Pray For God To Open Your Eyes Because The Devil Is Working

now i'd like to draw your attention to colossians chapter 3 verse 5 and 6 where the word of god reads put to death therefore what is earthly in you sexual immorality impurity passion evil desire and covetousness which is idolatry on account of these the wrath of god is coming did you get that verse 6 said on account of these the wrath of god is coming to put it plainly stop sinning don't be given to habitual sin leave your body's sensual and self-centered desires depart from sin don't be greedy because greed is a form of idolatry as it replaces your devotion to the lord the bottom line here is that when you live in these vices you ignite the anger of god these are acts of disobedience and here's a piece of advice disobedience comes with a heavy price jonah disobeyed god and he was swallowed by a large fish lot's wife disobeyed god and she was turned into a pillar of salt the children of israel disobeyed god and ended up wandering in the desert for 40 years when you choose to act in disobedience you ignite the anger of god so think twice before you act think twice before you reject the instruction of the lord once again the bible in colossians chapter 3 verse 5 and 6 says put to death therefore what is earthly in you and then it lists the following number one sexual immorality number two impurity then passion then evil desire and then covetousness which is greed can any of these things be found in your life are you living in a cycle of any of these sins if so repent now to be clear sexual immorality is anything from pre-marital sex adultery pornography anything that is outside the parameters designed by god anything outside of a marriage covenant between a husband and a wife is sexual immorality can this be found in your life because if it can then you are in direct disobedience to the lord secondly when the bible mentions impurities i believe this can be anything and everything unholy from unholy thoughts or unholy actions like dabbling in dark spiritual things like witchcraft or fortune telling can any of this be found in your life because if it can then you are in direct disobedience to the lord the bible says that evil passions and desires and greed are among those things which we should put to death in our lives as children of god we're faced with choices on a daily basis do you choose to put to death these desires of the flesh and uphold a godly standard or not we have to make the choice whether to maintain holiness or not and the thing is in today's world the devil has infiltrated and embedded himself into so many things in society he's blended right into such an extent that people no longer see the sin in what many may consider to be normal people no longer see the parading of sexual immorality in movies and music today people no longer see the sin and how the world encourages and fosters the spirit of pride and the pursuit of things of money and power sin has become accepted as the norm it doesn't even shock us anymore to see sexual immorality on screen or to hear music that blasphemes the devil has managed to embed himself and blend into society he's normalized the things that lead us to sin and the thing is the devil cunningly presents these things before our eyes so frequently that it almost desensitizes us it becomes normal to see sexual immorality on the screen and on social media it's become normal to pursue money and material things however what is normal to the world tends to go hand in hand with what is sin the amplified translation of romans 12 verse 2 gives a detailed account of what we need as children of god the bible says and do not be conformed to this world any longer with its superficial values and customs but be transformed and progressively changed as you mature spiritually by the renewing of your mind focusing on godly values and ethical attitudes so that you may prove for yourselves what the will of god is that which is good and acceptable and perfect in his plan and purpose for you in other words stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you don't allow this world to mold you in its own image the key for us as believers is that we are to be inwardly transformed by the holy spirit and it's when you allow the holy spirit to transform you to transform your mind and how you think it's only then that you will discern god's will the key is the holy spirit the holy spirit will help you to eliminate disobedience it's the holy spirit who will bring a total reformation of how you think and once this happens once you allow the holy ghost to move within you righteousness will be what you pursue jesus christ is who you will desire and the kingdom of god is what you'll become passionate about now finally i'd like to read ezekiel 36 verse 26 to 27 which says i will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you i will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh i will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them our hearts can so often be filled with many many things many passions many desires many goals and plans but these things pale in comparison to what the lord has for us too often i've seen people lay the blame for their failures on the devil but the rude issue was that they never truly submitted to the holy ghost so they were left exposed to the enemy too many people put the blame on their circumstances their past or even on other people but if you really get to the bottom line their issue is a heart issue their heart isn't willing to submit their heart isn't willing to repent and turn away from sin and so today i encourage you to pray for god to renew your heart pray that he would give you a new heart that burns brightly for him [Music] there's two things i want to discuss about prayer and these two things are it's not about how you feel it's about what you need and the second thing is prayer is not a fire exit it's not the red ejection button that can bail you out of anything now before i dive into these points let me tell you that we all pray we all pray in one form or another the issue when it comes to prayer is do we pray during the days where we don't feel like it do we pray during the time when it feels rough when it's hard that's the issue with prayer for most of us because if you really think about it there is something that will happen sooner or later that will force you to pray a sinner will pray when life gets hard enough a liar a thief a sexually immoral person they will all pray but the reason why more often than not they don't get results is because they view prayer as a fire exit suitable for emergency use only i mean think of it when you walk in a building none of us are really concerned about the fire exits that is until an emergency and quite often people view prayer in the same way but here's what you should know prayer is not about how you're feeling prayer is not about what you're feeling prayer is about what you