THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS A PURPOSE IN EACH OF US
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
I have been privileged to hear several very good messages lately on the subject of God's purpose within our daily lives. One message was so strong that I want to touch on it as a subject in today's blog.
In the book of Acts 1: & 2: We find the instructions that Jesus gave to the Church to go to Jerusalem and wait and pray until He sent the power of God's Spirit upon them. Many people think today that the church was not established until Pentecost, but that is just not true. In fact, the church was already starting to move and make decisions while they were still in the upper room. The Lord had already given the power of God's Spirit to the disciples who were among the original 12 before this, and they as leaders of the church were charged with the care of some 120 others who were believers in Christ as well. I wanted to set that up for you to say that there are really two things that the Holy Spirit intends for us; there is growth in Christ, and bearing spiritual fruit. In order to accomplish that task, He comes into us first to change our lives, and then to work through us to the world around us. It is that part that I don't want for you miss; for the power of God's Spirit needs to first change us before He can do any work at all through us.
Many people in the Pentecostal movement want to see some kind of physical work being done by the Holy Spirit, but they are looking to various gifts that are promised to the believer and not to the first issue that needs to be addressed, which is change within that life. Spiritual growth and change do not come to us like turning on a light switch, it takes time, and effort to make happen. No matter what we think we cannot expect a newborn baby to immediately learn to walk, talk, and be a productive a true reflection part of society the first few years of their life; and yet for some reason as adults who come to Christ we seem to think that we can have all of the answers immediately available to us. God begins by preparing us for the work that is designed for us to do in His Spirit, and there is a period of time when we are being prepared to do that work. I have no idea how long it will take; it is much longer for some people than for others, and that mostly depends on how hard we fight with God for the control of who we think we are. It may take many years for some of us to give up that fight. Our self-will was given to us so that the intent of our heart could be complete and true just like our love for God.
There are many who are trying to manipulate the Spirit of God through self-will. It isn't that they don't want to do God's will; at least they will claim that, but in the intent of their heart they are having a great struggle. Until we as Christians begin to understand that we should not bee the ones in charge, but it should be God's Spirit who is in charge of what we say and do; we will continue to fight on our own and without that badly needed Spiritual power behind us. We must allow God's influence to grow and develop within us before we begin to step out into a role within the church. We cannot be a true reflection of God's light to this world without first being under His complete control. It is this message that many need to understand today within the church. While we may have a good idea of what we can contribute as a person to the cause of Christ it may not at all be the person that God is creating you to be. Believe me when you surrender to the Father, and the Spirit starts to prepare you it will be a time when you will feel more alive than you ever have. If you are going through something like that you may want to take the time to pray and then speak to someone about it who you feel can understand it. You can always write to me and we can discuss it personally. We may have been living only a partially fruitful life because of an unwitting battle we have been having about control of our life with God.
Take that full step toward surrender my dear one because you will find God's Spirit will give you the answers that you have been looking for. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
I have been privileged to hear several very good messages lately on the subject of God's purpose within our daily lives. One message was so strong that I want to touch on it as a subject in today's blog.
In the book of Acts 1: & 2: We find the instructions that Jesus gave to the Church to go to Jerusalem and wait and pray until He sent the power of God's Spirit upon them. Many people think today that the church was not established until Pentecost, but that is just not true. In fact, the church was already starting to move and make decisions while they were still in the upper room. The Lord had already given the power of God's Spirit to the disciples who were among the original 12 before this, and they as leaders of the church were charged with the care of some 120 others who were believers in Christ as well. I wanted to set that up for you to say that there are really two things that the Holy Spirit intends for us; there is growth in Christ, and bearing spiritual fruit. In order to accomplish that task, He comes into us first to change our lives, and then to work through us to the world around us. It is that part that I don't want for you miss; for the power of God's Spirit needs to first change us before He can do any work at all through us.
Many people in the Pentecostal movement want to see some kind of physical work being done by the Holy Spirit, but they are looking to various gifts that are promised to the believer and not to the first issue that needs to be addressed, which is change within that life. Spiritual growth and change do not come to us like turning on a light switch, it takes time, and effort to make happen. No matter what we think we cannot expect a newborn baby to immediately learn to walk, talk, and be a productive a true reflection part of society the first few years of their life; and yet for some reason as adults who come to Christ we seem to think that we can have all of the answers immediately available to us. God begins by preparing us for the work that is designed for us to do in His Spirit, and there is a period of time when we are being prepared to do that work. I have no idea how long it will take; it is much longer for some people than for others, and that mostly depends on how hard we fight with God for the control of who we think we are. It may take many years for some of us to give up that fight. Our self-will was given to us so that the intent of our heart could be complete and true just like our love for God.
There are many who are trying to manipulate the Spirit of God through self-will. It isn't that they don't want to do God's will; at least they will claim that, but in the intent of their heart they are having a great struggle. Until we as Christians begin to understand that we should not bee the ones in charge, but it should be God's Spirit who is in charge of what we say and do; we will continue to fight on our own and without that badly needed Spiritual power behind us. We must allow God's influence to grow and develop within us before we begin to step out into a role within the church. We cannot be a true reflection of God's light to this world without first being under His complete control. It is this message that many need to understand today within the church. While we may have a good idea of what we can contribute as a person to the cause of Christ it may not at all be the person that God is creating you to be. Believe me when you surrender to the Father, and the Spirit starts to prepare you it will be a time when you will feel more alive than you ever have. If you are going through something like that you may want to take the time to pray and then speak to someone about it who you feel can understand it. You can always write to me and we can discuss it personally. We may have been living only a partially fruitful life because of an unwitting battle we have been having about control of our life with God.
Take that full step toward surrender my dear one because you will find God's Spirit will give you the answers that you have been looking for. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
Comments
Post a Comment