Tag: will of God

Living in the Confidence and the Power of the Holy Spirit

Romans 8:11
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Once we have accepted Jesus Christ as Our Savior, we are immediately and permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit of the Lord. The Holy Spirit works in and through us to accomplish the will of God. His power leads us, convicts us, teaches us, and equips us to do the work that God has set aside for us.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we receive all of His gifts: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. We are provided these gifts so that we may proclaim the Good News of the Gospel through our living testimony.

The Holy Spirit’s powerful indwelling is an amazing gift we should never take lightly. Because the Spirit of the Lord is within us, we also receive the powers that Isaiah prophesied that Jesus would receive by way of the Spirit of God resting upon Him. The prophet Isaiah proclaimed that Jesus would be endowed by the Holy Spirit. “And the Spirit of the LORD will rest on him–the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.” Isaiah 11:2

Let us live in the confidence and the power that the Holy Spirit gives us. Let us use the wisdom and understanding we are given to perceive the truth that God reveals to us so that we are able to convey it to others. Let us use the counsel and might that we have been given to originate, plan and execute the work that God calls us to do. Let us take our new found knowledge and fear of the Lord so we are able to live our lives surrendered to Jesus Christ.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the gifts and the power that we receive through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We praise the name of Jesus who made it possible for us to receive this supernatural blessing that empowers us far beyond our natural capabilities. We pray that the influence and power of the Holy Spirit will be manifest in all that we do. We ask that we may be made fruitful vessels of the fullness of Your Holy Spirit working in our lives. We ask all these things in the name of Our Keeper and Our King, Jesus Christ.

Be a Fulfilling Part of God’s Salvation Plan for Mankind

John 4:34
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

Jesus Christ spent every day of His life on earth fueled by the desire to fulfill the work that He had been given by His Father. It was the Father’s will that all of His children could become heirs to His kingdom in heaven. The sacrificial death of Jesus was required for any man or woman to be deemed acceptable to claim the inheritance that the Father had prepared for them. Jesus took on the sin of all men on the Cross by divine decree. It was the reason that He came to earth. He faithfully completed the work that His Father gave Him to do.

His unimaginable accomplishment was crowned by His own words, “It is finished.” Through His perfect life and His atoning death, He glorified the Father and opened the way for all men to become heirs to the kingdom of Almighty God.

With His work complete, Jesus called on His disciples to join Him in fulfilling His Father’s plan for mankind. He warned them that they would suffer many trials in carrying out the Father’s will in their own lives. He explained that each of them would have to pick up their own crosses. He encouraged them by telling them that He was going to provide them with a helper to give them the strength that they would need to bring the salvation plan to all men. As it was with the disciples, Jesus is calling each of us to join Him in a lifetime of obedience to the will of Almighty God.

Let us cling to the Cross – the supernatural bridge that provides the only way to Our Father in heaven. Let us pick up our own crosses to do what is necessary so that we may help the world around us find the way, the truth and the life that is Jesus Christ. Let us be fueled by our desire to do the will of the Father.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for loving us so much that You sent Your Son to die on the Cross to atone for our sins. We exalt the name of Jesus who accepted His assignment on earth so that He might glorify Your name and open the way to heaven for all men. We pray, Father, that we may glorify Your name by faithfully completing every good work that You have set aside for us. In the name of Jesus, we ask for the grace to see and the strength to accept the things that You have called us to do so that others may see the way, the truth and the life that is Your Son, Jesus. We ask all these things in the name of the Lamb slain for our sin, Jesus Christ.

The Power is not in Us But is Within Us

1 Corinthians 12:6
There are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

Spiritual gifts are bestowed upon us for the sole purpose of spreading the Gospel. These gifts are freely given to us by Almighty God for the salvation of others. When we try to teach, preach or evangelize by our own strength and capability, we will be unsuccessful. The power is not in us. The power is in the Holy Spirit that is within us. We must let the Holy Spirit lead us and let the outpouring of the Holy Spirit be our product.

It is not our job to convert people. It is our job to have people drawn to us by the way that we live our lives in Jesus Christ. Even though our labors may be ordinary, if they are done as works of faith, labors of love and with persistent hope in Our Savior, the Holy Spirit will carry on and complete the work of Our Heavenly Father in His children.

Once drawn to us by our walk with Jesus, the people around us will have Jesus revealed to them as the way, the truth and the life. The supernatural work of salvation will begin through our simple natural acts of obedience to the Holy Word of God. Through our living testimonies, those around us will be able to receive every good and perfect gift that Our Heavenly Father has prepared for them.

Let us surrender our lives to the work of Our Redeemer. Let us learn to listen to and obey the urgings of the Holy Spirit as He directs us to minister to others. Let us learn to wait with great faith and hope as the Lord prepares the hearts of those that He equips us to serve.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for revealing Yourself to the world through the obedient works of Your humble servants who are so undeserving. We thank You, Lord, for assigning to us various gifts, administrations and operations for us to carry out in the name of Jesus. We rejoice, Father, in knowing that the world can learn of Your good and perfect gifts by observing the lives of those who have already accepted Your gift of salvation and are obedient to You in the ordinary things of life. We pray, Lord, that Your grace will fill our hearts so that the world will know You. We ask all these things in the name of the Captain of Our Salvation, Jesus Christ.

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit Become Our Gifts to the World

1 Corinthians 3:16
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

We are vessels of the living water that dwells within us. We are not the the stream or the rain shower that brings the precious water. We are only the collecting places where the thirsty can come to be quenched.

We are the lanterns of the Light of the World. We are not the sun or the moon that brings the precious light. We are only the beacons that allow the light to shine into the darkness of the world around us.

We are the temples of Jesus Christ. We produce nothing on our own, but we are the repositories of the gifts of the Holy Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

We are conduits of the perfect love and forgiveness of Our Heavenly Father. Nothing that flows from us is of ourselves. It is all the perfection of Jesus Christ within us. God could have chosen angels to deliver His message, but He chose weaker vessels so that His power might be glorified and His treasures might be shared with all men.

Let us prepare ourselves to receive and pass along every good thing that the Father has set aside for us. Let us seek to be living founts of the goodness and loving kindness of Almighty God. Let us be good stewards of His presence in our lives.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for choosing us to deliver Your treasures to the world. We rejoice in knowing that You have pulled us from the pit, cleansed us with the blood of Your Son, Jesus, and made us worthy to be lamps upon a hill. We pray, Lord, that You will reveal to us everything in our lives that hinders the flow of Your gifts. May we live in the fullness of Our Savior. May all the glory be Yours. We ask all these things in the name of the Living Water and the Everlasting Light, Jesus Christ.

Almighty God Understands Our Weakness

1 Thessalonians 5:24
He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

The God who calls us to our Christian faith is faithful to fulfill His promises to us. From the moment that we surrender to His Son, Jesus, as Our Savior, He commences a good work in us that He promises to finish. He will be steadfast in His continuous work of sanctification in our lives.

New government authority, new boss, new co-worker, new neighbor, new acquaintance, new friend – not a single one is new by chance. God has placed each of those that are around us to teach us new things about ourselves. It seems impossible that such a plan could be put in place for each of us. But our God is a God of the impossible. He has no limits to His power and His authority. He loves us so much that He goes to an extraordinary, nearly unimaginable, level to insure that we are surrounded by a host of intercessors. These intercessors in our lives are placed there for one reason. God in His mercy and His grace wants to insure that we are properly prepared to spend eternity with Him.

In the life of the believer, there is no such thing as chance. Our sovereign God is always in total control of everything. Do not miss the flip side of our relationships with our surrounding intercessors. God wants us to join Him in the work that He is doing in the lives of those around us. We are simultaneously the other half of all of these relationships in our lives. We become the new boss, the new co-worker, the new neighbor, the new acquaintance, the new friend to someone else. And again, not a single one of the new relationships is by chance. God has purposely placed us in each relationship to be a giver as well as a receiver of His intercessory work in our lives.

Let us embrace every relationship in our lives. Let us be proactive in gleaning the good things from each person God has placed around us. Let us also be determined to be productive intercessors for each person that God has put in our lives.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your providence in our lives. We rejoice in knowing that You understand our weaknesses and provide intercessory support through those that You place around us. We pray, Father, that Your Holy Spirit will alert us to the intercession that You have planned for us. May we learn to grow through the circumstances that engulf us from time to time. May we be gracious and willing receivers of the intercession that You have placed in our lives. We pray that in turn You will provide the wisdom that we need to be fruitful intercessors for others as we engage them in the journey that is life. We ask all these things in the name of Our Most High Intercessor, Jesus Christ.

Our Reward in Heaven is Determined by Our Relationship with the Son of God

1 Corinthians 6:11
And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Once we receive Jesus Christ as Our Savior, we are washed clean of our sins and made acceptable to take our place before the Father in heaven. We receive what we did not earn and certainly do not deserve. It is granted to us through the atoning work of Our Savior. None is the result of our holiness.

Our holiness is the result of us allowing the life of Jesus to be manifested in our flesh. Are we willing to let God do in us all that has been made possible by Our Savior? Or are we resting content in the salvation that we have been granted without pressing into a relationship with the One who gave His life so that our salvation could be assured?

Both our place in heaven and our position in heaven are gifts from God. Our salvation guarantees our place in heaven. The measure that we put into our relationship with Our Savior determines our position in heaven. How can we not strive to develop the most intimate relationship with Our Savior King?

Let us give thanks to Almighty God for the place in heaven that has been set aside for us by the atoning sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. Let us press on beyond our salvation, seeking an intimate relationship with Our Savior through which we will be directed to do the works that we have been prepared to do by the will and plan of Our Creator. Let us rejoice for the rewards that we will receive in heaven as a result of the good works that we have been inspired to carry out by the Holy Spirit.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the eternal resting place that You have prepared for us. We ask that we may receive the grace to fully recognize the perfect gift that we have been given and the unimaginable sacrifice that was required for us to be able to receive it. We pray, Father, that the Holy Spirit will inspire us to choose to accept the fullness that is ours through Your Son, Jesus. We pray that we will never be satisfied with our salvation alone, but that we will seek the highest level of all things that You have set aside for us. We ask all these things in the name of our Most High, Most Holy and Most Righteous Lord, Jesus Christ.

God is Pleased When We Join Him in His Work

Esther 4:14
For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish.

God had a unique will and plan for Esther’s life. He wanted her to be the instrument that He used to deliver His people. He wanted her to know that He would bring favor for His people through her efforts. But God would not make the choice for Esther, she had to make her own choice to follow His instruction. If she did not follow His will, God made it known that He would find someone else who would be the instrument of delivering His people.

God was very clear in conveying the options to Esther. What He did not say to her was, “Thanks, I could not do this without you.” God can accomplish His plans without any help from us. If we are not obedient in doing the things that He asks us to do, the loss is not His. He will find a replacement to do His good work because He loves to use His children to accomplish His work. It brings Him great pleasure and glory.

But if we are not obedient to the things that He asks us to do, it is our loss. The work that we do for the Lord is more about our sanctification process than the results of our work. Who we are in Christ is defined by our obedience to His calling.

Let us ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us how we can fulfill God’s will and plan for our lives. Let us seek to join the Lord in His good work.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the privilege of serving You on this earth. We rejoice in knowing that we bring You great pleasure and glory when we do Your good work. We pray, Father, that You will open our eyes so that we may see the ways in which You are calling us to serve You. We pray, Lord, that You will prepare our hearts to surrender to Your will for our lives. May all that we do be for Your pleasure and Your glory. We ask all these things in the name of the Great King Over All the Earth, Jesus Christ.

The Proper Approach to Our Work

Luke 18:31
And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.

Jesus was perfectly attuned to the work that He was called to do. He spent His entire time on earth completely focused on doing the will of His Father. He did not care if He preached to one or to ten thousand. He was not seeking recognition for the good work that He was doing in the sense that we would seek recognition for ourselves. There is so much that we need to learn from Jesus about how we approach our work.

Jesus was only concerned with pleasing the Father. Nothing could discourage Our Lord on His way to Jerusalem to meet His fate at Calvary. No amount of suffering could deter Him. No distraction could lead Him to hurry to the next task. The only task that Jesus was concerned with was the one that the Father put before Him. There is so much that we need to learn from Jesus about persevering through our trials.

It is important that we tune into the voice of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit directs our attention to Our Savior. The Holy Spirit works in our lives so that we can learn to align our personal plans with the plans that God has for our lives. Just as Jesus aligned His plans with the Father’s plans so that He would find His way to Jerusalem, we must align ourselves with God’s plan for our lives so that we can find our way to our Jerusalem, New Jerusalem. We must not let anything or any circumstance take us off our path.

Let us please Our Father in heaven. Let us surrender completely to the One who was completely surrendered to the will of His Father. Let us accomplish all that was set aside for us on the Cross through Him.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing for our eternal resting place in New Jerusalem. We praise Our Savior, Jesus, for clearing our path to get there. We ask for the Holy Spirit to direct us to our path and prepare us for the journey. We pray that we may be strengthened so that we may be steadfast in doing only the things that are pleasing to You, Father. May all that we accomplish be for Your glory. We ask all these things in the name of Our Spiritual Rock, Jesus Christ.

Experiencing the Fullness of His Work in Us

John 17:4
I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

Jesus Himself declared that His principal work was to be obedient to the will of His Father in heaven. He did not seek His own glory. He sought only His Father’s glory. In the process, He did away with Satan, sin and death and He provided for the redemption and the salvation of all men.

Just as Jesus was faithful in completing His work on earth to glorify His Father, He will also be faithful in completing His work in us so that we may glorify Our Father. We will not experience the complete fullness of His work in us until we meet Our Savior in His eternal kingdom. But as we surrender to the will of the Father, we can expect to accomplish more here on earth than we can imagine that we are capable of. And we can be certain that our work will bring glory to Our Father in heaven.

Be mindful that Satan and our own flesh will come against us as we seek to glorify the Father on earth. But fear not for the Spirit of the Lord will insure that we overcome the work of the enemy. We do not need to be concerned about our circumstances, Our Savior will be sufficient. And it will all be for the glory of The Father.

Let us surrender everything to Our Father in heaven. Let our obedience to His call on our lives glorify His name. May those around us glorify the Father when they see our faithfulness.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the grace that You have given us through Your Son to overcome the world. We bless the name of Jesus for His faithfulness in completing the good work that You gave Him to do. We pray that the Holy Spirit will lead us and strengthen us so that we may fully surrender to Your will just as Your Son surrendered His all to You. May it all be for Your glory, for the glory of Your Son and the glory of the Holy Spirit. We ask all these things in the name of the obedient Son of the Most High God, Jesus Christ.

Prayers are Answered When They are in Alignment with God’s Eternal Plan for Us

Matthew 20:23
He said to them, “You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”

The apostles, James and John, were seeking a position in heaven that was not in the will of the Father. God had a place prepared for them that certainly exceeded their imaginations, but it was not at the right and left hand of Jesus as they had asked.

We have been taught that we can ask anything in the name of Jesus and it will be granted to us. This is true, but our solicitations can be granted only if what we ask is in the will of The Father. This can cause spiritual confusion for us when our prayers are not answered or, more correctly, have not been answered according to the desires of our flesh.

God has been faithful in providing institutions on earth which can help us to understand how this precept works. As parents, we can recall times that we withheld things from our children because we knew that is was not the right thing for them at the time. What they were asking for did not fit in with the overall good that we were seeking for them. As business leaders, we have denied the requests of good and faithful employees because it was not in alignment with the company’s vision and business plan.

Almighty God has prepared things for us that have been in place before the foundations of the earth were formed. Everything that He grants us through His Son is in accordance with His good and perfect plan for our lives in His kingdom. When we reach our place in the kingdom, we will find it to be beyond our imaginations.

Let us seek the will of God in our lives. Let us live confidently in knowing that the Father will release to us everything that we ask for that is in alignment with our eternal good. Let us praise Him when He withholds something from us for we know that He has something better planned for us. Let us rejoice in His goodness and His faithfulness.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for preparing a place for us in Your kingdom. We bless the name of Your Son, who You have given us to be our mediator as we seek Your grace in our lives. Teach us, Lord, to seek those things that are according to Your sovereign will and pleasure. We pray that the Holy Spirit will redirect us when our petitions are of our flesh and not of the fullness of Jesus Christ who dwells within us. We ask all these things in the name of the True Foundation, Jesus Christ.