01/07/2013 - CONDITIONS FOR YOU TO OVERCOME 1

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“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil.” 

Isaiah 1:16

On verse 7 of the book of Isaiah, the Lord speaks through the prophet that the land was devastated; the cities were consumed by fire; the farming was dominated by strangers. The land was devastated and dominated by strangers. In other words, chaos was installed in the Land of Promise. Unfortunately, today the same thing is happening to the people of God. And if there is no genuine repentance, it will just get worse.

This story tells us that some faithful people prevented that land to become like Sodom and Gomorrah. Then, the prophet called the authorities “princes of Sodom”, and the people “People of Gomorrah”. God used the prophet to tell the people that they should stop making sacrifices, because He couldn’t stand the iniquity that was amongst their offerings. He also asked: “who asked you to enter into my presence?” And He determined that they should stop every kind of sacrifices and parties. (Isaiah 1:9-14)

The Most High also said that He hid His eyes when they called out to Him. When prayer was multiplied, He didn’t listen, because their hands were full of blood. (Isaiah 1:15) Just like the people of Israel, there are many people who fool themselves, believing they can commit a mistake and then just say “they’re sorry”.  The truth is that there must be genuine repentance.

For this reason, the Lord instructed His people to wash themselves. This is an act that can only be done together with prayer, because it requires that the person opens their heart and repents genuinely from his or her sin. However, there are many people who commit mistakes and then confess out loud that they sinned, but soon commit the same acts again. Whoever does this doesn’t understand that peace inside our hearts is one of the best signs of forgiveness (Philippians 4:7), demonstrating that true relationship with the Father has been restored.

To wash yourself is to confess your sins with a true and contrite heart, supplicating that the soul would be purified from its guilty stains. Without purification, there is no way to restore communion. Whoever thinks that God doesn’t see certain sins, or that He doesn’t take them in consideration is completely wrong. God is good, but His goodness should never be confused with permission for committing sins.

If evilness – which is an evident spiritual act before the eyes of the Lord – isn’t taken away, people will never be accepted in the presence of God. Therefore, when the Most High sees us, He knows our intentions when we commit mistakes, and until evil isn’t removed from us, we will be driven to commit other sins.

Whoever seeks to be at peace with God and to guarantee eternal happiness must quit doing all kinds of evil acts. If we keep on with certain attitudes that block the Lord from operating in our lives, He will not attend our petitions. If God acts this way today, imagine how it will be during the times of Judgment, when there will be no grace at all?

In Christ, with love,

R. R. Soares