The Wrath of God (Do I have your attention now?)

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God's wrath . . . it's not a topic that believers talk about much, or even want to  think about.  Depending on which theology you have on the Rapture, you might think that it is not something that you will have to deal with.  Yet our passage of Scripture today forces the idea of God's wrath in front of our eyes, and should cause us to give it some thought today.

"On account of these things the wrath of God is coming."       Colossians 3:6

On account of what things?  In order to correctly dissect this verse, we have to look back at the previous verse, which says, 

"Put to death therefore what is earthly in you:  sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry."

Our fleshly and earthly sins are the "these things" spoken of in today's verse. It is because of these sin that the wrath of God is coming.  His wrath will be displayed particularly in the last three and a half years of tribulation, and ultimately after the Millennial Reign of Christ on earth. At this point, the earth as we know it will be destroyed forever, and God will usher in a new heaven and earth for those who have believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ and have experienced the necessary heart conversion.

This heart conversion takes place when the believer in Christ surrenders his whole being to the Lordship of Christ.  When we surrender in this way, Christ is then able to live out His life through us by the power of the Spirit within us.  It is only by the Holy Spirit that we will be able to put to death all that is earthly in us.  It is not something that we can simply "will ourselves" to do.  It is God's work to do within us, completing what He has begun in us.  The work is simply this, to put to death every form of idolatry in us.  Every single place in our heart that elevates something other than God to the throne of our life is an idol. If you depend on it without thinking, rather than on God, it is an idol.  It you have to have it or do it (because that's just the way you are made), its an idol.  If it is repetitive and habitual sin, it is an idol.  If it is an attitude (like self-reliance and dependence, prejudice, worry, etc.), it is a sin.  It 

The Spirit's job is to topple every form of idolatry that we practice.  It matters not if it is a physical idol (like a food addiction), a financial idol (like greed), an emotional idol (like anger), or a mental idol (like worrying and fretting).  It matters not whether the people around you can see it or not; it is an idol.  

Now, back to today's verse.  It is on account of the endless idols that are worshiped on earth, by unbelievers and believers alike, that God's wrath is coming.  How very important it is then for all believers to be about the business of truly surrendering our idols to the Lord Jesus Christ.  Why should we continue in our idolatry when we are to be dead to sin and alive in Christ.  How can we continue in our idolatry knowing that our idolatrous sins are the very same sins of unbelievers.  Will we continue to sin with the same sins that will eventually bring to the earth God's full wrath?  God is clearly calling His church to clean house!

The Tests of God

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“Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of Him may be before you, that you may not sin.”  (Ex. 20:20)


Oh, how we struggle with the idea that God will test us!  Yet, after God gave the 10 Commandments to Moses, the Israelites became terrified.  They had just seen the lightening, heard the thunder, saw the mountain smoking, and heard the trumpet of the Lord.  Of course, they were terrified!  They wanted Moses to remain as the one who God would speak to.  They were afraid, and were happy for Moses to continue in his job. 

Sensing their great fear, Moses speaks to them the words I quoted above.  Jesus also came to test the hearts of all men.  Some will permanently fail the test; others will pass the important test (belief in Him), but fail countless other tests, and never attempt to consistently please the heart of God. 

I pray that I can be found in this last category.  I know that I have passed God’s first test of believing in my need for a Savior, and inviting Him to come into my life and change me.  And I am now in the process of learning how to pass His tests every moment of the day.  These individual tests have only one question that I must answer:  “Who will be in charge right now?”  This one question only has two answers:  The Holy Spirit or my sinful flesh.

God desired that His chosen people would not sin.  He still desires that I would not sin.  They Israelites had no Old Testament or New Testament.  I have both.  Israel had no Holy Spirit inside of them to help them make the right choices and do the right thing.  I do.  I can understand why they struggled so in the tests God brought to them, failing miserably most of the time.  I, however, have absolutely no excuse!

For the Israelites, God used their fear of Him to motivate them toward surrender and obedience to His word.  God uses something quite different in me; He uses my faith and my need of Him to motivate me toward that same surrender and obedience.  In both cases, God has only one goal.  “That we may not sin.”

I desire to pass all of my tests today, and everything is a test!  I surrender to the Lord Almighty, and to His Spirit within me, that I may walk by the Spirit in obedience to the will and command of God.  I desire an A+ at the end of the day!  What about you?

Jesus, Light of the World (12-14-12)

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Advent Devotional, "Jesus, Light of the World," for preparing to light the third Advent Candle, the Good News candle.)

Ephesians 5: 3-10

The greatest detriment to 'good works' is a life that doesn't reflect the Light of Jesus Christ.  The lost world recoils from us when our actions are different than our words.  Christians who are living a life of sin will likely never have their good works received by unbelievers.  In their eyes we are nothing more than hypocrites if they see that we are not doing what say.  How can we avoid blowing our witness before those who are walking in darkness?  Our Scripture reading today will hit us right between the eyes with on possible answer to this question.

We are called to deal with our weaknesses and sins through a daily time of fellowship with the Lord.  It is in our time of studying the Word and praying to God that we can recognize those things that still need to change in our hearts (inner thoughts) and lives (actions).  Consistently leaving God out of the equation by trying to 'will' ourselves into better behavior will only end in failure.  Have you ever made a New Year's resolution?  Have you ever kept one?  Our fleshly 'willpower' is faulty.  It will never lead us to eternal victories over the daily sins we commit.  Only the Spirit of God in us can do that, but He must be released to work in us by our surrender and submission to Him.  We must stop trying to clean up our lives in our own strength if we desire to bear the fruit of good works that leads others to salvation.  God says that when we claim to make broad-sweeping changes in our lives, they are nothing but empty words, they reveal that we are 'sons of disobedience,' and therefore we are walking in darkness.  Is it any wonder then that we are unable to reach those in darkness themselves.  They can see our darkness just as easily as we can see theirs.  The world looks for the Light, but they can't see it because we are still living so much of the time in the darkness of our own sin because we have never surrendered it to God.

Look closely at verses 7-10 again.  God is clearly telling us that if we want to change our sinful habits, then we will have to stop walking like those who are in darkness.  God does not desire our empty words.  He knows that we formerly, when we were still lost, tried to make all kinds of changes through our own power and strength.  But now that we are the light, He wants us to walk like children of the Light.  The way that we do that, in part, is to begin to discover what it is that truly pleases the Lord.  And just how do we do that?  By reading the only Book that will reveal His heart to us!  When we read and pray about what He discloses to us, then He will begin to make the changes necessary in us by His Spirit.  There is no magic fairy dust that can be sprinkled on us that will simply change us because God wants us transformed.  He requires our surrender first, then our obedience to all He says.  That is the recipe for His Light to shine out of us. 

When we become involved with God at that level, the fruit of out relationship with Him will become evident to all.  In verse 9 God clearly states what the 'fruit of the light' is.  It is all goodness, all righteousness, and all truth.  When we walk in God's light by our deep fellowship with Him, the fruit of good works will quite naturally spring up in us and out of us.  You won't have to look for ways to share your faith.  You won't have to muster up the courage to share.  It will simply be the by-product of your loving, intimate, relationship with THE Light!  His light will be reflected  in your good works that He has called you to.  Then those in the darkness who witness your good works will see a reflection of Jesus, the Light of the world.  Then, given a chance,  the Holy Spirit will move in their lives. And with the Spirit, there is always an opportunity for them to meet Jesus personally!  And isn't that the point?  Jesus the Light desires and calls us to be the light to the world for the sole purpose of pointing others to the Light!  That is preaching the gospel!

What will the world, those still lost in darkness of their sin, see in you this Christmas season?  Will they see that you are just as greedy, impatient, irritated, short-fused, grouchy, and self-centered as they are?  Or will they see something different, a light coming out of you that is loving and compassionate, a light surely not of this world?

Navigating The Rough Terrain

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Can you stand another quote from Jesus Calling, and my personal "take" on it?  In the past, I have spent the year reading (and re-reading) through the Word, always gleaning new insights and realizations as the Holy Spirit teaches me.  I would read 3-4 chapters a day and get up from the table utterly "filled up."  But this year the Lord called me to something different.  He led me to this little devotional, and it is the basis of my daily study and introspection.  I have to say that these little nuggets have been ministering to me in fresh and new ways.  And though it is just a "morsel" a day, compared to a Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings, these little bits are boring giant holes in my sin-stained heart and sustaining me spiritually in the same way a "meat and potato" meal would.    If you desire, keep following me as the Spirit continues to conform me into the image of Christ . . . and let Him do the same in your life! 

"Learn to appreciate difficult days.  Be stimulated by the challenges you encounter along your way.  As you journey through rough terrain with Me, gain confidence from your knowledge that together we can handle anything.  This knowledge is comprised of three parts:  your relationship with Me, promises in the Bible, and past experiences of coping successfully during hard times."  (November 8, page 327)

I am struck by the fact that I walk through so much of my day, every day, with so few glances toward my Lord.  And on those days that are fraught with difficult moments, I find that I am more prone to grumble, complain, and do my fair share of whining as I tell my 'woes' to others.  It is my comfortable default, and it is so much easier than crucifying my own flesh in order to make the adjustment of my focus.  The root problem is that my 'self' wants the focus to be on me and my hard day, and just how irritated and frustrated I am.  In that mode of operation there is no room for "appreciation" of the issue at hand, nor am I "stimulated" by the challenges of the day.   When I am stuck in that mindset, I will likely never choose to turn my focus to the Lord.

But as I consider this little morsel, I am reminded that God always gives a way out.  I don't have to walk in sinful attitudes when the going gets rough.  He has clearly told me in His Word (Phil. 4:13) that "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  I have know that to be true for a very long time, but just because I know it doesn't mean that I do it!  In this little devotional God showed me today that my true knowledge of this verse not only lies in being able to call it to mind or quote it, but this great knowledge in me comes from 3 other sources. 

1. My relationship with Him
2. All the promises of the Bible
3. Past experiences of coping successfully in rough times

I will grow in this area of dealing with the rough terrain by the godliness within me when these three things are in full bloom in my heart.  Today is the day to recognize (again) how important my daily time with God is.  It is the primary source of building my relationship with Him.  My personal, one-on-one, prayer time (a lazy area for me) and study of the Word (my soul's delight) must be working in tandem for me to become more intimate with Christ.  Both must be solidly in place. One without the other will leave my walk lacking.  There is nothing that grows this relationship more.  It is helpful for me  to remember that group studies and prayer times have their benefits for sure, but it is when it is just Jesus and me that intimacy grows quickly.

The first item listed plays right into the second.  I cannot learn the promises of the Bible, given to encourage me especially in the rough days, without spending lots of time in it.  The more time I spend in the Word, the more that its words will come to mind exactly when I need them.  "You can't know what you don't know" (a new Cherylism), so it is my responsibility to learn the promises of God so that the Holy Spirit can bring them back to my mind as necessary.  The work is not all His; I have to do my part as well.

The last point of the devotional is a challenge to my heart, and therefore a place for much work to be done.  When faced with the rough terrain, I often am forgetful of the countless times that God has brought me through by being the strength and wisdom that I have needed.  It seems to me that I am constantly "starting over" as if it is the very first time that I have been slammed with hard days.  I think that taking a moment to remember how God has previously helped me successfully navigate the rough seas would be a true spiritual breakthrough for me on those days.  Remembering those moments would be a very good way for me to initially shift my focus from me to the mighty works of God that I have personally experienced.

But even 'knowing' these three things is still not 'doing' them.  O Lord, I pray that by your Spirit you will remind me of these on my next hard day.  My heart's desire is to follow this godly pattern.  I pray that it will be my reality the next time it needs to be!  Then I can truthfully say from my heart, "To You be ALL the glory!"

Clearing Out Your Cluttered Heart

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To be quite honest, this picture offends me.  Not because messy homes offend me, but because I fear that this is what my heart looks like to God.  Can you relate?  I chose this picture for this blog based on two sentences I read in my devotional, Jesus Calling.  I needed to convey the idea of "clutter" through a picture that could speak a thousand words.  This is the one that jumped out at me, and then God continued to speak to my heart.  Here is what He spoke as I pondered this thought.

"My main work is to clear out debris and clutter, making room for My Spirit to take full possession.  Collaborate with Me in this effort by being willing to let go of anything I choose to take away."  (November 7, page 326)

"My child, you have allowed Me to remove so many sinful things from your life, yet your heart remains cluttered.  My Spirit is trapped inside your very messy heart.  He wants to be the Ruler of His home, but your sinful debris keeps Him from doing His job.  He desires to clear it all away and rule from a place of holiness, to clothe you in regal robes of holiness inside your heart .  This holy attire can be attained in no other way.  You must let Him clear  the unholy debris out of your heart.  This is surrender.  And this surrender is what leads to holiness in Me.

The act of putting aside your sin is one in which you must collaborate with the Spirit.  He will do the hard work, but you must be so surrendered to Him that you are willing to let go of anything that He says must go.  There is still much that must be cleaned out of your heart.  A bag of envy, a stack of anger, a mess of unkind thoughts and words, a heap of spiritual hypocrisy. [I Peter 2:1] Under the furniture you are hiding pieces of bitterness, and crammed in the boxes and bins of your heart are the evidences of quarreling with and railings about your own brothers and sisters in Me.  [Eph. 4:31]  These are the things that I  will require you, and you are the only one who can let them go.  

I desire to to complete what I have already begun.   Are you willing to let Me, my precious one?"

O Jesus, how short I have come of the mark.  How blind I have allowed myself to be when it comes to the reality of my heart, thinking I had done pretty well in letting you clean house.  But with scales removed I can clearly see that I have been housing the Holy Spirit in a filthy shack of a heart.  Forgive me for allowing such a thing! Today, I choose to be a willing collaborator with you, Holy Spirit.  What you say must go, I will surrender to You.  Take it all, anything that is offensive to You.  I desire not to just make a pathway in which You can walk through my heart.  I desire instead that You be able to move though my heart completely unhindered, with no obstacles around which You must maneuver. 

Oh, how I long to worship you in holy attire!  Beautify Your home, my heart, O Lord!  Dress me in robes of righteousness befitting a daughter of the King!

Discovering The Sin Within Your Heart

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 12)

"Theory must always give way to practical application, otherwise all of our 'head knowledge' becomes wasted and worthless grey matter.  Can we turn our focus for just a moment to the Inner Court of our heart transformation?  I would like us to magnify that court right now so that we are not looking at the beginning or end of our spiritual journey, but just at the present, the here and now.

It is in the Inner Court where God allows us to see just how dark and sinful our hearts really are, and can be.  This court is a place of illumination.  Once in the Inner Court, once we have taken a good 'look around' at what is really hidden there, we often find that the sins, the gods, and the idols we find inside of us are so many that they are overwhelming to us.  We know that we are to be busy building our hearts into a proper and pure home for the Lord by sweeping out all that He would not enjoy.  Just like the Israelites of Haggai's day (that we looked at in Chapter 6 of Spiritual Healing), we know that we are to 'rebuilt' our sin-scarred hearts, which is the temple, the Tabernacle of the Holy Spirit. But again, just like the Israelites, we typically respond just as they did, don't we?  We put satisfying the desires of our own flesh ahead of the priority of cleaning out those very flesh-sins found in our hearts.

We follow after our own priorities, and we leave our sin-filled hearts in disrepair, desolate, and open to destruction while we continue living flesh-ruled lives.  Our breaches, fractures, and sins remain.  Our walk with the Lord and our very lives do not even remotely resemble the life of Christ!  We continually go our merry way, prioritizing everything else in life except our walk with Jesus and a desire to achieve a holy and pure lifestyle.  Following in the footsteps of the Israelites, our wrong priorities lead us straight to the obvious consequences, and some of them will be severe.  Our ministry for the Lord becomes fruitless, barren, and even non-existent.  In the end, when we do not concentrate on obediently living the commandments and repenting of our sins and idols, our lives reveal that our hearts have not been transformed.  Such transformation only takes place when we have been walking intimately with the Savior."

Tomorrow I will be continuing in this vain, by sharing a quote from Joanna Weaver's Having A Mary Heart In A Martha World.  Her personal testimony might help you more clearly see what you are doing that is keeping you from that very intimacy.

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(Excerpted from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 10)

"Consider you spiritual life right now.  Do you desire to be pleasing to the Lord by bringing Him your sacrifice of surrender now?  If so, let these next tree passages of Scripture shed new light on the picture of the artesian well of surrender.  They will clearly reveal the life rewards that await the one who is submitted to the power of the Holy Spirit within:

• Therefore, you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation.    (Isaiah 12:3)

•  Jesus answered and said to here, 'Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but 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.'    (John 4: 13-14)

• He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water,' 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.   (John 7: 38-39)

God is so specific, isn't He?  But let's not just revel in the wonderful thought of what can be.  Let's take the thought one more step -- into action!  We must apply this truth by contemplating our own lives.  Do you have sin in your life that you are holding onto, sin that is keeping God's power trapped inside you?  Has your pride kept you from giving over all of your sin habits to the God who desires to explode forth from you?  Do you understand clearly now that repentance and surrender are the only tools that will enable you to bore deeply into your own heart, bringing you to victorious, overcoming power in your life?  Are you ready now for the Holy Spirit to flow out of your life to others, touching them with His living waters?  Do you realize that in your lifetime, there will be many such borings of repentance and surrender?  Surrender was never intended to be a 'once and for all' deal.  It will be a continual process during your walk toward Heaven.

Your understanding and application of surrender of your whole heart will determine the amount of power that can be witnessed in your life.  If you seek to overcome by the power of the Spirit, then you must find the altar of death and the surrender that can only be found at the veil of the Tabernacle.  That is the place where your flesh dies.

The Spiritual Side of an Artesian Well -- Part 2

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 10)

Yesterday I blogged on the workings of an artesian well.  Today, let's look at the amazing application we can take from it, and by it, discover the exciting experience we will have when we surrender our whole lives to God!

"Now here is where it gets fun!  Looking at the spiritual application that we can glean from the artesian well, we can clearly see the unmistakeable similarities between it and our surrender.  Let these points of comparison minister to you as you see the perfection of God's picture of the power of your surrender to Him.

1. The Holy Spirit indwells us at the time of our salvation.  He rains down on us from Heaven and comes into our very hearts, His Tabernacle.  He took the path of least resistance, filling up the holes of our sin-ravaged lives, as He made His way down deep inside of our souls.
2. Once inside of us, our fleshly, sinful pride traps  Him, so that He resides deep within us, waiting to be released by our full surrender to His authority and control.  We know His power is there inside of us, but we don't often see it exploding forth in our lives, and neither does anyone else.  He remains hidden, and our pride keeps us from surrendering fully to His Lordship.
3. When we decide to bring in the heavy equipment of repentance and surrender, a deep boring  will take place within our hearts.  This repentance and surrender will break through what has been our impermeable sin and pride.  Once our repentance and brokenness go deep enough, the Holy Spirit is released  in us, and out of us, like a powerful fountain.  He will shoot upward to the Father, glorifying Him and granting us power and victory over our sin.  Then others will also experience the power of our surrender as we begin to walk under the influence of the Spirit instead of our flesh and sin nature.  They will see the 'new and greatly improved' us!

It is the rain in the diagram that is the Holy Spirit.  In the Word, the Spirit is often spoken of as water of various kinds.  The porous rock is the sin in our lives.  It is all the holes in our sinful hearts that are obvious as we came to know the Lord.  But then, as is often the case, the Holy Spirit becomes trapped inside of us by the impermeable rock of our fleshly pride and daily sin.  The Holy Spirit is now rendered powerless and useless [just like the trapped rain water in the artesian well]  because we refuse to allow Him to have full control of our lives.  Do you see how our brokenness over sin, and the repentance and surrender that follows, is the drill that is necessary for the Spirit to come forth from us in power?  Without our repentance and surrender to the Spirit, He lies trapped inside of us with nowhere to go.  He is the power inside of us that we have been given to be all that God intended for us to be.  When He is not allowed to explode out from us by our surrender, we live powerless lives that are without victory over sin.  We live in the flesh instead of in the Spirit.  In this state, we will surely die and stand before the Lord with regrets for not having become the person God desired and empowered us to be.  And we will have little, if any impact, on a lost and dying world.

Awesome, isn't it?   You have been equipped to walk in the power of the Spirit through your acts of being broken and repentant of your sin, and surrendered completely to God.  These are the drills God uses to release the trapped Spirit from within you! 

Can you now share this principle with others who might need to know how to set the Spirit inside of them free?  What a great visual to use with those who ask you what has happened to you, and how it is that you have changed.  You can now witness to them that it is the power of the Spirit in you, that has been released out of you by your surrender to the perfect will of God, that they are witnessing in you!"

Now, that is a testimony!

Removing The Yo-Yo From Your Spiritual Life

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 9)

"Believing that Jesus is Savior and King is enough in our moment of salvation, but it is not enough the moment we desire to live the abundant life promised by Christ.  We must choose to make Jesus the Lord of our lives and believe that He is in charge of our lives, making a conscious decision and effort to surrender to Him based on that belief.  The enemy loves to use the lie that salvation is enough for a transformed life.  Believing that lie is one of the main reasons that so many Christians stay in the Outer Court of the Tabernacle (living only in the knowledge of our salvation, baptism, and eternal life) for so many years, enjoying its ease and refusing to step into the Inner Court of surrender and the deepening knowledge of and relationship with Jesus Christ.

Have you experienced a full surrender to the will of God?  Are you seeking to continually surrender your flesh and your will to God every day?  Or are you like a child playing with a yo-yo when it comes to your sin--you throw it out and a moment later you pull it back into your life?  When will you finally, once and for all, cut the string?  What is your answer to God's call to surrender and heart transformation?  Andrew Murray understood surrender like this, and in a public address titled Absolute Surrender, he said, 'God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him.  The condition fro obtaining God's full blessing is absolute surrender to Him.'

If you will heed His call, you are about to see what great power from the Spirit can be released from within you.  Interested?"

Over the next few days, I will help you discover the great power that lies within every child of God and how to see that power be used for God's glory.  In teaching you the concepts of releasing the trapped power inside of you, I hope to both challenge and inspire you to do what is required of you so that you will see the Holy Spirit explode out of you and touch a lost world!

THE RESURRECTED LIFE -- Day 33

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Day 33:  Philip and Simon the Sorcerer (Acts 8: 1-24)

The death of his beloved friend, Stephen, clouded Philip’s thoughts.  How he mourned this dear man.  Philip had come to know Stephen as they took meals every day to the widows, taking care of their sisters who were alone.  “Stephen had such a pure heart.  How could they stone him?” Philip lamented in his troubled mind.  This one thing he was sure of—these evil men would never be able to stop the spread of the gospel.  Stephen’s death served only to make Philip and the other followers even more determined to carry out their individual calls to ministry.  The Voice of the Spirit even seemed to be speaking more loudly and clearly.

Hearing that Saul, one of the men who had been present at Stephen’s stoning, was now ravaging the church, Philip was compelled by God to leave and go to Samaria and preach the gospel of salvation.   Ministering in the Spirit and by His power, many Samaritans believed and were baptized.  One such man was Simon, a former magician who had made great claims about himself in the past.  He believed and was baptized when he realized that people were no longer amazed at his magic.  How he longed to do the powerful things that Philip was doing, so that the people would be amazed with him again.

When the disciples came from Jerusalem to see what was happening in Samaria, they laid hands on all the new converts, and they received the Holy Spirit.  When Simon saw this great sign, he came forward seeking what the disciples had.  But Simon’s heart was not right with God.  It was clearly focused on the wrong things.  He did not ask for the Holy Spirit to come to him because he needed the Holy Spirit and desired Him.  Instead, his heart was “Simon-centered.”  He offered to pay the disciples money if they would give him the gift that they had.  Simon was seeking the power of laying his hands on people so that they would receive the Holy Spirit.  He was not seeking the Spirit Himself.  Simon had believed the gospel message and had been baptized, but his heart had not been resurrected.   He was still in bondage to sin and pride.

Do you desire gifts you have not been given because they are more visible to others and seem more important?  Are you jealous of those who have what you want?  God knows every intention of every heart.  What does He see in yours?

THE RESURRECTED LIFE -- Day 26

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Day 26:  The Two Criminals (Luke 23: 32-33, 39-43)

The beatings and the trial were now behind Him, but the cross still loomed ahead of Him.  While Simon of Cyrene carried His cross, the two other convicted criminals carried their own crosses to Calvary.  Yes, death was just a few hours ahead.

Crucifixion was a torturous and horrific way to die.  But Jesus kept His eyes fixed on the goals:  the sacrifice to be made once and for all, salvation that would be available to the whole world, and a chance for all to have a personal and real relationship with the Father, the Spirit to come, and Him.  But He also focused on the glorious moment that He would return to His Father and be Home again.  But what would lie ahead for the two criminals?  What were they thinking about on the way to their deaths?  What did they have to look forward to?

As Jesus and the two men hung from their trees of death, some of the rulers, the commoners and the guards began to hurl insults at Him.  Even one of the criminals joined in.  “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us!” he sneered, laughing an evil laugh.

“How could he say those things?” the other criminal thought.  The sheer audacity of that sinful man!  It just doesn’t make any sense that he would be demanding to be saved from the consequence of his own sin!  How could he so blatantly speak out such evil?  Did he not fear God Almighty?

Finding his voice amidst the pain, he had to speak.  “The punishment we received is just and fair for us.  We did what was unlawful and hang here today because of our disobedience.”  Then looking directly into the eyes of Jesus he said, “But this Man, He has done nothing wrong.  Jesus, please remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”  Seeing into the man’s heart, Jesus answered him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

Are you looking for Jesus to save you out of the circumstances of your own sinful life, expecting Him to change them?  Or are you recognizing your sinfulness, confessing it to Jesus, and letting Him change you?

THE RESURRECTED LIFE -- Day 5

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Day 5 -- Elizabeth Meets Jesus (Luke 1: 5-7, 24-25, 39-45)

Walking faithfully and blamelessly before the Lord with her husband, Zacharias, Elizabeth wondered why she suffered so.  She knew deep within her soul that the Lord could give her the child of her heart; yet, He hadn’t.  Some days it seemed that her inner ache would destroy her.  Leaving her thoughts behind her, she watched as her husband approached their home.  Something was wrong.  Confusion clouded his face.  He looked as if the weight of the world rested completely on his shoulders.  Rushing to meet him, Elizabeth soon realized that he was not the man who had left to go serve in the temple so many days ago.

Struggling to communicate, Zacharias gestured with his arms and drew pictures and words in the dirt.  Little by little she was able to piece together the story of a prayer, an angel, and the promise of a son.  Going inside with her husband, Elizabeth pondered the story she had just learned.  Though her husband’s silence continued on, Elizabeth soon discovered for herself just what the angel meant.  God had opened her barren womb!  Keeping herself hidden away for a few months, she marveled at the miracle growing inside her tired, aging body, and the favor of her God upon her.  Now Zacharias knew the truth of the angel’s words.  The sign he’d sought turned out to be his wife’s ever-expanding middle.

When Elizabeth was in her sixth month, she received an unexpected guest, her relative Mary from Nazareth.  The moment she heard Mary’s greeting from afar, the baby inside her leapt for joy.  At that very moment she was filled with awe and wonder and knew instinctively that Mary was carrying the Messiah, HER Messiah.  In her jubilation she cried out with a loud voice, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!  How has it happened to me that the mother of my Lord would come to me?”

On that blessed day Elizabeth met her Savior whom she already believed in, and she received the Holy Spirit and was filled.  Her child was also filled with the Spirit to fulfill the words of the angel. (1:15)

Are you allowing the Spirit into the “middle” of your sufferings?

Remedy For a Sin-broken Heart

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Solomon had just finished his beautiful, powerful prayer to God as he dedicated the newly built temple.  He concluded with a call to all of Israel to devote themselves, their hearts, to the Lord by walking faithfully in all of His commandments.  By setting the Ark of the Covenant in the new Holy of Holies, God would then be able to say, "My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually."  

Solomon's connection between the Ark of the Covenant where God dwelt then, and our hearts where God dwells now is critically important to us today.  It is in our heart, the core of our being, that the Holy Spirit perpetually dwells.  He is the eyes who watch everything we think, do, and say.  He is the very heart  of God in us.  And what is the "heart of God?"  It is the very life of Christ.  That is what the Holy Spirit represents in the life of the believer.

Though we have the life of Christ living in us, we so often try to do every spiritual thing in our own power.  We use our strengths and our sheer will-power to try and overcome sin.  We want desperately to walk faithfully in the commands God gives us to live by, and fail miserably with each attempt.  We so often life in a sin-confess-try again cycle, and usually never realize that this is simply a dog chasing its tail.  We go round and round and round, but we never really get anywhere.

So what is the secret, then, to having an unbroken heart, a heart healed of its sinful ways that obeys the Lord's commands?  Zechariah the prophet speaks loudly the key to having an unbroken heart.  "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit," says the Lord. (4:6).

The healing of the continual sin in your heart will not come by might ("I am trying hard to handle this.  I failed yesterday, but I will try harder today."), nor will it come from your strength and power  ("I am strong; I can get through this; I did yesterday, so I will today as well.").  The spiritual healing of your heart, the very removal of fleshly gods, idols, and sins,  will happen because of your working at it.  God requires one thing from you to become an obedient child who walks in His pure and righteous ways.  He requires your surrender to the Spirit.  Your transformed heart, changing from broken to unbroken, from sin-stained to holy, is the work of the Spirit.  This work happens from the inside out by the Spirit, not from the outside in by your striving flesh!

In every 12 step program, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, the transforming work begins with these 3 principles:  I can't; You can; go ahead!  Do you hear the surrender of such a prayer?  This should be our constant prayer!  Why not begin right now to apply the truth of Zechariah 4:6.  It will sound a something like this:

"Holy Spirit, you have a job to do in my heart, but You require me to seek Your work in me from a place of humility and surrender.  I am struggling with committing the sin of _______.  I have tried to stop and have failed miserably.  I know that my flesh cannot transform my heart.  Only You can.  So I come to You today, with my flesh crucified and my spirit crying out to You.  'I can't get this done in me!  But I know that You can!  So please go ahead!'  I surrender to Your work in me."

By using the "Post Comment" button below, why not report back what the Spirit is doing in you as an encouragement to the other readers of this blog!  And while you are at it, click on the "follow" button to the right!

Japan's Tsunami--A Picture of God's Power In Our Hearts

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Not very long ago I watched a 5-minute video on Facebook of the tsunami in Japan that followed their recent earthquakes.  The images were disturbing from a human point of view.  My lack of personal knowledge of this particular type of catastrophic event kept me in an ignorant place,  thinking that if you were a good swimmer you might just have a chance to survive.  Moments into the video it became crystal clear to me that the powerful force of the water would have prevented any such thing.  The water crushed everything in its path.  My heart ached for anyone in its path, knowing death would be the primary result.  So vivid images were left indelibly inscribed on my usually optimistic thoughts.  

It is no wonder that those very images surfaced today as I read the Word this morning.  In 2 Samuel 5 I was reading again the story of David becoming the king of Israel.  Almost immediately war was eminent with the Philistines.  Not wanting to "do what was good in his own eyes," David sought God's wisdom.  Having understood God's response that he should surely go to war and soundly defeat his arch enemy, David did just that.  This was what David proclaimed after his unprecedented victory:

"The LORD has broken through my enemies before me like the breakthrough of waters."

I have read that verse so many times; I have used it in counseling others; I have used it to fight spiritual battles in my own life.  But this time, the Lord opened my eyes to see what David meant by that, by bringing the pictures of the tsunami to mind.  God was using what had been, and still is,  so devastating to Japan and the entire world to show me with great clarity what it means for Him to spiritually break through my enemies, the sin in my life that so easily entangles me.

As my mind hit the replay button of a horrible picture of death and destruction, God began to replace the cars,trucks, buildings, boat docks, trash, boards, and yes, even bodies, with pictures of my flesh.  The countless cars turning up on end became my self-sufficiency being destroyed just before sinking under the ferocious rising water.  The buildings that were crumbling from the force of the ocean against them became my self-reliance.  The unidentifiable trash swirling around in the raging water became the words and thoughts that are constant reminders that I am sinful in my innermost being.  And then God made the analogy for me.

When the power of the Holy Spirit is unleashed within a surrendered and repentant child of God, the sinful enemies that seek to destroy their spiritual walk are moved up and out of that believer's heart.  The Holy Spirit acts as a tsunami and destroys every evil thing in His path.  He breaks through the hardest of places in our hearts so that our hearts my be transformed, making them holy and pure.  But the believer must come to a place of repentant, sorrowful surrender if he desires this kind of victory over his sins.  

Do you want God to display the kind of power that will defeat your persistent sin?  Do you really want Him to annihilate your strongholds with His overwhelming force?  Your life, lived before others, will be the evidence of how you answered those questions.  And then you will be able to say, 

"The LORD has broken through my enemies before me like the breakthrough of waters!"

Obedience is Wisdom

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If God is never-changing, then there is always something to be learned from what He told His chosen people, Israel. Before they entered the Promised Land He reminds them (again) to look within, correct what is wrong, stay on the right path, and teach their children this way of life. Deuteronomy 4 could be a textbook for believers today! We must learn to live by its precepts and lead others by the instruction found there. In this, there is no hypocrisy.

Christians today have had the blessing of the written Word of God in every conceivable form.  If our Bibles are to big to carry to church, we can just bring our phones.  If our Bibles are at home, and we are at work, we can look up anything, in any version, on our computers.  We have books galore to teach us more, speakers and seminars to help us grow.  The Word is out there in abundance, so we have no excuse for not knowing what God has to say to us!

But knowing isn't doing!  We can know, yet never do.  This is foolishness!  But if we know, and then obey, this is wisdom!  However, obedience rarely, if ever occurs, without taking a close inventory of what is really hidden inside our hearts.  If we do not see the wickedness there, if we never look at our sinful attitudes and the sinful actions that follow as just that...sin...it will be unlikely that we will just begin to be obedient.  When was the last time you took close spiritual inventory of your sin-stained heart?  Are you aware of what hides deep in the crevices?  Or are you perfectly content being blind to what makes God jealous for all of your heart?  God says, "Give heed to yourself."  Look in, see what's there, take what you see into account when you assess your walk!

Once you have seen what lurks in your heart, drawing you away from God, you must determine to take charge of your soul with diligence.  But remember, you cannot "take charge" by self-works.  To see true heart transformation, you "take charge" by letting go!  Surrender!  You cannot change your heart, but the Holy Spirit can!  Daily praying a surrender prayer regarding those sins in your life releases your control (and inability to change) into the hands of the One God sent to do just that--change you and mold you into the image of the Son!

As you begin to notice those changes being done in you, but not by you, continue to walk in those new ways and attitudes.  This is "walking in the Spirit," for it is Him doing the walking as you daily yield yourself to His power and control.  Then as you see your life changing, share that with others.  You are a teacher to all who are watching you, your natural children or your spiritual children.  Steer clear of the hypocritical walk that demands of them what you yourself refuse to bend to.  Be the example that can be followed!  

You have a God that is so near to you that He is inside of you--the Holy Spirit!  You have a God that has given you His very words to obey.  In these, you have everything you need for life and godliness!  We really have no excuse, then, do we?  What is your choice?  Will you know but not do?  Or will you be wise and "know and obey"?       (Deuteronomy 4: 5-9)