Last Saturday I awoke earlier than usual and went out for my 5-K run at 6AM. It was raining! But it wasn’t too bad, so I ran in the rain. I was soaked by the time I got back 45 minutes later. But I noticed I didn’t get nearly as tired on this run as usual. Maybe it was focusing on the leadership message I was listening to. Perhaps it was the rain that kept my body cooler and preserved my energy.
Rain does a lot to clean everything. The grass, flowers, gardens, and trees grow much better with rain. And it settles the dust and cleanses the air we breathe.
Perhaps that’s why the word ‘Spirit’ means breath (Greek word ‘pneuma’), because God’s breath, like rain, cleanses the air around us. Just as I was refreshed by the cool rain, so my inner man is refreshed by a fresh word from God. Let’s get a word from Him today and be refreshed.
Tags: rain, refresh, Spirit
“And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness” (Romans 8:10).
Notice that Paul is not speaking to unbelievers here that he wants to see come to Christ. He is clearly speaking to those who have already entered into a relationship with Christ. The way we relate to Christ (who is not here but sits at the right hand of God in heaven) is through the Holy Spirit (also called the Spirit of Christ). If Christ is in you, it is His Holy Spirit, the third part of the godhead, that resides in you. You already have the Holy Spirit if you are saved. But some of us haven’t discovered that yet. We’re still struggling in the flesh.
Now, if Christ is in you, “the body is dead because of sin“. Did you know that yet? Christ went to the Cross to pay the price for your sin. You have been liberated. You don’t need to keep living in that bondage.
That doesn’t mean your bodily appetites have died. It means our bodily appetites no longer control us. Our hunger for discovering God becomes more important than uncovering someone else’s flesh.
The “Spirit is life because of righteousness“. Rather than dying daily as the result bad choices, I get to die daily to the flesh so I can enjoy the real life God has for me. Passion for life can only be fulfilled by a passion for God. Make your life count today.
Tags: cross, Spirit
After painting a pretty bleak picture of living in bondage because we rely on our carnal minds, Paul gives us a glimmer of light: “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Romans 8:9).
Paul gives us three important perspectives here. First, you are either in or you are out. You either have the Holy Spirit in you or you don’t. Its like there is a clear difference between dating someone and being married to them. There is a distinct line between holding hands and having sex. If you don’t have God’s Spirit you cannot “be in the Spirit“, nor please God.
Secondly, Paul tells us that if you have the Spirit in you, you are not “in the flesh“! So, stop acting like it! Cut it out! Grow up! “Be transformed by the renewing of your minds” (Romans 12:2).
Thirdly, we have a choice between being “in the flesh” and “in the Spirit“. We can think with our natural (carnal) minds or we can let God’s Spirit guide us. God’s Spirit inspired the hands of the Old and New Testament writers, so God can direct our steps as we seek Him through His word.
Tags: flesh, Spirit
I had a power drill with a rechargeable battery that could no longer be replaced. So, Anita got me a brand new drill for Christmas. I have a 2-inch auger that I use to drill around my trees for fertilizer spikes. I fully charged the two rechargeable batteries per instructions and went out to do my drilling.
I had a terrible time! I couldn’t get that drill to get enough power to turn the auger. I was not a happy camper. The drill Anita got me was exactly what a told her I wanted – more powerful than the first one. I thought I had a professional-quality tool that would do the job at least as good as the previous drill. I griped and whined about it for a day. The longer I worked, the faster those batteries drained and the slower the drilling went. I finally gave up and went inside to pout.
The next day I was looking at my several-years old auger and noticed the auger edges were worn flat. In fact, they had so flattened out that it couldn’t dig through the soil. The problem wasn’t my drill or the batteries. It was the worn out auger.
Could it be that the power absence in our lives isn’t God or the Spirit, but rather us? Perhaps God can’t work with a dull tool. Perhaps I’m the one draining the available power. Could it be that I’m blaming God when I need to reexamine myself? God taught me an important lesson that day.
Tags: power, Spirit, tools
The late Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch prisoner of the Nazis during World War II and wrote several Christian books about her experiences. She had a great illustration of God at work in the life of a believer. She brought to the platform a limp, worn out glove and talked about how useless it was in that condition. Then she put her hand into that same limp glove, and, abra-cadabra, strength came to the glove.
The glove looked the same and still appeared worn and faded, but the hand within gave it new life. With that hand inside, that limp glove had the power to pick up things, throw things, and accomplish great tasks.
So it is with us. Although we may be limp and powerless, worn out with life’s pressures, yet when the Spirit of God comes within us there is nothing that we cannot do. Of course, it wasn’t the glove, but the hand, that had life. And so it is with us, not me, but the Spirit within that accomplishes great things.
Tags: Corrie ten Boom, glove, life, power, Spirit
The week after I first learned I had this cancer, I went to our Fellowship’s annual conference in Fort Wayne, and determined to not tell anyone, but see what God would do. There we got to reconnect with our fellow pastors from all over the country. One evening Anita and I were invited to a home for fellowship. We happened to sit on a patio with another couple from Florida. Immediately our wives connected and began speaking about health issues in their lives. Then the other wife made the comment that her husband had just dealt with prostate cancer. My spirit lept within me as I knew this must be one of God’s coincidences.
We spent an hour listening to Pastor Mark Goodman’s account of having his prostate removed robotically. After three months all side effects of the procedure were gone. He was healed, and I felt God had divinely arranged that encounter to encourage me and give God’s advice on what I should do.
Armed with this awareness, I met last Friday with my Urologist and discussed our treatment options. Together, we determined to follow this method of prostate removal. I will meet with the specialist who does these surgeries this Friday. Keep praying.
Tags: cancer, coincidence, Spirit
Early in 2007 I became concerned with our church’s decreasing attendance and dwindling offerings. I had moved in the “seeker” track in an attempt to reach the lost in a culturally changing America. But while reaching a few lost ones, we were losing the past harvest. I sought the Lord about all this.
Then the Lord spoke to my heart. I’ve never tried to compare our church with others because I thought that was egotistical and wordly. But the Lord led me to think about the competition in our community. The largest churches around us are Sonlight Community Church in Angola (a Mennonite Church), Fairview Missionary (a Missionary Church), Dayspring Community Church ( another Missionary Church), Lakewood Park (a GAR Baptist Church), and County Line Church of God (a Church of God Church). These are all non- or anti-Pentecostal churches. They have all followed the seeker route and grown dramatically. And I know that for a business to succeed amid the competition, it must be first, fastest or better. But what was our “niche”? What does New Hope have to offer that none of these others has? And the answer was obvious: a solid belief in the ministry of spiritual gifts among the body.
And I also know that Pentecostal churches are much to blame for turning off people to spiritual gifts with their emphasis upon emotion (a function of the soul) and calling it a move of the Spirit. But the New Testament teaches us to believe in the supernatural working of a God who cares! And then I understood that we must find a balance between an expression of the gifts of the Spirit and keeping dignity in the House of God.
The Christmas movies we’ve all just watched prove to us that Americans really want to believe, but believing in Santa Claus or flying reindeer isn’t reality. And this upcoming young generation will not tolerate phony Christianity that just blesses ourselves at the expense of others. So I’ve decided to move into 2008 with a great expectation of a genuine visitation of God’s Spirit to set people free and give life as Jesus declared in Luke 4:18 (go read it carefully). That’s my New Year’s resolution.
Tags: churches, new year's resolution, Pentecostal, seeker, Spirit, spiritual gifts