Deep workings of God in my heart

What an honest and powerful testimony. Thank you for sharing that. Obeying Christ isn't always easy, we all struggle, I am so thankful the apostle Paul shares his struggles also, it's encouraging, because life in a fallen creation is hard. I pray God will keep you close and help you grow, I pray this for all brothers and sisters in Christ.

God bless you Greg.I feel your pain. I've been repenting for over 2 1/2 years (not for the same things obviously) and sometimes I feel so discouraged (when will this end?). I know he has changed many things in my heart but the Holy Spirit has shown me there is much fallow ground left to be plowed.I would simply say that he wants us to trust Him that He will finish the work He began in our hearts. (Phil 1:6) Trust Him in the midst of your brokenness and allow Him to burn away anything that blocks this intimate relationship with our Lord. (This baptism of fire that John the Baptist referred to.)The Lord has shown me that repentance, although it's painful if we truly repent, is one of the greatest gifts we can receive from God.As I walk with the Lord, he keeps showing things me that he either wants to add or take away. It's kind of like peeling an onion and once you peel one layer away, there's yet another layer there. I know he's revealing these things so that the relationship with Him can be deeper so be of good cheer Greg, as he removes the sin and ungodly things in our hearts and unBiblical ideas and beliefs we may have adopted, we will have a much deeper relationship with Him. That is His intent my friend and HE will FINISH what HE started. Praise the Lord my dear friend in Christ.

I have been so pleased and amazed at the way the Lord has used even this forum as a catalyst for refinement in people's lives.It is so wonderful that you (Greg) and I and others who are memebers here are at obvious stages of heart cleansing and refinement in His cleansing fire.It is such an encouragement! We all go through this at different times and stages which leaves others to do the encouraging and uplifting.If our fellowship and this forum can be used by the Lord to bring total surrender- and hence- personal revival- then Praise the Lord! That's what it's about.I think the more we share, even about our own struggles and dealings with the Lord, it is easier for the next person to relate. It's that wonderful transparency that Paul showed. No fake religiosity there. I pray that through our fellowship here and through the sermons, etc.... that this will continue to be a place that brings people to complete surrender and a continuous heart cleansing! Amen!Thanks for sharing, Greg!Walking with Him, Chanin

I have been going through a period in my Christian life for for the last half year realizing I am lacking something great. The Lord God has surely saved me from sin, I have been justified from my sins through the blood of Jesus Christ. But I feel a lack of victory and holy living in my day to day walk with God.I think I'm in a similar place. God's brought me quite far, but ever since I've begun to understand how far I am from what He wants me to be, I've become dissatisfied with myself. I think I know why: as Leonard Ravenhill observed, the primary reason we don't have revival, as a community or individually, is that we are content to live without it. I was content to live without revival in my life, content to be free from sin, content to spend my waking moments on God and duties that follow from His commandments, content to not continuously enter into a deeper relationship with Him, content to not spend hours a day alone with Him, content to sleep more than I need to when I could be praying... it goes on...And I'm still content. I just don't care enough. But God is eroding my contentment with dissatisfaction, eventually I may fight for the filling of the Holy Ghost the same way one would fight for air to breathe.Through many circumstances the Lord has been leading me down a path of DEEP repentance, everytime I think I am through it and am fine, He lets me alone and allows me to see how sinful I still am and all the unconfessed strongholds in my life.How dearly all need to examine themselves; taking captive every thought, and realizing where it came from; paying attention to what we say and how we say it, holding ourselves accountable for every word, repenting of any speech unbecoming of an ambassador of the Holy and spotless Son of God, Jesus Christ; examining every habit of deed, dress, mannerism, and so on; numbering every day and every hour, holding ourselves accountable for how we spend each moment, casting aside every weight.How dearly we need to get the lid off the trash can that many of our lives resemble, grab the can, turn it over, shake the garbage out, scrape the garbage out, and wash it clean with the water of God's Word!Recently the re-reading of Charles Finney's autobiography and beginning of the reading of his Revival Lectures has really been drawing this out in me.Finney was very used of God in the "garbage man" capacity, He used him to preach people into the ground. Even in his books, as I understand it, he'll turn on the reader with more fire than we can get from the pulpit oftentimes.I am praying in the next weeks, months, days, however long the Lord will allow me to have genuine DEEP repentance of all things that hinder Him using and filling me.How we need to pray, pray, pray! I'm ashamed of my prayer life, with all the light God's given me I should be praying several hours a day. I get in those altars after the preacher's done and I seek God and the filling of the Holy Ghost, and I don't want to leave until I get it... I'll stay there a while, a lot longer than the others I know, but I don't want to hold people up... but when I get home, and have privacy, do I seek Him with as much fervor? Hardly. Oh, for the blessing of actually being able to care, to want God's blessing so dearly that I would lay hold of God as Moses did.The times are so dark and short, its time to really seek the Lord while He may be found.Why do we claim, and even believe, that we love Jesus more than anything when we feel little or no motivation to spend lots of time alone with Him? Why do we not jealously seek to have that time and defend it against other demands on our time? Oh, how far I am...I pray this would encourage any others reading this to examine themselves and allow God to show them their hearts even through the reading of the revival lectures on this site.It is encouraging, Brother, thank you.May we throw ourselves into the Consuming Fire of God,-Keith

Thought this may be of some encouragement for you. It's from my journal in Jan. of 2003.Still More Work To Be Done:In my quiet time with the Lord I had a mini vision of someone chopping straight down the middle of a stump of wood with an axe, chopping, chopping.(Lord, what is this?)"I have cut away the tree and it's branches (the things visible, above ground). Now I am still cutting away, through the stump to get to the roots."(I thought you had already gotten to my roots, I thought I had already been thru so much refining in the fire already.)"Are you still angered easily, do you have the patience you would like to have, are you offended easily, feel rejected easily?"(yes.)"Then you still have roots."As I felt the Lord working so hard to get down to my roots - I am overwhelmed by His love - to go to these great lengths to free me from myself.I just see Him chopping and chopping with all His strength and might.I humbled to think of all the work He has done in me this last year and now I see there is still quite a bit more to go!Always a work in progress.May I be layed out for you, Lord.Examine my heart and mind once again. Even the places I don't know exhist.I want to be free for you to live in and through me without this stuff crowding you out!I will press on towards the prize!1/13/03Pressing on with you, Chanin

Bless you Greg,Have sat on this for awhile trying to form a reply...I feel your heart brother. All the replys here say so much more than I could...Yes, Amen, Send the fire!

But surely this won't happen until we get right with God with DEEP repentance of heart:Along these lines, I was deeply convicted by the following verse this morning;Proverbs 28:9 He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.How often have I prayed without truly examining myself and allowing what God has spoken through His word to change me? How often have I offered up a prayer of abomination by turning away my ear? It's amazing if you look in Scripture some of the awful things that are called "abominations". And right along side of those is this verse about prayers! I have been taking things way too lightly, deep repentance and a proper fear of the Lord is surely needed.In Christ,Ron

The best and most awesome physical thing that constantly reminds me of the glory of God is the sun. We can't even look at the sun for 2 minutes without it blinding us. The sun is a small speck to God. How awesome must our Creator be!!!!! The maker of the sun can surely make a place of eternal fire to punish sin. I have told nonbelievers, "you can't even look at the sun for 2 minutes without being blinded, our Creator is greater than that." And nonbelievers admit they agree with that.