Tag: Holy Spirit

The Perfect Love, Mercy and Forgiveness of Jesus Christ

Psalm 32:5
I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

In the flesh, it is very difficult to deliver a full confession of the sin in our lives. We simply are not equipped to deal with self-condemnation without the aid of the Holy Spirit. Our carnal minds are not able to fathom the real joy in the forgiving mercy of Jesus Christ.

It is very important that we confess our sins and repent of them quickly. We should not hold on to them for any reason – not even to punish ourselves. We must take God’s merciful grace and cleanse ourselves of our sins. We must recognize that Jesus Christ has atoned for all of our sins for all eternity. To hold on to any sin, even its guilt, is to continue to unnecessarily suffer its destruction in our lives.

Once we have cleansed ourselves of our sins through confession, the Holy Spirit will come along side us and lift us to a new, higher level relationship with the Father. “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” Psalm 32:1-2

Let us ask the Holy Spirit to inspect us and to reveal to us the darkness of sin in our lives. Let us surrender to the urgings of the Holy Spirit to repent of our sins so that we may be cleansed. Let us rejoice in the peace, comfort and freedom that we are given as we confess our sins and receive the perfect love and forgiveness of Our Savior. Thus let us take our relationship with Our Heavenly Father to a higher level.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your loving kindness, Your mercy and Your grace that has provided a way for us to be cleansed of our sins and freed from its destructive power in our lives. We thank You Jesus for settling our sin debt for all eternity. We exalt the name of Our Savior. We pray that the Holy Spirit will help us to uncover all of the sin in our lives so that we may quickly confess it with our mouths. May we escape the darkness that has overcome us and live in the precious light of Our Redeeming King. May we reach higher and higher in building our relationship with You, Father. We ask all these things in the mighty, holy and precious name of Jesus Christ.

Building Awareness of the Constant Presence of God

1 Thessalonians 5:17
Pray without ceasing.

When Paul exhorted the Thessalonians to pray without ceasing, most, if not all, were probably thinking that he was asking for the impossible. Let us consider whether prayer without ceasing is possible.

Prayer may be oral or mental, occasional or constant. It may be formal or in the form of an outburst. It may be offered in secret or in public. It may be a personal solicitation or it may be intercessory.

Prayer presupposes a belief in a God who wants to hear from us and wants to extend His perfect control over our lives. Prayer is offered in reverence with a humble sense of inadequacy and unworthiness as we bow before the holy and righteous God of heaven. Prayer is offered in thanksgiving for everything we already have been provided and are currently experiencing. Prayer is rejoicing in every moment as we recognize the presence of Our Savior and the fullness of what He has done for us and is willing to do for us. Perhaps most importantly, prayer is listening for His response as we commune with Him.

Prayer is recognizing that we have a daily and continuous need for the intervention of Our Savior, Jesus Christ. As we start each day of our lives, we can be sure that we will encounter new trials and new challenges in our service, whether it be carnal or spiritual. We would certainly be wise to call on the counsel and power of the Holy Spirit to aid us along the way lest we falter.

If Jesus Christ is the foundation of our lives, prayer is as natural as breathing. We are always needy. We benefit considerably by being continually before the Throne of Grace. Indeed, kneeling is not required. We can pray without ceasing just by recognizing the constant presence of the One who longs for our attention.

Let us discover how prayer without ceasing is possible. Let us live moment to moment in constant awareness of the One who dwells within us. Let us open our senses to constant communication with Him.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we praise You for who You are. We thank You for all that You have provided and continue to provide. We submit to Your control over our lives. We pray that You will teach us how to make prayer to You as normal and as regular as breathing. May our lives be a continuous flow of our reverent acknowledgement of Your presence and power in our lives. We ask all these things in the name of Our Refuge in the Storm, Jesus Christ.

Walking with Jesus in the Journey to Sanctification

Matthew 25:21
His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’

As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to join Our Master as He walks along side us in our journey toward sanctification. We can be certain that we will encounter the following along the way:
1) Jesus will set our hearts to burning for Him as He opens the scriptures to us, just as he did for the two disciples when He joined them as they were walking on the road to Emmaus.
2) The Holy Spirit will reveal to us who we are without Jesus in our lives.
3) The Holy Spirit will convict us of the darkness in our lives and urge us to be obedient in changing our ways and helping others to change their ways.
4) Satan will attack us intensely all along the way as we grow in Christ.

We can be just as certain that the victory is ours if we rely on the One who died for our sins. We will enter into the joy of Our Master for all eternity.

Can you even imagine the joy that Jesus holds? He is the essence of everything good. He is the absence of anything evil. He is perfect in every measure. This is all ours when we stand before Him one day to take our place as His eternal servants.

Let us enter into the joy of the Master. As He dwells within us, may His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we praise You and thank You for loving us so much that You gave us Your Son to redeem us from our sins and that You provided Your Holy Spirit to guide us along our path of preparation for receiving our place in heaven for all eternity. We pray that Your countenance will shine up us. We pray that Your grace will be with us always. We pray that You will protect us from harm and evil. We pray that You will protect us from the evil one and all of His temptations. We pray that You will raise us up to be instruments of Your good work and vessels of Your perfect love and forgiveness. May we stand before You one day and hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” We ask all these things in the name of the Joy of the World, Jesus Christ.

God Loves to Use All of His Children to Reveal Himself to the World

Psalm 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

It is undeniable. The heavens proclaim the glory of God. Every facet of God’s existence, power, wisdom and goodness are revealed in the starry canopy above us. Peering into the vast heavens gives us a sense of our infinite Lord, a sense of His control over all things and a sense of the magnitude of His power to hold it all together.

Our Creator provided the sun, the moon and the stars to provide light in our world. He provided His Son to be the Light of the World. Just as the Lord declares His glory through the display of His handiwork in the heavens, He also declares His glory through His Son. And the glory that He receives through His Son is multiplied over and over again through His children. He reveals His glorious Holy Spirit to the world through every single child that He has created.

The Lord uses powerful men of God to deliver His messages, but He does not use them alone. He chooses to use everyone of His children – of every age and every time – to declare His perfect love and forgiveness. He certainly does not need any of us to accomplish anything, but He loves to use all of us to reveal Himself to those who are in our everyday lives. We are the instruments of God’s perfect love.

Let us take time to consider how awesome our God is. Let us take time to marvel at all of His creation. Let us recognize we are intricate pieces in His divine handiwork. Let us insure that our lives reflect His glory.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You and praise You for the magnificent universe that You have created. We proclaim Your glory in all that we see before us. Father, we pray that You will use us as instruments of Your good work. May the world see the magnificence of who You are through our living testimony. May we be daily expressions of Your perfect love and forgiveness. We ask all these things in the name of Your Everlasting Light, Jesus Christ.

The Positive and Negative Power of Spoken Words

Proverbs 15:4
The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.

God spoke the world into existence. Jesus cast out demons and healed the sick with His spoken words. There is great power in our words as well. Words cast out from our mouths have the power to build up and the power to crush. We must be conscious of the power of every word that we speak.

Destructive comments like, “You will never amount to anything,” can have long term, negative impact on the life of a child. Life giving comments like, “God has a special plan for your life,” can have long term, positive impact on the life of a child. We must be careful in choosing the words that we speak to our loved ones and to all the people that we encounter in life. We truly have the power to plant life or death into those around us.

Satan will stay in our ears all day long, feeding us with destructive words to be spoken against those that we care for. We must keep our armor up against the urgings to hurt others with our words. We must continually ask the Holy Spirit to help us to be mindful of our words so that we comfort and build up those around us instead of crushing their spirits.

Let us speak healing words to the wounded. Let us speak atoning words to those without Christ. Let us speak peace, encouragement and building up in the lives of all those that surround us. Let us silence any destructive words that the enemy tries to solicit from us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the gift of speaking. We rejoice in praising You with our words and our songs. We take comfort in coming to You with our words of solicitation. We pray, Father, that You will fill our hearts with words that speak life into those around us. We pray that You will shield us from the urgings of the enemy to speak words of conflict and destruction. Build us up, Lord, so that we may build up others in Your Precious Name. We ask all these things in the name of the Living Word, Jesus Christ.

Seeking and Obeying the Counsel of the Holy Spirit

2 Peter 1:3
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

God sets the vision for our lives and puts everything in place for us to fulfill the plan. He provides His Holy Spirit to stand by us, to guide us and to instruct us in the person, the grace and the righteousness that is Jesus Christ. There is absolutely nothing in this world that can stop us from meeting the plans that Almighty God has set aside for us.

We must, however, take all the small steps needed to move from one place to the next higher place that God has planned for us. We must be obedient to the urgings of the Holy Spirit as we overcome the callings of our flesh. We must allow the Holy Spirit to move us from a knowledge of Our Savior into a meaningful relationship with Him.

Along the way, Satan will challenge each and every step. And once we really start making progress, Satan will turn his evil on those around us, especially those close to us. Built up by our faith and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, we will overcome. As we surrender to the whispers of Our Helper, our tiny steps of obedience will take us to our special calling and allow us to live godly lives through the One who has called us.

Let us make the Lord, Jesus Christ, first in our lives. Let us learn to seek His counsel in all things. May the voice of His Holy Spirit drown out all the noise that the world sends to keep us from our manifest destiny in Christ.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your promise to complete Your good work in our lives. Thank You for the faith that You provide us through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We pray that You will help us to build a relationship with Your Son and His Holy Spirit who has been sent to be Our Helper. Help us to become tuned in to every tiny whisper from the Holy Spirit that reminds us of Your promises and guides us in faith on our journey of sanctification. We ask all these things in the name of the Anointed One, Jesus Christ.

Seeking the Inspection, Instruction and Guidance of the Holy Spirit

John 16:7
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

From time to time, you may hear someone say, “I sure wish that I had lived in the time of Jesus. It would be easier to know and follow Him.” Jesus, Himself, revealed to the apostles that life with the Holy Spirit would be better than life with Him on earth.

The lives of the apostles confirms His message. The apostles were slow in understanding the teachings of Jesus. They were even slower in adopting His power and His ways. They scattered like the wind at His death. In fact, they were still in hiding even after the Resurrection. It was after the appearance of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost that everything changed for the apostles. Their knowledge of the teachings of Jesus became complete. They were filled with the boldness to go out and proclaim the Good News, even under the threat of death. And at once, they were able to exhibit the powers of casting out demons and healing the sick.

Everything that the apostles experienced after Pentecost is available to us today. All we have to do is surrender to Our Savior and live in the spirit and not in the flesh. The Holy Spirit is our supernatural resource. The Holy Spirit is our comforter in troubles. The Holy Spirit is our leader in all truth. The Holy Spirit is the power behind all of our good works for the kingdom of God.

Let us surrender to the demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Let us seek His inspection, His instruction and His guidance. Let us live in the fullness of what He reveals to us. Let us rejoice in knowing that He is always with us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we praise You and thank You for sending the Holy Spirit to be our Helper. We thank You that we do not have to stand alone against the torments of our own flesh and the attacks of the enemy. We come before You to surrender to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We claim Your promise that You will perfect Your strength in our weakness. Through this process, may we come to a full understanding of who You are. May we become living examples of our relationship with You. May we serve the world around us through the gifts that You provide us through the Holy Spirit. We ask all these things in the name of Our Risen King, Jesus Christ.

Judged and Forgiven in Advance by Our Savior

1 Peter 4:17
For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

For each of us that have been washed clean of our sins by the blood of Jesus Christ, the keys to the kingdom of God will be given. Our sins will have been judged and forgiven in advance by Our Savior. Our sins will no longer stain us in the eyes of Almighty God. We will appear in the likeness of Jesus Christ before Our Father in heaven. We will be worthy to become heirs to the kingdom of Almighty God for all eternity.

Yet Our Just and Holy Father requires that all sin must be punished. So those of us that have received the grace of salvation will experience rebuking for our sins in this lifetime. The Holy Spirit will reveal to us the past and current sins in our lives. We will be required to ask forgiveness for our sins and turn away from them. Until we completely surrender to Jesus, we will suffer trials and tribulations in accordance with our iniquities. Our suffering will serve as both the measured punishment required for our sins and the enlightenment needed to facilitate our reliance on Our Savior. Our suffering will continue until every element of our self reliance is slain at the Cross.

For every man and every woman that does not accept the offer of salvation, their time of judgement will also come. It will be at the Throne of God. Sadly, they will have no defense for their sins. They will be deemed unacceptable to enter in to the eternal home of Almighty God. There will be no comfort for those that come before the Lord on their final day still covered in the filth of their sins. They will face endless torment.

Let us rejoice in the knowledge that our salvation separates us from our sins and their required eternal damnation. Let us completely surrender ourselves to the sanctification process that the Lord has set aside for us on this earth. Let us prepare ourselves to hear the sweet words “well done good and faithful servant” when we stand before Our Heavenly Father at His Throne.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your loving kindness, Your mercy and Your grace in our lives. We thank You for opening our eyes so that we may see the sin in our lives that separates us from You. We thank You for preparing our hearts so that we could receive Your Son, Jesus, as Our Savior. We pray that You mold our hearts, Lord, so that we fully surrender to Your Son each and every day of our lives. Prepare us, Lord, to stand before You in the image of Your Son. We ask all these things in the name of the precious Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

The Way We Live Reveals Christ to Others

1 Peter 3:1-2
Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.

God is a respecter of no man. Therefore, what He directs to one, He directs to another. Therefore, whatever He directs to the wives, He also directs to the husbands. Therefore, whatever He directs to husbands and wives, He also directs for all relationships.

What Peter is teaching us is that we do not change the lives of our mates, or others around us, by our words. We change the lives of those around us by changing our own lives in accordance with the work of the Holy Spirit within us. Through our new lives in Christ, and not through our words, all around us are drawn to the truth that is working within us.

As the Holy Spirit changes us, He will also change our spouses and others in our lives. The Holy Spirit will work continuously to strengthen our marriages by making Jesus Christ the foundation of our union. He will work continuously to open the eyes of those around us to the way, the truth and the life that is in Jesus.

Let us seek the Holy Spirit to guide us and strengthen us. Let us strive to have the world see the presence of Jesus Christ in our daily lives. Let us lead lives that are marked by purity and reverence.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the institution of marriage. We thank You for providing us with mates who complete us in Christ. We pray, Lord, that You will show us how to surrender our individual lives to the work of the Holy Spirit so that He can build the foundations of our marriages in Jesus Christ. We thank You for providing us with friends and family to help build us up. May our lives open their eyes to the wondrous work of Jesus Christ. May He become the cornerstone of all our lives. We ask all these things in the name of our rock and our foundation, Jesus Christ.

The Grace of Salvation is Available to All

Titus 2:11
For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all the people.

Every one of us on this earth is burdened by a sin debt that we cannot pay. It is a debt the carries the most severe of all debt penalties – eternal damnation. Our Divine Creator through His perfect love and forgiveness offers each of us a payment plan that allows us to remove the onerous debt. He is a most merciful creditor.

The debt clearing offer of Our Heavenly Father is not based on our good deeds, nor on the basis of our performance of any type. The redeeming offer that He makes to us is made to us as a free gift. It is called His grace. It is revealed to us by the inspiration of His Holy Spirit. All we have to do is accept it in the name of His Son Jesus.

To add to the sweetness of His offer, He extends His grace to us by providing His Holy Spirit to in-dwell in us to guide, counsel and comfort us as we go through the debt period of our lives. Let us remember that we have not earned, nor do we deserve the grace of salvation. We are most unworthy, sin-burdened servants. It is by God’s grace and the shed blood of His Son that our salvation is possible.

Let us now live righteous and godly lives that correspond to the glorious debt free condition that we will hold when we stand before the Lord. Let us humbly recognize that we cannot do it on our own, but we can through the grace of Almighty God and the indwelling of His Holy Spirit.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the riches of Your grace that are extended to us through Your Son, Jesus Christ. Let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We pray that through Your grace we will lead sober, righteous and godly lives. May those who You have placed in our lives be drawn to accept Your salvation offer that is available to all of them through Your precious grace. We ask all these things in the name of the One who is the fount of all of Your grace, Jesus Christ.