Everything that we do that’s carnal has its basis in the love of self.  And I’m talking about not just our human, earthly existence.  When I talk about carnal, I’m talking about something that we come to a crossroad, if you please, and we’re making a decision whether to fulfill the will of God, the purpose of God, all of these commandments that we’ve been talking about.  And by the way, those Scriptures that we’ve been quoting are commandments.  Amen?  So, is it sin not to pray?  Yes.  Now, the one thing I’ve noticed that when we commit that sin, the sin of choosing self-will or self-pleasures, caught up in playing with the world or being seduced by the world and its ambitions, etc., the one thing I’ve found out about true believers is this: that we are almost instantaneously convicted when we make that wrong choice.  And that conviction makes us then what?  Pray.  For if any man confesses his sin, He’s faithful and just to forgive him and cleanse him from all unrighteousness.

Many of us don’t like to admit that we, as carnal Christians, sin.  “That’s not a sin, that’s a shortcoming.  I’m the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ.”  Yes, you are, and you just sinned.  Now, repent; amen?  And let’s take up this Word again, and in faith, as we’ve shared, declare what God has declared.  So, I immediately find myself going into prayer.  What is it that I pray at that time?  “Father, forgive me for loving myself more than You.  Deliver me from this lust of the flesh.  For You’ve declared, and I believe, that sin has no dominion over me.  This is not who I am.  That that I just did is not the redeemed man, it’s sin that’s within me.  I hate it, Father!  And I ask You, now, to infuse me with grace and with faith and to know, again, Your mercy.”  Hallelujah!  And here we go back to war in the heavenlies.  Back to taking up the Word of God and proclaiming the will of God.

Listen, we have a high priest.  His name is Jesus.  So, hold fast your profession.  What are we professing?  We’re professing what He accomplished in His redemptive work.  We’re professing that we have a right to be there in the presence of God.  We’re professing that anything we ask according to His will, He does it, praise God!  He hears us.  “And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, then we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him” (1 John 5:15).  Amen?  Are you asking His will?  Are you seeking His will?  What do I pray for?  Well, one thing we know to pray for: this is the will of God, your sanctification.  Amen?  So, we begin to pray.  Pray, declarations.  You see, petitioning is not all there is to prayer.  We make declarative statements of the will of God, of who we are.  So, we begin to just praise God and declare His promises, 1 Corinthians 1:30, Jesus Who has been made unto us sanctification.  Hallelujah!

But is it habitual to us? Are we constantly making these kinds of declarations about ourselves?  That’s how we walk in victory.  We shouldn’t be playing defense or catching up.  We should be declaring what God has done constantly in our lives, and that then becomes the vision of who we are in our own eyes.  Most of us, here, don’t really, habitually prepare ourselves and declare ourselves to be what God has made us.  We don’t see ourselves as He sees us, and we need to.  Amen?  We need that.  And that’s why, when we come into temptations and tests and trials, then we look and say, “No, I’m not doing that.  That’s not who I am.  I’ve been bought with a price, I’m not my own, praise God.  Sin does not have dominion over me.”  Amen?  Let people catch you murmuring these promises to yourself.