What's the Limit for Going to the Altar?

On Friday night, our church had six hours of Intercessory Prayer. The night was beautiful and God visited us with the sweet anointing of the Holy Spirit. During the night, we prayed for deliverance and salvation for our unsaved loved ones. While all the prayers were wonderful, something seemed to break in the spirit when we prayed for these two requests. Afterwards, we did personal prayer journeys and one station was called The Cross. We were to place our unsaved loved ones and burdens on this cross and believe God for the victory.

On Sunday during service, the anointing of God fell and two people who were having personal struggles with drugs, alcohol, promiscuity and other things, they were both delivered. It was a long process and some of our congregation members didn't understand what was taking place, but we knew that God was doing a new work in these lives. My initial thought goes back to our prayers on Friday night. What's the sense in asking God for something and then not expecting that to take place? That's why we have to be careful what we ask for - especially when we know it is God's will. God truly did answer our prayers right away and we are thankful for that; but we have had some skeptics who have voiced their thoughts.

We've heard, "How many times does someone have to come to the altar with issues and should they go through this purging process each time?" Note: One of the delivered had been on the altar several times before in the past and there were times where she purged.

When I thought about this question, I was reminded about the children of Israel and the number of times God delivered them from the mess that they would always get themselves into. Isn't that just like us? The children of Israel were surely delivered each time God stepped in on their behalf, but after a while, some would revert back to what was "comfortable" for them. So when asked how many times a person should go to the altar, my answers tends to fall on the side of ALWAYS! If it wasn't for the judging and condemning beliefs of people, I believe more folks would go to the altar and confess their sins and be cleansed and delivered.

I believe the question we should ask is not IF the power of God delivered, but rather, does the person know how to maintain deliverance? But that's for another post.

Final Thought: Isn't it funny how some think that lying, gossiping, jealousy and the hidden sins that can be masked by a smiling face and nice clothes don't need the same Deliverance Experience as the drug and alcohol addicted or the pregnant teen? Instead of hiding behind the prideful self, why not just humble ourselves before God and stop pointing our fingers at others in judgment and begin judging our own actions.

1 John 1:9, "If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just (true to His own nature and promises) and will forgive our sins [dismiss our lawlessness] and [continuously] cleanse us from all unrighteousness [everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, thought, and action]."

What are your thoughts?