The Concentration of Personal Sin

Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips . . . —Isaiah 6:5

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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人罪惡的集中地

禍哉，我滅亡了。因為我是嘴唇不潔的人。 （賽六5）

我來到神面前，自覺是個罪人。那意識不會是模棱兩可的，我必然是意識到我生命的某一方面有罪。人可以很容易地說：[是的，我是個罪人。 ]但當他一旦來到神面前，就不能憑這句話輕輕逃過去。那知罪的意念會集中在——[我這個不是，那個不對。 ]人來到神面前總有這個表記。罪的意識不會模糊不清，一定是集中在個人的某一些事上。神起初總是藉聖靈指控我們心中的某一件事，我們若在這件事上承認自己有罪，他便把我們引進下面最大的罪根性區。我們若是在神面前，他總是這樣對付我們。

這個把罪惡集中的經歷，不論在最偉大的聖徒或最渺小的罪人身上，都毫無分別。在這經歷第一級階梯上的人會說：[我不知過錯何在，但神的靈必會指出我在哪一件事上犯了錯。 ]以賽亞看見聖潔的神，他就察覺自己是嘴唇不潔的人。 [將炭沾我的口說，看哪，這炭沾了你的嘴，你的罪孽便除掉，你的罪惡就赦免了。 ]潔淨的火必要施於罪惡集中之處。

祈禱◆主啊，願你的純潔滲透我們的思想、身體和感情；讓我們完全認知和迅速彰顯你那活潑而使人充滿生氣的作為。願你那豐富的能力，進入我們的生活中。