When I come into the very presence of God, I do not realize that I
am a sinner in an indefinite sense, but I suddenly realize and the focus
of my attention is directed toward the concentration of sin in a
particular area of 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 any 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 to 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.
This experience of our attention being directed to our concentration
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’ ” (Isaiah 6:7). The cleansing fire had to be applied where the sin had been concentrated.
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