It takes faith to go to Him. If you do not have that faith, go back to my testimony and take God at His Word. Now, only God can give you faith, only if He reveals Himself to you, will you ever have faith.

See, God does not give gifts separately as gifts, I mean, apart from Himself. The only true gifts that will last in your life are connected to Him and His presence in your life, in your spirit. You cannot expect God to give you, say, patience or endurance or holiness or cleanliness. He does not work that way.

I know that for years I asked God how I was to do certain things. I asked Him for years, how I was to cast away sin from me, how I was to kill the passions of the flesh, how I was to receive the righteousness of Christ, how I was supposed to make sure I walked in faith all the time, and He never answered me. Why? Simply, because I asked the wrong question. For, if you ask the wrong question, you will either get the wrong answer or no answer at all. And I got the latter. I should not have asked 'how, Lord, ... ?', I should have asked 'who, Lord, ... ?' For He says it is the meek and lowly and humble who receive grace. (1 Peter 5:5) And grace was what I needed.

There is very little point in me going into detail concerning my person, and my particular attitudes and mistakes. You are probably making quite dissimilar ones. So it would not help you at all to know, unless of course you are quite like me, which is highly unlikely! But the principle should work in your life as it does in mine.

And the principle I am trying to set forth here is that God has promised He would dwell among His people: "What agreement [can there be between] a temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in and with and among them and will walk in and with and among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." (The Amplified Bible, 2 Corinthians 6:16) The simple words "we are the temple of the living God" say it all: He should live in us, but not just live, He should reside in His temple as well.

And with Him close, closer than any human could ever be, literally on the inside of us, all the things that He is will be in us and will be ours. Do you know that is the only way to conquer sin, by having Him living and dwelling and residing in us? Because it is no use conquering sin, without having cleanliness and righteousness taking its place. He Himself has to take their place if you want your sin to leave for good!

See, that is what I was trying to say earlier, you cannot have righteousness apart from God, as if God would ever give you a package of righteousness or a dose of understanding or a piece of wisdom for you to use at will. You would no doubt lose it soon enough. I know I have.

You know God said to Cain: "If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin crouches at your door; its desire is for you, and you must master it." Let me tell you, my friend, you have no authority or righteousness or power to master a wily devil or the sin whose desire is for you. He has, though. And with Him residing in you, the (final) Authority is there too, the (absolute) Cleanliness, the (unbreakable) Righteousness lives in you. You will have to do no keeping at bay, His mere presence will do so for you. And you can sit back and relax!!