Refreshment #81

"Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus." 
Acts 3:19, 20 NIV

Repentance, specifically the active and unending need for repentance, has been reverberating in my spirit so strongly as of late.

Oswald Chambers, writing in MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST on this very day:
"Co-Crucifixion. Have I made this decision about sin - that it must be killed right out in me? It takes a long time to come to a moral decision about sin, but it is the great moment in my life when I do decide that just as Jesus Christ died for the sin of the world, so sin must die out in me, not be curbed or suppressed or counteracted, but crucified."

Brother Yun, in the very first chapter of LIVING WATER, writes:
"You see, we are all called to run a race for Jesus, and repentance is the starting line of that race. It’s futile to try to run the race if you never made it to the starting line to begin with! This
is the problem with many believers today. They are trying to follow the Lord, but they have never truly repented and surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ. The result of the false gospel so prevalent today can be seen in churches full of halfhearted Christians whose lives are still centered on selfishness and the principles of the world."

I heard this clearly, Holy Spirit to my spirit: "Hugh, repent and turn to Me...remember that there is nothing you have done that is unseen by Me, there is no such thing as a 'secret sin', for I see you in your entirety, when you walk uprightly and when you don't..."

Jesus' death on the cross and the finished work of that cross, and the grace lavished offered to us does not negate the need for repentance.

Brother Yun continues:
"Repentance is both the first step to walking in the kingdom of God and the key to continuing in a place of obedience and submission to the Lord. The very first message Jesus proclaimed in His ministry was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Matt. 4:17). Without a deep experience of repentance in our lives, we will continually struggle with basic sin and never mature as believers."

I know this post has more content today from other men of God than myself, but their thoughts and great truths reflect this message that is burning in my heart and soul.

Beloved, let us repent, and keep repenting...so times of refreshing...grace ...may come.

Warnings/ Encouragement #161

“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! "
Matthew 6:22, 23 NKJV

Jesus said it.
He warned us.
Our eyes are the windows into our souls, and the lamp of the body. We have to be vigilant, because what we allow to enter into us is brought in primarily through our eyes.
The Lord gave us eyes, which are truly remarkable in their design and engineering, as a blessing.
He intended us to be able to experience all the beauty of his creation, and to be used as part of the holy vessels - us- for holy purposes. He also gave us necks that can rotate (towards or away something), eyelids that protect our eyes from both environmental dangers, and spiritual dangers.
We live in a perverse and wicked generation; technology has given us instant access to so many excellent things- the Bible online, for example, but there is a great darkness, a terrible poisoning, that can be crouching just behind a few keystrokes of a smart phone.
I speak of pornography here.
Once the eyes of a man allow pornographic images into his mind and consequently his soul, there is more often than not an unholy hunger that is unleashed.
I know of what I speak.
Part of my testimony is that after many years as a believer,  I became addicted to pornography. My connection to the Holy Spirit was severely impaired, as He cannot dwell in an unrepentant vessel filled wth darkness.
I am not alone...it is estimated that over 70% of professing believers have pornography addictions/habits. Take a good look around at church .
That means 3 out of 4 men in the average congregation.
Great men of God are falling because of this, because the eye went unguarded.
There is no area of a man's life that remains undarkened by this habit. How he views his marriage or relationship with women, how he physically sees and or looks at women, lust is in itself adultery and furthermore blows open the door to adultery. "So as a man thinks, he becomes." A man overtaken by this addiction does not consider how this would affect those around him. I wrote a blog after having a vision of a field full of straight furrows, where the tractor or plowman had then gone off course and cut through the other furrows, damaging them. The Lord showed me that the plowman was a backslidden person had had turned to the left or right in sin, and his actions had damaged the lives  and the Walk (causing tremendous damage in their relationships with Jesus) of those who were in his sphere of influence.
 Be vigilant, and diligent, beloved.
Guard your eyes, and therefore your hearts.

"My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life. Let your eyes look straight ahead, And your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet, And let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left; Remove your foot from evil." (Proverbs 4:20, 22, 23, 25-27 NKJV)