Jesus wants us to have the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is given to us by the Heaven Father.

We can ASK for the HOLY SPIRIT.

Luk 11:13  ... shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him

God, our Heavenly Father, is more willing to GIVE us the Holy Spirit, than we are to give gifts to our own children and you know as a rule how easy it is for us to desire to give gifts to our children.

Luk 11:13  If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

Jesus WANTS us to have the Holy Spirit!

Joh 7:37  In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.

Joh 7:38  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Joh 7:39  (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

Jesus spoke of the SPIRIT and us RECEIVING the SPIRIT.

Remember this--

Joh 3:3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Joh 3:5  Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

Joh 3:7  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

Joh 3:8  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

WE CANNOT truly comprehend our Savior without the Holy Spirit.  We are born again into a NEW life, a SPIRITUAL LIFE by the Holy Spirit that our Heavenly Father will give to us if we ask! And we will SEE the kingdom of God.

A spiritual life. RECOGNIZE your spiritual life! ACKNOWLEDGE your spiritual life.  Our spiritual life is REAL, as real as the Holy Spirit who is given to us. 

Please, Heavenly Father, please give us the Holy Spirit. Daily give us the Spirit so we have all our spiritual needs filled for YOUR GLORY!  Forgive us, Lord, bless us, love us!

All in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Amen.

Neither give place to the devil

Eph 4:27  Neither give place to the devil.

Eph 4:28  Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.

Eph 4:29  Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

Eph 4:30  And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Eph 4:31  Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

Eph 4:32  And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Grieve NOT the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit SEALS us for redemption.

We do NOT want to GRIEVE the Holy Spirit.

We are NOT to purposefully allow the devil in our lives in any way. If we KNOW there is a way for the devil to use us, to work in us, to get to us in any way and we have the ability to stop this- we HAVE to stop it! There are so many evil tricks the devil uses on us to catch us unaware and lead us into sin. When the ways aren't so subtle and we can clearly see His evil, we need to do all in our ability to keep from falling to his ways! We can't give place to the devil, we can't welcome the evil in our lives. We can't encourage the evil in our lives. We need to repent of the evil, we need to seek forgiveness for it, not embrace it.

If you steal- steal no more.

If you speak evil, if you speak in ways that aren't conducive towards others seeing Christ in you and thereby be exposed to the grace of our Savior.

We have to PUT AWAY from us ALL bitterness, ALL wrath, ALL anger, ALL clamor, ALL evil speaking, ALL malice.

Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking, malice- how often we use these very things in our day to day lives in ways Satan would tell us are fine, are normal, are perfectly acceptable because after all we are only human.  Satan LIES!

We need to BE kind, BE tenderhearted, BE forgiving of one another.   These are the traits we need to encourage!  If we are NOT being tenderhearted, if we are not being forgiving, ie we are not being kind…. We need to really take a look at ourselves and our walk with Christ.

Please, Lord, please bless us! Help us, Lord, help us be filled with the Holy Spirit and all that entails!  We don't want to do the things of the devil, we want to do the things of YOU. Help us! Save us! Let us live in YOU!

All by Your GRACE, Your LOVE!

In the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Spiritual Singing

Eph 5:18  And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

Eph 5:19  Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;

Eph 5:20  Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

Eph 5:21  Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

People fill themselves with wine to excess for what purpose? I suppose the truth is they do it for many reasons. Getting drunk isn't a good thing, losing control of yourself, your mind, your sharp reflexes etc  is not something God would advocate.  Being filled rather with the Spirit, than wine- and when we are filled with the Spirit we speak in -

PSALMS

HYMNS

SPIRITUAL SONGS

MELODYS IN OUR HEARTS all to the LORD.

GIVING THANKS.

SUBMITTING OURSELVES TO ONE ANOTHER.

Now, having read that, do we live it?

?? 

Should we?

It's God's word!

Maybe, just maybe, if we sang more to our Lord our spiritual life would be much better. We want to be filled with the Spirit, so maybe we need to SING to the LORD as often as we possibly can. It's worth trying isn't it? Seriously! What's the worst that singing constantly could do? I'm not telling anyone to sing to annoy others, but we can truly even sing in our hearts if we cannot do so aloud. The point is, singing is uplifting! It truly is. Singing brings forth memories, it creates memories, it has passion in it.  Our hearts are touched by songs. I'm sure there is a favorite or several favorite songs you have, or have had during your life. Why are they your favorite? They do something to you inwardly. When we sing in hymns, in spiritual songs, in psalms, and melodies we are truly feeding our spirit. The Holy Spirit will guide us in this, I know He will. This is God advocated and more than a suggestion, but a true guidance.  Do we WANT to be filled with the Spirit? We do. To be filled we need to listen to our LORD'S advice! Let us SING!

Please, Father, please help us be filled with the SPIRIT. Help us sing songs to YOU for YOUR glory, Lord, Your Glory!

All through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior!

Amen!

How we need to walk...

Walk not as others walk- in the vanity of their mind.

Eph 4:17  This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind

Vanity of their mind. This says  much about how so many people choose to live. They believe in their own minds, their own ideas, their own beliefs and allow their vanity to rule them. The belief they have the superior mind ignites that vanity. Their ideas are considerably more lofty than others. The idea that others could truly have better minds than theirs is preposterous. Vanity of the mind truly keeps people from God, because they are not willing to believe there is any one, God included, as wonderful at they are.

Eph 4:18  Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart

Their understanding is DARKENED.  Their ability to understand is cut short by their own vanity. They are alienated, the are cut off from the life of God because of their choice to be ignorant of God. Their hearts are BLIND, their vanity cutting their spiritual sight off!

Eph 4:19  Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

Past feeling, past being able to live as God intended, as God would have us live through the Spirit.  They've chosen lasciviousness- to fulfil their lustful desires, their selfish cravings and to do so with all uncleanness and greediness! Those who choose NOT to walk after God choose a life of self-serving, and even in their seeming selfless pursuits the inward pride and refusal to believe in their Creator spoils all that pretense of selflessness. They believe their power to be selfless comes solely from themselves, not at all from God. They vainly believe they are too superior to believe in God, and their good works, their selfless acts are proof enough God doesn't have to exist because they can do good, selfless acts without Him. Their selflessness is poisoned and they can't even comprehend this. 

This isn't ME making all this up! This isn't ME degrading others specifically pointing fingers.  This is GOD, this is God's word telling us - Walk not as others walk- in the vanity of their mind. And we cannot concern ourselves with who those others are individually, but rather we have to WALK OUR OWN WALK, careful NOT to walk the walk of vanity in our minds but the WALK of the SPIRIT. We can't concern ourselves with walking the walk of the world.

Eph 4:20  But ye have not so learned Christ;

Eph 4:21  If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:

Eph 4:22  That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts

We have to put OFF our old selves which walked with the world and if we are NOT putting off the old world we are NOT God's, but deceived. If we are seeking constantly to fulfill our selfish lusts in what ever form they take, if fulfilling those lusts takes precedence in our lives we are walking right along with the world in the vanity of our minds. God sees through any disguise we try to put on, He looks right to our hearts. We need to put off the old unregenerate self, the person we were before accepting Christ- or re-accepting Christ, before we truly desire to live for the LORD and not self. That old self is corrupted by lusts and will constantly seek to reemerge. We must...

Eph 4:23  And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

We must be RENEWED in the SPIRIT of our minds!  This is a clear statement of fact that we must engage our higher power of thinking, acknowledging our need of renewal .  WE must constantly be renewed just as we 'die daily' we are 'born again, renewed' daily.  This is a daily conscious thought to live through the Spirit. We must...

Eph 4:24  And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

We must PUT ON the NEW MAN- created in the righteousness and holiness of GOD!

Eph 4:25  Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.

PUT AWAY LYING! Speak TRUTH!

Eph 4:26  Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath

BE angry - WITHOUT SIN!  Not letting the day end on any wrath we might have.

*******  More on this tomorrow by the grace of  our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!!!!

All through HIS love!

Amen.

We have to stop lying!

Eph 4:30  And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

How do we grieve the Holy Spirit?  We grieve the Holy Spirit when we choose to ignore His presence in our lives!

The conscience in each of us cries out often, sometimes very loudly, other times in a whisper. That conscience is a guiding force utilized by the Holy Spirit. When we choose to ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit leading us, we grieve the Holy Spirit.

*******

Let's read the verse above in context-

Eph 4:17  This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,

Eph 4:18  Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

Eph 4:19  Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

Eph 4:20  But ye have not so learned Christ;

Eph 4:21  If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:

Eph 4:22  That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;

Eph 4:23  And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

Eph 4:24  And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Eph 4:25  Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.

Eph 4:26  Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

Eph 4:27  Neither give place to the devil.

Eph 4:28  Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.

Eph 4:29  Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

Eph 4:30  And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Eph 4:31  Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

Eph 4:32  And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

*******

Truly we grieve the Holy Spirit when we purposefully walk contrary to how we KNOW God would have us walk. 

BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF! YOU KNOW! WE KNOW! I KNOW! We can lie all we want to ourselves, we can pretend we don't know how God would have us live. We can hold onto our cherish little quirks of imperfection, we can cling to our personality defects as if they are a special exempt part of us that excuses us from behaving as our God would have us behave. We can do all that at the peril to our ETERNAL LIFE.

We have to stop the LYING! We do ourselves the gravest of injustices when we choose to lie to ourselves, lying to the point of believing the lies, doubly worse.  We say such things as - 'That's just who I am.'  and, "I can't help it, I was born(raised) this way."  We make excuses for our tendencies shrouded in evil… YES, EVIL! You don't get much more evil than being willing to lie to yourself by using the excuse you just can't help it so you don't NEED to fix anything, it's beyond your power.  OF COURSE YOU CAN'T HELP IT, but darn it, stop lying about it! You do NEED to fix it! And you fix it by letting the HOLY SPIRIT fix it, by YIELDING to the Holy Spirit, by seeking the forgiveness of Jesus Christ our Lord for each and every defect we are conscious of!  We don't make excuses, we seek forgiveness!

Do we ever stop and think that maybe, just maybe if we seek forgiveness for every known sin in our lives that we'd perhaps recognize the sin in our selves more readily and maybe,  that could be the catalyst that would allow us to  yield that sin to Christ? What good is fixing ourselves if we allow no room to be fixed? What good is taking any glory to ourselves for overcoming through ourselves? WE need to overcome through Christ, recognizing it's all through HIS POWER and not through any power of our own beyond yielding, beyond accepting Him, beyond choosing to believe.

Satan would have us despair. Satan wants us to lose hope by realizing our inability to overcome. Satan will tell us we'll never be good enough, that we'll never walk the walk God would have us walk.  He's not lying fully here either, we can do NOTHING on our own to fix ourselves. Any power we have that allows us to overcome is Christ's power, His glory! Satan would have us focus on our sins as entrapments, while Christ would have us focus on our sins as a way to find forgiveness, repentance all through Him.

Having to truly recognize the sins in our lives on a constant basis, the sins that have become what we think are an integral part of us, is to recognize our need. The shame, the guilt, the depression we feel when we admit to our sins are good things, not things to be shunned as Satan wants us to do. Satan WANTS us to call our sins good! Satan wants us to become buddy buddy with our sins, feeling lost without them. Satan is the greatest of deceivers and he will do all he can to keep us from yielding our entire self to Christ.

When you sin, you generally know you've sinned. You feel that twinge of guilt, that recognition that perhaps you didn't quite handle a situation the way you should have. You feel the anger in yourself and feel completely at a loss as how to get rid of it and you recognize the sin as it's taking place and part of you doesn't care because you are so caught up in the power of the sin, the heat of the moment. You add sin to sin and still you can't stop! You cry out for forgiveness, you throw yourself on the mercy of God, you keep seeking forgiveness, never trying to excuse away the sin you are in the throes of committing.  We have to stop covering it all up. 

Paul was a wretched man! We are ALL wretched human beings! Even the ones we believe are closest to God in following His will, they are wretched human beings in need of a SAVIOR, Jesus Christ our LORD!  

How do we grieve the Holy Spirit? In many, many ways and we are told not to grieve the Holy Spirit and the only way we are not going to grieve the Holy Spirit is by living in a constant state of surrender to Christ. As we surrender He uplifts us. 

So whenever we are doing anything we know or even suspect might grieve the Holy Spirit we have to seek forgiveness, we have to yield to our Savior, our Forgiver. We only ignore the Spirit convictions at a great risk of hardening our hearts to the point of no longer being able to feel, to recognize any Spirit convictions at all.

Please Father, please bless us in YOU. Help us to yield to You, to the Son, to the Holy Spirit! We don't want to grieve the Holy Spirit! Help us! Keep us! Forgive us!

All through the amazing love of Jesus Christ our Lord!

Amen.

Are you Spirit led?

Luk_4:1  And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

Rom_8:14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

Led by the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit will lead us. How do we know the Holy Spirit is leading us? Do we imagine the dove form the Holy Spirit took to light upon Jesus after His baptism guided Him? It's possible, but we do know that the Holy Spirit is not always in the form of a dove. Read this--

Act 2:3  And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

Act 2:4  And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

And it's not always a form at all-

Act 8:39  And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.

The Spirit of the Lord CAUGHT away Philip, and we aren't told what form the Spirit took, and we very well could comprehend that no grand form appeared.

Being filled with the Holy Spirit.  We aren't going to feel another being enter our bodies as depicted of angels in various movies, angels in the guise of evil spirits and angels in the form of good spirits- the movies do all sorts of things.  We just aren't going to have that sort of experience of being filled with the Spirit. We can't hold out waiting for that at all.  We can't expect the Spirit in the form of a dove, nor tongues of flames to rest upon us.

We are led by the Spirit of our Lord when we are doing the will of our Father, because on our own we cannot ever do the will of our Father. We must have the Spirit in us to do God's will. We are filled with the Spirit when we are born again in the Spirit, and anything that is of God is of the Spirit. We live in the Spirit.  And we can grieve the Holy Spirit, we can live outside of the Holy Spirit, God forbid that happens to us!

Eph 4:30  And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

How do we grieve the Holy Spirit?  We grieve the Holy Spirit when we choose to ignore His presence in our lives!

The conscience in each of us cries out often, sometimes very loudly, other times in a whisper. That conscience is a guiding force utilized by the Holy Spirit. When we choose to ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit leading us, we grieve the Holy Spirit.

By the grace of our LORD, more on this tomorrow!

All in the love of Jesus Christ!

Amen.

Cursed Tree- Have Faith

Jesus, living with the Spirit upon Him; Jesus, living in the Holy Spirit; Jesus, God in the flesh-  was hungry. He had needs. He couldn't live without eating just as we can't live without eating. Jesus was hungry...

Mar 11:12  And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry

Being hungry, Jesus saw a fig tree far away. Obviously not so far He didn't recognize it for what it was, but not close enough to see details.  And He DIDN'T know upon seeing that tree that it was barren of fruit. Jesus HOPED He'd find figs on the tree. Jesus walked towards the tree, just as WE would walk towards a fig tree hoping there were figs on it so we could satisfy our hunger.  The humanity of Jesus is often overlooked, but it's something we MUST comprehend. No one accused Him of not being a human being, they knew that He had all the same needs and necessities as they did.  Jesus had to be one of us. Jesus had to feel all the things we feel, see the things we see, know the things we know.

Mar 11:13  And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon

Now, the time for figs to be on the tree wasn't yet.  As if we went towards an apple tree hoping to find apples when it wasn't apple season.  Jesus walked towards the fig tree wanting figs when it wasn't time for figs to be on that tree, was He wanting a miracle?  If so, why weren't they miraculously there? We know creating food wasn't an impossibility with Him, so why weren't the figs there? The fact of the matter is, fig trees do not get leaves before they get fruit. The fruit of the fig tree and the leaves grow together. So it is quite possible that Jesus was hoping there would be something edible on the leaf infested fig tree- perhaps if there were immature fruit He would have matured it, but there was no fruit at all.

Mar 11:13…  and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.

No figs.  The need for  the figs was there- a desire for figs was there, but there was a bigger picture we have to look at. Jesus had to look at the bigger picture as well. There was something more at stake here that wasn't instantly apparent.

You know how we often need things- such as food, but it doesn't happen? Does that make us any less hungry just because the need isn't going to be met? No.  Was Jesus still hungry?  Yes. His hunger didn't disappear miraculously. Jesus' hunger remained. 

What did Jesus do to that fig tree- whose only fault was not producing?

Mar 11:14  And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.

Jesus spoke to the tree-  No man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever.

The tree did NOT give fruit to the hungry, Jesus. Was Jesus mad? It's possible, but more likely He was disappointed. This was a learning experience, as much of Jesus' life in the three years of His ministry was all about- teaching of the kingdom of God to come.

The next morning Jesus was returning from the temple…

Mar 11:20  And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.

Mar 11:21  And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away.

The tree was DEAD. Overnight the tree that had great life left in it- a tremendous amount of leaves- obviously not at all dying by appearance, but defective in producing no fruit, this tree was a withered husk.  Jesus cursed the tree and the tree died.

Mar 11:22  And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

Mar 11:23  For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

Mar 11:24  Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Mar 11:25  And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

Mar 11:26  But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.

Have faith.

The tree Jesus cursed is dead and Jesus tells His disciples to have faith. Not only to have faith, but powerful faith, a faith that has results.  And when we pray through that faith, we must forgive all others, so God will forgive us.  It's all connected.

Jesus wants His disciples to have faith, a working faith just as Jesus wanted the tree to have fruit.   Truly if WE do not have a working faith we- like that tree are cursed.  

A real faith, a working faith. 

Yes, the analogy of being fruitful spiritually is a real one as well. The truth that appearances are deceiving is true. There are a lot of truths here, a lot, and through the Spirit they can be discerned.  Please, Father, help us through the SPIRIT to understand all we need to understand.  We would have fruitful FAITH! We don't want to be like that fruitless fig tree! We need the Spirit in us to help us in this, please!  Help us also to forgive. It's so easy to forget to forgive. It's so easy to take the smallest of slights and hold onto them letting them fuel our resentment when the truth is, we need to forgive those slights, all of them! We need to forgive, help us to forgive!  Help us to be YOURS in all things!

In the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, our LORD!  Amen!