It's so easy to say casually, oh, Stephanie,
and I apologize to all Stephanie's, but Stephanie
is alright, but she exaggerates a little.
It's so easy to say that, and you
think, yeah, what's wrong with that?
But you really are stealing her reputation, aren't
you?
Because actually, the person that you're speaking to
doesn't know quite what you mean by she
does exaggerate a little.
And you may mean she exaggerates that little,
and they may mean she exaggerates that little.
And actually, it's stealing Stephanie's reputation.
It is.
Because the other person, from that moment on,
is looking out for Stephanie's exaggeration, and actually
doesn't listen to Stephanie.
If you're honest, she doesn't.
Ever after that, remembers your comment.
So, when you steal somebody's reputation like that,
or if you steal from the IRS by
fudging on the medical expenses or the business
expenses, or you do something in real resentment
against an associate or an acquaintance, and you
find that the resentment is growing almost to
a hatred, when you do those things, loved
ones, all of those things, all of those
sins, even though they may occur in your
head or in your emotions or in your
words, they all come from your heart.
They come from your heart.
That's what Jesus said, do you remember?
He said it's out of the heart of
man that come the things that defile him.
Anger and hatred and fornication and murder and
adultery and slander and false witness.
These are the things that come from the
heart of a man, and these are the
things that defile him.
And you may say, No, no, no.
Those are just chance events in my life
that are provoked by the circumstances that I
live in.
They don't really come from my heart.
But Jesus says, yes, they do.
And they indicate what you really are like
deep down.
And you and I like to say, No,
no, they don't.
We just flip them off.
They're flippant.
We don't really mean those things.
Actually, we're very, very nice inside.
But Jesus says, no, no.
A good tree bears good fruit, and a
bad tree bears bad fruit.
And fresh spring doesn't produce sweet water and
sour water at the same time.
No, what is in your outward life is
an indication of what is in your heart,
because it all comes from your heart.
And you may say, well, I mean, what
did he mean by the heart?
Well, not the blood pump, obviously.
Not the physical blood pump that we talk
about in heart transplants today.
But the same as what you and I
mean when we say, Look, let's get to
the heart of the matter.
You know what we mean when we say
that.
Let's get to the heart of the matter.
We mean, let's get to the very essence
of this matter.
Let's get to the inner issue in this
situation.
Let's get to the very center of this
situation.
That's what the heart is, loved ones, in
the Bible.
Your heart is the very center of you
yourself.
It's the very essence of you.
It's the very inner core of your being.
And that's why Jesus wanted to make it
so clear to us that the things we
do outwardly are not just chance responses to
circumstances.
They're not just chance happenings.
They actually do express what we are inside.
Somebody has said, when you squeeze an orange,
the juice squirts out.
You squeeze it and what is inside comes
out.
That's what happens.
The circumstances and events of our lives pushes
into different situations where squeezed and what is
really in our hearts comes out and shows
itself in our responses and our reactions that
we did not have time to prepare beforehand.
Now, the truth is, of course, an out
-and-out crook says, yeah, that's right, that's
what my heart's like.
I killed the guy because I hate him.
I wanted rid of him.
Or I steal because it's the only way
to get money.
Nobody else will take care of me and
it's the only way to survive in this
place.
So an out-and-out crook won't argue
with that at all.
He'll say, that's right, what I do on
the outside is what is in my heart.
It's very interesting, but a respectable churchgoer who
hasn't necessarily dealt with Jesus will probably say
the same kind of thing.
He'll say, well, yeah, I may not be
perfect, but I live in a dog-eat
-dog world and the only way to survive
is to stand up for yourself and that's
what I do.
So it's interesting that neither of those people
will be too concerned about the problems they
have with their unclean heart.
But any of you here this morning who
believe Jesus is God's Son and who have
confessed your sins to God and have repented
of them and have some awareness of Jesus'
Spirit, to you, an unclean heart within you
will seem like a blatant contradiction of your
claim to be born of God.
And so an unclean heart isn't a trouble
to anybody but a person who has started
to be aware that God is real and
has started to try to obey Him.
And I think many of us are in
that situation.
We have found that there is something inside
us that doesn't seem to want to do
what we know we should be doing.
And increasingly, as the years have passed, we've
found there has developed within us something that
is unclean inside.
Something that actually does not want God.
And we've come to the point in our
lives where we cry out a cry that
wasn't spoken by a child of God at
all, but that was spoken by a Jew
trying to live under the law.
And we find we're crying out, I don't
understand my own actions.
I do not do the good that I
want, but I do the very thing I
hate.
And so many of us who are born
of God, who have received the Spirit of
Jesus into us, and who try to read
the Bible and to try to pray day
by day, many of us have found that
there is still within us an unclean heart.
There's something within us that has started to
make our life with God a kind of
uphill struggle.
It contrasts so clearly with our experience at
the beginning because when we first sensed Jesus'
Spirit, it seemed to be easy and natural
to obey Him.
And we seemed to just zoom along.
It was so easy.
What was inside seemed to be all sweet
and fragrant.
But gradually, as the years have passed, we've
begun to find there's something inside like a
kind of weight inside, a kind of drag
on us.
And we've begun to find it's more like
climbing up a steep hill to obey God.
You know what you should do, but you
don't seem able to do it because your
heart is not going the same way as
your will wants to go.
For many of us, it's like a kind
of computer inside that is kind of a
bug in the memory system.
And we're going along and we meet suddenly
a person who is very blunt and very
argumentative.
And we know we should be able to
punch up the gentle, peaceful Spirit of Jesus
from our hearts.
And we punch the right button.
But there's something wrong inside and the old
memory storage seems to send up an attitude
of give them as good as you get.
And you can't hold it back.
And it's as if your storage of feelings
inside store different ones from the ones you're
used to experience.
Or you're passing by a magazine stand and
you see the magazine with the picture on
it and you try to punch up the
Spirit of Jesus' love for that dear person
on the magazine cover.
But something goes wrong inside and that storage
sends up on the screen of your imagination
all kinds of lustful thoughts and actions that
can't possibly coexist with the Spirit of Jesus.
And, loved ones, that's the key to the
up-and-down life.
That last sentence.
That's why many of us who are Christians
have an up-and-down spirit and flesh
in and out Christian life.
Because Jesus' Spirit cannot coexist with evil.
His Spirit cannot coexist with evil.
In other words, His Spirit cannot dwell in
an unclean heart.
Now, you may say to me, but, brother,
I know that I've received the Spirit of
Jesus.
I know that I've sensed at times Jesus'
motivations and impulses within me.
I know that.
I know that I've done some things according
to His will.
Now, is that not real?
Yes.
Yes, it is real.
God's Spirit did regenerate your spirit.
That's why you're aware of God.
That's why you can even understand the things
I'm talking about this morning.
God's Spirit regenerated your spirit, made it alive,
and made it aware of God and aware
of Jesus.
And His Spirit made your spirit new.
But your spirit still separates itself from God's
Holy Spirit when it chooses.
That's it.
Your spirit is alive to God.
But when it chooses, it resists God's Holy
Spirit.
And while it has that attitude to God's
Holy Spirit, God's own Holy Spirit is a
guest in your heart that is driven out
and brought in.
Driven out and brought in.
No, you're still born of God.
Your own spirit is still alive.
But the Holy Spirit is not able to
dwell in your heart because your heart is
not clean and you have not allowed it
to be made clean.
So there's an inconstant Christian life up and
down, up and down.
Not a constant Christian life that comes from
the indwelling Spirit of God.
In other words, God's Holy Spirit has to
act upon you from outside.
Here's the way Andrew Murray puts the difference
between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.
Many of you have maybe wondered, well now,
what is the difference between the working of
the Holy Spirit in the Old Covenant and
the working in the New Covenant?
Because that's something of the difference between a
constant Christian life and an inconstant Christian life.
This book, loved ones, is just a good
one called The Spirit of Christ by Andrew
Murray.
And I'll just read you two sentences.
In the Old Testament, we have the Spirit
of God coming upon men and working on
them in special times and ways.
Working from above, without and within.
In the New, we have the Holy Spirit
entering them and dwelling with them.
You see, not working upon them from without,
as He did on prophets and kings and
priests in special times, but the Holy Spirit
in the New coming and dwelling within them.
Working from within, without and upward.
In the former, we have the Spirit of
God as the Almighty and Holy One.
In the latter, we have the Spirit of
the Father of Jesus Christ.
Now, the fact is, those of us with
unclean hearts are somewhere between the Old Testament
and the New.
That's it.
We've experienced the forgiveness of sins of the
Old Testament and something of the regeneration of
the New, but not the full indwelling that
God planned for us.
You remember what we said in that Ezekiel
36 chapter.
You remember God gave the promise of the
New Covenant and He said, I will put
a new spirit within you.
I'll regenerate your spirit.
I'll make it alive and new.
And then He says, and I will put
a new heart within you because I will
put my spirit within you.
That is the Holy Spirit.
Now, loved ones, if your heart is not
clean, your spirit is renewed, and you have
periodic experiences of the Holy Spirit's action upon
your spirit, but you do not have a
constant indwelling of the Holy Spirit within.
He is not, in fact, at home in
your heart.
He is a guest.
And He cannot be at home until your
spirit has finally given up the right ever
to resist Him and until you have been
prepared to make your heart absolutely what He
wants it to be.
Now, you may say to me, Do you
not think that in the first century they
experienced the whole ball of wax at one
moment?
Do you not think that?
Do you not think that in the first
century the Holy Spirit came upon them, regenerated
them, made them alive in their spirits, and
cleansed their heart, and came and dwelt with
them permanently from then on?
Yes, that undoubtedly happened.
If you want to look at one of
the times, loved ones, it's that kind of
anomaly, in a way it is, that took
place in Cornelius' house, Acts 9 and 17.
Acts 9 and 17.
Cornelius was a centurion, you remember, who certainly
is talked about as a God-fearing man,
but there isn't clear evidence that he was
a Christian, even though one can't be sure,
but he invited, you remember, Peter to speak
at his house, and Acts 9 and 17,
it's page 956.
I'm sorry, I'm not doing too well here.
10, thank you.
And am I right on the verse, loved
ones?
10 and 17.
So, Peter came to, I think, loved ones,
here it is, Acts 10 and 44.
I was near it.
I was in the same Bible.
Acts 10 and 44, it's page 958.
While Peter was still saying this, while he
was still preaching the gospel, the Holy Spirit
fell on all who heard the word, and
the believers from among the circumcised who came
with Peter were amazed, because the gift of
the Holy Spirit had been poured out even
on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking
in tongues and extolling God.
And so, it all happened at once then.
I mean, it's strange.
But it seemed the first time they heard
the gospel, the Holy Spirit fell upon them,
and they were baptized with the Holy Spirit,
and they were baptized into Jesus' name.
And everything took place at once.
But as you saw in that preview you
got in Acts 9 and 17, it didn't
happen that way with Peter.
Peter, you remember, met Jesus first on the
Damascus road, or Paul, met Jesus first on
the Damascus road, and then three days later,
this happened in Acts 9 and 17, Shuananias
departed and entered the house, and laying his
hands on him he said, Brother Saul, the
Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the
road by which you came, has sent me
that you may regain your sight and be
filled with the Holy Spirit.
So, it happened both ways in the New
Testament.
So, if you're in the position where you
believe you're a child of God, and you're
born of God, and you're aware of Jesus,
and you regard Him as your Savior, and
you know your sins are forgiven, and yet
you still are aware you have an unclean
heart, see that so were some people in
the New Testament.
And yet, obviously, some other people entered into
the whole thing at once, because referring to
the situation in Cornelius' household, you remember Peter
said, And God made no distinction between them
and us, but cleansed their hearts by faith.
So, some people have experienced it all at
once, but many of us, and I suspect
many here this morning, have not experienced a
clean heart.
But isn't the truth this?
Not how should it happen, or how did
it normally happen, because that isn't going to
give us any assurance anyway.
But examine your own heart.
What is the state of your own heart?
Does your heart immediately expel a thought or
feeling of pride or jealousy or anger when
it occurs?
Does it?
Or does it welcome it, and entertain it,
and relish it, and nourish it?
Well, if it does, your heart isn't clean.
That's simple.
And you're walking with a heaviness inside you
that you don't need to walk with, and
that you can't walk victoriously with.
Do you find that your heart automatically sends
Jesus' sentiments up to your will, so that
it's easy and natural to be like Jesus?
Or do you find that your heart is
sending up to your will all kinds of
things that your conscience is condemning, and indeed
your will cannot handle these things, and is
constantly trying to repress them, and at times
fails to repress them, and they burst out
into outward sin and stain your conscience?
Well, if that's the situation, loved ones, you're
living the Christian life the hard way, and
your heart is not clean.
And the truth is that the New Covenant
is a message that God is able to
cleanse our hearts.
And in fact, why many of us here
walk with unclean hearts for so many years
is because we don't understand what the real
New Covenant, New Testament gospel is.
And that's true, loved ones.
I think many of us have had preached
to us only the Old Covenant.
Let me show you the Old Covenant, and
you'll know what I mean.
It's the one preached by John the Baptist,
Mark 1, and verse 8.
I'll try verse 4.
Mark 1 and verse 4.
See, I wrote it in Spanish this weekend,
so I don't trouble you.
Mark 1 and verse 4.
And I think this will surprise you, loved
ones, because this is the Old Covenant.
This, don't forget, was John the Baptist as
a Jewish preacher preaching.
John 1 and 4, or Mark 1 and
4.
John the Baptizer appeared in the wilderness preaching
a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of
sins.
That was it.
That was the Old Covenant.
Preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness
of sins.
Now, I wonder how many of us entered
into that thinking that's the New Covenant.
We repent to have our sins forgiven.
That's it.
And the joy of being in Jesus is
constantly thanking Him for forgiving us our sins.
Well, the Jews knew that.
The people that were baptized by John the
Baptist before Jesus ever died, they knew that.
That's the Old Covenant.
The New Covenant is a few verses down.
Mark 1 and verse 8.
John makes the distinction himself.
He says, I have baptized you with water,
but He will baptize you with the Holy
Spirit.
That's the New Covenant.
If you want to know what baptize is,
it's immerse, not the water.
We're not arguing about immersing in water or
sprinkling.
The Greek word means immersed in the Holy
Spirit.
Immersed.
Totally immersed in the Holy Spirit.
With the result that took place, you remember,
in Cornelius' household, where Peter says, God gave
the Holy Spirit to them as He did
to us, made no distinction between them and
us, but cleansed our hearts by faith.
By immersing completely in the Holy Spirit, the
heart is cleansed by faith.
And yet you know that our society is
full of all of us bleeding away to
each other that your problem is guilt.
Your problem is guilt.
You can have your sins forgiven.
And we know fine well this permissive society
doesn't have a great guilt problem.
This permissive society has one problem.
How do I do what I know I
should do?
How do I do what I know I
should do?
How can I live the way I know
I should live?
And loved ones, the guilt problem was what
the Old Covenant took care of.
The New Covenant takes care of the clean
heart.
It cleanses your heart through the baptism of
the Holy Spirit so that you have a
center of motivations and attitudes that are pure
like Jesus.
But the problem with so many of us
is we don't realize that it's received by
faith.
We believe we receive forgiveness of sins by
faith and then you know what we do.
You know what we do.
We say, alright, I received the forgiveness of
sins by faith.
I know I'm on my way to heaven.
Now I've got to work on my unclean
heart.
Isn't that right?
I mean, how many of us believe that
we can receive a clean heart by faith?
We don't.
We believe we work on an unclean heart
by amateur psychology and group rationalization.
That's it.
And because we haven't experienced the miraculous deliverance
from the unclean heart, the only way we
can align ourselves with the Bible standards is
by lowering those standards.
And so that's what we do.
You know, we fill each other's heads with
the thoughts, anger is okay, you can't get
over it, let's face it, it's just human.
Gossip is okay, let's face it, you can't
get over it.
An odd unclean thought is human.
You can't get over those things.
A little slander, a little jealousy, you can't
help it.
Those are normal human feelings.
And you'll always have them.
Isn't that the way we talk?
And so we excuse anger.
And we excuse gossip.
And we excuse sarcasm.
And we excuse slick asides to other people.
And gradually, the whole life in Christ lowers
and lowers and lowers.
Now, loved ones, you may say, I believe
what you say.
I believe Acts 15 and 9.
I believe that God can give the Holy
Spirit to us.
And He can cleanse our hearts by faith.
I believe that.
I believe it's possible to live that way.
Now, how am I going to move towards
that?
How am I going to move towards the
full consecration that enables God to do this
miracle in me?
Loved ones, first of all, call sin, sin.
Call sin, sin.
Stop looking at things that you do wrong
or feelings that you have that are wrong
and excusing them as shortcomings or as little
weaknesses in your humanity or as little characteristics
that occur because of your background.
Stop that.
Stop saying, oh, well, I'm a Swede, you
know, and I'm a bit incommunicative.
Not unloving, just incommunicative.
Stop saying that.
Stop saying, oh, well, I have an artistic
kind of temperament, you know, and I'm a
little fiery, not angry.
I'm a little fiery at times.
Stop that.
Say, I'm angry.
That's sin.
Unlovingness, that's sin.
Stop saying, well, I'm a student, you know,
and I'm a transient, not uncommitted.
I'm a transient.
I'm just transient.
No.
Say you're uncommitted.
Call it sin.
Old marriage, well, no, I'm not ungenerous to
God financially.
I'm just prudent at this time of my
life.
No, no, just call it sin.
Young marriage, I'm not ungenerous, but we just
have to get the necessities, you know, get
ourselves together.
No, no, call that sin.
Call sin, sin.
That's the first thing.
Call sin, sin.
You can afford to do it because there's
a cure for it and a remedy for
it.
You only have to pretend if there's no
remedy.
If there's no remedy but the amateur psychology
and the mutual reinforcement groups, then you have
to avoid calling it sin.
But call sin, sin.
That's the first thing.
Be real about the things in your life
that are sin.
And see, secondly, that sin cannot be justified.
You can't justify sin.
Some of us, you know, take 1 John
1 and 8.
If we say we have no sin, we
lie and the truth is not in us.
That is we have never sinned.
And we have no unconscious sin.
All of us have unconscious sin.
Every one of us.
So in that sense, none of us can
say we have no sin.
All of us have unconscious sin that we
have not seen yet.
And we cannot deal with until it becomes
conscious.
But see very clearly, loved ones, that the
normal Christian life is defined in two verses
in Scripture.
One is in James.
Whoever knows what is right to do and
does not do it, for him it is
sin.
So if you know something is wrong and
you don't do it, that's sin.
Conscious sin.
Not unconscious sin.
That's still sin.
But conscious sin is what God is concerned
about.
That's what you have control of.
And 1 John 3 and 9, whosoever is
born of God does not commit sin.
You don't commit sin if you are born
of God.
Loved ones, hold to that.
Hold to it.
Don't justify sin.
Keep calling it sin.
Why?
Because the door to full consecration is continual
repentance.
That's it.
That's why the Beatitude says, Blessed are they
that mourn, mourn for their sin, for they
shall be comforted.
The door to full consecration is continual repentance.
In other words, it's not, well, I'm the
way you said I am, I'm in that
situation, and I know it will be a
miracle, so I'll wait for the miracle.
No, no.
The way into the miracle, the way into
the place of full consecration where the Holy
Spirit can cleanse your heart by faith is
by continual honest repentance, day by day by
day by day.
I'll read it to you because I thought
it was important to put it as exactly
as I could.
Impenitence, that is lack of penitence.
Impenitence, unrepentance.
Impenitence is not due simply to repeated sinning.
It isn't.
See, you may say, well, from what you're
saying, if I'm sinning all the time, there's
no hope.
No, impenitence is not due simply to repeated
sinning, but to the growing tolerance of that
sinning as a necessity.
See that?
It's not just that you're sinning repeatedly, but
impenitence, the time when your conscience becomes seared,
and when you get to the point where
you can no longer come to a place
of full consecration is when you regard that
sinning as a necessity in your life, and
you begin to tolerate it.
Impenitence is due not simply to repeated sinning,
but to the growing tolerance of that sinning
as a necessity, to the acceptance of the
idea that we can't stop, to the regarding
of sin as normal rather than abnormal, as
natural rather than alien.
However often we sin, if we set our
hearts against it with all our being, and
regard it as something that we must get
rid of, not only will God forgive us
until seventy times seven, but He will lead
us to ask the all-important question which
is the key to deliverance.
Why can I not stop?
That's it, loved ones.
There's no point, you know, in crying out
this morning and saying, Brother, by what you're
saying, there's no hope for any of us,
because I sin.
But, loved ones, it isn't the sinning.
It's what the old saint says.
It's not the falling, but it's the refusal
to get up and go every time you
fall, and to believe that there comes a
time when you do not need to fall.
That's it.
That's what repentance is.
Repentance is not never sinning at this point
in your life, before your heart is cleansed.
But it is a refusal to accept sinning
as normal in your life.
It is a refusal to reject the Word
of God.
It is a constant belief that the normal
Christian life is one that is free from
unclean hearts and free from unclean life.
And that is the way into the place
of full consecration.
It is a desperate crying out to God.
It isn't a crying out to man.
Why?
Why can I not stop sinning?
While you're crying out to man, while you're
having little counseling sessions, while you're reading the
books, while you're talking to other people, saying,
why can I not stop sinning, even though
I'm a Christian?
While you're doing that, you're just pretending.
You're just pretending.
While you're trying to justify your situation, you're
not even serious.
But when you're desperate enough to cry out
to the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, why can
I not stop this?
Why?
Then you're coming into the place of full
consecration, where the dear Holy Spirit Himself can
begin to deal with you and can explain
to you in what ways your heart is
not clean for Him to dwell.
And He will explain it to you, lovers,
because He wants to dwell in your heart.
Your heart was made for His indwelling.
That's why your heart is there.
You were made for the Holy Spirit of
God to stay and dwell and live within
you day after day, night after night, moment
by moment.
And the Holy Spirit's dearest desire is to
come there and make that His home.
You remember, you remember, it was Judas, not
Iscariot, but the other Judas, that said to
Jesus, Lord, how are You going to show
Yourself to us and not to the rest
of the world?
And Jesus said, I'll tell you, if a
man loves Me, he will keep My words.
And My Father will love him, and we
will come and make our home in his
heart.
That's it.
The Holy Spirit will come and dwell constantly
in your heart and fill your heart with
the fragrance and the beauty and the purity
of Jesus if you will ask Him to
come in and cleanse your heart of all
that is self and all that is ungodly
and all that is other than Jesus.
Loved ones, He will do it.
So, I wanted to try, you know, to
help those of you who wondered, well, how
do I live with an unclean heart?
Well, the truth is, you can't live too
long that way, loved ones.
It eventually overcomes anything that's good in you
at all.
But the way to live with an unclean
heart until it becomes clean is by constant
repentance.
That is an attitude.
It is not simply an action.
It is an attitude.
It is an attitude of declared relentless antagonism
to sin.
That's it.
That's what repentance is.
It's a declared relentless antagonism and hostility to
sin that will not accept sin as normal.
I won't accept it.
Don't want to blaspheme, but a bit like
the guy in the movie.
I'm mad as hell and I won't put
up with it anymore.
I won't.
This is Satan within me.
I am not tolerating it.
Lord, I know I can be free from
this.
And I confess this sin to You, but
I know, Lord, it goes deeper than this.
This came up from my unclean heart.
This came with such a surge of power
that my will could not control it.
Lord, I ask You, Holy Spirit, will You
reveal to me why I can't stop this?
Will You reveal what uncleanness in my heart
has to go?
Because I know the moment I am willing
to let it go, that moment You take
it away.
And that's it, Lord.
But I'll tell you, it's a different life.
It's a different life.
Instead of poison coming up from inside that
you have to hold down with all your
power, beauty and purity and love from Jesus'
own heart comes up from inside.
You can see why I said to you
last Sunday, it's your own fault then if
you sin.
It is.
Because the will is receiving thoughts that are
loving and kind and pure and naturally, spontaneously
Christ-like.
So, the will is dumb if it just
doesn't say, oh, go through, go through.
And that's why it's such an effortless life
when Jesus cleanses you through the baptism of
the Holy Spirit.
So, loved ones, will you walk on?
And next Sunday I'll try to talk a
little more, but it's not talk, you know.
It's you and the Holy Spirit.
He will do it.
He will be faithful with you as He
has been with so many of us.
Let us pray.
Dear Father, we thank You for the New
Covenant, the New Testament.
We thank You for the real Gospel.
We thank You, Lord, that our sins were
forgiven in Your name because of Your death,
just as the Jewish sins were forgiven in
Your name because of Your death.
But, Lord, we thank You that since Your
resurrection there is also available to us the
indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.
Lord, that we do not need simply to
experience Him from afar off as the Old
Testament people did, but that He comes and
dwells within a cleansed heart.
So, Lord, we want that.
We want our hearts cleansed by faith so
that You, Holy Spirit, can dwell constantly and
uninterruptedly within us.
So, we ask You, dear Holy Spirit, to
start explaining to us why there are certain
things in our lives that we can't stop.
Will You show us our hearts, reveal to
us the uncleanness there, much of it we
can't even see yet, and take us to
the very bottom of our hearts until we
yield it all to You and give up
the right effort to resist You again.
We ask this in the name of our
Savior Jesus and now the grace of our
Lord Jesus and the love of God and
the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with
each one of us now and evermore.
Amen.