CHAPTER 6
The Lid Comes Off

For years I have had a stock answer for a stock question.

Many times I heard, "There is something in my heart but I don't know what it is."

Assuming that the question was at least partly dishonest, my answer was always sarcastically the same, "Get down and guess a while."

But not any more.

There are things in our hearts that we do not realize. And only when the "lid" comes off do we discover what really stands between ourselves and the revolution of love which is revival.

Perhaps we could define the "lid" as a callousness that becomes a cover, deflecting the arrows of conscience and stifling the Holy Spirit.

Personally, I have had, over a number of years, what I deemed to be an unusually sensitive conscience, one that was easily capable of bringing me into bondage and morbid introspection. In my struggle to achieve spiritual balance, I had begun to accommodate certain sins and attitudes.

For example, there was a preacher with whom I was cool. I was careful not to speak against him or criticize him because I didn't want to have to go and apologize to him.

The cover was peeled off. "You don't really love that brother, do you?" the Holy Spirit said to me. "I want you to go to him and ask forgiveness for an unloving attitude, for not loving him."

I promised the Lord I would do it and I did. To my surprise and delight he responded warmly and deeply. A relationship was healed. And I learned once again that we don't always know what is in our hearts. Of course, the Scriptures had made it clear long before.

The trespass offering in the Old Testament had an interesting function. "If a soul commit a trespass, and sin through ignorance... then he shall bring for his trespass. . . a ram without blemish" (Leviticus 5:15). It is clear that there was an Old Testament provision for unknown sin.

Psalm nineteen also reflects this truth, "But how call I ever know what sins are lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults" (vs. 12, Living Bible).

Other scriptures reinforce the thought. "Search me, 0 God, and know my heart: try me and know my thoughts: and see it there be any wicked way in me" (Psalm 139:23, 24). "You say, 'I am rich, with everything I want; I don't need a thing.' And you don't realize that spiritually you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked" (Revelation 3:17, Living Bible);

A word of caution is in order here. If Satan cannot stop believers from opening themselves to the Holy Spirit and surrendering fully to Christ, he then may pounce upon the serious Christian, subtly mixing accusation with conviction and distorting the revival.

The best advice which can be given is that which an earnest laymen received from a wise Mennonite pastor in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, "Invite the Holy Spirit to search your heart and then ask the Lord not to allow a single accusation from the enemy to be added,"

Still, it is worth repeating, the lid must come off and we must get honest with ourselves, with each other, and with God.

Pastor Les Hamm and the congregation of the Hillsdale Alliance Church in Regina, Saskatchewan, have experienced a remarkable and on-going revival which also began in the fall of 1971. For Sherwood Wirt, editor of Decision, Pastor Hamm summed it up succinctly, "Revival is honesty and love."

The mask comes down and the lid comes off.

And as so many have said, "You can afford to be honest," Because honesty generates respect and love.

Chapter 7