Spirit Led Living

2 Tim 1:6b "fan into flame the gift of God "   It is of no use to be tepid, we are meant to be red hot.   We need to work at our relationship with God or else the passion will fade and we will turn lukewarm and non-effective.   It takes a daily discipline to keep the fires burning. The Holy Spirit gives each one of us gifts according to the will and pleasure of the Father. it is up to us develop and grow proficient in our gifts through the constant exercise of our gifts for the sake of the body.   The blacksmith knows that in order to make metal malleable he first needs a hot fire to soften and purify it.   To make the fire hotter he employs a bellows to blow a stream of air on the coals.   He literally fans it into flame. The Father always want us to completely sold out, completely dedicated to the task that He has called us to. Anything less is simply not good enough. Rev 3:16-17   "So, because you are lukewarm — neither hot nor cold — I am about to spit you out of my

1 Tim 6:11b "pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness."   To pursue is to go after.   That means these things do not come naturally to us.   When we focus on these things it fundamentally changes who we are to the core.   When our core changes, our values change; when our values change our thoughts change; when our thoughts change our actions change and when our actions change then our destiny is changed. Every day companies spend millions trying to get our attention.   They sell us on the fact that we need something.   To sell us they first have to make us feel like something is lacking in our lives and that only their product can fill that need. The media, including movies, TV, reality shows and the news are trying to sell us a new morality. In this morality everything is circumstantial and there is no right or wrong. In fact, the only wrong is when you disagree with their morality. Words like intolerant, judgmental, bigoted and phobic immediat

1 Tim 6:6   "But godliness with contentment is great gain." Learning to be content just with having God in our lives is the key to happiness. My friends have heard me say over and over that the joy is in the journey. Stop and smell the coffee, as the saying goes, and you will not miss the riches and blessings of this life that we take for granted when we constantly focus on the negative. The American gospel has told us that he who dies with the most toys wins. But does that really bring happiness?   If you live by that motto you don't really enjoy the toys that you do have because the focus is on more and new. I can remember a few years ago taking a Christian weight loss program that taught me something that really opened my eyes. It pointed out that many of us sit in front of the TV on Sundays to watch a football game with a bag of Doritos on our lap. We munch and crunch our way through the game. The revelation came when she asked how much we were really enjoying the tas

1 Tim 4:9-10 "This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance (and for this we labor and strive), that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe." I think it was Thoreau who said that most men live lives of quiet desperation. For a man or woman of God this is not the case because of the hope that we have in Christ as He points us to the Father through the ministering of the Holy Spirit. It is because of this hope that we can endure what trials and tribulations may come.   Not that our trials are removed, because it is through them that we grow and mature, but we know that they are but a temporary affliction. 2 Cor 4:17-18 "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.   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." Light and momentary are said tongue and ch

1 Tim 1:15 "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners — of whom I am the worst."   Never trust a man who walks without a limp. In other words, don't trust someone who believes in his own righteousness for he will be a man who judges others. It is easy to judge others, not so easy to have grace. Show me someone who shows love and grace and I'll show you someone whom much has been forgiven. For those of you who don't get the reference to a man who walks with a limp here is the context from the Old Testament: Gen 32:24-28 "So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.   When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.   Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."   The man asked him, &q

2 Thess 2:13 "because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth."  The Holy Spirit is charged with giving us a makeover in the image of the Father. While He is the one that does the work, we have to be willing participants in the process. When we come to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior it is the Spirit that brings about the new birth taking us from death unto life. However, while our spirit is reborn, the process of sanctification is just beginning. Sanctification is to be made holy. To put it more clearly it is to be set apart for a higher purpose. Let me put it another way. Many of us have everyday silverware that ends up getting used in a multitude of ways. You know, am I the only one who has used a knife as a screwdriver? On the other hand some of us have a special Sterling Silver set that was passed down from a previous generation that only gets pulled out for special occasions. Someone

1 Thess 5:19-22 Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. NIV When we allow the Holy Spirit to move in our lives there will be unexpected results. He will bring upheaval and change. Sometimes messes will result. Too many times our knee jerk reaction is to want to throw out the baby with the bathwater. There is another Scripture that illuminates the point: Prov 14:4 Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; But much increase comes by the strength of an ox. NKJV If you want clean stables get rid of the ox, but in doing so you also get rid of the fruit that comes from the oxen plowing the fields. You may ask if I am advocating living in the messes, I am not. You still have to clean the stables, but when you do that ox poop ends up getting used as fertilizer. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Learn from your mistakes. From allowing the Holy Spirit to move you end up with fruit; love, joy, peace, patience,