ACTS 29 TODAY

coming to the knowledge of the TRUTH

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Purging and Mortification

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People are looking for help to change. Most have

character flaws they don’t like in them-selves, but they

don’t have any idea what to do to get rid of those flaws.

So these people keep on plugging away in a religious

system that demands more and more out of them so

that new buildings can be built and new programs can

be started. Finally, spiritual exhaustion sets in, and

they give up the fight. They resign themselves to always

remaining the way they are and view God as the head of

organizational-ism. Assuming that their relationship

with God is based on their relationship with an

organization, they are left faithless and frustrated.

But God never intended for us to live futile lives of

frustration. That’s why He gave us the Holy Spirit — to

reveal the mysteries of Christ in us and to perfect

change. So let’s take a closer look at the ministry of the

Holy Spirit on the inside of us. Let’s see how, through

the edification process, He takes us from where we are

into everything He said we could be.

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No ‘Quick Fix’

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Even Christians who believe that praying in tongues

edifies them often don’t understand how the edification

process works. Let me paint a picture of what many

believers think the edification process is: Before a

person is baptized in the Holy Ghost, he is like a dirty

old crow eating some dead animal off the road on a

cloudy day. Then he starts praying in tongues. All of a

sudden, the sun comes out from behind the cloud and

shines its bright rays on the crow. Instantaneously the

lowly bird is transformed into a grand, golden eagle

that takes off soaring in the air, never to have another

problem!

Wrong. That’s not how the edification process works. At

the same time the Holy Spirit builds you up in your

spirit to understand revelation knowledge in God’s

Word, He also strengthens your born-again spirit with

the power to mortify or put to death the deeds of the

flesh (Rom. 8:13).

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The Purging Process

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Jesus said, “If you bear fruit, I will purge(or prune)

you” (John 15:2). Whether we like it or not, if we bear

fruit as a branch connected to the Vine, we are going to

undergo purging. Why? So we can bear more fruit.

So beware: You’re going to provoke an internal war

when you begin to consistently pray in tongues, because

impurities will soon start to surface that you don’t want

to get rid of. God will endeavor to purge those

impurities off your life so you can fulfill your divine

call without being destroyed by the devil.

The Holy Spirit pulls out the dead limbs that serve as a

ceiling in our lives, preventing us from climbing higher

in our walk with God. Every time God wants to use us,

the devil walks out on those limbs and tries to stop the

move of God in our lives through our finances, our

wrong attitudes, our unforgiveness, etc. And if we

don’t allow the Holy Spirit to cut those dead limbs off,

the devil will keep us sitting on a “do-little pile” the rest

of our lives.

But I can assure you of this much: The Holy Ghost will

not immediately try to purge every dead limb your

flesh is clinging to. He will wait until you have built

yourself up to a place high enough in the Spirit through

praying in tongues that you can handle the emotional

war that will result when He cuts each dead limb out of

your life.

The purging process may not always be fun, but it is

always necessary, because one way or another, we will

be purged. We can choose to have all of our

shortcomings and faults pruned away now. Or we can

wait until the Day of the Judgment Seat of Christ when

our works will be tried as by fire (1 Cor. 3:12-15). On

that day, all of our fleshly works that we failed to

mortify in this life will be purged for us.

But here is the good news! We’re not left to ourselves to

mortify the deeds of the flesh. According to Romans

8:13, God has given you and me the Holy Spirit to

strengthen us and to help purge us of anything that

could rob us of our reward:

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye

through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye

shall live.

You see, Satan’s most powerful weapon is deception.

His goal is to steal our reward by keeping us in the dark

about what Jesus has called us to do with our lives. The

devil knows that when all is said and done, the one

thing you and I will be rewarded for is how much of

God’s personal plan for our lives we have managed to

fulfill.

Therefore, I don’t want to wait until the Great Judgment

Seat of Christ to have all of the fleshly works that

hinder my walk with God purged out of me. I want to

know how the Holy Spirit works in my life now to prune

me in preparation for my divine call.

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The First Step:Waking Up the Conscience

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So just accept it: You can’t be charged up and edified in

your spirit man without also under-going a purging

process in your life. It is impossible to rise upward in

God without cutting off the things that are holding you

down.

Therefore, the first thing the Holy Spirit does as you

keep praying in tongues is to wake up your conscience.

It becomes much more difficult to do the fleshly things

you used to do.

For instance, if someone makes a cutting remark to

you, you just smile and praise God for his deliverance.

You think, I wouldn’t have done that last year. I would

have slapped him out of his shoes! Something has

changed. It’s the edification process at work.

When the Holy Spirit wakes up your conscience to

something you are doing wrong, that means He is there

with the power to put it to death. When you add your

faith and begin to resist it, mortification takes place

and the Holy Spirit cleanses you from it. That is

edification.

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HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS REVELATION KNOWLEDGE THAT HAS SET SO MANY FREE FROM A WALK OF THE FLESH TO A WALK OF THE SPIRIT.

UNTIL NEXT TIME

LARRY