Spirit over Matter

 

Our spirit is our dwelling place with God. When we live in the center of God's Will, we dwell in the heavenly realm and everything that happens to us is in the sphere of His purpose and control.

As we view any circumstance from within our spirit, the physical and emotional and mental aspects of the event are outside of our dwelling place and have no real effect on who we really are in Christ.

We know without a doubt that He has an eternal purpose for us in any experience and that He will work out all of the details for our ultimate good (Romans 8:28).

Even physical illness, loss, relational issues, financial disaster and every other negative incident which may occur are in His control. We can rest in His everlasting arms through it all.

If we happen to slip out of our spirit and allow our self to feel the emotion or physical pain of the experience, then it affects us negatively. But in the spirit, it cannot touch us.

Jesus experienced loss and grief a few times in His life. His good friend Lazarus died and Jesus wept (John 1:35). He looked out over Jerusalem and grieved for the coming destruction of His beloved city (Luke 19:41).

He sweat drops of blood as He faced the cross and begged our Father to release Him from the anguish of taking on the sin of the whole world and being rejected by God (Luke 22:44).

Yet, once He stepped back into His spirit in all of these situations, He accepted God's will over His own desires and no longer suffered any negative consequences from the trials of His body and soul (Hebrews 4:15).

This happened in my life. After an auto accident, I was bruised, bleeding, had half a face full of glass, broke my little finger and eleven ribs, and suffered a concussion and a punctured lung.

I totaled my car, but I was out of the hospital in one day, back to work as a secretary in one week, and I never took one pain pill as I slowly healed over the next three months.

That was spirit over matter with a generous helping of God's grace (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Prayer:

Father God, we know that nothing catches You by surprise and we can relax and look forward to the miracle, which You place within every trial that we encounter. You are in control regardless of what the circumstances look like or how much suffering and turmoil we experience.

As we view the experience from within our spirit, Your Spirit buffers any loss to our body or soul. We know that the suffering is occurring, but it has no effect on our attitude because we count it all joy (James 1:2-8).

Thought of the Day:

A Christian does not experience life through mind over matter, but through spirit over matter; because though we suffer loss in this world, it does not affect our eternal existence now or in the world to come.

Who Needs God Anyway?

 

 

 

The reason secular religions are so popular today is that they do not require us to give up control of our life. They give us permission to attempt to perfect our own self through a series of mantras, religious activities and self-denial. In contrast, authentic Christianity requires total surrender of our entire body, soul and spirit to the ministrations of God's Holy Spirit.

Surrender is much harder for the human mind to accept than the concept of working for one's own salvation. Most people are too busy for God anyway, except when life gets too hard to handle. When we get in distress or some type of trouble, we quickly turn and run into God’s everlasting arms (Deuteronomy 33:26-28). We soak up all of His love and comfort until we feel strong enough to face life.

We use Him like an Aladdin’s Lamp to grant our three wishes. Then, we leave God in our prayer closet and come out with the false confidence that we can do all things on our own again. We quickly get side tracked by life and its demands and forget all about God until we need Him again. We even forget to thank Him for His blessings in our life (Luke 17:17).

God desires fellowship with His creation. All of nature knows this and even the trees of the fields clap their hands in praise to our Creator God (Isaiah 55:12; 1 Chronicles 16:30-34). Most people, even some Christians, are not conscious of God’s continual presence in the life of a Believer. Only authentic Believers relinquish our will to God and submit to His plan and purpose for our life (Ephesians 2:10).

Prayer:

Father God, even though You never give us more temptation than we can handle without giving us a way to escape (1 Corinthians 10:13), You often give us more trials than we can handle in order to prove to us that we need You in our life. These trials are never more than You can handle, however. Teach us to walk in Your Spirit every moment of the day and to perform only those works, which You created us to do (Ephesians 2:10).

Thought for the Day:

Self-effort is the enemy of an intimate relationship with God.

Assurance of His Promises

When Christ takes possession of our spirit, He gives us His rest for our soul – our mind, will and emotions. His righteousness, peace and joy give us a new life, which replaces our life of worry and deprivation (Romans 14:17). He provides all of our needs according to His glorious riches (Philippians 4:19). We live in ceaseless wonder at the sacrifice He made for us, and the heavenly home, which He provides for us, as we abide in Him forevermore (Psalm 16:11).

We no longer seek to sanctify our self by crucifying our flesh or by our works for God (Galatians 3:1-3), but we accept the work of Christ on the cross for us, which gives us eternal salvation simply by our relationship with Him (John 17:3). By faith, we accept His sacrifice on our behalf (Hebrews 7:22), and we submit to His Spirit as He crucifies the deeds of our flesh (Romans 15:16).

The nation of Israel is a perfect example of God’s people who try in the power of their flesh to live for God (Hebrews 8:7-9). They occasionally made great strides, but they constantly failed to keep the law. We have no more success than they did in obeying God’s Word on our own. We fail just as miserably.

As we rely on our triune God, He sanctifies us through our union with Christ (1 Corinthians 1:2,30), the washing of the water of His Word (Ephesians 5:26) and our obedience to His Word (Hebrews 12:14; 2 Timothy 2:21-22). We are the sons of God (1 John 3:2), members of Christ’s Body (Romans 12:5), and filled with the fruit of His Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). We do not work for God, but Christ lives and works in and through us (Colossians 1:27; Ephesians 2:10).

Our justification, sanctification and glorification are not obtained through our human effort, but by the work of our triune God within us (Titus 3:5). Our Father God provides our sanctification (Hebrews 8:10-12; Philippians 2:12-13), Jesus is the instrument of our sanctification (Ephesians 5:26), and the Spirit does the work of sanctification within us (2 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Corinthians 3:18).

 

Prayer:
Father God, Your Word is truth and You sanctify us by it (John 17:17). We are heirs of Your promise (Ephesians 3:6). We find our rest in Your everlasting arms (Deuteronomy 33:27). Thank You for giving us Jesus as both the fulfillment and the guarantee of Your covenant with us. You cause us to walk in Your ways and to keep your statutes (Ezekiel 36:7), and You give us Your assurance by Your promises (2 Corinthians 1:20).

Thought for the Day:

The more we abide in Christ, we deeper we realize the security and blessings of our position and promise in Him.

 

Bridge Over Troubled Waters

 

Have you ever felt restless, on edge, worried, troubled, even stressed? Don’t we all! There is a quick remedy for these negative emotions, however. Once we have faith in God’s faithfulness, we can enter into His rest (Hebrews 4:1). He loved us so much that he died for us while we were still sinners, He keeps His promises and He hides us under the shelter of His wings (Psalm 91:4; Romans 5:6-11). He is able to keep safe whatever we commit to Him (2 Timothy 1:12). We access these benefits by casting all of our cares on Him and abiding in His love, peace and rest (1 Peter 5:7).

The more we yield our will to God’s and submit our spirit, soul and body to Him, the more we enter the security of His place of rest. Surrendering to His Kingship and direction allows us to rest for eternity in His everlasting arms (Deuteronomy 33: 26-28). His Spirit is in our heart to guarantee our union with the triune God (Galatians 4:6; 2 Corinthians 5:5). His peace protects our mind, choices and emotions. As we take His yoke upon us, He deals with life in us, through us and instead of us (Galatians 2:20).

We are grafted as branches into the Vine, and we bear fruit as the direct result of the life of His Spirit within us (John 15:5). We are one with Him (John 17:21-22). This life-producing union gives us rest and peace as His grace and mercy work out everything in our life for our good (Romans 8:28). Without Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5). Regardless of our circumstances, we push forward by His Spirit to capture all that Jesus has in mind for us when He redeemed us (Philippians 3:12-13). He is a safe dwelling place, in which we find complete rest for our soul (Isaiah 32:18; Matthew 11:29).

The vine cannot produce fruit without the branches and the branch cannot produce fruit without its connection to the vine. We are totally dependent upon Christ as He sends His nourishing life in and through us. Once the Spirit births His fruit in us, He brings along others who need the fruit we have to nourish their soul. We bring joy to our Father only as we submit to His Spirit’s leading each moment of our day and walk in His will for us (Zephaniah 3:17; Galatians 5:16, 25). This only occurs as we enter His rest and abide in the Vine (John 15:4-5).

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, You are our bridge over the troubled waters of life. We are inseparably connected to You as long as we stay connected to the Vine. We bear the fruit Your Spirit produces in us. If we refuse to stay connected we will wither up and die. If we decline to bear fruit, God will prune us and cast us into the fire to be burned. We will abide in You, our Vine. We give our self wholly to You to use for Your glory. We are in You and You are in us, keeping us holy and acceptable to You (Romans 12:1). You give us Your strength and wisdom to live each day in You, as You encourage and bless us.

Thought for the Day:

Due to God’s glory and excellence, he gave us great and precious promises. Through these promises He enables us to share His divine nature and to escape the world's corruption caused by sinful, human desires. - 2 Peter 1:4, Living Bible

 

Manifestations of God

Most of humanity does not know Jesus as the Christ, nor do they care about Godly principles at all. If unbelievers see no distinction in our daily walk when compared to theirs, we have a problem with our connection to the Vine (John 15:5). We may even have a false hope of Heaven, because we never truly repented or made Jesus the Lord of our life. If, however, we are grafted into the Vine, their reason for rejecting His truth may be that we are hiding His light within us and they cannot see it (Matthew 5:15-16).

Once we surrender our identity over to the Ruler of the universe, however, God makes a huge difference in our character and existence. When we fully submit to God for Him to use as He pleases (Isaiah 29:16), our life takes on the character of Christ. This is when people see us as authentic Christians. We have God’s peace in trouble, His perseverance in trials, His love for our persecutors and His joy during periods of grief.

They see us exhibiting patience in trying times, using self-control when others give in to debauchery, displaying meekness rather than having a haughty attitude, relating to others with kindness and basing our life and decisions on faith in our faithful God. We lay down our life and prefer the needs of others over our own agenda. This is when other people want for themselves what we have within us. They see truth and reality in our lives. We are capable of this behavior, not because we are exemplary human beings, but because of the Holy Spirit within us (Galatians 5:16:25).

We were formerly dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1), but now we are dead to sin, and our life is hidden with Christ in God (Romans 6:11; Colossians 3:3). The Holy Spirit fills us with His fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). We have an eternal view of life. We know that our eternal weight of glory far outweighs the momentary, comparatively light affliction we experience in this world. We view the visible issues of life as transient and passing, because we know that the spiritual aspects of life are everlasting (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

We live in this world as manifestations of God through Christ. We have the same abilities and expression of the Spirit that Christ did, because He lives within us (1 John 4:17). We obey God’s Spirit with an awareness, which exceeds human understanding. We cannot prove this relationship intellectually or physically, but the Spirit of God bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God (Romans 8:16). People see the fruit on our branch, and realize it is actually the Vine, which is the source of our productive lives (John 15:5).

As we allow God’s light within us to shine brightly, many in the world will see Him through us and want to give their life to Christ as well (Matthew 5:16). As Born Again Believers, our life on earth has Jesus’ supernatural capabilities. Not only does the Spirit of God lead us (Romans 8:14), but He also fills us to overflowing (Acts 4:31). We are children of God, with Christ living in us by God’s Spirit (Romans 8:11). The more we decrease, the more He increases within us (John 3:30).

Prayer:

Father God, Jesus prayed that no one would snatch us out of Your hand. You are greater than all, and we are perfectly safe in Your everlasting arms (John 10:28-29). Fill us completely full of Your Spirit and keep us as the apple of Your eye (Psalm 17:8). Draw us close to You and never let us go. Your unfailing love is our priceless treasure and we run to the refuge of the shadow of Your wings (Psalm 36:7).

Thought for the Day:

The Holy Spirit is our source of power. Ask Him to manifest Himself in and through you.

 

 

Leaning on God's Everlasting Arms

Read: Psalm 34:17-20

“Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.’”

– John 14:1

When we sink to our ultimate lowest in life, we fear that no one has the capacity to reach out and help us. We believe that our situation is so overwhelming that even God is not powerful enough to sustain us. We fear that at any moment we will be snuffed out like the flame on a candle. The truth of God’s Word portrays a very different scenario.  Even in our worst circumstances, God is right there waiting for us to call upon Him (John 14:14; Jeremiah 33:3). He covers us with His feathers, and under His wings we find safety (Psalm 91:4). He shrouds us in a blanket of the Holy Spirit, which brings us hope (Romans 15:13).

We can pour out our heart to Him with honest questions and pleas, and He will answer us (John 14:14; Jeremiah 33:3). God is constantly ready to provide His help, wisdom, comfort, love, understanding and everlasting presence, as we trust in Him (Psalm 32:10). We can always lean on God’s everlasting arms (Deuteronomy 33:27). They wrap protectively around us, supporting us and girding us with His strength (Psalm 46:1). He is only a prayer away. God’s love cascades over our heart like a waterfall (John 3:16-18).

God truly desires to have a relationship with us (1 John 3:1-3). He longs to fellowship with us, and to be involved in every area of our life. He wants us to completely surrender our will to His and for us to allow Him to provide us with our daily needs (2 Corinthians 3:5). There is a purpose, ordained by God for our life. He wants us to stop relying on our own wisdom and to trust in His instead (Proverbs 3:5-6). Our Savior paid the price for our relationship with God by His death on the cross (Romans 6:23). The least we can do is to believe that He wants what is best for us.

God is waiting for us to ask, so we may receive what He has in store for us. He wants our joy to be full (John 16:24). He gives us His peace that defies description and is often incomprehensible when we consider the ordeal we are living through at the moment. Our heart does not need to be troubled and we do not need to be afraid, as long as His everlasting arms are cradling us in the midst of His protection and provision (Philippians 4:7; John 14:27).

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, I believe that You give us Your grace to help us through even the most difficult times. I will stand on Your promises even when I cannot see or feel Your presence in my life. Lord, my life is a result of Your love, mercy and grace. Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me (Psalm 51:10). My life has a specific purpose in Your will. Help me to live out that purpose. I need Your daily help and provision. I need to know and experience Your love and comfort in my life each and every day.

Thought for the Day:

Salvation is not earned, but given; eternal life is a free gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. – Romans 6:23

The God of Hope

Read: Proverbs 3: 5-6

“We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield.” – Psalm 33:20

There is so much suffering in the world. From birth to death, life inflicts some of us with atrocities that are hard to fathom. This terrifying devastation is often more than we can bear. In spite of what we suffer, the God of Hope has a purpose for our life.

 

 

When our heart is sad, we can look to God for deliverance. We can praise Him again and again, because He is our God and Savior (Psalm 42:11). God collects every single tear that we ever shed in His bottle and records them all in His book (Psalm 56:8). Just imagine the size of that bottle and scroll! He cares about us so much that He sent His son to die in our place and to pay the penalty of our sins.

Life on this earth is merely temporal. After our last breath on earth, our next breath will be in eternity. Whether we go to Heaven or hell, we will spend eternity there. Remembering that Heaven is our eternal home gives Believers a new perspective on the heart-break, stress, confusion, loneliness, irritations and desolation we experience in this secular world. We face the consequences of discrimination, environmental disasters, false accusations, violence, lies, hatred, war, unfaithfulness and every immoral decision. However, God lives within us through every negative experience, and will help us to endure to the end with a song in our heart and victory in our walk (Matthew 24:12-13; Psalm 108:1; 1 Corinthians 15:57).

God also cares about every negative emotion, which infects our soul. He desires to replace it with the fruit of His Spirit. At times we are so wounded that we cannot hold up our head or take one step. Our lips have not smiled in years. However, the goodness of God is just waiting to fill our hearts and sustain us with His love. There is no need to turn away from God, entertain bitterness in our soul or plan a strategy of revenge against a sinful world that often overwhelms us (Proverbs 13:12). Through each trial, God gives us hope that provides a trustworthy anchor for our soul (Hebrews 6:18-20).

We come out of the circumstance stronger and more secure in God’s love. The Lord is our Helper, and there is no need for fear (Hebrews 13:6). He is the God of hope and He fills us with joy and peace, as we trust in Him (Romans 15:13). Paul and James both believed that it is actually possible to rejoice in our suffering (Romans 5:3; James 1:2). They knew the secret of growing through our tribulation. Through suffering, we have more empathy and grace for others, as well as humility in spirit and gratitude for everything that God does for us each day. Jesus Himself taught us that we learn obedience through the things that we suffer (Hebrews 5:8).

Even if the circumstances do not turn out as we hoped they would, we have the example of Biblical Saints who clung to their trust in the faithfulness of God (Hebrews 11:13). God prepared a home in Heaven for Believers, and we will live with Him there for eternity (Hebrews 11:15-16). When life attempts to pull us from God’s everlasting arms, we only need to snuggle deeper. He will never allow anyone or anything to rip us from His embrace. As we walk by faith, God uses us as a lift boat for others who suffer persecution or difficulties. We impart to them the hope that God gave us in similar circumstances. Their faith increases when we share our testimony with them.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, our hearts rejoice in You, because we trust in Your holy name. Your unfailing love rests upon us and we put our hope in You (Psalm 33:21-22). Our soul waits silently for You, because You are our hope. You are our Rock and Salvation, our Stronghold. Therefore, we will never be shaken (Psalm 62:5-6). We may have dreams and goals for our life, but You direct our steps (Proverbs 16:9). You maneuver us through the treacherous waters of life to put us in the right place at the right time to accomplish Your will. 

Thought for the Day:

God is with the broken-hearted and carries us through our troubles. – Psalm 147:3