Tag: Living for our Living Hope

Searching for a Miracle. Considering the Power of Salvation. “If I could but touch the hem of His Garment.” Mark 5:25-34

People today are searching for many different things.

o Some are looking for love

o Some are looking for money

o Some are looking for opportunity

o Some are looking for answers

o Some are looking for fulfillment

o Some are looking for physical and spiritual healing

o Some are looking for a touch of humanity

0 Some are looking for acceptance and belonging

To state the obvious, some are just looking for a miracle – ANY miracle!!

Whatever the reason, they are facing certain situations seemingly beyond their control, beyond their human resources to cope, their only answer is a miracle.

Webster’s defines a “miracle” as: an event that appears to be contrary to the laws of nature and is regarded as an act of God

You may find yourself at a place where you cannot solve your problem on your own, you have tried everything, you have looked everywhere with no success.

Through your struggle you have failed to look to the One who can do what no other can do.

We serve a miracle working God and nothing is beyond His power.

Just think for a moment about some of the miracles that Jesus has performed in the Gospel …

He:

o Turned water into wine

o Healed the Nobleman’s son

o Cast out demons

o Healed Peter’s mother-in-law

o Healed many of the sick in the city

o Cleansed a leper

o Healed the Centurion’s servant

o Healed a paralyzed man

o Healed the man with the withered hand

o Raised the widow’s son

o Spoke unto nature itself and calmed the raging storm.

As we come to our selected text we find one miracle being interrupted by another miracle.

First look to Mark 5:24 “And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him”

We arrive in the midst of the story of Jairus and his sick daughter.

She was 12 years old and at the point of death, in fact she did die.

Jairus went to Jesus for a miracle and that is exactly what happened, Jesus raised the little girl from the dead.

As they are headed to Jairus’ daughter, Jesus is interrupted by the lady that we read about in verses 24-34.

She is described as a “woman with an issue of blood”

She is a lady who is searching for answers …she is searching for a miracle.

Today, I want to devote our time and attention to the subject “Searching for a Miracle”

In this coming encounter between Jesus and this lady we see certain elements of our lives today which may come in the life of one who is searching for a miracle.

Mark 5:25-34Amplified Bible

25 A woman [in the crowd] had [suffered from] a hemorrhage for twelve years, 26 and had endured much [suffering] at the hands of many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but instead had become worse. 27 She had heard [reports] about Jesus, and she came up behind Him in the crowd and touched His outer robe. 28 For she thought, “If I just touch His clothing, I will get well.” 29 Immediately her flow of blood was dried up; and she felt in her body [and knew without any doubt] that she was healed of her suffering. 30 Immediately Jesus, recognizing in Himself that power had gone out from Him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched My clothes?” 31 His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in around You [from all sides], and You ask, ‘Who touched Me?’” 32 Still He kept looking around to see the woman who had done it. 33 And the woman, though she was afraid and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. 34 Then He said to her, “Daughter, your faith [your personal trust and confidence in Me] has restored you to health; go in peace and be [permanently] healed from your suffering.”

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

Mark 5:24-34 tells a story of a woman who had suffered a tremendous amount.

It had been twelve long years of suffering.

This disease was only getting worse, every dime she had had been spent in an effort to find a cure, there was none.

No physician or amount of medicine of the day was helping or would help.

All hope of any help was beginning to fade, and the future looked bleak.

The Bible does not tell us her name or her back story.

However, from the little information that we are given, we know that she had come to a point in her life where she was beyond desperate and out of options.

This is a story of not only suffering, but faith and courage.

This woman seeks out her last possible miracle of hope from the one whom she has not only heard has healed many but believes them all to be genuine, true.  

Her beyond desperate pursuit of the power of Jesus Christ gives us a picture of what it means to be driven forth by our faith, to hang on to God’s faithfulness.

There are three main lessons I wish to highlight from this miraculous story.

  1. To be desperate for God’s help
  2. Our faith is to be rooted in Christ’s power to work out any trial we face
  3. God lovingly welcomes us when we come to Him.

Come to God in Desperate need of Him

Scripture tells us that she had gone through all the options that one had to find a cure to her disease. The account in Mark 5:25-26 says she had

“suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.”

Miracles… we get really skeptical in a really big hurry when we hear that word.

Even Christians roll their eyes when you speak about God working a miracle.

We fail to realize miracles still happen today just as they did in the time of Jesus.

It is one thing for an unbeliever to be skeptical about a miracle, but if you are saved you’ve already experienced the greatest miracle of all time SALVATION!!!

Some people have to reach a devastating situation first before they are willing to open their eyes and see the power of God is their only hope and to see that the power of God unto Salvation can, will work a miracle in their life, even today.

Look at this woman’s situation for a moment:

A. The Sickness – v25a And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood

“An issue of blood” – speaks of hemorrhaging, or bleeding, from some part of the body.

This woman endured a continual flow of blood.

Due to her constant blood loss, she would have been incredibly weak, anemic.

She would have been pale in appearance and would have had no energy at all.

Do you know what it is like to have no energy at all?

It is frustrating and discouraging.

We can assume as a result of her physical ailments, she may have experienced much more than physical weakness but too, depression and discouragement.

B. The Span – v25b “twelve years”

– Not only did she face serious health problems, but she also found no relief.

She had endured this disease for 12 years …over a decade of sickness.

This woman would have been considered severely unclean, even untouchable according to the Law.

This would have resulted in social isolation:

Leviticus 15:25 And if a woman have an issue of her blood many days out of the time of her separation, or if it run beyond the time of her separation; all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation: she shall be unclean. 26 Every bed whereon she lieth all the days of her issue shall be unto her as the bed of her separation: and whatsoever she sitteth upon shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her separation. 27 And whosoever toucheth those things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.

Could you imagine 12 years of continuous unyielding isolation and separation?

What a sad existence.

C. The Suffering – v26a And had suffered many things of many physicians,

She not only suffered the effects of her disease, but she suffered as a result of those whom she has hoped could heal her.

For a long time, this woman had been looking for answer but to no avail.

The Doctors were no help at all; you can read into this verse that they did more harm than good for this woman.

D. The Spending – v26b and had spent all that she had, – The doctors and their useless remedies had not helped her.

But they apparently took her money anyways.

After all of her searching and trying and suffering now she had spent everything she had. Here she is, sick, separated and desperately broke – but still spending!

Yes! I would absolutely say she is in a place of severe desperation!

Oh, but it still gets worse!

Notice:

E. The Ceaseless Spiral – v26c and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,

– After 12 years and many doctors, after hoping and repeatedly praying that the next remedy would finally, ultimately be the one to cure, to heal her, things just get worse (as if she needed worse) …literally her life was draining out of her.

During this time period, it was common practice for those who were diagnosed with difficult medical cases, to consult with numerous different doctors.

They would undergo many forms of treatments and the supposed cures were often very abusive and would lead to the patient feeling worse than before.

This woman was so desperate that she not only went to so many different doctors but spent all of her money to find a cure.

The account in Luke 8:43 suggested that the woman could not be helped because her condition was incurable.

She was left feeling hopeless, untouchable and desperate to find an answer.

There was literally nothing that could humanly be done to help her and from a human standpoint, she was out of options.

It was only until she had heard about Jesus coming that she became aware that this would be her last try at a miracle, and final attempt at being made well.  

“She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment.”

The passage tells us that there was a large crowd of people.

This woman, on the point of physical and spiritual death, who was most likely physically and emotionally exhausted, pushing her unyielding hopelessness and weaknesses aside,

“came” through the crowd of people to “draw near to Him.”

https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g4334/kjv/tr/0-1/

There was a “quiet” “unnoticeable” sense of desperation to get to Jesus because of her quiet faith that only He could bring her the hope that she was looking for.

Her eager attempt to “quietly” push her way through the crowd was a true picture of someone who is in desperate need of Christ.

The true lesson is not in our own ability to bring a solution to the trials we face, it is in our coming to the power of God with a heart which longs and yearns for the power of Salvation in Christ ALONE to come and to enter in and fill the void, of our untouchable measures, seasons of sadness, hardships we all go through.

It is crying out as the Psalmist did in chapter 63:1.

“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”

This is a cry of desperation and longing for the miraculous power of God.

Furthermore, a desperate heart, beyond desperate for the miraculous power of God, hangs on with every imaginable amount of energy to the truth found in

Psalm 62:8 “Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.” We know that when we come to God, desperate and open, we can also trust Him fully with our lives and find rest in the one who is our true refuge. 

As I mentioned, sometimes folks come to a place of “severe desperation” before they are willing enough to look to the power of Jesus for a miracle.

You may be here reading this devotion and spiritually you are in much the same situation as this woman.

You are suffering desperately with a desperately unclean disease …SIN!

You are looking for help, hope and happiness

You have searched everywhere with no success

You have looked to other people, and they couldn’t help you

You have spent entirely much money trying to buy things that will provide you with happiness …it didn’t work

You have dedicated yourself to your career goals and now you are desperately miserable; without the needed resources, you have a void that cannot be filled.

You thought a new “brand” of relationship might solve your problem

You thought that maybe more material goods, money would make life better

You may be turned to drugs and alcohol, crime, to numb the pain you face.

You have tried it all AND NOTHING IS WORKING!!

YOU ARE MISERABLE AND YOU NEED HELP NOW!

You my friend are at a place of “Severe Desperation” and that may be the best place for you to find the answer that you need!

This woman was at that point in her life too and she sought, found the answer… but how?

That is the next thing I would like for us to see.

Consider:

Our Faith is to be desperately rooted in Christ’s power to work out any trial we face

Verse 28 tells us that her faith was so deeply rooted in Christ’s power to save her from her trial,

“For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well”

II. The Specific Information Involved

– v27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. 28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.

Notice the phrase -“When she had heard of Jesus”

How did she hear of Jesus?

o She didn’t have a Facebook account

o She did not have a Twitter or Tik Tok account

o She didn’t have any Internet or Wi-Fi services

o She did not have ZOOM or Tele-Medicine

o She did not have any Cable television to watch the Health News.

o There was certainly no Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

o There were definitely no Libraries at any National Institutes of Health.

She heard of Jesus because there were some excited people in the area talking about the man who had done so many miracles.

We have already reviewed the miracles of Jesus thus far in the Gospels.

It is possible that she has had a first-hand encounter with one of the people who were healed.

Maybe she had heard from or spoke with someone who witnessed one of the previous miracles.

Maybe she heard from someone who heard from someone who witnessed the miracles by actually and genuinely receiving the miracle.

I can’t prove this, but I would think that instead of any 3rd or 4th hand info, she may have heard an actual 1st hand account …a personal testimony, of someone who was radically changed by the powerful touch of Jesus Christ.

Here is why I believe this – Notice her statement “If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.” That statement alone shows extreme faith…

Somebody, face to face, soul to soul, shared powerful testimony with this lady!

“It is no secret what God can do”

“What He’s done for others, He’ll do for you”

“With arms wide open, He’ll pardon you”

“It is no secret, what God can do!”

Regardless, we know somebody told her of the healing power of Jesus Christ!

The one and only true source of where our faith can truly be placed, is in Christ.

As a human, the common thing to do when you’re sick, is turn to medicine and make a doctor’s appointment.

We go there expecting a clear answer to why we are feeling sick and a cure to our ailment. There is almost a sense of hope that is placed in the doctor.

I am not the least against modern day medicine at all, I come from a family that is filled with Professional Nurses – Myself, my late Mother, a RN for 40 years.

I have repeatedly witnessed the miracle of modern medicine through the skilled hands of many surgeons as both of my wife’s have been replaced giving her the ability to walk pain free and her arthritic back has been surgically reenforced.

I have the utmost respect for the men and women of our health care services.

The point here is that ultimately despite her diagnosis, this woman’s faith was set on the ONLY one who knows her biological make up better than any doctor.

God is the creator of our human bodies and knows exactly what we need.

This woman recognized despite her best efforts to get help from many doctors, Jesus Christ was the true source that could help her through this difficult trial.

Whenever we are faced with that beyond desperate situation that seems almost impossible to face, we are sometimes driven by our desperation to look to other “material” “worldly” things to bring us a solution, a peace to our circumstance.

This woman’s faith was so strong that notice how in verse 28, she mentions touching his garments, not even Christ himself.

She believed that in Christ’s unlimited power that her words held no doubt that if she “touched” the hem of Christ’s garments, she WOULD be made well.

If she was able to even slightly “… to fasten one’s self to, adhere to, cling to …” the hem of his garments, she WOULD IMMEDIATELY be MADE WELL.

https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g3916/kjv/tr/0-1/

MADE WELL … Open this link to see the deeper meaning of this phrase!

https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g2476/kjv/tr/0-1/

The main lesson here does not lie in the outcome of her faith.

This woman could not foresee the future.

The Bible does not tell us that her faith predicted the future.

What scripture does tell us is that her faith was so strong that she knew her answers lied with the power of Salvation through Jesus Christ ALONE.

The end goal was to turn to Jesus Christ and look to Him for strength regardless of the outcome.

Unfortunately, too many people today are keeping secret what they should be shouting from the housetops!

People need to hear the specific information concerning what Jesus can do in their lives!

When people experience “Severe Desperation”, and they are given the “Specific Information” then there may be a “Supernatural Transformation”

III. The Supernatural Transformation Involved

– v28 … For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. 29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.

What do we see in verse 29? …A MIRACLE!!!

This woman exhibited great faith in her determination to get to Jesus.

In past miracles the people were healed by the words of Jesus Some were healed when Jesus reached out and touched them.

This woman says, “All I need is to touch a piece of His clothes and I know I will be healed”

Her determination is also seen in the fact that she fought her way through the crowd to get to Jesus.

v30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? 31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? 32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing.

There was a great crowd gathered around Jesus.

This weak, frail, sickly and desperate woman fought through the crowd with what little strength she had.

She finally gets to where Jesus is, and risking quite literally everything she had left within her, she reached out and quietly touches “the hem of His garment”

We are told that “immediately the fountain of her blood dried up.”

The miracle that she had been looking for and longing for had happened.

The thing that she had spent so much time, money and effort on was wiped away in an instant.

This woman who was deemed unclean by the law is now clean because of Jesus!

WE CAN RELATE TO THAT!!!!

Listen to what Paul said in

– Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

When it came to the Law, we were helpless and hopeless.

We were deemed unclean!

Just like this woman we did not possess even the minimal ability to solve our problem, but praise God through the touch of Jesus Christ we’ve been healed!!

This woman with her physical disease sought Jesus, when it came to my own spiritual disease Jesus sought me

Who He was and what He did

How He loved and Who He is

Jesus is the miracle to me

What could be more miraculous?

That God Himself would come to us

Jesus is the miracle to me!

God lovingly welcomes His Children

When confronted by, with the fact Jesus had asked who had touched Him, He wasn’t asking because He didn’t know, He was beckoning her to come to Him.

Jesus is all knowing and sovereign, yet He still wants us to come to Him with an open heart and a burdened soul. He wants to hear us pour out our hearts, it is a clear indication that we’ll trust Him when we come with our burdens and joys.

Her approach to Him is described as being fearful and notice how the text says that she “fell down before him and told him the whole truth” (vs 33).

Her admission to touching His garments is so much deeper than the physical.

It also shows us a picture of what a true, repentant sinner looks like when being convicted of their sin.

She makes no excuses, she does not try to run, she comes and surrenders it all to Him.

Surrendering our sin, anxieties and worries about life is not a natural human reaction.

We tend to come kicking and screaming before God, as a last resort because our own attempts have failed.

Regardless of our attitude, when we finally plead for God’s help, His response is always filled with Grace towards His children.

Here he looks at this woman and lovingly says,

“Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed for your disease”

She is not only cleansed physically but, in that moment, has experienced the miraculous healing power of salvation through Christ ALONE in her life.

You and I too have that same opportunity to come before God and surrender it all to Him.

Like this woman, you and I will desperately try and live life in our own ways, rejecting that there is a God who has been there along.

The God who loves you and paid the penalty for our sin by dying a painful death so that we would not have to.

If we miraculously choose to place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, the one who has the miraculous answer to life’s struggles and our reason to experience joy. He also miraculously looks at us and in the same way miraculously says;

“Daughter or Son, your faith has made you well”.

What HE did for this woman He can and will do for you!

A woman one day Tried many physicians

But daily grew worse in the bible were told

But when she had heard of this man called Jesus

She found what she needed for her body and soul

She said: If I can just touch the hem of his garment

If I could just touch one part of his robe

I know I’d be healed my sins all forgiven

If I could just touch him I know I’d be whole

One day I sat by the wayside begging

But nobody could help me down life’s weary way

Then my Jesus passed by, and He heard my sad crying

And He Reached down His hands and he saved me that day!

Do you need a special touch from the Lord today?

Are you “searching for a miracle”?

You have a choice; you can “bump into Jesus” like so many in the crowd that day or you can reach out and literally risk everything, touch Him with purpose.

AND MIRACULOUSLY BE MADE WELL AND LIVE!

You can find a miracle today!

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Perform miracles in my life Lord to display your power and glory. Increase my faith to trust in you. May my whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless to the end. Through the miracle of salvation in Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.

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YAHWEH Sabaoth, “The Lord of Hosts.” Our Battles belong to the Lord Alone!

David’s triumph over Goliath is one of the best-known stories of the Bible.

An inexperienced, yet agile lad with a few smooth stones, steps out in his own weaknesses, defeats a giant, armored warrior decked out with heavy weapons.

It’s an inspiring and empowering story of contrasts and ironies: tall versus short, strength versus weakness, arrogance versus humility, glorious victory versus humiliating defeat.

From deep within, our hearts, souls and spirits are mightily stirred up.

From within our weaknesses, we raise up, savor the triumph of the underdog.

But this very impressive story is not mainly about David and Goliath. The core conflict is really between the false gods of the Philistines and the God of Israel, Yahweh Sabaoth, “the LORD of Hosts” or “the LORD Almighty.”

Yahweh Sabaoth is one of the most widely used names for God in the Old Testament, occurring 270 times.

The name Sabaoth comes from the Hebrew word for “that which goes forth” and for “armies” or “hosts.”

The name Yahweh Sabaoth declares God’s reign over heaven and earth and over all armies, earthly and spiritual.

The shepherd boy David, understanding the real conflict, declares that “the battle is the LORD’s.”

And through him, Yahweh Sabaoth, “the LORD of Hosts,” defeats the mighty Philistine and his gods.

A hymn of the church sings, “Lord Sabaoth his name, from age to age the same”—and today we can utterly rely on his strength in our daily battles.

1 Samuel 17:45-50Authorized (King James) Version

45 Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. 46 This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. 47 And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands.

48 And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. 49 And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth. 50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

“The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold.” – Psalm 46:7

As Christians, most of us likely know and understand that God is always with us. It is even possible that for many this truth has become so familiar that we have lost the awe and wonder it deserves.

In Psalm 46:7 the psalmist describes the God that is always with him as, “The LORD of hosts.” By referring to God by this name, Jehovah Sabaoth (LORD of hosts in Hebrew), the psalmist is ascribing glory, power and majesty to God.

The prophet Amos wrote,

“For behold, He who forms mountains and creates the wind and declares to man what are His thoughts, He who makes dawn into darkness and treads on the high places of the earth, the LORD of hosts is His name (Amos 4:13).”

Isaiah also used this name saying,

“Thus says Jehovah, the King of Israel and His Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last and there is no God besides Me’” (Isaiah 44:6).

The name LORD of Hosts appears more than 270 times in the Old Testament, making it the most frequently used compound name for God.

Most of these uses occur in the books of the prophets.

It is clear that God wants to communicate His supernatural and ever-present power to His people, especially during desperate circumstances.

The time of the prophets in the Old Testament was when Israel was crumbling.

The Nation was divided and then conquered by Babylon and Assyria.

The children of Israel were captured and exiled.

And it was during these years of chaos, suffering and heartache that God repeatedly reminded His children of His name.

When all hope was lost and defeat seemed inevitable Israel’s Warrior God, the LORD of hosts, reminded them that the battle was His…and it still is.

AW Tozer said,

“To regain her lost power the Church must see heaven opened and have a transforming vision of God.”

This name for God will change how we relate to Him.

God is so much more than “the man upstairs.”

I. What Does Jehovah-Sabaoth Rule Over?

“In general, ‘Host’ can describe (1) a multitude of men (army), (2) angels (good and bad) or (3) physical stars.

The important truth is that Jehovah is LORD over ALL HOSTS, whether they are the armies on the earth, the stars or the angels (good or bad).”

We must seek to know God in His majesty. He is God Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, and the only wise God. If He is for us, who can be against us?

When we are at the end of our ropes, we can call on the LORD of hosts.

He commands an army of angels and rules over all the heavenly hosts.

When we are powerless, He will fight for us.

When there is no other help, there is always God.

As the psalmist wrote,

“The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold.”

 Jehovah-Sabaoth rules over the battles we face.

Zechariah 4:1-7 Authorized King James Version

And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, 2 and said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof: 3 and two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof. 4 So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord? 5 Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. 

6 Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. 7 Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.

Our focus should never be on “conquering our mountains” with our own might, or our own power, by how big our problem is, it should be on how huge God is.

Ephesians 3:20-21 Authorized King James Version

20 Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21 unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

YAHWEH, Sabaoth, The Lord of Hosts, always and forever protects His own

When the odds continually, continuously seem against us, when “Christian” life appears overwhelming, that is when we need to look at Jehovah-Sabaoth.

This is what David did when he faced Goliath. 

1 Samuel 17:45-47 Authorized King James Version

45 Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. 46 This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. 47 And all this assembly shall know that the Lord  saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands.

The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 8:37-39 Names of God Version

37 The one who loves us gives us an overwhelming victory in all these difficulties. 38 I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love which Christ Yeshua our Lord shows us. [a] We can’t be separated by death or life, by angels or rulers, by anything in the present or anything in the future, by forces 39 or powers in the world above or in the world below, or by anything else in creation.

1 Corinthians 15:51-57J.B. Phillips New Testament

The dead and the living will be fitted for immortality

51-53 Listen, and I will tell you a secret. We shall not all die, but suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, every one of us will be changed as the trumpet sounds! The trumpet will sound, and the dead shall be raised beyond the reach of corruption, and we who are still alive shall suddenly be utterly changed. For this perishable nature of ours must be wrapped in imperishability, these bodies which are mortal must be wrapped in immortality.

54 So when the perishable is lost in the imperishable, the mortal lost in the immortal, this saying will come true: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’ ‘O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?’

55-57 It is sin which gives death its power, and it is the Law which gives sin its strength. All thanks to God, then, who gives us the victory over these things through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Sometimes during trials, we focus so intently on our own personal experiences that we will forget to focus on our “God with us and within us” experiences too.

When we are exactly in the middle of uncertain trials, everyone will have their own opinions or suggestions, remedies about how to “get through them alive.”

And if they are from people, you innately, implicitly trust, you should consider them, you should seriously ponder them for a time and a season and move on.

However, after all is said and done, and you have exhausted your resources, your trusted confidants’ resources, there is only one place and person to go.

YAHWEH! Sabaoth – The Lord of Hosts – The Battle Belongs to Him ALONE!

In the name of YAHWEH, the Father, YAHWEH the Son, YAHWEH the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Lord of Hosts, help us to rely on your strength to wage the battles we face each day against our own trials and temptation’s. We ask this in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.

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Happy, Blessed, Highly Favored are those whose Strength is in the Lord: The Secret of Usefulness. Psalm 84

At the end of the celebration of Passover, in Jewish homes scattered throughout the world, the parting toast is, ‘Next year in Jerusalem!’

The sentiment echoes a common consciousness, a deep restlessness if you will, which is forever drawing God’s people back from “the near uselessness of their place of exile” towards “the usefulness of their roots in the land of their forefathers.“

The Psalmist was one of those who had been familiar with the days of worship in the tabernacle in the holy land.

Immediately prior to the building of the Temple by Solomon, the tabernacle had been situated in the City of David, just below the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

It has been suggested that Psalm 84 was written by King David when he left Jerusalem during the rebellion led by his son Absalom.

David belonged seated on the Throne of Israel. That is where God placed him. This is [place where King David was the most useful to God and His Kingdom.

But David’s fatherly judgement became severely impaired. Absalom took great advantage of that and by force of Arms, compelled David to leave his throne.

A King not seated on his throne – in “exile,” in “hiding’ was of no use to God.

David could not wield his Kingly power – becoming essentially useless to his people, to his nation and too his God – there needed to be a significant change.

The progression:

Useful to Self – Useless to God – then in Christ, 100% usefulness to God.

Psalm 84Complete Jewish Bible

84 (0) For the leader. On the gittit. A psalm of the sons of Korach:

2 (1) How deeply loved are your dwelling-places,
Adonai-Tzva’ot!
3 (2) My soul yearns, yes, faints with longing
for the courtyards of Adonai;
my heart and body cry for joy
to the living God.

4 (3) As the sparrow finds herself a home
and the swallow her nest, where she lays her young,
[so my resting-place is] by your altars,
Adonai-Tzva’ot, my king and my God.

5 (4) How happy are those who live in your house;
they never cease to praise you! (Selah)
6 (5) How happy the man whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are [pilgrim] highways.

7 (6) Passing through the [dry] Baka Valley,
they make it a place of springs,
and the early rain clothes it with blessings.
8 (7) They go from strength to strength
and appear before God in Tziyon.

9 (8) Adonai, God of armies, hear my prayer;
listen, God of Ya‘akov. (Selah)
10 (9) God, see our shield [the king];
look at the face of your anointed.
11 (10) Better a day in your courtyards
than a thousand [days elsewhere].
Better just standing at the door of my God’s house
than living in the tents of the wicked.

12 (11) For Adonai, God, is a sun and a shield;
Adonai bestows favor and honor;
he will not withhold anything good
from those whose lives are pure.

13 (12) Adonai-Tzva’ot,
how happy is anyone who trusts in you!

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

“How lovely is your tabernacle, O LORD of hosts,” he intoned (Psalm 84:1).

Not that God dwells in tents or buildings or any other human habitations: but nevertheless, our soul is only ever satisfied (as Augustine of Hippo is often quoted as saying) when it finds its rest in the LORD (Psalm 84:2).

In fact, our ultimate rest is only found in Jesus, the Word who became flesh and dwelt (tabernacled!) among us (John 1:14).

The Psalmist compares his soul to the sparrow, and to the swallow, little birds that are forever flitting around seeking a home (Psalm 84:3).

Not that either of these could ever safely nest on the altar of sacrifice (!) – but his soul has found its rest in the altars (plural) of the LORD of hosts.

Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins (Hebrews 9:22), and his rest and ours is found first in the altar of burnt offering, where the sacrifice is presented (representing to us the Cross of Calvary) and next in the altar of incense, where the risen Lord Jesus lifts our prayers, mingled with His, up to the LORD.

The Psalmist calls the LORD of hosts, “my King and my God” (Psalm 84:3).

The Christian faith is deeply personal, a relationship rather than a religion.

Blessed are those who abide in Christ, and He in them (John 15:4; John 15:7):

THEY “shall ever be praising Him” (Psalm 84:4), and THEY ‘shall have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming’ (1 John 2:28). “Selah.”

Think on this.

Pray over and upon this,

“Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, in whose heart are the ways” (Psalm 84:5).

So reads the Hebrew, without adding any extra words into the translation.

The word for “ways” here speaks of a prepared way, as for when a ruling monarch is approaching on their royal tour (cf. Isaiah 40:3-4; Matthew 3:1-3).

So, ponder these questions for just a few moments, what kind of person is able to genuinely say, ‘my strength is in the LORD’ (cf. Psalm 84:5) or ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’ (Philippians 4:13)?

It is a person whose heart has been prepared by the Holy Spirit, that they may ‘repent’ (meaning ‘change their mind about God’)!

The light of God has shined into their hearts (2 Corinthians 4:6), and they are made new people in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Not only are we made new people, but now we are enabled to “walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11) upon the path of righteousness.

We have a new purpose, a new direction, a new usefulness in our lives. ‘This is the way, walk ye in it,’ says the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 30:21).

When we are walking in God’s way, it is the LORD who leads us (Genesis 24:27).

When we face trials in “the valley of tears” (Psalm 84:6), we can each be 100% assured that the LORD knows our way, and will not only bring us through, but will bring us out better (Psalm 23:4; Job 23:10).

In all these things we are made ‘more than conquerors through Him that loved us’ (Romans 8:37-39).

The pilgrimage of this life may well be for us a vale of tears, but nevertheless we go on from our strength to His strength, our uselessness to His usefulness and will at last appear before God (Psalm 84:7; cf. 2 Corinthians 4:17; Romans 8:18).

‘In this world you shall have tribulation,’ said Jesus, ‘but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world’ (John 16:33).

In our sin, we are essentially useless to God.

Lives lived in a “never-ending” state of being called: complete uselessness

The promise of Hope: “But be of Good Cheer; I have overcome the World”

Translation: Jesus overcame our sin and has made us 100% useful to God!

God lives – We live and our sin dies – crucified with Christ! (Galatians 2:20)

In our sin we were Useful only to ourselves, Useless to God

By profession of faith in Christ Jesus (Romans 10:9-13) – Usefulness to God.

Here the secret of usefulness is set forth by God before us in Psalm 84:5-6 CJB

5 (4) How happy are those who live in your house;
they never cease to praise you! (Selah)
6 (5) How happy the man whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are [pilgrim] highways.

Many of us have either been “useful” or “useless” Christians for a long time.

When you get in difficulties or troubles or pressures, where is your strength?

Have you found that your strength is not within yourself but in God alone, that He is the ONLY One who genuinely makes a difference?

One Saturday night I came home after a rather long day away from my church responsibilities, and I was very tired and looking forward to some useful rest.

My wife told me some of the things that had been happening, some of the pressures that had come that day from the church and from the family.

They were the kind of things I would normally want to lay before the Lord and pray about.

Except, on this particular Saturday, I didn’t feel like praying. I was tired, and I only wanted to go straight to bed. I just thought to myself, What’s the use of praying now, anyway? I’m so tired that my prayers wouldn’t have any power.

Then it struck me: What a thing to say! What difference does it make how I feel?

My reliance isn’t upon my prayers but upon God’s power.

It always bothers me to hear Christians talk about the power of prayer. 

There isn’t any power in our prayer or our praying.

There is only power in the God who answers prayer.

I was swiftly rebuked in my own spirit by the remembrance that it makes no difference how tired or exhausted I happen to be.

So, consequently in that exact moment I prayed–very briefly, because the power of prayer doesn’t lie in the length of it, either.

Charles Spurgeon used to speak of those who had the idea that the power of the ministry lay in the lungs of the preacher.

But it doesn’t lie there, either.

Power lies in the power of God who is behind prayer. 

“Blessed are those whose strength is in you.” meaning our strength is in God alone and not ourselves as we look at ourselves looking back at us in a mirror.

Some time ago I was trying to sell my car.

Intending to put an ad in the paper, I read through several car ads to learn how to phrase it.

I noticed a phrase that appeared again and again throughout the ads.

It said, “Power all around.” 

At first, I didn’t know what it meant. Then I realized it meant power steering, power brakes, automatic transmission, power windows, power doors, power seats, power mirrors and, in the case of a convertible, a power top.

Literally Power all around!

All this power is designed to take the terrible strain out of driving so that all you need to do is sit there and push a few little buttons and things will happen.

What a tremendous description of the “useful” Christian life!

Power all around!

The Power of God!

The Power of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ raising us unto Eternal Life!

The Power of the Holy Spirit – Pentecost!

Not one ounce of any of Father, Son and Holy Spirit power is ever useless!

We just have to a useful way to plug our “useless” selves into it and stay there!

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

God of power and might—we give thanks for a song in our hearts.
Our souls long for You;
Our heart and our flesh sing for joy to the living God.
Happy are those who
live in your house, ever singing your praise.

Hear our prayer; give ear, O God!

Behold our shield, O God of our Salvation;
Guide us in times of trouble, through night of sorrow,
and days when deceit lives in our heart more than love,
and hate for the stranger, more than love.
Speak gently to your anointed ones, that we may hear.

Hear our prayer; give ear, O God!

Help us see the stranger, who comes because Your song
is in his heart and on her tongue, ringing through—
help us to hear, to see, to embrace You—
in him, in her, in you, even, in me—
with outstretched arms and mighty hands.

Hear our prayer; give ear, O God!

God of my Strength—we give thanks for a song in our hearts!  Amen.

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Trinity Sunday. The Diversity of God is Interrupting the Silence of the Silent. Bearing up to the Unbearable World. Gospel of John 16:12-15

As we open our devotional time together on this Trinity Sunday 2022, we look to the diversity of all things and sing these words in praise of the Triune God:

“Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty! All thy works shall praise thy name, in land and sky and sea. Holy, holy, holy, Merciful and Mighty! God in three persons, Blessed Trinity.”

The very essence of God the Trinity embodies diversity.

God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each distinct, yet also unified. “God in three persons” is one way of speaking about the several ways we experience God – God creates. God loves. God redeems. God sustains.

Our Triune God’s great love for us was present at the very moment of creation.

As the creation story unfolds before us through the Bible, on the sixth day God created humankind in the “image of God” with the absolute fullness of love.

The imago Dei is the Latin term for “image of God.”

The value of all humanity, without exception is permanently rooted here, as it affirms that all human beings have been made in the image and likeness of God.

Everyone – every culture, every diversity of race, ethnicity, language, ability.

The variety of human characteristics is intentional, as God indeed is diverse in His divine nature and character.

All people, without one exception, hold inherent dignity, value and self-worth.

In these days in which we find our “Christian” selves living, we are challenged in understanding, envisioning, what “inherent dignity, value and self-worth” look like beyond what our eyes see, our ears hear, our hearts and souls beat for.

The enormous diversity of world cultures means there is an enormously diverse understanding of what we are taught is, “inherent dignity, value, self-worth.”

Contemporary thought seems to greatly emphasize stress – cultural sensitivity.

Cultural sensitivity, also sometimes referred to as cross-cultural sensitivity or simply cultural awareness, is the knowledge, and awareness, and acceptance of other cultures and others’ cultural identities. 

On the individual level, cultural sensitivity enables travelers and workers to successfully navigate a different culture with which they are interacting.

There is much we are trying to bear up to, to be as sensitive as possible with those we encounter. Except it is an enormous responsibility we fall short at.

There is too much to know and we cannot know everything there is to know about people, their backgrounds, their values, morals their life experiences.

There is much we can be taught here.

As followers of Christ, we are image bearers of God’s love in the world, called to uphold the inherent value, dignity and self-worth of all human beings through our words, actions, and prayer. Together, we who are the Body of Christ, affirm and constantly reaffirm the value, dignity, and self-worth of all human beings.

There is much Jesus tried to teach His Disciples as he walked this earth.

There are much which Jesus tries to teach us – but we cannot remember it all.

Neither can we see, taste, smell or listen to or hear it all.

We simply do not have the capacity to retain all the information available.

But we are each still, into this very day, at this exact and exacting moment, covenanted by God to bear with them and minister unto them all – Matthew 28:16-20

John 16:12-15 Amplified Bible

12 “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear [to hear] them now. 13 But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth [full and complete truth]. For He will not speak on His own initiative, but He will speak whatever He hears [from the Father—the message regarding the Son], and He will disclose to you what is to come [in the future]. 14 He will glorify and honor Me, because He (the Holy Spirit) will take from what is Mine and will disclose it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Because of this I said that He [the Spirit] will take from what is Mine and will reveal it to you.

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

Jesus said to His disciples in the Upper Room, “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear to hear them now.” (Verse 12)

When I hear Jesus talking about the unbearable things of life I want to run away.

But I can’t run away. It’s too late. There’s nowhere to go.

As painful as it is to remember and as difficult as it is to talk about, I understand what Jesus means when he says, “You cannot bear [to hear] them now.”

Every single one of us has thoughts and fears of the unbearable.

Every one of us has lived or maybe is living a reality that is more than we can handle, a reality that has left us wondering how or if you will get through it.

And somehow, we do.

Think about what you have already borne the brunt of that you never asked for, never wanted, if you had been told of it you would have said, “I can’t bear that.”

The unbearable is that which we do not wish for ourselves or our worst enemy.

It comes to us in the death of a loved one, the end of a marriage, the loss of a job, a diagnosis, or in a thousand other actual and perceived ways. It is the most painful experience we can ever imagine. It is that moment when all we can do is either call yell out God’s name or curse God’s name, and sometimes we do both.

So let me ask you this. What comes to mind when you think of the unbearable?

What are your experiences of the unbearable?

Most of us, I suspect, focus on circumstances of pain, loss, and suffering, circumstances that break our hearts, shatter our lives, and bring us to tears.

That is real. It is our experience of our bearing up to the unbearable but it’s not our only experience of trying to bear up to the unbearable with our own might. 

There is an opposite aspect of the unbearable.

Think about a time when love, joy, or beauty was so real, so deep, so full that you could not hold it all.

It was more than your senses could bear, and tears poured forth, your heart was enlarged, and all you could say was, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

You stood in awe and utter amazement of what was happening and silently wondered, “Who am I that God would be mindful of me, that God would seek me out?” (Paraphrase of Psalm 8:5)

When has that been your experience of the unbearable?

In what ways have beauty, joy, or love been more than you could bear?

I remember a Wednesday afternoon when a newborn boy was placed in my hands.

He was no more than seven pounds I believe, but he might as well have weighed seven hundred pounds.

It was more than I could bear.

He wasn’t crying but I was.

As someone who has no children of my own, no experience as a father, let alone a soon to be grandfather, I would crumble under the “weight” of my grandson.

Holding myself to a promise I made a long time ago to remain a lifelong bachelor – to love myself better than anyone else I knew, there’s something about my wife’s love that is unbearable, and I mean that in the very best way!

She and her love are more than I can fathom and everything within me cries out “yes; yes” to her, yes to us, yes to God, all that we are and all that we might be.

This kind of unbearable reality is beyond our wildest dreams and imaginings.

It’s more than the greatest, biggest, and best wish for ourselves.

It leaves us in speechless gratitude.

It comes to us in the miracle of birth, a life filled with meaning, a love that is eternal, and in a thousand other ways.

Bearing the unbearable opens us to receiving a life we could never create for or give ourselves.

It shatters our fears, breaks through our defenses, and brings us to tears.

Bearing the unbearable in either aspect can open our heart.

It can make us vulnerable, real, and authentic.

It creates space for and invites intimacy.

That is the beginning of a new life.

After Jesus’ death and resurrection, the church thought more and more of God the Father and Jesus as sharing an identity, so much so they called them both by the name previously reserved for the Father, “Lord,” which just also happened to be the title given to the Roman Emperor Caesar.

Calling Jesus “Lord” in those times was a political act and could get you in considerable trouble and potentially become lion’s food in the Coliseum.

The church began to think of Jesus as God’s human representative. Or to put it another way, Jesus was the human face of God. God in person, we might say. In time the church developed the doctrine of the incarnation.

1 Corinthians 5:19 says, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.”

So, that helps understand the relationship between the Father and Jesus.

But what about the Holy Spirit, where does he come in?

Jesus had promised the disciples that after he left them, the Spirit would come to tell them all that they needed to know.

Our Gospel lesson from John today has Jesus telling them:

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

If we think of Jesus as God “in person,” the human face of God, then we might think of the Spirit as “God present.”

It is the Holy Spirit that makes Jesus our contemporary and not just an inspiring dead man from long ago.

It is God’s Spirit that allows us to know his presence and power now.

That means the Triune God we worship is still quite alive and still acting and speaking and not just a deity we “have heard reports about” from the past.

So, there’s a real sense in which we need to experience bearing the unbearable.

Here’s why I say that.

We tend to live unconscious lives.

We “sleepwalk” through our days missing life, love, beauty, and each other.

If there is a mortal sin it has to be unconscious living.

Bearing the unbearable can awaken us, offer insights into our life, teach us about ourselves, grow us up, and bring us more fully into ourselves.

Ultimately, though, it reveals the presence of God, the Father, Son, Spirit.

Those who stand in the paradox of bearing the unbearable are given ears to hear, eyes to see, hearts to love and souls to serve with.

I can’t help but wonder, what if God is never more present to us than when we bear the unbearable?

The death of a loved one. The loss of a job. The breakup of a marriage.

The loneliness that cripples. The diagnosis that turns life upside down.

The unfathomable catastrophe. The unfathomable love.

The beauty that leaves us speechless. The tears of joy. What if those things that ask more of us than we can handle and offer us more than we could ever have imagined are the very places in which God is most present and most real?

Bearing the unbearable places, humbles us on the threshold of our lives.

It takes us to the limits of who we are, what we have with God versus the world.

It’s the place where life in Father, Son, Holy Spirit is too real, too much, too big.

It’s also the place that calls us to be accountable to ourselves and our neighbors and calls us to be maximally accountable to God, the Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

I’m not talking about blame or guilt.

I’m talking about the accountability of “girding ourselves” and showing up.

When we stand at the edge of life, bearing the unbearable, something stunning and beautiful can happen.

We are standing at the opening “into all the truth.”

That’s a pretty big and bold statement.

But that’s exactly what Jesus says will happen.

The Spirit will guide us into all the truth.

The Spirit will declare, bring, and offer all that Jesus has and all that the Father has.

Nothing is withheld.

This Triune God is a God who still comes among his people in presence and power. This Triune God still speaks to us, and that is a good thing, too, because the way the world is continues to challenge us to hear what God would say to us.

The Bible is our authoritative text, but it is only the living God who can turn the dead letter into a live word to us (Isaiah 55:8-11). That puts upon the church the difficult responsibility of being a community of discernment and imagination.

We may not know it, understand it, or believe it but in the midst of unbearable reality we are being gracefully guided into all the truth we are able to bear up to.

When we bear the unbearable the Holy Trinity becomes a Holy Quaternity.

It’s not about only the three. Yes, there are the three but there is also a fourth.

You and I are the fourth.

How can we bear with that?

The Bible is a reliable guide for faith, because it tells us enough of who God is and what God does for us to discern what God says to us today. God has given us reason to think things through and a conscience to sort the good from the bad.

We have to listen carefully to what God might say to us in these days from what we do know.

And the Bible does tell us about many things.

It tells us about being Children of God, of mercy and forgiveness, about love and justice, about wealth and poverty, about faithfulness and discipleship too, and about stewardship and mission, about wisdom and folly, about life and death.

We can all bear the unbearable because God bears us up – every single moment!

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Psalm 121 Complete Jewish Bible

121 (0) A song of ascents:

(1) If I raise my eyes to the hills,
from where will my help come?
2 My help comes from Adonai,
the maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip —
your guardian is not asleep.
4 No, the guardian of Isra’el
never slumbers or sleeps.

5 Adonai is your guardian; at your right hand
Adonai provides you with shade —
6 the sun can’t strike you during the day
or even the moon at night.

7 Adonai will guard you against all harm;
he will guard your life.
8 Adonai will guard your coming and going
from now on and forever.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen

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Moving forward into Ministry: Trust, Faith, a Living Hope, after a Tragedy. Job 13:13-18

I have been asked several times how we can have trust or faith after tragedy.

Considering the scope and the magnitude of our recent events – several mass shootings, I took it as God’s Spirit moving me today to write this devotional.

As with a host of countless others, I have been through a few tragedies in my life and never genuinely thought of myself as a trauma survivor until I was trained as a Professional Registered Nurse in the field of Psychiatry.

I have never in my life experienced the scope of the tragedies from those events.

The closest: My father was a two-tour combat veteran of the Korean Conflict. I lived my life as a first-generation male child born from his combat experiences.

My Father was 100% Service Connected for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. I as the only male child, bore the full brunt of his experiences on those battlefields.

His mental health issues and his alcoholism created enormous challenges for our relationship as father and son. I was constantly, desperately trying to cope.

These struggles and challenges shaped and reshaped each of my career choices.

I tried engineering like my father wanted me to except the math was too hard. I flunked out of college trying everything I could do to make him ‘happy’ with his career choice for my life. I learned to fear what might happen if I indeed failed.

Instead, I followed my RN mother into Nursing and became quite successful.

I got a position as a Psychiatry – Mental Health Counselor for a new Homeless program serving a diverse population of long-term Homeless Veterans, from both peace time military service and military service in a combat zone.

Part of the introductory speech was to be sure you identify yourself as a trauma survivor, if in fact, you were. One identified this way out of maximum respect. I myself am a veteran of both the Navy and Army serving sixteen and a half years.

As that Professional Counselor, I was able to see how people handled their grief and the impact of that tragedy and grief impacted their outlook on their faith.

How you trust, have faith and develop a living hope after a tragedy may be in direct correlation to how you faithfully trusted in living hope prior to tragedy.

Indeed, in good times it is easy to trust, have faith and a living hope and our trust, faith, hope may be a bit shallow and naive, immature and uninformed.

When all is well there is very little to trust since there seems to be so much evidence of God being good and good to you.

Seldom do we genuinely trust that God would ever allow any tragedy or sorrow to come our way. Yet, that is not consistent with what the Word of God teaches.

Job 13:13-18 Amplified Bible

Job Is Sure He Will Be Vindicated

13 
“Be silent before me so that I may speak;
And let happen to me what may.
14 
“Why should I take my flesh in my teeth
And put my life in my hands [incurring the wrath of God]?
15 
“Even though He kills me;
I will hope in Him.
Nevertheless, I will argue my ways to His face.
16 
“This also will be my salvation,
For a godless man may not come before Him.

17 
“Listen diligently to my speech,
And let my declaration fill your ears.
18 
“Behold now, I have prepared my case;
I know that I will be vindicated.

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

We may quote that verse from the oldest book of the Bible at times and even think we have that kind of trust, but we do not want it tested.

Indeed, all of us would fail that test.

I suspect very few people have suffered as much tragedy as Job.

He lost his wealth, his ten children and his health in a very short time.

The trauma of it all so devastated his wife that she encouraged him to curse God and die. Sometimes folks are hard on Mrs. Job as if she was being heartless.

Indeed, she may have been seeking relief for his suffering and hoping God would kill her as well to stop her pain.

During the many times of war and plagues since then people have had some Job moments.

Still, Job said God could kill him and still he would trust God. Is it any wonder God pointed to him as a man of God and the devil wanted to destroy him?

We tend to forget that we are in a sin cursed world because of Adam and Eve.

Everything was in perfect peace and balance in Eden.

Once they chose to opt for being like God all of that changed and in essence man was in charge of a world he could not control or fix as it deteriorated.

Mankind also began deteriorating so that here we are in the last spasms of the Earth with men and women of minds and souls so depraved that we are seeing indescribably lethal, and unbelievably violent horrors almost on a daily basis.

Indeed, the song “This Is My Father’s World” is accurate in the title, but not in theology.

While God owns the universe, He gave the Earth to man who gave it to the devil at the Fall.

Now that man is cursed and influenced by satan more so than God it is being destroyed like a bad renter who breaks everything and allows animals to use it as their bathroom while never cleaning allowing the place to be infested by roaches and rats. (Apologies for the brooding anger behind that description).

One day God will come to repossess the world and after a thousand years he will destroy it and build new.

In a sense, since man has chosen the devil over God this world is our father, the devil’s world.

Unfortunately, due to some bad theology many people lose their trust or faith after a tragedy because either they have not read the Word, or someone taught them that God wants His people to always be healthy and wealthy.

If you pull some Scripture out of context you can come up with many errors that will blast your brain, your trust and faith and hope when they do not prove true.

3 John 1:2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.

Many use this passage to teach health and prosperity is a right.

Yet, John only wished that they would prosper and be in health.

It is not a guarantee any more than when we wish someone to have a good day and stay safe.

Note that John wants it to be in direct proportion to their soul maturing in the grace and knowledge of Christ.

Many immature Christians cling to this as a promise and when they lose their job or their health or worse, then they lose their faith in God and the Word.

If our health, wellbeing and wealth were truly tied to the prosperity of our soul many of us would be in near total poverty and near death. Grace is wonderful.

2 Timothy 4:20 Erastus abode at Corinth: but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick.

Philippians 2:25-27 25 However, I thought it necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, [who has been] my brother and companion and fellow soldier, who was also sent as your messenger to take care of my needs. 26 For he has been longing [a]for all of you and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick. 27 He certainly was sick and close to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow.

We believe in divine healing and yet God does not always heal as some teach.

Some healers say if you are not healed it is because you did not have faith.

Paul had enormous faith and yet, for some reason he could not instantly heal Trophimus like he did others.

Epaphroditus nearly died and it appears that God did not use instant healing in his case, but still healed him without Paul.

I would easily suggest that all three of men had far more faith or trust than the average “Christian” today, but they suffered, one even to the brink of death.

If you believe that God always heals and must heal every time prayer for healing is made you are going to have a crisis of faith after that loved one died that you had on twenty prayer lists and had them anointed three times.

You are going to be extraordinarily angry with God and throw the Bible on the shelf or in the recycle bin and declare you no longer believe or trust God. Your faith was based and cemented in bad doctrine, your emotions instead of God.

How so many good and bad and horribly bad people can believe the saved are somehow surrounded by an iron dome keeping us free from sickness, poverty, persecution, oppression and death is beyond me when so many in the World did not have a life like that and we are even warned about what we will experience.

Tell that to many believers around the world today who suffer great persecution and yet love the Lord to the max and take great risks to worship and evangelize.

John 16:32-33 (Amplified Version) 32 Take careful notice: an hour is coming, and has arrived, when you will all be scattered, each to his own home, leaving Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. 33 I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace. In the world you have tribulation and distress and suffering, but be courageous [be confident, be undaunted, be filled with joy]; I have overcome the world.” [My conquest is accomplished, My victory abiding.]

Jesus said we would have tribulation!

The word is literally ‘pressure’, but is also translated as persecution, anguish and affliction.

No promise of exemption from it, just that He has overcome and so will the saved though they will have to bear up through heavy burdens or tragedies.

1 Timothy 3:10-13 10 Now you have diligently followed [my example, that is] my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, steadfastness, 11 persecutions, and sufferings—such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, but the Lord rescued me from them all! 12 Indeed, all who delight in pursuing righteousness and are determined to live godly lives in Christ Jesus will be hunted and persecuted [because of their faith]. 13 But evil men and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Paul had listed some of the trials and persecutions he had gone through and is saying this is not just my issue or legacy.

You live godly and the ungodly are going to persecute you.

There is a connotation of fleeing your pursuer in the Greek.

It begs the question that if I am not being persecuted am I living a godly life?

I believe it was Menno Simons who said something like a church that is not being persecuted is not a true church. Ouch! So, if everything is peachy keen maybe we should be in prayer asking why instead of asking why when it is not.

Romans 8:16-21 16 The Spirit Himself testifies and confirms together with our spirit [assuring us] that we [believers] are children of God. 17 And if [we are His] children, [then we are His] heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His spiritual blessing and inheritance], if indeed we share in His suffering so that we may also share in His glory.

18 For I consider [from the standpoint of faith] that the sufferings of the present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us and in us! 19 For [even the whole] creation [all nature] waits eagerly for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration and futility, not willingly [because of some intentional fault on its part], but by the will of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will also be freed from its bondage to decay [and gain entrance] into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

Christ said that the student was not greater than the teacher and if they hated Christ and called him of the devil ultimately crucifying Him what do you think they will do to you if they can?

The “if so be that we suffer “is not saying you might not suffer with Him, but more that it is our lot to look forward to being glorified with Him because we suffer with Him indicating He is near us when we suffer. It comes along with the divine bloodline. If we have to suffer, fine, because we will be glorified.

Romans 8:34-39 34 Who is the one who condemns us? Christ Jesus is the One who died [to pay our penalty], and more than that, who was raised [from the dead], and who is at the right hand of God interceding [with the Father] for us. 35 Who shall ever separate us from the love of [a]Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 Just as it is written and forever remains written,

“For Your sake we are put to death all day long;
We are regarded as sheep for the slaughter.”

37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors and gain an overwhelming victory through Him who loved us [so much that He died for us]. 38 For I am convinced [and continue to be convinced—beyond any doubt] that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present and threatening, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the [unlimited] love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul would not go through this list if there was no possibility of these tragedies happening to saints making them wonder if they were separated from Christ.

Jeremiah 29:10-13 10 “For thus says the Lord, ‘When seventy years [of exile] have been completed for Babylon, I will visit (inspect) you and keep My good promise to you, to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call on Me and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear [your voice] and I will listen to you. 13 Then [with a deep longing] you will seek Me and require Me [as a vital necessity] and [you will] find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

Some of you may have been wondering how in the world does all of this square with Jeremiah 29:10-13.

Israel was in captivity because of sin, but then God promised an end to it and great blessing.

Yet, they suffered and when you tie in the next verses the key to 11 is 12 and 13. When they seek Him with all of their hearts and pray in earnest then He will hear and set them free. That goes for us as well.

How do we trust after tragedy?

It boils down to do we really believe what we often glibly ask. “Is God good all the time and all the time God is good or not?”

If He is, then we can believe that in His omniscience and omnipresence He has opted to exercise or withhold His omnipotence for the greater good or to bring us closer to Him because we have strayed away or because it is just part of this sinful world to lose a loved one because we are in a world of death.

If Christians never died or became ill, disabled or unemployed or financially distressed, then everyone would want to be a Christian to escape those things.

Both believers and unbelievers need to see that we do not ever escape the pain, but we have Jesus Christ who 100% gets us through the pain because He is good.

If He were not good, nothing good would ever happen because both He and the devil would be bringing evil to us.

We always question why bad things happen to good people when really the question is why good things happen to bad people since no one is righteous.

We will never know (why should we want to know?) exactly how bad our lives could be or could have been without the faithfulness of God until we get home.

I have had tragedies in my life, but still He has been faithful and so good to me.

God’s thoughts towards us are not evil.

The devil on the other hand has no good thoughts about us.

He wants to steal everything we value.

He wants to kill all of us and if our good God did not thwart his desires, we surely would all be dead and everything we have sought to build in our lives destroyed; marriage, children, testimonies all gone.

Too often we create our own tragedies.

Free will can cause our greatest pain when we do what God said not to do or not do what He told us to do.

The worst tragedy is running from God instead of to Him.

No one or nothing else will heal your pain and offer your life that is abundant either in quantity, quality or both even when you had to pass through the valley of the shadow of death to get to those green pastures.

2 Corinthians 1:4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

It also comes down to it not being all about us.

God will comfort you, if you allow Him.

When you are ready. Be still and ask Him to take the pain, bring comfort and ultimately peace and joy.

He may never explain why the tragedy was not averted.

We may not know until we get to Heaven and then that puzzle piece with the question mark on it will fit perfectly, but we will not care then.

Listen to Him.

Read the Word.

Fervently Pray even when it seems useless to the maximum.

Let Him change your theology, if necessary.

Parents do not always outlive their children.

People are not always healed.

Not everyone will be rich, but through His Holy Spirit working in you it can be a life rich in many more things than money.

Peace with God and a ministry to use your gift is worth all the material wealth in the universe.

You cannot trust a person until they have been proven trustworthy.

God is the only one you can 100% trust and often you will not fully believe that until He has proven to you that He is in the time of trouble.

Open your hands, your heart and your soul to Him.

Tragedy does not have to define the whole or any single place of your existence

You can be healed of your tragedy, your pain and you can and WILL trust again.

Maranatha!!!

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Lord, we pray for those who have been utterly devastated by recent tragedies. We remember those who have lost their lives so suddenly and without cause. We hold deep within our hearts and souls the families forever changed by grief and loss. By Your mercy, Bring them to their Shalom, their consolation and comfort.

Surround them with our prayers for strength and healing. Bless those who have survived and likewise, in Your own way, in Your own time, heal their memories of trauma and devastation. May they have the courage to face the days ahead.

Help us as compassionate human beings, to respond with generosity in prayer, in assistance, and in comfort to the best of our abilities. Keep our hearts focused on the totality of needs of all the community. We ask this in Jesus’ living name. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu9VC-i4Gv4

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Ordering our First Steps. Moving Forth into Mission and Ministry. Proverbs 9:10

Perhaps each and every one of us has our own nuanced version of this story.

A little boy comes to his father: “Daddy, I cannot get these two pieces of my model airplane to fit together. I know they come together somehow, but no matter what I try or how I try it, they just will not come together for me.”

The father walks his young son back to where he was working on his model. He sits down with his son and looks over the table where the model is now laid out.

The father picks up the directions which came in the box with the model, and he carefully looks over and through them – occasionally looking back at the pieces that were laid out on the table. He moved the pieces around a couple of times to try and make sense and match up the individual pieces to the written directions.

He calls his son over to the table and together they now both starts looking at the pieces, then at the directions, then back to the pieces arrayed on the table.

Then together they both discover the problem was that both of the parts should have been brought together s few steps sooner in the model building process.

Dad and son now look at each other with giant smiles plastered on their faces. In the next several hours, both Father and son complete the model as it looked on the box. They put the completed model next to the box – it all came together!

See what happens? The father asked the son. “They tell you to put these pieces together early because they know it will be way more difficult to do so later.”

Lesson being, sometimes when it seems that life’s pieces do not fit together, it maybe because we skipped over the first step because we thought it was all too obvious what that first step was supposed to be. We skip over the first steps.

We seem to “automatically” skip over the first essential steps – then we cannot figure out why all those later steps just do not work the way the directions read.

The first step to any project – big or small – always and forever start with God.

Proverbs 9:9-12 Amplified Bible

9 
Give instruction to a wise man and he will become even wiser;
Teach a righteous man and he will increase his learning.
10 
The [reverent] fear of the Lord [that is, worshiping Him and regarding Him as truly awesome] is the beginning and the preeminent part of wisdom [its starting point and its essence],
And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding and spiritual insight.
11 
For by me (wisdom from God) your days will be multiplied,
And years of life shall be increased.
12 
If you are wise, you are wise for yourself [for your own benefit];
If you scoff [thoughtlessly ridicule and disdain], you alone will pay the penalty.

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

“What to do first and then what to do next?”

Who is ordering our steps – giving us our directions – step by step directions –

Adam and Eve, evicted from the Garden to cultivate and toil the soil – where did the very first step of those very first step-by-step instructions come from so to even begin what had not been previously known – the cultivating of new soils.

Whose wisdom first taught and then guided Adam on those very first “best gardening practices” how to till and cultivate the previously unworked soils?

Patriarch Noah and God’s command to build the ark. Such a vast and seemingly impossible building project.

What skill sets did Noah possess to even begin such a magnanimous project?

Where did the “blueprints” come from? Who drew them up and hands them off to Noah alone? Blueprints are truly complicated and detailed drawings – who drew, detailed the plans for the construction of the Ark?

Where did Noah begin? Genesis 6:13-17 Amplified Version

It began with God’s command –

13 God said to Noah, “I intend to make an end of all that lives, for through men the land is filled with violence; and behold, I am about to [a]destroy them together with the land. 14 Make yourself an [b]ark of [c]gopher wood; make in it rooms (stalls, pens, coops, nests, cages, compartments) and [d]coat it inside and out with pitch (bitumen). 15 This is the way you are to make it: the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits (450’ x 75’ x 45’). 16 You shall make a [e]window [for light and ventilation] for the ark and finish it to at least a cubit (eighteen inches) from the top—and set the [entry] door of the ark in its side; and you shall make it with lower, second and third decks. 17 For behold, I, even I, will bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy all life under the heavens in which there is the breath and spirit of life; everything that is on the land shall die.

How would Noah know what the first and most essential steps would be? The first step in any project is always the most essential step to get “exactly right.”

Such a vast and previously untried and seemingly impossible task as building that very first and specifically “God-detailed, God directed, God measured,” mission minded and ministry-oriented project to be finished by man’s hands.

Genesis 12:1-7Amplified Bible

Abram Journeys to Egypt

12 Now [in Haran] the Lord had said to Abram,

“Go away from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you;
2 
And [a]I will make you a great nation,
And I will bless you [abundantly],
And make your name great (exalted, distinguished);
And you shall be a blessing [a source of great good to others];
3 
And I will bless (do good for, benefit) those who bless you,
And I will curse [that is, subject to My wrath and judgment] the one who curses (despises, dishonors, has contempt for) you.
And in you all the families (nations) of the earth will be blessed.”

4 So Abram departed [in faithful obedience] as the Lord had directed him; and Lot [his nephew] left with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. 5 Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had acquired, and the people (servants) which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the [great] terebinth (oak) tree of Moreh. Now the [b]Canaanites were in the land at that time. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants.” So, Abram built an altar there to [honor] the Lord who had appeared to him.

Consider the scope and magnitude of the task God placed before Abram –

How did it all begin – “The Lord said to Abram …

The Lord commanded a polytheistic man who had not ever heard God before.

The Command – Verse 1

“Go away from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you;”

Can we presume that Abram would automatically know which ‘land’ God was talking about?

Can we presume Abram already knew exactly where that ‘land’ was located?

Can we presume that Abram knew the exact route to any and every ‘land’ God might have in mind to ‘blindly’ send him to?

What maps did Abram possess as there certainly was no Garmin GPS system?

Read that first and last line again – “Go! … To the land which I will show you …”

This incomprehensible mission and ministry project began with God’s Wisdom.

Verses 2 and 3

It outlined the promises of “if you, Abram, follow me step – by – step …” then the rewards of your fullest obedience to “MY step – by – step …” instructions.

It moved to Abram’s obedience – Verses 4 – 6

Verse 7: It concludes with Abram’s praise and worship for God’s step – by – step directions. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants.” So, Abram built an altar there to [honor] the Lord who had appeared to him.

In fullest possible obedience to God’s carefully detailed, specific step – by – step directions, Abram obeyed! Let God order each of Abrams’ steps and his journey.

The Reward – God made Abraham the Father of “Many Nations.”

Genesis 17:1-5 Amplified Bible

Abraham and the Covenant of Circumcision

17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the [a]Lord appeared to him and said,

“I am [b]God Almighty;
Walk [habitually] before Me [with integrity, knowing that you are always in My presence], and be blameless and complete [in obedience to Me].
2 
“I will establish My covenant (everlasting promise) between Me and you,
And I will multiply you exceedingly [through your descendants].”

3 Then Abram fell on his face [in worship], and God spoke with him, saying,

4 
“As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you,
And [as a result] you shall be the father of many nations.
5 
“No longer shall your name be Abram (exalted father),
But your name shall be Abraham (father of a multitude);
For I will make you the father of many nations.

Everything we have received, everything we have right now in life, everything we will receive in the future always came arrived and will always and forever come to us, will come to us from God, the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, with the already fulfilled and forever promise of “new beginnings.”

The word ‘beginning’ can mean either “the first part” or “the main part.”

In both cases, the eminently practical message is exactly the same.

The absolute most essential “first step,” and the continual first and foremost priority, in fitting all the parts of life together is to glorify, to honor, to revere, and to worship God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

Why?

Because all knowledge, and all wisdom and all truth comes first from God!

And in obedience, we must absolutely first seek our answers only through Him.

If we find ourselves stumped with a part of our life that completely refuses to fit together no matter manners and methodologies, we try –

Revelation 1:8 Amplified Bible

8 “I am the [a]Alpha and the Omega [the Beginning and the End],” says the Lord God, “Who is [existing forever] and Who was [continually existing in the past] and Who is to come, the Almighty [the Omnipotent, the Ruler of all].”

#1: THINGS WITH GOD!

THEN END ALL THINGS WITH GOD!

Revelation 22:12-14Amplified Bible

12 “Behold, I (Jesus) am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, [a]to give to each one [b]according to the merit of his deeds (earthly works, faithfulness). 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End [the Eternal One].”

14 [c]Blessed (happy, prosperous, to be admired) are those who wash their robes [in the blood of Christ by believing and trusting in Him—the righteous who do His commandments], so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Lead Me on Level Ground Prayer,

God, my Creator, God, the Author of the entirety of my life, teach me to do your will, for you are my only true God. May your Holy Spirit lead me on level ground. I see your faithfulness and goodness in what you have done for me throughout my life. I think about these things, and I thirst for you. Let me hear of your unfailing love every morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you. Keep me on firm footing for the glory of your name. Amen.

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Fresh Fire: Becoming the Person God Has Called You to Be. 1 Corinthians 2:12

We sometimes get frustrated when people outside of Christ do not seem to be able to understand the teaching of Scripture.

However, we must not forget that there are two realities to the truth of Scripture that non-believers do not experience. 

First, the Holy Spirit, who inspired Scripture and uses Scripture to form us, also helps followers of Jesus understand the truth that God has given us.

Second, the truth of Scriptures often becomes more understandable as we obey it. The Holy Spirit is at work helping us understand the Scriptures he inspired!

Whether we might be rookies or veterans, let’s never approach our time in Bible study without asking for the Holy Spirit to make God’s truth known unto us!

Years ago, I remember hearing Campus Crusader founder Bill Bright teaching on the Holy Spirit. In his message, he talked about a man to whom he had been in the throes of witnessing to. One of the “Problems” with the Christian faith was he had tried to read the Bible several times but could not “figure it out.”

Then the man received Jesus Christ as his personal Savior and went back to talk again with Dr. Bright about one week later. He had an amazing story to tell him.

During that weeks’ time, he said, it was as though somebody had re-written his Bible. Suddenly, he said, the Scriptures came alive to him. The understanding of them had broken into his thoughts as when quick lightning strikes the ground.

How had it happened? The Teacher – the Holy Spirit, had taken up residence in his soul. What had once been obscure and confusing drivel was now pulsating with most profound degrees, measures of meaning, encouragement and hope.

1 Corinthians 2:6-12Amplified Bible

6 Yet we do speak wisdom among those spiritually mature [believers who have teachable hearts and a greater understanding]; but [it is a higher] wisdom not [the wisdom] of this present age nor of the rulers and leaders of this age, who are passing away; 7 but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom once hidden [from man, but now revealed to us by God, that wisdom] which God predestined before the ages to our glory [to lift us into the glory of His presence]. 8 None of the rulers of this age recognized and understood this wisdom; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; 9 but just as it is written [in Scripture],

“Things which the eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard,
And which have not entered the heart of man,
All that God has prepared for those who love Him [who hold Him in affectionate reverence, who obey Him, and who gratefully recognize the benefits that He has bestowed].”

10 For God has unveiled them and revealed them to us through the [Holy] Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things [diligently], even [sounding and measuring] the [profound] depths of God [the divine counsels and things far beyond human understanding]. 11 For what person knows the thoughts and motives of a man except the man’s spirit within him? So also no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the [Holy] Spirit who is from God, so that we may know and understand the [wonderful] things freely given to us by God.

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

To be the person God has called you to be.

And that got me thinking. Yes dangerous, I know.

You see I believe that the Holy Spirit does do amazing things in people today.

I believe that right now He is doing stuff in each of us, to refine us, to change us, to bless us.

What I started thinking about was,

what if instead of becoming the person God has called me to be,

I had become the person I myself desired to be?

What kind of person would I be today if the Holy Spirit had not led me?

Where would I have been this morning if I had chosen not to allow the Spirit to lead me?

If God were not guiding you according to His plan, and His purpose, who would you have followed?

Who would have been your role model?

What would you be like if you could become anyone you could want to be?

Would you be a scientist or an artist?

Would you be a musician or a mime?

Would you be a best selling author or a teacher?

Would you be a butcher, baker or candlestick maker?

Would you be a politician?

Would you be a professional sports athlete?

Would you be a banker, an industrialist, a world leader?

Would you have been like some Greek mythological hero born of Hollywood?

If you could desire above all other possibilities to become anyone, would you be willing to become the humble servant person that God has called you to be?

Let’s face it, you are who you are, for a reason today you are you because you are you.

But, are you, all the you, you can be today?

Are you allowing the Spirt to work in you today?

What would your life be like if you allowed yourself to fully be the person God wants you to be?

What differences would there be in your life tomorrow if you allowed the Spirit to work in you today?

Today as part of this seasons Pentecost experience I want to encourage you, to genuinely challenge you, to examine where you are where you really want to be.

The verse I want you to focus on this day is

1 Corinthians 2:10-12 (NIV) which says:

“God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no-one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.”

The NLT translates this verse:

It was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.

For so many people in the world today there are times in life that nothing seems to happen, then times where everything is boring without sense or meaning.

So many people want to be someone else simply because they feel their own life is empty.

Be honest, in your own spiritual walk, have there been times when you have complained that everything is the same, no growth and no direction, yet when you have felt the Spirit prompt you to do something, you have chosen not to?

Maybe there have been times in your life when doubt has stopped you moving forward.

Stopped you from allowing the Holy Spirit to work in your life.

Maybe there have been times when you have asked why?

Maybe there are times when you have refused to ask yourself why?

So, let me ask you why.

From our text, let me form a question for you from the bible verses we have read.

Why when, we have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us – why do we choose to accept less than God has freely given us?

Why do we spend so much time desiring to be like someone else and ignore who God is calling us to be?

How can we move past the feeling that something is wrong and allow God to work in our lives today?

How can we have greater joy in our lives?

How can we be satisfied?

How can we be the people that God has called us to be?

The simple answer is we must allow the Spirit to work in our lives so that we can become the people God has called us to be.

Do you allow the Spirit to work in your life?

Are you thankful for the blessings God has freely given you to enjoy everyday?

When was the last time you thanked God for the beauty of His creation?

When was the last time you thanked God for what He is doing in your life?

When was the last time you thanked God for what He provides you with everyday? Your bed, your food, your clothes.

When was the last time you thanked God for His love, His grace, His Mercy?

When was the last time you allowed the Spirit to work in you and through you for God’s glory?

When was the last time you thanked God for the work of the Holy Spirit in your life?

When was the last time you asked the Spirit to work in your life to help you be the person God has called you to be?

It is true to say that God knows your past, God knows your today, and He knows your future.

You know your past, you are living in your today, and I’m sure you have a hope for your future.

Does your plan for the future align with God’s plan for your future?

Actually, does your plan for today align with God’s plan for you today?

So often we try and prepare for things in our own strength, and too often we wonder why things didn’t go according to our plan when we never stopped to find out what God’s perfect plan for us was.

The past, the present and the future belongs to God and we need to be willing to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us into our destiny.

We must be open to the leading of the Spirit.

Are you willing to become the person God has called you to be by allowing the Spirit to work in you today?

Are you willing to give control of your life to God?

Are you willing to allow the full power of the Holy Spirit into your life, in your home, in your family, in your workplace.

We will never experience the full joy and contentment that God wants us to have if we do not allow the Holy Spirit to work in us.

We all need the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.With His power our life can become a blessing to others.

With His power others will see and experience the love of Jesus Christ through us.

Today, do you consider your life to be a living witness for Christ?

Today, would you allow the Holy Spirit to help you share the truth of Jesus with others?

Friends, you may look at others as role models, as people you aspire to be like, are you willing to be the person God has called you to be?

Are you willing to allow God to use you to bring glory to Him?

Are you willing to open your life to the Holy Spirit and be a blessing to people you meet?

Remember we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.”

As Christians we received the Spirit who is from God and not of the world, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God

So that we might use the gifts and talents God has given us, so that we can be the People that God has called us to be.

God has called us to communicate the truth with others, are you sharing the truth?

You can do it verbally, you can do it in the written word, you can do it on Facebook or Twitter, but are you doing it?

Are you allowing the Holy Spirit to work through you today?

Are you allowing the Holy Spirit to work in you today to become the person that God has called you to be?

Let me encourage you to become the person God has called you to be.

Allow the Holy Spirit to work in you today.

Share the Good News of God’s Saving work in your life.

Allow the Holy Spirit to help you become the person God has called you to be.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Jesus, Giver of peace, I so easily get distracted when I’m trying to focus and hear your Holy Spirit. Help me quiet my mind in the middle of my busy life. Help me to pause and to make space to listen to the most important voice of all.

Empower me to be a good listener to the gentle whispers of your Spirit. Help me follow the example of Jesus, who would slip away into the evening or the early morning to be alone with you. Teach me to abide in you. Amen.

Savior Jesus, you sent the Holy Spirit to your disciples so they would have a helper and a guide at all times. I pray that you send to me your Holy Spirit to be my helper. May your Spirit pour light into my heart and make my spirit glow in your glory. I seek to understand and to stay in your word, oh Lord. Illuminate my heart with your Spirit. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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Thus, saith the Lord, DO NOT act as if you are going to live forever because you most definitely are NOT! Acts 2:41.

A man told me not too long ago that he wanted to be a Christian “someday.” He told me it was “not convenient at the moment” to “disrupt his life that much.”

He was too busy living his life in his definition and understanding of his “fast lane” and he was having “too much fun with his moment in the sun” and could not take the time nor make any effort to “just start all over again at his age.”

The first thought that went straight through my spirit was “well, because it was not ‘convenient’ in that ‘moment’ for the man to lice life with Christ as Savior, it was not going to be ‘minimally’ convenient for him to get into heaven either.

There is going to be a day when that decision has to be made or risk later on in life that “it will be too late,” and then the choice will “no longer be available.”

Some will come to the Lord as their Savior and will know freedom, eternal life.

Others we will watch walk away from that moment – into who knows what.

We have our Savior Christ with us and living within us and we watch as that one soul walks or runs away, into their “who knows what or when, where or why.”

What about those phrases – “It will be too late?” “Become no longer available?”

What about them phrases roaming and rummaging around through our souls?

Are our souls sufficiently stirred up by what we are witnessing in that moment?

What of our ” in all OUR WAYS” trusting in the ways of the Lord?

What of our profession of Christian bravado to “go forth in Jesus’ name”?

What of our much-acclaimed adherence to our “Affirmation of Faith?”

Make me a servant
Humble and meek
Lord let me lift up those who are weak
And may the prayers of my heart always be
Make me a servant
Make me a servant
Make me a servant today

Make me a servant
Humble and meek
Lord let me lift up those who are weak
And may the prayers of my heart always be
Make me a servant
Make me a servant
Make me a servant today

Make me a servant
Humble and meek
Lord let me lift up those who are weak
And may the prayers of my heart always be
Make me a servant
Make me a servant
Make me a servant today

And may the prayers of my heart always be
Make me a servant
Make me a servant
Make me a servant today

Acts 2:37-41Amplified Bible

The Ingathering

37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart [with remorse and anxiety], and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what are we to do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent [change your old way of thinking, turn from your sinful ways, accept and follow Jesus as the Messiah] and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ because of the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise [of the Holy Spirit] is for you and your children and for all who are far away [including the Gentiles], as many as the Lord our God calls to Himself.” 40 And Peter solemnly testified and continued to admonish and urge them with many more words, saying, “[a]Be saved from this crooked and unjust generation!” 41 So then, those who accepted his message were baptized; and on that day about [b]3,000 souls were added [to the body of believers].

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

As many times as I have read this passage of text and have had it preached to me over and over again in the Lectionary weeks following “Pentecost Sunday,” the message has always and forever been centered around those thousands who “accepted his message and were baptized and added to the “body of believers.”

Today, however, as I was reading and studying this text for today’s devotional, I subtly was made aware of a different interpretation and understanding of verse 41. It’s 100%great news thousands were added to the Body of Believers that day.

But I could not help but think about and ponder this: “Just three thousand?”

There had to be more than just the “mere three thousand” there. There were those who were just allowed to walk away to focus on those who were baptized.

It is sobering to me in this moment to ‘realize’ there were those hundreds of thousands who ‘shrugged their shoulders, walked away from the “Pentecost Moment.” Scripture is silent on what happened and did not happen to them. It is relatively silent on the new Churches response to their just “walking away.”

It is said that “decisions determine destiny”.

Your life tomorrow will be the direct result of the decisions you make today.

It is estimated that we make approximately 35,000 decisions per day!

There will be consequences for each of those decisions.

These consequences may not be immediate, but they are inevitable.

If you choose to spend more money than you take in, eventually you will go bankrupt. If you choose to lay out of work, eventually you will find yourself unemployed. If you choose to eat too much, you will gain weight. If you choose to neglect your spouse or your children, it may well cost you your marriage.

In the spiritual realm choices have eternal consequences. When our choices are sinful… there will be severe consequences!

Just ask Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, Saul and David, Samson and Delilah, Elijah and the priests of Baal, the Children of Israel Simon Peter and many, many others!

While I was preparing to write the message for today, the Holy Spirit asked me,

“Where are my people getting their meat from?” As I began writing the first words, the Holy Spirit asked me again, “Where are my people getting their milk from?” With each word I began to write, the question became more intense.

The barrage of questions began to be accompanied by images. These images were not images of lollipops, rainbows, pots of gold, and purple gumdrops. These images were not of any smiling faces running through the factory with Willie Wonka to smell and taste all of the chocolate and taste the wallpaper.

These images were of grief and sorrow, shame, of destruction and brokenness.

If anyone remembers the 1971 movie, the original movie, titled, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, they should remember when Willie Wonka takes the children, and the adults with them, to the area that was lined with wallpaper.

This wallpaper was an invention created which allowed 1 dimensional images which resembled fruit to taste like real fruit.

In this scene, Willie Wonka stated, “I must show you this. Lickable wallpaper for nursery school walls. Go ahead, try it. The oranges taste like oranges, the raspberries taste like raspberries, the shnozberries taste like shnozberries.”

The Lord began to deal with me and my soul and revealed that what we are seeing is being projected to the movie going public, a substitute for real fruit.

The Lord then led me to the following verse:

1Peter 2:2-3 AMP — Like newborn babies you should crave (thirst for, earnestly desire) the pure (unadulterated) spiritual milk, that by it you may be nurtured and grow unto (completed) salvation, 3 if in fact you have [already] tasted [a]the goodness and gracious kindness of the Lord.

The Holy Spirit, then, led me to another set of verses:

1Corinthians 3:1-3 Amplified —

Foundations for Living

3 However, brothers and sisters, I could not talk to you as to spiritual people, but [only] as to [a]worldly people [dominated by human nature], mere infants [in the new life] in Christ! 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Even now you are still not ready. 3 You are still [b]worldly [controlled by ordinary impulses, the sinful capacity]. For as long as there is jealousy and strife and discord among you, are you not [c]unspiritual, and are you not walking like ordinary men [unchanged by faith]?

The Lord, then, declared:

“My people are craving spiritual milk, but I am disturbed because instead of feeding themselves with the Word, they are choosing to feed themselves with the world. Their actions, their words, their relationships, their finances, and the fruit they bear are direct results of the substitutes they are consuming.”

You didn’t hear me. So, let me repeat it:

The Lord declared that “their actions, their words, their relationships, their finances, and the fruit they bear are direct results of the substitutes they are consuming.”

My God, My God. This is too heavy a revelation and burden to bear.

The Lord is saying that the many issues we face have a direct correlation to the substitutes we choose to consume.

The world cannot provide us with the real thing.

The world cannot supplement our spiritual needs.

The world can only provide us with a substitute.

And just like in Willie Wonka, after you finish tasting all the candy and all of the chocolate and licking the wall, you’ll still find yourself still abundantly hungry.

The world cannot fulfill the needs that only God can. The Word says that God can, and will, fulfill every need. Anything else is just 100% never good enough.

Just like you cannot substitute Ramen Noodles for pasta and say that you have an authentic Italian meal, you cannot be fed by the world and say that you are being fed the real deal. Only the Word of God from His mouth is that real deal.

Feasting on the Word will lead you to true satisfaction and real manifestations.

Just like with eating a whole bunch of Ramen Noodles, when you allow the world to feed you with substitutes, you will look back later in life, still hungry, wondering why you have high blood pressure, why your blood sugars are high,

wondering why no relationships ever lasted, wondering why you have a table and a medicine cabinet full of all manner of different medicines to treat the myriad effects of the effects of the medicine designed to treat an original issue.

The food of the world will always leave you with all types of issues.

Heartache, heartbreak, uncontrollable health issues, brokenness, depression, anxiety, addictions, and much more, but the Word will lead you to everything that the world cannot give being: healing, prosperity, a sense of positive self-worth, the right relationships, peace, a sense of real belonging, deliverance.

Being or living solely as a “Christian OF the world” is just never going to be good enough for those we know who have chosen to shrug their shoulders, found it to be “too inconvenient” or even “unnecessary” to profess Christ.

Many years later, after the actual Day of Pentecost,

God gave us His recommendations on this matter as Paul would write:

2 Corinthians 2:14-17Amplified Bible

14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us spreads and makes evident everywhere the sweet fragrance of the knowledge of Him. 15 For we are the sweet fragrance of Christ [which ascends] to God, [discernible both] among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; 16 to the latter one an aroma from death to death [a fatal, offensive odor], but to the other an aroma from life to life [a vital fragrance, living and fresh]. And who is adequate and sufficiently qualified for these things? 17 For we are not like many, [acting like merchants] peddling God’s word [shortchanging and adulterating God’s message]; but from pure [uncompromised] motives, as [commissioned and sent] from God, we speak [His message] in Christ in the sight of God.

2 Corinthians 3:1-6Amplified Bible

Ministers of a New Covenant

3 Are we starting to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some [false teachers], letters of recommendation to you or from you? [No!] 2 You are our letter [of recommendation], written in our hearts, recognized and read by everyone. 3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

4 Such is the confidence and steadfast reliance and absolute trust that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficiently qualified in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency and qualifications come from God. 6 He has qualified us [making us sufficient] as ministers of a new covenant [of salvation through Christ], not of the letter [of a written code] but of the Spirit; for the letter [of the Law] kills [by revealing sin and demanding obedience], but the Spirit gives life.

And this brings me to lesson for today:

Stop acting like a Christian who has all the time in the world to be selfless.

Because not one single one of us have all the time in this world to be selfless.

To begin, I would have to say, that the preface to this message, was a great start to looking at what we need to quit.

The world would like us to believe we can find all of the answers within the world.

The world would like us to believe that we will be just fine on our own just as long as we stay within the confines of its boundaries.

The world would like us to believe that the demands on who we are can be reconciled if we just work harder.

The world wants us to find our identity within precepts of the world.

But I contend that this line of thinking is wrong.

I contend that,

if we seek out the truth of God,

if we find our identity in Christ,

if we seek of the Holy Spirit a fresh anointing,

if we move our focus away from the world and onto Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

if we release our will to God’s will, we will begin to see our Chief Priest, Jesus Christ, providing all of our needs, supplying us abundantly and exceedingly above anything and everything we will ever ask for, and filling us to overflow.

I am convinced that most of what we find hard will become easy.

The world wants us to focus on the results.

God will provide the results when we truly follow Him.

I know the Christian walk may be hard at times, but the fruits of our walk will come without much effort.

What I mean is, having the focus the world wants us to have,

where we are working hard to get a good job, working hard to get the right relationship, working hard to pay our bills, working hard to get more money, working hard to overcome depression, anxiety, and other health issues–and be “Genuinely Christian living with Jesus,” what we are looking for will come easy.

The requirement is that we build an earnest relationship with Jesus and live our lives under the requirements Jesus set for us.

This is how we receive what Jesus has already promised us.

The things we focus on will change,

The people we focus on will change,

and when it all changes to Jesus, in Jesus, transformation 100% happens.

Those who makes the Word of God their guide, and takes to heart its teachings, will find that they are on the right track.

They will clearly see the path.

They will be able to see the road they should be on and know which way to go.

Following the Word of God will allow us to avoid all those other paths which would definitely and decisively lead us astray.

The Word of God will give us insight and a sense of discernment to know when we may turn off from the main path.

Isn’t amazing to know God has truly blazed a trail for us and we have access to knowing which way to go by simply following the handbook we call the Bible?

If we take the Bible to heart and build a relationship with God, we will surely find the things that have been holding us back cannot hold us back anymore.

We will begin to see things for what it is.

When Jesus gave the man sight, it wasn’t just talking about a physical blind man, necessarily. It was talking about, as some call it today……being woke.

With Jesus we can move from a state of ignorance to a state of enlightenment.

We once were blind but now we see…as the song says.

God’s Word is a version of God’s glory. While we wait for Jesus, let the Word of God, and the prophecies within it, shine so bright that it causes the light in you to shine even brighter.

As we begin to digest the Word and allowing it to light our path, don’t keep it in.

There are too many Christians who aren’t doing anything with the gifting God gave them.

There are too many Christians hold in for themselves.

We aren’t called to look out for ourselves.

We are called to help others.

Don’t be like that.

Don’t get Constipated with the Word!

Let it out!

When we allow God to order our steps, God will direct our paths.

-When we release our will to God’s will, we are giving up us and our fleshly desires to allow God to access to our steps. When we have released our will to God’s will, we begin the process of deepening our relationship with Him.

It’s because of this relationship with Him, where we move according to God’s purpose, and design, we begin to see manifestations in our lives that can only be of God–things begin occurring in our lives that we hadn’t seen before; these things are difficult to explain by the logic, and the intellectual capacity, of man.

Things we needed to occur in our lives start to happen. We, even, begin to see connections created that fix things that we didn’t even know were broken.

-When we release our will to God’s will, and allow God to order our steps, God will not only order what we see as “needs to be met,” God will order everything.

When God orders our “Christian” steps, He also orders our life’s environment.

The more we let God in, the more we shine the Word on our life, the clearer we become about who we are in the name of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

God wants you to know that you were made perfect.

The world doesn’t define you; He does.

And, once you and I finally, eternally, take hold of that fact, you and I will begin to see advanced manifestations of God’s miraculous, infinitely enduring love.

Your “new” perfect manifestation is soon to be revealed.

A New Affirmation of Faith takes life and takes shape deep within our souls;

“I Quit!”

When I see others walking away from Christ …

I quit — shrugging my shoulders

I quit–believing I’m less than I am.

I quit–seeing myself the way the world sees me.

I quit–being defined by others in my life.

I quit–wearing the mask the world dictates I wear.

I quit–walking away from God!

I quit–leaving my light in a corner.

I quit — looking only in my mirror and living for myself

I quit! I quit! I quit!

because …

John 10:15-18 Amplified Bible

15 … even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father—and I lay down My [very own] life [sacrificing it] for the benefit of the sheep. 16 I have [a]other sheep [beside these] that are not of this fold. I must bring those also, and they will listen to My voice and pay attention to My call, and they will become [b]one flock with one Shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My [own] life so that I may take it back. 18 No one takes it away from Me, but I lay it down voluntarily. I am authorized and have power to lay it down and to give it up, and I am authorized and have power to take it back. This command I have received from My Father.”

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Emmanuel, God with us! God within us, Lord God Almighty, I praise Your holy name. Today, Lord, I feel so tired, weary and discouraged. The only way I see out of this personal valley is to give up totally. Things seem ever so gloomy.

I welcome the Presence of the Holy Spirit. Let Him be my Intercessor, let Him be my Comforter and my Reassurance and Guide. I acknowledge before You that I see “other shoulders shrugging” and may need to make difficult changes in my own life. But, making changes isn’t giving up, doing nothing when I need to, is.

Help me my Lord, and my Savior to give control of my life over to You in every way, and to become the Christian You would have me be. Thank You Lord, that You have not given up on me and I ask You to teach me Your way from this day forward. In Jesus’ name I pray, Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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I am reaching for the unquestionably great promise of now unquestionably living the unquestionably great life of Christ – seeking God with my WHOLE heart, my WHOLE soul. Acts 2:37-39

The first Pentecost after Jesus’ death and resurrection was the birthday of Jesus’ church.

The Holy Spirit moved in Jesus’ apostles; they suddenly proclaimed the good news to people from many parts of the Mediterranean area (Acts 2:8-11).

Thousands were baptized, forgiven of their sins, and given the Holy Spirit as God’s gift.

But even in the unquestionable greatness of that day, there was the promise of more unquestionably great days to come.

The promise of God’s forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit are for all whom the Lord calls, including us and others he will call.

Like all unquestionably great stories with unquestionably great promises of an unquestionably great future attached to it, they must all begin with a minimum of at least one someone somewhere who will take the risk to jump in with both feet with at least a minimal degree of belief it will actually, absolutely be true.

Someone, somewhere, somehow must dare to question the “truth” of such an unquestionably great promise – it must somehow be proven if it is to continue.

Life must be lived – but we have that choice to determine how we should do so.

“Nothing Ventured – Nothing Gained”

“Go for the Gusto or Just plain Go Away.”

Live as if it is only according to the principle of “maintaining the Status quo.”

Live as if there is the possibility that the unquestionably great promise being offered of unquestionably great things coming your way – if you’ll take a risk.

“As a guiding principle, life shrinks, and life expands in direct proportion to your willingness to assume risk.” Casey Neistat

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_Neistat

The Holy Spirit moved in an unquestionably powerful way that first Pentecost Day.

Unquestionably remarkable and unquestionably miraculous events took place in the thousands of lives of those who had gathered Jerusalem that day.

Lives were unquestionably changed.

Unquestionably a great promise had been fulfilled by God to come among them.

Now, how would these people respond to such an unquestionably great event.

A shrug of the shoulders and the maintenance of “Status Quo?”

Somebody “girding their loins” learning how to get trained up in the operation of the Gospel Train of God – because now people could know – that God is now completely on our whole life’s train track – and there’s no stopping God now!

Peter makes a promise for all those everywhere who will turn their hearts to God and submit themselves to him in baptism, fully trusting in Jesus as their Lord and Savior!

They will be filled with God’s Spirit and forgiven of their sins because of the mighty name and gracious work of Jesus Christ.

This whole passage (Acts 2:33-47) demonstrates that Peter and the apostles had begun fulfilling Jesus’ Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20):

they were making disciples by going, baptizing, and teaching people to obey what the Lord commanded.

Like those early disciples, let’s accept the challenge, share this grace so the whole world can unquestionably know Jesus is not only our Lord, He is also unquestionably Savior and King for all who hear God’s call and trust in him.

God’s great promise of Holy Spirit guiding, getting our whole life on His track!

This unquestionably great promise of God is extended too literally everyone!

Without exception – one promise for literally everyone to come to and “LIVE!”

If that first person would dare to come forward out of the crowd – and prove it!

By the power of the Holy Spirit, have you or anyone you know ever shared this life transitioning message of promise, forgiveness, and power with others?

Acts 2:37-39Amplified Bible

The Ingathering

37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart [with remorse and anxiety], and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what are we to do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent [change your old way of thinking, turn from your sinful ways, accept and follow Jesus as the Messiah] and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ because of the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise [of the Holy Spirit] is for you and your children and for all who are far away [including the Gentiles], as many as the Lord our God calls to Himself.”

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

The Bible says in Acts 2:38 

“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost”.

The word repent is to express sincere regret, remorse one’s wrongdoing and sins. Repentance is the action we ourselves choose to exercise of turning away from that wrongdoing and sin and our choosing not to partake in that again.

The thing we really need to understand is that repentance is not a one-time event that one does to receive salvation.

True repentance causes a person to say,

“I want to live in Christ, prove it with a 180-degree change of their direction.”

Repentance requires true brokenness.

It is NOT asking our God for forgiveness with the intent to sin again, but is an honest, regretful acknowledgement of sin with a true and total commitment to change – to choose between sin’s “status quo” and freedom in Christ Jesus.

I remember some years ago while I was still young in “my Christianity” we had a Pastor at our spiritual retreat, and I remember him saying to us one Sunday:

“We all need to change every day therefore we need all to repent everyday”.

I was then still in the ‘young’ mind-set that repentance was something just for salvation until I found myself having to repent not committing some atrocious sin prese but omitting something, like not studying like I should, not fasting in the “prescribed biblical way” and when I was or was not praying like I should.

Since God was dealing with my “youthful Christianity” as the first partaker with that message, I had to repent because I began to see what I was omitting and falling short of the glory of God in my life personally (Romans 3:23).

I began to be like David and pray like he did in Psalm 51:6-10 

“Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me”.

Now before someone gets the wrong impression, I am not talking about my committing a sin that is punishable with Hell’s damnation, but I am talking about realizing your personal short comings, being totally pleasing unto God.

There’s a saying that confession is good for the soul. It comes from an old Scottish proverb, which said in full, “Open confession is good for the soul.”

There is biblical truth in that!

When John the Baptist was preparing people to meet Jesus, his first advice was to repent.

Peter then on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2:38 said

“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost”.

I remember being handed a two-sided bookmark for my Bible which had this prayer printed on its front and its back –

A Prayer for Daily Repentance

Dear Lord, thank you for your forgiveness. Thank you for not abandoning us to our mistakes, but for reaching out instead to bring us home. Help convict me of sin and help me accept your mercy without shame. Thank you for the love you have poured out for me and all your children. Help me live out of that love today. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

That was almost seventeen years ago, and I believe I still have that bookmark.

I truly believe my “Christianity” has grown up and matured just a bit in these intervening years since my long weekend attendance that spiritual retreat.

But sometimes I find that my premise of a “more mature” Christian life being tested by the unquestionably life changing events of these last several months.

We have experienced unprecedented life events that leave us bewildered at best.

The truth of the matter is that these past two years have changed society as a whole and will continually and continuously change many of us personally in ways unlike any we could not have even imagined, for many more months.

For many, the old pattern of life has been broken, and a new one has come into play. Social distancing has changed the way we will each choose to interact with people probably forever. Hand shaking and the ever-popular hug except for our close family members will if ever done again will be done with extreme caution.

When we look back over the last two years, we have been inundated with events, information, rather good or bad, racism played out to the fullest, hatred spewed from the mouths of leaders both political and spiritual, never before imagined acts of gun violence being done in the United States carried out by Americans.

We see the War in the Ukraine.

We have seen hospitals pushed to the limits; deaths reaching and seemingly passing Biblical proportions. We have experienced seismic paradigm shifts in politics, life and religion, today is so majorly different then it was only a year ago. In the prophetic, immortal words of Marvin Gaye “What’s Going On”. 

I can honestly say for myself and maybe for a lot of you I haven’t watched CNN or other major news stations as much as I have these past two years in my life.

I, like many of you, am completely inundated by my television set with all the bad news, all the intrigue, killings, politics, civil uprisings, unbelievable reports of increasingly lethal mass shootings, deaths, panic, Breaking News Headlines.

I saw this statement that said there are more televisions in the average home than there are people. And this does not include other electronic devices upon which television shows and programming can be watched.

I believe it can literally be blamed that the increase in violence, unrest, hatred, and godless upheaval being seen in our society today is a direct result of what is coming across our computer and television and other social media outlets.

The Bible says it like this in Galatians 6:7 “Whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”

“We must reap the change which only comes from living Christ to the fullest.”

For 20 years, I “grew and matured in my faith” in the church and I know for a fact many times this scripture will be used when it comes time for the offering.

However, today I am going to deal with something different because we need to understand we reap what we sow more today than probably any time in history.

We are sowing not so much monetarily into a ministry or church organization, but we are sowing and having sown more than you realize into your spirit. We are allowing things to affect us in ways more than we normally would. Many of us have developed new patterns and habits that we did not have just a year ago.

Now is the time that we need to be cognizant of the influences of our lives and what is being sown into our spirit.

Proverbs 4:23 says “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life”.

In the Old Testament the word “heart” is used more than 800 times, but more than 200 times it deals with one’s thoughts, emotions, and the wellsprings of the choices we make about living life, those things that motivate and mold us.

Solomon says in Proverbs 23:7 “For ah he thinketh so, is he?” WHY – Because this will control the rest of your life. What you think is what you are.

Your thoughts rather positive, negative, good, or bad control your attitudes.

Your attitudes are the sum of your thoughts.

Your attitudes lead to your actions.

That is why we must guard our hearts and be careful with what we allow to be sown or what we sow into our spirit.

It is so easy to be influenced by what we see on T.V., the internet, read in the paper or are texted across and upon the whole host of social media outlets.

Luke 22:31 says “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired [to have] you, that he may sift [you] as wheat”.

That means to continually and continuously confuse and poison your heart.

Don’t be confused by the manipulation of people.

The devil wants to continually and continuously contaminate and corrupt your WHOLE heart. You must guard your heart against contamination from jealousy, philosophies, traditions, speculation, arrogance, pride, lies and everything else.

God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit wants your heart for Himself.

It was the basis of your original union with Him.

God didn’t appeal to your intellect; He asked for faith.

The enemy despises your heart because it is with your heart that you believe unto righteousness. 

Romans 10:10 says “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”

Reaching for the promises of God, the unquestionable truth of abundant life in Christ, we must live to fully protect our hearts from being contaminated at all.

We must guard our hearts from anything that is contrary to the Word of God.

When you realize how much is sown into your heart by the avenue of your eyes or your ears, then unquestionably, we need to pray, ask God for a clean heart.

I’m not asking for high men to know my name, I’m not asking for fortune or my “15 minutes of fame” but give me ‘Lord a clean heart and I’ll follow thee.’

The best way to guard your heart with all diligence is to seek God with your whole heart.

Seeking God with All Your Heart!

The Bible promises that if you seek God with all your heart, then you will find Him.

If you seek to know God in real and personal ways with all your heart, then you will get to know God by Him revealing Himself to us.

I believe this is called Progressive Revelation!

When I say progressive revelation, I believe it is a move originated from God, not man which God brings us through spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity.

It is a growing process that is done by the planting of good seed.

This is what the devil is trying to stop from happening in your and my life at any chance he can. 

Luke 22:31 says “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired [to have] you, that he may sift [you] as wheat”.

Meaning of Seeking God

In the Bible the words for “seek God with all your heart” means to: to seek the face of God, the glory of God and not just His hand.

It is to desire Him more than one desires oneself.

Psalm 42:1 says, “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God”.

It is fixing our conscious and focusing our attention and our heart’s affection on God.

This setting of the mind is the opposite of mental coasting.

It is a conscious choice to direct the heart toward God.

This is what Paul desires for the church in 2 Thessalonians 3:5 “May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ”.

It is a conscious effort on our part.

To seek God with all your heart is all about having a love and desire to know Him.

Paul said in Philippians 3:10 “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death”. 

1 Chronicles 22:9 says, “Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God”.

Understand this is not some emotional aspect of seeking God like He is lost, God is not lost, but striving to find that which has been hidden. 

Proverbs 25:2 says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter”.

There is always something through which or around we must go to meet God spiritually, emotionally, and consciously.

It is this going through or around is what seeking is.

Paul said I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God.

The woman with the issue of blood came in the press to “just touch the hem of His garment.”

My own repentance was due to the fact that I was unquestionably letting things block me from seeking His face like I should have but the honor was my own making the living choice, searching Him out in the midst of what was going on.

Please Understand there are always going to be obstacles which we so need to avoid, seeds that are trying to be planted that bring nothing but weeds in our lives that try to block out our sight of God, that try to slow or stop our maturity. 

Matthew 13:25-26 says, “But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also”.

We must be aware of the tricks of the enemy and know the things which causes us to become insensitive to God and the try to block us from seek Him with our whole heart.

That is, unquestionably, what unquestionably seeking God with our whole heart and unquestionably our whole soul is all about.

Isaiah 55:6 says, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near”.

The Lord is always near – Acts 2:1-13

Job 8:5 says, “If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication to the Almighty”.

This is what David was doing in Psalm 51:6-10 

“Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me”.

and what I did this week. WATCH THIS:

– Unquestionably seeking God involves my calling and pleading unto the Lord.

“O Lord, have mercy on me, open my eyes, my ears, my heart to be sensitive to you Lord. Unquestionably remove anything that is not like you, unquestionably cleanse me from all unrighteousness for I want to unquestionably know you Lord. “

This is humility which is essential in seeking God. 

Psalm 10:4 says, “The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts”.

We must avoid pride in order to seek God with our whole heart.

Remember in the beginning of this devotional we talked about reaping what we sow. We guard our ever-questioning hearts, and we can seek all of God with our whole heart by unquestionably reducing the trash that we put into our spirit.

Guarding your heart is more about feeding your soul than avoiding sin.

When our heart is strong, we can resist the temptations that cause many to stumble.

Minimize the trash in will reduce the trash out.

Unquestionably guarding your heart includes unquestionably seeking God, but we cannot ignore the instruction to strive to minimize the trash from our lives.

Some trash is easy to identify. Moral corruption, perverse sexual behavior, evil towards others. Other trash is more difficult to discern and to remove.

A lack of faith, unforgiveness, materialism, pride, hatred, racism, bigotry envy, strife. Trash, big or small, is still, unquestionably, nothing but stinking trash.

Hebrews 12:1-2 says

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God”.

Unquestionably guarding your heart is unquestionably critical to experiencing all that God unquestionably desires for your life.

God in His infinite wisdom knew that we would have problems with guarding our heart with all diligence, so He created us and made it impossible to be able to focus on more than one thing at a time.

So here is a little secret on how to unquestionably guard your heart, seek God.

Philippians 4:8-9 unquestionably says to our questioning hearts and souls,

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do and the God of peace shall be with you!”

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Praise to you Almighty and gracious Father. You have given me hope when there was none. You have given me unquestionable strength when my questionable resolve was gone. You have unquestionably blessed me with grace and poured your love into my heart through your Holy Spirit, your gift from above. For your love, grace, forgiveness, salvation, and Holy Spirit, I praise you. In Jesus’ name. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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ACTS 2 – PENTECOST! GOD FULFILLS HIS PROMISE! THE HOLY SPIRIT IS POURED OUT UPON THE CHURCH.

How often do we really seriously pause and meditate upon God’s desire to be close to us and among us? It should be an important part of our understanding of God. After all, God created us all to love, serve and communicate with him.

The God of the Old and New Testaments is a Triune God who wants to be with and among His creation and His children in such a way as to celebrate them.

That’s us! So, He moves in his spirit as close to us as we will allow him to come.

In the beginning, when God created the heavens, the earth and then us, God came down and walked and talked to us, with us and among us in the garden.

God was exactly that close. God was interested in being “talking and walking” close to us, exactly because God wanted to be “talking and walking close to us.

Even after we somehow managed to get ourselves into serious trouble with sin, separated ourselves from his presence, he continually “stayed home.” He never gave up on us, let us out of his sight. God rescued humanity over and over again.

And Scripture tells us that in the fullness of time, God came to earth where the sin problem was, and still is. Jesus, the word became flesh and lived among us.

This was certainly something new, God becoming flesh! God coming among us.

Nothing, whether political, social, moral, economic or spiritual would ever be the same again. Yet although this looked different, it turns out to be the same story. It was God wanting to be among his people and to restore us to his image.

That very first Pentecost marks and celebrates the powerful beginning of a global movement of the power of God’s presence sweeping across the earth.

As we again read the account of what happened as the Spirit descended with power on God’s people, place yourself in their midst. Imagine for more than just this one Sunday’s day of Worship, what it would look like, sound like, and feel like to witness firsthand such a powerful movement of God’s Spirit.

Pentecost means so much to us as believers. The day of Pentecost changed everything for us. Today we will celebrate! Today we’ll explore walking with the Holy Spirit and how he affects our daily life so much. May your heart grow in gratitude and friendship with the Spirit today as a result of your time with him.

Today, as we gather, may there be a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit upon you!

Acts 2:1-13 Amplified Bible

The Day of Pentecost

2 When the day of [a]Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place, 2 and suddenly a sound came from heaven like a rushing violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 There appeared to them tongues resembling fire, which were being distributed [among them], and they rested on each one of them [as each person received the Holy Spirit]. 4 And they were all filled [that is, diffused throughout their being] with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other [b]tongues (different languages), as the Spirit was giving them the ability to speak out [clearly and appropriately].

5 Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout and God-fearing men from every nation under heaven. 6 And when this sound was heard, a crowd gathered, and they were bewildered because each one was hearing those in the upper room speaking in his own language or dialect. 7 They were completely astonished, saying, “Look! Are not all of these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears in our own language or native dialect? 9 [Among us there are] Parthians, Medes and Elamites, and people of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and [c]Asia [Minor], 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and the visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes (Gentile converts to Judaism), 11 Cretans and Arabs—we all hear them speaking in our [native] tongues about the mighty works of God!” 12 And they were beside themselves with amazement and were greatly perplexed, saying one to another, “What could this mean?” 13 But others were laughing and joking and ridiculing them, saying, “They are full of sweet wine and are drunk!”

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

The Holy Spirit is our greatest gift.

When the disciples received the Spirit, they began living as Jesus did.

They believed in the promise of God to always be with and among them. They finally began believing in themselves. speaking to, healing, and transforming a “conquered” world that had known no restored relationship with their Creator.

And Scripture makes it clear that our lives are to follow their example.

We have been given the same Holy Spirit as those first disciples, the same Holy Spirit who moved so powerfully in the Creation Story, revealing to us our loving heavenly Father to a world in desperate need of relationship with their Creator.

What a glorious vision comes to my soul of God quite literally; “among us!”

With that vision clearly before me, I feel there are three areas in which the Spirit would anoint us more powerfully today as he did the disciples at Pentecost.

Let’s boldly seek out all that the Spirit would do in our hearts and lives today.

The first act of the disciples upon being filled with the Spirit at Pentecost was to come out from behind the Upper Rooms “locked” doors to ‘speak’ to all who had gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate God’s long covenanted Day of Pentecost.

All who had gathered to worship God in the Temple, who had brought their required sacrifices of “first fruits,” a captive audience” to be blessed of God for a good harvest and a prosperous life that year, who would ‘listen,’ to the Priests and scribes explaining all the powerful acts that were going on around them.

Except, this harvest celebration was immediately recognized as being different. It was not the Priests nor the Scribes nor the Elders of the Temple speaking and preaching and teaching them. It was no longer “Temple Business” as usual.

It was a complete newcomer – Peter, it is an uneducated Galilean fisherman!

And this complete newcomer’s words were speaking mightily different words to them. Words they’d undoubtedly never heard spoken before and much to their surprise, the were words they could understand and be mightily inspired by – in every one of their own native tongues and dialects of their own native lands.

And with the preaching of Peter several thousand listeners accepted the free gift of salvation in the name of someone whom they’d probably never met nor had ever talked to nor walked side by side with nor shared a meal with or heard on any street corner nor transacted any business with – Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

In these 21st century days, we too will gather amongst people whom we have seldom or never met, whom we never or seldom shared meals with, or heard on any street corner, nor ever seriously thought to share in any celebration of God with. We are now that world community gathered outside the Temple that day.

Like those first century thousands who gathered in Jerusalem, we too, who are marked by the Spirit’s presence are disciples who move forth the power of love. 

Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 

The Spirit longs to use us to proclaim the goodness of God’s love to this lost and dying world.

The Holy Spirit longs to fill us with the desire to love this world the way he does. 

1 Corinthians 16:14 says, “Let all that you do be done in love.” 

Galatians 5:22-23 Amplified says,

22 But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23  gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.

And in Mark 12:31, Jesus says that the second greatest commandment is, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 

Is your life marked by love for others?

Does our life “bear good fruit” for God’s Kingdom in the name of the Father, the Son, Holy Spirit?

Or does it bear “bad fruit” “sour wine” for ‘worldly’ consumption, drunkeness?

Do you live your life in service to your heavenly Father and his children?

Seek out a fresh encounter with the Holy Spirit today.

It’s the Spirit who bears the fruit of love in your life.

You cannot love nor serve others on your own, for true love and service comes solely from God.

But the Spirit longs to fill you with a desire and anointing to love and serve all others around you that they might better know the love of the heavenly Father.

The coming of the Holy Spirit also brought powerful unity to the disciples. 

Acts 2:44-47 Amplified says,

44 And all those who had believed [in Jesus as Savior] [a]were together and had all things in common [considering their possessions to belong to the group as a whole]. 45 And they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing the proceeds with all [the other believers], as anyone had need. 46 Day after day they met in the temple [area] continuing with one mind, and breaking bread in various private homes. They were eating their meals together with joy and generous hearts, 47 praising God continually, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord kept adding to their number daily those who were being saved.

Only the Spirit can bring unity between broken, competitive, and needy people.

Only through the Holy Spirit do we have the ability to love and accept others regardless of our differences and unite toward the common goal of loving God and others wholeheartedly.

Paul writes in Ephesians 4:1-3 Amplified, 

Unity of the Spirit

4 So I, the prisoner for the Lord, appeal to you to live a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called [that is, to live a life that exhibits godly character, moral courage, personal integrity, and mature behavior—a life that expresses gratitude to God for your salvation], 2 with all humility [forsaking self-righteousness], and gentleness [maintaining self-control], with patience, bearing with one another [a]in [unselfish] love. 3 Make every effort to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the bond of peace [each individual working together to make the whole successful].

In and amongst our own generations, can we genuinely say we too are a disciple marked by a desire to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace?” 

In and amongst our own generations, can we genuinely say before God, we too are a genuine Christian marked by grace-filled love for your fellow believers?

In and amongst our own generations, we all absolutely and desperately need to seek out, with all vigor, a greater anointing, desire from the Spirit toward unity.

We cannot be selfless in our own strength.

We need the help of the God of perfect love to pursue unity through humility.

In and amongst our own generations, seek out a desire and anointing to be a person who works tirelessly toward the goal of unity instead of division today.

In and amongst our own generations, we absolutely need to spend time in God’s presence together allowing him to transform our hearts to look more like HIS!

Lastly, Pentecost filled the disciples with the ability to connect directly to God through the avenue of the Holy Spirit.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:6-10 Amplified,

6 Yet we do speak wisdom among those spiritually mature [believers who have teachable hearts and a greater understanding]; but [it is a higher] wisdom not [the wisdom] of this present age nor of the rulers and leaders of this age, who are passing away; 7 but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom once hidden [from man, but now revealed to us by God, that wisdom] which God predestined before the ages to our glory [to lift us into the glory of His presence]. 8 None of the rulers of this age recognized and understood this wisdom; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; 9 but just as it is written [in Scripture],

“Things which the eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard,
And which have not entered the heart of man,
All that God has prepared for those who love Him [who hold Him in affectionate reverence, who obey Him, and who gratefully recognize the benefits that He has bestowed].”

10 For God has unveiled them and revealed them to us through the [Holy] Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things [diligently], even [sounding and measuring] the [profound] depths of God [the divine counsels and things far beyond human understanding].

Acts 15:27-29 Amplified says,

27 So we have sent Judas and Silas, who will report by word of mouth the same things [that we decided in our meeting]. 28 For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to place on you any greater burden than these essentials: 29 that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from [consuming] blood, and from [eating the meat of] things that have been strangled, and from sexual impurity. If you keep yourselves from these things, you will do well. Farewell.”

These first century disciples knew God’s desires, received revelation from him, were steadily being inspired, transformed into the likeness of Christ through fellowshipping with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

We as disciples are to be marked by direct connection with the Holy Spirit.

Paul and Peter had no special human ability to talk to God.

Prior to the coming of the Holy Spirit, Peter was an uneducated fisherman. Paul was zealously persecuting the followers of the very God he was trying to serve.

Peter chose his own personal safety over the very life of Jesus, who had shown him such an immeasurable degree of wisdom, forgiveness, love and grace.

It was only with the Holy Spirit that these men were able to connect to God so deeply, and we can have that same connection today.

So, in and amongst our own generations, are you a believer who is genuinely marked by direct connection with the Holy Spirit?

In and amongst our own generations, can we genuinely say before God, we all spend quality time and abundant energy, seeking his presence, his wisdom, his truth, his counsel, and his fresh “every single day of our lives,” anointing?

In and amongst our own generations, let’s be children of God who pursue deeper connection with our heavenly Father today.

In and amongst our own generations, let’s seek the face of God as the early disciples did and be believers marked by relationship with the Holy Spirit.

Spend time during guided prayer pursuing all that the Spirit would do in you.

Open your heart and mind to be transformed by his love. And commit to living your life with direct connection to the God who dwells within you.

In the name of God, the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

1. Meditate on the Spirit’s desire and ability to anoint us with the power and desire to love others. 

Ask him to show you how to better love others today. Ask his forgiveness for any way in which you have been hurtful to those whom he loves. And receive the anointing to love people from his heart and strength rather than your own.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8

“Let all that you do be done in love.” 1 Corinthians 16:14

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Mark 12:31

2. Now meditate on God’s desire to use you to bring unity to his children. 

Confess to God anyone who annoys you or angers you. Confess anyone whom you have a hard time loving. Ask him for his heart for that person. Ask him to fill you up with a supernatural ability to love those who are difficult or different. Ask him to help you be a person who pursues unity.

“And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” Acts 2:44-47

“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:1-3

3. Now seek after a direct connection to the Holy Spirit. 

Ask him to guide you into the knowledge of his presence. Ask him to show you the overwhelming love, grace, and anointing he has for you today. Seek out answers to any questions you have of him. May you discover a wellspring of friendship in the Holy Spirit today.

“But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.” Psalm 73:28

“These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:10

“And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.” 1 Corinthians 2:13

Go

It’s crucial that we as children of God seek out all that he longs to give us.

Relationship with God is meant to be anything but stale, stagnant, and weak.

The disciples demonstrated that those filled with the Spirit of God are to be marked by adventure, mystery, and the miraculous.

God has a story for the ages written with you in mind.

He has a plan beyond what you could ever imagine if you will seek him out, trust him, and follow him.

Rest today in the fact God loves you enough to lead you away from a mundane life. Pursue his plans and watch as he fills your life with adventure and wonder.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Absolute Joy of Heaven, we are so blessed that You came to dwell in each of us on Pentecost, when Your church was born. Surely, through Your Spirit, we have died to sin and are alive to holiness. May we each serve You faithfully, in praise, prayer, and loving service to others, as we are changed from glory to glory. May we each walk as children of the light, in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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