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The Apostle Paul wrote a full half of the entire New Testament by himself, and there are no greater loved and more spiritually enriching books of scripture than the "Pauline Epistles" as they are called. Paul wrote the books of Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and some say Hebrews. And yet it is a shame that they are called "epistles" at all, because an epistle is a letter written to various groups of people, such as Peter's letters that were written to the church at large, wherever the believers might be. Paul's writings are more like personal letters. They are addressed to specific people whom he loved very much and they all follow the standard personal letter style of the day: begin with a greeting, give a short prayer for blessing upon them, thank God and the people for all that has happened in their life, write the purpose for the letter, give special salutations or greetings to particularly close friends that are in acquaintance of the person receiving the letter, and then close. All of Paul's letters with the exception of the book of Hebrews follow this pattern closely.

I bring up these facts, because when you read Paul's letters, you are reading the responses of a mighty man of God to everyday problems and situations that arose within the Early Church. We are reading the answers and must attempt to understand the questions that had been asked of Paul by reading what he wrote in return. And Paul wrote these answers without any awareness that anybody else would ever be reading them, nevertheless still studying them all most 2,000 years later. Paul knew that they were anointed by the Holy Ghost, but he didn't realize that God was using him to write scripture! What that means is that Paul is not trying to hide anything. He is bluntly honest and sincere and is very straight forward in his answers. And from his letters, we find that human nature -- even in the Apostolic Church -- hasn't changed all that much. The things that popped up and had to be addressed and dealt with back then in people's lives, are still the same things that must be corrected today. Times change and cultures change, but Jesus Christ stays the same, and so does unfortunately the sinful desires of our flesh, therefore the Bible is just as valid and as pertinent to us today as it ever was. We still fight the same spiritual battles that the saints of the first church did.

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This week, I spent some time studying the book of Galatians. I was already very familiar with it's message of how that Law got us to this period of Grace but that Grace supersedes the Law of Moses in every way. One of the most powerful themes is how that we are adopted into the family of God by being born again, so that we become "sons of God." Not by Moses' law, but by faith and obedience in God's Word.

The church at Galatia were people who Paul had won to God by himself. They were like spiritual children to him. He had baptized them, prayed them through to the Holy Ghost, and nurtured them until they were able to stand spiritually on their own. He had endured persecution and great hardship to see the church established there. The book of Galatians, by the way, was the first letter or book that Paul ever wrote. And rather than using a scribe as he later did to write down what he spoke aloud, Paul wrote the letter to the Galatians himself.

What was this first problem that needed so urgently to be addressed? Obviously the Galatians were in danger of losing their zeal and passion for Christ and returning to their old lifestyles. As you scan through the book, you can't help but realize that something had gone wrong in their walk with God. Listen to some verses that Paul wrote:

The phrase " who bewitched you" in the Greek is literally " who put the evil eye on you." I mentioned last week that in scripture, the term "evil eye" is a figure of speech for someone who is "hard, grudging, stingy, and has an hypocritical attitude." The Galatians were changing from their previous zeal and passion and excitement for living for God to becoming grudging and complaining, hardened people. Something had gone wrong.

And then in the next chapter, Paul wrote:

The word for "blessedness" refers to their happiness. Paul was saying "where is the happiness that you once exhibited for living for God? Where is the contentment and joy that once oozed out of your everyday speech that people who were around you could just tell that you were in love with Jesus Christ?

And then Paul asked "am I now the enemy?" As they Galatians spiritually lost their zeal and their passion, they also changed the way they viewed the man of God and the preacher in their life. His sermons that had at one time been sharp and looked forward to because of their truthfulness and bluntness now were viewed as attacks and now they viewed the man of God in their life not as their friend in helping them get to heaven, but as their enemy! Something had definitely changed in the Galatian's walk with God! And then as our text in chapter 5, we read where Paul wrote:

The word for "hinder" in the Greek refers to obstacles and weights and hinderances that would cause you to run as well as normal. They were still serving God, but they were not running as they should have been. They were not even running as they had once ran. Something had changed. They had started off living for God with a loving spirit and great excitement and passion at living for God and with a zeal for the preached word and a proper view of the ministry, and running for Jesus with everything in them, and yet they had changed so that the run was slowing down to a walk and the passion and zeal and excitement had given away to a lack of joy and loss of happiness. Their loving spirit had changed into a critical attitude of others and of hypocrisy. They now viewed the man of God as their "enemy." And Paul sort of bluntly sets the record straight as to where this change had come from, with "this persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you." In other words, God didn't cause you to change or send this attitude. Your change came from somewhere else than the heavenlies!

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You could sum up the Galatians' situation in one phrase: they were "fainting" spiritually in their walk with God. Spiritual "fainting," unfortunately, was not just a one time occurrence in the church. I've been going to church for 28 years and I've seen a lot of people get the Holy Ghost and begin living for God. I've seen many people's life changed and go on to do great things for God, living for Him faithfully! Hallelujah for that -- God can still transform lives! But I've also, unfortunately, seen in just about every harvest and time, some that begin living for God with all of the zeal and the passion of those that are going to make heaven, and yet after a period of time, I've seen them faint and begin to lose that passion and slowly lose their zeal for being faithful to the things of God and truth until, some of those people have slowly faded from the scene and go back into the world and lose out with God and live their lives for sin. Or they just become a "pew warmer" occasionally at church, but not really on fire for God or doing anything for the kingdom of God, but just coming to a Pentecostal church because they know too much to go anywhere else and yet are just there to fulfill a religious obligation to go to church.

When this cycle raises it's head in people's lives, I want to approach them and ask what Paul wrote to the Galatian church: "where is the blessedness and the joy?" "Who did deceive you from obeying the truth?" "You did run well, what happened?" Something has changed and yet it's not God who has changed, so what got you to lose your zeal? How come the fire that burned so bright once in your life is now just smoldering embers? And more importantly, I want to ask them "and what are you going to do about it? Just let it die?"

Occasionally I have people in a moment of passion and total surrender -- they always do this while they are running for Jesus with everything in them, maybe in a time of revival or a harvest season -- that come to me and say something like "Pastor, I don't ever want to lose this. If you ever see anything in my life that I need to change or where I'm slipping, just come tell me . . . " They are sincere when they say it, but the problem is that when they do reach a point in their life that I do see something and the passion is beginning to die, or they are getting off course a little, their attitude has changed to the point that they wouldn't receive it if I did as they had asked. There have been two, or maybe three, people in my life who have been able to take the correction when they needed it, that I've felt comfortable enough to go to and say "you told me if I ever saw something . . ." and then just lay it out and them favorably respond. Most people who like the Galatians begin to lose their zeal and passion also give in to the trick of Satan of thinking that the man of God and preacher in their life is "their enemy."

I want you to realize that the characteristics of the Galatian church are warning signs in your life as well that something has gotten off track in your walk with God. When you are physically ill, there are symptoms such as pain and swelling and nausea that indicate that something is wrong. It's the same in the Spirit. A lack of passion and excitement for the things of God, a lack of desire to attend God's house and worship and hear the Word of God. A hard and critical spirit that finds fault in everyone else's life and yet overlooks your own faults. A lack of being thankful of where God brought you from. When your speech no longer is tinged with a genuine happiness and joy that even sinners can detect. When you can think back to a time when you were more excited and more on fire for God than you are currently. When you view the preaching of God's Word which is truth grudgingly and with offense so that you begin to view the messenger of that Word as your adversary and someone that is "against you." These are all danger signs that something is wrong in your spiritual walk. Something is sick in your spirit man. Spiritually you are "fainting."

And the easiest out for some people is to blame God and just close their eyes to the truth, but if you have lost your zeal and passion and the fire has dwindled and your run is being hindered, then you must realize that it is not God who has changed. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever"(Hebrews 13:8)! And yet there is a great tendency to blame the church and God and whatever for problems that really are a result of things that we have changed. We begin to play the blame game and ourselves are never it. That's why Paul had to write the church in Galatia and say "I haven't changed, I've been living and preaching the same things that I've always lived and preached. I was an Apostle then and I'm still a God-called Apostle." And then he had to say "your persuasion cometh not from him who calleth you." In other words, don't blame God either, He hasn't changed!

In our other text, we read the words of Isaiah who was preaching the Word of the Lord in a different era, but in the same cycle of God's people. Israel had lost their zeal and passion and desire for the things of God. They viewed the prophets of God as "against them." They were hardened and critical. And many of them were blaming God as being the one that changed, to which Isaiah thundered back with the unction of the Almighty:

Isaiah said "the problem is not with God." God doesn't change nor does He faint or grow weary or cause others to do so. In fact "He given power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength." If God is truly involved in a life, then there is quite the opposite of fainting, but rather a blessing and an increased happiness and strength! Isaiah then went on to say:

The problem with Israel in Isaiah's time was that they were trying to make it without God at the center of their life. They were trying to lean on their own abilities and their own knowledge rather than leaning on the arm of the Lord. And the result was that they grew tired. Even the young men who had the most strength failed when they tried to run on their own power and lean on their own understanding.

But then God says "they that wait upon the Lord" shall be different. They word "to wait" there means "to look towards with eager expectation." It means to do so no matter what you must endure while you faithfully put your trust in the Lord. People who "wait upon the Lord," in other words, people who put their trust in God alone and don't try to lean on their own ability to survive spiritually will not faint but they shall "renew their strength," they shall mount up with wings as eagles," they shall "run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint." Such is the traits of people who stay true to God and do not trust in anything else. The more they run, the stronger they get. The more they walk, the more steady they become. When they get spiritually weary, instead of quitting they "shall mount up with eagle's wings" and begin to fly spiritually! It is a sign of those who have God in first place in their life that they do not give in to the natural cycle of spiritual weariness! It is the will of God for you NOT to lose your joy and passion! It is the will of God for you NOT to become hardened. It is the will of God for you to NOT lose your passion and proper view of the ministry. And you can live your entire life without giving into the cycle of weariness such as the church in Galatia was in danger of doing. IF you will put God first and allow Him the priority place in your life. It's the will of God for you to "faint not."

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Spiritual fainting comes from God not being in first place in a life, we've already discovered that, but what is it that gets people distracted to displace God? You are never as happier as when God is in His proper place in your life, so what would cause people to change that? If it's not God and it's not the minister that change, then what it is that causes us to change so that we lose our passion and zeal and begin to spiritually fade? Let's attempt to give at least some of the answers to the questions that Paul asked the church in Galatia: "you did run well, what did hinder you?" and "who has bewitched you that you should not obey?" If we guard against these things, then we will better be able to run and "faint not."

Let me focus on and bring to your attention just three of the many things that cause people to change from their initial passion for God:

I heard a minister once point out that it's the tool in the shed that is being used that gets "worn out" and needs refurbishment. The natural result of doing something is "weariness" and "tiredness." God never promised that you wouldn't get tired, and in fact if you are doing anything with your salvation and working for the kingdom of God in any way, there will be times that you get weary. Even preachers grow weary of studying sometimes. Even professional singers need a day or so to rest their voices. Weariness is a natural result of work in the natural or the spiritual. Paul warned the Galatians about the dangers of letting weariness side track you:

When you are "well doing," that is doing things for the kingdom of God, we must guard against allowing weariness to cause us to stop doing those things. We will all get weary, but we must not allow it "side-track" us from our purpose. They way people do that is by equating weariness with weakness. They are not the same thing. Just because you have exercised and you are sore and weary, does not mean that you are weaker -- in fact as soon as you have some rest, your muscles will be stronger than they ever were. Go max out doing squats and then the next day, you will find that you have trouble bending your legs without any weights other than your body. But you are not weaker, your muscles are just weary and they are recovering from their work. And when they recover, they will be much stronger than they ever were before.

The point is this. Some people grow weary because they have actually been doing something for the kingdom of God and yet give in to the lie that they are weak. Therefore they let the devil play mind games and allow themselves to get discouraged and to stop doing some of the things that they are doing right that caused their weariness in the first place. They confused weariness with weakness. Therefore they responded wrongly which caused them to not run as they had been running.

Jesus said this:

The answer is in coming to Jesus and allowing Him to give you rest, and then after the rest, you will find that you are stronger. You do that by yielding to the moving of the Holy Ghost. The prophet Isaiah told his generation:

Yielding to the moving of the Holy Ghost is the way you get rest for your spiritual soul. If you are tired from working at natural endeavors, then you need a rest physically like a vacation from work. But if you are tired from working at spiritual endeavors, you need a rest physically by allowing the Holy Ghost to move actively in your life and refresh you. Some people respond to spiritual stress by taking a vacation from church or from spiritual activity and that's the worst thing that you can do. The Holy Ghost is the rest for spiritual weariness. What you need to do is come to church and worship God with everything in you and allow the Holy Ghost to refresh you!

And let me also say this. There are times the Holy Ghost moves in a special way in our service and we take time out to respond and just "linger" in His presence and there are those who think this a waste of time. If you feel that way, then I can just about guarantee that you are not really working for the kingdom of God. People who don't see the need for the Spirit to move in and refresh are always the ones who are NOT teaching a Bible Study, NOT praying for the services, NOT teaching Sunday School, NOT helping with bread and outreaches, NOT fasting, and NOT helping keep up the church grounds. They don't see the need for the refreshment of the Holy Ghost because they are not weary because they are not doing anything! But it's important to allow the Holy Ghost to do as it sees fit, because when we get weary, it is the rest that causes us to keep on "well doing" and even grow stronger than we ever have before!

Another thing that causes people to spiritually faint is:

In our text in Isaiah, there is an interesting progression of terms that God uses. He says:

Isa 40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Notice the order of those that "wait upon the Lord." First, they fly -- they "mount up with wings as eagles." Second, they "run." Then "they shall walk." In life we learn to crawl first, then walk, and then run, and only long to be able to fly, but in the kingdom of God and our spiritual life, it's different. When people receive the Holy Ghost and are filled with the Spirit of God, they are flying high. They are excited, they are on fire, and they have been set free from sin and so the revelations that they get are exciting and big and grand. They find out about the reality of the operation of the Holy Spirit. They learn about worship and praise. They learn that there is deeper and cooler stuff in the Bible than they ever dreamt that there ever was. Our style of services are exciting and new and fresh. They find out who Jesus is. They look at the story of the cross for the first time through Spirit- colored glasses. It's all new and fresh and big and great and they are flying spiritually!

And then they slow to a run. It's a natural progression. They get the essentials down about salvation and the Oneness of God and they grow more accustomed to the moving of the Holy Ghost. But there's still much to learn. They learn that God can do miracles and learn that prayer is powerful. They learn about the operation of the Spiritual gifts and the five-fold ministry. They are still running and there are many exciting and new revelations, but it's not quite as it was when they first learned about the Holy Ghost and who Jesus is for the very first time.

And then they begin to walk. They learn that God does not automatically solve every situation within their life and they have to learn how to walk with God through some things. They have learn to walk on their storm's waves by keeping their eyes on Jesus. They have to learn how to hear the still, small voice of God. The greatest revelations now come through the small things, understanding of something because it relates to something that you are going through, or a better understanding and clarification of things that they have already known. They have to learn to get a daily prayer life and devotion. To be faithful on good days and on bad days. To bear the daily burden of the church with the pastor. To keep trusting Him no matter what comes their way! To forsake their nets and follow Him. They are learning how to walk.

And notice that their is no side result associated with the flying and that the danger that must be faced when running is weariness which we've already discussed. But it's in the walking that you face the danger of fainting. People who faint have never learned to walk with Jesus. Do trust Him in everyday situations faithful to what they know they should do no matter what their situation looks like. To go through the thick and thin and yet guarding your heart that it's not hardened and your spirit that it is not desensitized and watching your attitude that it stays focused upon Him. Walking with Jesus. Even when you are walking with Jesus, you must "wait upon the Lord" and you must trust Him and lean on Him and not to your own devices! That's the key to "fainting not."

Walking. You know in Jesus' life I only find one place recorded that He flew and that was at His ascension at the end of His ministry. He does still have a few more flight plans filled out for the future, with the Rapture of the Church being one of them! But most of His life, Jesus didn't fly around. The only time that God ran in the entire scripture is in the story of the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15 when the Father saw that the wayward son had decided to return to His house. The scriptures say that "he ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him" (Luke 15:20). The only time God runs is to a sinner that is coming in repentance to get things right again! God doesn't run from trouble or in battle or from problems! Other than in that parable, Jesus never ran in scripture. He did ride a donkey, once in the Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem the week before His death. He rode a donkey twice if you count the journey in Mary's womb to Bethlehem before His birth. But the simple facts are that if you wanted to with Jesus and spend time in His presence, then you had to learn to walk, because walking is what Jesus did the most often. Over and over again, the scriptures say "Jesus walked." And when many of His disciples stopped serving Him it was said of them in appropriately John chapter 6 and verse 66:

If you are going to serve Jesus and spend your life with Him, then you are going to have to learn to walk! To stay faithful in the day to day ups and downs of life, and just keep walking! When faced with a storm, Peter, get your eyes on Jesus and keep walking! When faced with a decision to make, drop your nets, and start walking! John told us:

From the book of Romans on in the New Testament, we are told forty-two times to "walk" and instructed how "to walk." Only five times are we instructed to "run." And there is only a few references to the coming Rapture of the church where we shall fly. If you want to serve God, then you will one day fly and you will sometimes run, but you'd better learn to walk with Him! And walk as He walked!

There are many other reasons that cause Christians to faint spiritually and for the sake of time I will only give one more a passing mention but it's one that I think needs to be heard today and that is many people get faint because:

Paul's queries that he wrote the Galatian church were essentially all asking "who have you been listening to?" Eve listened to the wrong voice and it started a cycle that has been repeated over and over again throughout her offspring. Start listening to the wrong voice and it won't be long before you are eating from the wrong tree and doing the opposite of what God had instructed you to do! For the sake of time, let me only mention two voices that you must avoid even listening to in the smallest way: the voice of your flesh, and the voice of condemnation. Paul wrote the Galatia church:

You can't listen to your flesh. Your flesh is that little voice in your life that is naturally contrary to the things of God. It's the voice that tells you "I don't feel like praying." "I don't feel like worshipping." "I don't feel like doing right in this situation." "I don't feel like forgiving." "I don't feel like fasting." "I don't feel like going to church." That's your flesh speaking and you'd better not listen to it because the scriptures say that your flesh has natural enmity or hatred towards the things of God. And if you sow the actions of the flesh, then you'll reap the actions of the flesh.

And the other voice is condemnation. There is a big difference between conviction and condemnation. Conviction comes from God. Condemnation comes from the devil. You need to learn to recognize the difference. Godly conviction is when God identifies something in your life that is sin or that needs to change either through the preached Word of God, or the operation of the Spirit of God. When you truly repent to God and ask Him to forgive you and turn away from the sin that you were convicted of, then the conviction leaves.

But condemnation is when the devil brings a "condemned" feeling for your shortcomings. If you have felt bad for something that you were doing wrong, have repented of it, and have ceased doing it and yet there is this little voice telling you over and over again that "you failed, you failed, you failed" and "you can't do anything for God because you failed" and "you will never be what God wants you to be, you might as well give up." That is the voice of condemnation. It's not from God. God will never tell you to quit. God will never tell you to stay home from church. God will never tell you that it's no use praying. That is the voice of condemnation and it's from the devil.

Here's the point: why do so many Christians who resist temptation to sin and do things that they know are wrong yet readily yield to condemnation when the authors are the same? The same devil that brings temptation is also the devil that brings condemnation and you don't have to accept it nor listen to it's voice. The key to overcoming condemnation according to the Apostle Paul is this:

The key to overcoming condemnation is to identify it and then walk after the Spirit! Don't listen to it's voice but keep walking! And if you will keep Jesus as the center of your life, you will walk and "faint not!"