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ACTS 29 TODAY

coming to the knowledge of the TRUTH

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Deal with the Root —Not the Bad Fruit

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God used a house in a neighborhood near my home to

teach me a lesson along this line. Everyone hates this

house. As you drive through this neighborhood of

elegant homes, suddenly you turn the corner and here’s

this dilapidated house.

Trash is piled knee-deep all over the yard. The house is

in dire need of a paint job. The screen door is cocked

sideways. The lawn is overgrown. Several old cars with

no tires are scattered around. All of this in the middle

of a very nice neighborhood!

everyone who lives in the area is angry at the man who

lives in that house, but no one has convinced him to do

anything about its appearance. “I lived here first before

any of these other houses were even built,” he says, and

he refuses to change.

One day I looked at this house as I drove by and

thought, Oh, my Lord, what a mess!Then the Holy Spirit

took advantage of the opportunity to teach me

something. He spoke to my spirit, saying, “Did you know

that the outside of that house is an exact picture of the

inside of the man who lives in it?”

Whoa! With that revelation fresh in my mind, the first

thing I wanted to do when I arrived home was mow my

lawn!

But, you see, the Holy Spirit was pointing out a mistake

that most Christians make: They are always trying to

pick the bad fruit off the tree of their life without

dealing with the root that caused the bad fruit to grow

in the first place!

For example, people are often coaxed through their

emotions to respond to an altar call.“Run up here and

leave all of your bad fruit at the altar,” the preacher

says. So they kneel at the altar and think, Okay, I’m not

going to slap my wife anymore. I’m not going to drink

alcohol anymore.

So they pick off their bad fruit, leave it on the altar, and

go home. Now, it’s good that they have repented and

made a commitment to God never to commit such sins

again. However,there is a big problem. If they don’t

deal with the root of the problem — those spiritual

road-blocks hidden within them in darkness, that bad

fruit will simply grow back.

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Will Worship vs. Mortification by the Spirit

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But you can’t discover the root of fleshly works in your

life on your own. The Holy Spirit is the only One who

can search the innermost parts of your heart to find the

root. Then He edifies your reborn human spirit to rise

up and put to death the deeds of the flesh on a daily

basis.That’s why the baptism in the Holy Spirit takes

place in the human spirit — because that’s where all

permanent change comes from.

I’ve been in the ministry now for more than twenty-five

years, and I have found that people can’t change

themselves. For example, when I rededicated my life to

the Lord at that ultra-Holiness church, people preached

at me all the time about what I was supposed to be and

what I was supposed to do. They told me to quit sinning

and gave me a list of all kinds of do’s and dont’s.

But it wasn’t until I found out how to release the power

of the Holy Spirit inside of me that I was able to put to

death that old man’s fleshly deeds. Then finally, finally,

Jesus, the Man of Compassion, could begin to come

forward in my life.

You see, the natural mind is only familiar with trying to

change through will worship. Do you know what will

worship is? It is when you endeavor to discipline

yourself against the problem as hard as you can using

your own will. “I will not sin anymore. I will not sin

anymore,”you say with gritted teeth. But try as you

might, sometimes you just can’t break a fleshly habit

using the strength of your own will.

On the other hand, mortification through the Spirit is

the process by which the Holy Spirit rises up on the

inside of you to destroy the hold that the flesh has had

over you. Instead of the sin having dominion over you,

you gain dominion over it!

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The Cart Before the Horse

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But how do we loose that power on the inside of us to

mortify the deeds of the body? Earlier we saw that

Romans 8:26 gives us the answer:

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we

know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the

Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings

which cannot be uttered.

So the key that releases the Holy Spirit’s power in our

lives on a personal level to mortify the deeds of the

flesh is the supernatural languages of tongues. The Holy

Spirit says, “Excuse me, but I’d like to help you. If you’ll

let Me make intercession for you with groanings that

can-not be uttered, I’ll break the hold of those

roadblocks that stand in the way of God’s best for you.”

The ultra-Holiness church I attended as a young man

didn’t understand that key. They taught the doctrine of

“the three works of grace” — first saved, then sanctified

(which means separated from the filthiness of the

world), then filled with the Holy Ghost. They told me,

“You need to be born again.”

“Thank you, I am.

“Now you need to get sanctified.”

“Sanctified from what?” I asked.

“From smoking, drinking, chewing tobacco — all that

sort of thing.”

“Then I can receive the Holy Ghost?” I asked.

“That’s right.”

“You mean, I can’t get saved first, filled with the Holy

Ghost second, and sanctified third?”

“No way! Do you think God is going to baptize a

tobacco-mouth, alcohol-breath, un-sanctified

Christian?”

“Oh,” I said. “I guess not.”

But those folks had the cart before the horse! The Bible

says it is through the Spirit that you mortify the deeds

of the body.

The Holiness folks said to me, “You have to become

good enough to receive the Holy Spirit.”

I replied, “Yes, but I need the Holy Spirit to become

good enough!”

So they said, “Then you can’t have Him!”But despite

what those folks thought, I got filled with the Holy

Ghost anyway! I came up to the altar one night at

church, and the Holy Spirit came on me. Out of

ignorance, I fought off the urge to speak out the

supernatural words He was creating on the inside of

me.

But later as I worshiped God at home, the Holy Ghost

came on me again. This time, I lifted my hands and

began to yield to Him. I fell down on the floor under the

power of God and got up speaking with tongues — and

I’ve been doing it ever since!

But I couldn’t even tell those church folks I had

received the Holy Spirit, because I still smoked my pipe

and watched Star Trek! Then the Holy Spirit told me,

“Let me step in, Son.I’m the power that has been sent to

help you out of your weaknesses.”

So I just kept praying in tongues. I’d smoke my pipe on

the way to church Sunday morning. Then I would be

under such conviction on the way home from church

that I’d throw my pipe out the car window.

But on Monday morning at work, I’d buy another one.

I’d smoke my pipe on the way to the Wednesday evening

church service. Then on the way home from church, I’d

throw it away. The purging process was well underway;

I had provoked that internal war through praying in

tongues!

But I found out that mortification through the power of

the Holy Spirit goes for the root, and then the bad fruit

just falls off. I can’t tell you the exact time that the pipe

and the tobacco just fell off my “tree.” All I know for

sure is that once my reborn human spirit had been

built up sufficiently by the Holy Spirit, it struck the

root, and the bad fruit dried up and fell off the limb for

good. It beat anything I had ever seen!

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UNTIL NEXT TIME

LARRY