Moving Into a Relationship with Jesus

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.

Our Smallest Care is Important to Him

Psalm 56:11
In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?

It is amazing how often we struggle with the issues of the day, wondering how our particular situation is going to get resolved. How little faith we have in Almighty God through whom all things are possible. But what may be even more amazing is how we have no faith that Almighty God is interested in the smallest needs in our lives when His Word proclaims that He knows the count of every hair on our heads. Our smallest concern is as important to Him as our greatest need.

Through the continuous and sometimes onerous trials that we have passed through in life, we should have learned to patiently wait on the Lord to take us from darkness into the light. Yet we seem to become frustrated by the small stuff and lose patience. More importantly we lose confidence in an Almighty God who cares for us so much that He bottles all of our tears and observes them with tender love and concern.

May we all come full circle just as David, the Psalmist, did. May we be in constant recognition of the fact that the Lord is our helper. May we move forward fearing no man, for man has no power but what God has given him. Through our trials, may we all praise God knowing that He is faithful to meet our every need.

Let us make David’s affirmation of Almighty God’s power the foundation for our daily resolve. Let us rejoice and trust in Him to be who He says He is in all things big and small.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your faithful promises to meet our every need. We praise You for giving us sufficient grace to get through every trial. We pray, Lord, that You will grant us the faith to trust in You for everything in our lives. We ask that Your Holy Spirit teach us to come to You boldly with what seems impossible and also come to You confidently with the smallest things that are troubling us. May Your grace and power in our lives never be diminished because of our lack of understanding. We ask all these things in the name of the Son seated at the right hand of power, Jesus Christ.

Our Smallest Concern is Important to Him

Psalm 56:11
In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?

It is amazing how often we struggle with the issues of the day, wondering how our particular situation is going to get resolved. How little faith we have in Almighty God through whom all things are possible. But what may be even more amazing is how we have no faith that Almighty God is interested in the smallest needs in our lives when His Word proclaims that He knows the count of every hair on our heads. Our smallest concern is as important to Him as our greatest need.

Through the continuous and sometimes onerous trials that we have passed through in life, we should have learned to patiently wait on the Lord to take us from darkness into the light. Yet we seem to become frustrated by the small stuff and lose patience. More importantly we lose confidence in an Almighty God who cares for us so much that He bottles all of our tears and observes them with tender love and concern.

May we all come full circle just as David, the Psalmist, did. May we be in constant recognition of the fact that the Lord is our helper. May we move forward fearing no man, for man has no power but what God has given him. Through our trials, may we all praise God knowing that He is faithful to meet our every need.

Let us make David’s affirmation of Almighty God’s power the foundation for our daily resolve. Let us rejoice and trust in Him to be who He says He is in all things big and small.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your faithful promises to meet our every need. We praise You for giving us sufficient grace to get through every trial. We pray, Lord, that You will grant us the faith to trust in You for everything in our lives. We ask that Your Holy Spirit teach us to come to You boldly with what seems impossible and also come to You confidently with the smallest things that are troubling us. May Your grace and power in our lives never be diminished because of our lack of understanding. We ask all these things in the name of the Son seated at the right hand of power, Jesus Christ.

The Person that is the Holy Spirit

John 14:16
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,

Belief in the ministry of the Holy Spirit is core to the life of a Christian. The Holy Spirit is a gift bestowed on the disciples of Jesus Christ that is not available to the world at large. The Holy Spirit is the differentiator in the lives of those who are believers. Nothing of kingdom significance is possible on this earth without the presence of the Holy Spirit. As believers, the Holy Spirit is our source of holiness and joy. It is only through the work of the Holy Spirit that believers are able to fulfill their God-given calling in life.

One of the tragic misunderstandings of many Christians is thinking of the Holy Spirit as a force, a power, but not as a person. Jesus Christ paid a great price for us to have His Spirit within us. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit seeks to have a very personal relationship with each of us. The Holy Spirit longs to be our counselor on all issues big and small. The Holy Spirit stands ready to be our advocate in heaven and our defender against Satan. The Holy Spirit monitors everything that we do and whispers to us to keep us on our course of sanctification. And yes, the Holy Spirit will not hesitate to rebuke us harshly if we do not listen to His quiet urgings. Through it all, the Holy Spirit is forever with us to give us peace, comfort and strength in all of the trials of our lives.

Let us commit today to developing a deep, personal relationship with our Helper. Let us seek His instruction, His guidance, His comfort and His strength. Let us rejoice in knowing that He is our constant and unfailing companion.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing the ever present Spirit of Your Son, Jesus in our lives. We exalt the name of Your Son for giving His life so that we could have a personal advocate, intercessor, counselor and protector who never leaves us. We rejoice in knowing that the Holy Spirit is our source of holiness, joy, comfort and strength throughout our lives. We humbly submit to His whispers and urgings. We pray that we will surrender to His perfect instruction. We ask that we may develop a deep and mature personal relationship with our ever present Lord. We ask all these things in the name of the One who asked the Father to provide Our Helper, Jesus Christ.

The Power to Walk Away from Sin

Romans 6:4
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

So what is this new life that we may live? As we struggle to attain a new sanctified life in Christ, we all come to know and experience that the promise for holiness is activated in our spirit, but is hampered by the weakness that remains in our flesh.

In the flesh, we are in a constant struggle to try to attain the holiness that we know has been set aside for us. The struggle is ongoing as we react to our call to holiness and attempt to adjust the way we live as new men and women in Christ. All along, we realize that we have been given the power to walk away from our old sin nature, but our flesh and our new spirit are in a battle. The flesh wants to keep us in the world. The Spirit wants to lead us on our path to sanctification. We find that there is no peace if we try to live in both worlds.

Knowing our weaknesses all too well, in His perfect mercy and loving kindness, Our Father in heaven set aside a Helper for us to manage through our daily struggles. He gave us a Counselor to help us overcome the calling of our flesh and the world. We were given the Holy Spirit to guide us and strengthen us and we were given God’s promise that He will perfect His strength in our weakness. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Cor 12:9

Let us call on the promise of Our Father in heaven. Let us rejoice in knowing that His grace is fully and perfectly sufficient to overcome our weaknesses. Let us strive to live new lives that are not conflicted by the world.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your perfect plan and provision for us to overcome our sin natures. We praise the name of Jesus for sacrificing His life so that we can have victory over sin. We bless the name of the Holy Spirit who comes alongside us to guide us and strengthen us. We pray, Lord, that You will show us how to end our struggle to balance our lives. May the Holy Spirit assist us and give us the strength to walk away from the world and commit everything in our lives to Jesus Christ, Our Savior. We ask all these things in in the name of our strength and our provision, Jesus Christ.

The Greatest Resource on Earth

John 14:26
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Why would we miss the opportunity to seek the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives? He has been sent to us by the Father in the name of His Son, Jesus. There is no consultant on earth with those credentials. Why would we seek others or rely on our own thinking when such a resource has been given to us?

No matter how intelligent we might be, the teachings of the Bible will remain a mystery to us without the influence of the Holy Spirit to aid us. Our understanding is no better than the early listeners to Jesus’ parables who “did not have ears to hear”. We cannot be disciples of Jesus Christ without the gift of the Holy Spirit.

It is the work and business of the Holy Spirit, to teach, interpret, and explain all things to us which Christ had taught to His disciples. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to make the Bible plain and easy to for us to understand. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to draw us to and instruct us in all things necessary for salvation. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to prepare us to teach what we have learned to others.

Let us seek the fullness of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the meaning of the Holy Scriptures and how we should apply them to our lives. Let us prepare ourselves to share what we have been taught with others.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for sending the Holy Spirit to be Our Helper, Our Comforter and Our Guide on our journey of sanctification. We pray that the Holy Spirit will instruct us in all things necessary for our salvation. We ask, Lord, for the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives help us to interpret Your Holy Word. May Your teachings become easy for us to understand and apply to our lives. May the Holy Spirit show us how to share this precious gift with others. We ask all these things in the name of the power of God in our lives, Jesus Christ.

Climbing Higher, One Step at a Time

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.

Surrendering to the Power 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 devils 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.

Our Smallest Concern is Important to God

Psalm 56:11
In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?

It is amazing how often we struggle with the issues of the day, wondering how our particular situation is going to get resolved. How little faith we have in Almighty God through whom all things are possible. But what may be even more amazing is how we have no faith that Almighty God is interested in the smallest needs in our lives when His Word proclaims that He knows the count of every hair on our heads. Our smallest concern is as important to Him as our greatest need.

Through the continuous and sometimes onerous trials that we have passed through in life, we should have learned to patiently wait on the Lord to take us from darkness into the light. Yet we seem to become frustrated by the small stuff and lose patience. More importantly we lose confidence in an Almighty God who cares for us so much that He bottles all of our tears and observes them with tender love and concern.

May we all come full circle just as David, the Psalmist, did. May we be in constant recognition of the fact that the Lord is our helper. May we move forward fearing no man, for man has no power but what God has given him. Through our trials, may we all praise God knowing that He is faithful to meet our every need.

Let us make David’s affirmation of Almighty God’s power the foundation for our daily resolve. Let us rejoice and trust in Him to be who He says He is in all things big and small.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your faithful promises to meet our every need. We praise You for giving us sufficient grace to get through every trial. We pray, Lord, that You will grant us the faith to trust in You for everything in our lives. We ask that Your Holy Spirit teach us to come to You boldly with what seems impossible and also come to You confidently with the smallest things that are troubling us. May Your grace and power in our lives never be diminished because of our lack of understanding. We ask all these things in the name of the Son seated at the right hand of power, Jesus Christ.

Out of this World Consulting Pre-Paid by Christ

John 14:16
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,

Belief in the ministry of the Holy Spirit is core to the life of a Christian. The Holy Spirit is a gift bestowed on the disciples of Jesus Christ that is not available to the world at large. The Holy Spirit is the differentiator in the lives of those who are believers. Nothing of kingdom significance is possible on this earth without the presence of the Holy Spirit. As believers, the Holy Spirit is our source of holiness and joy. It is only through the work of the Holy Spirit that believers are able to fulfill their God-given calling in life.

One of the tragic misunderstandings of many Christians is thinking of the Holy Spirit as a force, a power, but not as a person. Jesus Christ paid a great price for us to have His Spirit within us. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit seeks to have a very personal relationship with each of us. The Holy Spirit longs to be our counselor on all issues big and small. The Holy Spirit stands ready to be our advocate in heaven and our defender against Satan. The Holy Spirit monitors everything that we do and whispers to us to keep us on our course of sanctification. And yes, the Holy Spirit will not hesitate to rebuke us harshly if we do not listen to His quiet urgings. Through it all, the Holy Spirit is forever with us to give us peace, comfort and strength in all of the trials of our lives.

Let us commit today to developing a deep, personal relationship with our Helper. Let us seek His instruction, His guidance, His comfort and His strength. Let us rejoice in knowing that He is our constant and unfailing companion.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing the ever present Spirit of Your Son, Jesus in our lives. We exalt the name of Your Son for giving His life so that we could have a personal advocate, intercessor, counselor and protector who never leaves us. We rejoice in knowing that the Holy Spirit is our source of holiness, joy, comfort and strength throughout our lives. We humbly submit to His whispers and urgings. We pray that we will surrender to His perfect instruction. We ask that we may develop a deep and mature personal relationship with our ever present Lord. We ask all these things in the name of the One who asked the Father to provide Our Helper, Jesus Christ.