CONVICTION SHOULD BE OUR FRIEND

Dearest Saints, Here's another challenging message. But anytime we are challenged to go higher with the Lord and be blessed by becoming more like Him, that is always a "Good Thing". Being challenged and taking that challenge the right way is what brings Hope into our situation. Anytime I bring out a message to challenge, it is always in the hope to bring out the best in each one including myself which is what our motive should be. When we don't do this to the benefit of others, God knows our heart and our motive. This should be a good thing because God can't bring conviction to benefit us when we don't believe we desperately need it. This becomes a dilemma to those who don't want to change, but want to remain complacent and simply remain comfortable in their ways and never accept the challenge to grow in areas we need to grow. No wonder having a Reverential Fear of the Lord (by humbling submitting our ways to His Ways) is the beginning of having wisdom (Prov 1:7). Therefore, when we challenge ourselves and others, our motive should always bring out the best in everyone, especially to our own Brothers and Sisters in the Lord. Some of the challenges we face may be to judge our own selves and compare our motives to His Word rather than judging one another. Some challenges include honoring His Word above our own opinions. Sometimes, it's showing partiality (favoring one over another) when this is considered sinful (Prov 28:21; Acts 10:34; Rom 2:11). It may be us being more critical of someone rather then being prayerful. I think that's more of a challenge to myself! God may be convicting some to start esteeming others better than ourselves and learn to be sober towards ourselves when we may not be doing so (Phil 2:3-5). To look at another way, one of the things that challenge some is limiting God in any way when we fail to have that AWE of Him like we should (Ps 2:11; Ps 111:9). Are we limiting God to our own thinking? Other times, it may be holding a grudge and harbouring unforgiveness no matter what. Harbouring unforgiveness is what keeps many as a prisoner to the evil one which is the result of taking our own opinions over what God says about this. Sometimes, it's making excuses, or pointing fingers and blaming other people or circumstances rather then taking any responsibility of our own. I find as long as we make excuses (by not receiving His conviction) and point fingers, we will continue to remain as spiritual infants that never grow up (Isa 58:9). Following His Word may not always be easy, but always liberates us to having that inner peace and joy that nothing on earth can ever offer us! When we make excuses to lean on our own understanding and fail to take any responsibility of our own, we should be reminded that this is sinful. A swing of the big sledge hammer that drives a spike further into the hands and feet of Jesus from seeing that movie "Passion of Christ" and visualizing Him screaming in pain with every bang of the large spikes...that's the penalty He paid for our sins. There is no sin too small that He didn't suffer and pay a price on our behalf. So when we fail to take responsibility, remember that Christ took responsibility upon Himself for all of our penalty that we deserved and He didn't. If God convicts us, it's always a matter to help us be to be the type of people we need to be and to help us grow that leads to Everlasting (John 6:68). His conviction is meant to change us for the better. We remain holding a guilty conscience often because we are refusing to allow God to change us which is why we are lovingly convicted in the first place. We think of His conviction as an enemy rather then our friend. Conviction should be an enemy of our fleshly desires that opposes His Spirit (Gal 5:17) and a friend to our Spirit which is what we need to care for ever-so much more. Humbly receiving His conviction leads us to repentance that cleanses us from within. Remember that God chastens those whom He loves (Rev 3:19). If He ever stopped convicting us, we should start to be very concerned!! We wouldn't feel guilty if we do like God tells us to do...to REPENT and believe He FORGIVES us (1 John 1:9). Conviction from God should be our friend because His Spirit is telling us to turn from our ways which often holds us back from not growing more spiritually. Conviction encourages us to change while receiving condemnation discourages us and we see no change within us. Conviction builds us up, condemnation does nothing but tears us down. Conviction from His Spirit is our Friend and condemnation from the evil one is our enemy! If we see ourselves as a result of being condemned, we may be choosing to lean on our own opinions/understanding rather than choosing His Instructions like we need to. Let's stop allowing the enemy to condemn us everytime we are chastened by God and choose to see the benefits of Gods conviction over us. We need to see His Word as our Loving Authority instead. When we decide to choose His convictions and refuse to receive the enemy's condemnation, we will see greater positive results in every area of our lives (Rom 8:1). Our past failures will be most useful to bless many others in their time of need. We cannot expect to benefit and grow up in the Lord if we continue to make excuses and don't humble ourselves to the Wisdom of His Word. We need to see His Word as a loving letter to encourage us. Therefore, let's examine His Word (as our LOVING Authority) and see where we may fall short. And then, let's humble ourselves, ask, believe and expect Him to make that wonderful change within us (to become more like Him) that only He can do. Please email to the undersigned should you wish to unsubscribe from receiving my Blogs. In the Matchless Name of Jesus Richard Ministry Encourager Answers2Prayer http://sites.google.com/site/greatestbuilderforourlife http://www.answers2prayer.org/