RUN LIKE A CHAMPION

The Personal Life of the Evangelist: The Holy Spirit’s Power
I want to welcome you to day 3 week 3 of our study on revival and evangelism. Today, we’re going to continue our study on personal holiness and talk about what it means to be pure.
If you remember, we’ve talked about the necessity of authenticity in the Christian life. But how do you develop that on a practical level?
I was helped early in my Christian life and I’m so thankful for the people that God raised up and put around me and allowed me to hear .. this kind of teaching early on in my Christian life. I went and studied in California for .. under Campus Crusade for Christ. Dr. Bill Bright, who was the founder, taught a simple, little message called spiritual breathing and it was one of the most helpful things to me in developing my walk with God and developing a desire to become more and more like Jesus.
But he talked about spiritual breathing .. he talked about you can’t have life unless you exhale and you inhale. And he talked about the importance of both of those and he said there is spiritual breathing, exhaling is when you confess your sins – inhaling is when you appropriate the fullness of the Holy Spirit. And he said, to become like Christ, you must have both of those.
Now, exhaling – he talked about confession. And he discussed the passage from first John chapter 1 and verses 8 and 9 that says if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But – if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And Dr. Bright challenged us to do something .. he said “I want you to go – find a place – just get alone – get a piece of paper – and I want you to write down everything in your life that you know is not pleasing to God and just confess that. And as you confess it to God and repent of it and turn away from it. He will cleanse you. He will remove it from your life.”
And so you do that – after you’ve done that, then pray this prayer: “Search my heart oh God, and try me .. and see if there be any wickedness about me.” And if God shows you anything else in your life that’s not pleasing to Him, you confess that to Him. And then – you just go and get alone and do that ..
So I did. I went and got alone – brought my piece of paper and I started writing down things that I knew I was struggling with .. things that I knew that were not pleasing to the Lord and I wrote those things down and one by one, I went through and I confessed them to God. And I said, God, cleanse me of this. I was wrong – please forgive me.
And after I did that, I just let God cleanse me. And then I prayed that prayer that he told us to pray: “Search my heart oh God and try me and see if there be any wickedness about me.” And as I prayed that prayer, the Holy Spirit illumined my heart and began to show me things that – well I call them problems or weaknesses – but God showed me that they were sin.
And I began to confess those sins. In fact, there were so many things I had to go find someone to borrow some paper because there were so many things the Lord just showed me. But I want to tell you that was a great cleansing.
One of the things that I did, and I learned to do during that time, was not to wait until I heard someone like Dr. Bright. Not to wait for a conference – not to wait for some big speaker but to learn daily the moment – the very moment that I had an attitude that was wrong – I said something that was wrong – I did something that was wrong. Or the moment that I got into a position of apathy and didn’t do what God wanted me to do – anytime I let one of those things touch my life, not to wait, but to immediately – confess it.
Now there was a second part – you see, that’s exhaling. That’s getting rid of what needs to be gotten rid of. But then, you need to inhale. Not just be empty on the inside but to allow the Holy Spirit to fill you.
You see, you can’t grit your teeth and say “I’m going to become like Jesus” and make yourself more like Jesus. That’s a work of grace .. that’s the work of the Holy Spirit. So you must by faith – ask the Holy Spirit to take control of your life – every area of your life. Your thought life – your family life – your private life – your life at work – your social life ..whatever it be – just every area of your life – relationships – you need to bring to God and give them to God and ask Him to take control of those areas of your life by the power of His Holy Spirit and yield those areas of your life to the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit will take control.
He will fill you and it’s out of that fullness that you will become more like Jesus. And you see, you’ll grow more – and more – and more – into the image of Jesus because the Holy Spirit .. that’s what He does. He exalts Jesus in your life.
Exhale – confess your sin. Inhale – appropriate the power of the Holy Spirit over every area of your life.