(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing: The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 12)
"Everyone's heart is in some form of disrepair. It is our individual
responsibility to do the hard work of the Inner Court experience in
order to show that we have our priorities right and that we desire to be
obedient to God's call into His presence. This pleases and glorifies
God, just as when the Israeli remnant went to the mountain to gather
wood for the rebuilding of the temple after they returned from their
exile in Babylon.
Once we have realized our wrong priority of and disobedience in doing everything else but
obeying God's command to rebuild and transform our hearts, we can
finally begin to seek the Spirit so that we might be informed by Him of
the gods, idols, and sins that are still in our hearts. Ironically, it
is these dark places in our hearts that reveal our most predominant
affections. They keep us from having right and godly priorities. For
example, the sin of loving to watch television, and therefore investing
too much time sitting in front of it, will often be the very reason that
we are not spending much time with God, or that we are not
accomplishing the ministry He has given us to do.
God is a patient God. He did not require us to 'get perfectly clean'
before we could be His child. Jesus' sacrifice was enough for us to
join His family as we declared our need of and belief and trust in Him.
However, He is now patiently waiting for us to come before Him with
each flesh affection that separates us from intimacy with Him. What He
has graciously and patiently let remain in us may now be the very idol
or sin that He requires us to give up for Him today. Yes, God is
a patient God, but He will not be patient forever when it comes to our
sin. God would cease to be God if He continually winked at our unholy
sin and love of the other gods that we have place before Him. His
desire is for our sin to be chopped out of us at the root, leaving
nothing left to grow back. He wants to be the only God that we worship,
serve, and bow down to. He will settle for nothing less."
What are your heart affections that are keeping God in some other
seat rather than first? Have you not already spent enough time bowing
at their thrones in your heart? God is not winking at your sin; He
wants these sins to be crucified in your flesh. He wants to be your ALL
IN ALL. To crucify your flesh is surrender. Your sacrifice of gods
allows you to walk in obedience to the one true God. This is walking in
the Spirit. Shall we continue asking God to settle for the idolatry
found in our heart and lives?
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