One of the signs of a heart that has shifted from God is the absence of spiritual power! If you are anything like Sampson at this particular time, you won't be immediately aware that God's power has left you. It was only after Sampson tried to defeat his enemies that he recognized something was not right. He went against the Philistines the same as before, expecting to easily defeat them, but this time the Philistines prevailed over him. He was left wondering what had happened.
"And she said, " The Philistines are upon you Sampson!" So he awoke from his sleep, and said, "I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!" But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding in the prison." Judges 16:20-21.
If we allow sin to creep into our life, if we refuse to obey our Lord, if we do not reconcile with those who have hurt us, our spiritual vitality is waning. We may assume everything is fine, but when we pray, answers don't come to us as they once did. Maybe we once had a positive effect on those around us, but now our influences are negligible or even harmful. Our life could have even brought reconciliation to others, but now we experience problems, even in our own relationships.
What has happened? Those around us that relied upon our strength are starting to discover that we are not as helpful to them as we once were, and we are not recognizing that something is out of whack. We are not recognizing that our spirit is crying out for our attention due to lack of communing with God! We might only be seeing subtle changes, such as mentioned, but we are ignoring the moaning and groaning of our own spirit. To the question of what has happened, the answer is we have become complacent and content with ourselves, our service, and our relationships.
Friends, we need to be aware of the presence of God in our lives. They only way to stop this spiritual decline is to stop being complacent and content in our relationship with God. We need to hunger to grow our faith, our trust, our very being in Christ! We need to regularly repent of any sin that has crept into our life. We must invite God to search our lives to see if there are any attitudes, relationships, or activities that need to be removed. And, we must always obey His will, whatever that may be, without question or excuse. Our response to God should always be, "Yes Lord, Your will be done!"
If we start to and learn to walk with God in this manner, we will grow in spiritual strength and be used mightily by Him. If we constantly examine our lives and refuse to become complacent in our walk with God, we will start to recognize instantly that something is wrong. We will be better equipped and prepared to allow God to remove those things from our lives that are taking us away from His fellowship. In the end, instead of being powerless, we will be POWERMORE!
May God richly bless you today!! H Trent!
"And she said, " The Philistines are upon you Sampson!" So he awoke from his sleep, and said, "I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!" But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding in the prison." Judges 16:20-21.
If we allow sin to creep into our life, if we refuse to obey our Lord, if we do not reconcile with those who have hurt us, our spiritual vitality is waning. We may assume everything is fine, but when we pray, answers don't come to us as they once did. Maybe we once had a positive effect on those around us, but now our influences are negligible or even harmful. Our life could have even brought reconciliation to others, but now we experience problems, even in our own relationships.
What has happened? Those around us that relied upon our strength are starting to discover that we are not as helpful to them as we once were, and we are not recognizing that something is out of whack. We are not recognizing that our spirit is crying out for our attention due to lack of communing with God! We might only be seeing subtle changes, such as mentioned, but we are ignoring the moaning and groaning of our own spirit. To the question of what has happened, the answer is we have become complacent and content with ourselves, our service, and our relationships.
Friends, we need to be aware of the presence of God in our lives. They only way to stop this spiritual decline is to stop being complacent and content in our relationship with God. We need to hunger to grow our faith, our trust, our very being in Christ! We need to regularly repent of any sin that has crept into our life. We must invite God to search our lives to see if there are any attitudes, relationships, or activities that need to be removed. And, we must always obey His will, whatever that may be, without question or excuse. Our response to God should always be, "Yes Lord, Your will be done!"
If we start to and learn to walk with God in this manner, we will grow in spiritual strength and be used mightily by Him. If we constantly examine our lives and refuse to become complacent in our walk with God, we will start to recognize instantly that something is wrong. We will be better equipped and prepared to allow God to remove those things from our lives that are taking us away from His fellowship. In the end, instead of being powerless, we will be POWERMORE!
May God richly bless you today!! H Trent!
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