BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT

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Jesus promised His disciples that they would receive power to be His witnesses when the Holy Spirit comes on them on the day of Pentecost. It was it necessary for them to be endued with God’s power, for without it they would not be able to boldly proclaim what Jesus had done for them and for everyone else who would believe on Him.

⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes to you. Then you will be my witnesses to testify about me in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” – Acts 1:8 GW

God is love and doesn't want anyone to perish; He wants everyone to come to the knowledge of the truth, that Jesus has already taken all their sin away and if they would just put their trust in Him and in what He has done, accepting Him as Lord and Savior, they would be reconciled to Him and also be saved from eternal damnation.

That very popular verse comes to mind:

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16 NIV

To be effective witnesses of the love of God that is demonstrated through Jesus, we need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit, for it is the Spirit who guides us into all truth. God has given us His Spirit so that we may know all that He has freely given to us in Christ. The Holy Spirit will always glorify Jesus.

After salvation, like the early disciples we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. These are two separate events in the life of a believer. You will recall when Jesus appeared to the disciples after His resurrection, He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22) now, that was the point when they were Born Again.

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Now if that was when they were filled with the Holy Spirit, then why would Jesus later tell them to tarry in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit comes on them? Jesus’ last words right before His ascension would've been redundant to say the least, but that isn't the case. Besides, let’s not forget Thomas wasn't present at that time and later when Jesus appeared to them again, this time with Thomas present, Thomas exclaimed “My Lord and My God” (John 20:26-29), I would submit to you that, that was the moment Thomas was Born Again according to Romans 10:8-10.

There are several instances of believers being filled with the Holy Spirit starting at Pentecost and afterwards. At Pentecost the Holy Spirit came upon Jewish believers (Acts 2:1-4), at Cornelius’ house the Holy Spirit came upon Gentile believers (Acts 10:44-46).

After the revival led by Phillip at Samaria, the apostle went and laid hands on the new believers and they were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:15-17). When Paul met 12 believers in Ephesus, he specifically asked them if they had been filled with the Holy Spirit, it turned out they didn't even know there was a Holy Spirit, what did he do? He laid hands on them, they received the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:1-7).

From all the accounts in the Book of Acts, we see it is Born Again Christians who are being filled with the Holy Spirit and that there were physically observable, undeniable signs that accompanied the baptism in the Holy Spirit - they spoke in tongues and prophesied

If you haven’t been filled with the Holy Spirit yet, I would encourage you to receive Jesus’ promise of the Gift of the Holy Spirit. Ask the Lord to baptize you in the Holy Spirit, He is the One who baptizes us in the Holy Spirit Ask Him and by faith receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit. Remember, the Holy Spirit gives the words, you do the speaking. So by faith open your mouth and start praising Him with the words and syllables He gives you, in a language you don’t know. Receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit today.

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Experience the refreshing that comes from the presence of the Lord, get baptized in the Spirit. Don’t let fear stop you, your Father has promised to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him (Luke 11:13) and He is well able to protect you from any form of deception. 

If you are already filled with the Holy Spirit remember that you are to be continually filled, just like the early believers, so keep on building yourself up in your most holy faith by praying in the Spirit, that is by praying in tongues. Blessings.

THE DECEPTION OF FORGETFULNESS

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Amassing knowledge of the Word of God is a very good thing, studying the Word to acquaint yourself with the promises of God is very important. Spending time in the Word to know the will of God for a situation you are facing is certainly a wise thing to do.

However, if we stop short of doing what the Word instructs us to, if we neglect to put the Word of God into practice, if we are not walking in obedience to the Word that we already know, we are opening ourselves up for deception. Hearing the Word and not doing it is akin to giving the enemy a place, an inroad into our lives, a foothold and the Word of God commands us not to give him a foothold (Ephesians 4:27).

²² Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³ Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. - James 1: 22 - 24 NIV

Now, since the Word of God is our mirror, just as we look into natural mirrors to groom ourselves, we must look into the Word to groom our souls. To make sure we look good spiritually, we must look into this mirror – the Word – on a regular basis. If you look into a natural mirror daily to avoid looking unkempt, unprepared or outright unsightly, how much more should you look into the Word, your spiritual mirror to see and be reminded of who and what you are in Christ.

It is interesting that the Holy Spirit likens hearing the Word and not doing it to looking into a mirror and immediately forgetting what you look like. You see, when we fail to do what the Word instructs us to do we have essentially forgotten who we truly are in Christ and that leads us to act contrary to the Word. Failure to remember who we now are according to the Word of God, will always result in us walking in the flesh, having pridefully deluded ourselves that we know what the Word says.

Because of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice of Himself our sins have been put away once and for all and now since we have put our trust in Him, we have eternal life. As you look into this "mirror" some of the things you will see about yourself in Christ are these: -

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You have been reconciled to God, You are a new creation in Christ, you are God’s child, you are the Lord's beloved, you are the righteousness of God, you are Holy before God, God doesn't keep a record of your sins, you are more than a conqueror, you are seated with Christ far above all principalities and powers, your God has promised to supply all your needs. You have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ, and a whole lot more. 

May the Holy Spirit continually remind us of who we are in Christ as we keep on looking into this blessed mirror everyday!

ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN

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When He was on earth, Jesus would pray to the Father daily, well nightly in most cases, and His disciples saw Him go off to pray. It is interesting to note that He did not force them to join Him in prayer, neither did He condemn them for their prayerlessness. Jesus exuded such grace; that is exactly how the Father is, never condemning nor belittling His own. The only time He specifically asked them to pray with Him was at the garden of Gethsemane as He was nearing the end of His Mission.

One day one of His disciples saw Him praying and after He was done, this disciple asked Him to teach them how to pray, just as John had taught his disciples how to pray (Luke 11:1). The Lord proceeded to teach them how to pray. I would like to look at an aspect of this very popular prayer we call “the Lord’s prayer”.

¹⁰ Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven. – Matthew 6:10 NIV

If you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior the Word of God assures you that you have been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of God’s dear Son, Christ Jesus (Colossians 1:13). God’s Kingdom has already come and it is in you now and you are in it. We are now a Royal Priesthood, He has made us Kings and Priests unto our God. We declare Him King and Lord everywhere we are and we lift people up to God in prayer as Priests of the Most High.

In Heaven, everything is done according to the will God, there is no lack, no loss, no sickness, no pain, no grief, you get the picture... there is nothing negative in Heaven. That is why Jesus instructs us to pray for God’s will to be done here on Earth just as it is done in Heaven. Now in order to effectively pray in line with the will of God over any given situation, we need to know what the will of God is for that situation. We get to know the will of God by knowing the heart of God and that is one reason why we have the Holy Spirit in us and with us. The Word says God has given us His Spirit so that we may know what He has freely provided for us, in other words - so that we may know His will.

. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. -                                                          

¹² Now 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. - 1 Corinthians 2:12 NKJV

       

We spend time with the Lord by reading our Bibles, studying, hearing and meditating the Word and also in prayer, both private and corporate. Our minds are renewed in the process and we are able to hear and discern God’s voice when He speaks to us. You see, you cannot capture the radio waves around you unless you have a device such as a radio and not only that, you must have the radio turned on and tuned to the right frequency. Unless we are “turned on and tuned in” to God, that is unless we are attentive to His voice and leading we will miss out on His directions and most likely miss out on His will.

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It is God’s will to bless you in order to make you a blessing to those around you. It is His will for you to be in health and to prosper just as your soul prospers in Him. It is His will for you to live in victory over sin, the world and the devil and go on to fulfill your destiny. He wants you to successfully run the race that He has set before you. And not only that, He has made every provision for you to live in His perfect will for you.

May His will be done in your life today!       

YOU ARE HIS CHILD, THAT'S YOUR ID

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⁶ Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” ⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. - Galatians 4:6 - 7 NIV

The Omnipotent one, the Omnipresent one, the Omniscient one, the Creator of all things, the Eternal One, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and Omega, the Most Holy God, the Almighty God who alone is worthy of all glory, honor and praise, is your Father! He is your Abba! Yes, He is.

The Father calls us His children:

¹ See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! – 1 John3:1a NIV    

Jesus assures us that God is our Father:

¹⁷ Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” – John 20:17 NIV

The Holy Spirit confirms it:

¹⁶ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. – Romans 8:16 NIV

Because of Jesus' perfect sacrifice for our sins on the cross, this awesome Holy God calls us His children and that's who we are. 

By calling us His children God brings us into the same class as Himself, that is, He makes us His equals in that sense. Look at it this way, human babies are human, they may not have all the abilities or their faculties fully developed like an adult but they are no less human than adults. How dare you make yourself equal with God! Religion will scream and protest!

The Jews wanted to kill Jesus for calling God his Father, because by doing so He was making Himself equal with God (John 5:18). The thing is He was and is God and said so Himself. He later said, 'before Abraham was, I AM"...and all hell broke loose literally... they wanted to stone him and mind you, these were the very same Jews who had believed in Him only a few verses earlier! John 8 gives a detailed account of how things devolved from the Jews believing in Jesus to them wanting to kill him for calling God His Father - thus making Himself equal with God. Unbelievable! Our Lord was absolutely secure in who He was; today we can be secure in our identity in Him.

Once we are in Christ, God Almighty, becomes our Abba Father, He calls us His children. Remember, He is the one calling us His children. And because we are now His children, He makes us joint-heirs with Christ. And because we are joint-heirs with Christ, God has seated us with Christ in heavenly places far above principalities and powers.

⁴ But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us ⁵ even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, - Ephesians 2: 4 – 6 NRSV

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Notice, we are not the ones who seated ourselves in that lofty position, it is God who made us to sit and the Scripture is in past tense meaning, once you are in Christ, it’s already a done deal. You are not waiting to be seated with Christ but you already are right here, right now.

You are not defined by your failures and neither are you defined by your successes, instead, you are who God says you are. He calls you His child, He declares you justified, He calls you righteous, He calls you His joint-heir, He calls you His beloved!

Square your shoulders, lift your head up, see yourself as your Abba Father sees you today!

WILLING AND ABLE

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Many will readily agree that God is all powerful, everywhere present and all knowing; many have no problem believing that He is the Creator of all things, visible and invisible. Many have no problem believing that God can do anything and everything as He pleases. Now, all these beliefs can be substantiated by Scripture and to us who believe in Jesus, Scripture is our final authority.

Many believers today have no problem believing that God is good and that He desires only the best for His children. Many have no problem believing that God performs miracles today; that He heals and delivers. Most of us have no problem believing that God is well able to meet our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. However, we do have a problem when we are the ones in need of a miracle from God, be it healing or provision or what-have-you.

Our problem is not so much with God’s ability to provide, but rather with His willingness to provide for us. While we don’t question His ability to heal us, we question His willingness to do so. Remember the story of the leper who came to Jesus? He didn’t doubt Jesus’ ability to heal him but His willingness to do so. Sad to say, not much has changed today. I’m glad my Lord and Savior settled the leper’s (and our) doubts on His willingness to meet our needs.

⁴⁰ A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. “If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,” he said. ⁴¹ Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” ⁴² Instantly the leprosy disappeared, and the man was healed. – Mark 1:40 – 42 NLT

When the enemy succeeds at getting you to look at yourself, then he knows you will not be receiving anything from the Father, not because the Father is unwilling to provide, but rather it’s because we are now busy trying to qualify to receive from Him based on how good we’ve been.

The thing is, if you are in Christ, you are the righteousness of God and in giving us Jesus, the Father has given us all things together with Him. The moment you start toiling to qualify for God’s blessings, you void and frustrate His grace towards you. Jesus is your High Priest and your Advocate with the Father, so rest in Him, you are unconditionally loved and already accepted in the beloved.  

You see beloved, many times we are quick to disqualify ourselves based on our performance and by doing so we short-circuit and limit what God can and wants to do in and through our lives. So when you are tempted to think that God won’t meet your need because you fell into sin or because you didn’t pray long and hard enough, remember this: Christ is the one who qualifies us, it is His performance we rest in and count on, not ours. We should always fix our eyes on Jesus, the Perfect One not on ourselves.

Do not let the accuser beat you over the head with your less than stellar performance, instead look to Jesus and let the Holy Spirit transform you into the same image as you behold the Lord’s glory. May the Holy Spirit remind you that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ and that you’ve already passed from death to life because you believe in Jesus.

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Beloved, God is not only able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that you may think or ask, but He is also more than willing to abundantly supply everything you need. God is not looking for excuses not to bless you, no, that’s the enemy’s lie, He has already given us numerous promises of His blessings and all of them are “yes and amen” in Christ.

Because of what Jesus did, we who put our trust in Him are qualified to receive everything that God has promised in His Word, our confidence is in Christ and His perfect sacrifice for us, not in our performance, however good or bad it may be.

Blessings!    

YOUR HEART, YOUR LIFE

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Our hearts are an extremely important part of our makeup as human beings, both the physical heart as well as the soul and as you can probably tell, I’d like to speak of that heart that is the seat of our soul, our mind, where all decisions are made . The Word of God says:

        ²³ Above all else, guard your heart,
        for everything you do flows from it. – Proverbs 4:23 NIV

Notice, everything you do has its origin in your heart, your life is ordered by what proceeds out of your heart, so whatever you allow in your heart will shape your life. We may recite and claim all the promises in the Bible, we may repeat all the positive affirmations the preacher tells us to, but at the end of the day, we will end up doing what’s in our hearts, there is no way around that. 

If one isn't in Christ, the Word is clear, they cannot trust their hearts, because of the makeup and content of their hearts. Their hearts are stony and the contents are deceitful as the prophet correctly observed:

⁹The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? – Jeremiah 17:9 NIV

In Christ we receive new hearts of flesh and His law is written on it, so we should start guarding our hearts right away for our adversary the devil goes around seeking an opportunity to rob us of the Word in our hearts and exchange it for his lies in order to do us harm, but we are not ignorant of his devices and so we will not give him a foothold.

To fully enjoy what Christ has provided for us to freely enjoy, we must renew our minds. The Word urges us to be renewed in the spirit and attitude of our minds (Ephesians 4:23) instead of just living miserable lives in the futility of our thinking like those who do not know God. Everything we do as individuals is an expression of what is in our hearts, remember the words of Jesus?

⁴⁵A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. – Luke 6:45 NIV

Beloved let us renew our minds by storing good things in our hearts; the Word of God is our standard for what is good and what isn't  The Word reveals the nature and character of its author – God, and as we learn of His goodness, mercy and grace towards us through Christ, we discard the skewed images of God that we've held as true in our hearts for so long.

When we see Him as our Father who loves us perfectly and unconditionally, the lies of the devil and religion will quickly fade away. God is not out to get us, He is not the one inflicting sickness, lack and pain on us, on the contrary He is for us, He wants the very best for us. He declares us righteous before Him when we believe in Jesus, He remembers our sins no more. These are the good things that we should be storing in our hearts; as they take root in us, our lives will be positively impacted and God will be glorified.   

Let us allow the Word into our hearts, the Bible also says:

¹³⁰ The entrance of Your words gives light;
It gives understanding to the simple. – Psalms 119:130 NKJV

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So the more Word we get into our hearts, the more light we will have in our lives, more clarity and more wisdom as well. Even our desires will align themselves to the will of God and we can confidently delight ourselves in the Lord expecting to receive the desires of our Word filled hearts (Psalm 37:4)

May the Spirit of Grace, the Holy Spirit, quicken the Word within us as He orders our steps, for the steps of the righteous are ordered of the Lord and we are righteous because of Jesus' perfect sacrifice, let us walk in our inheritance today. 

Blessings!      

THE NAME ABOVE ALL NAMES

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¹⁰ The name of the Lord is a strong tower;
The righteous run to it and are safe. - Proverbs 18: 10 NKJV

If you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then you are righteous before God and therefore qualified to run into the Lord’s Name and enjoy the safety that it provides. Christ’s sacrifice of Himself on that rugged cross, His death and resurrection accomplished our redemption from sin and the curse and has reconciled us to God. We are now joint heirs with Him and have the right to the Name of the Lord – Our Strong Tower.  

Child of God, as you face the challenges that life, the world, the devil and the flesh throw at you today, let your confidence be in the truth that the Name of the Lord guarantees your salvation, security, success and victory. As we put our trust in Jesus and call on the Name of the Lord, we will experience His saving grace in our area of need, so beloved, do not hesitate to call on His Name today. The Word says:

        ²¹ And everyone who calls
     on the name of the Lord will be saved. – Acts 2:21 NIV

The Name of the Lord is your strong tower. A strong tower speaks not only of safety and protection but also of clear vision in all directions. A tower speaks of elevation as well, for a tower rises far above ground level and that speaks of both unobstructed vision and visibility. We are seated with Christ in the heavenly places far above all principalities and powers. We are in Him and He is in us. We are united with Him! 

This Name of the Lord is the same name Jesus revealed to us and it is the same name that He kept the early disciples by. The Word says:

¹² While I was with them, I kept them safe by the power of your name, the name you gave me. – John 17:12a GNT

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I believe it is the name of God the Father that we His children call Him today: Abba Father! Remember, Jesus came to reveal God as a loving father, no prophet had ever done that before, the religious folk of his day thought that was blasphemous (sadly, even to this day not much has changed). Today, because of the perfect finished work of Christ, you can confidently come before the Creator of all things and call Him Father. He is now a Father to you and He delights in you. He is for you, who can be against you and succeed?! 

He has given you His Name – All that He has and is, is wrapped up in His Name and that name: JESUS - The Name above all names, run into it today!