Our Blogs

Filter By:

Prayer Series 5: Exhale Repentance

main image

Sin.  We all fall short (Romans 3:23).  We all sin.  Even as believers we sin, whether we are strong, weak, mature, or babies in our relationship with the Lord.  Do you want to walk in the Spirit?  Do you want to be constantly connected and guided by God?  Do you want to be maturing in your walk at the fastest pace possible?  Well, reality is, sin puts up resistance to our connection with God.  Sin is the kink in your hose that prohibits His living water to freely flow into your heart, mind, and soul. 

D.L. Moody said it this way: “The fact is, we are leaky vessels, and we have to keep right under the fountain all the time to keep full of Christ, and so have fresh supply.”

The leaks are caused by sin or obstructions we allow that block our own selves from a free and unobstructed connection with God.  Praise God for new mercies every morning, because we need a fresh supply of His living water each and every day to give us more of Him and to wash away our fleshy, selfish natures.  That fresh supply comes from spending time with God.  Yes, corporate church and group Bible study is all good and so is fellowship with other believers, but how is your individual, by-yourself, just you and Him, quality time with God?  Are you seeking His will for your life and regularly examining your innermost self through prayer and His Word? 

Each time you “inhale His Word, exhale repentance” (Jon Courson).  It is so easy to gather up knowledge and temporarily feel better for “the work” of spending time with the Lord, but are you internalizing His Word, being honest about the issues of your own heart, and laying those hard-to-admit, dirty, and impure areas before Jesus in prayer?  Ed Taylor tweeted this gem, putting it this way: “The only difference between a strong believer and a weak one is responsiveness.” 

True, Biblical repentance is the changing of one’s mind from rejection of Christ to faith in Christ. 

"Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” Acts 3:19

If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, He has forgiven you of all the sin you’ve ever committed and all of the sin you will ever commit.  He has made you a pure, blameless, and righteous child of God, so that you can have an unrestricted relationship with Him for eternity.  Our salvation will result in a new, born again, changed heart (2 Cor. 5:17) that will bear fruit (Luke 3:8-14).  Repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of action.  The action is to grow closer to Him and to mature in our walks with the Lord, by learning more about His heart and His will and then surrendering more and more of our broken sinful natures to Him, seeking His perfect and complete, lacking-nothing plan for our lives (James 1:4).

Sin can be blatant and obvious or it can be those hidden attitudes and thoughts we all are guilty of, and it seems like our sin is constantly changing based on our daily circumstances, relationships, and stages of life.  God has a loving way of bringing to light your hard, stubborn, sinful areas when you truly seek Him and meditate on His promises.  Do you have sin that’s obstructing that free-flowing living water from filling you up and releasing that promised refreshment of joy, peace, hope, and freedom to you?  The answer is YES.  We all have some.  Is it pride, unforgiveness, bitterness, fear, idols, being fleshly in times of discomfort, impatience, self righteousness, isolation, an overloaded schedule of busy-bodyness, etc… etc… etc…  Only you and God know the intentions of your heart (1 Chronicles 28:9).  When you pray and spend time with God in His Word alone (just you and Him), admit those obstructions and kinks and ask Him to change you.  He will help you and will fill you up with His Spirit!  It only hurts me and the others around me when I allow sin in my life, and why would I want to allow kinks in my hose?  I don’t know about you, but I need His presence at the volume of a fire hose on a daily basis, and it’s up to me to get those kinks out and allow His refreshing living water to freely flow from Him to me.  Inhale His Word, exhale repentance in prayer.  

"And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank [is] in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.” Matthew 7:3-5

The Tactics of the Enemy

main image

You have an enemy.  

He studies you.  He knows your weaknesses.  He knows your strengths. He is on a mission to derail you and deceive you and entrap you in fear.  He will tell you enough truth to sound believable, but lies will be intertwined throughout. He hates God and all who follow Him.  He seeks to divide and distract.  He condemns you and brings up the past.

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

Nehemiah and the Israelites had some physical enemies, specifically Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem.  In Nehemiah 6, we read that Nehemiah and his people were super close to finishing the wall around Jerusalem.  All they had left to do was hang the doors in the gates. This is when the enemy got very persistent and tricky, trying to get Nehemiah to “just come meet with them,” because they knew the gates were about to be hung and the wall would be completed.

Nehemiah could have just quit there and said, “Well, this is close enough.  We’ll just post a couple of soldiers at each gate and call it good.” This would have left them very vulnerable!

Think about the areas of your life where you are weakest in terms of temptation.  These are the areas where we MUST close every gap, or else we are leaving ourselves very vulnerable to the enemy.  Practically speaking, that means getting rid of every form of temptation possible and replacing those things with Jesus.  If drugs are a temptation for you, say goodbye to your friends who do drugs, and surround yourself with strong believers that can check in with you.  Move out of the house if drugs are there.  Stay out of situations that could lead into temptation, and stay busy serving others and doing new things that will build you up and others up.  Get into the Word.  Be at the church every time the doors are open.  Pray, pray, pray.  Close the gates to the enemy who so wants you to fall into temptation “just this once.”  Don’t give him ANY opportunity.  

Ephesians 5:11 says, “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.”  And James 5:16 says, “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.  The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”

There is no shame in confiding in a trusted believer if you are struggling with ongoing sin.  They can commit to pray with you.  Exposing those sins are half the battle.  And the rest is left up to the Lord -- He has already overcome and given you victory on the cross!  You just have to recognize that and step into the victory He has for you.  Every temptation presents itself with a choice -- accept or ignore.

You have a Savior.  

He pursues you.  His grace is sufficient for you, for His strength is made perfect in weakness.  He is on a mission to reveal His love and truth to you as He reminds you that He died on the cross to set you free from sin.  He can only tell the truth -- it is impossible for Him to lie. He loves all -- even those that don’t love Him back -- and He desires that all are saved.  He seeks to unify and focus our minds on eternity.  He forgives our past and loves us unconditionally.

The more you fill your mind with the Word, the less room for temptation there will be.  We WILL be tempted, and we need to expect it and be ready for it.

Do you know what Jesus did when Satan tempted Him (Matthew 4:1-11)?  He simply answered back with the Word of God.  Besides some of the practical ideas I listed above, this is ALL we need to do.  God’s Word is sufficient - it is POWERFUL, it is LIVING, and it has the power to crush anything the enemy throws at us.

Satan himself knows this, so he will try everything to distract you and keep you from knowing God’s Word yourself.  It is SO important to be in the Word so you can grow closer to the Lord.  Even Satan knows the Word (he just doesn’t follow it), and he will try and twist it to deceive you.  2 Timothy 2:15 says, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

Back to Nehemiah 6 verse 3… The enemies kept asking Nehemiah to just come and meet with them.  He responded with, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?”  I love this!  When God calls us to something, we need to set our minds to it and commit to it.  Nothing should stand in the way, and we should never leave our post in order to go meet with the enemy.  That leaves the entire work and all the people there vulnerable.  It makes YOU very vulnerable.

Stay surrounded by believers who will keep you in check.  Be in the Word.  Pray.  Be honest with others.  Keep your guard up.  Know that you have an enemy.  But most importantly, know the Lord.  And know who you are IN the Lord -- a child of God, righteous and redeemed.

12...6789101112131415 ... 2021