Derek Prince - Self-Humbling Through Fasting

first of all Ruth and I going to make a proclamation which is taken from first Peter chapter 5 beginning at verse 6 I think five six anything like that it's more lengthy than with the ones we've been making and it's theme is humbling ourselves so then God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble therefore we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt us in due time having cast all our care upon him for he cares for us we are sober we are vigilant because adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour we resist him steadfast in the faith knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by Brotherhood in the world but the God of all Grace who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus after we have suffered a one will perfect establish strengthen and settle us to him be the glory and the Dominion forever and ever amen now we're going to turn to Leviticus chapter 16 and we're going to read verses 29 through 31 this is about the day of atonement what the Jewish people call Yom Kippur which is still the most sacred day in the Jewish calendar 2001 400 years afterwards no three thousand four hundred years from the time these words were spoken speaking about this day of atonement Moses says the Lord is speaking through Moses this shall be a statute forever for you in the seventh month on the tenth day of the month you shall afflict your souls and do no work at all whether a native of your own country or a stranger who surgeons among you for on that day the priest shall make atonement for you to cleanse you that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord it is a sabbath of solemn rest for you and you shall afflict your souls it is a statute for ever that's the most emphatic statement is it it's a statute forever this is never to change and as I've said for 3400 years or so the Jewish people have always observed Yom Kippur even if they were in a concentration camp they would observe it as a day of fasting and in acts 27 verse 9 you don't need to turn there but it is called the fast so that establishes the scriptural fact which could be established in many ways that when God said afflict your souls he meant fast fast if you want to say it but anyway whichever way you say it you get the right thing i ministered once years ago with them i think a baptist brother who is called terence fast and I always said fast but I concluded that he had the right to decide what he went what way he wanted his name pronounced so I went along with him and said fast but it doesn't come easily to me even now anyhow we're talking about my definition of fasting is going without food for spiritual purposes it's not necessarily going without drink although the Jewish people for Yom Kippur for about twenty-five hours they normally go without food or water it's dangerous to go more than 72 hours without water and I would never recommend you to do it I did know a peach at preacher called Tommy Hicks who turned Argentina upside down some considerable time ago and he went seven to 17 days Moses went forty days without food or water but don't ever attempt to go beyond three 72 hours unless you're in a supernatural realm with God as Moses was but fasting is not just going without food it's going without food for spiritual purposes now why did God require that the Israelites afflict their souls and that word afflict is a very powerful word it's also used to describe what a man does to a woman when he rapes her it's to subdue to Humble to humiliate and God requires that we humble subdue and humiliate ourselves and he said to the Israelites if you don't do it every year you're no longer my people so god attaches tremendous importance to this act why I think you have to understand the function of the soul humanity is a triune being made in the likeness of a triune God spirit soul and body I don't want to get into an analysis of this but essentially the soul is the ego it's the eye and there are three main functions of the soul according to most theologians intellect will and emotions or but will of us will intellect and emotions so translating it in a simple language your your soul is the thing that says I want I think I feel and it's very arrogant and self assertive in every one of us and God says if you really want my blessing you're going to have to learn to subdue that arrogant self assertive ego in every one of you I think of a lawyer in Washington DC many years ago when I spoke about fasting and he decided it's a good thing to do I'm fast for 24 hours well he had a miserable day every time he went near a restaurant whatever served replaced food was heard he just hardly could resist going in but he made it to the end of the day so then he gave his stomach or talking to and he said now stomach you've made a lot of problems for me today you've been very unruly and so I'm going to punish you I'm going to fast tomorrow as well and that is subduing yourself it's bringing it under the discipline and the control of God and God says if you don't do that you are not my people that's what he said to Israel I'm not saying he says it to you although I don't see why he should make any difference in Psalm 35 and verse 13 David speaks this way Psalm 35 verse 13 I'll only read the latter part of that so my clothing was sacral sackcloth is the manga mourning and fasting and mourning go very closely together I humbled my soul with fasting this version says I humbled myself it's unfortunate that the modern English translations often put itself where the Hebrew says so which is legitimate but it obscures the fact that what David was dealing with was his soul I humble my soul with fasting that's one reason why David survived because he had a lot of problems and he didn't always do the right thing but he'd learnt how to humble himself humbly so that's what made him a great man have gone and I believe every successful servant of the Lord has to learn to humble his or her so there are other ways to do it but fasting is really the biblical way to do it now we've already quoted together first Peter chapter 5 where Peter says humble yourselves so the the scriptural way to do it the scriptural way there are others ways but the primary way to humble ourselves is by fasting now I want to give you a few historical examples first from the Old Testament and then from the new when I was saved in 1941 if you can believe that there were people alive on earth at that time I was very ignorant in Scripture I wasn't altogether ignorant of the Bible because I was an Anglican and one of the great strengths of the Anglican churches they do read the scriptures in every service so I knew the scriptures in a sense historically but I had no spiritual understanding I had I was 24 years old I've been educated at the best institutions in Britain I had never met a person who told me he was born again I didn't know that such an experience was possible and then I had a very dramatic encounter with Jesus in the middle of the night in an army barrack and let me tell you this you can do a lot of things and stay the same you can pray you can join a church you can sign a decision card you can do all such things and stay the same but when you meet Jesus you will never be the same again that's revolutionary yes I'm due to speak to a group of young people that Saturday evening and I want to bring them a revolutionary message because the gospel is a revolutionary message when it isn't revolutionary it isn't the gospel so in his own way and I didn't know that Lord spoke to people at that time but he indicated to me that he wanted me to fast one day a week in 1941 and I have to say without being Ostrom that I've done that ever since from 1941 to the present time often I fasted longer as much as three weeks so or more but I calculated the other day that having done that for however many years I've been a Christian I have fasted more than 3,000 days which is more than eight years if the Lord had said to me I want you to fast eight years it would have I would I would have been appalled but taking it one week at a time I made it through and I will tell you I will never go back on the practice of fasting it is too important so let's look at some of the people that did it turn to the end of first sin the last verse of 1st Samuel it's very interesting I was already a pastor in England in London and I decided I was going too fast for a week and then I thought to myself has anybody ever fasted for a week and survived I mean I thought you know when I lived through it and let me tell you Americans if you've never been to England the English people warm their bodies not their houses so I knew it was going to be chilly and it was and so I was thinking you know could anybody ever fast seven days and Savannah and I happened to look at the last verse of 1st Samuel and it says about the men of Jamie Gilead they took down their bones that's the bones of soul and his sons and buried them under the chemistry in Jamie's Gilead and fasted seven days those are the last words of first salmon I said to myself that they could do it I can do after all they were farmers they had their cattle to attend to their other agricultural duties they weren't able to just sit around and do nothing and they fasted seven days and God open my heart and understanding to see how revolutionary this is this little three or four words at the end of 1st Samuel because 1st Samuel in the history of Israel is a book of decline division and defeat and at the end of 1st Samuel the Philistines have defeated the Israelites and driven them out of their cities so that fled over the Jordan Eastwood and David who's the one hope of the nation returns to Ziklag and finds that the Amalekites have taken the city burned it and taken away all the wives and the children up david and his men you couldn't choose a moment of greater disaster but if you look in second samuel it's a reverse it's a book of recovery reunion and victory and what was the turning point the men of James Gideon I don't think it's possible to overemphasize the significance of thoughts that's what brought the change the turning point so let's look at some others let's look at that well-known character Jonah we look in Jonah chapter 3 I'm sure most people here know the story of Jonah gone he was a prophet and God told him to go to Nineveh East and he got up and went west the exact knobs direction and I analyzed this every step that Jonah took from that point onwards was a step downwards he went down from the mountains to the plane from the plane into the city from the city into the ship and from the ship into the sea so let that be a warning to you don't backslide because from that moment onwards every step you take will be a step downward Jonah is a run of favorite character of mine I think I want to relate something that happened and I think 1970 could be 1971 in the sort of jewy early days of the charismatic remaining when the Jew was still fresh on the grass which has now evaporated and I had become associated with three well-known preachers bought Mumford John Simpson and Don Bashan and we I mean we were very simple but we let it be known that God had put us together well that was a threat to everybody else in the body of Christ basically and so at that time Dennis Bennett the rector of sin Luke's Episcopal Church in Seattle Washington was one of those sort of star leaders of the charismatic movement so the people that the leaders in Seattle and I had been a pastor in Seattle for a short while decided they had to do something about it because there was so much discord and division and misunderstanding so they invited all the known charismatic preachers who were traveling Criss crossing America like ships that pass in the night and never meet to come to Seattle for I think three or four days of being together and they said we don't have any money to pay for your fare but every evening we'll send you out in pairs to a local church and that way you can raise the money for your fare which is not a very spiritual reason for sending us out that was what it was and they guarantee this that you'll never go out twice with the same preacher well the first night I went out with Larry Christianson the second night I went out with Mary Kristensen the third night I went out of the Larry Kristensen well you have to know and your hanussen Ana will understand this for my wife's background as a Danish former Lutheran the Lutheran's well actually a really a Lutheran pastor was like a red rag to a bull to Lydia I mean it took her almost the end of our days to over overcome that so I didn't really believe there were any good Lutheran's some have to say it to my shame well after I've been three nights together with Anna Chris and I said to myself I have to agree this at least one good Lutheran and we've been friends ever since but anyhow we sat there about thirty or forty people gathered in a large room and looked at one another and we didn't know what to do and eventually one of the Catholic brothers said I have to tell you brothers the truth I'm afraid of you all everybody said the same though I don't know what was accomplished I mean we spent one full day discussing water baptism and in that particular scenario where you've got Catholics and bisque opinions and Presbyterians and Baptists and Pentecostal and what-have-you water baptism was extremely controversial thing they spent half a day on demons where I was really the focus of the anyhow we went through it and I made friends that have lasted for the rest of my life and I thank God for that but anyhow at the end I had been a pastor there briefly so I knew some of the pastors and they were talking amongst themselves and they said you know we didn't arrange these meetings to impact the City of Seattle we arranged the meetings to pay the preachers fares but in actual fact they've made more impact on the City of Seattle than any meetings we arranged to do that so I was in the plane now this is very subjective but I was in the plane flying back to Fort Lauderdale and I was kind of meditating how come that meetings that were not arranged with the purpose of impacting the city made more impact on the city than meetings that were arranged with that purpose and I felt I had a little conversation with Lord this is subjective I felt the Lord said to me tell me with whom did I have more problems with Jonah or the people of Nineveh so I thought it over and I said Lord when you got Jonah straightened out you had no problems with the people of Nineveh and I felt the Lord said to me and when I get the preachers straightened out I'll have no problems with the people and he did not say the other preachers I want you to notice and I think there's a profound truth in there later on together with Bob muffin Shaun Simpson Don basham and Baxter we work to bring the body of Christ together it was easy you can get God's people together you know what you definitely get the gunner it's the preachers the minister but we learn we realize this and I say it without any attitude of criticism it isn't the Sheep that separate the Bonney it's the shepherds you can get sheep together but to get Shepherds together takes a miracle anyhow that's my little introduction to the story of Jonah now you know Jonah was given a second chance think about the second chance and he walked into the city if you read in chapter 3 so Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord now there was an exceedingly great city three days journey in extent and Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk then he cried out and said yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown so the people of Nineveh believed God proclaimed the fast put on sackcloth from the greatest of the Eastin well I said to myself that's amazing why did Jonah's simple statement have such a powerful effect on such a large and wicked City and I I conclude it was because he'd been through the belly of the whale I mean he didn't speak about God's judgment from a theoretical aspect it was very real to him and the amazing thing is the entire population of Nineveh it's very wicked violent city repented from the chief man the king down to the lowest they proclaimed a fast and no one was permitted to eat or drink not even the cattle the whole city fasted there's no other fast that I know of like that anywhere in the Bible the interesting thing is Nineveh had one CID one prophet once and repented Israel had many prophets many times and never had a parallel repentance you know they say familiarity breeds contempt and I'm afraid that's true for some of us we're so familiar with the Bible that its impact we don't feel anyhow I don't need to go into the story of Nineveh in any greater detail it the fact is that one day or possibly more than one day of fasting changed the entire history of Nineveh and then if it was spared God's judgment for more than 100 years the interesting thing is Nineveh was spared northern Israel was not spared and Nineveh was the instrument of God's judgment on northern Israel there's a lesson for that so there's one entire city a pagan wicked city whose whole history was changed through prayer and fasting then we look at the story of Esther in the book of Esther chapter 4 you know all of you the story of Esther I hope I think I have the privilege of speaking to people who know their Bibles if you speak in England today to the younger people they haven't a clue as to what the aisle has to say you can speak to them about Peter and they don't know who Peter wants some of them don't even know who Jesus was that's a terrible situation but we have to do something about it so this is very interesting really in a way because Israel the Jewish people never really fasted and repented while they were a free independent nation but when they were taken into captivity and Haman plotted to destroy all the Jewish people for the first time the whole Jewish people repented and fasted and I think in a way that perhaps applies to us here we're still free and independent to a measure are we going to use our freedom the right way or are we going to wait till it's taken away from us and then do what the Jews did in Shushan then they humble themselves they'd learned what the rod of God would do they'd been under the discipline of God I prayed dear brothers and sisters we may not have to go that way because it could easily happen could easily happen that we lose our independence we lose our freedom then we'll be sorry that we didn't use it better anyhow let's just look you know the decree had gone out that every Jew was to be annihilated and Mordecai who was Esther's cousin had got Esther into the position of being Queen but it wasn't known that she was Jewish and so Esther sent a message to I mean Mordecai send a message to Esther in Kings panis verse 13 Mordecai told them to answer Esther do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace any more than all the other Jews for if you remain completely silent at this time relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place but you and your father's house will perish yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this then Esther told them to return this answer to Mordecai go gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan and fast for me neither eat nor drink for three days night all day that's 72 hours my maids and I will fast likewise and so I will go to the King which is against the law and if I perish I perish that's commitment see whether I live or die is not the matter yes in his I'll do what my duty is to do then Mordecai went his way and did according to all the Esther had commanded then we read on how Esther put on her royal robes and went in to the presence of the king the inner court and the law was anybody who does that without being invited is put to death unless the King stretches out his golden scepter and I always like this she'd fasted and prayed well when she went into the king she put on a royal robe and there was a law that no one could go into the presence of the King fasting and I think the church has got to come to the place where after we've fasted we put on our royal robes we behave like a queen I have a little series of messages called Esther the Queen God is looking for something like that oh I've been so impressed by Esther and she changed the history of her people she and the Jews that fasted you see if you want to change history the most effective tool is fasting and prayer because itself humbly we get out of the way and that gone free to do his thing then there's Ezra and the returning Exxon's in Ezra chapter 8 verses 21 through 23 now essa' was commissioned by the king of persia to lead a company of Jewish exiles returning from Babylon to Jerusalem it's a long journey again amidst very unruly savage tribes it's a dangerous journey and this is Rahab not only the wives and the children but he had all the precious vessels from the temple now his question was how are do we to be protected and he said I could have asked the King for an escort of soldiers and horsemen but I had been telling the King that door our God takes care of those assuming see that's the problem about testifying then you have to live up to your testimony that's one reason for testifying and so this is what happened in ezra 8 beginning of verse 21 then i proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from him the right way for us and for our little ones and all our possessions what I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road because we had spoken to the king saying the hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek him but his power and his wrath and against all those who forsake him so we fasted and entreated our God for this and he answered our prayer they came through safely they didn't lose a person they didn't lose anything now on you will educated Americans will know what I'm going to tell you but being British I made a discovery I discovered that right at the source of the history of this nation is united collective prayer and fasting did you know that it was a shocking discovery to me because you know for the English people the pilgrims were really dropouts they just sell west and dropped out of British history and that's about all I knew about the pilgrims but I believe it was 1973 I don't remember exactly John toll cut who I believe is going to be here with us he's mr. Plymouth Massachusetts invited me to go to Plymouth and conduct some memorial services celebrating the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the landing of the pilgrims well I thought that's a great honor but I thought I'd better find out something about the build rooms so I did a little research and I discovered that I now know more about the pilgrims and most Americans in fact when I began to share when I discovered in congregations across this nation most of the people had never even heard of the people I was talking about it's absolutely shocking how the forces of the end have kept the American people ignorant of their own origin and I'm going to read a little to you now and I'm going to boast a little bit about Cambridge and there isn't much to boast about in Cambridge but I'm from Cambridge you know I was a student and a scholar and a fellow of King's College Cambridge I'm reading now from our little book shaping history through prayer and fasting have you under tamed my own degrees in the University of Cambridge and having held a fellowship at King's College Cambridge I was particularly interested to see how many of the pilgrim spiritual leaders had received their education at Cambridge none think most people in Cambridge don't have any clue to this fact three of those most closely associated with the pilgrim stories were Richard Clifton John Robinson and William Brewster Clifton was the elder of the original congregation at screwby in England Robinson was the elder of the Pilgrims congregation at Leiden in Holland where they had to go to maintain religious liberty Brewster was the elder who actually travelled over on the Mayflower all three of these men received their education at Cambridge I mean a Cambridge has no idea about this they don't know and most Americans don't know and Here I am from Cambridge and I've become slightly proud of Cambridge in the light of that there's very little else to be proud about you now John Robinson was the one who went with the pilgrims to Holland where they found religious threat protection and they were free to practice which they were not free in England at that time and when they were in Leiden and they were planning to set out and they went by way of Plymouth in England to this continent before they left Leiden they had a collective day of prayer and fasting the whole congregation men women and children and this is the end of Robinson's address as given by Verna hall in our Christian history of the Constitution this is what Robinson told these people we are now ere long to part I feel I feel so much said they were emotion that they felt at this time we are now along too partisan and the Lord knoweth whether he Robinson should live to see our face again but whether the Lord had appointed a know not he charged us before God and his Blessed angels to follow him no further then he followed Christ and if God should reveal anything to us by any other instrument of his to be as ready to receive it as ever we were to receive any truth by his ministry for he was very confident that the Lord had more truth and life yet to break forth out of his only word I like that attitude don't you we don't know it all there's more to learn and so they had a day of solemn prayer and fasting got on the ship and set sail and ended up by way of Plymouth England in Plymouth Massachusetts in many ways that was the seed that was out of which this great nation has grown and I think in many ways it's time to return to your roots to realize there were other forces that work there were account powers that also were at work but nevertheless this was the mainstream of the life of this nation from its source all right now we're going to go to the New Testament a lot of people say well all that was Old Testament that's the kind of thing they did in the Old Testament brothers and sisters you're mistaken the number one example of fasting in the New Testament is who Jesus that's right let's turn to Luke chapter 4 verse 1 Luke 4 and verse 1 this is the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus then Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the spirit into the wilderness being tempted for forty days by the devil and in those days he ate nothing and afterward when they had had ended he was hungry that is a occasionally a truth that you can fast for a period and not be hungry but when the fast is over that's when you become hungry but that was the beginning of the Ministry of Jesus he did nothing in public ministry until he had spent 40 days in prayer and fasting seeking God and it says in verse 1 of chapter 4 Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit but if you read the end of that period of fasting in verse 14 it says then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit and I want you to know there's a difference it's one thing to be filled with the Holy Spirit it's another thing to minister in the power of the Spirit what was what bridged the gap fasting and prayer lots of Christians are now filled with the spirit but they don't have much power because they have not subdued the old opposing ego within them and that the scriptural way to do that is by fasting and prayer now when Jesus taught and of course the Sermon on the Mount is the main passage we look to he used the word when three times in verse 2 of chapter 6 he said when you do your charitable deeds he didn't say if you do but when he took it for granted they would do them in verse 5 he said when you pray not if you pray but when and in verse 16 he said when you fast not if you fast but when he put fasting on exactly the same level with charitable deeds and prayer and he assumed that all his disciples would do all three you remember I spoke earlier about the difference between being a disciple and a church member this is one of the dividing lines disciples practice fasting church members may or may not and then we look in the book of Acts and the principles that guided the the church in its early days we turn to Acts chapter 13 and this is this is generally called the first sending out of missionaries although they didn't use the word missionary they use the word apostle it is an absolute turning point in the whole history of the church and it says in verse 1 now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers Barnabas Simeon who was called Niger Lucius of Cyrene II Mannion who had been brought up with headed the Tetrarch and Saul who later became Pope as they ministered to the Lord and fasted the Holy Spirit said now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called me so ministering to the Lord for those church leaders who are prophets and teachers included fasting I believed I'm not sure the NIV says as they worship the Lord is that right some of you is that right so you see worshiping includes fasting so don't tell me you're a worshiper if you never thirst that's the scriptural pattern so they got the revelation of the mind of the Lord you've got to send out Barnabas and so then they fasted again please note goes on verse 3 then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them they sent them away so they fasted and prayed twice once to get the mind of the Lord the second time to equip and empower the two who were sent out now you read on in two acts 14 verse 23 the consummation of their first missionary journey in their dealings how they established churches and let me say a group of people without an elder or without elders is not a church its elders that make a church if they're the right elders so it says in verse 23 so when they had and appointed elders in every Church and prayed with fasting they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed so the two vital decisive moves in the development of the church the sending out of apostles or missionaries and the appointing of elders or leaders in the local church were both done with cran and fasting they are fundamental to the life of the church no let me just turn for a moment to do to Joe in Chapter two I want an hour to look at the prophetic element in prayer and fasting and I it's a very long chapter and I cannot read it all I hope that some of you may be prompted to read it for yourself now it's a time of tremendous crisis we don't I don't know exactly what time it refers to maybe some others may but at any rate it's a time when the destiny of the nation is at stake and this is the prophetic charge in Joel - Joel Joel Yoel not he oh sorry Joe Jobe - may be very good - I don't know Joel chapter 2 verse 15 blow the trumpet in Zion that's the shofar that's the most solemn call to God's people to give attention consecrate a fast call a sacred assembly that's a time when you don't do anything but seek the Lord a sacred assembly gather the people sanctified the congregation assemble the elders gather the children and nursing babes that the bridegroom go out from his chamber and the bride from her dressing room so this is a total community when sent just like it was with the pilgrims in leiden in the whole community was involved or is to be involved let the priests who minister to the Lord weep between the porch and the gate and the altar let them say spare your people alone and do not give your heritage to reproach that the heathen should say among themselves or that the heathen should rule over them why should they say among themselves where is their God so this is a time of national crisis and God's message to its people is consecrate a fast and if you analyze the instructions of the Lord they begin with the leadership the elders the priests and the ministers and that's I believe how it has to be it's the leadership that has to take the first step now we won't read the rest of that chapter until verse 28 it shall come to pass afterward after what after what fasting that's right that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh no sons and your daughters shall prophesy we don't need to go any further what provokes the outpouring of the land of rain fasting congregational collective fasting I believe God has not changed I believe if the churches of America would do that in the same spirit they'd get the same results I believe it is possible that this ungodly nation can still be shaken to its foundations by the part of God I'm not saying it will happen I think it depends on what we do but I think it could happen if we do the right thing amen no I just have one more thing to emphasize how many of you know what ii chronicles 7:14 sets if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from heaven forgive their sin and they're men now I began to preach that when God actually before even IFA came into being 1965 but recently in the Lord spoke to me I believe now this is subjective you know entitled a questioning and the Lord said to me what you've been preaching is absolutely correct but my people have never taken the first step and if they don't take the first step the others don't work if my people what is the first step will humble themselves I don't believe that collectively the church in America has humbled it some I believe many of us have not humbled ourselves you can do all the rest but it won't work you see frosting doesn't necessarily make your humble the Pharisee who fasted twice in a week was very proud of the fact so fasting doesn't earn you a merit - that you can carry around you have to humble yourself we have to humble ourselves and as I meditated on this I felt the Lord showed me a very simple practical way for us to UM blossom and I believe it absolutely has to work you know what it is confess our sins it says in first John 1:9 if we confess our sins to God he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness but God is not committed to do it if we don't confess I don't find anywhere in Scripture that God has committed himself to forgive sins that we don't confess if we confess our sins he is faithful so in confessing our sins to God we humble ourselves before God you really cannot remain mean and added you to pride after you've just named all the awful things in doing this I couldn't then there's another aspect that's the vertical but more difficult still and perhaps just as important is the horizontal in James chapter 4 and verse 16 it says confess this version says trespasses but it's since it's the same word for sins as a else when I think actually just speculate a little bit the translators of the King James wanted to avoid the impression that you had confessed to a priest see there's a certain amount of political pressure in that translation although it's a glorious translation you know how it says and you can check this any way you like verse 16 confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed this is one of the keys to physical healing again I don't see it practiced in most places people just lay hands on and say brother God will heal you God says you may need to confess your sins before you get healed because your unconfessed sin is a barrier that keeps your healing from you that's not the only reason there are many other reasons but it's one possible reason so I don't believe that we can remain maintain an attitude of pride if we've confessed our sins 1 if we sincerely confess if a husband says to his wife honey I'm sorry I didn't treat you right I spoke very rudely to you I was very impatient with you I didn't give you the consideration you deserve he cannot be proud is that right or what if a wife says to honey I'm sorry but I just haven't given you the respect I know I own to you I've been doing my own thing pleasing myself just being self-centered forgive me I haven't been the kind of wife the bottle says I ought to be I don't believe anybody who sincerely does that can remain proud this is the key to humbling ourselves it's confessing our sins and as I said before God doesn't demand that we confess every sin we've ever committed but if we refuse to confess a sin I don't believe God forgives it so this is my recommendation that we put it into practice and I would suggest that we take a little while and Joseph I want you to be ready to move in when the time comes if you're there somewhere I'm giving you a little of one advance notice because I don't know what way things are going to go I want to suggest that we take a little while in an under minced demonstrative way to confess our sins to God right where we are now the things we remember that to one who knows to do good and does not do it it is sin they're not onerous sins of commission there are sins of omission and I'm going to come to one of those in a later message if God wills and I live I won't go into it today you'll get it later but now I really sincerely suggest that we spend a little while each one of us individually in the presence of the Lord and let the Holy Spirit put his finger on things before this meeting started Ruth and I were here day in advance and we like to be and sovereignly God put his finger on a sin in each of our lives going back many years that we had never really acknowledged and confessed and I don't believe we could be in this meeting effectively without that and I believe in a way God let that happen to us as a pattern what for what needs to happen to many here so let's just be one in whatever attitude you can be with your eyes closed with your eyes open bound or sitting we can't let you prostrate yourself there just isn't room but let's take a little one about three minutes now I'm going to continue speaking I don't want to interrupt you if you don't want to listen to me that's fine but we cannot complete this business here no illusions about that but I want you to just ask one question of yourself is there some person against whom I have seen to whom I need to make confession and ask for forgiveness so we just I'll just let you think that over for a minute ask the Holy Spirit to make it clear to you and then I'm going to ask Joseph to come and lead us in worship Joseph

Channel: Salt Light

Views: 200,924

Rating: 4.817903 out of 5

Keywords: Sermon

Id: 0oxqZoblkAg

Length: 58min 59sec (3539 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 14 2013