Examining your own heart Hosea 12:10
Break up the fallow ground;
Breaking- humble yourself before the Lord.
Confess that your heart has become hard, fallow, and shallow.
Acknowledge it is your own responsibility to break up the fallow ground.
Ask for his help and guidance in the breaking – the Holy Spirit will assist us.
Confess all known sin-all the usual suspects- found in the Ten Commandments
Include unforgiveness, bitterness, grudges, and resentment- then forsake them.
Examine your heart...
Examine your heart for unbelief.
Examine your heart for prayerlessness.
A sinning man stops praying, a praying man stops sinning [1].
Examine your heart for the lost.
Examine the priorities of your heart.
Is your first priority in the material world?
Is your first priority in human relationships?
Is your first real priority to get money, power, or possessions?
Is your heart, seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness knowing that all these things shall be added unto you?
What are you living for? Who are you living for?
Next, deal also with the questionable things in your life. It might not be outright sin, but does it glorify God?
Examine your friendships and associations –do they please God?
Develop convictions to protect yourself from falling into sin.
Convictions help integrate our hearts (inward) with our actions (outward)
Job made a covenant with his eyes [2]......
For it is time to seek the Lord;
Seeking – the time to seek God is now –the time to seek his face is now- the time to seek his face in faith is now- believing he wants you to find him now.
It is God’s will for you to find him- when you seek him with all your heart.
Til he comes and rains righteousness on you, Persisting- how long O Lord?
Persist until he comes – he will certainly come if we persist.
If we focus on the persisting –He will focus on his coming-
Yes, the very presence of the living God will come down on you- History testifies to this in the Lewis revival.
Prepare ye the way of the Lord in your own heart- remove every obstacle – and bring the presence of the living God in a new way into your heart.
God wants to do a new thing in your heart today.
Raining-Until the Spirit is poured on us from on high [3]
And the wilderness becomes a fruitful field.
And the fruitful field is counted as a forest.
God wants your heart to be an orchard.
God promised to pour out his Spirit on the dry and thirsty ground[4]
He promised that the crocus and the rose would bloom in the desert place.
Imagine fragrant flowers and sweet fruit trees in planted in the soil of your heart.
God desires to breathe in your fragrance.
God desires to taste the sweet fruit of your character.
Jeremiah says, ‘break up your fallow ground and do not sow amongst thorns.’
Conclusion
The reason we do not have revival is that we are willing to live without it. [5]
The alternative to revival is progressive decline into barrenness.
Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the LORD, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.
Let us bring the plough of God’s word into the fallow grounds of our hearts today asking God to empower the plough by his Holy Spirit and that he shows us exactly what needs to be removed.
Are you willing to break the fallow ground in your heart? are you willing to be made willing?
God is willing and God is able to help each one of us break up our own fallow ground.
Amen
Prayer
[1] Leonard Ravenhill
[3] Isaiah 32 15
[4] Isaiah 44 3-4
[5] Leonard Ravenhill