Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Hard Hearts

There is no power, person or problem that can stand in defiance to the living God & overcome Him. Through His commands mountains move & worlds are formed. He has completely overcome the world through the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This Awesome God, who has overcome the world, now lives within us. Therefore, there is no power, person or problem that can stand in defiance against us and overcome if we allow the Holy Spirit to reign and rule in our lives.

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost is about the Spirit of God residing within us, giving us the ability to overcome every power, person or problem. This is why the Apostle Paul so confidently encourages the Christian to live blamelessly within this world and to overcome all sinfulness that stands in defiance to the living God.

The Holy Spirit, who now lives within us, causes us to become more aware of His desires. He corrects, teaches, rebukes encourages, prompts & convicts the Christian of sin.

Without this working of the Holy Spirit in our lives we are unable to live this life in holiness and righteousness. We quickly return to behavior that looks more like the behavior of those who do not have the Holy Spirit.

But for many Christians, we have ignored the promptings of the Holy Spirit & have become more concerned for the things of this world. When He prompted us into works of service or simply to come away from the noise of the surrounds & be with Him, we ignored Him. When He convicted us of our sin, we hardened our hearts, so we could continue in sinful behavior.

The Holy Spirit has continually been working this way within us and we have repeatedly responded with hard hearts.

Before long our hearts grew calloused and the promptings from the Holy Spirit became less apparent to us. The conviction of sin became dull and those awesome moments in His Presence became rare – All because we hardened our hearts.

Now many of us have become like those who don’t have Spirit – We no longer have confidence in the power of God to transform our lives, marriages, children, ministry, finances, church and nation.

When the Holy Spirit was active in our lives we failed to respond adequately. He understood that we only wanted Him when suitable to us. Now many of us are left with a form of godliness that lacks any power to transform lives.

Soften your heart – find those calluses and remove them through repentance and obedience. Pray to be freshly filled with the Holy Spirit who enables you to overcome all things and obey Him when He prompts & convicts you.

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