The Concentration of Personal Sin

When I come into the presence of God, I do not realize that I am a sinner in an indefinite sence, but I suddenly realize and focus attention is directed toward the concentration of a sin in a particular areaof my life. A person will easily say "Oh yes, I know I am a sinner," but when he comes into the presence of God he cannot get away with such a broad and indefinite statement.

Our conviction is focused on our specific sin, and we realize, as Isaiah did, what we really are. This is always the sign that a person is in the presence of God. There is never and vague sense of sin, but a focusing on the concentration of sin in some specific, personal area of life. God begins by convicting us of the very thing to which His Spirit has directed our mind's attention. If we will surrender, submitting ti His conviction of that particular sin, He will lead us down to where He can reveal the vast underlying nature of sin. That is the way God always deals with us when we are consciously aware of His presence.

The experience of our attention being directed to our concetration of personal sin is true in everyone's life, from the greatest of saints to the worst of sinners. When a person first begins climbing the ladder of experience, he might say, "I don't know where I've gone wrong," but the Spirit of God will point out some definite and specific thing to him. The effect of Isaiah's vision of the holiness of the Lord was the directing of his attention to the fact that he was "a man of unclean lips." "He touched my mouth with it, and said: ' Behold, this has touched your lips: your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged' "The cleansing fire had to be applied where the sin had been concentrated.


>>> Isaiah 6:5 <<<
Oswald Chambers