If I hid iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not hear me (Psalm 66:18).
Today, we can also say, “If I hide iniquity or sin in my heart, the Lord will not hear my prayers.” King Saul cared more about the praise of men than about God’s approval. When God’s prophet asked him a direct question, the king was jealous of his own reputation rather than the truth, and he accused his people of what he himself was guilty of. Even after realizing that David was chosen by God himself to assume the throne of Israel, Saul spent many years unsuccessfully trying to kill the man of God.
The word “saw” in this verse is translated from the Hebrew “raach.” Among other definitions, it means “to gaze intently, to look joyfully upon, to enjoy, or to experience something.” Don’t go to your prayer closet and expect the manifestation of God’s glory if you’ve been enjoying sin in your living room! Today, too many Christian homes are infested with overtly sexual videotapes, television programs, and comedies that mock the principles of righteousness and godly lifestyles. Every time you consume such television programs and movies, you are literally harboring iniquity in your heart! Another meaning of the word “raach” is “to peek and stare.” Brother, don’t grab your wife’s lingerie catalog and hide in the closet. You are peeping at forbidden fruit when you look at women other than your wife and allow your mind to wander. Sin occurs in the mind and heart, even if your body isn’t involved—and yet it is. Repent of all sins, renounce any repetition of these sins, and return to holiness.
Another way to hide iniquity involves people we respect, revere, or idolize (don’t try to sound religious—I know you have your own heroes). God is far more interested in a person’s inner world than their appearance or achievements. If you find yourself idolizing some athlete, politician, actor, or actress who leads an ungodly lifestyle, then you need to repent. You have allowed ungodliness into your heart. Don’t think I’m overemphasizing trivial matters here. Scripture warns us:
Above all else, keep your heart, for out of it spring the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23).
Keep your heart and don’t allow iniquity to find a home in your life.
A careless attitude toward sin is also tantamount to hiding it. The Apostle James warned the church about the dangers of friendship with the world and its impact on prayer:
You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your lusts. You adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever desires to be a friend of the world becomes the enemy of God (James 4:3-4).
We also allow iniquity into our hearts when we deliberately side with unrighteousness. Often, we insist on justifying our actions or opinions at any cost because we refuse to admit we’re wrong. This is pride. When pride lurks in the shadows, pushing us down the path of unrighteousness, we must cast it down. If pride could turn an angel into a devil, what can it do to you? Perhaps you think you can escape it? Then think again!
When you refuse to accept the truth, you are flirting with and endorsing a lie. Who receives glory and honor for such foolishness—God or the devil? Whose kingdom is being built and strengthened? Who gets the most pleasure when you cultivate a lie to stay on your chosen path? Remember, God’s river will never flow through the valley of disobedience. Reject lies, cast out pride, and cling to what is good and true. Then God’s power will flow through you again.
Obstacle 3. Prejudice
When prejudice is abandoned, the brazen heavens are shattered.
One day, a pastor received a call from a woman in the hospital, near death, asking him to pray for her. The pastor understood that the Holy Spirit distributes His supernatural gifts “as He pleases” (see 1 Corinthians 12:11) among the members of His body. So he asked a Black American man, who was moving with a powerful gift of healing, to go to the hospital and pray for this terminally ill woman.
The woman’s face lit up with anticipation when she saw the door to her hospital room open. She knew the pastor had sent someone from the church to pray for her healing, and she was expecting a miracle. When the door swung wide and she realized her visitor was Black, she immediately said, “No, you will not lay hands on me!” She was so insistent that the confused man had no choice but to turn around and leave. This woman’s condition worsened until doctors finally transferred her to the intensive care unit in hopes of somehow saving her life. Nothing they tried produced any results.
Eventually, this woman realized she would soon die unless God intervened. She was so weak she could barely speak above a whisper, but she managed to raise a finger and get a nurse’s attention. As the nurse leaned closer, she heard the woman quietly whisper, “Please call my pastor again and ask him to come. Tell him he can bring anyone he needs to pray for me, including that black man. Unless a miracle happens, I will die.” The black brother came to the hospital a second time, and this time he laid hands on the dying woman and offered a powerful prayer for her healing. That very day, God raised this woman from her deathbed and healed her.
The Holy Spirit distributes His gifts as He wishes and to whom He wishes. Sometimes He gives the gift you need to someone you simply cannot stand. Sooner or later, my friend, you will have to turn to that person if you want to receive what you need.
God the Father’s purpose is to transform us into the likeness of His Son. This involves great changes and transformations. Sometimes this means we must give up our prejudices and preferences that hinder us from allowing God to work in our lives. We must learn to accept His gifts from anyone He sends and seek help from any minister God chooses to provide us with everything we need. These principles apply equally in any country.
We had to find common ground with South Africa, even though we don’t share all of their views. Why? Because they have vast reserves of gold and precious stones. Similarly, we must appeal to the Arabs, who control most of the oil fields on this planet. God divided and distributed the wealth of this world as He pleased. Now He compels us to seek ways to cooperate.
The Black American in this story possessed a gift that could bring healing to a woman. God was ready to heal her at any time, but this woman was unwilling to accept God’s gift. Only when doctors’ efforts proved futile and she faced imminent death did this woman not only ask the Lord for healing but also accept His plan. Although God had the necessary prescription for the dying woman, He first required her to deal with the sin that had a fatal grip on her life. This woman confessed Jesus Christ as Lord, yet she considered it normal to cling to her racial prejudices. She refused to believe that God was going to heal her through the hands of a person of a different skin color. But as soon as she submitted to God’s will, He saved her life through the gifts, faith, and anointed prayers of the same Black brother she had once rejected. At the very moment she released her prejudice, God released her healing. And what does God require you to release before He will bring revival into your life or your church?
Most of the problems the Apostle Paul faced stemmed from racial and religious prejudice. This was also the root of nearly every major problem in the early church. In every case, prejudice threatened to divide the brethren and nullify the Gospel message. While God honored the Jews, the descendants of Abraham, He also ensured that people of many other nationalities and races were included in the genealogy of the Messiah. His plan was to bring all peoples into His Kingdom, uniting them by one blood, one banner, and one Savior—Jesus Christ.
Paul constantly battled against the religious prejudices of the Jews, directed against the Gentiles, and against all non-Jews who came to Christ. But his words to the churches dealt a crushing blow to all forms of prejudice:
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither free … There is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then are you Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:28-29).
Paul leaves no room for any prejudice, whether racial, sexual, professional, or economic! In God’s presence, all men and women occupy the same status. We are all sinners saved by grace and grace alone. We are saved by grace, and we live in unity by grace. We all have common access to God’s presence through the name of Jesus, the Son of God, and the power of His shed blood. If we choose to cling to our own prejudices, we literally refuse to recognize the true Body of Christ. This is an insult to God.
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slave or free, and were all given the one Spirit to drink. For the body is not one member, but many… But God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He willed… The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you”… That there should be no division in the body, but that all the members should have the same care for one another (1 Corinthians 12:13, 14, 18, 21, 25).
For generations, numerous American churches preached and acted as if there was one gospel for whites and another for blacks. Every time the third chapter of Galatians was read in their services, it was followed by a thundering “but” and various dubious excuses to overlook prejudice. A similar tragedy recently occurred in South Africa. As in the United States, in South Africa, people clung so stubbornly to their opinions that blood was shed and thousands died. Obedience to God’s Word could have spared both countries the unspeakable grief and heartbreaking pain they suffered due to civil conflict.
My friend, if you read God’s Word and find yourself responding with, “Yes, but…,” then you should ask yourself, why are you fighting God?! God never makes mistakes. Prejudices have led to human conflict on virtually every continent, causing countless bloody wars and conflicts. Virtually every tyrant who has risen to enslave and subjugate other countries has drawn strength from sheer hatred and prejudice. One of the marks of true revival is that it gathers all people around the Son of God, building bridges across the chasms between races, genders, and numerous social and ethnic groups.
Obstacle 4. Judging Others
A heart that judges others weakens the power of prayers that pierce the brass of heaven.
The habit of judging others is another sin that hinders our prayers. Jesus warned His disciples and all who would trust in Him:
Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with what measure you mete, it will be measured to you again. And why do you behold the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the beam that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, “Let me remove the speck from your eye”? And behold, there is a beam in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye (Matthew 7:1-5).
He also told a hostile crowd of religious leaders:
Do not judge by appearances, but judge righteous judgment (John 7:24).
You may occasionally have to judge the fruits of righteousness in someone’s life, but that doesn’t mean God has called you to be an “inspector of holy fruits.” That’s nothing more than a pretty excuse for gossip and self-righteous hypocrisy. Follow Jesus’s advice: “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”
We love to judge. We love to compare others to ourselves, as the best example of godliness we know. We love to compare the doctrines of other preachers with the most accurate doctrine we know—our own. We love to discuss other people’s children, clothes, careers, and spouses, hoping to find that they are far worse than ours. We love to know details about other people’s vacations, their cars, furniture, and homes. We love to gossip about pastors, their teachings and sermons, and everything their wives do. And all the while, we cultivate a veneer of piety and try to gain favor with God and man. We truly have an uncanny ability to see ourselves as more gifted, better prepared, and more compassionate than almost everyone around us.
Most of us are smart enough not to brag openly. Instead, we express our superiority through sincere concern for the less fortunate in our churches and workplaces. Our attitude toward others boils down to, “Thank God we exist to fill the gap when all these lesser forms of life fail.” This nonsense is the prevailing pattern in churches around the world. This attitude keeps the heavens thick and prevents genuine intercession from rising to the Lord from our hearts.
Conducting a Spiritual Examination
I wonder how many people have “fallen asleep before their time”? What would happen if we pulled them out of their graves and conducted a spiritual examination? We might well discover that physical illness had nothing to do with their untimely death! We might discover that they died from the spiritual disease of condemnation and their refusal to accept those they disliked as fellow members in the Body of Christ. The Apostle Paul was very harsh when writing to the Corinthians about the proper observance of the Lord’s Supper:
For whoever eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment on himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many of you are weak and sick, and not a few die. For if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged (1 Corinthians 11:29-31).
