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ACTS 29 TODAY

coming to the knowledge of the TRUTH

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Three Levels of Sanctification

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Now let’s discuss in a little more detail the purging

process that we have to carry through to completion if

we’re going to walk in the fullness of God’s plan for our

lives.

In His wisdom, God overcame Satan and our flesh

nature by taking the understanding of our prayer

language away from our intellects so the Holy Spirit

could pray for us about fleshly areas of our lives that

we don’t necessarily want to get rid of. As the Holy

Spirit prays for us, He purges us on three levels: spirit,

soul, and body. That’s what the Bible is talking about in

Second Corinthians 7:1:

Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us

CLEANSE OURSELVES FROM ALL FILTHINESS OF THE

FLESH AND SPIRIT, perfecting holiness in the fear of

God.

When you start to pray in tongues, that sanctification

process starts immediately, beginning with filthiness of

the flesh. This refers to any habitually destructive thing

that is detrimental to the body, such as drinking,

smoking, chewing tobacco, etc. The Holy Spirit will help

you get rid of all those bad habits for you. Then, if you

will keep praying, He will bring revelation knowledge

that will aid in the sanctifying of your soul.

Filthiness of the soul includes such things as hatred,

strife, selfish ambition, envy, self-exaltation,

manipulation, lying, and un-forgiveness. You won’t be

in your prayer closet long before it will become

impossible to keep praying in tongues without dealing

with these sinful strong-holds of the soul. Either you

will stop praying, or you’ll allow your new nature to go

ahead and purge those dead limbs out of your life.

If you make it through the impasse that the

sanctification process can trigger in the realm of your

soulish emotions, the Holy Spirit will move on to help

you get free from filthiness of spirit. This refers to

incorrect belief or doctrine that keeps you from being

fully equipped with the power of God to fulfill your call.

All three of these areas of sanctification overlap one

another, but the strongest purging takes place in this

area of incorrect beliefs. As God answers the mysteries

that you are praying out in the Holy Spirit’s

supernatural language, all of a sudden an awareness of

spiritual things begins to flood into your

understanding. Wrong believing, or filthiness of spirit,

begins to fall away.

The more of the mind of Christ you pray before the

Father, the more revelation knowledge the Holy Spirit

reveals to your spirit and the more roots of false

doctrine He destroys. He will not leave you stuck in the

mire of some wrong belief that has neutralized God’s

power in your life.

When I first prayed to the place where I began to be

purged from filthiness of spirit, I would go to meetings

where I’d know on the inside that the minister was

operating in the flesh.

People in the meeting would be shouting with

excitement and emotions, not knowing the difference

between the Spirit and the flesh. Before I was purged by

the Holy Spirit, I hadn’t known the difference either.

But now I was being protected by the Holy Spirit, who

had purged me of deception and wrong believing.

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The Enemy’s Strategy: To Get You Out of Prayer!

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One thing I can guarantee you: Just keep praying in the

Holy Ghost, and you’ll meet the ugly side of your

character. And the first thing the devil will attempt to

do is to get you out of prayer so your purging will stop.

Satan is in an all-out war to strip us of the benefits of

praying in tongues. It saddens me to see the many

casualties of that war. In many churches, groups of

people have started out praying with every good

intention of bringing revival to their city. But then so

many things go wrong that prayer quickly becomes the

last thing on their agenda.

Most Christians fall out of prayer long before enough

mortification has taken place to eliminate those things

in their lives that cause unrest and turmoil. They don’t

keep praying long enough to receive the strength to put

to death with finality every deed of the flesh that

hinders their walk with God.

When these believers fail to persevere through the

impasse, they interrupt the Holy Spirit’s commission to

purge everything out of them that can distract them

from the path of their divine call. They are left

vulnerable to the enemy’s attempts to lead them into

carnality and secondary vocations outside of God’s

perfect will.

You see, the devil doesn’t mind if you go to church. He

doesn’t care if you join a singles or a couples group,

help in a program, or fellowship with other believers.

He just doesn’t want you pulling the spiritual wrestling

match over into an arena such as tongues that isn’t

governed by the emotionalism of the soulish realm. The

moment you do that, he begins to lose control, and you

become unmanageable.

Remember what Ephesians 6:11 and 12 says:

Put on the whole Armour of God, that ye may be able to

stand against THE WILES OF THE DEVIL.

 

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against

principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the

darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in

high places.

The word “wiles” in verse 11 denotes in roads of the

enemy into your life attained through deceit. And one

of the main methods the devil uses to gain entry into

your life is through the stronghold of emotionalism.

The devil will attempt to bring torment, worry, and fear

into your life. He loves to fill you so full of cares that

you sink into a full-blown case of depression.

So when you hit an impasse in prayer and your nerves

seem to be strung out to the breaking point, remember

this: It is only the wiles of the enemy. He doesn’t want

you to fight him through the help of the Holy Spirit. He

wants you to stop praying in tongues.

So keep on praying. Some of the most productive

seasons of prayer are those in which the devil pulls

every emotional trick he can think of to make you stop

praying, but you continue to persevere.

LARRY HERE: I CAN ATTEST TO IMPASSES IN PRAYER AND THEY ARE AS REAL AS

THE SUN COMING UP TOMORROW MORNING, ALL OF A SUDDEN YOU JUST

REALIZE THAT YOU ARE NOT PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT ANYMORE.

 

BECAUSE OF ALL THE DISTRACTIONS EMOTIONALLY GOING ON AROUND YOU,

THEN ITS THE FIGHT TO GET BACK INTO PRAYER, ITS VERY REAL AND NOT MANY

EVER PERSEVERE TO THE POINT OF GOING FROM JUST THE NEXT LEVEL, BUT TO

THE NEXT DIMENSION.

 

SO WHEN WE REALIZE WE HAVE BEEN TAKEN OUT OF PRAYER…..WE JUST JUMP

BACK IN AND START PRAYING AGAIN….AND AGAIN…..AND AGAIN….UNTIL WE

REACH THE BREAK THRU….AND THEN WE JUST KEEP PRAYING ALWAYS IN THE

SPIRIT.

UNTIL NEXT TIME:

LARRY

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