Walking in the Spirit

Does God actually talk to us? Is it an audible voice, an inner voice, an impression or feeling or thought in our mind? How can we hear God's voice?

We start by developing a physical "closet" in which to meet with God: Under the tree in the garden, a path where we are walking or jogging all alone, a chair in our home where we are uninterrupted, the spare bedroom, the attic or basement, or an actual closet space in our home. 

We go there with our journal and nothing else. No Bible, music, TV or radio. Just a chair and some breathing room without any distractions. We spend time here for thirty minutes to an hour any time during every day and we journal whatever comes to our mind.

At first, it may be lists of things we need to do. Go ahead and jot these ideas in the journal. When we write them down, we clear them from our mind and quiet those "voices" in our head.

Then we may think of Bible verses, a movie clip, a conversation or some event we had in the past; jot it down in the journal. Again it clears our mind of this inner clutter.

Write down concerns or problems as a prayer to the Lord. Then we spend some time praising God for who He is and what He already did in our life. We think of His goodness and grace, and we overflow with gratitude toward Him.

Next is the hard part, which gets easier with practice… LISTENING. With a cleared mind, we listen with our inner, spiritual ear in our spirit to any words the Holy Spirit may whisper to us (1 King 19:12).

We heed and obey His directives and enjoy His comfort and encouragement every moment of every day of our life (Galatians 5:25). We live with His praises on our lips and His peace in our heart, and we eventually learn to pray without ceasing throughout the day (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

Prayer:

Father God, teach us to walk by Your Spirit step-by-step. We may falter as we mature from crawling to walking and then running, but we are soon sprinting through life by the direction of Your Spirit, in obedience to Your Word and under the guidance of Your peace.

Help us to yield our life to You, to walk away from the deeds of the flesh (Galatians 5:15-25) and to allow Your peace, which transcends human reasoning, to guide our hearts through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7). Fill us with Your fruit and wisdom; and teach us to do only Your will in every circumstance (Galatians 5:22-23; Ephesians 2:10).

Thought for the Day:

We encourage others by offering to pray for them, showing them love even when they are unloving toward us and sharing a testimony of God's love - sometimes without even using words.

Our Solid Rock

 

Sometimes I feel like I am standing in quicksand on this earth. There is no solid footing around me, but just a sucking pit of decay. People in our neighborhood, workplace, the mall and the streets unleash the power of Satan into the world by living in sin. We reap the consequences of their sin, as well as our own (John 5:13). Sin gives Satan permission to work his evil, degradation and destruction in our life.

The antidote for this malaise is to walk away from sin and to live in holiness. God is faithful and He readily forgives a repentant heart (1 John 1:9). Righteous living releases the anointing of God in our life. It also prevents much of Satan’s influence in our world and his strongholds in our life. Christians may walk after the flesh in an occasional moment, but we do not walk in sin as a lifestyle (Galatians 5:16-25.)

Many people are under the false impression that sinners go to hell and good people go to heaven. In truth, authentic Born Again Believers go to heaven, and unbelievers condemn themselves to hell by their unbelief in the name of God’s one and only Son (John 3:18). Our eternal destination has nothing at all to do with our good works, but has everything to do with our total surrender to God.

We live a holy life because of our union with Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). We walk out of darkness and into the kingdom of light (Ephesians 5:8). The righteousness of Christ is our birthright as Born Again children of God. Christ is our whole life; a new life based on our relationship with Christ in us, our hope of eternal glory (Galatians 2:20; Colossians 1:27, 3:3-4). Christ lives in us, giving us a victorious life on this earth.

Prayer:

Father God, You are our safe place in a world that often frightens us. Christ is the solid Rock beneath our feet. He gives breathing room to our soul (Psalm 62:1-2). We no longer fear the quicksand of life, but we trust in Christ who is our impenetrable fortress. We lack no good thing in this life. We find our help and our glory in You. We trust You absolutely and we lay down our life for You all day long.

Thought for the Day:

Let God build your life on the sold Rock of Jesus Christ. - Mt. 7:24-27