Removing Roadblocks To Increased faith

If you find you have committed a fault against an individual, and that individual is within your reach, go confess it immediately and get that transgression out of the way. If the individual you have injured is too far away for you to go and see him, write a letter confessing the injury. If you have defrauded anybody, return their money in full with interest.

Get to work with your restitution, now! God now! Do not put it off. Procrastination will only make the matter worse. Confess to God those sins that have been committed against Him. Confess to man those sins that have been committed against man. Don’t think you can get out of this obligation by ignoring the old stumbling blocks in your road of life. In breaking up your fallow ground, you must remove every obstruction. Things may be left that you think are insignificant. However, if you do not remove the obstacles and do your best to make restitution for your mistakes, your faith will not sparkle for you. The reason for the lack of joy in your relationship with Jesus would be that your proud and carnal mind has covered up something which God required you to confess and remove.

Fruitful A Hundredfold

Break up all the ground and turn it over. Do not balk, do not turn away because of little difficulties. Drive the plough right through them. Go deep and turn the ground up so that it will all be mellow and soft. Then it will be ready to receive the seed and bear fruit a hundredfold.

When you have thoroughly gone over your whole history in this way, go over the ground a second time paying special attention to it.  You will find the things you put down will suggest other sins of which you have been guilty. These new ones are usually connected with the original offenses. Then, go over it a third time and you will remember other things.  You will find, in the end, that you can remember particular actions which you did not think you would even remember in eternity.

Unless you consider your sins in this way — in detail, one by one — you cannot comprehend their number. You should go over this list as thoroughly, carefully, and seriously as you would if you were preparing yourself for the final judgment.

As you go over the catalog of your sins, make a resolution to reform your ways now. Wherever you find anything wrong, resolve at once, in the strength of God, to sin no more in that way. It will not benefit you to examine yourself, unless you decide to change every fault you find in your heart, temper, and conduct.

How Sin Blocks Joy

If, as you proceed with this project, you find that your spirit is still not rejoicing, search yourself. You will see there is still sin blocking your full awareness of the Spirit of God within you. This lack of joy is your signal that you have not been faithful and thorough. Your self-examination requires a full attack — it is not a gentle pastime. It is tearing sin away from yourself, revealing what can be painful.

You must honestly look at yourself, using your Bible as your checkpoint. Do not expect God to miraculously break up your fallow ground for you.You must actively participate, and you must submit your will. If you look at yourself accurately, taking note of your sins, you will definitely feel something. You cannot see your sins for what they are without deeply feeling something.

Experience proves the benefit of going over our history in this way. Start your work now. Resolve that you will never stop until you find you can pray. You will never have access to the full power of the Holy Spirit dwelling within you unless you completely confess your sins. Let there be this deep work of repentance and full confession, this breaking down before God.

Then you will have as much of the spirit of prayer as you can tolerate. The reason so few Christians know anything about the spirit of prayer is that they never take the trouble to examine themselves properly, and so they never know what it is to have their hearts broken up to be rebuilt in this way.

Machinery And Fruitless Christians

It will do no good to preach to you while your heart is in this hardened, fallow state. The farmer might just as well sow his grain on the rock, because  it will not bring forth fruit. This is why there are so many fruitless believers in the Church — why there is so much outside machinery yet so little deep-toned feeling.

Look at the Sunday school, for instance, and see how much machinery there is and how little Christian spirit. If you continue this way, the work will continue to harden you. You will grow worse and worse, just as the rain and snow on an old fallow field make the turf thicker and the clods stronger.

When Revival Starts

Those who profess to be Christians should never be so self-satisfied that they expect to start a revival by suddenly jumping out of their slumbers, blustering about and talking to sinners. They must break up their own fallow ground. If your fallow ground is broken up, then the way to get more zest is to go out and see sinners on the road to hell, talk to them, and guide inquiring souls.

You may get excited without this breaking up. You may show a kind of zeal, but it will not last long, and it will not take hold of sinners, unless your heart is broken up. Unless you are right with God and filled with the Spirit, your work will be mechanical and fruitless.

And now, will you break up your fallow ground? Will you clear your heart before God as just pointed out and persevere until you are thoroughly awake? If you fail here, if you do not do this, you will not get any further. I have gone as far with you as possible until you renew your neglected spiritual life.

Without a heart ready to receive the fullness of Jesus again, the rest of this book is worthless to the reader. It will only harden you and make you worse. If you do not start working on your heart immediately, one can say that you have no intention of being revived; and you have forsaken your minister, letting him fight the battle alone. If you do not do this, I charge you with having forsaken Christ, with refusing to repent and work for Him.

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