You may not necessarily be backslidden but you, like many of us, go to the wrong source. We listen to the wrong people and try to fix ourselves. You try and fix yourself by running away from God rather than to God. It's your own effort to feel good about yourself. Some people shop. Some people use a credit card. Some people buy a new car. Some people trade the old husband in for a new husband. We think we can fix the problem by changing the people we are surround in our lives. The problem is not someone else, the problem is your heart. I can recall problems in my life that I tried to fix and then one day God said to me, "how long are you going to run from me."
We get caught up in what's going on around us. It's very easy to make idols of the things in our life. I don't think it has to do with sin but it can be, I think it has to do with not being emotionally connected to God, and being hurt in such a way your discouraged and you try to find relief from the pain other than God. We all try that until we realize it doesn't work. God loves you just where you are. The pain that you have is the pain that effects everyone of us, rejection, low self-esteem, lack of self-worth, looking for someone to validate you. If your prideful and you feel as though you can't come to God because you don't want to admit, don't want to confess, or you've been there too many times and you say God I can't do it one more time, I can't keep coming to you. Well maybe that's the lesson God wants to teach you. You've got to keep coming to Him. In the Bible there is a widow who kept going to the king asking for her property all of the sudden he said to his servant I'm not afraid of this woman, and I don't really care or respect her, but she's wearing me down. Give her whatever she wants. If that evil king is willing to do that for the widow to get the problem solved, how much more is God willing to do for us when He really loves us.
Acts 9:1-25
As a believer you are changed when you are born again and receive a new nature. God changes your heart and gives you a new heart. A Damascus Road is experiencing God in a way that changes your destiny. It transforms your life. Saul killed and persecuted Christians. He tried to convince men and women to denounce Jesus. What's interesting to me the Middle East is doing the same thing today. Christians are dying in the Middle East for their faith. Do you have enough evidence in your life to convict you as a believer in Jesus Christ?
Paul was on the road to Damascus to destroy the church of Jesus Christ. On the other hand Christians were praying for his salvation. They were praying for Jesus to intercede and change this man's life. Now on this road to Damascus, Paul has this experience that totally changes his life. Have you had an experience with God that has totally changed your life? From an old road to a new road. From an old relationship to a new relationship. From a person that use to be a sinner and is now serving God. Have you had that experience? If you haven't then you need to get to the point were you need the Savior to change you and begin to give you His presence, His life, and His power to work in your life.
Here's the interesting thing that I want you to know, Acts 9:4 "why are you persecuting me?" Jesus was not being persecuted but His church was. We are the property of God, and when we hurt one another we are actually persecuting Jesus. We are the bride of Christ, it's a symbol of a union, of being one, of being in a committed relationship. It's being born in His Spirit and washed in His blood and having your name written in the Lambs book of Life. As believers you and I can experience this relationship with God in such a way that He values us as part of Himself.
Aren't you glad He doesn't abandon us? Aren't you glad that no matter what you are going through in life, you may feel alone, you may feel desperate, you may feel hurt, you may feel heartache, but you know that God is going to fight for you. There's times you can't fight the battles, it takes the Lord to fight the battle for you.
What needs to change for a Damascus road experience? 1. Jesus has to become Lord of your life. He wants to be more than your Savior. Lord of your life means He's your owner and master. He controls your life. He leads your life. He tells you what to do. You submit to Him. You surrender to Him. You yield to Him. You give up all rights in managing your life the way you want to. Your not free to pick and choose what you want to do. It's not about pleasing you anymore, it's about pleasing Jesus and glorifying Him. If we could get to that point where we are glorifying God, God could do so much in the church. But as long as we are concerned about getting the glory then giving the glory we will never experience the transformation of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I'm called to serve His will. I'm called to get involved in His church, to be committed to His church. I'm called to serve where I am.
2. It's no longer what you want it's what God wants.
3. You learn to pray for God's will to be done in your life.
Acts 9:6 Now Paul realizes that Jesus Christ is Lord. Then he had to get to a place were he was broken, so God could use him. How do you get to a point were God uses you? You have to be totally surrendered. You no longer trust yourself. You no longer rely upon yourself. You don't rely upon your knowledge. You rely totally on God and you wait on Him and seek Him with all your heart. If you don't you will always struggle to surrender to God.
If we aren't broken then we can't be used. Have you ever noticed when your broken God comes in? But when you are indifferent, prideful, self-centered, and wanting your own desires God is far from you. You need a transformation of your life.
Hebrews 10:16
God's going to pour in you a change and transformation from that sin nature that we are born with. God's got to give you a heart transplant. You won't be able to do what you use to do. You are wired for God. Little things being to convict you. No matter what I've got to seek God to forgive me because something inside of me won't leave me alone until I submit to God. In order to get a new heart you've got to be able to give up your old one. You can't hold on to your heart, you can't hold on to your own ways, you can't hold on to your old sin. If you want God to give you a new heart you've got to give Him your old one and say here is my heart take it from me. Jesus is your life and now He is your heart. He causes your heart to beat. Your heart has His heart and what you feel you feel from Him. Having a Damascus road is having a heart transplant. Being changed from the inside out. It changes your belief system. When you belief system changes your behavior changes.
Paul says Lord and he becomes blind, he is now broken. All of the sudden Ananias goes and prays for Paul and the scales of blindness come off of his eyes. For the first time in his life he can see God in a different way. The scales of unbelief, the scales of darkness, the scales that limit God are off. He is baptized in the Holy Spirit. He makes you alive. He changes you. He gives you a new hunger, a new desire in you. He breaks the addictions and the bondage, the habits, the lust, whatever it is that has you bound, He frees you from it. Your totally new. You once hated the Bible now you can't stop reading it. You hated going to church, now you can't stop going to church. You don't adapt to the world because that's not who you are anymore.
Your view of God becomes larger. Your faith in God becomes your passion. Your prayer life is developed as you trust and surrender to God. You begin to expect His priorities for your life.
4. You give your life to God as a sacrifice.
5. You witness to others and you share your faith with them.
6. Your Expectancy changes when you experience God.
Philippians 1:20-21
What is expectancy? It's the ability to believe God and expect Him to do the miraculous. It's the ability to believe God in spite of your circumstances. When you have a Damascus road experience it changes you from the inside out. You are no longer the same person. God becomes real to you. You have a stronger faith. Miracles begin to happen. That's how Paul was able to raise a young man from the dead, cast out demons, and shake off the bite from a venomous snake. Your faith rises up. The miracle power of God is something you hold on too. The glory of God is something you receive.
You started off in elementary school, then junior high, then high school, and then college. Each level demanded more of you. When you surrender to God he begins to help you grow. He begins to tap into the potential that He has put in you and begins to flow supernaturally in your life and develop that potential, and that gifting. You can't do it on your own. You have to have the supernatural power of God. God desires to give you more. Jesus is the Healer. He gives you life, He gives you love, He gives you hope, He gives you joy, and He gives you peace. He blesses your life but you have to expect more. You have to expect the blessing and stand on His promises.
Henry Matthews said, "There is exhaustible fullness of grace and mercy in which God through the prayers of His saints can never make God's grace run dry. For whatever you ask, whatever you think, God is still able to do more abundantly, more exceedingly, more than you ever understand. For He said open your mouth wide for I will fill it. No matter how big it is God is bigger." Don't limit God in what He can do.
-Pastor Russell Duley
