The Ministry of 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 happiness.  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, happiness, 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.

Listening to God is an Acquired Gift

John 16:13

But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.

Our Heavenly Father has given all of us Christians the Holy Spirit to teach us the Truth.  The Holy Spirit takes us beyond head knowledge of God into a personal relationship with Our Creator.  If we submit to the urgings of the Holy Spirit, we will not only learn about Our Savior, but we will learn to relish and savor all things that glorify Jesus Christ.

Additionally, we will find that the Holy Spirit goes before us as a guide.  He clears our path of obstacles as He opens our understanding.  He leads us on the path that we should follow.  He makes things plain and clear for us as never before.

In order to profit from this awesome gift of the Holy Spirit, we must train ourselves to listen for God's voice in our lives.  Listening to God is an acquired gift.  It is a byproduct of discipline and obedience.  We must set aside time to tune into God's voice.  The tuning comes from setting aside time for prayer, reading the Word, and meditation on the Word, as well as, personal praise and worship.  When we are obedient in all these things, God will reveal Himself to us in all aspects of our lives.

Let us turn off the world and tune in to the Holy Spirit.  Let us learn to listen for the urgings of the Holy Spirit in all matters.  Let us be diligent in following the path that the Holy Spirit lays out for us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us the Holy Spirit to guide us in all truth.  We rejoice in knowing that the Holy Spirit will speak to us if we learn to listen for His voice.  Help us, Lord, to overcome the voice of our flesh.  We pray, Father, that You open our ears so that we can hear You at all times.  We ask that Your Holy Spirit help us to overcome the distractions of the world so that Your voice is not drowned out.  We beseech You, Father God, that You would strengthen us so that we can be diligent in the small things that we need to do to prepare ourselves to hear Your voice.  We ask all these things in the name of the way, the truth and the life, Jesus Christ.

The Revelation of Who We Really Are

Acts 26:15

Then I asked, “Who are you, Lord?”

When Jesus struck Saul down, Saul had one important question that he wanted answered.  "Who are you, Lord?"

God has placed this question in all of our hearts.  When we come to a time in our lives when we are challenged to ask the question, He responds with an answer that convicts us of our ignorance and our weakness.  He shows us the way, the truth and the life that is in His Son, Jesus.  He shows us a void in our hearts that can only be filled by accepting His Son as Our Savior.

To get to this place and through this place of self-discovery and redemption, we must rely on the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is a divine gift.  The Holy Spirit is the presence of the Lord with us continuously.  The Holy Spirit never leaves us.  Relying on ourselves, we choose to live in the flesh instead of living a renewed and enlightened life in the Spirit.

Let us make a commitment today to let go of our lives in the flesh.  Let us become humbled, broken and repentant.  Let us ask the Holy Spirit to show us who we really are.  Let us ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us Our Savior and our need for Him.  Let us submit our new hearts to Him so that we may learn to live in His presence.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank you for giving us Your Son, Jesus.  We praise You for revealing to us that Our Lord is always present with us. We bless the name of Jesus who brings us peace to fill our minds and His love to be our daily portion.  We pray, Father, that you will open our eyes to the way, the truth and the life that is in Your Son, Jesus.  We ask that the Holy Spirit reveal to us the depths of our ignorance and our iniquity.  We cry out, Lord, for the strength and the wisdom to give up our own convictions and delight in doing Your will in our lives.  We humbly plead that we will abandon our flesh and live our lives in Your presence.  We ask all these things in the name of our ever present Savior, Jesus Christ.

Challenged by Jesus

Acts 9:4

He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?"

Saul thought he was doing everything right.  He was on fire for his spiritual cause.  Unfortunately for Saul, his cause was grounded in his own reasoning without a foundation of faith in Jesus and without the direction of the Holy Spirit.  Saul rightfully could claim an "A" for effort.  But he was not being accused by Jesus Christ for his efforts, he was being challenged for the self-driven misdirection of his efforts.

Just like Saul, all of us will face a day when the Lord challenges us.  As with Saul, Our Lord has grounds to accuse us.  While Jesus may not have grounds to challenge us for persecuting His church, He probably will have a strong case for challenging us on the grounds of our obstinacy in following our own will and not fully surrendering to the call of Our Lord on our lives.

While Saul surrendered his old life and became Paul, the apostle, we may have hung closer to our old nature than the new one that Jesus has for us.  While we may not have been strongly challenged yet, at some defining point, like Saul, we will all be strongly and directly challenged by Jesus to denounce our old lives and accept our calling as His disciples.    

Let us set aside our own plans.  Let us seek God's plan for our lives.  Let us submit to God's plans for our lives with the same fervor that Paul did.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for drawing us to Your Son.  We praise You for setting aside a perfect plan for our lives in Your kingdom here on earth and in heaven.  We rejoice in knowing that we will serve You for all eternity.  We pray, Lord, that we will not be directed by our own ambitions, but be led by Your Holy Spirit.  We claim Your promise that through Your Holy Spirit, Your strength will be perfected in our weakness.  We beseech You, Father, that You grant us a double portion of Paul's fervor for proclaiming Your Good News to the world.  We pray these things in the name of our Blessed Hope and Assurance, Jesus Christ.

The Good Will of God Towards Us

John 1:16

And from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

There is nothing more complete, more sufficient or more perfect than the fullness of Jesus Christ.  To borrow from the teachings of Charles Spurgeon, the fullness of Christ is reflected in His Diety, His manhood, the atoning power of His Blood, His righteousness, His power over death and His endless grace to pardon, to regenerate, to sanctify, to preserve and to perfect.

The fullness of what we have received from God can be summed up in one word grace.  It is the great gift that we receive through His Son, Jesus, that we do not deserve and could never earn.  It is the unmerited good will of God directed toward us.  It is the gift that cannot be received by unrepentant sinners.  It can only be received by those that have been washed clean by the Blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ.  It is all that has been perfectly and completely prepared for all men by Our Savior.

And finally, a perhaps most importantly, God's grace through Jesus Christ is cumulative and never ending.  When we live in the fullness of Savior, we receive goodness upon goodness, joy upon joy and abundance upon abundance.  It is the good will of God towards us and the work of God in us.

Let us humble ourselves before Our Savior.  Let us surrender to His presence in our lives.  Let us prepare ourselves to receive the fullness of His amazing grace.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the unmerited favor that You bestow on us through Your Son, Jesus.  We bless the name of Our Savior for making it possible for us to receive Your unlimited flow of grace in our lives.  We pray, Father, that You will open our hearts to receive the fullness of Your Son, Jesus.  We ask that You show us how to tap into the inexhaustible treasure that He holds in His hands for us.  We ask all these things in the name of the source of all grace, Jesus Christ.

The Perfect Provision of Our Loving Father

Matthew 6:30

If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you--you of little faith?

Gorgeous are the wild flowers that fill our fields in the spring and the summer.  They pop up everywhere without a hint of human intervention.  They are here with us for only a brief time before succumbing to the seasons.  Yet year after year, God raises them up and displays them spectacularly as just one tiny example of His loving providence.  How is it possible that we doubt the provision and protection of Our Father in heaven when He is so loyal to even the small plants with their limited life cycles?  Do we not have enough faith to see how much more He would provide for His children who He holds so dear as to grant them eternal life?

We have allowed the cares of the world to come in and diminish our faith in the promises of Almighty God.  We have followed the world's lead and put our faith in our own independence instead of in the hands of Our Creator.  We have tried to satisfy ourselves in all the things of the world instead of the perfect provision of Our Loving Father in heaven.  In the process, we have complicated our lives to the point that we cannot be satisfied. 

Let us seek the simplicity and satisfaction of the promised provision that is ours to claim from the One who never breaks His promises.  Let us trust that His planned provision for us is more than sufficient and is far more satisfying than anything that the world has to offer.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing for our every need.  We rejoice in knowing that all the treasures of Your kingdom are ours through the eternal inheritance secured for us by Your Son, Jesus.  We pray, Father, that you will help us break our worldly appetites that are impossible to satisfy.  Strengthen us, O Lord, that we may bear up to our daily troubles, stand up against our temptations and allow none of these things to move us away from You.  Help us to seek You, Father God. We pray all these things in the name of our endless fount of provision, Jesus Christ.

Most of His Work Goes Unnoticed by Us

Galatians 1:15

But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace,

When it pleased God, He called us from darkness, blindness and ignorance into the light and knowledge of the Gospel.  When it pleased God, He called us out of bondage to sin into the liberty of Christ.  When it pleased God, He called us from the fellowship of men into fellowship of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  When it pleased God, He set us apart to have our names written in the Lamb's Book of Life.  It was all through His grace.  It was all in His timing.

When it pleased God, He called us from dependence on our own righteousness to trusting in His Son, Jesus Christ.  As we learn to focus entirely on Jesus and less and less on ourselves, our eyes are opened to see how everything God does is done in perfect timing when it is pleasing to Him. 

Unfortunately, even as we grow in faith and in knowledge of Almighty God, we continue to be limited by our weakness in the flesh.  In the flesh, we expect God to show up exactly when we want Him to and in what manner we want Him to.  In doing so, we often miss Him when He shows up in the birds, in the trees and in the smiles and words of those around us.  The facets of Our Almighty God are beyond our understanding.  Most of His good work goes unseen and unappreciated by us.  It is the shallowness of our relationship that creates this phenomenon.

Let us strive to find a deep and inmate relationship with Our Savior.  Through Him, let us find and cherish Almighty God in every moment that we live. 

  

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the never ending flow of Your grace in our lives.  We rejoice in knowing that You have a perfect plan for our lives and that You will release it according to Your perfect timing.  We pray, Father, that you will help us to turn our focus away from ourselves and turn our attention to Your Son, Jesus.  We pray that the Holy Spirit will open our eyes so that the fullness of Your grace is revealed to us in every aspect of our lives.  We ask these things in the name of the Resurrection and the Life, Jesus Christ.

Prepared to Stand in the Presence of Almighty God

2 Corinthians 3:18

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Is it not unimaginable that one day we will stand before Our Father in heaven in the image of His Son?  Is it not incomprehensible that one day we will be completely free of sin, holy and pure just as Jesus is holy and pure?  Is it not the most wonderful thought to know that one day we will stand before Jesus in honor and glory and we will see His glorious body with our own eyes and we will be like Him?  Such are the immutable promises of Our Heavenly Father to us through His Son, Jesus.

We were all created in the image of Our Heavenly Father.  We were created to be with Him and be one with Him, one with Jesus Christ and one with the Holy Spirit.  Even though we are now burdened by our sins which God cannot accept in His presence, we can still look forward to the day that we will stand in glory in His presence because of the atoning work of His Son, Jesus.  As Christians, we can live confidently knowing that the intolerable existence of our sin is removed by the blood of Our Savior for all eternity.  We can rejoice in knowing that our transformation is ongoing now and will continue until it is completed when we stand before the Lord.

Yet, day to day, as we seek our transformation, we remain in a battle with our flesh that seeks to remain in sin.  We must rely on the strength promised to us by Our Savior.  

Let us claim His promise to perfect His strength in our weakness. Let us seek the aid of His Holy Spirit to help us overcome the daily torments of our flesh and the regular attacks of the enemy.  Let us submit and fully surrender to the ongoing, sanctifying process of being transformed into the image of Our Lord.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for creating us in Your image.  We come before You to confess our sins to You, to repent of our sins and to thank You for providing Your Son, Jesus, to redeem us from our sins.  We pray, Lord, that You will provide the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives so that we may turn away from everything that displeases you and turn toward everything that is pleasing to you.  May we stand before You one day in the image of Your Son and hear the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant."  We ask these things in the name of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Rekindling Our First Joy in Christ

Jeremiah 2:2

Go and shout this message to Jerusalem. This is what the LORD says: "I remember how eager you were to please me as a young bride long ago, how you loved me and followed me even through the barren wilderness.

First, Our Heavenly Father extended His perfect love, forgiveness and pardoning grace to us through His Son, Jesus.  Then, as we accepted Our Savior, we were welcomed into an intimate relationship with the Father and the Son.  Their love was implanted in us.  We returned that love in a very ardent manner of worship.  We constantly built on that relationship by fervently following the ordinances given to us.  Even through difficulties and discouragements, we clung passionately to our new life in Christ.  Then something happened.  Somehow our love and our passion waned.  But He remembered how we first loved Him.  His love for us never changed.

Any parent who has grown kids has fond memories of how their young children delighted in being in their presence.  They also remember how the zeal of the children being with them diminished as the children grew older and formed their network of friends.  What parent at some point doesn't say, "how I miss those early years."

So it is with Our Heavenly Father.  He remembers how hungry we were to know Him when we first received His Son as Our Savior.  He feels sorrow when He sees our knowledge of Him increasing while our zeal for Him is becoming stale.  He is sad when He sees us spending so much time in the world and so little time with Him.  He longs for us to return to the energy and enthusiasm that we showed Him when we were first born again in Christ.

Let us return to the joyous and fervent moments in Christ that we enjoyed when we were first born again.  Let us turn those memorable moments into the foundation of our ever increasing intimacy with Our Savior.  Let us proclaim our joy so that the world can become a witness.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for pouring out Your perfect love to us so that we are able to return that love to You.  We rejoice in knowing that Your throne is always open to us and You eagerly wait for us to come to be in Your presence.  We pray, Father, that you will fill us with the zeal of young children who run to their earthly parents to express their love and their joy in being in their presence.  May the fire of Your Holy Spirit rekindle our devotion and fervency for You.  We pray these things in the name of the One who loved us so much that He died for us, Jesus Christ.

The Newness Found in Jesus Christ

Ezekiel 36:26

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

When we accept Jesus Christ as Our Lord and Savior, we are given a new heart.  We are given a heart that senses sin and danger.  We are given a penitent heart, keenly aware of the things that offend our Lord.  We are given a sanctified heart, submissive to the will of God.  We are born again into a renewed life.

We are renewed by the Spirit and the grace of God.  New light is given to us.  A new will filled with new purposes and resolutions is provided to us.  In our renewed spirit, we find new affections and desires for God and all things holy.  As new men and women in Christ, we find new delights and joys in the Lord every day.

Being born again is the unmistakeable work of the Holy Spirit. We are given a new vision of life - kingdom vs. carnal.  We are taught, directed and sanctified by the continuing work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  We are equipped to walk in the ways of Our Savior.  We are given ongoing access to the One who replaced our heart of stone with a heart of flesh.

Let us be aware of the presence of Our Lord in our lives.  Let us seek Him for He is infinitely superior to anything that the world has to offer.  Let us refresh ourselves regularly in the Lord.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the new hearts that You have given us through the redeeming work of Your Son, Jesus.  We praise the name of Jesus for the renewed lives we are given through His sacrifice.  We pray, Lord, that You will keep our hearts soft.  We beseech you to protect us against the world that tries to harden our hearts.  We humbly ask that You give us the grace that we need that we may stay refreshed in Christ and be vessels of refreshing to those around us.  We pray these things in the name of the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Jesus Christ.

When We Recognize Our Treasure is Missing

Luke 15:8

Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won't she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it?

Where will the woman look for her lost coin?  This passage infers that she will look everywhere.  How long will she look?  She will look carefully and extensively until she finds her coin.  How will she look?  The passage does not specifically reveal how she will look, but it is likely that she would follow the same process that we follow upon losing something.  She will go back to the place where she thinks that she lost the coin.  If the coin is not there, she will go back to all the other familiar places that she can think of until she finds the coin.  

Aren't we all just as diligent as this woman whenever we lose something that is of value to us?  Do we not employ an exhaustive effort to find anything lost that we consider a personal treasure?  Of course, we do. 

So why do we delay even a second when we recognize that we have lost even a fraction of our zeal for Christ?  We should go back immediately to the place where we lost it.  Did we lose it because we cut back on our prayer time?  We need to return to our most robust prayer habits.  Did we lose it because we stopped studying the Word of God?  We should return to our diligent studies.  Did we lose it because of the sin in our lives?  We need to repent and surrender to Christ.

Jesus Christ is our greatest treasure.  When the world works overtime to distract us from Our Treasure and our awareness of the presence of Our Treasure dims one iota, let us run quickly to return to the fullness of His Light.  If we practice to stay in the fullness of His light, we guard against losing even a portion of Our Treasure.

Let us be fierce protectors of the treasures that we have been given in Jesus Christ.  Let us fight mightily against any distraction that comes to diminish the value of the fullness of Our Savior in our lives.  Let us seek the Holy Spirit to heighten our awareness of our ever present Treasure and quicken our resolve in keeping Our Treasure above all things in our lives.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us the most awesome treasure known to mankind, Your Son, Jesus Christ.  In our weakness, Father, we find that we have drifted away from our zeal for Your Son. We pray that You will help us return to the place where we lost Him.  We ask that You show us how to invigorate the good discipline in our lives that we once had.  We beseech You to give us the strength we need to walk away from the torments of our flesh.  Lord, bring us back to the fullness of the Light of Our World, Your Son Jesus.  We ask all these things in the precious, precious name of Jesus Christ.

Exuberantly Proclaiming "My Lord and My God!"

John 20:28

Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!"

The unbelief of Thomas is well documented in the Bible.  He was a skeptic, a true doubter, looking for proof that the Lord was who He said He was. 

Thomas' story is the perfect illustration of the struggle of every believer who is wavering in deciding his or her relationship with Jesus Christ.  What sets Thomas apart from those that never fully surrender their lives to Jesus was his sincerity in seeking the Lord.  While Thomas was weak in his convictions, he was sincere in seeking the truth.  Jesus was gracious in His response to Thomas just as He will be for all that are sincere in seeking Him.

Like Thomas, we are all called to come to the the place where we finally see and believe the total redemptive work of Jesus and fully submit to Him as Our Lord and Savior. Thomas, once seeing the wounds of Jesus, proclaimed both his complete belief and complete submission to his Master when he spoke the words, "My Lord and My God."  All in one burst, Thomas asserts his interest in Jesus as his Lord, espouses his affection for Him and denotes his submission to Him.  This is exactly what Jesus Christ is looking for from each of us.

Even though we may have been slow and weak in our commitment to Christ, Our Lord waits on our sincere entreaty.  He will respond to each of us just as He responded to Thomas.  He will overpower us with His presence so that we may with the same exuberance as Thomas proclaim, "My Lord and my God."

Let us move at once to surrender everything to Our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Let us submit to His lordship over our lives.  Let us proclaim that He is who He says He is.  Let us rejoice in knowing that His promises will be fulfilled exactly as He said they would be. 

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the loving kindness, the mercy and the grace that You extend to us in our slowness and our weakness in surrendering everything to Your Son, Jesus.  We pray, Lord, that You will open our eyes so that we can see, fully believe in and seek the precious gift that is available to us in a relationship with Your Son.  Father, we ask that You take us to a place where we are overpowered by the presence of Jesus just like Thomas was.  May Your Holy Spirit guide us and strengthen us so that there will be nothing left in us that doubts the fullness of the new life in Christ that awaits us.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Lord and Our God, Jesus Christ.

Our Appointed Role in the Kingdom

Jeremiah 1:5

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

As it was with Jeremiah, so it is with each of us.  God created us and has a plan for our lives.  He has set us apart to serve Him in a way that only we can do because of the unique nature and capabilities that He has given to each of us.  God draws each of us into a relationship with Him so that we can understand what He has prepared us to do.  We do the things that we are called to do in response to the outpouring of love and forgiveness that we receive from Our Creator.

As we seek our place in God's kingdom, we must be careful not to think too highly or too lowly of ourselves.  We should maintain a keen sense of our weaknesses and our insufficiencies, but we should not let our weaknesses keep us back from our calling.  We should fear no man and go about our work humbly as we grow in our relationship with Our Heavenly Father.  Our primary focus needs to be on seeking God's will for our lives and discovering the appointment that Our Creator has set aside for us.  Once we confirm our appointment, we need to respond accordingly.

The good news is that we do not have to discover our appointment or respond to it on our own.  Our Heavenly Father has given us a Helper to guide us through the process of finding and accepting the calling that He has placed on our lives.  As long as we set aside time to be in the presence of Almighty God and surrender to the urgings of the Holy Spirit, we will discover our appointed role in the kingdom and rejoice in our opportunity to serve Our King.  

Let us first seek an intimate relationship with Our Savior.  Then let us earnestly seek the aid of the Holy Spirit to reveal the calling that Our Lord has set aside for us.  Under the guidance of Our Counselor, let us move in faith one step at a time toward our appointment.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for creating each of us to fill a specific need on this earth and in Your eternal kingdom.  We thank You for providing the Holy Spirit to help us separate our own carnal desires from the will and plan that You have for our lives.  We pray, Lord, that the Holy Spirit will help us to dig deep into our relationship with You.  We ask, Father, that the Holy Spirit teach us how to be vessels of Your perfect love and forgiveness.  We ask all these things in the name of the One who makes it possible for us to become Your good and faithful servants, Your Most Faithful Son, Jesus Christ.

Upheld on Our Journey Through the Wilderness

Isaiah 41:10

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Almighty God, in faithfulness to His promises, releases provisions to supply our needs and answer our prayers.  He knows that our way to heaven is through our carnal wilderness.  When we become weary, He is ready to provide what the world cannot provide.  He insures that our supply is constant and sufficient.  Let us set our troubles before Him.

Why is it that we ever doubt for a second that the Lord has a plan already set in place to relieve us of whatever burden that troubles us?  Did He not set aside His own glory to become man to have a plan for our salvation?  Did He not shed His own blood so that the plan could be executed on our behalf?  Does He not hold all power and wisdom in His hand?  When He has done so much already, why would He withhold any good thing from us now?

Let us humble ourselves before Almighty God.  He reigns over everything in heaven and on earth.  Let us trust in Him to fulfill His promises in our lives.  Let us rely on Him for our strength and our peace.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your faithfulness.  We bless the name of Jesus who gave up everything so that we could receive the fullness of Your perfect love and forgiveness.  We rejoice in knowing that Your Holy Spirit is always with us to comfort us and strengthen us.  We pray, Lord, that you forgive us for being so weak in our faith.  We ask that You strengthen our spiritual nature so that we are seeking our comfort and provision from You and not from this world.  Let us always be mindful that all things are possible through You.  We pray these things in the name of Our Blessed Hope and Assurance, Jesus Christ.

Getting Off the Fence

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.  We have to get off the proverbial fence to find victory.

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.

Lifted Up From the Darkness

Acts 26:16

Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me.

These are the words that Jesus spoke to Paul when He struck him down on the trail to Damascus.  Being the respecter of no man, these are the same words that Jesus speaks to every man.  By the loving kindness, mercy and grace of Our Savior, each one of us have been taken down in the flesh to be raised up anew in the spirit to serve Our Lord.  He is just waiting on us to say, "Here I am, send me."

Saul was an enemy of the early church.  He was doing all he could to shut down the early Christians.  If God would use such a man for His good purposes, can He not use each of us?  Just as the Lord lifted Saul from his blindness to be Paul, a beacon of light to the world, He can also lift us from whatever darkness is holding us down.  He can change us into new men and women in Christ, witnesses to the way, the truth and the life that is Jesus. 

All we have to do is respond to the One that is calling us to stand up and serve.  He will give us our commission.  He will equip us for our mission.  He will lift us up from whatever may be holding us down.  He will make us true ministers and witnesses to His Gospel.

Let us respond to the One that calls us.  Let us learn to live under the power of the Cross as we take up the crosses that we have been given to carry.  Let us stand up and boldly proclaim the Good News. 

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for taking down the old man and raising up a new man in Christ.  We praise the name of Jesus who made it possible for us to escape the darkness in our lives and empowered us to be lights on a hill for the world to see.  We rejoice in knowing that we will be bondservants to Our Savior for all eternity.  Lord, we ask that the Holy Spirit prepare us for our work.  We pray that the Holy Spirit will show us how to make our lives living testimonies to Your glory.  We pray these things in the name of the One who calls us, Jesus Christ.

Your Personal Consultant is on Line 1

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.

Jesus Explains Everything

Mark 4:34

He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

Jesus used examples of everyday life events to explain kingdom principles to the crowds.  Often the crowds did not understand.  His disciples did not understand either.  So Jesus would take His disciples aside and reveal the truth to them.

Jesus does the same with us.  He reveals His truths to us through the everyday events in our lives.  Much of which we do not understand because we do not truly understand ourselves.  At least, not until we are willing to go to Jesus and spend time with Him alone.  At these times, His Holy Spirit will reveal to us all that has been hidden from us because of our own spiritual immaturity or sinfulness.

While the treasures of the kingdom are present in the world, we often over look them or simply take them for granted.  It is important that we set aside a private time with Jesus.  Through the Holy Spirit, we will be led to a larger knowledge of Jesus and a greater understanding of the mysteries of heaven.  Thus we will be furnished with all that we need to fulfill the work that we have been created to accomplish on this earth.  If we are negligent in setting aside time alone with Jesus, we may miss His treasures all together.

Let us plan private time to sit with Our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.  Let us call on the Holy Spirit to help us develop this intimacy with Our King.  Let us rejoice in knowing that He is waiting to hear from us.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for revealing Yourself and Your treasures in this world.  We praise the name of Jesus who represents the highest order of Your benevolence to all humanity.  We pray, Father, that you will draw us unto Yourself so that we will seek Your Holy Spirit to guide us into precious, private time with Jesus Christ, Our Savior.  We ask, Lord, that You reveal all of Your truths and mysteries to us as we learn to build an intimate relationship with You.  May we fulfill everything that You have set aside for us.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Master and Teacher, Jesus Christ.

Our Obedience May Be Costly to Others

Luke 23:26

As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.

Because Jesus was obedient to His Father's calling on His life, it cost others around Him.  It cost His disciples who suddenly were without the leading and teaching of their Master.  It cost His mother who suddenly lost a Son.  It cost His brothers and sisters who suddenly lost a sibling.  In the case of today's passage, it was Simon of Cyrene who bore a portion of the costs of Jesus' obedience when he was suddenly called to carry the cross of Jesus.

Whenever we choose to be obedient to God's calling on our lives, it is likely to cost other people.  It certainly will be a dramatic shock and cost to those near us who are not Christians when we proclaim that we have received Jesus Christ as Our Lord and Savior.   Our choice will completely shake up their world.

Then after receiving Jesus, suppose the Lord asks us to give up something we love doing because He wants more time with us.  It is likely that we shared our beloved activity with others who will suffer from our withdrawal from the activity.  Or it may be that our faithful service at church creates an internal challenge to those who are shunning a calling of their own.  We must guard against the inclination to move away from our calling in order to avoid costing others.  We simply must obey and leave the consequences with Our Lord.  He completely understands the challenge of dealing with the cries of those who would try to discourage us from our calling.

Let us learn to accept the fullness of our calling, even when it bears some cost for those near us.  Let us learn to lean on the strength and the guidance of the Holy Spirit when we are faced with the befuddlement of others.  Let us pray that the Holy Spirit will open the eyes of our detractors, so that they, too, may drawn to the Lord that we serve.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for creating us to fulfill unique plans and purposes in Your kingdom.  We pray that you keep us steadfast in our obedience to Your calling on our lives.  We ask, Lord, that You provide the strength we need to overcome the pressure that may come from others as they bear the costs of our obedience.  Show us, Father, how to love and forgive those that persecute us for serving You.  We pray these things in the name of the One who gave His life in obedience to the Father so that we may have eternal life, Jesus Christ.

Living in His Magnificent Light

Acts 26:18

To open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.

Paul was sent before King Agrippa by the Jews in an effort to have him killed or at least imprisoned. Paul explained to King Agrippa how he had been led by an encounter with Jesus to abandon his efforts to oppose the message of Jesus of Nazareth and to then turn to a life of proclaiming the message of Jesus to the world.

In today's passage, the Apostle Paul is describing to King Agrippa the directive and the message that Jesus gave him to bring to the people.  The message summarizes for us the fullness of our blessing in Christ, but it also provides us with the responsibility that we share with Paul. For we are all called to spread the Good News that we have received.

It is not uncommon to hear and see people in all walks of life openly professing their disdain for Jesus Christ.  People around us need to know and we need to be constantly aware that without our precious Savior, we are doomed to eternal damnation.  The sin nature absolutely blocks any possibility that we would choose the light of Jesus Christ over the darkness of Satan.  Fortunately for all mankind, Our Heavenly Father has a plan for all of us to overcome our frailty.  Through His mercy, He provides a pathway to victory over the darkness in our lives.  Through His perfect love and forgiveness, He has given us His Son to be Our Savior.  Through His salvation plan, He calls each of us to participate in sharing His salvation story. 

Let us choose the Light of the World.  Let us choose to be lights to the world.  Let us boldly spread the message of the salvation story.  Let us insure that everyone around us knows that Jesus washes us clean with His blood so that we can bath in His light and abide with Him for all eternity.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing Your Son, Jesus, to atone for our sins and allow us to live in Your magnificent light for all eternity.  Your Word tells us that there will be no need for the sun or the moon in eternity for Your light will be sufficient.  We pray, Lord, that you will show us how to live in Your perfect light and share it with the world around us.  Help us to become living testimony of the loving kindness, mercy and grace that you have provided to us through the sacrifice of Your Son.  Father, may our Christian experience be marked by the light that we provide to those around us that are in the darkness.  We ask these things in the name of the Light of the World, Jesus Christ.

From Sinner to Saint

Psalm 139:23

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.

It is hard to understand, but we are in many ways strangers to ourselves.  We may hate sin and we may repent of all the sin in our lives, yet our natural eye is unable to see the depths of our iniquities.  Our human nature with its sin stained flesh is simply incapable of making an unbiased assessment of the darkness within us.  We must do as the psalmist did.  We must ask God to search our hearts and reveal to us everything that is displeasing to Him.

Jesus Christ died on the Cross so that we could stand blameless before the Father.  To prepare us for this time, the Holy Spirit dwells within us to guide us through the sanctification process.  The Holy Spirit takes us beyond the carnal limits of our own understanding.  Inspired by the light of Our Savior, we are allowed to see the full depth of the darkness of our sin and the full height of our potential in Christ.  Rest assured that we would never properly examine ourselves without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  

Let us report for full inspection in humble recognition of our need.  Let us pray that the Holy Spirit will search our hearts.  Let us ask the Holy Spirit to uncover every speck of darkness in our hearts, especially those that we do not see ourselves.   Let us faithfully repent of what is revealed to us so that we may live in the fullness of a life in Christ.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for making us righteous through the sacrifice of Your Son, Jesus.  We thank You for providing the grace that we need and the ever present assistance of the Holy Spirit so that we may submit to the transformation process from sinner to saint.  We pray that You open the gateways of our minds so that we may see and repent of all of the shackles of sin on our lives.  We pray that we may see and grasp the fullness of your plans for our lives as revealed to us by Your Holy Spirit.  We ask these things in the name of the purifier of our souls, Jesus Christ.