“When the saint ceases to seek after holiness, purity, righteousness, truth; when he ceases to pray, stops reading the Word and gives way to carnal appetites, then it is that Satan comes.” ~ Smith Wigglesworth
Thinking about holiness, and how Smith Wigglesworth would convict people by his presence. How he read the word of God and only the word constantly. How the Holy Spirit was able to just flow through him effortlessly and because so, people were changed instantly.
Then, I think about the Church, and how I long for holiness in His Bride. God said for us to be holy as He is holy. one reason I think He said that is because if we were a body that was holy, then when people came in churches, or places where we worshiped, they would be convicted, repent and changed. I think the Holy Spirit would really want to hang out there too, and He would be free to flow through every person; just like our blood flows through our body effortlessly. It says that one puts a thousand to flight, and that 2, ten thousand. There would be such power to over evil in a pure holy unity.
The Church has become polluted and there is so much wrong in the body, but it seems, people just shrug their shoulders and think “what can we do?” For starters, we can commit to God to be holy unto him, to follow his word, and church leaders can begin to be proactive in confronting sin and error in the body, dealing with it like the Bible says.
In our society it seems that discipline or submission, and confronting people, are dirty words, unloving or heaven forbid “religious”. No one wants that label. But then when an apple is rotten it will spoil the others. Sometimes even in our physical body, we can get an infection or cancer, in a certain part and they will have to amputate it to keep the rest of the body from being infected and potentially die. Jesus said He is coming back for a Bride without spot and blemish.
Yet, there are people in the Church living a lifestyle that is sinful and they want to call themselves a Christian. Even though the Bible clearly says when you love God, you will obey his word, not because you have to, but because you love him so much you want to!
Sometimes there are wounds or other things that may cause us to continue to sin, but it grieves our heart and we try to deal with it. I’m not talking about that kind of thing, I’m talking about blatant sinning, without any remorse and with no conviction that you are trampling underfoot the very Lamb of God that shed his blood for you.
I just think it’s time to purify the Church, because no one is going to get clean, in a bathtub full of dirty water, and the body will get poisoned drinking water that is polluted.
I met a young man this weekend, only nine years old. He was the grandson of the people that invited me to paint. He was so precious, he convicted me by the purity in heart. He was so excited to carry my suitcase to the room I was staying, he was so eager to help me bring my stuff into the Church, and he was the first one to come up to me while I was painting and tell me that it looked really good…
And he did that over and over through the night!
He told me that he feels called to Ministry and he already has a plan…he wanted an amplified bible like his grandpa’s and they had just bought it for him. I got to here him read his first scripture from it the night I painted !!!!!
Yes, purity and holiness have the power to convict and change others!!
Be a person that makes a difference!
Eyes2See 