Now, is a time that the Lord is requiring that we examine ourselves. We must make sure that we are right with Him and have our priorities in order. We are to judge ourselves. Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates. (2 Corinthians 13:5). For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. (1 Corinthians 11:31-32).
The Lord has postponed judging us as long as He could. His mercy is beyond human understanding! God is love. We get upset with people and want to knock them on the head because they made one mistake or two. Just think of how many mistakes we have made and how merciful the Lord has been to us!
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, (Hebrews 12:1).
It is easy to become too entangled with legitimate affairs of this life. These things may be good in themselves but are not what God has called you to do. There are things that are not necessarily wrong, but they will slow you down in your particular race. They will hinder you from growing spiritually and from fulfilling God’s purposes in your life and ministry.
Sin in your life will not only hinder your fellowship with God, it will dull your spirit and cause you to be less responsive to the Holy Spirit’s leading. Sin left unchecked, will cause you to live only in the natural realm, and you will miss God’s best for your life and die prematurely. Sin is fornication, adultery, homosexuality, lying, cussing, stealing, etc. But sin can also be a failure to be a doer of the Word of God, failure to spend quality time in prayer seeking the Lord’s will and plan and walking in disobedience to the plan of God for your life and ministry.
Dad Hagin said, “The only time I have been attacked with sickness was when I failed to obey what the Lord told me to do.” He pointed out that when you were in disobedience you got over on the devil’s territory and he could attack you. He always repented and walked in health.
I have experienced that in my own life and ministry! I had failed to obey what the Lord told me to do, and it opened the door to the devil to attack me physically and financially. I went to prayer or was driven to prayer would be a better way to say it! I had a prayer life like most other Christians, but much more prayer and obedience was required.
It is time to judge ourselves, to keep ourselves in obedience to God and His Word. It’s when we are in His perfect will, being led by His spirit that things just work. That doesn’t mean that things may not come. But it does mean that you are listening to the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to lead you; so those things won’t have an effect on you or your ministry like they would have if you had been out of God’s will, and not listening to His spirit. The Lord told Dad Hagin once about a coming recession that was going to impact Him financially, but he didn’t listen. At this time he was in his thirties or so. Jesus later appeared to Him and, among other things, told him he would have to endure the consequences of disobedience for another seven months.
Disobedience has consequences, but God is calling us to judge ourselves and get in obedience to the Word of God and the Spirit of God. God is with us and we will do it.
