Timely Help

From the end of the earth I will cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in Your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of Your wings. For You, O God, have heard my vows; You have given me the heritage of those who fear Your name (Psalm 61:2-5).

Life in a fallen world sometimes brings challenges, hurt, and pain. At times we face situations that seemingly have no solutions. We must simply slog through them. Then, we have times in life that others don’t always make the choices we want for them, and their choices sometimes bring them and us great duress.

The Father understands our humanness. Jesus faced every challenge we face and overcame it. He understands what we need when life circumstances turn sour. He can minister grace, which is His ability to help us to do what we can’t do ourselves. He can also minister to us His peace; which is calm right in the middle of a huge storm. He is the eye in the middle of the storm where all is quiet and fears and disappointments are eased.

By His Spirit, the Father can breathe into us courage and faith. He can let us know that we have a ready helper to aid us in our toughest days. Jesus Christ is a friend, a helper, a confidant, a consoler, a healer, and a peace giver. He heals broken hearts; he steadies vacillating emotions, and infuses us with wisdom and strength right when we need it. He calms our disturbed minds. He wraps us by faith in His arms of love.

Draw from Him today. Tell Him your thoughts and concerns. He’s not angry when you vent your hurt, anger or your misunderstandings. Jesus still has a human body, and empathizes with us in our earth walk. If you’ll listen, He will answer your questions, calm your heart, and ease your mind and emotions. He’s waiting right now to speak with you. Grab His Word for a few minutes and ask Him to speak to you. He will give you just what you need.

But He said to me, My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me! So for the sake of Christ, I am well pleased and take pleasure in infirmities, insults, hardships, persecutions, perplexities and distresses; for when I am weak [in human strength], then am I [truly] strong (able, powerful in divine strength) (2 Corinthians 12:9-10 - Amplified).

The Power of a Gaze

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1-2).
 
The phrase looking unto Jesus is from a Greek that means to look away from everything else and to look at something with an attentive and unwavering gaze. To look at Jesus this way, we must look away from our own failures and insecurities. We must look away from past experiences. We must look away from our personal fears and weaknesses. When we see only Jesus, life takes on new potential.
  
Paul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus. His sights were set on harming the Christian church and hindering its purposes. His vision was transformed by the blinding light of Jesus’ visage. Three days later, Ananias laid hands on Paul and not only was his physical sight restored, but his life vision was changed! For the rest of Paul’s life, he looked at the Son of God, and became one of the greatest saints of the church age.
 
Noah found grace in God’s sight, and was chosen to save a remnant of humanity from the deadly flood. For 120 years after God spoke to Noah, he “looked unto” the flood, and worked feverishly to build the boat God designed. Noah’s vision set him apart from his generation. His vision of the coming deluge moved him past the criticism and sarcasm of his age. The mocking and ridicule continued unabated decade after decade, and Noah never moved from his convictions because his continually looked at the coming flood and God’s command.
  
Abram was called out of a city of idolaters who worshipped the moon when he was 75 years old. God’s promise that he would father a child with his 65 year old wife changed his life forever. Abraham became the Father of faith as he gazed at the stars in the nighttime sky. God promised that he would have as many kids as the stars he could see. As Abraham gazed upon the sand on the shoreline of the ocean, he was reminded that he and Sarah’s days of barrenness would end with the blessing of being the father of a multitude and of the whole world benefitting from God’s promise to him. Abraham’s life changed because he no longer focused on his inability but on the promise of God. Twenty five years after God spoke to him, Abraham and Sarah received what the eye of faith had gazed upon.
  
Keep the vision of your intimacy with Jesus every before you today. In Him we live and move and have our being. You are seated with Him in heavenly place far above Satan’s rule and power. You are loved and favored by the Father. You never face one life event alone. The Greater One is in you to enable you in each task today. He is intimately involved in every relationship and in every circumstance. Keep looking unto Jesus and there will be no room in you for discouragement, darkness, and dread. What you see is what you will get!

Examine Yourself

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).

The rapture of the church is an event that will be quick! In a millisecond of time, we will be involved with something here and then suddenly we will be in the presence of Jesus Christ.

Today, as everyday should be, is preparation day for our meeting with the Son of God. The fire in His eyes will try our works. All that we have done since making Jesus Lord of my life will come under the scrutiny of His gaze. The results will be gold, silver, precious stones, or wood, hay, and straw added to our personal heavenly rewards.

I’m going to leave you with these challenging scripture to ponder today. The philosopher stated millennia ago the un-examined life is not worth living. Keep short accounts with Jesus. His coming is soon.

For we must all appear and be revealed as we are before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive [his pay] according to what he has done in the body, whether good or evil [considering what his purpose and motive have been, and what he has achieved, been busy with, and given himself and his attention to accomplishing] (2 Corinthians 5:10- Amplified).

But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written: "As I live, says the Lord, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God." So then each of us shall give account of himself to God (Romans 14:10-12).

Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire (1 Corinthians 3:12-15).

For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world (1 Corinthians 11:31-32).

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:8-9).

Grace is Enough

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.  And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law.  You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.  For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love (Galatians 5:1-6).
 
The believers in Galatia were encouraged by Paul to continue living in the grace of God and to not revert back to the keeping of the law to appease a guilty conscience. The Judaizers as we call them were demanding that these newly converted Jewish believers submit to circumcision and obedience to the law as well as to their faith in Jesus.

The purpose of the law was to reveal the weakness and inability of the flesh. The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. The law could never save from sin. The law, with its demands for outward rigid performance, is impossible to keep without the indwelling of the Spirit.
 
Paul urges with great intensity and passion for those who are in Christ to remain free from the dictatorial demands of religion that places accomplishment of outward demands in the place of a living current relationship with the Father.
 
Here in Galatians, he contrasts the works of the flesh, or the works of the law with the fruit of faith, or the fruit of the spirit. One is cold and lifeless, while the other is alive and invigorating.
 
Life with Jesus frees us from the outward demands of the law because it creates a desire for closeness with the Father and a motivation to shun anything that would compromise that intimacy with the Most High. Walking in the grace of God creates a liberty that frees me to respond to the Father from within and literally cancels the yearning of the flesh!
 
When I think of work, I think of sweat, hard toil, tiredness, and labor. The Father has freed me from a works consciousness that does to please. Now I am what I am by the grace of God! The liberty of grace working in me produces fruit. When I think of fruit I think of refreshment, of a meadow full of trees bearing all sorts of delectable treats that awaken my being and bring delight! Fruit is easy. It comes naturally. And the fruit of the spirit are borne from my personal intimacy with the Father.
 
When I was about a year old in the Lord, I decided that needed to fast a couple of days a week to discipline my flesh. A few weeks into this regimen, the Lord very abruptly told me to stop fasting. He told me that I was doing this as a form of works to be pleasing to Him. And He told me that it was producing spiritual pride in my life as I looked to see if others were as disciplined as I was. I stopped the regular fasting for a long time. I had to grow spiritually before I could fast with the right heart motive and not to gain favor with God.
 
The grace He has given us cost the Father so much that He is never pleased when we turn to the flesh and outward things to prove our rightness in His eyes. The grace provided by Jesus’ sacrifice more than enables you and me to stand in the presence of the Father fully pleasing to Him.
 
Stand fast in your liberty from religion today and your freedom from outward performance in order to please. His Grace is enough!
 

Righteousness

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).
 
My own righteousness is like a filthy rag when I stand before God. I can’t do enough good works to be right with Him and He knows that! So the Father has imputed the right standing of Jesus to me. Jesus became what I was so that I could be what He is to the Father.
  
To be righteous means to be able to stand before the Father as though sin and condemnation had never existed in your life. It’s just as though you had never done any wrong! The Father made us righteous in Jesus so that we could have full fellowship with Him twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.
  
Notice Isaiah 43:25: I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins. To the person who has been made righteous, there is no record of past sins!
  
When a believer sins and confesses the sin to the Father, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). It’s important when you sin to bear your heart to the Father and confess it before Him.

My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world (1 John 2:1-2). And when sin is confessed it is as though it never happened! Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more (Hebrews 10:17).
  
Satan traffics in condemnation and inferiority. He wants you to think and feel as though you’re not quite good enough to approach the Father for fellowship and requests. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down (Revelation 12:10).
  
Refuse the character assaults that Satan brings your way. Forget what God has forgiven! Your sins have been cast into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19).Condemnation and inferiority are the chief enemies of your faith life, and it’s your faith that overcomes the world. See condemnation and inferiority to God as an attack of the enemy to hinder your faith, and to rob you of your boldness before God. Stand your ground against these assaults and see yourself as the righteousness of God in Christ!
  
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:1). And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death (Revelation 12:11).

The Test

Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him (Psalm 105:19).
 
The above verse refers to Joseph. He had a vision of his family bowing in obeisance before him as a leader. He was 17 years old at the time. This did not come to pass until Joseph was 30. The in between time was difficult. He was sold as a slave by his brothers and his father was told that he was killed by wild animals.
 
The ruler’s wife thought Joseph was so handsome and she lusted after him. He refused her advances and she accused him of trying to rape her. He was sent to prison for many years. It looked as though God’s promise was untrue. For years he remained imprisoned though innocent of the charges.

Joseph eventually became what we would now call the Prime Minister of Egypt. The whole land was under his authority. Only the Pharaoh was mightier than he.  His family came from Canaan starving for food during a famine and during their visit the Word of the Lord to him was fulfilled.
 
Yes, the Word of the Lord tested Him. Did God speak or not he may have thought during those years of misery. But no word from God is void of power (Luke 1:37)!
 
So here you are in the middle of some tough circumstances that just don’t let up. Nothing that the Word declares seems to be true in your life. You’ve prayed. You believe that you receive. You’ve stood your ground against the circumstances that tell you repeatedly that you prayers are unanswered and that your faith is not working. The test is on!

Are you going to believe the promise of God, or are you going to yield to the pressure. That’s what Joseph faced all those years. But he knew that if God spoke, then that Word from Him was surer than the rising of the sun. Joseph’s faith kept him for 13 years while the Word of God worked itself out in his life.

If this can work for Joseph, a man under the old covenant, can it not work for us, whose faith is established on a better covenant with promises that are even surer than that which Joseph trusted?

We must persevere as Joseph did against the negatives that life brings. Joseph kept his focus on the promise of God and received and so will we! So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18- NIV)

Humility

For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones (Isaiah 57:15)
    
Pride challenges us all. Lucifer became prideful of his exquisite beauty and became corrupted. He lost his lofty position and fell. Pride brings us low. Humility exalts us.
    
Throughout scripture we are encouraged to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God so that He can exalt us when we’re fully prepared to handle promotion.
   
In my first year with the Lord, the Father revealed the above scripture to me. Pride ran deep in my person. I knew it could hurt me and others. When I found out that the Father will draw near when we humble ourselves, I began to pursue humility.
    
I began my times of prayer with, Lord, I humble myself under your mighty hand. I saw roots of pride in so many things I did, wanting others to see my skill, my achievements, dressing to bring attention to myself, having to be in control in social situations, shifting blame instead of taking responsibility. Even self-pity is a form of pride and I was full of it.

If allowed, pride will destroy all that is lovely in a personality, wrapping its tentacles around that which is wholesome and degrading it.   
   
We’ll have to deal with this pride as long as we live. Our relationship with the Father and the degree that He will use us will be determined by how we deal with the noxious weed of pride.
   
Knowing that pride was born in the heart of Lucifer makes it repulsive to me. That makes me want to push it out of my life and resist it. Rancid food will make you sick if you eat it, and pride will destroy you unless it’s brought under control.

The Father draws near the contrite heart. Let’s humble ourselves today. Open your heart and share your deepest thoughts and needs with the Father. Purposely humble yourself before Him.

Ask Him to reveal how pride now affects your behavior and ask Him to root it out of you. You’ll find yourself asking others to forgive you for the unkind word or the selfish display. Motivations and attitudes that have been seated in you for years will begin to yield as you purposely pursue the path of humility.

As water ever seeks the lowest place, so the presence of God seeks the humble. Give yourself to humility today!

My Father God

I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. May my meditation be sweet to Him; I will be glad in the Lord (Psalm 104:33-34)
  
My Father reigns supreme over all. When I’m lonely or confused I go to Him and pour my heart out. He knows exactly how I feel and infuses me with courage and strength.
 
When unrelenting fear comes, I go to Him and He brushes the fear away and points me to my faith in Him. He replaces the fear with a knowing that things will work out well for me. He always causes me to triumph in Christ.
  
When I’m faced with financial loss or lack, I go to Him and He provides wisdom for the next step. He assures me that He is my supply, and urges me to look away from the foreboding circumstance and keep my focus on Him.
  
When the enemy attacks with sickness, my Father urges me to stand my ground on His word and never cower or back down. He and His Word are one. He sent His Word and it heals me, and delivers me from my destructions.
  
When a friend turns his back on me and forsakes the relationship we’ve had, My Father takes me in His arms and comforts me. He shows me that though others may fail me and bring disappointment, He is a safe place for my emotions and my thoughts.
 
My Father has proved His love for me over and over again. When I get involved with something that would eventually bring me pain, harm, or hurt, He pulls me aside and talks to me about it. And then He shows me the proper way to deal with the issue.
  
He shows me when my motives are wrong, and allows me to pour my heart out to Him about it. He never threatens or loses patience with me. He calmly listens, then I can He His soft voice beckon me to obedience.

He always leads me towards peace. He is the tenderest person I have ever met. I feel safer with Him than with any person I have ever known. I often wonder what it will be like to actually meet Him for the first time face to face. In my mind, I see myself just melting to the ground in awe of Him. Then I see Him pick me up and hold me to Himself as He brushes away insecurity and self-consciousness. I see Him infusing me with His own nature through and through, finally releasing my soul from every trace of debris from my past. Then I see Him look away and point into the future. There I see the ages to come, where in eternity I experience what it means for mortality to be swallowed up by life.
  
So that for all future time he could show the very great riches of his grace by being kind to us in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:7 – NCV).

But, on the contrary, as the Scripture says, What eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man, all that God has prepared (made and keeps ready) for those who love Him who hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed (1 Corinthians 2:9 – Amplified).


 


 

Another Way to Rest

Praying in the spirit or in other tongues is a gift that accompanies the baptism with the Holy Spirit. It is the will of God that every believer has the ability to pray in the spirit.
 
With the Holy Spirit baptism comes a greater degree of the presence of God in your life. And by praying in the spirit, there comes a deeper intimacy with Him.
 
Isaiah 28:11-12 reads: For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people, To whom He said, "This is the rest with which You may cause the weary to rest," and, This is the refreshing...Talking to the Father from your human spirit brings rest and refreshing! It’s a wonderful thing to be able to sit quietly in His presence and pray from your spirit.

In this way, intimacy with the Father is available to you twenty four hours a day anywhere in the world! During times of difficulty and emotional and mental turmoil, you can turn to your Father and pour your heart out to Him in words that He alone understands.
 
There’s just something about being totally real with someone that releases stress from your life. When you’re involved in challenges all around, praying in the spirit can take you to that place of solace where the Father can minister His rest and peace to your spirit!
 
As you work today you can quietly pray in the spirit and commune with the Father under your breath. As you shop, or as you mow the lawn, you can enjoy uninterrupted communion with the Father of spirits . Take advantage of this “closet experience” throughout the day and you’ll find renewed strength for the task at hand.

He gives power to the tired and worn out, and strength to the weak (Isaiah 40:29). Praying in the spirit will enable you to wait on the Lord through your busy day today. Take advantage of it!

Spirit Sensitive

As I mentioned yesterday, the Baptism with the Holy Spirit enhances your ability to connect spiritually with the Lord. Let me go into more detail on what I mean.
  
When I pray in the spirit, my human spirit is talking to the Lord without the involvement of my mind. This direct spiritual connection to the Lord is so vital to effective prayer, for it enables you to pray the perfect will of God over a person or situation. It’s make prayer limitless!
  
But another part of this is that when I pray in the spirit, it helps me to tune into the voice of God in my human spirit. Notice again 1 Corinthians 14:14 (Amplified): For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit by the Holy Spirit within me prays, but my mind is unproductive; it bears no fruit and helps nobody. You see the Holy Spirit is in my spirit. That’s where He contacts me. His first contact with my human person is not with my mind, but with my spirit. And praying in tongues regularly helps me stay sensitive to my human spirit. And since the Holy Spirit is in my spirit, I become sensitive to Him too by praying in tongues.
 
Here another interesting tidbit about praying in tongues. It also helps me sort out the will of God in general for my life as well as the details of daily choices. 1 Corinthians 2: 9 (J.B. Phillips) reads: For who could really understand a man’s inmost thoughts except the spirit of man himself. How much less could anyone understand the thoughts of God except the very Spirit of God. God’s Word Translation of this verse reads: After all, who knows everything about a person except that person’s own spirit. My spirit intuitively knows things that my mind does not know, because the Holy Spirit is in my spirit. So praying in tongues helps me tap into the wisdom of God for life’s particulars.
  
1 Corinthians 14:13 tells us to ask for the interpretation of what we need to know when we pray in the spirit. Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. So I regularly remind the Lord that I want to know what I’m praying about when I’m praying in tongues when He desires to tell me.
  
Back in November of 1993 I was praying in tongues one morning and thinking about what the Lord wanted me to do in my future. At the time I was pastoring a church for a pastor while he took a year away to start a church in another country. His time to come back to his church was approaching and I was wondering what the Lord had for me. After I finished praying in tongues for an hour, the words already existing church just seemed to float up to my mind from somewhere. I knew this came from my spirit and that the Lord was talking to me about my future after this pastor came back.
 
I kept this phrase already existing church in my heart for six months and it evolved into you will go to pastor an already existing church. And that already existing church is where I having been pastoring for the last almost 18 years! How did this come about? It happened because I took time to pray in the spirit and ask the Lord to let me know when He wanted to about what I was saying when I prayed in tongues.
 
Don’t underestimate the value of praying in tongues. Making it a daily practice will tune your spirit to hear the voice of God more clearly. And if you keep it up, then one day your future and God’s plan for your life will blend into one!

Praying in the Spirit

But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit (Jude 20).
 
One of the great benefits of receiving the Baptism with the Holy Spirit is the ability to pray in tongues or to pray in the Spirit that comes with it. Praying in tongues is God’s method of bypassing the human mind in prayer and allowing spirit to Spirit communion with God.

Some people would lead you to think that there is little value in praying in tongues. But let me ask you a question; is there any value in talking to God? 1 Corinthians 14:2 (Amplified) reveals: For one who speaks in an unknown tongue speaks not to men but to God, for no one understands or catches his meaning, because in the Holy Spirit he utters secret truths and hidden things not obvious to the understanding. Praying in tongues provides a way for the believer to talk to the Father about things he would otherwise know nothing about.
 
I pray with my understanding every day throughout my day in English. But I also take time throughout the day to pray in tongues. When I exhaust my limited understand of how to pray for a person or situation I tell the Lord that I’m going to pray about that in tongues so that I cover anything that my didn’t know about the situation.

Notice Romans 8:26-27: Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Praying in the Spirit or in tongues provides a way to pray the perfect prayer!

Praying in tongues will build you up or edify you spiritually. 1 Corinthian 14:4 reads:
He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. The word to edify in the Greek means to build up. A car battery is built up by the alternator while the car engine is running so that it has energy for the next time you need to start your car! Praying in tongues provides similar spiritual edification or building up.

I pray in tongues for a couple of hours before I minister the word because it produces the necessary spiritual building up I need before I preach. I get up every morning and pray in the spirit to build myself up spiritually for the day.
 
Some people question the validity of praying in tongues, saying that it is an emotional experience that produces no fruit. I say that a person with an experience is never at the mercy of a person with an argument! I’ve benefitted so much over the years that it’s a mute point to discuss with those who don’t or won’t believe in this experience.

My life has been dramatically altered for the better as a result of praying in tongues every day!
I’ll talk about this awesome experience more tomorrow! Take time today to pray in the spirit!

Three Things

Three things happen to the person who receives the baptism with the Holy Spirit. They receive boldness to witness, an increase in understanding of the word, and they receive a new way to pray!

 

Acts 1:8 reads: But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. The Greek word for power here is dunamis and from this word we get our English words dynamic, dynamite, and dynamo. There is inherent power produced within the believer when baptized with the Holy Spirit.

The day after I was Spirit baptized, I noticed a boldness that rose up within me that I had never experienced before. As a 17 year old, I was working in a grocery store the day after I received the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and a girl asked for a cigarette. Well, I threw mine away the day before, and simply had no desire for them.  I started to tell her that I quit, but before I could speak the Holy Spirit from deep within me prodded me to tell her that Jesus set me free from smoking.

When I told her that, she was so surprised that I thought she would fall in the floor! And then a joy rose up in me that I had never experienced before. Ever since then that boldness has risen up in me.

  

The second thing that you will notice after having received the baptism with the Holy Spirit is that a greater hunger for and understanding of the Word will come. 1 Corinthians 2:14 reads: But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The Holy Spirit authored the Bible. He inspired men to write as they were moved by Him. When He comes into your life in fullness, He will take the Word and unfold its deeper meanings to your spirit. It one thing to intellectually understand the Word, but it’s an awesome experience to suddenly gain the spiritual application of it when you read.

I experienced this the day after I was Spirit baptized in 1976. As I read passages that I had known since childhood, suddenly the revelation of their spiritual application to me poured from the pages I read! It’s totally amazing.

 

The third thing that you receive with the Holy Spirit baptism is a new way to connect with God. Praying is in a whole new realm. It’s one thing to try to connect with the Father with mind to Spirit communication; that is, your mind seeking to make contact with Him who is the sum total of all knowledge! But it’s awesome to be able to contact the Father directly sprit to Spirit.

 When you pray in tongues after being Spirit baptized, you gain an ability to speak in tongues which is your human spirit making direct contact with the Father of spirits! 1 Corinthians 14:14 (Amplified) declares: For if I pray in an [unknown] tongue, my spirit [by the Holy Spirit within me] prays, but my mind is unproductive [it bears no fruit and helps nobody]. Things that were pent up in me for years were released as I prayed in the spirit or in other tongues. This is the perfect way to pray, because when you’re praying in tongues, you’re praying the perfect will of God for whatever you’re praying about!

 Don’t neglect the precious gift of the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Allow it to be a door that opens you to a new realm of spiritual experience and understanding as you receive boldness, illumination, and a new prayer language.

Immersed

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8).

The baptism with the Holy Spirit changes you. Let me explain why it should. The Greek word for baptize is baptizo. And this word simply means to immerse into something. When a person is baptized into water, the substance that they are baptized in or immersed in is water. The person’s relationship to water changes in that water completely surrounds the person baptized.
 
Well, then when a person is baptized with the Holy Spirit, what is the person immersed into? They are immersed into the Holy Spirit. On Sunday, I used an illustration of a cup being filled with water, which is illustrative of a believer being born again and the Holy Spirit indwelling them. In the new birth, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in the believer. Then, I took the cup full of water and immersed it into a pitcher of water. The cup’s relationship with water changed. Not only did water fill the cup, but it surrounded it!

When you receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit literally encapsulates you, that is, he closes you in on all sides. Understand that the Jesus told the disciples that the Holy Spirit would come when He left the earth and would be to the disciples everything Jesus was to them. The main job of the Holy Spirit is to make Jesus real to us!

My life took a dramatic turn with the Holy Spirit baptism in 1976. When the Holy Spirit engulfed me with Himself that Sunday night at 7:20 P.M., I had an awareness of Jesus that I never had before. As I worked the next day, my thoughts were constantly on the Son of God! I found myself relating my experiences throughout the day to my relationship with Jesus in a very natural way. I thought of my relationship with Jesus all the time.
 
The Holy Spirit brings spiritual power and insight when He comes into your life. You have this spiritual power and insight with the new birth in a measure. But with the baptism with the Holy Spirit it is magnified many times over.
 
If you’ve baptized in the Holy Spirit, I encourage you to walk in the light of the experience. Nurture your relationship with the Holy Spirit daily by spending time in the Word and in prayer and meditation. His presence will get stronger if you do. And if you have not yet received this precious experience, cry out to the Father for it. They that hunger and thirst after righteousness will be fill. If any man thirsts let him come unto me and drink!  He promised to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him!

Baptized With the Spirit

And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now (Acts 1:4-5).
 
We live in a day when many believers are shying away from the power of God manifested through the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away (2 Timothy 3:5). If there’s ever been a time that we need the power of God it’s today!
  
Jesus told the disciples not to leave Jerusalem until they were clothed with the power that comes in being baptized with the Holy Spirit. I sometimes illustrate it this way. What would you rather do; plow a field with a large tractor or with a mule? If you’re cutting a board which is easier; using a handsaw or a skill saw? Would you rather wash dishes by hand or use a dishwasher? Cutting grass with a push mower is not nearly as easy as with a riding mower! You’d want to wash clothes in a washing machine instead of with a scrub board wouldn’t you?
  
The baptism with the Holy Spirit brings new power to live for God with it! That’s because the baptism with the Holy Spirit relates you to the Holy Spirit in such a more intimate way. It opens you up to spiritual fellowship with Jesus in a way no experience can!
 
The disciples first received this experience in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost. Several years later, believers in Samaria received in Acts 8. Then 10 years later in Acts 10 some Gentile believers received it. And then 20 years after Pentecost some believers in Ephesus received  this awesome experience in Acts 19. All of these believer spoke with other tongues when they received. And if you receive the same experience now, you should expect to speak in other tongues too!
  
I received the baptism with the Holy Spirit in 1976 and my life was radically transformed. I’ve walked in the light of this experience now for almost 36 years. I simply could not imagine living without this intimacy with the Father and with Jesus that comes with the Holy Spirit baptism.
  
If you have not yet received this experience, cry out to the Father in hunger for it! If you have received, then walk daily in the light of it. Don’t neglect such great a give from Jesus. He want your life to be overflowing with His Life, His love, His ability, His peace, joy, and rest. And the baptism with the Holy Spirit is the catalyst to begin the process that will take you there.

Obedience and Miracles

Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out, and none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua: "See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and the mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go all around the city once. This you shall do six days. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him (Joshua 6:1-5)

Obedience creates an atmosphere for miracles! Sometimes the Father asks us to do things that seem outlandish to the mind. Here He told Joshua that He had given Jericho into his hands while the walls were still up. Then the instructions seemed to take a strange twist. March around the city once a day for six days. They may have wondered, so what good is that going to do? Then the Lord instructed Joshua to have the Israelites march around the walls on the seventh day and while they marched to let the priests blow their trumpets. I’m sure to their minds this seemed ridiculous. But the Israelites and Joshua knew that God’s ways are higher than ours and that obedience and faith combined open circumstances to the power of the Almighty! The walls fell down flat! It was unlikely, but it happened!
 
Elijah told a widow to bake him some bread from her last morsel of flour and last drop of oil and her flour and oil supply would not run out during a severe famine. It happened! Elisha told the captain of the Syrian army to go bathe in the dirty water of the Jordan River seven times and he would be healed of leprosy. It was such a foolish command that he didn’t want to do it. But after being convinced that it was worth a try by his servants, he took the seven baths and was totally healed!

Moses held a stick over the Red Sea and it parted. He struck a rock with a stick and water came out of it. Jesus fed thousand with a little boy’s lunch. The fisherman Peter defied fisherman logic and at Jesus’ request threw His nets into the water in a place that he thought had no fish and he caught a net breaking amount! Jesus rubbed mud in a man’s eyes and his sight was restored.

Obedience creates the atmosphere for miracles! So go ahead and obey God! Love the unlovable. Reward good for evil. Bring your tithes and offerings into the storehouse. Give and it will be given to you. Take the lowest place. Believe that you receive answered prayer while nothing seems to change. Lay hands on the sick.

When you obediently practice the Word, it opens your life up to the power of God! What He’s done before, He can do again. He’s not partial. He watches over His Word to make it good!

Morphed!

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29).

Once we’re born again, God wants us to be conformed to the image of His Son, the Lord Jesus. This word conformed is the Greek word ‎summorphoo‎, which means to bring to the same form with. The root of this word is morphe which means an outward expression of an inward essence or nature. It’s much like the germination of a plant from a seed. The exterior plant actually came from a pattern that had its origin in the DNA of the seed.

In the New Birth, our spirit is made a new creature in Christ. Old things pass away; all things become new. A new person is birth on the inside of us with new interests and desires. And what should take place is that what has been placed on the inside should begin to show up in our daily behavior. Years ago we sang a song, “I’ve got something on the inside working on the outside…” That’s the idea here.

Paul prayed for the Galatians believers, My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you (Galatians 4:19). This word formed in this verse is the Greek word morphe which again means an outward expression of an inner nature. He was praying that the New Birth experience would begin to show up on the outside in the daily lives of these believers. That means that what we become in the New Birth grows within us to the point that it practically affects how we do life moment by moment.

This process of change from the inside out is really what Paul mention with the renewing of the mind. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect (Romans 12:2 -NLT) That you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, (23) and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, (24) and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:22-24 -NKJV) Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, (10) and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him (Colossians 3:9-10-NKJV).

Paul travailed in prayer for these believers in Galatia. Travail is intense prayer. It denotes agony and tears much like a woman giving birth to a child. So instead of complaining about the lack of Christ likeness we may see in others, we should pray as Paul did that Christ may be formed in them.

All of us are the process of being conformed to the image of Jesus. What’s on the inside is rising up to be seen on the outside! Let’s pray for each other today that this process would be completed. We’re morphing!