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ACTS 29 TODAY

coming to the knowledge of the TRUTH

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THE LAST 40 PERCENT

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If you’re going to make it through the purging process,

that’s the kind of determination you have to develop to

withstand the enemy’s attacks. Why? Because

mortification isn’t a pleasant experience, and your

flesh will want to give up. And three months of praying

in tongues and edifying yourself to a certain place in

God isn’t going to make your purging process any more

pleasant!

But that’s okay. If there is one thing I don’t want in my

life, it is dead limbs. I’m willing to go through whatever

unpleasantness the Holy Ghost deems necessary in

order to rid myself of everything that sabotages God’s

perfect will for my life.

The dead limbs that the Holy Spirit is working on now

in my life is the last forty percent.I’m on my way to a

hundredfold walk.

You see, it’s not so difficult to walk in thirtyfold or

sixtyfold of God’s will for you. But that last forty

percent is a challenge. It deals with how you do or don’t

operate in the love of God.

When that last forty percent is purged, you respond

differently when people insult you,slander you, slap

your cheek, or sue you. Instead of retaliating with

insult for insult, you extend nothing but the mercy of

God. You esteem your testimony as your most valuable

possession, and you are determined not to hurt a

human being even at the cost of your own head.

The dead limbs of the last forty percent are hard to get

to. A good deal of edification must take place first in

your spirit before the Holy Ghost will even focus in on

those hard-to-reach limbs and begin to purge them. In

fact, during the first six months you pray consistently

in tongues, the Holy Spirit is strengthening your spirit

to get you willing to even discuss cutting those dead

limbs off!

Remember, Jesus said that you are clean through the

Word He has spoken (John 15:3). As the Holy Spirit girds

up your spirit with revelation of the Word, you’ll be

able to cut off those hideous dead limbs that clutter and

hinder your life.

One thing is for sure: You won’t get rid of the last forty

percent just by sitting in a pew once a week,listening to

a thirty-minute sermon that you don’t even plan to

apply. So if you’ve been thinking that you don’t need to

pray much in tongues for personal edification, think

again! You have a divine purpose to fulfill, and you

don’t need a lot of dead limbs in your way!

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The Dead Limb of Complacency

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The worst thing you need to be purged from is

complacency and indifference. In its extreme, it’s the

type of attitude that says, “Let the town go to hell. Why

should I spend my time praying for them?”

There are pastors in a state of complacency who don’t

want to meet under the same roof with the other

preachers in town. Sure, these pastors want to see

everyone in town get saved.They aren’t that wicked. But

they just want to be the ones to do it. Their attitude is,

“If an evangelistic outreach doesn’t come through me

and my church, I’m not going to help make it a success.”

That is called indifference or complacency. It’s quite a

chore for the Holy Ghost to cut that dead limb off! It’s a

part of that last forty percent.

The Holy Ghost has to cut the dead limb of indifference

out of our lives before we will ever pursue revival

above any selfish desire. Until we are purged of

complacency, we’ll always be focused on “my lifestyle”

and “my comfort” more than other people’s salvation.

Personally, the devil has often tried to use complacency

as a means to keep me from entering in to the best God

has for me. The enemy will whisper in my mind, “Why

don’t you just settle back and be comfortable?You have

a good anointing. You have good meetings. Don’t

hundreds get filled with the Holy Spirit in a matter of

weeks? Aren’t you in the camp meeting circuit?Why

don’t you just settle down and stay where you’re at? It’s

a good place to be.”

Every time I have tried to break out of my comfort

zone, I’ve encountered a major attack of the enemy. My

flesh says, “Well, why don’t I stay where I’m at

spiritually? Why subject myself to more battering by

the devil? Why can’t I just get comfortable and live like

other preachers?They seem to be content and happy.”

My flesh will try to talk me into being complacent. But,

you see, the hunger that is on the inside of my spirit has

always been stronger than the voice of my flesh. I can

only walk after the flesh so long before it becomes

unbearable. I get absolutely unhappy, and I stay that

way until I shake off my complacency and start to

fervently pursue God again.

The Holy Spirit wants to mature us through revelation

of God’s Word so that we look at that dead limb of

complacency in our lives and say, “I’m disgusted with

that. Holy Spirit,please cut it off.” He’s even happy if we

look at that limb and honestly admit, “God, I just don’t

want that limb cut off.” At that point, we only need to

do one thing: keep on praying in tongues.Eventually we

will want to get rid of that dead, ugly limb. That’s the

edification process at work.

By the time the Lord was finished cutting dead limbs off

my life, I was nothing but a stump!He cut off all those

dead limbs such as wrong believing, lusts of the flesh,

love of money, and self-exaltation. And I like the

fruitful limbs that have grown back in place of what

was pruned away!

 The Holy Spirit waits patiently for you to yield your

authority to Him, for He has a work inside of you to do.

He will strengthen your inner man, your reborn human

spirit, with sufficient might to put to death the deeds of

the flesh and to purge every dead limb out of your life

one by one. As you do, the Holy Spirit has the liberty to

increase His work of revealing divine mysteries to your

spirit. So be assured — whether it’s mortification or

revelation, your prayers in the Spirit are being

answered.

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Oh, I’ll come from a place within where you think that

you have no strength.And I’ll say to you, “Get up and try

again.”For even though you may be cast down from

time to time,know this, My child —you are not

forsaken.Get up again and again and again,and My

strength will be with you continually to begin again and

again and again. In a time when you think you will fall,

you will not fall; you will stand. For I will come from a

place within and give you strength, says the Spirit of

Grace,that you never knew you had. (word given thru

Dave Roberson)

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until next time

LARRY