DEVOTIONAL
My brothers and sisters, if you are in Christ you are a new creation, the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. You have now become the temple of the living God and your life is no longer yours; you belong to Christ and have been purchased with His blood. The Holy Spirit, who has been poured out within your heart, has sealed your fate. You are now no longer a slave to sin, but a slave to righteousness. You have been transferred into the kingdom of Jesus Christ. This was a supernatural rebirth that you could not attain or achieve in and of yourself. The Scriptures tell us, “Just as the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” For though the body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness, for the Spirit who raised Christ Jesus from the dead also gives life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. As the Puritan Thomas Watson said, “This is the mystical union between Christ and the believer. For this reason alone you will not be able to tolerate sin, nor continue in the habitual practice of it.”
As the Apostle Paul was making his way through Macedonia, planting churches and standing for the truth of Christ, God led him to Athens. While he was in Athens waiting for his companions, the scriptures tell us, “his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols.” So he began to reason with the people in the synagogues and in the marketplace every day concerning the truth of Christ. Now Athens was a city that was full of idolatry, drunkenness, homosexuality, infidelity, the worship of pagan gods, and all other desires that had been corrupted by sin. Paul was not hating nor was he discriminating against anyone individually when he began to declare the truth of God’s word. As a matter of fact, he risked his own life for the sake of those who had been tyrannized by sin, for he knew those who were given over to the practice and rule of sin would not inherit the kingdom of God. No, Paul could not help himself, for the truth of God burned inside of him like a fire and he could not be silent even if it cost him his life. Therefore he preached Christ and him crucified, and many turned from their sins and turned to God for forgiveness.
Today Christian, I ask you to examine your life. Can you truly say as Paul, that your spirit is provoked within as you see what is happening in our culture? Are you moved inwardly with great passion longing the see Christ exalted in the lives of those you are lost? You must understand that true revival is not merely bringing an outside preacher into the community, but when the members of the church become broken before God and moved with holy prayer, crying as Paul, “I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” May God burden our hearts in such a way that we cannot be idle about Kingdom work any longer.