The Gift

On September 12, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Luke 11: 13

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?

The Father promised the Holy Spirit to His people for years. Then when the appointed time came, the Holy Spirit was poured out onto all who would receive; all who ask. Jesus promised that all who would ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit would receive. God is not trying to make you earn this gift. He is not withholding the Holy Spirit or reserving it for only a precious few. Jesus said that God is a good Father, a better parent than any of us even have the capacity of being. Yet, earthly parents give good gifts to their children. You don’t make your children earn your gifts. They are not gifts if they are earned. They would be payment instead. You give good gifts just because you love your child or grandchild. It does not even have to be a birthday or holiday. You just give to your children because they are your beloved.

How much more is God a good and gracious parent? How much more does He love us? Therefore, He wants to bestow good gifts upon us, especially the gift of the Holy Spirit. That is the point Jesus is making here. Your heavenly Father loves you more than you can even imagine and out of His love for you flows His unfailing gift of love, the bestowing of the precious Spirit of God. You have only to ask.

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Time of Delivery

On September 11, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

John 7: 39

But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Jesus was speaking to a crowd and teaching them of the things to come. In fact, he was teaching them about the Holy Spirit. This statement indicates that the Spirit is to be received. In other words, He is a gift and those who wish to receive the gift shall have it. But the Holy Spirit is not going to be forced on those who are unable to receive Him. There is the element of choice on the part of the recipient. The Holy Spirit is for all who choose to receive Him. Receiving Him is not automatic. You have to make your own choice. Not even God is going to make it for you though Jesus did command His disciples to remain in Jerusalem and await the gift of the Holy Spirit which makes it clear that His intent is for us all to receive the gift.

We also learn who is eligible to receive this gift. The gift is for those who believe in Jesus. That is the only requirement. If one truly and honestly believes in Jesus as the Messiah, the chosen one of God, then that person is eligible to receive the long-awaited gift of the Holy Spirit.

We also see in this passage the timing of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been received into glory. We know that during the 40 day period between when Jesus arose from the dead and when He ascended to the Father He appeared to His disciples. One of the things Jesus told them was to await the promise of God because they would receive “the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1: 5). Shortly thereafter Jesus ascended to heaven to be seated at the right hand of God after which, the Holy Spirit was sent into the earth to be with us for all time.

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The Role of the Holy Spirit

On September 10, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

John 14: 16               (Amplified Version)

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever.

I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s psalm, indeed that you are enjoying Psalm Mondays. It is a good way to start the week. Today I want to continue the series I began last week on the Holy Spirit. It is my hope that these several days we are spending on the Holy Spirit give you an inside look at who the Spirit is and what role he plays in our lives. You may want to copy these “Spirit” Words of the Day and paste them into a document of your own. Also, if you visit my website, www.iveyministries.org, you can search Spirit or Holy Spirit in the Daily Devotion tab and discover an entire treatise, practically, on the Holy Spirit.

The central role of the Holy Spirit and God’s main reason for sending Him to us is for the Holy Spirit to accompany us continually and aid us in whatever capacity necessary. That is why He is often referred to as the Helper. Jesus frequently called the Holy Spirit our “Helper.” If the kind of help we need is prayer, then the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. If we need strength, then He strengthens us. He was sent to us to be our constant companion, to standby us every minute of every day to help us in every situation. That is the role of God’s Holy Spirit. I think that is exhilarating. Just think, God’s own Spirit has been assigned the job of being with you constantly so that He can help you every second of every day. He is to stand by you and await any opportunity to aid you.

Now, some people may say, “Well, He doesn’t seem to be at my side helping me daily.” That could be true because one thing you can bet on is that the Holy Spirit of God is a gentleman. He must first be invited. He will not horn in on your life; He will not push his weight around on you. The Spirit of God is gentle. Remember that gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5: 22). He is powerful but He absolutely will not force Himself on you. So just invite Him into your life. Give Him permission to take up permanent residence with you. You are going to experience a whole new life with God through His own Spirit when you do.

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Let All Praise

On September 9, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 67: 1 – 5

God be gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us— Selah.
2 That Your way may be known on the earth, your salvation among all nations.
3 Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You.
4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy; for You will judge the peoples with uprightness and guide the nations on the earth. Selah.
5 Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You.

Indeed, let all the people of the world praise the Lord our God. He will judge righteously. Remember judgment isn’t just a negative. Someone wins a judgment in a lawsuit. Our God has already decided that we will win when He passes judgment because He has chosen to see us through the blood of righteous Jesus.

He will guide us all, all the peoples of all the nations. He will show himself to all the people of the earth and they will revel in His glory and majesty. All the nations will praise Him and sing of His glory. We will shout for joy at the revealing of His grace and beauty. The glory of His face will shine upon us all, for it is luminous, the light of the world. And we shall glory in His presence.

This is the description of the real end of days. When God shows Himself all the world will recognize Him as the one and only true God. They will see His beauty and majesty and will delight in His presence. There will be no unbelievers. There may be some people who choose not to follow Him but no one will be able to doubt His majesty.

He is gracious and kind and will lead all the nations in love. He will lead all people in delightful paths that will fill their hearts with joy and fulfillment. Then the people of all the earth will honor and praise Him. Selah.

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Planned Exit

On September 6, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

John 16: 7, John 14: 16-17

“But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away; the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.”

“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth.”

As the end of Jesus’ ministry approached, he told his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and be offered up as a sacrifice. His disciples were understandably distressed by this information. But Jesus comforted them, telling them that all would be well, and He began to teach them about the promised gift of God. He even went so far as to tell them that it was to their advantage that he leave so that he could send the Father’s promise to them.

This, then, was that fixed point in time that had long been prophesied about. First the coming of the Messiah had been prophesied. But there were also the prophesies of the coming of the Holy Spirit; that he would be sent by God as a gift to all humanity. The coming of Jesus fulfilled the prophecies about the coming Messiah. And now Jesus told His disciples that the prophecies regarding the gift of the Holy Spirit were about to be fulfilled in their presence. Jesus also made it clear that there was an order to the things of God. These events had been put into motion thousands of years previous and there was an appointed time for each. Jesus said that it was imperative for Him to leave because the Holy Spirit could not be sent until Jesus ascended. But Jesus promised that when he left he would send the Spirit to us, and the Holy Spirit will remain with us for all time. We will never be without him. And that is God’s plan; for us to have His Spirit and His anointing with us always. We are never alone because God has always had a plan for taking care of us and He has always done as He promised.

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Pouring

On September 5, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

“I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind.” Joel 2: 28

“And I will pour out … the Spirit of grace and of supplication.” Zechariah 12: 10

“I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel.” Ezekiel 39: 29

Until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on High. Isaiah 32: 15

I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring. Isaiah 44: 3

Father God started promising the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon us long, long ago. Here are some quotes from the Old Testament where God made this promise to us. The people of the Old Testament did not really know a lot about the Holy Spirit. In fact, there are only about twenty-nine references to Him in the Old Testament. Of these twenty-nine, a fair number of them dealt with the day that God would pour out His Spirit on all mankind. Previously, the Spirit would come upon someone and he or she would enjoy anointed success from the Lord or they would prophesy in the Lord’s name.

But God was looking forward into the future to a time when He would pour out His Spirit upon all of us and the Spirit would stay with us rather than just resting with us for a short time. He knew when this pouring out would occur for it was fixed in time. Father promised to send us His son and He did. He also promised to send to us the third person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit, and God is not a man that He should lie (Numbers 23: 19).

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Prepared

On September 4, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Acts 1: 4

And gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” he said, “you heard of from Me . . ..”

Before Jesus sent the disciples out to teach and preach the good news of the Messiah arisen and alive, he prepared them. Part of that preparation was for the disciples to receive the promise from the Father which Jesus said that he had spoken to them about. What was this long awaited promise? Jesus tells them in the very next phrase. Acts 1: 5 reads, “for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with (in) the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” In other words, Jesus told them that they were to await the promised Holy Spirit that the Father had been promising for some time. They were to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit before they left Jerusalem and started out in their ministries.

When God gives you a ministry or a job to do, He always prepares you first and gives you all of the gifts and assistance you need in order to accomplish that which He has directed you to do. It is His job to train you and to equip you with all that you need to succeed. The chief gift is the promised gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “…you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth,” (Acts 1: 8).

We are still completing this mission that Jesus gave to the disciples on that day. We are still going into all the world spreading the good news about Jesus. And we, like the disciples of old, need God’s power working in our lives so that we may accomplish all that He has set us to. And what God has promised He is more than able to deliver.

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