Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Acts 3:19

The difference between conviction and condemnation is that conviction moves you forward and condemnation gets you stuck and moving backward. While the devil condemns, God will convict us for our own good—to get us prepared for the next steps. “He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Hebrews 12:10b-11). Before we can reach nations and reach hearts, we need to deal with our own hearts before the Lord.

Sow with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord until He comes to rain righteousness on you. Hosea 10:12

Breaking up the fallow ground means that we are willing to change. Live in an attitude of preparation—get ready for what’s about to happen. God is getting ready to rain righteousness, create breakthrough, bring equipment and provision, open up new doors, and place broken people in your life that you will be able to help.

Conviction reveals God is about ready to do something of an increased level in you. You have the anointing and capacity to change people’s lives by a more exponential level than you can imagine. Let this inspire you to receive correction for the next step. “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).

Let’s prepare!
Pastor Jeff Perry
St. Louis Family Church®

Copyright © 2009 St. Louis Family Church. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reprinted or distributed in any form without prior written permission of St. Louis Family Church. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.

Sow with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord until He comes to rain righteousness on you. Hosea 10:12

Preparation precedes opportunity (Matthew 3:3). God is telling us to get our hearts ready for what is up ahead. We need to remove every obstacle in our path in preparation for a greater level of spiritual growth.

So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way . . . in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Ephesians 4:17-24

Ask God to help you identify anything that is dulling your spiritual appetite, and then humble your heart and ask Him to help you remove it. “And it will be said, ‘Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstacle out of the way of My people’” (Isaiah 57:14). Step up and prepare for what God has called you to do. This generation needs a touch from God and we must be ready to step through the door and reach a hurting world.

Get Ready!
Pastor Jeff Perry
St. Louis Family Church®

Copyright © 2009 St. Louis Family Church. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reprinted or distributed in any form without prior written permission of St. Louis Family Church. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.