My Weird Morning With God!

This Morning I had the weirdest time with God, I nagged about everything and He had an answer every time I opposed Him. God being God, I found out in the end, He had a purpose in mind, so this weird time with Him was needed.

I have been feeling like a mess lately and in my mind there is so much clutters about my walk with Him, I felt so tired and basically drained of all my energy. I attributed the whole thing to the fact that I was so sick with this bad flu that I am just getting over and the throat and ear infection that I did not take any antibiotic on purpose for various reasons.  The past few weeks I was able to post on my blog because I did not really have to think since I only wrote about things that I lived out with Him, but I was always aware of being light headed and not being able to think properly at all.

So, I was reading October 16^th Oswald Chambers devotion, the Holy Spirit told me to write my post on the subject. I got upset because I know from experience that today’s devotion would be very cumbersome to write about for two reasons. First, it took God years to walk me through the process to acquire the mind and the attitude that Oswald Chambers is talking about in this devotion. Secondly, I had such a hard time letting go of what I thought was so noble and used to bring me so much satisfaction and joy, to embrace Christ’s point of view when it comes to mission and works done in His name. I fought Him every step of the way and He put a lot of work in me to teach me what Oswald put into few words on a page. So I told God that I was tired of writing what He has done in my life, I said it seems like I am making it about me, so how can that be right in your sight? His answer was “why do you think I went through the process of teaching you everything step by step through experiencing me? Why do you think you cannot express yourself unless you go through things step by step?

When I realized I was not going to win this argument with God, I said what about Oswald Chambers, I can tell you put Him through the same training, why is it you are okay with the fact that he wrote only for other Christians who are on this path with you, couldn’t you entrust him to write things step by step as well? He said to me, never mind Oswald Chambers he is not your business, and it is not up to you to question me. I said God I am so tired, overwhelmed and drained that I feel if I do not get out of it I am going to be depressed and useless to you.  

During that time, my Bible was opened on my lap, I glanced at it and saw something I wrote on June 2008  it goes this way “Lord teach me how to be like Paul living each day as a new day with anticipation forgetting yesterday and moving forward toward the goal.”  When I read that, I said to God, I can’t believe I was this person in 2008 and now I am failing you. Strangely, I admitted to Him that I have lived the past few weeks on “past grace” instead of fresh grace every day so that my mind could be renewed. Yet, I still did not realize that God was leading me to an examination process that I have been avoiding.

I said to God, “so much for me wanting to be like Paul.” I not only feel I have let you down but after fifteen years of Christianity I am nowhere to being like Paul. God answer to me was “you are a human being it is normal that you go through this phase once in a while and I fully expect that, He continued with, Paul felt this way too, I had to get him out of those depressed times, yet, he is the same man who later on wrote Philippians 3 that you love so much.”.

I tried to go back to the Bible again, suddenly I was craving talking to my friend, the one God had forbidden me to see when I wrote “A melancholic day on April 2^nd and April 18 posts” I know I have craving seeing my friend for the past few weeks, and at times, I had to force myself not to take the phone and call. But, today the whole thing came crashing down, I wanted to see my friend, I wanted to get away from it all, and I needed a break from all those godly stuff in my mind. I could see myself trying to remain seated to avoid going out. I felt like a junkie I need of the next fix. Then God told me, do you see why I need to protect you against yourself?  I said to God, what does that mean? Is that even Biblical what you are saying?

He said well, read 2 Peter 2:7-10. After I finished reading those verses I still did not quite understand and I remained quiet trying by myself to decipher what He was trying to say to me. Of course He knows I was struggling to understand, then He told me, there is a part of me that longs for this ungodly relationship that corrupt my mind and spirit, and it is all against His purpose for any child of His.  

It is so strange when we are not thinking soberly with the Holy Spirit. When I found clarity of mind, I knew it was ridiculous of me to hold myself at such a high standard because when Paul wrote Philippians he was a Christian for few decades where I still have five full years to put in, before I can say I have been a Christian for two decades. But, God was not concerned about that, He was concerned that I was being too hard on myself and needed me to understand what I was going through was part of the path of becoming this person He wants me to be. God is fine with our shortcomings and failures He does not hold them against us nor that He defines us by them, but AS LONG AS WE ARE ON THE RIGHT PATH WITH HIM. Like God taught me, if we are going south and He is going North, while we love calling ourselves work in progress, but in reality, as far as He is concerned, we are not truly work in progress.

Someone I love dearly made a decision a few weeks ago, but when he called me to tell me what he was about to do, I told him, this decision will affect the rest of your life and that he might never recover from it. He said I do understand I am going complete opposite direction from God’s way. But this is what I need to do. This person said something like he is hoping that God will somehow make things right for him and eventually forgive him. He was doing what felt right for him because he could not fathom the idea of trusting God and make a decision that would have been painfully hard now, but over time would pass. This person could not take the pain that we all encounter when we decide to allow Him to work Salvation in and through us. Yet he still somehow hopes that God would follow his footsteps. It is hard to talk to someone who is that far from God, someone who is only counting on God’s goodness and love to make it. While God can still salvage us when we defy Him and chose our own path, but we are playing with fire and saying that we are a work in progress would not do.

I know I am a work in progress because through His grace I maintain the path. Yet I have a long way to go, and yes I hash things out with Him all the time. I do it when I do not understand, I do it when I am overwhelmed with life and tired of the waiting process, and so on. But the frame of mind that I am in, the attitude, my intention, my heart and my disposition are all geared toward following His path, His plan, and His purpose for me. Just like when you read the psalmist, you can see how David hashed things out with God, but in the end, he knew it was about His will for his life and nothing else. It is about maintaining a state of mind where the heart is always open to the Holy Sprit helping us mature spiritually while learning to continually practice His presence as we put away all unchristian habits.

It turns out, after God talked to me about my ungodly relationship that corrupt my mind and spirit, He showed me the reason that I have been so overwhelmed lately, and why I had all the clutters that made me feel I was a prisoner in my own mind, is because in the past, I never dealt with the issue with Him. Instead I chose to use my ungodly friend to feel emptied out and I would come back to Him willing to continue the path. Then He said to me, the reason that you need a break even from your spiritual life with me is because you are not learning to put into practice to find your rest in me when your practical life become cumbersome with all the small things. 

While you have learned to rest in me for the big things, you have to do the same with the small ones as well. I broke down, I dumped the whole load that I was carrying, at His feet and while crying I was able to feel so emptied out, so light that I took a deep breath from deep down, then all of the sudden all clutters disappeared. Now I know what I have been doing wrong and I will be diligent to keep resting in Him for little things as well. But the truth is, I needed God to tell me that because I had no idea what the remedy was and why I felt the need to get away from Him sometimes.

Another thing that God showed me as well, is that unless I learned to rest in Him for little things instead of running to an ungodly friend, I will stunt my spiritual growth and in order to take me further I have to learn to get to that hump that keep me stumbling.   

How Do We Examine The Self?

Because I have been bedridden the past few days with fever, sore throat and sinus infection which I do not recall ever having it so bad. I had time to think about my life and where I went wrong in my Christian walk. I know I was heavy handed by God. In my Blog I mostly mentioned the good things that came out of my encounter with Him, and all the experiences. But I know if I was to talk about how specifically He led me there, it would be depressive to anyone reading.

I was growing slowly, but I was also drifting in this life mainly because of what I have been taught and because of what was around me. No one ever helped me understand how important it was to examine myself.  I mean by that examining yourself according to the Holy Spirit’s way not your own way. I have to say while they did not find it important to teach us this doctrine but we had the type of mentality where we check our spiritual pulse by checking how well we have the basic Christian behaviour down pat according to those “don’ts” of the Bible. If we could put a check mark for attending Church regularly, we were okay. There was also how much you get engaged in serving in the Church as well as doing evangelism. Another one was how often do we pray and donating the 10% that we ought to.

Well, I passed all these spiritual check marks with flying colors but they did not help me understand where I was hindering God’s work in me. They did not help me walk in the Spirit or live out God’s plan for my life. In these areas I was failing miserably and clueless like everyone in the Church.

But, over time, I learned that examining self goes so much deeper than that, way much deeper. When we examine self, it is more important to examine the depth of our obedience to His Word and our relationship with Him before we even bother asking ourselves the hard personal questions we do not want to touch. We have to make sure we know that we are growing steadily with Him so ask: are you growing spiritually? And if you do not know what it is, here is your answer. Some of us tend to think just because we have accumulated more head knowledge of the Bible, we can discuss more doctrines, we are growing spiritually but that is a big lie of the devil.  

You should also ask yourself questions like: are you aware of the improvement of your relationship with the Holy Spirit? How long has it been since you heard Him talking to your heart? How committed are you to this Christian life? Don’t answer that one just because you fulfill some obligation.  Your commitment should come from love and gratitude for what Christ had done for you. It should be because you have such a burning desire to know Him. You reach the height of your commitment to Him when you can say with everything that you are, take all of me and I will follow you wherever you lead.

You should know if you have been trying to use excuses not to go forward with Him? Are you taking His Word for granted? Are you taking Him for granted? How many times you pray during the day? How many times do you think of Him during the day? Are you living a life focused on Him? If not what are you focusing on? Are you sure you are walking in His will for your life? Don’t be so sure because of what you are doing seem so good in the eyes of others, is pleasing to Him. And don’t think because you are helping others you are probably living out His plan for you. These are just a few examples of the questions you should ask yourself if you are truly looking into learning to examine yourself properly. I am still asking myself those questions all the time, even now. They will never go out of style as long as you are living in this earthly form.

It makes sense, if people in my Church knew how important it was to examine yourself with the Holy Spirit leading they would not have been a Pharisee style type of Church. It is the role of a pastor to teach from the pews and to insist, and reinforce some doctrines that we cannot escape and will not escape no matter how much we want to.  These doctrines matters to God and we better have them down pat by the time we die. Such doctrines like Holiness, the salvation of the soul, surrender, the examination of self etc. I know if I had ever heard sermons from the pew of my Church, I would know how important they were. Since there was never a sermon on them, I assumed they were equally not as important in this Christian life. But, I will never stop saying this “we can only lead others as far as we have been with God for ourselves”

There are some doctrines in the Bible, you can never bluff your way through them and if you have not been there, your sermons sound empty and it   shows what you are doing is repeating what you read. A lot of people can see it’s just a head knowledge. Some go as far as advancing their own opinion from their carnal life, on the doctrine they know nothing of. But to those who possess the real McCoy they will always know it was just that –opinion of the natural mind. You failed to feed God’s sheep.

We ought to examine ourselves even if we start slowly and we are not good at it yet. But we have to keep the habit of going to God with an open heart and ask Him to not only teach us how to examine ourselves in His light but to bring us to a place where we can do it with a willingness to see the hard things we do not want to touch, change or see. I do not believe as Christians we should be caught up with so many self-help books like the unbelievers world. We do not need self help books to teach us how to examine the self. What we need is to learn to obey and consecrate ourselves to Him. Any self help book that does not promote consecration and obedience to God first, and foremost, misses the mark. Through total obedience and true devotion of the heart to Him, everything else falls into play.

What do you know? I found out, it was also the job of the Holy Spirit to teach us how to examine the self, so your relationship with Him is of the utmost importance. Seek the Kingdom of God first. 

Christian Progress - Part 8 Last Part

It is now 1:00 AM and I have to be up and running in about 4 hours and a half. I decided to put my blog out very early just so that I do not waste time.

As I am reading the questions John James is suggesting that we use to examine ourselves I am covered by a sense of sadness. Why you might say? Because this is the Christianity I have learned at His feet.

I am no better than anyone else, in fact my life is so lousy that I do not want to talk about it. Also, I am truly what you would call an unlearned, yet I have no idea why He chose to teach me in the way He taught me. I have no idea why He chose to reveal so much of Himself to me. I promise you that anyone of you who meets me in heaven, since nothing will be hidden, then you will know how much at one point I begged Him to stop revealing Himself to me because all I wanted was Him. I am telling you the truth, I actually begged Him to take this unlimited grace and pour it on someone that would be more useful to Him like my pastor. I prayed and begged because I felt those experiences would be wasted on me.

Why am I telling you all these things? Because I am trying the only way I can to make you understand how much so many of us misunderstand Christianity.  I can see the danger so many of us are in, at the same time I feel powerless because at the end of the day, the next step belongs to you. You would be wise to consider John's  questions, take them to heart. Take them to God. Don’t lie to yourself because God will be God and you would end up hurting yourself with your lies

When we go to God with our doubts and unbelief, it does not matter Satan knows them, if our hearts are open to God and we are truly seeking Him at any cost and by any roads, then Satan cannot hurt us with the information. The only time he has power to hurt you is when he knows you want God but you have your own agenda that you want Him to take into consideration and you are not willing to budge on them. Open up your heart and trust Him. Please do not make the wrong choice.

I love you all and I leave you with John’s last reading

                                                           John A James, 1853


                                ADDRESS TO THE READER
Reader, this is an unspeakably important chapter for you to ponder. You must not pass from it in haste—but linger, and muse longer and deeper. You must now take up the candle of the Lord, as I have said, and go down into the very depths of the soul, to search its hidden recesses. Nor should you trust to your own inspection and scrutiny. Like David, you should earnestly pray to God to search you, and reveal your real state to you. "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. 

Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life." He knew how prone we are to self-love and self-deception; how sin lies hidden in the folds of the heart's deceit, and therefore he begged the trial and scrutiny of eyes more piercing and less partial than him own. So must you. We are all liable to judge too favorably of our own case. Do, do, consider the fatal, the dreadful, the eternal consequences of a mistake on this subject.

Oh, the idea of imagining we are going on to heaven, when step by step we are advancing to hell! Is this possible? It is! And the very possibility should awaken our alarm. Is it probable? It is! And this should increase our alarm. Is it certain? It is! And this should raise still higher our anxiety. Is it common? It is! And this should carry our solicitude to the highest pitch. What did Christ say on this matter? Read with awe and trembling. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 

Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'" Matthew 7:21-23. Read, I say, this passage in which our Lord with his own hand, sounds the alarm through the whole church. Ought you not to examine? Is not there need of it? Is it not all but madness to go on without it? Mistake! What in such a matter as salvation? Mistake! What in a matter in which an error will require, as I have often said, an eternity to understand, and an eternity to deplore it!

Are you quite sure this is not your case? Take up the subject, then, and put the following questions to your soul.

Am tolerably sure that I am truly converted to God? Am tolerably sure that I am a real Christian?

If I am a true Christian, am I really an advancing one—or am I mistaking a declining state for an advancing one?

Am I mistaking a lengthened time of profession—for a genuine growth in grace?
Am I putting an increase of knowledge, and of ability to talk about religion—in place of an increase of holiness?

Does it satisfy me to grow in knowledge and lamentation of my corruptions—without mortifying them?

Am I mistaking sectarianism—for true piety? Am I mistaking attachment to some preacher—with love to the truth? Am I mistaking zeal for some favorite doctrine—with real love for the gospel?

Is my mortification of sin confined to some one corruption, which interest, ease, or reputation may require me to surrender; or is it directed against all sin?
Is my religion a mere excitement of the emotions, and my growth only a greater excitability; or is my will more and more determined for God, my conscience more tender, and my life more holy?

Inquire, I beseech you, into these things. Be determined, by God's grace, to know the real state of your soul, and to be under no mistake. Be this your prayer, "O God of truth, you who search the hearts and examine the thoughts of the children of men, you know I would not for ten thousand worlds be deceived about my spiritual state. 

You know me through and through. Make known to me what I really am in your sight. Painful as it would be to find out that I have been deceiving myself, this would be infinitely better than for me to go on in error until the mistake is past being rectified. I want to know my real state. Even if I am a Christian, and yet mistaking declension for progress, I wish to know this also. Let my spiritual insight be clear, my self-acquaintance be accurate. Do not allow me to deceive myself—as regards my spiritual progress or decline.

What Kind Of Christian Are You?

This is an awesome piece from Finney. It leads you to a strong examination of who you really are in Christ.

Part I. TRUE SAINTS"Who is on the Lord's side?" - Exodus 32:26   The question was addressed by Moses to the professed people of God, immediately after their great departure from God while Moses was on the Mount, when they went and worshiped a golden calf which had been cast for them by Aaron.  After expostulating with the guilty nation, he called out, "Who is on the Lord's side?" It is not my intention to dwell on the history of this case particularity, but to come at once to the main purpose I have in view, which is to show that there are
 THREE CLASSES OF PROFESSING CHRISTIANSI. The true friends of God and man.

II. Those who are motivated by hope and fear, or in other words by self-love, or by selfishness.

III. Those who are motivated by public opinion. These three classes may be known by observing the characteristics which show what is the leading purpose in their religion.  It need not be proved that persons may set out in religion from very different motives, some from real love to religion, and some from other motives.  The differences may be arranged in these three classes, and by observing the development of their real purpose in becoming religious, you learn their characters.  They all profess to be servants of God, and yet by observing the lives of many it becomes manifest that, instead of their being God's servants, they are only trying to make God their servant.  Their leading aim and object is to secure their own salvation, or some other advantage for them-selves, through the medium of the favor of God.  They are seeking to make God their friend, that they may make use of Him to serve their own ends. 

There Is A Class Of Professed Christians Who Are The True Friends Of God. 

 If you observe those things which develop the true purpose and aim of their religion, you will see it to be such.  They are truly and sincerely benevolent. 

1.  They will make it manifest that this is their character by their carefulness in avoiding sin. 
 They will show that they hate it in themselves, and that they hate it in others.  They will not justify it in themselves, and they will not justify it in others.  They will not seek to cover up or to excuse their own sins, neither will they try to cover up or to excuse the sins of others. In short they aim at perfect holiness.  This course of conduct makes it evident that they are the true friends of God. I do not mean to say that every true friend of God is perfect, no more than I would say that every truly affectionate and obedient child is perfect, or never fails in duty to his parent. But, if he is an affectionate and obedient child, his aim is to obey always, and if be fails in any respect, he by no means justifies it, or pleads for it, or aims to cover it up, but soon as he comes to think of the matter, is dissatisfied with himself, and condemns his conduct. 

But you never see them finding fault with God.  You never hear them excusing themselves and throwing off the blame upon their Maker, by telling of their inability to obey God, or speaking as if God had required impossibilities of his creatures.  They always speak as if they felt that what God has required is right and reasonable, and themselves only to blame for their disobedience. 

2.  They manifest a deep abhorrence of the sins of other people. 
 They do not cover up the sins of others, or plead for them and excuse them, or smooth them over by "perhaps this," or "perhaps that." You never hear them apologizing for sin.  They know its horrible nature, and abhor it always. 

3.  Another thing in which this spirit manifests itself, is zeal for the honor and glory of God. 
 They show the same ardor to promote God's honor and interest that the true patriot does to promote the honor and interest of his country.  If he greatly loves his country, its government, and its interest, he sets his heart upon promoting its advancement and benefit.  He is never so happy as when he is doing something for the honor and advancement of his country. 

There are multitudes of professing Christians, and even ministers, who are very zealous to defend their own character and their own honor.  But this one class feel more engaged, and their hearts beat higher, when defending or advancing God's honor.  These are the friends of God and man.

 4.  They show that they sympathize with God in his feelings towards man.  
 They have the same kind of friendship for souls that God feels.  I do not mean that they feel in the same degree, but that they have the same kind of feelings.  There is such a thing as loving the souls of men and hating their conduct too.  This is a peculiar kind of sympathy which the real child of God feels, and manifests towards sinners.  It is a mingled feeling of abhorrence and compassion, of indignation against his sins, and pity for his person.  It is possible to feel this deep abhorrence of sin mingled with deep compassion for souls capable of such endless happiness. and yet bound to eternal misery. 

I will explain myself.  There are two kinds of love: one is the love of benevolence.  This has no respect to the character of the person loved, but merely views the individual as exposed to suffering and misery.  This God feels towards all men.  The other kind includes esteem or approval of character.  God feels this only towards the righteous.  He never feels this love towards sinners.  He infinitely abhors them.  He has an infinitely strong exercise of compassion and abhorrence at the same time.  Christians have the same feelings, only not in the same degree, but they have them at the same time.  Did you never see this?  Did you never see a parent yearning with compassion over a child, and reprove him with tears, and yet with a pungency that would make the little offender quail under his rebuke.  Jesus Christ often manifested strongly these two emotions.  He wept over Jerusalem, and yet he tells the reason in a manner that shows his burning indignation against their conduct.  "O Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee!" Ah, what a full view he had of their wickedness, at the moment that he wept with compassion for the doom that hung over them. 

I wish you to remember this point - that the true friend of God and man never takes the sinner's part, because he never acts through mere compassion.  And, at the same time, he is never seen to denounce the sinner, without at the same time manifesting compassion for his soul and a strong desire to save him from death. 

5.  It is a prominent object with such Christians, in all their relationships with men, to make them friends of God. 
 Whether they converse, or pray, or attend to the duties of life, it is their prominent purpose to recommend religion and to lead everybody to glorify God.  A true and affectionate child wishes everybody to love and respect his father.  And if any one is at enmity, it is his constant aim and effort to bring him to reconciliation.  The same you would expect from a true friend of God, as a leading feature of his character, that he would make it a prominent purpose of his life to reconcile sinners to God. 

Now, mark me!  If this is not the leading feature of your character, if it is not the absorbing topic of thought and effort to reconcile men to God, you have not the root of the matter in you. Whatever appearance of religion you may have, you lack the leading and fundamental characteristic of true piety. You lack the leading feature of the character and aims of Jesus Christ, and of his apostles and prophets.  Now let me ask you, what is the leading object of your life, as it appears in your daily walk?  Is it to bring all God's enemies to submit to him?  If not, away with your pretensions to religion.  Whatever else you may have, you have not the true love of God in you. 

 6.  Where there are Persons of this class, you will see them scrupulously avoid everything that in their estimation is calculated to defeat their great end. 
 They always wish to avoid everything calculated to prevent the salvation of souls, everything calculated to divert attention or in any way to hinder the conversion of souls.  It is not the natural question with them, when anything is proposed which is doubtful, to ask, "Is this something which God expressly forbids?" The first question that naturally suggests itself to their minds is, "What will be the bearing of this upon religion?  Will it have a tendency to prevent the conversion of sinners and to hinder the progress of revivals?" If so, they do not need the thunders of Sinai ringing in their ears, to forbid their doing it.  If they see it contrary to the spirit of holiness, and contrary to the main object they have in view, that is enough.  They avoid whatever they see would hinder a revival, as a matter of course, just as a merchant would avoid anything that had a tendency to impair his credit, and defeat his object of making money by his business. 

Suppose a merchant was about to do something that you knew would injuriously affect his credit, and you go to him in the spirit of friendship and advise him not to do it. Would he turn round and say, "Show me the passage in the Bible where God has prohibited this?" No. He would not ask you to show him anything more than this, that it is inconsistent with his main objective. 

 Mark this, all of you: A person who is strongly desirous of the conversion of sinners does not need an express prohibition to prevent his doing that which he sees is calculated to prevent this.  There is no danger of his doing that which will defeat the very object of his life. 

 7. This class of professing Christians are always distressed unless they see the work of converting sinners going on. 
 They call it a lamentable state of things in the church, if no sinners are converted.  No matter what else is true, no matter how rich the congregation grows, nor popular their minister, nor how many come to hear him, their panting hearts are uneasy unless they see the work of conversion actually going on.  They see that all the rest is nothing without this - yea, that even the means of grace are doing more hurt than good, unless sinners are converted. 

Such professors as these are a great trouble to those who are religious from other motives, and who therefore wish to keep all quiet, and have everything go on regularly in the "good old way." They are often called "uneasy spirits in the church." And mark it! if a church has a few such spirits in it, the minister will be made uneasy unless his preaching is such as to convert sinners.  In fact, their hearts are grieved and their souls in agony because sinners are not converted and souls are pressing down to hell. 

 8.  You will see them when manifesting a spirit of prayer, praying not for themselves but for sinners. 
 If you know the habitual tenor of people's prayers, it will show which way the tide of their feelings sets. If a man is motivated in religion mainly by a desire to save himself, you will hear praying chiefly for himself - that he may have his sins pardoned and "enjoy" much of the Spirit of God, and the like.  But if he is truly the friend of God and man, you will find that the burden of his prayers is for the glory of God in the salvation of sinners; and he is never so copious and powerful in prayer as when he gets upon his favorite topic - the conversion of sinners.   Go into the prayer meeting where such Christians pray, and instead of seeing them all shut up in the nut of their own interests, spending their whole prayer on themselves, and just closing with a flourish about the kingdom of Christ, you will hear them pouring out their souls in prayer for the salvation of sinners.  I believe there have been cases of such Christians who were so much absorbed by their desires for the salvation of sinners, that for weeks together they did not even pray for their own salvation.  If they pray for themselves at all, it is that they may be clothed with the Spirit of God, so that they can go out and be mighty through God in pulling souls out of the fire. 

If you know nothing about the spirit of prayer for sinners, you are not the true friend of God and man.  What! no heart to feel when sinners are going to hell by your side!  No sympathy with the Son of God, who gave his life to save sinners!  Away with all such professions of religion.  "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." 

 9.  These persons do not want to ask what are the things they are "required" to do for the conversion of sinners. 
 When anything is presented to them that promises success in converting sinners, they do not wait to be commanded to do it, on pains and penalties if they do not.  They only want the evidence that it is calculated to advance the object on which their hearts are set, and they will engage in it with all their soul.  The question is not with them all the while, "What am I expressly commanded to do?" but, "In what way can I do most for the salvation of souls, and the conversion of the world to God?" 

 10.  Another characteristic of such Christians is a disposition to deny themselves to do good to others. 
God has established throughout all the universe the principle of GIVING.  Even in the natural world, the rivers, the ocean, the clouds, all give.  It is so throughout the whole kingdom of nature and of grace.  This principle is everywhere recognized.  This is the very spirit of Christ.  He sought not to please himself, but to do good to others.  He found his highest happiness in denying himself to do good to others.  So it is with this class of persons - they are ever ready to deny themselves of enjoyments and comforts, and even of necessities, when by so doing they can do more good to others. 

 11.  They are grieved if they see reason to think their minister compromises, or does not reprove the church pointedly and faithfully for their sins. 
 The other classes of professors are willing to be rocked to sleep, and willing their minister should preach smooth, flowery, and eloquent sermons, and flattering sermons, with no point and no power.  But these are not satisfied unless he preaches powerfully and pointedly, and boldly, and rebukes and entreats, with all long-suffering and doctrine. (2 Tim. 4:2) 
 
 12.  This class of persons will always stand by a faithful minister, who preaches the truth boldly and pointedly. 
 No matter if the truth he preaches hits them, they like it, and say, "Let the righteous smite me, and it shall be an excellent oil." (Ps. 141:5)    When the truth is poured forth with power, their souls are fed, and grow strong in grace.  They can pray for such a minister.  They can weep in their closet, and pour out their souls in prayer for him, that he may have the Spirit of God always with him.  While others scold and cavil at him and talk about his being extreme, and all that, you will find Christians of this sort will stand by him, yea, and would go to the stake with him for the testimony of Jesus.  And this they do for the best of all reasons - such preaching falls in with the great design for which these Christians live. 

 13.  You will always find this class of persons speaking in terms of dissatisfaction with themselves, that they do no more for the conversion of sinners. 
 However much they may really "do" for this object, it seems that the more they do, the more they long to do.  They are never satisfied.  Instead of being satisfied with the present degree of their success, there is no end of their longing for the conversion of sinners.  I recollect a good man, who used to pray till he was exhausted with praying for individuals, and for places, and for the world's conversion.  Once when he was quite exhausted with praying, he exclaimed "Oh! my longing, aching heart!  There is no such thing as satisfying my unutterable desires for the conversion of sinners.  My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath." That man, though he had been useful beyond almost any other man of his age, yet he saw so much to do, and he so longed to see the work go forward and sinners saved, that his mortal frame could not sustain it. "I find," said he, one day, "that I am dying for want of strength to do more to save the souls of men.  Oh, how much I want strength, that I may save souls." 

14.  If you wish to influence this class of persons, you must make use of motives drawn from their great and leading object. 
 If you wish to move them, you must hold up the situation of sinners, and show how they dishonor God, and you will find this will move their souls and set them on fire sooner than any appeal to their hopes and fears.  Show them how they can convert sinners, and their longing hearts travail for souls, until they see them converted, and Christ formed in them. (Col. 1:27) 

I could mention many other characteristics which belong to this class of professing Christians - the true friends of God and man.  Now, do you belong to this class, or not? 

I have mentioned certain great fundamental facts which indicate the true character of individuals, by showing what is their main purpose and object in life.  You can tell whether this is your character.  When I come to the other part of the subject, I shall endeavor to describe those classes of professing Christians, whose religious zeal, prayers, and efforts, have another purpose. 

And now, I ask you before God, have you these characteristics of a child of God?  Do you know they belong to you?  Can you say, "O Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee, and that these are the features of my character!"

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