Living without God's Spirit and Word

 

Imagine living in Old Testament times. No Bible, except the Pentateuch at the Temple, and no Holy Spirit abiding within our Spirit. No intimate connection through Christ with the presence of God within.

Sure, there was an occasional Christophany when Jesus appeared to an individual; but how many times did that happen? Once in a while the Holy Spirit embodied a person, such as a prophet, but the normal rank and file person had no connection with Him.

If I had no Bible and no Holy Spirit, I would be in an asylum. Emotional, mental and spiritual meltdowns would be the natural order of my day. My emotions and melancholic thoughts would dominate my life.

Bereft of God's Spirit and Word, I would drift with the tide of life and get deeper and deeper into undertows and whitewater designed by Satan to snuff out my natural life.

I barely survived like this for the first 18 years of my life; but in God's mercy, He saved me and gave me the fullest measure of His Spirit (Ephesians 3:16-19).

I weep uncontrollably at the thought of not living as the temple of the Spirit of God (Psalm 51:11; 1 Corinthians 3:16-17). The presence of God's Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance with Christ, and it assures us that we are truly Born Again (Ephesians 1:14).

How could we survive one moment of life disconnected from the life-giving flow of God's Word and the security and direction of His Spirit's presence in our life?

Thankfully, God's Spirit does guide each moment of our day with precision and comfort (Proverbs 3:5-6), leading us with His still, small voice (1 Kings 19:11-13). We can approach God's throne with complete confidence (Hebrews 4:16). He is all we ever need.

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for Your Spirit and Your Word. I do not know how people survive without Your intimate presence in their life. I do not go one moment of the day without consulting You, casting my cares on You and praying for Your blessings and a more intimate union with You.

I feel so blessed to be living in this day and time with the internet access and the speed at which we can connect to Your Word day and night. Your Word is truth and we devour it ravenously; it is sweeter than honey and the honey comb (Psalm 119:103). We can never have enough hours in the day to show our appreciation to You for all You do for us.

Thought for the Day:

Having no intimate union with the Trinity, enjoying no assurances from the promises of God's Word, abandoned and alone without the unconditional love daily showered on us by our Heavenly Father would leave us rudderless in a sea of deprivation, confusion and illusion.

Consuming Union with Christ

 

God spews out of His mouth anyone who lives a lukewarm life (Revelation 3:16). Our union with God is so intimate that He consumes us into Himself.

Not only do we have a spiritual union with Jesus through salvation, sanctification and eventually glorification; but we also enjoy an even more intimate unity as we consume Him into our self.

Jesus calls us to eat His body and drink His blood (John 6:53-59). During communion, we symbolically drink the juice and eat the bread, which represents His body and blood (Romans 12:5).

Life is in the blood (Leviticus 17:11, 14; Deuteronomy 12:23). We receive eternal life through the blood, which Jesus' shed on the cross (John 3:16).

There is one bread, Jesus, from which the whole body of Christ partakes (1 Corinthians 10:16-17). We are Christ's body and each of us is an essential part of it (1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 4:4).

We commemorate His sacrifice through the ordinance of communion, but we also have spiritual communion with the Lord each moment of every day.

When we consume Jesus, we have eternal life, because He is an integral part of our very being (John 6:57; Colossians 3:4). Our intimacy with Christ sustains us individually and as His corporate Body - the visible expression of Jesus on the earth.

Jesus made it clear that His food is doing the will of our Father (John 4:34). Even at a young age, Jesus found satisfaction by living in the center of God's will (Luke 2:41-52). God's will is our food as well.

Prayer:
Father God, when we thirst for You, our Almighty God, Your living water quenches our thirst (Psalm 42:2). We hunger for Jesus, our bread of life, and You fill us until You satisfy our longing (Luke 6:21; John 6:35).

We ingest Christ's flesh, which He gave for the life of the world, and we live eternally (John 6:51). We drink the living water, and we are intimately united and completely satisfied (John 4:13-14). Teach us the reality of this intimate union with you.

Thought for the Day:
Completely satisfied through Christ in us, we never hunger or thirst for anything this world has to offer us. - Colossians 1:27; Galatians 2:20; Revelation 7:16

Many thanks to my brother-in-Christ and mentor, Dan Busey, for helping me to look at this revelation of a total intimate unity with Jesus.

Total Harmony with God

God uses mechanics, writers, bakers, seamstresses, accountants, lawyers, artists, judges, preachers, secretaries, musicians, teachers, clerks, singers, directors, laborers and everything in between, as we totally surrender our life to Him. He uses us for His glory right where we are. It is ludicrous to believe that we can live successfully apart from God. We may achieve success in certain areas of our existence, but there is always something lacking.

We do not make our own plans and ask God to bless them. We seek Him first, and then He directs our thoughts, words and plans (Proverbs 3:5-6). No matter what our gifts and talents, no matter what our training and abilities, no matter what our natural inclinations are, if the Spirit of God does not guide us, we are wasting our time. Our union with God causes us to look to Him for everything, and to submit to Him in everything.

Once we open our heart to God’s salvation both from sin’s curse and eternal damnation, we live with Him in continuous communion. We want nothing more from life than this personal relationship with Him, but He gives us so much more. God’s divine life flows through our spirit, which is the center for our faith and conduct. When we submit our life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, then we cannot help but prosper, as well as to bless others.

We relinquish to Him all of our fears and insecurities, and He abundantly supplies all of our needs (Philippians 4:18-20). We possess an intimate union with God Himself, and He fills our lives with His continual blessings, both spiritually and materially. God’s divine life cannot dwell within us without our complete consent to His Lordship. We live in total harmony with God through our union with Jesus Christ and by the direction of His Holy Spirit.

Prayer:

Father God, as we fully dedicate our life to You, You will make us holy, which will then bring us fulfillment and success. Your divine life flows through all of creation, and although we cannot perceive the reality of this, the Bible makes it clear. If we fail to praise You, the rocks will cry out (Luke 19:40). The trees continually clap their hands in a duet with the wind in praise to You (Isaiah 55:12). Not even a sparrow, a lily or a blade of grass exists without Your consent (Matthew 10:29). Your divine energy flows through all of life. We can tap into that by repenting of our self-centered life and dedicating our life to live according to Your love and direction.

Thought for the Day:

Once we come to see the utter alienation and hopelessness of life and eternity apart from God, we choose Christ as our life, and our humanity dies and is hidden with Christ in God. - Colossians 3:3-4

The Power of Christ in Us

The Jewish culture looked for powerful signs to follow, and the Greek culture craved the latest tidbit of wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:21). When Christ came, He served as a stumbling block for both cultures. To those of us, who are called in Christ, however, Jesus is both the power and the wisdom of God for us (1 Corinthians 1:22-24). To know God personally is to relate to Him in the same way that a man “knows” his wife (Genesis 4:1). This is not an intellectual pursuit, but an intimate union.

Once we know the Lord, we enter into eternal life with Him (John 17:3). We labor with all the powerful energy of Christ working in us (Colossians 1:29). This is the same power, which manifested through Christ when God raised Jesus from the dead and seated Jesus at His right hand (Ephesians 1: 19-20). God does not look for excellence, eloquence and elegance in His people. He simply looks for a surrendered life. He does not need our natural talents. He gives us supernatural abilities.

God does not call those who want the credit, only those who humbly give Him the glory. He wants a submissive person, emptied of him/her self and filled with all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (1 Corinthians 15:10; Colossians 2:9). This takes a work of God’s Spirit in our life. For instance, when the soldiers came to take Jesus, Peter unsheathed his sword to defend Jesus to the death; however, just a few hours later, he denied Jesus three times, just like Jesus said he would (Mark 14:66-72).

Jesus knew Peter’s habit of depending on the flesh to fight his battles. That is why the transformation in Peter after Pentecost is so amazing to me! For the first time, he preached by the Spirit, unashamed of the gospel (Acts 2:14-36). Peter learned that it is not by our human talents or abilities through which we accomplish great works for God, but only by God’s Spirit can we ever make an impression on anyone for the Lord (Zechariah 4:6). We can learn from His example.

Prayer:

Father God, when I lay down to sleep, I remember all that You do for me. I cannot help but to worship You with all of my heart (Psalm 86:5). Remind me that You want all of the glory for what You accomplish through me. I surrender my flesh, which wants to take the credit for Your accomplishments through me, and I ask you to give me Your humility in its place. Do not cast me from Your presence, but create a clean heart in me, and renew me with a righteous spirit (Psalm 51:10-11). Unite me with You in the power of Christ in me (Colossians 3:3).

Thought for the Day:

As Born Again Believers, we intimately know the joy, which belongs to God's Saints, instead of the fleeting happiness provided by the world, the flesh and the devil.

Depths of God's Love

 

God created human beings in His own image (Genesis 1:27). We have no need to be afraid of Him, even if our experiences with our earthly father were painful. God is our forgiving, patient Father who provides everything we need as we seek His Kingdom (Matthew 6:33). Outside of the love of God, our families are fragmented, marriages crumble, nature is exploited and life holds no real meaning or purpose. We do not even have a guarantee for our future in eternity.

The environment in which we live is hostile toward us. Lurking with the dawn of each new day are sinful villains, natural catastrophes and governmental decisions that affect our life. Some of these phenomena are the direct result of our exploitation of the earth’s resources. We throw the balance of the circle of life out of kilter, and then we wonder why we suffer so much from nature’s wrath. However, much of our suffering is caused by a chasm in our relationship with God.

When Adam sinned, nature as well as mankind fell under the curse of sin. Sin separated us from God, but Christ’s redemption regains for us continual access to His throne (Romans 6:23; Hebrews 4:16). God’s love covers a multitude of our sins (1 Peter 4:8). He desires that human beings re-establish a deep reciprocal relationship with Him of love and trust (John 3:16). Drawn by God's love, we repent of our sins and enter into an intimate union with our Lord Jesus Christ.

Nature lives in as much anticipation as we do for God to reveal His Sons in all of their liberty, because the consequences of sin’s curse will be removed from the earth (Rom. 8:19-23). By Jesus’ death and resurrection, the gate to eternity is open for anyone who desires to come after Christ and to follow Him (2 Timothy 3:12). All relationships profit from our submission to God first. The bond of God’s love benefits marriage partnerships, parents and children, siblings, friendships, workmates, and even the Body of Christ in the church.

God gives us hope and a successful future (Jeremiah 29:11). He puts single people in families and makes a home for the lonely (Psalm 68:6). God is a husband to the widow and a father to the fatherless (Psalm 68:5). As we trust Him with our whole heart, commit our life to Him and delight in Him, He showers us with His love and kindness and provides for our every need (1 Peter 5:7; Hosea 11:4; Psalm 37:3-5). What are you waiting for? Surrender your life to God today.

Prayer:

Father God, we rest in Your love and rejoice in You as You joy over us with singing (Zephaniah 3:17). We live in Your presence and Your rest as we enjoy Your gracious provision for us with each new day (Hebrews 4:10; Psalm 36:10). You never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5; Matthew 28:20). You give us abundant life now and in eternity (John 10:10). We praise Your name and give You the glory and honor, which is Your due.

Thought for the Day:

When God calls you to Himself, do not struggle; just snuggle in His love instead.