A Higher Level of Spirituality

Jesus is our personal Savior, sitting on the throne of our soul (Hebrews 12:2). We are in Him and He is in us, and we are both one with our Heavenly Father (John 12:21). All things are from Jesus, through Jesus and for Jesus; so no matter where we are or what we are doing, He is our all in all (Romans 11:36; Colossians 1:17). He is everything to us and He works through us in every activity He calls on us to perform. We never want to live for one second outside of His presence.

The goal of Christianity is to abide in a contemplative existence by continually focusing our soul – our thoughts, choices and emotions – on Jesus, the object of our affections. We no longer value things from the world or the flesh (Galatians 5:24), and our soul is totally focused on God and His Will for each moment of our life. It starts in a place of physical and mental stillness and then proceeds throughout the rest of the day with His peace permeating each moment of our day.

When we first start to enter this reflective state, we are distracted by a myriad of details, which demand our immediate attention. It is so hard to fight Satan’s attempts to sidetrack us. However, with persistence, we enter into God’s presence and we never want to leave. We find a higher level of spirituality with intimate love, gentle peace and confident direction, which no other process in life ever afforded us. We abide in union with Christ in pure serenity and rest.


We see God as the source and cause of everything pertaining to our life. Each trial is an adventure in Him, which He promises to work out for our good. Each sickness is an opportunity to share the gospel of Christ with those in the doctor’s office. Each loss is an occasion to learn to live without; so that when God restores our wealth, we can share with others who live in need. With each person we meet and every place we go, we seek God’s perspective and will.


Prayer:

Father God, You are the great teacher of our soul. You remove the dross in our life until we are as fine silver and You see Your reflection within us. You give us wisdom, which is skill for living. You give us Your mercy and grace both in our life and to share with others. We walk with confidence in Your faithfulness and we do not even dread the inevitable trials of life on this earth. We surrender our life to You and thank You for controlling every part of it for our ultimate good.

Thought for the Day:

God harmonizes our life with His grand purpose, and He causes us to fulfill the works He prepared for us before we were even born.

– Ephesians 2:10

Compromise with the World

 

Secular society has no idea of the advantages God gives us when we live our life dedicated to Him (1 Corinthians 2:14). The only way they have of seeing Christ is when He is consistently manifested through our life (John 14:19). If we claim the name of Christ and live in compromise with the world, we actually cast a shadow over authentic Christianity. It is only when the walking dead see an uncompromising difference in us that they see the reality of a life in Christ. They come to a crossroads where they will either accept Christ, or reject Him yet again as they continue to walk in the darkness of Satan’s defeat.

The spiritual life is far richer than the carnal life (Romans 8:6-11). We maintain our spiritual life in Christ as we fellowship with Him in prayer, in His Word and in His suffering. We walk in His faith through prayer, we learn His character through His Word and we come to know Him intimately through His suffering. He is the biographer and the fulfiller of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). Our whole life is based on our trust in Him (Romans 1:17). He is our confidence, our expectancy and our fulfillment (2 Corinthians 3:4).

Through Christ, we are reborn by the Spirit of God and have everlasting life through faith in God’s faithfulness (John 3:8, 17:3). The Spiritual life not only drenches our spirit with the indwelling Spirit of God, it also infiltrates our soul – our mind, will and emotions - through sanctification. Whoever is born of the flesh is flesh, but whomever is born of the Spirit of God is Spirit (John 3:6). Christ is our very life and He works in us through His indwelling Spirit (Colossians 3:4).

The mind controlled by the Spirit of God is full of life and peace (Romans 8:6). The emotions controlled by the Spirit of God mirror His spiritual fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). The choices controlled by the Spirit of God come from justice and holiness and reap righteousness (Proverbs 14:27). We shall never thirst, because His river of living water flows through us and out into the world around us (John 7:38). The soul possessed by the Spirit of God blossoms as a rose in the desert (Isaiah 35:1).

We, who are born of God, partake in the divine nature of God through Christ who dwells within us (2 Peter 1:4). We possess the fullest measure of Christ within us (Colossians 2:9; Ephesians 3:19). Since Jesus lives within us, we can face tomorrow with hope in our heart and joy in our soul (Jeremiah 29:11). He helps us never to compromise with the world. We will never experience the second death; because at salvation, we moved instantaneously from the earthly realm into the heavenly one.

Prayer:

Father God, while we live on this earth, You will cover us with Your feathers and under Your wings we trust that nothing will come against us that can ever irreversibly harm us. You are our shield to protect us from Satan’s arrows that fly by day; and his plagues, which come in the night; and his destructiveness, which comes at noon. Even if thousands fall all around us, we shall still stand because Your protection hold us up in Your hand (Psalm 91). Remind us that a spiritual mind is much more precious to You and to us than a fleshly one.

Thought for the Day:

A carnal mind is worse than a body containing a spirit, which dead in sin, because it limits God’s divine power from working in and through us.

 

Spiritual Victory

 

Unless we grasp the fullness of our identity in Christ, we fall short of all that God wants to do in us and through us during our lifetime on this earth. Christianity is not a religion. It is an intimate union with the Lord of Hosts living His divine life in and through every authentic Believer (1 Corinthians 6:17). We do not earn this divine life by our good works; it is a free gift (Ephesians 2:8-20; 2 Peter 1:4). Jesus was fully human and fully divine when He lived on this earth. This same Christ is fully divine in us (1 Corinthians 2:12). When our union with Christ occurs, we are one in Spirit with Christ (1 Corinthians 6:17; 1 John 5:12; Hebrews 3:14, 6:4).

In fact, the entire Trinity takes up residence within us (John. 14:23). Our belief in Jesus secures this merger (I John 4:15,16). We are now dead to sin because of Christ in us, and He now lives His life in, through and instead of us (Galatians 2:20; 2 Corinthians 13:5; 2 Timothy 1:14). God’s Spirit seals us and dwells in us, confirming our union with Christ and our adoption into God’s family (Romans 8:14; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 4:30; 2 Corinthians 1:22). When this fact becomes a reality in our life, God’s peace permeates out thoughts, choices and emotions.

As we mature in Christ, we grow deeper in the wisdom and knowledge of God, and we realize that Jesus within us already overcame Satan and his kingdom of darkness. As God Word strengthens us, we overcome this world and we also live victorious lives over the wiles of Satan (1 John 2:14). We scatter the darkness by turning on His Light. Deceiving thoughts flee at the mention of Jesus’ name. Satan cannot initiate anything in our life without God’s permission, and if we submit to God and resist the devil, he is obligated to flee from us (James 4:7).

Satan may try to distract us from serving God, but as we keep our mind on Christ, we remain in perfect peace as His Spirit leads us through each moment of the day (Isaiah 26:3; Philippians 4:7). All the power and authority of Christ’s divinity reside within us (Matthew 28:18). God pours His love out into our hearts (Romans 5:5). He teaches us all things (Ephesians 5:17). He gives us the desire and the power to do His will with our life (Philippians 2:12-13). All of this comes from Christ in us, who is our Lord and Savior (Romans 10:9; Colossians 1:27; Philippians 2:11; 1 Peter 3:15).

In the same way that Jesus denied His humanity and walked in the Spirit of His divinity, we too consider our humanity dead in Christ. We allow Christ to crucify the deeds of our flesh and to assimilate us with Himself in God (Colossians 3:3; Ezekiel 36:26). Christ in us conforms our spirit and soul into an expression of Himself, and this affects our body as well. Jesus functions in His gifts and ministries through us and He gives us the power and direction to walk in His will (Romans 12:8; 1 Corinthians 12:7).

Prayer:

Father God, You gave all of Your spiritual blessings and everything pertaining to life and godliness, to Your Saints in the past, to those present with us now, as well as those which will be born in the future (2 Peter 1:3; Ephesians 1:3; 1 Corinthians 2: 20-21). You work Your power in us and You are able to do more in us and through us than we can ever imagine or accomplish for You on our own (1 Corinthians 1:24; Ephesians 3:16, 20; Colossians 1:11; 1 Peter 4:11). You give us an abundant supply of power for everything we need in order to sufficiently accomplish Your will for our life (2 Corinthians 3:5, 4:7, 9:8).

Thought for the Day:

We do not pound out a meager existence for our self in this life, but we live in abundant life through Christ in us. - John 10:10

 

A Matter of the Heart

Many people in today’s society harden their heart so they will no longer be affected by the sadness of the seamier side of life. They also hardened their heart toward God, the Bible, church, Jesus and anything else relating to Christianity. They pollute the Word of God to include justification for their liberal lifestyle and thinking. They no longer hear God’s call on their life and the god of this world blinded their eyes (2 Corinthians 4:4). Many of them became so godless in their behavior and thinking, that God gave them over to the sinful desires of their heart (Romans 1:24).

Satan makes sure to provide us with temptations, which lead us away from the straight and narrow path God chose for us (Matthew 7:13-14). God’s path does not add legalistic works to the Word, but only includes believing the pure, unadulterated Truth of God’s Word. This is not a modern phenomenon. Prophets, judges and apostles throughout the centuries were called by God to call His people back to walking in His ways. However, mankind is determined to go from one sin to another, and they refuse to acknowledge God in their life (Jeremiah 9:3).

God used judgment in the Old Testament to call people to come back to His path (Jeremiah 15:6). In the New Testament He uses grace and mercy to influence people to walk in His Truth (James 3:17; Titus 3:5; 2 John 1:3). In both instances, there are many who know the Truth; yet, choose to walk away from Him. In fact, Jesus, God made flesh (John 1:1,14; 14:6; Philippians 2:7; 1 John 4:2), lived on the earth for 33 years; and they not only did not recognize who He was, but they crucified Him to assuage their corrupt consciences. We crucify Him again with every sin we commit.

God wants us to follow hard after Him (Psalm 63:8), to love Him with our whole heart, soul, strength and mind (Luke 10:27), and to live a life committed to Him according to our calling and election (2 Peter 1:10). He yearns for us not to harden our heart, but to respond to His voice (Hebrews 3:15). Salvation is a free gift from God (Ephesians 2:8-9; John 3:14-15). Christ paid the penalty of the consequences of our sins on Calvary’s cross and He made the way open for all of us to come to Him by faith in His faithfulness (John 14:6-7).

He is waiting for you; and He is only a prayer away (John 3:16). Recognize your sin (Romans 3:23, 25), turn away from your sinful lifestyle and receive His free gift of salvation (Romans 6:23). Once we come to Christ, He frees us from our sin (Acts 10:43). His peace and joy, which surpass anything the world has to offer, flood our soul (Romans 5:5). He fills us with His love and His Holy Spirit, and He never leaves us or forsakes us (Romans 15:13; Hebrews 13:5). From the first moment of our conversion, God transforms our heart by grace through our faith in Him (Ephesians 2:8).

Prayer:
Father God, thank You for giving us Your Son, for giving us the desire and the power to call upon You and for walking with us every step of the way for the rest of our life (Philippians 2:12-13). We look forward to the glories of Heaven (Revelation 21). Heal the hardened hearts of our friends, relatives, associates and neighbors as we continually invite them to join us in this marvelous journey with You.

Thought for the Day:

Some harden their hearts and depart from the faith by devoting themselves to: deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared. – 1 Timothy 4:1-2