God Can Convince People About Your Change

God Wants Our Life To Be An Open Book

By David Wilkerson

God wants our life to be an open book. Therefore, He longs to rid us of all hidden sin—all dishonesty, underhandedness, deception, lying, fraud. That is why the Holy Spirit searches out everything in us that is not like Christ. And if we truly want to change, we’ll open up to His dealings.

You can forget about getting counseling, seeking self-help or restoring relationships until you experience God’s change in each of these areas. Put everything on the back burner until you’re ready to renounce all your hidden sin. When you have submitted to God’s Word and the transforming power of His Spirit, you won’t have to convince others you’ve changed. As you walk in His truth, the Holy Spirit will commend you to the consciences of everyone around you.

“But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God" (2 Corinthians 4:2).

The Greek word for commending here means “God’s approval.” Paul says, “You won’t have to impress anybody that you’ve changed. God will move on their conscience, telling them inwardly, ‘This person has my blessing and approval.’”

No argument can refute the inner evidence that God’s Spirit has put in you. In fact, your change will either attract others or become a rebuke to them. The aura of Christ emanating from you will strike their very conscience. And that’s when you will find the power to influence others—through the changes taking place in you. You’ll find relationships being restored and you’ll recover your spiritual authority in your home.

You will no longer dwell on the changes that need to take place in others. Instead, you will be so encouraged by the changes God is working in you that you’ll realize, “Lord, I know everything is in Your hands and I resign myself to Your will. Just do in me what has to be done.”

Now is the time to give all your circumstances over into His hands. Forget trying to be delivered out of your crisis. Instead, focus on God’s changes in you as He makes you an overcomer. Stay in His Word, call diligently on His name, and trust the Holy Spirit. Make this the constant cry of your heart: “Change me, O God.”

Source : http://sermons.worldchallenge.org/en/node/27421

Is It Unbelief To Ask God For The Same Requests Over And Over?

Persistence In Prayer

By David Wilkerson

Some Bible teachers claim it is unbelief for us to ask God for the same request over and over. No—that is wrong and it has weakened the faith of multitudes. God commands us to ask, seek, fast—and cry out in effectual, earnest supplication (see Matthew 7:7).

From the very beginning, true servants have turned God’s promises into prayers:

Jesus knew His Father had promised all things to Him before the foundation of the world, yet Christ still spent hours praying for God’s will to be done on earth. He even told a parable illustrating persistence in prayer. It involved an “importunate widow” who kept demanding justice from a judge until she got it (see Luke 18:1-8).

God gave Ezekiel wonderful prophecies about Israel’s restoration, promising that the nation’s ruins would become as the Garden of Eden. Yet the Lord said His Word would not be fulfilled without prayer: “I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them” (Ezekiel 36:37). In other words, “I’ve made you a promise but I want you to pray it to pass. Seek Me with all your heart, until you see it fulfilled. I will deliver—but first you must ask.”

Daniel had read God’s promise to Jeremiah (Daniel 9:2) that after seventy years Israel would be restored. When Daniel saw the appointed year arrive, he could have waited in faith for God to fulfill His promise but instead, that godly man fell on his face and prayed for two weeks—until he saw the Lord bring everything to pass.

In the Old Testament, Israel’s priest carried on his breastplate the names of all the tribes of Israel. This signified that the people’s needs were continually on the priest’s heart in prayer. To Christians today, this provides a wonderful image of Christ carrying us in His heart and presenting our needs to the Father. Moreover, every Christian today is a priest unto the Lord and we are always to carry the needs of others in our hearts (see James 5:14-16).

Source : http://sermons.worldchallenge.org/en/node/27045

Revival Starts With Heart Prayers

HOW REVIVAL STARTS

By Jim Cymbala


If you study any of the great revivals of the past, you will always find men and women who longed to see the status quo changed—in themselves and in their churches. They called on God with insistence, and prayer begets revival, which begets more prayer. It is like Psalm 80, where the psalmist Asaph bemoans the sad state of his time: the broken walls, the rampaging animals, the burnt vineyards. Then in verse 18 he pleads, “Revive us, and we will call on your name.”

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of prayer. Only when we are full of the Spirit do we feel the need for God everywhere we turn. We can be driving a car, and spontaneously our spirit starts going up to God with needs and petitions and intercessions right there in the middle of traffic.

If our churches don’t pray, and if people don’t have an appetite for God, what does it matter how many are attending the services in our church? How would that impress God? Just imagine the angels saying, “Oh, your pews! We can’t believe how beautiful they are! Up here in heaven, we’ve been talking about them for years. The way you have the steps coming up to the pulpit—it’s wonderful.”

If we don’t want to experience God’s closeness here on earth, why would we want to go to heaven anyway? He is the center of everything there. If we do not enjoy being in His presence here and now, then heaven would not be heaven for us. Why would He send anyone there who does not long for Him passionately here on earth?

I am not suggesting that we are justified by works of prayer or any other acts of devotion. I am not a legalist. But let us not dodge the issue of what heaven will be like: enjoying the presence of God, taking time to love Him, listening to Him and giving Him praise.

Jim Cymbala began Brooklyn Tabernacle with less than twenty members in a small, rundown building in a difficult part of the city. 

A native of Brooklyn, he is a longtime friend of both David and Gary Wilkerson and a frequent speaker at the Expect Church Leadership Conferences sponsored by World Challenge throughout the world.