Hi HIM family. It’s wonderful to be able to share my heart and share a short message with all of you. You know, continuing with our HIM theme of Inside Out. I want to share with us about the Fruit of Internal Transformation. And particularly, I want to talk about repentance and forgiveness.
You know, every one of us need to continue to walk in a humble attitude of repentance and forgiveness. You know why? Along the way, in life we are always exposed to people, exposed to the environment, exposed to the media. And sometimes we can’t help seeing things that we should not see but it stays in our mind, stays sometimes in our spirit even.
And along the way, when we interact with people, as we work with people, as we relate with people, there are bound to be times because we are imperfect people. We may harbour situations in our heart, motives in our life that are not right, not pleasing to God. And worse still, consciously, we might even keep sin in our life that we find so difficult to repent and so difficult to get rid in our lives
I want to refer us to Psalm 51, Psalm 51 is a significant psalm. It’s about David, and I think most of us know what happened with David. It was a psalm that he wrote after Nathan confronted him about his adultery. And in verse 6 ,for example he says about this, “God, surely you desire truth in the inner parts. You teach me wisdom in my inmost place.”
David was conscious of the fact that he had to get right with God in his innermost being. Inmost parts he calls it.
And he desires to walk in truth with God. So that’s an important aspect that David realized. Let me also read you verse 10 to 12. David’s cry to the Lord after he knew he had sinned, “Create in me a clean heart (a pure heart), O God and renew in me a steadfast (or a right) spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.”
David realized that in his sin, if he did not repent, if he did not ask God for forgiveness, he would be carrying all the guilt and the condemnation. On top of that, he would lose his joy of salvation. He would lose the sense of freedom with God. And that’s what happens with us. The fruit of unrepentance and the fruit of unforgiveness is the fact that we carry guilt with us. We carry condemnation. We allow the enemy to be able to mock us, to laugh at us.
You know, I’m no different from anybody. At times, I harbour these things, I harbour these thoughts, I harbour these motives. And you know, I can stand up on the pulpit, I can feel like I’m the anointed servant of God, but I tell you, deep down inside in my consciousness of my spirit and subconscious, I know, I can sense the devil mocking me. Laughing at me. Saying, “You are a hypocrite.” You try to really tell people, “Wow, this is the Word, this is the Spirit,” but deep inside, I know I am being a hypocrite, allowing the enemy to condemn me.
Well, dear brother and sisters, 1 John 1:9 says when we confess our sins God is all ready to forgive us. And God is all ready to restore us. He restores to us the rightful place that we should be as the children of God. So I want to encourage us. Continue to walk in repentance and walk in forgiveness as the internal transformation that is happening within us. Do not allow the devil to continue to condemn us in any way possible. Walk right, walk in truth with God
Well, Sister Lai Eng is supposed to join us, but unfortunately she’s got a fever and she caught the flu. So she’s not able to join. But she wants to add in this thought. And that is, thank God, praise God. We have the Holy Spirit with us. You know, I read in John 15 and 16, when Jesus says, “I will give you the Holy Spirit.” He’s our Counselor, and He will convict us of guilt and sin, and He’s the Spirit of Truth.
So lastly, I just want to say, we all carry the Holy Spirit with us and the Holy Spirit prompts us. The Holy Spirit makes us aware when we are not walking right with God. So keep that Spirit consciousness. It’s important for internal transformation to be effective. Walk closely with the Holy Spirit because He awakens us to areas in our lives, areas in our spirit that are not right and not pleasing to God.
I pray that you will continue to experience the fruit of internal transformation. That is walking in humble repentance and allowing and receiving the forgiveness of our wonderful Lord.
God bless you. May God be with you and really continue to be strengthened from the inside out.
Amen.