Scripture reading: Luke 22:41-47
Jesus Christ is trying to tell us, His people, that there is a new breed of righteousness that He is bringing forth in the earth. No longer righteousness because of the good things that you do, but righteousness because you obey the Spirit of the Living God. Very often you do not obey God because you want to, sometimes you don’t really want to, sometimes you don’t really feel to, you would rather go to your bed and lie down than to preach or to teach. But because God Almighty wants you to do something, you do it, and the Spirit of the Living God will quicken it. God said, “He shall glorify me…”
Let’s look at the following situation: Here we are, someone is not obeying God and God says, “Well, we should pray for him that he would obey God.” But the more you pray for the person, the more the person disobeys God. But you are praying and asking God to forgive him of his sins. Now, God says that if there is anything you pray for He will do it (Matthew 7). So what happens when you pray for the person, “Lord, forgive the person of his sins,” but they go on sinning more and they have no intention of turning to righteousness? What has happened right there is that now the payment is going to fall back on you. It is going to fall on your account. Your account has to be strong. You wonder sometimes when you pray why things don’t happen? Sometimes you pray and things don’t happen because the account is falling back on you and your account is not able to bear it.
I will give you an example: Jesus Christ in the garden. We read from Luke 22:41, “And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, 42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. 43 And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.” Do you understand what that means? The cup that He is talking about is that He took on Himself the whole of humanity’s sins; one man taking onto Himself all the sins of humanity. He needed something from heaven to come down to even allow Him to be able to stand on His feet. Verse 44, “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” That means the man’s sweat glands were ruptured and He began to bleed, to sweat blood. Amen. Verse 45, “And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow…” They could not stand the pressure of agony and sin that was upon Jesus, and they fell asleep or unconscious or whatever it was. Verse 46, “And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. 47 And while he yet spake, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas…”
In other words, Jesus Christ took unto Himself the burden of sin because humanity could not bear their own sin. I tell you the truth, the whole earth would be destroyed again if Jesus Christ did not come and arrest the advance of sin. The world would again be destroyed like in the time of Noah, because Satan was demanding payment. The only payment that Jesus Christ could give him was His life, or His Blood, or the Life of Almighty God. That is why Satan is still continuing now, because he has gotten life from us. The more man sins, the more life Satan receives in order to function. But guess what the outcome will be? When we are delivered from sin, Satan will play his last card, lose power, be arrested, taken into hell and chained. He will have no more power to function.
So, if you can understand what we are talking about, sin is a killer. We must stop sinning. You say, “But we sin in words, thoughts, deeds and actions.” We don’t have to. No. If from morning you keep your mind on the things of God, you keep singing the praises of the Lord, you keep allowing thoughts of peace and righteousness to flow, and you are praying for others who are in desperate conditions, then you don’t sin. You do God’s will all day so you don’t have to sin. Man does not have to sin anymore. In the past, yes. But you don’t have to sin because you have the Spirit of life, the Holy Spirit is in you; He is in your spirit and is quickening you every minute of the day. He is preventing you from falling into sin. He is not going to stand to one side and allow you to go into sin. He will prevent you from falling into sin, you only have to believe.
(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, September, 2009)
Thought for today: There is a new breed of righteousness that God is bringing forth in the earth. No longer righteousness because of the good things that you do, but righteousness because you obey the Spirit of the Living God.
Sonlight Devotional 