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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Spirit of Promise

On September 3, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Luke 24: 49

And behold, I am sending forth the promise of my Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.

Jesus made this statement during the forty-day period between his resurrection and ascension. He was preparing his disciples for the ministry ahead of them. Shortly they would form the new church and would have to carry out all the administration and teaching of a brand new religion. He had to minister to them to get them from their deep sorrow to the dynamic profession of the faith. For all they knew, the whole mission died with Jesus. They were expecting a very different kind of victory out of Jesus and they were expecting him to establish the new kingdom. That did not happen though. And even though they were taught the scriptures, they just could not reason out this apparent defeat.

So Jesus visited them during this period. He lifted their spirits and he instructed them. The disciples saw, with their own eyes, the living Jesus. They heard his voice and dined with him. They went from defeated people who were probably wondering what to do, to world changing believers. They were then able to go out and proclaim the victory of Jesus with strong conviction.

But before Jesus released them on the world, he told them to await the promise of the Father. He told them that the reception of the promise would cloth them with power. They might have thought themselves ready to go proclaim the gospel of Jesus’ when they saw him. Certainly, their sorrow turned to joy and they must have wanted to run out to the streets and spread the good news. But Jesus told them to wait so that they could receive what the Father had promised. This was part of the preparation for the gospel.

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The One Thing

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

Psalm 51: 11 – 12

Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit.

I really had a hard time choosing which verse to send today. This psalm is good right from the beginning. You would really be blessed to read the psalm in its entirety. How could I not choose these two verses, though, especially verse eleven where David writes explicitly about the Holy Spirit.

There are many things which distinguish David from other Biblical personalities, but David’s most unique characteristic is that he knew about the Holy Spirit. There just isn’t much about the Spirit in the Old Testament and those who had a concept still had little experience. Of all the Old Testament writers David stands out for his walk in and with the Spirit. In fact, often I think he is a good example to us of walking with the Spirit.

We see from this passage that David was well aware of God’s presence with Him. He enjoyed an intimate fellowship with the Lord. Consider then the context of this psalm. It was written from a contrite heart seeking forgiveness for what others may have thought unpardonable. This psalm follows upon the heels of David’s affair with Bathsheba and all that entailed. Yet if you read the entire psalm, though contrite, there is evidence of David’s confidence in the Lord’s lovingkindness and His immense capacity for forgiveness. David may have thought his behavior warranted God casting David from His presence but his song and prayer indicate that he understood God’s mercy to be greater than any sin.

David didn’t have Paul to teach him about God’s grace. He didn’t hear Jesus’ sermon on the mount. Where did he learn these deep concepts? I surmise that David learned directly from the Holy Spirit. Though the Spirit had not yet been poured out, he was in the earth. We find in the Old Testament examples of the Spirit alighting on individuals with resultant power and ability manifested in their life. Then the Spirit would, apparently, lift and they would return to their normal abilities. When the Spirit would settle upon an individual they would perform extraordinarily.

David experienced this extraordinary empowerment too but what scintillates about David is the daily walk he enjoyed with the Spirit. There are at least several messages hovering here. I will suggest two, you choose what to ponder today.

The first message is obvious, I think. If people from the Old Testament were supernaturally empowered by the visitation of the Holy Spirit, how much more divine power have we with the Spirit living in us rather than just settling on us from time to time? The second idea is the evidence in this psalm that David had a working relationship with the Spirit of God. While others had little appreciable understanding of the role of the Holy Spirit, David was engrossed in a daily partnership with him. David importuned the Father to restrain from removing the Holy Spirit’s presence with him.

David’s hope was in living in the presence of the Father with the support of the Holy Spirit. Joy and sustenance were in those two elements. It’s really quite beautiful when you think about it. Likewise, for us joy, hope, sustained life and power are found in the presence of divinity. In the world, we strive, powerless against the sin wrought turmoil. In the Spirit, we have life abundantly. David found something, the very something our innermost being seeks. Our search ends in the presence of the Holy Spirit. David said, “One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple,” (Psalm 27: 4), and he dedicated his life to doing just that. Let us adopt a similar purpose. Let us say with commitment, “One thing I ask, this I shall seek, to live all my days intertwined with the Holy Spirit.”

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Anticipation

On April 3, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Ephesians 1: 18             Amplified

And [I pray] that the eyes of your heart [the very center and core of your being] may be enlightened [flooded with light by the Holy Spirit], so that you will know and cherish the hope [the divine guarantee, the confident expectation] to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints (God’s people).

I love the expression “confident expectation.” It is the image of us leaning forward, fully assured of God’s continuous attendance to our needs and desires.

When we hear this odd language like “eyes of your heart” it kinda makes sense but not completely. Perhaps the Amplified version provides some clarity. I would like to offer an additional way to think of it. You know how sometimes your sensitivity is heightened and you pick up on things better than at other times? Or, sometimes you know something but you aren’t sure what you perceived. We say, “In my gut, I just knew.” You see, your internal mechanism is operating all the time. Some of us are better at listening to it than others of us, but even the most unreceptive of us have those times when our perceptions are heightened. You pick up a little something in a person’s tone or your mind takes note of a word they used when there was a friendlier synonym. Perhaps you pick up on body language or a cast of the eyes. A plethora of data is flying by you at an enormous rate and you take in more of it than you know. Down in your core, in the very center of your being this data is processed and for those who listen to it, there comes revelation. It is a matter of listening to your inner you. That is what Paul was praying for, that the Holy Spirit would flood your inner being with his light to shine upon that information which available but undiscovered.

The Father is speaking with us continually. The Holy Spirit is whispering into our spiritual ears. Paul prayed that our sensitivity to these things would be improved so we would discern the blessing which is constantly flowing to us from the Trinity. Paul knew that when we allow the Holy Spirit to tune us into the Divine frequency, we receive hope of a kind that has us not only leaning forward but jumping out of bed in the morning. We receive such encouragement from the light of the Spirit that we are absorbed in confident expectation.

Isn’t that exciting? This hope that Paul wants for us is what we are called to. You may have known that you are called, well, this is your calling. Father is calling you to be immersed in the assurance of the rich inheritance which is yours, right now, as a child of God.

Your inheritance is for today. You don’t have to wait for God to die to receive your inheritance. He made it available at Jesus’ death. Father has called you to the confident expectation of your glorious inheritance which is yours in Christ Jesus, our Lord and savior. All of the dying has been done. Now is the time of light and life. Pray this simple prayer with me: Father, I receive all you have for me. Open my eyes and ears that I hear you daily and I see your loving hand everywhere I look. Lead me, Holy Spirit, into this confident expectation of my inheritance through Christ. Father I thank you as I receive this, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

It’s yours. En-joy!

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Go Jump in the River

On March 27, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 46: 4

There is a river whose streams bring joy to the city of God, the holy place where the Most High lives.

This river is the Holy Spirit and the flow of the Holy Spirit brings many benefits to our lives. Among these is joy. The Holy Spirit is often characterized as a flow in addition to water, rivers and fountains. It is the flow of the Spirit which brings revelation and waters the garden of God. We live in and as part of God’s city right now even as we dwell on earth because the earth is part of His realm too. Because there is great, and I do mean great, profit flowing in and from the Spirit, it is important that we come to know him better and better.

One of the things that is interesting about the Spirit is shown in today’s passage and that is that he is often referred to as some form of water. Think about water for a moment and consider not only how important it is for all life forms but also all of the ways water impacts your life. Try washing clothes, dishes or your face and most often you will use water. Most detergents and cleaners have water in them already or combine with water to do their jobs. Just imagine a week without water even if you had drinking water. I would be using some of that potable water to brush my teeth. We use water in cooking. Besides all that, our bodies are mostly water, as you know.

When you consider the importance of water don’t you find it interesting that God identifies the Holy Spirit as living water? In Jeremiah 2: 13 God said, “My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters.” God calls Himself The fountain of living waters referring to Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit. Do you remember the story of the Samaritan woman Jesus met at the well? In verse 10 of John chapter 4, “Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” Again, living water but this time it was Jesus who reveals there is living water, i.e. water that is alive and which gives life. Later in that same chapter, in verse 14, Jesus describes the value of the living water, “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” Jesus also said, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water,’” (John 7: 38).

I find these verses exhilarating but I am also impressed by their significance. Water is vital for life and I think that is the point Jesus is making in these verses. From this fountain of living water springs all of life. Perhaps Jesus is saying that the Holy Spirit is vital for life and he, therefore, wants us to seek this living water. Jesus wants us to become cognizant of the role the Holy Spirit is intended to play in all our lives. We cannot live without water and I believe Jesus is saying that none of us will flourish or grow without the flowing river of the Holy Spirit. This river is meant to spring up from our innermost being. We can ask ourselves if we feel we are living in this springing up flow from our innermost selves. We can ask if the Spirit is welling up within us. Then, we can ask the Father for this revelation about the Spirit to be manifested in our lives whether we are experiencing a little creek or a raging river for there is always more of the Holy Spirit for us to receive.

Make it a point to meditate on and come to know this third person of the Holy Trinity. Think about what these water verses mean. What did the Father and Jesus mean for us to get out of them? What was Jesus trying to get the Samaritan woman to see and do? Most of all, jump in the river of living water and drink your fill.

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