A Prayer Warrior is intimate with confessing sin

¹³ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

¹⁴ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”  Luke 18:13-14  NIV

Principle: An effective Prayer Warrior stays fit with the regular exercise of confession of sin.

I had recently lost one of my good friends when my assignment came up for the ritual sacrifice.  Being depressed did not disqualify me from performing my duties.  My expectations were low as I entered into the second more private room to offer the sacrifices.  Smoke usually lingers in the room from the candles and previous usage.  Suddenly, a white smoke filled the room, yet it did not burn my eyes.  There was light at the source of the smoke.  My body froze and speech escaped me.

A being, somehow I knew it was an angel, began to speak in front of me.  The authority and strength of his voice appeared to shake everything in the room.  And I understood what He was saying.  HOLY, HOLY, HOLY.  With each word is was like light was piercing the darkness of my heart exposing everything in me that was unholy.  Fear gripped my thoughts.  I knew that I was not qualified to be in the same place as this holy moment.  I thought, “ My life is ruined.  This is the end.  My filthy words of jealously, gossip, angry outburst, judging, envy, sowing strife and discord, unbelief, pride and even cursing have stained my soul beyond repair.  I am just like everyone I know and we all deserve to be punished and thrown away.”

Then another angel flew over to the burning altar.  He reached toward the fire with something like a tong and grabbed a burning coal.  He brought it toward my face and I could feel its heat against my skin.  I opened my mouth to refuse, then the coal touched my tongue.  There was a warm melting that began to slip across my mind and my heart.  If was as if my heart had been frozen and spring was bursting forth.  Things that had felt dead were being awakened to life.  I did not think I was blind, but I felt like I could see life clearly for the first time.  The stain of sin was being erased from the very core of my being.  The angel spoke, “Now you are clean and your sin atoned for.”

I felt accepted.  I felt like I belonged.  No longer was I dismissed or disqualified from serving the King of Kings.  He had made me NEW.  I have seen the Holy One and lived.  Please send Me.  Send Me to do and say whatever you want me to say. A voice reverberated and said, “Go!”   Inspired from Isaiah 6,  Greg’s version.

No one really enjoys the process of confessing sin before God.  God’s word peels away all of our excuses so that we feel a soulish nakedness before him.  We are masters at deflecting our true intentions even toward those who are closest to us.  But God sees and knows it all. He doesn’t just poke around our hurt, his finger goes right to the splinter that is still stuck inside us. 

It is at this point that we have the option, yes even the privilege to agree with God about the yuckiness of our sin.  We get to admit that we have no one else to blame for the stupid decision to violate what we knew to be right and wrong.  No excuses, we chose wrong.  And there it sits.  Our failure.  The thing that haunts and disqualifies our character.  Our sin.  And there are no deals that we can make to remove its mark on our lives.  We identify with our imperfection…we are just never going to be good enough. 

So, we ask God to forgive us.  We recognize that Jesus took our sinful acts upon himself and all of the penalties associated with it.  Everything that would disqualify us from being in a right relationship with God, Jesus has endured the consequences.  He cleanses me as-if-I-had-never-sinned.  Though my sin was colored like crimson, it shall be made white as snow.

This is the ONLY pattern that God has for the removal of the effects of sin in our lives.  David asked for the Lord to search him and find any wicked way that remains in him.  HE reveals our sin of disobedience, we confess (agree with His viewpoint) our sin, ask to be forgiven, by faith believe that he forgives us. And Repeat as often as necessary.

- Why do we find it a struggle to confess sin regularly?

- How long does it take you to confess your sin?  Do you think time erases it?

- How would pride keep you from becoming humble before the Lord?

- Do you give a full confession or just admit that you messed up?

- How do you appropriate full forgiveness that Jesus offers?

Father, thank you for the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  He continues to convict us of sin, so that we do not fall into its bondage.  Help me Lord to respond to His voice.  Forgive me when I push Him aside and stop listening.  Like Samson, forgive me when I think that the gifts you have given me operate rightly regardless of my purity before you.  You desire to use a clean vessel.  In order to be useful, I must seek to be Holy as you are Holy.  So give me an increased sensitivity to your Spirit’s voice that will lead me in the way that I should go and correct me when I stray.  In Jesus name, Amen.