To all of those who repent and believe, the Lord Himself is
our inheritance (John 3:16-18; Numbers 18:20). We are a habitation for
the Lord Most High (Hebrews 5-6). We live and move and have our
being in Him (Acts 17:28). Once we enter this realm with
the Lord, we enter His rest and cease from our own works (Hebrews
4:9-10). We stop seeking our own will and we start to live in His
will instead. Each new trial is another opportunity for Him to impact our world
through His divinity within us (Colossians 2:9-10).
When we lose our peace over some issue, this is a clear
indication that this issue is an idol in our life. As we seek the Spirit’s
direction about it, He reveals to us the carnal beliefs, which we still cling
to in our life. As we confess this as sin, we can then relinquish it to God’s
Spirit to remove from our life. The next time the issue appears, we find that
it is resolved and no longer a concern for us anymore. God’s Spirit imparts all
the fullness of His divine power within us through His fruit (John
14:20).
As we focus on the fruit of the Spirit, we start to realize
that God’s Fruit, which is the divine nature of God, gradually replaces the
negative aspects of our personality. We exchange hatred with love, depression with true joy,
discontentment with peace, irritation with patience, criticism with gentleness,
backbiting with goodness, pride with meekness, excess with self-control, and
worry with the faith of God as we are controlled and guided by His Spirit. We
are free from bondage to the flesh.
Love means to hold affection
for others; joy provides us with exuberance about life; peace brings serenity;
patience is the willingness to stick with it no matter how hard or frustrating
something gets; gentleness supplies us with compassion from the heart; goodness
is kindness that pervades our entire being; meekness allows us to serve God and
others with humility; self-control comes when we allow the Holy Spirit to guide
our responses; faith is trusting that God knows what He’s doing
We have eternal life by our relationship with the only true
God and Jesus Christ whom He sent (John 17:3). We know
Him personally and experience the power of His resurrection in our life (Philippians
3:7-12). As estimation of the value of this world decreases, the
value of His goals and will for us increases. We stop living for our self and
live instead for Christ. Like Enoch, we walk with God. As we seek Him and His
kingdom, He gives us, through His divine power within us, everything we need to
do His will on this earth (2 Peter 1:2-4).
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, in You resides all of the fullness of the triune
God, and You dwell in us as we dwell in You (Colossians 2:9; Romans 6:8). We
await the richest portion of your fullness to fill our entire being (Ephesians
3:16-19, 4:13). We are crucified with You, and therefore, we live in this world
for Your glory (Philippians 1:21). Yet, it is not we who live, but You who live
in us and through us (Galatians 2:20). We are changed from glory to glory, and
we slowly mature until we share in Your divine nature (Ephesians 4:13).
Thought for the Day:
As we express Christ’s character in us, which is the fruit
of the Spirit, we walk in obedience moment by moment and we do not sin or
fulfill the lusts of the flesh.