What about the H-factor: hypocrisy vs holiness?
BRADES, Montserrat, October 23, 2016 – The painful truth is, many of us who profess to be children of God, do not consistently look, talk, act, love and have a heart like Jesus. Thus, we see the bite in the common accusation: hypocrite.
Even at our best, we face an uphill struggle to grow in God’s love, truth, power and purity. The ladder whose rungs are Repentance, Renewal, Revival, Reformation and Transformation, starts with repentance. That is why it is vital for us to go through deep, honest, prayerful, self examination, allowing the Holy Spirit of God to reveal the obvious and hidden, deep-rooted attitudes, behaviours and fleshly inclinations that need to go.
This struggle must be faced at the individual level, as well as the national level.
That’s why Rev Dr Alvin Nicholson’s messages highlighted that God’s Game Plan for the Redemption, Transformation and Healing of the Land always starts with repentance. Hence, 2 Chronicles 7:14 – “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
Repentance obviously calls for us to identify and admit to the sins to repent from. Where, we who presently inhabit the land are responsible for the past, present and future well-being of our land, Montserrat. We as the present generation must address the defilement of this our homeland due to sins of generations past, and we must lay up a godly heritage of blessing for our children. This may seem strange at first, but it is right there in Luke 11:46 –
‘Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.
47 “Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them. 48 So you testify that you approve of what your ancestors did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. 49 Because of this, God in his wisdom said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.’
50 Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all.’
Sin has affected all creation, sin has resulted in bad stewardship of the land, sin has resulted in the chaos the nations are in today. It is sin that must be first dealt with; sin must be repented of:
1) We all fall short of God’s standard for humankind, we all have missed the mark. Rom 3:23 – For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; also, 1 Jn 1:9 – 10 – If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
2) All humankind has wilfully engaged in piling on more and more sin through sinful thoughts, words and deeds by transgressing and rebelling against Almighty God. Isa 53:6 – We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way;
3) Humankind tries to replace God’s absolutes by man’s counterfeit rules, thus resulting in iniquity that impacts many generations. Past iniquities can blind the eyes of the present generations occupying the land preventing them from realizing what God has in store. For, these sins cause God to turn His face away from the land. Common iniquities include:
a) Idolatry – putting anything or anyone in the place of God;
b) Immorality – brazenly defying God and living a lifestyle of disobeying the moral right as set out by God;
c) Broken covenants by the church, governments and in families;
d) The shedding of innocent blood through abortions, murders, rape, etc; and,
e) Perverting the law and justice by putting right for wrong and wrong for right.
4) Such iniquities of the people give evil, territorial spirits power to enslave the land and to take us captive. Such demonic territorial spirits can and do dominate the activities in a nation/land by gaining control of the seven mountains of influence.
Time alone does not deal with, negate, dispel or heal a land from iniquity. All these sins only be dealt with through repentance and renunciation, calling on God who will “hear from heaven, and will forgive [our] sin, and will heal [our] land.” Seven steps to such healing include:
i) There are people in leadership, like Ezra and Nehemiah, who are steadfastly for God;
ii) There is genuine humility and brokeness of heart and spirit in the people;
iii) Unity in the Ekklesia and fervent, united prayer before and to Almighty God;
iv) The cleansed Ekklesia using its spiritual authority to pray and to teach the Word of God, calling us to righteousness throughout the land;
v) There are public power encounters where the people of God publicly demonstrate that the power of God is greater than any other power that sets itself up against God and His people;
vi) There is a spiritual road map of and spiritual insight into what is happening throughout the entire land. Where demonic activities and spirits are sought out and dealt with in the name of Jesus; and
vii) All 7 mountains are impacted for the glory of God. It is only then that the prophetic destiny of the land would begin to be realized as righteousness is legislated throughout the land. Prov 14:34 – Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.
What is our prophetic destiny as a nation? Do we want to realize our prophetic destiny under God? The time to act is now.
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