Clarksville, TN – Many Christians reach a plateau in their spiritual lives and seem able to go no further. They pray, study the Bible, attend church regularly, tithe, memorize Bible promises and keep trying to grow in faith.
But they stay at the same level year after year. Eventually, all Christians must come to realize that God isn’t foolish. He has filled the Bible with many generous promises of all the things He will do for his children. But He was wise enough to build perfect controls into his word.
We can obtain only limited answers to our prayers until we learn to keep His word!Many Christians put a lifetime of effort into trying to release faith to get God’s promises, while they are refusing to keep his word. That is impossible.
We can’t use miracle working faith if we refuse to follow God’s directions. It doesn’t matter how enthusiastically someone tells us that we can receive everything from God simply by claiming his promises. It simply isn’t true. Every promise of God is conditioned on our obedience.
Jesus clearly said that He received everything He prayed for because He always did the will of His Father (God). There are some things God will give us when we are disobedient. But he won’t give us; for example, power to work miracles until we knew how to use that power wisely.
The following Scriptures emphasize these points:
1) If ye abide in Me and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you ( John15:7)
- Being in Christ’s will is clearly a requirement for receiving from God
2) And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. (I John 3:22)
- Pure desires are pleasing in God’s sight!
3) Ye ask, and receive not because you ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your own lust. Ye adulters and adulteresses. (James 4:3-4)
- This verse makes it clear that God won’t give us blessing that will be enjoyed in the midst of your lusts.
4) Purify your hearts, ye double minded (James 4:8)
- Note that he doesn’t say, “Ask me to purify you”, but says “You Purify”. This means we are capable of purifying are hearts, and we can’t expect miraculous answers to prayer until we do purify our hearts.
It is easy to receive from God, but only if we come to Him while we are doing what we can to purify the desires of our hearts. Of course we will never be perfect, but our goal must be obedience to Him.
His goals for us are clarified in:
1) Sanctify yourselves therefore , and be ye holy (Leviticus 20:7)
2) We should be holy and without blame before him (Ephesians 1:4)
3) Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God (II Corinthians 7:1)
4) Follow… holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14)
If our spiritual lives are in a rut, and we are trying method after method, prayer after prayer, year after year there is only one way that will work and that’s seeking holiness of heart, mind, soul and imagination. God will honor every step we take toward becoming what He wants us to be.
Consider this; God created man with holy desire. Man and woman wanted to please God. When man sinned, his desire came under the authority of evil forces. Then Jesus came and became the second Adam and lived a pure holy perfect life. He broke the chains and made it possible for you and me to change our desires. Believe that and you are on the way toward purifying what’s on your mind.
Here is an illustration that explains what happens when we change our desires. Let’s climb aboard a rocket and blast off. We go into orbit 350 miles above the earth. Our rocket is within the gravitational pull of earth, but has sufficient speed to stay in its orbit.
Picture two possibilities:
1) If the rocket should slow down, it would be drawn back to the earth
2) If the rocket received a rapid forward thrust it could slip out the earth’s gravitational range and rage into space.
What influence does your old desire for immoral thoughts have over you? If you “slow down” your orbit, your rocket will be pulled back to your old desires that are the way life is on planet earth.
What will slow out orbital speed?
1) Getting our attention off the things God has told us about thoughts, desires, and imaginations.
2) Deliberately placing ourselves in a pattern where old desires can reassert themselves.
3) Failing to have regular fellowship with God so his Holy Spirit can hold our attention.
But what about the second alternative where our rocket is thrust into space and leaves the gravitational pull of our immoral desires? This glorious time will come when our spirits slip out of these bodies and race upward to God! At that rapturous moment our impure desires are gone forever. Until then they will be an attraction us. The Good News is that we can stay in orbit and out of their control. Jesus provided the thrust to set us free.
God’s desire for His children is that even the most secret thoughts of our hearts be blessed by His Spirit. To be blessed by the Spirit of God is the highest and most rewarding experience we can have on this earth.
Excerpt from Created To Believe: The Power of Praise Through Practical Biblical Truths written by Richard “Reason” Garrett
Copyright © 2011 Liberated Publishing Inc