Category: Walking in the Spirit

Following & Trusting the Holy Spirit

So if the Son liberates you [makes you free men], then you are really and unquestionably free. —John 8:36

I once read that we believers are like ships that God wants to turn out to sea to sail wherever the wind and waves carry us. That sea represents the freedom we have in God, and the wind is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. But as new believers, we are tied to the dock because that is the only place we can avoid becoming shipwrecked until we learn how to follow Him.

When we learn to follow those inner promptings of the Holy Spirit, we can be untied from the dock and sail the seas of life under His leadership without the fear of becoming lost.

Paul explains, We [Jewish Christians] also, when we were minors, were kept like slaves under [the rules of the Hebrew ritual and subject to] the elementary teachings of a system of external observations and regulations. But when the proper time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born subject to [the regulations of] the Law, to purchase the freedom of (to ransom, to redeem, to atone for) those who were subject to the Law, that we might be adopted and have sonship conferred upon us [and be recognized as God’s sons]. And because you [really] are [His] sons, God has sent the [Holy] Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba (Father)! Father! (Galatians 4:3-6)

When the Spirit of God is in you, the law of God is written in your heart. You no longer have to memorize the law because you can follow the leadership of the Holy Ghost, who will lead you in the right direction.

Let God Do the Healing

O Lord my God, I cried out to You and You have healed me. —Psalm 30:2

James A. Garfield became president of the United States in 1880 and was shot in the back six months later, in July 1881.

After the shooting, a doctor tried to remove the bullet, but couldn’t. In the following weeks, more doctors probed his wound to try to locate the bullet, to no avail. Eventually, Alexander Graham Bell provided an electrical device doctors thought might locate the bullet, but that didn’t work. Doctors later learned that sometimes removing a bullet causes more trouble than leaving it alone.

Garfield died on September 19, 1881, not as a result of his wound, but because of infection and hemorrhage that probably developed after so much probing for the bullet. The very thing physicians thought would heal Garfield ended up killing him.

When you have a “wound” of some sort, whether it’s a disappointment, a betrayal, being abandoned or rejected or some other hurtful situation, don’t keep probing it. Go to God and ask Him to heal you in the way He knows is best for you. Then take your hands off. Don’t try to “fix” yourself, but do follow the Holy Spirit as He leads you into healing and wholeness.

Love Yourself Today: Is there a wound in your heart that you have probed too much? Ask God to heal it; stay sensitive to His Spirit; and let Him bring new life and strength to you.

Increasing Your Peace

1. See the value of peace. Maybe you need to take peace a little more seriously. If you don’t think it’s a big deal to lose your temper, worry all day or get stressed out, you may have underappreciated the gift of peace more than you realize. Read 1 Peter 3:11.

2. Take inventory of where you spend your time. Do you have an unsustainable life? Maybe you have way too much on your plate, but you keep saying yes to things and filling up your calendar. Remember that Jesus designed us to be fruitful, not busy. So cut away the branches that are not bearing fruit.

3. Trust God. Believers in Christ are supposed to believe, right? That means we trust what He says in His Word and completely give everything over to Him. When we do that, we enter His rest (peace). Read Proverbs 3:5.

4. Decide not to be a people pleaser. It’s impossible to keep all the people in your life happy all the time. This doesn’t mean you should be rude to them. Just don’t try to please someone at the expense of displeasing or being disobedient to God. Live to please Him first.

5. Mind your own business. I’ve learned that usually, the less I know about other people, the better off I am. Being nosy and spending energy trying to learn what others are doing or saying produces anything but peace in life. Read 1 Thes 4:11.

6. Let peace be the umpire of your life.  If you are thinking about doing something, but you don’t have peace about it, don’t do it—because if it’s not peaceful, it’s not God.

7. Do whatever you can to work toward simplicity. I’ve learned that the busier you are, the more important it is to have simplicity, which means sometimes it’s best to let things go instead of starting a war over something petty. Also, it might be simpler to not own so much stuff. Trying to take care of too much can just overwhelm and frustrate you.

Who’s Will? God or your own?

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. — I Corinthians 2:14

It’s challenging sometimes to discern if what we want is in line with what God wants for us, because when we feel strongly about something, we can easily deceive ourselves into thinking it’s God’s will―and the devil will help us do it. He will even lead us to take Scripture out of context if it will keep us deceived and living in sin.

First Corinthians 2:14 says that to those in the world, truths revealed by the Spirit sound like foolishness. Only spiritual people can understand the things of the Spirit. And sometimes it’s even very difficult for spiritual people to do!

I can tell you that when you’re truly being led by the Spirit, your head can have a hard time understanding what God is doing, because He often seems unreasonable. He will do many things in your life that you just cannot understand.

I used to be so confused about some of the things God allowed to happen in my life. But when I look back at them today, I can say, “Now I know why that had to happen. Now I know why that took place.”
God knows more than we know, His ways are above our ways, and He has a better plan for our lives than we do. Instead of being led by our feelings, we need to be led by God, even when we don’t understand.

From the Inside Out

The King’s daughter in the inner part [of the palace] is all glorious; her clothing is inwrought with gold.
—Psalm 45:13

During the Christmas season, department store windows often feature bright, shiny presents with perfectly tied bows. These gifts may look desirable, but if we were to open them, we would find nothing inside. They are empty, just for “show.”

Our lives can be the same way, like beautifully wrapped packages with nothing of value inside. On the outside, our lives may look attractive or even enviable to others, but on the inside we may be dry and empty. We can look spiritual on the outside, but be powerless within if we do not allow the Holy Spirit to make His home in our hearts.

The verse for today emphasizes the importance of the inner life. God puts the Holy Spirit inside us to work on our inner lives—our attitudes, our responses, our motivations, our priorities, and other important things. As we submit to Christ’s Lordship in our inmost beings, we will sense when He is speaking to us, and we will experience His righteousness, peace, and joy rising up from within us to empower us for abundant living (see Romans 14:17).

The Holy Spirit lives inside us to make us more and more like Christ and to fill us with His presence and guidance, so we will have something to share with others, something that comes from deep in the core of our being and is valuable, powerful, and life giving to everyone with whom we interact.

God’s Power to Acheive

We have been saved by grace…through faith. What a wonderful gift! Sadly though, too many Christians live the way it’s described in Galatians 3:3: …Having begun [your new life spiritually] with the [Holy] Spirit, are you now reaching perfection [by dependence] on the flesh?

That’s a really good question to ponder. How do we get ourselves into that place? I think whether we realize it or not, many of us enter into a relationship with God by faith, but then try to maintain that relationship by our own methods. We believed Him for our salvation, but try to make that salvation work on our own.

It’s so sad too, because all this effort is fruitless. We work and work to change ourselves only to end up frustrated time and time again. Sure, maybe we see some small changes here and there, but only when we ask God for His help and depend on His Spirit to lead us, will we begin to see real, lasting changes in our lives.

There’s a beautiful illustration in the book of Zechariah of the way things should be with us. It describes a golden lampstand with a bowl on top that is being continuously supplied with oil from two olive trees on either side of it.

Now, that oil represents God’s Holy Spirit. And this lamp is being continuously supplied with oil through that bowl. That’s what we need…a continuous supply of God’s power. You see, we cannot fix ourselves; it just won’t happen by our strength or power, or our own effort, but only …by My Spirit [of Whom the oil is a symbol], says the Lord of hosts (Zechariah 4:6 AMP).

That’s the power of grace. And we certainly need this kind of power to meet all our issues and obstacles in life.

 

 

 

Listening to God’s Voice

Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength,Whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, And shall not see when good comes, But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, In a salt land which is not inhabited.—Jeremiah 17:5-6

One attitude that welcomes the presence of God into our lives is the attitude that honors Him above everyone and everything else. Our attitudes need to say, “God, no matter what anyone else tells me, no matter what I think myself, no matter what my own plan is, if I clearly hear You say something and I know it’s You, I will honor You—and honor what You say—above everything else.”

Sometimes we give more consideration to what people tell us than to what God says. If we pray diligently and hear from God, and then start asking people around us what they think, we honor their human opinions above God’s. Such an attitude will prevent our being able to consistently hear God’s voice. If we are ever going to develop an ability to hear from God and be led by His Spirit as a way of life, we have to stop listening to so many opinions from so many people and begin trusting the wisdom God deposits in our hearts. There is a time to receive good counsel, but needing the approval of people will keep us out of the will of God.

The devil wants us to think we are not capable of hearing from God, but God’s Word says that is not true. The Holy Spirit dwells inside of us because God wants us to be led by the Spirit in a personal way and to hear His voice for ourselves as He leads and guides us.

In the verse for today, God says we will be blessed when we look to Him. According to Jeremiah 17:5–6, severe consequences come to those who trust in the frailty of mere men and women, but blessed are those who trust in and honor the Lord. Good things happen if we listen to God. He wants to be our strength and we must honor His Word above all else.

A newer and higher way of living

Lord, I thank You for saving me by the power of God. Help me put aside the works of the flesh. Please teach me to walk in the Spirit. I know that You have designed a powerful life for me, and I want to enter into that life in all it’s fullness. My heart’s desire is to know You better and walk with You, so today I am asking that Your Spirit propel me forward into this newer and higher way of living! I pray this in Jesus’ name!