Fill Me with the Holy Spirit

 

The Holy Spirit is often the most misunderstood part of the trinity. People tend to think that the Holy Spirit is a ‘thing’ rather than a person. The Holy Spirit is the third part of the trinity with God the Father and God the Son.

Here is a beautiful quote by Frances J. Roberts about the Holy Spirit: “It is My Life I am giving you. It is not an emotion; it is not a virtue, though these may subsequently follow. It is Myself. Divine Grace, heavenly love, infinite mercy, fathomless peace – all these will spring forth unbeckoned and irrepressible out  of the depths within you because My Spirit has taken residence there.”

Jesus told the disciples that His Spirit would come make His home with them. In other words, His Spirit would reside in them.

John 14:23

Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

Look back at the quote by Frances J. Roberts. Could you use some divine grace in your life today or do you know someone who could use it? You have His Spirit dwelling with you to give you His grace and to help you show His grace to others.

Need to feel loved or know someone who does? Tap into the power of the Holy Spirit and show His love to a broken world.

We are all in need of mercy from time to time and are called to show mercy to those around us. On our own, we aren’t very good at being merciful because we are too judgmental. However, when we choose to submit to the Holy Spirit, we can be merciful rather than judgmental.

We can never have enough peace in our lives but have access to it all the time. We need to ask the Spirit to help us feel His peace and to empower us to be bring peace to those around us.

Take a minute today to thank the Lord for His presence that abides within you. Ask the Lord to show you how you can use His Spirit to minster to those around you today.

• Quote by Frances J. Roberts from “Come Away My Beloved”
• Scripture verse from http://www.biblegateway.com

Stop Looking in the Rearview Mirror

Sometimes we spend too much time looking in the rearview mirror of our life that we miss what God is doing today. Our past does play an important role in our life, but we are not supposed to be so focused on it that we are not living in the present.

Isaiah 43:19-19

“Remember not the former things,
    nor consider the things of old.
¹⁹ Behold, I am doing a new thing;
    now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
    and rivers in the desert.

Where is your focus? Are you constantly looking back at things you have done or things that have been done to you? We need to keep our past in the proper perspective. We are to learn from it and use it as a way to give God thanks and praise for all He has done in our lives. But, it is not to be our focus.

God is constantly working in our lives and we need to be focused on the present so we an see where He is working in our lives and hear what His plans are for us today. This is the verse the Lord highlighted for me a couple of years ago. I was focused on my history with a church and all God had done in my life during that time. But God was about to do something new. He was calling me to a new place to do a new thing.

It was hard to leave a place where I had come to know the Lord, served and had many friends. It wasn’t until after I responded in obedience and left that the Lord revealed the way He was making in the spiritual desert I found myself in. It is easy to stay where we are comfortable but that is not always where God wants us to be.

A history we have with a place or with people is a blessing we are to treasure in our hearts, not what we are to cling to. God wants us to cling to Him, lean into Him so He can reveal what He has for our present and our future. If I had only focused on looking back, the past and the connections with it, I would never have seen what God had for me today.

I cannot begin to explain the blessings upon blessings God has given me in this new adventure. It was not always easy and some of the lessons were tough to learn but so worth it.

Think about how you are viewing your life. Are you constantly looking back at your past? Are you allowing the things in your past to hold you back from what God has for you today? When driving, we glance in our rearview mirror from time to time but we don’t keep our eyes there. That is what we need to do with our past. Glance at it, appreciate it, learn from it and then focus forward. Who knows what God has in store for you today!

• Scripture from http://www.biblegateway.com

Money

Money is something we need to survive but it can easily become a snare when our perspective on money and our desire for it becomes skewed.

Jeremiah 48:7a

Since you trust in your deeds and riches,
    you too will be taken captive,

Money becomes a problem when we put our trust in it rather than in the Lord. This verse is talking about a physical captivity, but putting our trust in our riches can lead to a spiritual captivity. We can find ourselves captive to acquiring more and more riches. Captive is defined as held in bondage or enslaved. Are you enslaved to acquiring more and more money? Do you feel like you are held in bondage to making more and more money?

Proverbs 11:28

Those who trust in their riches will fall,
    but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.

Placing our trust in money will lead to a fall. It will be difficult for us to stand firm in our faith and thrive in our lives if we replace trusting the Lord with trusting in our bank accounts. Only the Lord can give us what we need to thrive. He created us and knows our relationship with Him is what will help us to live into His plans.

Proverbs 23:4-5

Do not wear yourself out to get rich;
    do not trust your own cleverness.
⁵ Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone,
    for they will surely sprout wings
    and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

Do you find yourself worn out trying to make enough money to live a particular lifestyle? Are you working so hard to get a promotion or get raise that you don’t have time for your family or for God? Everything we acquire here on earth remains here. It is temporary and we can’t take it with us. We need to be more focused on our relationship with the Lord and our relationship with others than we are on making more money.

Proverbs 15:27a

The greedy bring ruin to their households,

Money is one of the things people fight and argue about the most. Do you find yourself arguing about money or finance? When we put to much focus on money, we find ourselves bringing ruin to households and our relationships. How many families fall apart when someone dies and there is a battle over an estate? How many relationships are destroyed over money?

We do need money to survive, but our perspective on it needs to be grounded. Look at how much time you spend acquiring money and what impact money has on your relationships. Do you have broken relationships because of arguments over money or do you have strained relationships because you are to busy making money to spend time with the people you love? Ask the Lord to help you get a right perspective on money and put your trust in Him rather than your bank account.

• Scripture from http://www.biblegateway.com

Busyness

We live in a culture where busyness is glorified. Whenever we ask someone how they are, often instead of answering with how they are feeling, they tell you how busy they are. We fill every minute of every day with things to do. Our to do lists grow and grow, but does it come at the cost of growing in our faith?

The antidote to busyness is stillness. No where in Scripture does it tell us to be busy, but it does tell us to be still.

Psalm 46:10

“Be still, and know that I am God.
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth!”

In order for us to come to know God, we need to be still. We cannot hear what He has to say to us if we are constantly in motion. We will miss what He has for us if we don’t spend time with Him.

Being still is a challenge for us. We don’t even wait without doing something. What do you do when you find yourself waiting in line, waiting at a doctor’s office or waiting for someone to arrive? Do you allow yourself the gift of a few minutes of stillness or do you fill those minutes by looking at your email, Facebook, Twitter, or playing a game on your phone or other electronic device?

Perhaps if we took those opportunities when we find ourselves waiting to be still before the Lord, we might grow closer to Him. Waiting requires patience, and patience is not something that comes naturally to us. The Lord calls us to be still and to wait patiently.

Psalm 37:7

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;…

Pay attention to how often you say you are busy or hear from others how busy they are this week. Maybe you need to take advantage of the moments of quiet you have and simply be still before the Lord and wait for Him to speak to you, minister to you and reveal to you how He is working in your life.

Combatting the busyness of life is easy – simply be still. Let’s stop glorifying busyness and start glorifying the Lord!

• Scripture from http://www.biblegateway.com

Are you Content?

It is easy for us to feel discontent in our circumstances. When we do, how can we turn our discontent into content? The answer has nothing to do with the circumstances themselves and everything to do with our relationship with the Lord.

Even if you are struggling financially or not where you would like to be financially, you can be content. You may not be making the money you want to be making in your job, yet Scripture tells us to be content.

Luke 3:14

 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”

Often we find ourselves looking at what others have and wanting more. Any time we find ourselves comparing any part of our lives with another’s we will either be proud about having more or being better off than the other person or discontent and wanting what they have. Comparison always breads discontentment. Yet, the Word of God says we  to be content with what we have.

Hebrews 13:5

 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Sometimes our discontentment doesn’t have anything to do with money. It has to do with a situation we find ourselves in or how we feel we are being treated by others. Again, Scripture speaks clearly about this.

2 Corinthians 12:10

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

So, if we are to be content regardless of our financial situation and regardless of what circumstances we are facing, how do we do it? Well, we don’t, at least not on our own. We allow the Spirit of God that dwells within us to minister to us. This doesn’t mean our circumstances will change, but it means we won’t be facing them alone. We will be comforted, equipped and strengthened by the His Spirit. Through submitting to His Spirit and allowing Him to work in us, we can be content.

Philippians 4:11

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.

In what areas of your life are you feeling discontent? Submit those areas to the Lord and ask Him to help you feel His presence and see where He is working. Ask the Lord to comfort and strengthen you. May we all find the contentment Paul found in the Spirit of God.

• Scripture from http://www.biblegateway.com