Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean
lips… —Isaiah 6:5
{CHAMBERS} “When
I come into the very presence of God, I do not realize that I am a sinner in an
indefinite sense, but I suddenly realize and the focus of my attention is
directed toward the concentration of sin in a particular area of my life. A
person will easily say, “Oh yes, I know I am a sinner,” but when he comes into
the presence of God he cannot get away with such a broad and indefinite
statement. Our conviction is focused on our specific sin, and we realize, as
Isaiah did, what we really are. This is always the sign that a person is in the
presence of God. […] God begins by convicting us of the very thing to which His
Spirit has directed our mind’s attention. If we will surrender, submitting to
His conviction of that particular sin, He will lead us down to where He can
reveal the vast underlying nature of sin. That is the way God always deals with
us when we are consciously aware of His presence. This experience of our
attention being directed to our concentration of personal sin is true in
everyone’s life, from the greatest of saints to the worst of sinners. […] the
Spirit of God will point out some definite and specific thing to him. The
effect of Isaiah’s vision of the holiness of the Lord was the directing of his
attention to the fact that he was “a man of unclean lips.””
{ELGIN} A couple in our Sunday school class shared
during our prayer time that they were struggling with an addiction to nicotine –
aka smoking cigarettes. Both wanted to
quit. I thanked them for their
willingness to share their struggle with us so we knew how to pray for
them. It was not a question of judging
them. I told them that they were not
going to hell because they smoked .. although some misinformed but well-intentioned
Christians might argue that point … The conviction that the couple felt about
cigarettes came from the Spirit of God. (John 16:8-10) “And when He [the Spirit]
has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of
judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me” The Spirit will convict us of the things in our
hearts that do not bring honor to God.
I would argue that nicotine is a poor substitute for the comfort that we
can find in God. Nicotine is a cruel
master that very often leads us to a painful physical death. (John
14:26) “the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my
name, will teach you all things” The
Spirit will teach us the way to go and show us right from wrong living.
What is happening in the lives of the couple
in our class is spiritual. Part of the
sanctification process. True, sometimes people try to clean themselves up on
their own .. and fail. You may have
found yourself on that treadmill a time or two.
It is not until we yield to the Spirit and accept that our metamorphosis
from the old nature to the new is a “God-thing” will that change take root in our
lives. I love to watch God at work, don’t
you? When I speak to anyone about what I
was like before Jesus, they do not believe me.
Why? Because God has changed me
so that who I was is no longer recognizable.
But it is not me, it’s Jesus in me. (Galatians 2:20) That is not to say that I have arrived .. we all struggle
with the flesh and will so long as our feet are walking this earth. To quote John Newton (he wrote Amazing Grace)
“I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope
to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the
grace of God I am what I am” Can I get an Amen?
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