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ACTS 29 TODAY

coming to the knowledge of the TRUTH

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What Causes an Impasse?

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We can become so disappointed when we give ourselves

faithfully to a season of prayer, and then it appears as

though God has done nothing to answer that prayer.

But the truth is, God is incapable of letting us down!

The breakdown occurs when we don’t understand how

God answers the mysteries we pray in tongues. So we

stop praying before He can manifest His power in our

external circumstances.

At one time or another, many of my friends fell into

that trap. They would get all excited after hearing a

message on praying in the Holy Ghost and building

themselves up on their most holy faith. Then they

would jump headfirst into hours of praying every day.

But after a few months of this kind of praying, they

would hit an impasse. Instead of God working miracles

in the circumstances that surrounded them — getting

them out of debt, healing their bodies, and so forth — it

seemed as if the opposite would take place. Many of the

mentored into a crisis mode, and their emotions went

wild. Some of them had emotional fits of despair.

Others displayed a rather weird side to their

personality.

Consequently, many of these same people went on to

give praying in tongues a bad name.Still others began to

downplay the importance of tongues by preaching

against it.

You see, when the edification process begins to throw a

light on the fleshly deeds that are hidden in darkness, it

illuminates not only those things that you want to get

rid of, but the things you don’t. The Holy Spirit will pull

these spiritual roadblocks out of the darkness and put

them on display where you can see more clearly what

you’re dealing with. It’s during these times that your

emotions can sometimes go wild.

As the light of edification burns brighter and brighter,

the Holy Spirit begins to uncover some of the most

difficult roadblocks to deal with, such as unforgiveness

and selfishness.

At this point, some people stop praying, because every

time they report to the prayer closet, the negative

emotions become stronger, flooding over them with a

vengeance that leaves them feeling troubled. The devil

will use those emotions and everything else in his

power to pull them out of prayer, throwing fiery darts

of unbelief, defeat, and deception at their minds as

thick and fast as he can.

Instead of feeling better as they pray, these people feel

worse. So the next day when it’s time for prayer,

antagonistic feelings begin to rise. Their emotions lead

a revolt against praying in tongues, and they

rationalize, “If praying in tongues is so important, why

do I feel the way I do? What good is it doing me,

anyway? I’m not any worse than anyone else.”

Many times what we are really hoping for is some

magical formula that will activate God into changing

everything around us. God forbid that we need any

changing ourselves! We want God to use us just the way

we are.

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Coming Through on the Other Side

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But a person can make it through this type of impasse if

he will persist in faith and prayer.The emotions of

unforgiveness, selfishness, and so forth, will become so

strong that they are impossible to ignore. When the

person finally recognizes how ugly these fleshly works

are, the power of the Holy Spirit will give him the inner

strength to deal with them. True repentance can follow,

which leads to mortification, victory, and freedom.

I almost fell into the same trap my friends did when I

hit an impasse in the first year of full-time ministry. But

I had just become an avid “faith man,” so my attitude

about everything could be summed up in one sentence:

“If the Word says it, I believe it!” I was determined not

to be moved by what I saw, heard, or felt, but only by

what the Word said. And if the Word said that when I

pray in an unknown tongue, I edify myself —bless God,

that was what I was going to do

As I came through that impasse to the other side, I

noticed some of the old fears and uncertainties that

used to control my life were gone. For instance, the fear

of lack had been crucified. It no longer tormented me

with thoughts like, I’m full time in the ministry now. I

have three little kids and nowhere to preach. My

goodness, where is the money going to come from?

Through praying in tongues, that fear died. I got past

the impasse and entered into a place of peace. I knew

that I knew inside of my spirit that God would be the

Supplier of all my needs.

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Faith To Receive, Faith To Mortify

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Now, don’t kid yourself — it takes faith to persevere

through the impasse and die to your flesh. The same

faith that causes you to be exalted in this life with what

the world esteems as success is to be exercised to die to

the world and the flesh so God can use you.

After I got a hold of the message of faith, the first thing

I used it for was the appropriation of material

blessings. Until then, I had always lived on the poverty

line, and I wanted a new car and a new house. So in one

year, God gave me two new cars and a motor home, all

paid for.

God didn’t mind doing that for me. He knew that

although I was mainly concerned with my own creature

comforts at that time,

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one day I would be concerned for

the rebirth of a city. And the day came

when I took the same faith I had used to

appropriate blessings and refocused it on

my own life to achieve complete

mortification.

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I use this as an illustration: When one of my sons was

about eight years old, he came to me and said, “Daddy,

would you buy me a BB gun?” Well, did I pick up that

little boy by the lapel of his shirt and commence to slap

his face, all the while yelling, “Listen to me, you little

flesh creature! When are you going to become an asset

instead of a liability in this family?”

No, I did not. I bought him the BB gun. (Then I had to

teach him how to hit the tree and not the neighbor’s

plate-glass window with it!)

Well, God didn’t pick me up and start slapping me

because I asked for a new car either. He gave it to me

gladly, because He had faith that one day I would use

the same faith to first mortify my flesh and then save

cities for the Kingdom. Jesus Himself said, “Seek first

the Kingdom, and I will add all these (material) things

to you” (Matt. 6:33). (And by the way, it took a whole lot

more faith for me to die to my flesh than it did to

believe for a new car!)

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UNTIL NEXT TIME

LARRY