When we repent of our sins and are baptized in the
name of Jesus, we receive the Holy Spirit as a gift from God (Acts 2:38). We
are sealed with the Spirit as a down payment of our inheritance with Christ
(Ephesians 1:13).
We come to love God, because He first loved us (1
John 4:19). We repent of our willful sin and ask the God of the universe to
dwell within us. We find our true self-worth and identity through our
relationship with Christ.
God gives Born Again Believers the ability to walk
in union with Christ as He transforms our life (John 14:16-23). Our intimate
relationship with Christ starts when we, by faith, invite Him to make His
permanent home in our spirit.
Jesus' presence renovates our soul – our mind, will
and emotions; the center of our inner man. We come to know Christ in a
practical way, through our daily experience in prayer, Bible study, service and
devotion (Ephesians 3:16-19, Amplified Bible).
Since we are rooted deeply and grounded securely in
Him, we personally experience the breadth, length, height and depth of God’s
love for us (John 3:16). Christ gives us fortitude of character.
Then He fills us through our entire being with all
of His fullness. We receive the richest measure of His divine presence within
us, until our body, soul and spirit are entirely filled and flooded with the
power of God (Ephesians 3:17-18, Amplified Bible).
We are strengthened and reinforced with His mighty
power in our inner man by the Holy Spirit Himself. He dwells in our spirit, and
permeates our body and soul as well (Ephesians 3:16, Amplified Bible).
Prayer:
Father God, trials and temptations serve to
strengthen our relationship with You. You allow them into our life in order to
reveal to us our true nature and to point out to us areas in our life, which
displease You. All of our self-will, rebellion, unfaithfulness and
unfruitfulness are slowly pruned away by Your Spirit’s gentle touch. The cry of
our heart is that we may fully experience the complete dimension of Your love for
us.
Your love is so utterly supernatural that we often
fail to recognize it. We think of Your love in humanistic terms and miss the
little things that You do for us each and every day that prove Your personal
love for us. As we grow in Christ, lead us to fall in love with You more each
day so that we can abide in the fullness of Your Spirit through Your presence
within us.
Thought for the Day:
In our weakness, we depend upon God’s strength; aspects
of life, which formerly crippled our soul or tempted us away from the straight
and narrow road (Matthew 7:13-14), no longer have any effect on us, because we
maintain our faith in His faithfulness.
