Tag: Holy Spirit

Living in the Fullness of the Light of Christ

Genesis 1:3
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

As light was the first work in the creation of the earth, so has light been the first work in the creation of new men or women in Christ. In both cases the light was brought forth to overcome the pre-existing chaotic darkness that existed.

Jesus is the light, the truth and the way. No darkness can exist in His presence. When we accept Him as Our Savior, He comes to dwell within us and the process of removing all the darkness from our lives begins. All of our sins are brought into the light by the Holy Spirit. Repentance is required. To do otherwise is to suggest that we are sufficient in our own ways. It is not enough to be sorry for our sins. We must recognize our unworthiness. We must recognize our need to be cleansed by the Blood of the Lamb. We must fully submit to Jesus so that we will have the strength to turn away from the darkness, so that we may live in the light. This process will continue as long as we are in our corrupted bodies. It will not be completed until we stand before Our Father in heaven at His Throne.

From the beginning of time, darkness has been allowed to exist with light. When the new earth is perfected for all eternity and comes into place with the new heaven, the darkness will be put aside forever. When we take our place in God’s kingdom, the darkness in our lives will also be set aside forever.

Let us beseech the Holy Spirit to inspect us. Let us implore Him to reveal every bit of darkness in our lives. Let us repent of the darkness that is uncovered. Let us ask for the grace and strength that we need to learn to live in the fullness of the Light of Jesus Christ.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for exposing all the darkness in our lives. We pray that we will fully submit to the cleansing process. May Your Light extend to the outer margins of our lives. May no element of our lives be untouched. We pray that the complete work of the Blood of the Lamb will prepare us to take our place in heaven for all eternity. We ask all these things in the name of the Great Eternal Light, Jesus Christ.

Successfully Balancing Life for the Good of All

Luke 7:30
But the Pharisees and experts in religious law rejected God’s plan for them, for they had refused John’s baptism.

God’s plan for our lives calls for total surrender to Him. The enemy has a different plan. The Pharisees suffered under the hand of Satan as they rejected God’s plans in order to follow their own plans which they were deceived into believing were built upon many good things.

The enemy uses all the facets of our lives on earth as areas of distraction in order to keep us from full surrender to Our Lord. Our work, recreation, hobbies and even family activities can all be big areas of distraction for us. Ironically, the work that we do as a ministry to support the Body of Christ may also become a distraction that keeps us from digging deep into our relationship with Jesus Christ. All of these activities can certainly be deemed good in their own right and are likely extremely productive. That is why Satan is so successful in distracting us from God. Satan entices us to replace God with good things.

Like the Pharisees, as we pursue all these good things in our lives, we may miss out on the special things that God has set aside for us. Oneness with Jesus Christ is the only way for us to successfully balance all that we deal with in life. Jesus is the fulcrum. He balances our load by providing the right foundation for all that we do. When we stay in balance by following the urgings of the Holy Spirit, we can reside in a place of rest and satisfaction unlike anything that we can derive from our own plans.

Let us strive to make Jesus the foundation for everything in our lives. Let us seek to make Jesus Christ the center of all we do. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us to differentiate the good opportunities in our lives from the God opportunities awaiting us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for using us to carry out Your plans for us and those around us. We pray, Lord, that You will draw us into full surrender to Your Son. May we make Him the center of everything in our lives. We ask that the Holy Spirit will help us to discover the unique plans that You have for our lives. We ask all these things in the name of the One from whom all good things come, Jesus Christ.

Exchanging Earthly Treasures for Eternal Treasures

Luke 18:22
When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

The young ruler, as he is often called, was given the directive to sell what He had and follow Jesus. It was a hard word for the young man to take. He walked away from all that Jesus had offered because he could not give up his earthly treasures in exchange for the treasures that Jesus offered to him.

For most all of us, God’s words do not come to us in such a direct manner as the words spoken to the young man. They do not come in clear audible context. God’s directives come to us in the faint internal whisperings of the Holy Spirit. We receive more of a gentle urging of the spirit rather than an anything audible. Nonetheless, we are challenged just like the young ruler to decide if God is the most important thing in our lives.

Maybe, unlike the young ruler, it is not our treasures that we are holding on to. Maybe we are holding on to a job that keeps us away from our family. Maybe we are holding on to an outside interest that keeps us out of church on Sunday. Maybe we are holding on to a habit that limits our ability to draw closer to God. Maybe it is simply pride that is keeping us from fully surrendering to Our Savior.

Whatever it is, it is clear to Our Lord what we are holding on to. In His loving kindness, He will insure that which we are clinging to is exposed. The Holy Spirit will reveal the things of the flesh that we are clinging to. The Holy Spirit will send us urgings that are designed to test our obedience. If we ignore the urgings, they will become weaker and weaker until they eventually cease. If we are obedient to the urgings, they will become clearer and clearer to us. God’s inspiration will become a greater part of our lives as we begin to seek the urgings of the Holy Spirit in all of our endeavors. Through the process of obedience and surrender, we will learn to walk in the fullness of Jesus Christ.

Let us ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the things that we are placing above God in our lives. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to show us any areas of lack in our spiritual walk with Christ. Let us submit to the urgings of the Holy Spirit so that we may live the abundant life that God has planned for us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for drawing us to Yourself through the gentle urgings of the Holy Spirit. We praise You for providing the ever present Counselor in our daily lives. We pray that our minds and hearts will be receptive to all that the Holy Spirit brings to us. We ask for the strength to release the trappings of our flesh that are keeping us from surrendering fully to Your Son. May our obedience bring richness to our daily walk with Our Savior. We ask all these things in the name of Our Treasure on earth and in heaven, Jesus Christ.

Reaching the Fullness of God’s Plans for Us

John 15:2
Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Jesus is the vine. Our Father in heaven is the vine keeper. We are the branches. Every branch is examined by Our Father. Every branch that is not producing fruit because it does not draw what it needs from the vine is allowed to wither away. Every branch that is producing fruit is pruned so that it may draw closer to the vine and its production may increase.

Because we are born with no attachment to the True Vine, we have no hope of bearing fruit. The Father in heaven is a wise husbandman. In His mercy and loving kindness, He provides a way for us to be grafted into the True Vine. Through His grace, He insures that we can draw from the essential elements of the Vine.

Nature provides a good example of this harvesting process. Most of the seeds that are planted in a cutting garden become beautiful flowers that need to be pruned regularly by the gardner. The regular pruning insures the health of the plants and stimulates additional growth and productivity for each plant.

So it is with us. We were given new life in the body of Christ by Our Savior. The Holy Spirit takes on the role of the gardner, pruning away all of the sin from our old lives so that we may grow in Christ and produce much fruit for His kingdom.

Let us submit to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Let us surrender to the pruning process that will allow us to reach the fullness that Almighty God has planned for us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for grafting us into Your kingdom through the sacrificial work of Your Son. We rejoice that You have sent the Holy Spirit to help us to overcome the sin that we inherited and continues to rise up against us as we seek to live as new men and women in Christ. We pray, Father, that You will provide the inspiration that we need to submit to the Holy Spirit and the strength that we need to stand against the enemy who comes to steal our fruit. Through Your grace, may we see a full harvest from ou

The Finishing Work of the Lord in Our Lives

Hebrews 12:5
My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.

Once we accept Jesus Christ as Our Savior, the Lord begins His work in us. He promises that He will complete every good work in us. He also promises that He will discipline us as needed to get us to the way, the truth and the life that is in Him. He will leave no blemish untouched.

As the Lord works on us, we can think of ourselves as a piece of old furniture that needs refinishing. Our old stain is no longer acceptable at the place where we will be displayed. We need a new refined finish. Our new finish cannot be applied until all of the old stain is removed. The first part of our refinishing will be relatively easy as our old stain is stripped away. This first step, however, will reveal the depth of the old stain. This then leads to the tough part of the process. To get rid of the stubborn stain will require sanding, scraping, chipping and maybe even gouging. This tedious process will be repeated over and over until all the old stain is completely gone. Only when all the stain has been removed completely will our final finish be applied.

God has various ways of completing His finishing work in our lives. Sometimes it is by the gentle urgings of the Holy Spirit, sometimes it is by our reading of His Word and sometimes it is by the spoken words of His ministers. Often He allows affliction and trials to bring us to acknowledge and confess our iniquities, to recognize our shortcomings in fulfilling our duties or to convince us of our folly in following our own nature. All of these things are done through His perfect love and forgiveness.

Let us humbly surrender to the finishing work of the Holy Spirit. Let us submit to the work of the Master, who is preparing us for a place in His house.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for preparing us to join You for all eternity. We bless the name of Jesus for His precious blood that He shed so that we may be washed clean of every stain of sin in our lives. We bow before You, Father, in full surrender to Your good work in us. We pray that You take us into Your hands and prepare us to stand before You in the image of Your Son. We rejoice in knowing that we will be in service to You in Your house forever. We ask all these things in the name of Our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.

Awaiting a Spiritual Growth Spurt

Psalm 1:3
He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

The changing of seasons is very easy to observe in nature. The verdant green of summer season is followed by the brilliant colors of the fall season. The dying out and browning in the winter season is always followed by the spectacular new growth in the spring season.

So it is in our growth as Christians. The Lord allows us to go through trials and periods of distance from Him in our relationship with Him. We must take care not to judge our lack of fruitfulness during our dormant seasons of trial and rest. These dormant seasons are necessary for the emergence of our harvest. How we respond during these dormant periods will determine the size and the fragrance of the new bloom in coming our harvest.

The more we let ourselves die to Christ in the dormant seasons of our lives, the greater will be the produce of our harvest times. The more we let ourselves live in the flesh during our times of trial and rest, the lesser will be the produce of our harvest times.

Let us seek the Holy Spirit to help us understand our seasons so that we are preparing properly for the harvest. Let us strive to make ourselves ready for the coming harvest that Our Father in heaven has planned for us here on earth.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us seasons of growth in our relationship with You. We rejoice in knowing that You have planned for us to go through these growing seasons with the Holy Spirit as our helper. We pray, Lord, that when we enter into our dormant periods of darkness that we may learn to respond to the checks of the Holy Spirit as we battle against the attacks of the flesh. May Your strength be perfected in our weakness as we blossom in Your perfect light. We ask all these things in the name of the Bright and Morning Star, Jesus Christ.

The Purifier of Our Hearts

Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Human rationalization leads us to believe that everyone at some level has a good heart. God’s Holy Word emphasizes that the opposite is true. The human heart is corrupt. Without Jesus Christ, the human heart is in fact deceitful above all things. Is it no wonder that in today’s news that we see evil called good and good called evil?

As a society, we have pushed God and His Son out of the picture. Collectively, we have placed our confidence in ourselves and others. The result has been in accordance with God’s Word. We now find ourselves in a culture that is desperately wicked. We see leaders that are delusional. We live among a people who mock the name of Jesus and persecute those that follow Him and choose to live by His standards.

How could all this happen? Does God not know how incapable we are to manage our own hearts? Of course He does. That is why He gave us His Son, Jesus, to be Our Savior. That is why He took the management of our hearts out of our own wretched hands and placed it under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who was instructed to open our minds and hearts to see the way, the truth and the life that is Jesus.

Let us seek the Holy Spirit to help prepare our hearts to receive Jesus as Our Savior. Let ask the Holy Spirit to mold our hearts to surrender to Jesus as Our Lord, Our Master and Our King.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for revealing the wickedness in our hearts. We thank You for providing Your Son, Jesus, so that we have a way to overcome our desire to be the rulers over our own hearts. We praise You for giving us the Holy Spirit to inspire us to turn our hearts over to Jesus. We pray that the lost around us may know the true nature of their hearts as they see the difference that Jesus Christ has made in our hearts. We ask all these things in the name of the Refiner and Purifier of our hearts, Jesus Christ.

Making Our Lives Completely Pleasing to Our Lord

Matthew 15:19
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

Have you ever stubbed your toe on a piece of furniture or perhaps leaned up quickly and hit your head on something? I am sure you have. We all have. Did the unexpected jolt of pain result in words of love and praise flowing from your mouth? For most of us, the answer would most certainly be no. More likely, we may have let out a few words that we were not too proud of.

Found in the core structure of the flesh is sin. Thus our response to trials can often be categorized as something less than holy. To think that we are capable of avoiding the trappings of our flesh on our own would be spiritually naive. In fact, we would be thinking contrary to the Word of God if we thought we had such control over ourselves. We are firmly bound to sin without the indwelling of Jesus Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

We can lead good lives by worldly standards, but we cannot lead Godly lives without the saving grace of Jesus Christ and the filling of the Holy Spirit. Purity is too deep down for man to get to naturally. We need the Holy Spirit to guide us in surrendering our lives to Jesus Christ so that we may live in accordance with His unsullied purity.

Let us surrender our hearts to Jesus Christ. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to show us how to make our lives completely pleasing to Our Lord. Let us rejoice in knowing that His grace is sufficient.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us Your Son, Jesus, to be the supreme authority over our hearts. We pray that the Holy Spirit will strengthen us in our battle to live our lives in a manner that is pleasing to You. By Your loving kindness, Your mercy and Your grace, may we repent of everything in our lives that displeases You. We pray that we may surrender all that we have and all that we are to You. We rejoice in knowing that we will serve You in purity and perfection for all eternity. We ask all these things in the name of the One who is Perfect and Holy, Jesus Christ.

Never Settling for the Lesser Things of This World

Revelation 3:17
For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

In Jesus’ message to the church of Laodicea, He warns of the danger of becoming lukewarm in our relationships with Him and lukewarm in our application of His teachings in our lives. His message is so relevant today as we allow the work of the Holy Spirit and the power of the Holy Word to be largely diminished as we find ourselves trying to fit into the norms of our deviant society.

The teachings of Jesus can seem out of all proportion with our natural way of considering things. In fact, reading His teachings can lead to astonishing discomfort. Without the Holy Spirit’s guidance, it may be challenging for us to rationalize the inerrant teaching in the Word.

The corruption of the world has become so commonplace that it is often overlooked and at times completely approved of as acceptable behavior. The Word of God magnifies the differences between the ways of Our Risen Lord and the ways of the world. When the Holy Spirit leads us to see the power and joy in the lifestyle of Jesus Christ, we begin the process of gaining victory over the wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked men and women we once were.

Let us take hold of the inerrant Word of God. Let us believe in the truths that He has given us. Let us believe in who He says He is. Let us rebuke the lies of the world. Let us live abundant lives in Christ.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for sending Your Son to show us the way, the truth and the life that is available to us through our salvation and the daily working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We pray that You will shine Your light on the world so that all the darkness is exposed for what it is. We ask You to alert us when we are moving toward the darkness and away from Your perfect light. We pray that the Holy Spirit will instruct us and strengthen us as we fully surrender to living in the fullness of Jesus Christ, never settling for the lesser things that the world might offer. May we be set on fire as disciples of Jesus. May we boldly proclaim the truth in Your Holy Word. May we be light to the darkness in the world around us. We ask all these things in the name of the Lord of all the earth, Jesus Christ.

The Struggle of the Old Man vs. the New Man

Hebrews 13:20-21
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Upon receiving Jesus Christ as Our Savior, the Holy Spirit begins to show us what sanctification means. The job of the Holy Spirit is to show us what is pleasing in the sight of Our Savior. As a result of this process, everything that we do that is displeasing to the Lord also comes to light. Thus begins the struggle of the old man versus the new man.

Jesus became man so that He could die for our sins. When He comes to dwell within us, there is no room for the sins of the old man. We must allow our old selves to die as we assume our new life in Christ. The two cannot abide together. To try and hold on to our old lives once Jesus has arrived is to enter into a struggle that is filled with endless pain. The new life of joy is found only in the death of our old lives.

As we work toward a life that is well pleasing in the sight of Jesus, we must recognize that the work of grace is necessary. Without the good work of grace, we are not capable of overcoming the nature of the old man within us. But be certain, the work of grace is not the work of man. It is the work of God alone. It is an internal work done in the heart of men by Him. It is a gradual and progressive work. It will not be perfected until we stand before Him. But indeed, when we stand before Him all the displeasing things in us will be gone forever and all the pleasing things in His sight will shine brightly for all eternity.

Let us begin each day by asking the Lord for fresh grace. Let us ask the Lord to equip us with everything good that we may do His will for our lives. Let us seek the Holy Spirit to guide us and direct us on our paths of sanctification. Let us rejoice in knowing that the victory is ours through Jesus Christ.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us Your Holy Word that defines the things that please you. We praise You for revealing to us all the things in our lives that displease you. We bless the name of Jesus for giving us victory over the sins that try to defeat us. We pray, Lord, that the Holy Spirit will strengthen us in our struggles to overcome the torments of our flesh and the attacks of the enemy. May the Holy Spirit enlighten us in the areas that the world tries to redefine as acceptable when You have already defined it as sin. May all that we do be acceptable in Your eyes. May it all be for Your glory. We ask all these things in the name of the Captain of Our Salvation, Jesus Christ.