than the one-liter. Then one day you
decide to open the second compartment. And the water starts filling up until
you have two liters in you. Then its still pouring but
no other compartment is opened. The water flows but it just washes off. Then
finally you open the third one and it gets filled and so forth. When we change
there is a revelation. The revelation builds us. Then it awaits another realm
of unfolding and change in our lives.
Lets give another example in Second
Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror
the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to
glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
2 Corinthians 4: 3-4 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is
veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded,
who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is
the image of God should shine on them. Notice who
is preventing the knowledge of God? Satan is involved but there was something
covering the minds of those people who do not know Him. And even before we can
know Him the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 3: 18 we have to have unveiled face
looking at Him. And as we see Him we are changed into the same image into the
same glory. When God reveals Himself it is powerful. It is life changing. But
there are different degrees of knowing God, different realms of knowing God.
And there need to be a spiritual change, a soul change and sometimes a physical
surrender.
Let
me show an example in the book of Romans 12: 1-2 I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your
body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable
service. And do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is good and acceptable and
perfect will of God. That is knowing the will of
God. Notice that knowing the will of God involves a change in our mind. Look
carefully Rom.12: 2 that our minds be transformed. You are transformed by the
renewing of the mind that you may know. Notice the same thing in Ephesians 1:
17-18 It says that there be an enlightening of our
understanding that we may know. So the problem of spiritual growth lies within
us. There has to be a change in the mind and there has to be a dedication of
the body. There has to be a surrender of the body.
Before God reveal Himself we have to
reveal ourselves. God always wants to reveal Himself to us. But He cannot
reveal Himself to us unless we unveil ourselves to Him. That's the scriptural word
in 2 Corinthians 3: 18 with unveiled face. Now who does the unveiling first? God or us? We, you know why. He had already unveiled
everything He needed to when Jesus Christ was sent to the cross. Do you know
that Jesus Christ came for the purpose that we can know God.
He has done His part. He has shed the precious Blood of Jesus and we can
approach Him. He is more than willing to
unveil Himself but if He simply unveils Himself to us He would violate our free
choice. So to indicate that we want Him in our lives He waits for us to unveil
ourselves.
And there are three departments in our
lives that will affect the knowing of God. One is our spirit, second is our
soul and third is our body. We have to have something done to our spirit in
order to know God. And in our spirit that's taken care when we were born again.
When we were born again we have received the Spirit of God within us. We have
received a new spirit. But our spirit man needs to grow. And unless our spirit
man grow and is fed the word, it cannot know God. Just as a
little child cannot be trained to drive a car because the little child does not
have the capacity to do it. The legs are too short. That car was not
built for the size of that child. As the child grow
physically into an adult size, then the potential is there to train the child
to drive the car. In a similar way our spirit man needs to grow. There are
certain things that God cannot reveal to us if our spirit man is not at the
capacity to receive it because our spirit man cannot handle it. It was Jesus
who said do not cast your pearls to the swine. He says otherwise they will turn
around and they will come at you.
Apparently the revelation of God is not possible to be given and is
given only at different spiritual condition.
Lets look at the spirit first. Lets say a
Christian is nurtured in the word and his spirit man is growing to certain
extend, God sees it and says that the person is now ready to handle ten volts
of His glory and revelation. If God gives ten volts and he cannot handle ten
volts, worse things might happen. So he grows to that level so God's glory of Himself come, ten volts of revelation. Then through
time his spirit man is strengthened more with the word and grows more with the
word, then he grows until his spiritual man and capacity can handle fifteen
volts. Then God reveals fifteen volts of His revelation. Now in the natural as
you get to know people the first thing that you do when you get to know people
is you don't tell your worse or darkest part of yourself. Some of the worse
revelations people don't unveil until a certain commitment is there. That is on
the negative side.
But
there are other positive things involved. Like for example if a very rich
multimillionaire father is bringing the child up. If the multimillionaire keeps
giving anything the child wants, the child may grow up not knowing how to
handle finances and not knowing the value of finances. But if the father were
to with hold it and let the child handle a little and learn the value of it and
learn what is like to go without it, then when the child learned the value of
it and when the wealth is realized, the child will not squander the wealth. But
many second-generation millionaires squander the wealth because they did not
earn the wealth and did not have the capacity to maintain the wealth. For the
same wisdom it takes to accumulate the wealth is the same wisdom it takes to
maintain it. So in the way our Father knows how much of His revelation you can
handle. And He has to make sure that there is a certain growth in our spirit
before He reveals Himself. There is what I call strengthening to handle the
things of God.
Look at Ephesians 3: 16-17 That He would grant you, according to His riches
of His glory, to be strengthened with might in the inner man that Christ may
dwell in your heart through faith. He is not talking about your soul. He is
talking about your spirit. He is not talking about your body. He is talking
about your spirit. He is talking to Christians where Christ is already in their
hearts. But Christ can be in our hearts to different degrees of His presence.
Isn't it interesting that the proportion to which Christ can dwell or in other
words, unveil, unfold or reveal Himself to our lives is pre strengthening that
takes place within us. As you are strengthened more
you can handle more of Christ in you. Then if you pray the right prayer, the
prayer will strengthen your spirit man. Then Christ can dwell some more.
Ephesians one is a prayer for the mind.
Ephesians 1:18 That the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened. Romans 12: 2 is about your
mind. Second Corinthians 3 is about the mind. The unveiled face is referring to
the mind. The second part of our being in order to know God is our mind. There
has to be something that changes in our mind before God starts revealing
Himself.
And the third area is our body. Every time
you pray a prayer of dedication of your talents, of your finances, of your
strength, you put yourself in a position for God to reveal Himself. In many
places that I ministered in, I found that when the congregation that has
dedicated their finances and is very giving to the Lord, the revelation and the
anointing of the Lord flow very strong. But when you minister to congregation
that is stingy, who do not learn to give or dedicate your finances, the power
of God also could not work. Because if people are not faithful in finances how
can they be faithful in other things? And I have
talked with many men of God and they traveled all over this country. And I said
tell me frankly all these churches that you go through did the churches give
you an offering? They tell me the figure. Then I will also ask them how the
meeting goes. The interesting thing is this. The very places where the people
were very stingy were where the Spirit did not work much. Not that the minister
held himself back, but the anointing of God just didn't flow. And the places
where the people were very giving were where the revival was. And that was also
where the anointing of God was.
Where we have not dedicated in the natural God
cannot reveal in the spiritual. And every time you say a prayer and say God I
dedicate my talents to you, you are putting yourself in a position to get a
revelation from God. That's where people have missed it when they are talking
about spiritual growth. Every time when you pray for a natural need, and you pray without a prayer of dedication, you are
not unleashing the full forces of heaven behind it. Let me give you an example.
When you are praying for a house and all you are thinking is about yourself, it
doesn't unleash as much power as you have prayed, "God I dedicate my whole
being to you, my spirit, soul and body to you. I seek only Your
glory." Then you pray for that. That is different. See when you pray the
prayer of faith after the prayer of dedication is more powerful than when you
pray the prayer of faith alone. There is a difference. The dedication part is
there. There are many people who prayed for businesses, they say, "God
prosper me so that I can be a good giver to You, so that, so that.." But God knows the conditions of their hearts. They
have not fully surrendered to God. It does not come to pass either.
But the opposite of it is when you have
consecrated yourself to God like Abraham who has given even Isaac to God. One
of the things about answered prayer. Some people when they pray for natural
thing, they seem to get it faster than others. Part of the answer is the
dedication of the heart that God sees. Some people have both the faith level
and the dedication level. God knows the condition of our hearts, the dedication
that is involved. So there has to be what I call a surrender ness. A surrender ness
of the body and of our natural being to God. Present your bodies as a
living sacrifice. As our bodies become living sacrifices that's when you
prepare for the revelation of God in your life.
The Bible says blessed are the pure in
heart for they shall see God. It did not say blessed are those who see God for
they shall then be pure in heart. The condition is purity first, then see God. Not see first then pure. And there are a lot
of people who want a revelation in their lives but God will never reveal until
they give something of their lives. There must be a change that takes place in
your spirit. A change that takes place in your soul. A change that takes place in your body. A greater dedication
in your life and then there will be a greater revelation of God. That is why
when we reach a point in our lives there is what I call an instant
transformation. They come to a point where after so many years of struggling in
the bad habit or in sin, they finally come to the point of just bowing down
before God. Saying, "God this body has been used this way in sin. I
dedicate it now and live only for your glory. And I choose to say no to the
wrong things and yes to the right things." Somehow when it comes out from
you with all your heart, mind and soul, it can bring forth a revelation of God.
And when the revelation of God comes, what it does is, it seals and cement it
into your life.
It
is like this new substance today the dentists are using. Formerly dentists used
to use the lead. And after they drill your teeth they fill your teeth with lead
and press the lead in. But they have a new substance today
that react differently. A sort of semi-liquid substance will just fill
every gap that is there in your teeth. It is easy to press fully in. You don't
have to drill. Then they will shine a light. When they shine a light it harden to solidify. In the same way here you are pliable before
God. You come to the point of yielded ness of whole
heart, mind and soul. With God's light shining on you, something within you
gets crystallized and cemented. So that suddenly as you go away from God and
you look back at some of the old things that you used to do, you don't like
them like, like you used to before. Something has been cemented in you. And the
process of cementing goes on. The revelation of God is life-changing, character
changing, is powerful. So we have established the second truth.
The first area is unless we change God
does not reveal Himself. All prayer for growth is revelation of God, knowing
God. The second area is that there must be changed in either our spirit, soul or
body, and in all three area to get a greater revelation of God into our lives.
There must be a change in those areas. Then the third area is this. All the
prayers for growth involve a prayer for a change in our spirit. Since logically
if we change God reveals Himself, all prayers for growth must involve these two
areas. It must involve a change in us in some way expressed in the prayer and
it must involve a request for the glory of God to be revealed. A lot of people
are praying for growth but they don't include the process of change themselves.
So it never is answered. We put the two together now. All prayers for spiritual
growth must involve a change in us in some way and a request for God to reveal
Himself, whether His glory, His person or whatever, it is basically for God to
reveal Himself.
When Moses said show me your glory, he was
asking God to unveil Himself. He could do it because
he had dedicated himself to God. If it was been somebody else who made that
request, the request would have been a flat no. But Moses had dedicated himself
to God and when he made the request, God said, "Yes, subject to your
ability to take my revelation. And since you cannot take all my revelations,
let me give you this small percentage, which is just my back part."
So all prayers for
spiritual growth has to include some changes in us. It involves a strengthening within us. It
involves enlightening our mind, dedication, renewal, and transformation; it
involves our natural dedication of out time, our finances, of our possessions
of our physical body. It involves a change in those areas of your spirit, soul
and body. And then it request for a revelation of God in either category of His
glory, of Himself or whatever. It has a powerful effect on your spiritual
growth. And you will get answered.
Just take the book of Ephesians 1: 17.
Paul asked God to give the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of
Him. And you notice there he says the eyes of your understanding being
enlightened. So he prayed for a change
in them. Then they may know his glory. And the same in Ephesians 3: 16 Paul
also prayed for a change in them.
I like you to notice some of the other men
who are praying like In the book of First Kings 3: 5 At
When we go into prayer, God is going to
reveal Himself. You know God reveals Himself all the time. Every time I pray I
see into the spirit realm all the time. The level of God's revelation that He
is going to bring into your life will be proportional to your surrender ness in your body and proportional to your transformation
to your mind and proportional to the strength of your spirit man. See part of
the time is not just the prayer meeting that you attend. Part of the time is you
that determine the level of your reception from God. And there may be something
that you are holding back from God. You may find that you couldn't get as much
out of it as you should have. I know what it is like to experience the joy of
surrendering to the Lord. There could be something that you are holding to in
your life.
The
Spirit of God doesn't reveal Himself first. The Holy Spirit comes and convicts
first. He will just keep on at you, saying, ""Yield, yield, yield,
give in, change, surrender, give up." And He really keeps at it all the
time. You could be holding to a sin in your life. You know in your life it is
wrong. Your conscience troubles you. Any time you come to God in any meeting,
you hear him telling give up. Any meeting you go to. Any church you go to. The
first things as you enter the door he says give up. Until one day you relent.
And finally you say yes Lord I give up. And then there comes the revelation of
God. There has to be change in our spirit, soul and body before there is as revelation
of God. And every time there is a revelation of God there is growth. We grow by
the revelation of God. We define growth as change. Every time God reveals
Himself, you are changed into His glory.
Job was never the same man again when he
got a greater revelation of God. Do you notice that at the end of the book of
Job, he got a greater revelation of God. Before he had some revelation of God, based
on his early revelation he was a reasonable righteous man, a good man. But he
still had something in his life that was not dealt with. And finally see what
happens at the end of the book of Job when God revealed Himself. Lets look at the book of Job 38: 1 The Lord answered Job
out of the whirlwind. In other words there was a revelation of God. Job 43:
3 Job answered, "Behold I am vile. What shall I answer You? I lay my hand over my mouth. Once I have spoken, but I
will not answer; Yes, twice but I will proceed no further." There was
a change that was taking place in Job. I can assure you that he grew by leaps
and bounds. He grew after that and he was even blessed twice as before.
Something in his capacity increased spiritually and he increased naturally.
Every revelation of God will change you.
You
will never be the same after you meet Jesus. But there are many levels of
knowing Jesus. Each time you meet Jesus you are not the same. Any true
revelation of God will change you. You see God is not just asking us to just
turn over a new leaf. He is asking us to come to Him so that He could reveal
Himself to us. Because when He does, something changes. And when it changed we
grow. And one overnight meeting when you meet with God is
like ten years. You are never the same when He reveals Himself to you.
Every time He reveals Himself something more changes. You could cry God show me
your glory. If you cried it in a right position and perspective, His answer
will come. "God reveal Yourself" must be
qualified by "God change me." "God strengthen my inner man that
I can take you. God I dedicate my spirit, soul and body." Sometimes we got
to do it first before we get a revelation of God to prove our dedication and
surrender. And the revelation of God is priceless. It is worth more than silver
and gold. You put things into your life that the world cannot buy. Paul after
knowing God for so many years still prays that He will reveal Himself to him.
Until we meet Him fact to face, we can only say God, "I want to change
more, reveal more of Yourself." The more we see
Him the more we are transformed into His glory. But every revelation has a
price to pay. The price is paid by your spirit, soul and body.
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