Sunday, November 24, 2024.
Apostle BILLEY.
The Lord wants us to know that He is ready to do beyond even man’s imagination.
And there’s something we have to do that will lead to that. The Lord speaks of repentance.
Through our series, everyone will be able to understand God’s way. This is the most excellent way, the way of light, truth and eternal life. A path where there’s no confusion, no fear.
Man is disqualified from this path, but let him return to the path of God and apply his heart to knowing it. Then that person will move forward, and is supported by God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
Nothing is impossible for God. Even if we’re used to hearing this, let’s face it, it’s true.
The Lord wants everyone to understand, and take the step, and then you’ll see the release of God’s greatness, palpably.
Let’s not forget: we need to review our priorities. We must search our hearts: why am I on this earth? what am i looking for? What’s the main thing in my life? When I get up in the morning, what is my heart’s desire? Is it to do with the Lord or the world?
Each of us must be able to know and respond.
Every day God gives us is an opportunity to work at letting God’s love grow within us.
Proverbs 28. 13 He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
Repentance is a deep remorse for what we have done and a decision to leave everything that is not of God.
So we have to confess the sin, say it out loud. Then decide to give up, leave it, throw it away and have nothing more to do with it. Whoever does this will obtain God’s mercy.
It’s not good to hide our sins; we mustn’t do it. As a Christian, it’s forbidden, it’s really not recommended. We have to come to the light every time to expose everything that is not of God. Let’s not let evil control us, let’s open our hearts and cry out to God, He will help us.
Luke 15:11-18
11 Then He said: “A certain man had two sons.
12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood.
13 And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.
This young son is far from his father. He went to live in debauchery.
Debauchery is anything that is not allowed, anything that is foolish and takes the person away from God. He’d do things like go to nightclubs, go on drinking sprees, chase women…
14 But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want.
15 Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
Finding himself without means, but with many needs, he looked for work.
And it was certainly complicated, because the only work he found was looking after the pigs.
16 And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
While he worked, he was hungry, but didn’t have anything to eat. To the point where he even wanted food for pigs. The tumble was truly terrible, considering he came from his father’s house.
17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
In his suffering, he has become aware of what’s going on, he has entered himself.
Having entered into himself, that is, he reflected, and remembered that in his father’s house even the workers were treated better.
He probed his heart with his mind.
Deep repentance requires doing the same as in this verse 17. You have to get inside yourself.
Whoever wants to have the Father’s prosperity must cultivate this spirit; which is to look inward, to search in your heart, in your mind. It’s a profound realization. Am I doing what God wants?
There are many Christians in the body of Christ who pray, but are far from God, they praise Him, but far from the Lord, in another country, another nation, another state, another kingdom different from the kingdom of God.
What’s worse, in this other realm where they are, they like it there.
What made this young man enter himself? (Luke 15.17)
There are several reasons for this:
– Hunger: hunger can drive you back to God.
– He had no more money, his inheritance was finished, so his future looked bleak.
Beloved, when you look into your future, see nothing good, and bitterness is what you see. Know that these are signs, that you are far from the house of God your Father.
– Regret, remorse.
Brother, sister, when you’re filled with regret for the things you couldn’t do, and your heart fills with regret. Then it means you are far from God and must repent. If you repent and strip deeply, God will restore you.
Let’s not reject this message. We can’t be in sin and get God’s blessing. It doesn’t happen that way; repentance is required first.
At this stage, when you go inside yourself and search your heart with your mind, you’ll be able to see what’s in your heart.
Our hearts are like a notebook or a slate or a tablet, where everything is inscribed and it’s possible to read what’s written.
Those who can read it will be able to erase what’s bad and write what’s good.
Beloved, before we do anything, it’s written in our hearts.
You have the ability and strength to write what’s good.
Unfortunately, those who don’t do this are always going round in circles. This is called blindness. And when it’s like that, it’s easy for them to be manipulated by the devil, by the spirit of the world.
The reason for your weakness, the cause of your illness, is written in your heart.
It’s best to learn to read our own hearts, so that we can erase them through repentance and renunciation, and replace them with the word of God. It’s really easy.
For example, when someone hurt us 10 years ago, it’s still written in our hearts for some of us.
And the day you meet the person, this will come to the surface, your heart will remind you.
So what can we do? If there’s a problem/disagreement, I have to forgive right away because that erases the offense in my heart.
No one can deceive us; we have the ability to fathom our hearts.
Brothers, we must repent of everything that can take us backwards. You have to have a heart of repentance, that’s God’s heart.
17 But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
This young man was no longer physically in his father’s home at the time, but he can still see his father’s house in his heart. He sees reality and this will help him decide.
Like the rich man in hell, he saw in spirit what his brothers were doing and could imagine what Lazarus was doing. (Luke 16:19-31)
Repentance is a blessing, let us open our hearts to the Lord.
18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you,
He could speak either in his heart or out loud. But He has decided.
True repentance requires a firm decision.
When you see the state of your life, you must decide to repent and abandon evil.
Here, verse 18 shows us that we are capable of deciding in our hearts.
At the time of this young man’s decision, he had not yet acted.
What can stand in the way of this decision?
– Pride
Beloved, if you look into your heart and see pride, you must give it up quickly. Because that’s never going to get you to your destination.
– Shame is an adversary to prevent him from returning to his father.
– Not knowing what his father would think of him.
– Fear of rejection.
– Doubt.
– lack of courage.
– Procrastination, putting things off until tomorrow.
– The atmosphere he finds himself in.
Brothers, the atmosphere around us can be an obstacle that pulls us back when we make decisions. Our friends can dissuade us from going through with our decisions. It can be a link for us.
For example, the day you decide to repent or take action, your phone rings. Distraction enters you, and by the time you finish the conversation, the door to repentance may be closed. Because the impetus to repent can be stolen.
These are the enemy’s various traps.
All this can prevent a person from going through with their decision.
These elements are called spiritual chains.
They don’t work as physical chains. It has to do with mindset, with the way a person sees things.
When a person’s conception is different from God’s, it creates spiritual chains. This prevents the person from repenting and reconciling with God.
During repentance, when we see these chains in ourselves, we must reject them. You have to say to yourself, I don’t give a damn, even if I’m insulted it doesn’t matter, even if I’m laughed at… I’ll leave!
Repentance requires boldness, the courage to get out of where we are.
Deep repentance destabilizes the enemy, the strong men in your life. This puts them in a position of total weakness.
Because your enemy is strong when he has succeeded in taking you away from God. He’ll put doubt, arrogance, pride, procrastination…so you don’t go.
He controls you through these elements. So as long as the Christian remains in this state, he won’t progress.
But he has to know that he has to throw away all those elements: doubt, pride, bad company… that could prevent him from doing what he has to do.
In this way, I will be strengthened and the enemy will be weakened vis-à-vis me. He won’t have the strength to stop me.
Repentance is a blessing for us. Deep repentance humbles our enemy.
It connects us to God. Because if we do it with all our heart, God is there to receive us and restore everything we’ve lost.
Indeed, for us, the father in Luke 15 is God the Father.
All of us had asked for our independence. We wanted to do what we wanted without taking into account God’s laws, His word. Choosing where to go and what to do on our own when it may not be God’s way. And now we’re in trouble, nothing’s working.
What should be done? Repent.
God said to Jeremiah, before you came to this earth, you were in me, and I brought you to this earth to make you a prophet. (Jeremiah 1.5)
Jeremiah was surprised because he didn’t know. Because he was doing something else that was outside God’s way, in lamentations. But when he agreed to repent and follow God’s way, he entered his destiny.
Repentance means listening to God’s voice and practicing. And we must, because God is not for a time, but forever. That is, He doesn’t start one day and end with your case.
Every day, we are together with God, which is why we need to develop this mindset of always being with God.
Those who are with God are the ones who win, who are strong on earth and go to heaven. They always triumph, because the Triumphant One is with them.
Beloved, God wants you to triumph. When faced with an evil, don’t justify yourself, but repent. Don’t blame others, blame yourself. It’s a spirit of humility. If you do, the road will be open for repentance, renunciation and then regeneration and restoration.
IN THE NAME OF JESUS, Let Us Pray… →
Lord, I belong to you.
Forgive me for all the evil I have done against You.
Help me to strip my heart of all that is not yours.
I beg your pardon.
Reveal the state of my heart, reveal what is evil.
Expose my mind.
Let your light penetrate my soul and expose the works of darkness.
Expose what is in my heart that does not honor you.
Help me to strip my heart of everything that is not of You.
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.