Divine Wisdom

On September 18, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Acts 2: 32 – 33

This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.

This verse unites many of the themes we have seen in the scriptures we have looked at regarding the Holy Spirit. God, multiple times, made a promise to pour out the Holy Spirit upon all mankind. Jesus, then, told us that it was imperative for Him to leave so that He could send that which the Father had promised. Receiving the promise unto Himself from the Father, He then poured the Holy Spirit out to all.

It is done. God has done His part. Jesus has done His. The prophecies and the promises have been fulfilled. These are the days of glory that the Lord spoke about. So why aren’t we living in more victory and in more of that glory?

Just like it took some people a long time to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, even when He walked among them and they witnessed His miracles, we are only just beginning to recognize the Holy Spirit and His role. It is much easier to be wise when one can look back into history and see what others missed. It is quite a bit more difficult to be wise in the days of your own history. That is why we need the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would “teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” (John 14: 26). Jesus also said that the Holy Spirit would take what He hears from the Father and will disclose it to you (John 16: 13). So, the Holy Spirit’s job is to lead us into this wisdom of the Father. We have been given the scriptures to help us learn about the Spirit. We have the wisdom to seek Him and to learn to work with him because the Holy Scriptures first taught us to expect Him and then informed us as to role in our lives. The Holy Spirit has the Word as one of His tools. He uses the Word to remind us of the things Jesus said and also to lead us in the way that we should go. The Holy Spirit also has the very thoughts of God to minister to us. What we must do is recognize Him. We must be wiser than those who did not recognize Jesus in His day. Then, having recognized the Spirit of God, we invite Him to take an active role in our lives. We invite him to indwell us, teach us and guide us all day every day. He can have as large a role in your life as you want but you must first ask Him into your life. Then let Him fill you up to overflowing.

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Relieved

On April 13, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 81: 6 & 10

I relieved his shoulder of the burden, his hands were freed from the basket. I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt; open your mouth wide and I will fill it.

I am always amused by people who say that the Old Testament does not speak to us today. Today’s verse is modern day theology. It is Jesus’ message about the Holy Spirit. This is the place, spiritually speaking, where we are all supposed to live.

God has relieved us from the labor of work. Am I saying that we no longer set our hands to the plow? No. What God is revealing is that He is the labor behind the work. He supplies the wisdom and the power. We are to abide in Him and rest in Him while He provides for us. Hebrews 4: 11 says, “Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.” The King James version says that our labor is in entering into this rest. In other words, our job is to enter into the rest of God. We are to be diligent in our pursuit of a Sabbath relationship with the Father and Sabbath, by the way, is every day. Our labor, our task is to abide in Jesus every moment of every day. That is sometimes a challenge and that is why it requires diligence. It is quite easy for us to become stimulated by some “emergency” or even some “to do” and begin to operate in our own strength and wisdom. The calling upon our lives is to learn to let go of our ways and our strength and embrace Jesus’ ways and the strength of God. Our challenge is to live in His abiding grace where He does all the heavy lifting. This is the challenge of the New Covenant. Endeavor, labor even, to live in Jesus’ peace while the Holy Spirit provides the power.

Jesus said, “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things” (John 14: 26). He also promised us that the Holy Spirit will guide us in all truth (John 16: 13). So, the strength, power and wisdom are in the Divine Trinity. God has taken the kneading bowl from our hands and put it into the hands of the Holy Spirit. Our part is to abide in Him and allow Him to abide in us. We take the time to quiet ourselves down and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit and follow him. It is harder than it sounds because we learned to do everything in our power: by our education, personality, charm, hard-work and all of the other worldly methods. God is trying to redeem us from all of that though. Just like a relief pitcher in the 9th inning, God has sent the Holy Spirit to win all of your games for you. Let’s be diligent to enter God’s rest and the peace Jesus left for us while the Holy Spirit does his job.

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The Promise

On October 6, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Numbers 11: 16 – 17

The Lord therefore said to Moses, “Gather for Me seventy men from the elders of Israel, who you know to be the elders of the people and their officers and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. Then I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit who is upon you , and will put Him upon them.

This “Spirit” spoken of is the Holy Spirit of God. God reveals to us in this passage that His spirit was “on” Moses. That is a powerful revelation for anyone who has ears to hear. 

Moses did gather the seventy elders and God did put His Holy Spirit on them too so that they could help shoulder the burden of caring for the Israelites. When God put His Spirit on them, the Bible tells us that they began to prophesy (v. 25). That is the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is the same spirit which was spoken of in Acts 2. God promised in Joel 2: 28 that He would pour out His Spirit on all mankind. This outpouring was a monumental occurrence, the fulfillment of a long awaited promise. In fact, if you study all the verses which speak about the Holy Spirit you will see numerous references to the promise of his coming. Then in Acts 2 we get to witness the outpouring of the Spirit. 

In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit came “upon” people as was the case with Moses and the seventy elders. This resting of the Holy Spirit upon people gave them tremendous ability and power. Jesus told the disciples that when he left he was going to send the Holy Spirit (John 16: 7). He also told them that the Holy Spirit was coming to live IN them (John 14: 17). 

This is a new dispensation, if you will. We are talking about the same Holy Spirit which brooded over the waters in Genesis 1: 2. However, a new thing was happening. Jesus was sending the Holy Spirit into the world to stay. Not only that, but importantly, the Holy Spirit was sent to us individually rather than collectively. That is an important distinction. The Holy Spirit was with the nation of Israel as they sojourned to Canaan but He did not live “in” them. Jesus has now sent the Holy Spirit to each of us, to live in us and to be our constant companion. He said the Holy Spirit would be to each of us a go along, a teacher, a guide and a helper (John 16: 7, 13, John 14: 26).

Certainly there is an aspect of our own responsibility. We must each receive the Holy Spirit personally. He is not going to set up house within you without your permission. However, when you invite Him in, the power, authority and ability that was with Moses comes and takes up abode IN you. You become the vessel, the carrier of the power of God. This power and authority does not just rest on you and then remove Himself, He is with you and in you all the time. That is a much better arrangement than the Old Testament saints had.

I invite you to meditate on today’s verse and ponder the role of the Holy Spirit in today’s world but most importantly, in your own life. I pray that the Spirit who was upon Moses will come rest in you and with you today.

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The Age of the Spirit

On March 19, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

John 14: 26

But the helper, the Holy Spirit …, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

Throughout history God has been with humanity in one form or another. During Old Testament times God’s presence was with the people but there was little known about the son. The Israelites learned that a Messiah would come but besides a few prophets they knew very little about who to expect. Then the Messiah came and the New Testament is primarily about him. There was almost nothing known about the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. As Jesus prepared to leave earth he began teaching people about the Holy Spirit and telling them what to expect. In verse 18 of this chapter Jesus promised that he would not leave us as orphans but that he would come back to get us. In the interim he sent the Holy Spirit to us as a gift. God sent Jesus. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit. We are living in the age of the Holy Spirit and yet I find that we know very little about him. I believe it is to our advantage that we learn about him.

The Holy Spirit has many roles in our lives. In this one verse today we see several of the important ways the Holy Spirit aids us. He is a helper, a teacher and a reminder of all that Jesus has said. He will bring to your mind scriptures whenever you need them but he is so much more. He is the power of God, a pledge of promises yet to come, a promise himself and a gift but the role that is perhaps most significant is that he is a comforter. Jesus sent a comforter to be with us at all times. He is called the stand beside because he comes along beside us at all times. We use the expression, “I’ve got your back.” Imagine one of the three aspects of God with you side by side all day, every day telling you that he has your back. He is a protector. He does all the heavy lifting for you in all things. He is like that perfect best friend. You are sealed in him and his presence with you is a sign that you are a valued child of the Most High. 

You can also get to know the Holy Spirit. He is the third person of the trinity so if you can know God; if you can know Jesus, then you can also know the Holy Spirit. He may even have a name, probably does. Jesus is part of the Father but he has his own name. Perhaps you can get the Spirit to reveal his name to you. Think about that for a moment. God has a name, Jesus has a name and even your angels have names. How is it that we have not inquired of the Spirit that is with us day and night as to his name? But we can. 

We are the people that God spoke of in Joel 2: 28: “And it will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind.” We are the children of promise. I think we should take our inheritance seriously and find out what benefits we are entitled to under this promise from God. You know how God loves for us to exercise our rights. I believe that there is an enormous blessing in our relationship with the Holy Spirit of God and that it is just waiting to be revealed. Pursue God the Father; pursue God the Son but do not fail to seek out God the Holy Spirit.

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