A Spiritual Check-up.
- Love - Are you treating others with the unconditional love of God?
- Selfishness - Putting your own needs over the needs of others. Love is concerned with the welfare of the other person; are you more concerned with yourself and how you feel?
- Stealing - Can you remember taking money for property that was not yours?
- Cheating - Did you get anything from anyone unfairly?
- Lying - Any designed form of deception.
- Slander - Speaking evil of someone. You do not have to lie to slander. Have you spoken about others without love?
- Immorality - Are you guilty of stirring up desires that you could not righteously feed? Sexual vice, all impurity, even against your own body.
- Drunkenness, drugs sorcery, carousing.
- Foul or polluted language, evil words, unwholesome or worthless talk. Filthiness, foolish, silly, and corrupt talk.
- Envy - Behind the talk of other's failures and faults usually lurks envy.
- Ingratitude - How many times have others done things for you that you are not grateful for?
- Anger - Have you been bad-tempered?
- Cursing - Have you used gutter language?
- Needless silly talk. Talking and acting like a moron. Jests and practical jokes that tend to undermine the sacred and precious standards of life. Have you made fun of an ethnic group or a certain part of the world, a state or region in your country, or some politician? Ethnic and regional jokes have no place in holiness.
- Hardness - Did you fight back, murmur or return evil for evil?
- Habits - Have you continually over-indulged natural appetites; how about your eating habits?
- Halfhearteness - Can you remember times when you deliberately shirked your full share of responsibility?
- Hindrance - Have you destroyed another's confidence in you by needlessly taking up their time? Have you betrayed another's confidence in you?
- Hypocrisy - Did the life you lived before some people make all you said of Christ and His gospel a lie?
- Broken Vows - Is there a vow you made to God that you have not kept?
- Unforgiveness - Are you holding any resentment against anyone, friend or foe?
- Divisions, clicks, the party spirit of having differing groups.
- Lustful, rich and wasteful living, greediness. Overspending on shopping, wasting time.
- Not treating wives, husbands, children, and parents with love and honor.
- Not being content, being jealous of what others have and you do not have.
- Love of money - A person without any money can still have the love of money.
- Idolatry - Any desire in your life above your desire for God.
- Strife - Have you stirred up strife by unneeded words?
- Witchcraft - Manipulating another to meet your needs.
- Rebellion to authority - Boss, teacher, parent, spiritual leader, etc.
- Love of the World - Includes: Sins of the eyes - What are you reading or watching? Lust of the flesh - What are you desiring? Pride of life - What part of your life do you think you can handle without God being involved? - Pretending in thought or life to be more or less than you really ARE.
- Pride is the greatest sin of all. Examine these areas:
- Do you focus on the failure of others or are you concerned with your own sense of spiritual need?
- Are you self-righteous and critical or compassionate and forgiving, looking for the best in others?
- Do you look down on others or esteem all others better than yourself?
- Are you independent and self-sufficient or dependent, recognizing your need for others?
- Must you maintain control or do you surrender control?
- Do you have to prove you are correct, or are you willing to yield the right to be correct?
- Do you have a demanding spirit or a giving spirit?
- Do you desire to be served or are you motivated to serve others?
- Do you desire to be promoted or are you happy when others are promoted?
- Do you need to receive the credit or are you happy when others are recognized?
- Do you feel confident in how much you know or are you humbled by how much you have yet to learn?
- Are you self-conscious or not concerned with yourself at all?
- Do you keep people at arm's length or do you risk getting close to others. Are you willing to take the risk of loving intimately?
- Are you quick to blame others or do you accept responsibility?
- Are you unapproachable or easy to be entreated?
- Are you defensive when criticized or receive criticism with a humble and open heart?
- Are you concerned with being respected or being real?
- Are you concerned about what others think or what God thinks?
- Do you work to maintain your image or do you die to your reputation?
- Do you find it difficult to share your spiritual needs with others or are you willing to be open and transparent?
- Do you try to hide your sin or are you willing to be exposed when you are wrong?
- Do you have a hard time saying, "I was wrong, will you please forgive me?"
- When confessing sin, do you deal in generalities or do you deal in specifics?
- Are you remorseful over your sin when you get caught or are you grieved over your sin and quick to repent?
- When there is a misunderstanding or conflict, do you wait for others to come and ask forgiveness or do you take the initiative?
- Do you compare yourself with others and feel deserving of honor or do you compare yourself to the holiness of God and feel a desperate need for mercy?
- Do you think you have little or nothing to repent for or do you have a continual attitude of repentance.
- Do you think that everyone else needs revival or do you continually sense a need for a fresh encounter with the filling of the Holy Spirit?
- Are you proud when you are around a new Christian or do you delight in his/her zeal? Are you willing to learn from him/her?
- Are you intimidated when you are around a more mature Christian, or are you hungry to learn from his/her experience?
Surgery needed?
If the Holy Spirit shows us sin, we must go back to the place where the Lord first met us. It is the Cross again. We see the Lord Jesus once crucified for that sin, bearing our penalty.
A line of blood trickles down from The Cross' splintered base. The sight should shock and grieve us because we see the awfulness of God's judgment. We need to understand that all of God's wrath and judgment was put on Jesus at the Cross.
Jesus is waiting there for us, not to condemn us, but happy to have us come to the Cross to give Him our sin. So many Christians run from God in shame and guilt when they discover sin. Past sins, mistakes and bad decisions, if left unchecked, will block God's presence from you.
God wants you to grow up and learn and not make the same mistakes again, however bringing you into His presence without shame and guilt is extremely important to Him. That is the only way you can glorify God and be free from all bondages. Romans 8:1-2 says that there is indeed the Law of Sin and death. What you sow is what you will reap. The law of sowing and reaping is absolute for the good seed, however for the bad seed there is a remedy. That remedy is the Law of the Spirit of Life, which nullifies the Law of Sin and Death.
"There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:1-4).
God's remedy for sin is to come to the Cross, come to the Holy of Holies into His presence and let His character flood your character. His holiness will replace your sin. This is the only remedy. We cannot do it ourselves. It is the displacement method. We do not empty out our sin, God floods us with His holiness and love and the sin must leave. Do not be discouraged if you have to do this time and time again. God is not the one who condemns, Satan is. God will take you back as many times as you come. When you stop coming is when He is grieved.
Walk out into the light of reality. Drop your self-deceit and face this sin for what it really is. Turn from it, from your heart. Take sides with God against it. Purpose in your heart NEVER to go back into that sin again.
Confession:
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness"(I John. 1:9).
"The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbour his anger for ever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us" (Psalms 103:8-12).
Forgiveness is not the same as excusing. Forgiveness is a strong word that means to cut away and remove like a surgeon cuts out a cancer. Forgiveness of sin means that the sin is removed from you and put on to Jesus who bore it on the Cross. We do not excuse a wrong done to us. That would not be right. However we do forgive it, we take it off of the person and put it on Jesus.
Confession is agreeing with how God sees the matter and speaking it with your mouth. Confession is not just saying it, confession includes being in agreement with the Word. Humility is admitting you are wrong.
Will you do this now? Will you go to your gracious and loving Father as a little child and humbly ask His forgiveness and confess your sin?
"Oh God, You know my foolishness, and my sin is not hid from You...for Your Name's sake, pardon my iniquity, for it is great...If you, Lord, would mark iniquities, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared.
Oh God, my Father, I come to you to confess my sin(s) of: (Now list and confess them.)
Your Word says that these acts and/or these attitudes are sin, and I hereby agree with Your Word. I call this sin what it is. I make no excuses for it. I no longer want to hold this sin in my spirit, soul and body. I want to get it out and expel it. It is separating me from You. It is destroying me. I want to be healed, spirit, soul and body, and I want to be close to you. I accept your forgiveness. Thank you for putting this sin on Jesus, and thank you that He took it to His Cross for me. I know I do not deserve this exchange, but I am so thankful to be free."
Restitution is the willingness to pay back or restore wherever possible. If you are now forgiven before the Lord, are you ready to ask Him for the courage to confess and restore to others you have wronged? Your conscience must be clean before both God AND man if you want to know true freedom. You cannot stand for God with a dirty past in other's eyes.
Memories of your failure in their eyes will drive you deeper into bondage each time you remember them. If you have not asked their forgiveness, your guilt will kill your faith and rob you of direction and purpose. You will not, of course, have to confess every sin to everyone; just the sins committed against the ones you know you have wronged.
The rule: The circle of confession should only go as far as the circle of committal. Those sins against God alone, you have left with His loving forgetfulness (Ps. 103:8-13; Is. 43:25; Jer. 31:34). Those against God and man must be made right with BOTH God and the person(s) wronged.
Portions of this Appendix F were taken from Winkie Pratney's tracts published on the World Wide Web, used by permission.
Second Stop: The Laver: The Word of God
Now that our conscience is clear and we can make contact with God, let's get into the Word.
The Word says that the priest would die if he tried to get into the Holy Place without stopping at the Laver. We cannot proceed into God's presence without being cleansed by the Word of God (Ephesians 5:26-27).
The Laver will cleanse us from the filth of the world. It will also be a mirror to judge us; it will bring things to our mind that we need to get right with God. The Word will renew our mind so that we can think spiritually and stand against the words that demons speak into our minds.
The Word also tells us that Satan is judged (John 16:11). Be sure to say this out loud, "Satan you have been judged a loser!"
Spend an abundant amount of time in the Word!
a. Use your devotion book.
b. Use your ISOB or other Bible study book.
c. Read the Proverb for today.
d. Read one or more Psalms.
e. Read other books about the Bible, or just read the Bible and ask The Holy Spirit to interpret. Read through the Bible in a year's time.
f. Listen to some teaching or music tapes that have the Word.
Third Stop: The First Veil
Come into His gates with Thanksgiving, into His courts with Praise.
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Now that you have been in the Word, you know you are right with God, Satan is judged. You have a lot to be thankful for! Even if you do not have things around you to be thankful for, try to find some. Thank Him that you are saved and going to Heaven.
Just thank Him for what the Word says. Thank Him because the Word says to and because you know you have victory if you hang on. Thank Him for the promises that He made to you that have not come into your life as yet. Thank Him because you know that He wants to take all of unfavorable circumstances in your life and turn them into something beautiful. Thanking Him is a major relationship skill. Children always stay in better relationship with their parents when they are grateful as opposed to always begging and complaining.
Fourth Stop: Your Will
The next Stop is inside the Holy Place. This is where you give Jesus your will for His will, your mind for His mind, your emotions for His emotions. This is taking up your cross, denying yourself and following Jesus (Luke 9:23). Only you can tell God to take all of your heart, He will not violate your will. He needs to hear you tell Him about the things of your will that you are surrendering to Him.
Exchange the desires of your heart (even if they may be good) for God's plan or will for your life. Lay down your wants, desires and plans and ask God for His.
God is continually looking at our will; that is what Shewbread means. Bread is ground up flour, mixed with oil and baked in the fire. Our will and our desires must be continually offered up to the altar to be ground and burned. This is a very special sacrifice to God, for it is our will, and He will not overwhelm, nor control us. Offer your body a living sacrifice, so that we may prove that perfect will of God (Romans 12:1-2).
Make up your mind to forgive even if you do not feel like it.
This is an opportunity to repent, to turn from the paths and ways of the world toward God's paths. When we turn, we get the power of God (Acts 26:18 and II Cor. 3:16).
Exchange the lusts of the flesh for the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:19-23).
Fifth Stop: Your mind
Exchange your old thoughts for the mind of Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:4-6 tells us the warfare is in our mind. It tells us that strongholds are our reasonings that hold captive our thoughts, and these thoughts keep us from the true knowledge of God. There is much to be said here because our thoughts are the very core of our being. We must set our thoughts free! How? When we were slaves to sin, we used the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which is our reasoning. Now we should be using the Tree of Life, which is the Word of God. I no longer think and decide, but I use my mind for it's God given purpose, and that is to listen and obey! This alone will destroy the strongholds in our minds. When we truly see the Glory of God as Paul did on the road to Damascus, we no longer reason, we simply say, "Lord what do you desire for me to do." Take your negative thoughts captive by bringing them honestly to the Cross; giving them to Jesus as something you do not want. This is powerful!
Demons constantly accuse us and bombard our minds with half-truths. Isaiah 11 tells us that God replaces our natural intellect with that of the Holy Spirit: i.e., Spirit of The Lord, knowledge, counsel, wisdom, understanding, might and fear of the Lord.
We need to get our mind renewed by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God (Romans 12:2). Sometimes our intellect does not know how to pray. Romans 8:26 says we should use our prayer language to pray God's perfect will. Every time you use your prayer language, you are praying out God's Word and God's will. Your speech center dominates the entire brain, so your mind is being renewed and smoothed out to tell your flesh to conform to God's will.
The Helmet of Salvation. Our brain needs salvation from cleverness, from allowing our mind and intellect to take God's place in our lives. Without this, we will never walk in God's perfect will for our lives (Romans 12:1-2). More often than not, this is not something that we can or will voluntarily give up. Usually it takes a "breaking," a set of circumstances that take us beyond what our brain can negotiate and/or solve. Only then can we quietly wait on God for Him to speak and be silent while He works out our lives.
The Lampstand traditionally represents testimony. We should utilize our intellectual powers to speak God's Word as a testimony to the enemy.
Sixth Stop: Your Emotions
Exchange your old emotions induced by your flesh and the World, for God's fruit of peace, joy, love, hope, etc.
This is the place of a sacrifice of praise. Read Psalms 145-150 out loud if you do not feel the praise in your heart. God is seeking those who worship Him in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:24). From this point of praise, God will seek you and desire your company!
Give Him those emotions that you have been holding back; perhaps your tears, maybe the raising of your hands, or perhaps just revealing to Him your true emotions. Go ahead, no one is looking except Him!
In front of this altar is the thick veil that hides the Holy of Holies and the presence of God. God wants you to come through the veil more than you desire to. He will pull you through. No natural man could go here without dying.
This veil tore from top to bottom when Jesus died on the Cross, giving us entry into God's presence by His blood and indicating that His death removed the obstacle that sin created for coming into the very presence of God. Praise Him for this fact.
The Holy of Holies is the place where there is no light except for God. The High Priest could only go here once a year, and only under certain conditions. The incense censor from this altar actually went into the Holy of Holies with the High Priest once a year. This symbolizes that your praise and worship do not stop here but that they are the entry into His presence, and they go with us.
Your destination: Now God pulls you through the veil into the Holy of Holies -The very presence of God.
Your Spirit - God's presence
Here is the Ark of The Covenant. It is covered by the Mercy Seat that is sprinkled with blood. We needed mercy at the Bronze Altar, the Cross, in the very beginning. However, now in His presence is a new dimension of realizing His mercy and the blood of Jesus in a way that only the Holy Spirit can show you. His mercy endures forever. It is almost impossible to write about, it must be experienced. This is when the seed of the Word is planting in your heart. When the Word of God is anointed by the presence of the Holy Spirit, it is powerful!
On either side are huge angels protecting everything. There is no light in here at all except for the Light of God.
Remember, the Ark of The Covenant is now in our heart! It is no longer an external thing. We are the Temple of God. Meditate on that. "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16).
The Ark contents symbolize three main things:
The manna, or the Word of God: When you are in God's presence, the revealed Word of God comes alive! The Bible becomes Scriptures, the Scriptures become the Word, and the Word becomes flesh. The Word is now in you! If you have time, this is a great place to open your Bible and let the Lord speak. Manna also speaks of our provisions. All of our provisions, love, security and significance are already inside of us. This includes everything we need for life and godliness. Fruit for our provisions here on earth is provided by God's Word (2 Peter 2:1-11).
Tablets of Law: This is a precious reminder that the Law of God is written on our hearts. It is no longer a list of do's and don'ts.
Aaron's Rod: This signifies our anointed ministry to be workers and prayer warriors for God. There were 12 broken almond rods placed in the Temple at God's command. The one that would supernaturally bud during the night, would be the one whose owner would be God's appointed minister. Only God has our ministry for us, and we only realize what it is when we are in His presence (Numbers 17:8).
Here is where we can really receive the promises of God in His Word. When we receive them here, we know that we will have them! Philippians 4:19 says, "My God will supply your every need according to His riches in Glory in Christ Jesus." Here you are in Glory! Here are all the riches of Heaven waiting for you.
Begin to thank God that these three things are not just in front of you, but they are in you. Not only are they in you, but also the blood and mercy seat and angels are protecting you with them. Psalm 91 says that the angels protect you in your way of service and obedience.
Now you are equipped to be a real intercessor. You are sharing in the High Priestly ministry of Jesus and praying for others effectively. Jesus said in John 15: 7, "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done to you."
Taking up your cross brings fruit.
God's presence for fellowship is not the only reason for taking up your cross to come into the Holy of Holies, but it accomplishes another very powerful thing.
It activates God's fruit within you for supernatural activities in your life and in your realm of influence. Notice, in the Ark, the three potential items of fruit: Fruit of character, fruit for provisions, and fruit for influencing your realm for the Kingdom of God, ministry. When you deny your old self, refuse the path that Adam and Eve chose which led to the World's system, you will discover all three types of fruit become manifested in your life.
This would be a great time to just sit back and bask in the presence of God.
Once you have gone through the Tabernacle as we have described, take some time here to be quiet and enjoy being with Him. You do not even have to talk. God enjoys this, and you will too. This is what this lesson is all about, coming into the presence of God! Stop and enjoy God.
Determine that you will practice the presence of God on a daily basis. It is the main ingredient for victory in this life and the next.
We have covered a lot of ground on the subject of faith. I would like to give you one thing to commit to your memory about this subject.
Hearing God speak to you personally is the only thing that will produce faith and therefore an abundant life. This comes only to the personal who:
1. Understands that he/she is weak without God's faith.
2. Disciplines his/her life to take the time and effort to make contact with God on a regular basis every day.
Endnotes
[1] Nee, Watchman. Compiled by Sentinel Kulp. Secrets to Spiritual Power. Whitaker House. New Kensington PA. 1998, pages 159-160.
[2] A.J. Russell God Calling : Barbour and Company, Inc.. Uhrichsville, OH., 1989, Page 43
[3] Willard, Dallas. The Great Omission, Harper Collins, New York, NY, 2006
[4] Nee, Watchman.. The Joyful Heart Daily Meditations, Tyndale House Publishers. Wheaton, ILL 1978, March 4th page.
[5] © 2008 Purpose Driven Life. All rights reserved. Pastor Jon Walker is a writer for www.GraceCreates.com.
[6] Steven Scott. The Richest Man Who Ever Lived. . A Currency Book, Random House. New York, NY., 2006, pages 12-27.
[7] Taken from the book Grow or Die. http://www.isob-bible.org/flowingriver.htm
[i] When the term dictionary is used, it is referring to the Microsoft dictionary utilized in the software Microsoft Word.
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