For His Honor, His Glory and His Good Pleasure

Philippians 2:13

For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Everything that we have and everything that we are comes from Almighty God.  To speak of ourselves as unworthy or incapable to do the work that the Lord has called us to do is an insult to the Creator.  As the apostle Paul states in 1 Cor 15:10, "His grace which was bestowed on me was not in vain."

In the eyes of Our Heavenly Father, through the blood sacrifice of His Son, we are seen in the image of the Son.  We should carry ourselves and conduct our work for the Lord with the confidence of the heirs to His kingdom.  The children of God should differ from the sons of men.  We should live our lives by the standards that we are capable of through His grace and the presence and support of the Holy Spirit.

Only through our personal relationship with Our Redeemer can we let go the things of the world that are holding us in bondage.  Only through submission to Our Lord, Our Master and Our King can we overcome our natural weaknesses and operate in the divine power of Our Creator for His good pleasure.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for creating each of us with a sovereign, gracious purpose for our lives.  We bless the name of Jesus for shedding His blood so that we may be worthy to do the things that bring pleasure to You.  We exalt the Holy Spirit for standing by us so that we may overcome our weaknesses.  We rejoice in knowing that Your grace is not bestowed on us in vain.  We pray for the strength to persevere in pursuing Your will for our lives and not our own.  May the fruit of our efforts be for Your honor, Your glory and Your good pleasure.  

Quickened by the Holy Spirit

John 16:13-14

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.  He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

When we receive Jesus Christ as Our Savior, we are indwelled by His Holy Spirit.  As the Holy Spirit fulfills His calling to glorify Jesus and declare the things that are to come in our lives, we enter into a new phase of our lives.  We move from whatever natural level of piety, prayer and devotion that we might have had into a new supernatural level of devotion.  We enter into a personal, passionate relationship with Jesus.

Simultaneously, we begin to undergo the sanctification process.  From that first moment of accepting Jesus and until our death, the Holy Spirit is shaping us into the person that God created us to be.  As we go through the sanctification process, we go through a supernatural transformation.  As we respond to the urgings of the Holy Spirit, our spiritual faculty is quickened so that we may understand and respond to unfathomed treasures that are in Jesus Christ.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the Holy Spirit who reveals to us the treasures that are ours through Your Son, Jesus.  We rejoice as the Holy Spirit leads us to Jesus to lean on Him for every good thing for time and eternity.   We pray, Lord, that we may join the Holy Spirit as He glorifies the name of Our Savior.  May our work be derived from our devotion to Your Son.  May those around us know us by our calling and may they be called in the same manner. 

Thanking God for Daily Grace

Ephesians 2:8

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

With another Thanksgiving celebration passed, we all took time to pause and thank our Heavenly Father for all of the love, protection and provision that we have enjoyed in our lives.  We may have even been humble enough to give thanks for our salvation.  But did we take time to consider and give thanks for the awesome gift of grace that we receive from Almighty God each day?  

The ever flowing grace of God is what makes all the other blessings in our lives relevant.  Not one of us would even accept the gift of salvation if we had not first received the gift of grace.  Our sinful, human nature without the grace of God is simply incapable of accepting the idea that a Savior is needed for entry into the eternal kingdom of God.

The greatest blessing that we receive in life, for which we should give thanks every day, is the supernatural grace that we are provided which allows us to acknowledge that we are destitute without Our Savior and we are powerless without His presence in our lives.  May we always be mindful that only through the grace of God and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that our eyes are opened so that we can see the way, the truth and the life that is in Jesus Christ and that our hearts can be prepared to receive Our Savior and surrender to Him as Our Lord and Master. 

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we give thanks today for Your ever flowing gift of grace.  We pray, Lord, that we will be acutely aware of how far we fall short of Your glory without Your grace.  May our hunger for Your grace release the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  May the Holy Spirit lift us up into the fullness of our lives in Christ.  May the world know us by the fruit that we bear because of our acceptance of Your grace through Your Son, Jesus.

The Power of the Holy Spirit Within Us

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 to do. 

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.  

But we are given much more to insure that we will be conquerors over all things.  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

The Holy Spirit’s powerful indwelling is an amazing gift we should never take lightly.  We should live in the confidence and the power that God has given us.  With wisdom and understanding, we are able to perceive the truth that God reveals to us and are able to convey it to others.  With counsel and might, we are able to originate, plan and execute the work that God calls us to do.  With knowledge and fear of the Lord, 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 living founts of fullness of Your Son, Jesus. 

The Story of Life Through Death

Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The cross that became the instrument of death for Jesus Christ had no life in it.  The tree that gave its life, so that the formation of the cross was possible, allowed the lifeless cross to meet its responsibility.  Without taking the life of the tree, there would be no crucifixion story.

In a similar fashion, we who were dead to sin, were able to accept the free gift of salvation that was offered to us by Our Savior.  Jesus Christ gave up His life so we could meet the requirements necessary for us to be children of God. Without the taking of the life of Our Savior, there would be no salvation story.   

Along the same lines, we put our old man to death so that we might shed the ways of wickedness, error and ignorance that are inherent in the will and understanding of our sin nature.  By allowing our old man to be crucified with Christ, we take on our new lives in Jesus Christ in which we rely on Him for everything.  Without the death of our old man, there would be no sanctification story.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the endless grace that You provide us so that we are able to accept Your Son as Our Savior and are able to submit to His rule and reign in our lives.  We bless the name of Jesus who died for our sins to make it all possible.  We praise the name of the Holy Spirit for preparing our hearts to receive Our Savior and for molding our hearts so that we may submit our lives to Our Lord, Our Master and Our King.  We pray, Father, that You will empower us to go out and proclaim the good news.  May we bring honor to Your name, the name of Your Son, Jesus, and to the Holy Spirit.