Spirit Led Living

Rom 14:17-18 “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.” I grew up in the Holiness Movement. This was, and is, a well meaning group of denominations that want to live holy lives before the Lord. Their intentions are of the very highest motives. Sadly, by the time that I came around, that desire to serve God and live holy lives had been codified into a group of do’s and don’ts that were built into the disciplines of the churches. If you wanted to become a member of one these denominations you have had to agree to follow the rules. It had become guilt driven, obligation driven, holiness was being measured by externals. I know that in their hearts this is not what they had in mind, but this is what it had become. The Apostle Paul in his letter to the church in Rome warns against this. He had seen it happen and he knew that it

Rom 13:11-12 “… do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.” Urgency is the call of the day. Every night when we turn on the news we see stories of war and destruction. Natural disasters are growing in intensity and frequency. In addition to all of this are the stories of ever increasing crime and depravity. It all points to the imminent return of Christ. We need to be urgent in our obedience of God. Each and every day we are closer to judgment day. If Christ were to come back tonight how many of your friends, relatives, neighbors or co-workers would be going to hell because you didn’t want to make them uncomfortable by sharing the Good News with them? Sobering thought isn’t it? We come up with every excuse in the book. Paul is telling us that it is time to get off the fence and get activated in our faith. Do it now n

Rom 13:1-2 "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves." Not a popular subject, this one; submission to authority. Ever since Adam there is something inside of us that tells us that we know better. Rebellion is nothing more than thinking ourselves more highly than we ought. We rebel because we believe that those in authority over us have their own interests in mind. John Wimber used to say that "to be in authority you have to be under authority". Submission is at the core of the Christian walk. Paul has taken great pains to show example after example of this. Ultimately we are to follow Christ's example who humbled Himself and was obedient to the Father, even unto death. Phil 2:5

Rom 12:14-21 “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. “ This passage in chapter 12 is the new code of conduct that the Apostle Paul is establishing for all Christians. It is not something that he came up with on his own. This code is based completely o

Rom 12:12-13 “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.   Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.” A distinguishing characteristic of a Spirit filled Christian is that their daily lives reveal that they are strangers in a strange land and that they have a hope for a better future. Until that time they reflect a joy that comes from knowing that their future is secure. That is why among the fruit of the Holy Spirit are joy and longsuffering. What does this mean? Are Christians supposed to walk around with a fake smile on their faces all day and pretend that everything is just rosy; of course not.   We experience pain and suffering just as much as the next guy. When I was back in college in the early seventies there was a teenage female Christian artist that just bugged me. All her songs were this sickly sweet “isn’t Jesus and life with Jesus just so wonderful and happy?” To be honest I wanted to slap that silly little grin right off her fa

Rom 12:11 “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” I like the way The Amplified Bible renders this passage: “ Never lag in zeal and in earnest endeavor; be aglow and burning with the Spirit, serving the Lord.” In the original Greek this verse is a delicious juxtaposition of seemingly oppositional words. If it were to be translated literally it would go something like this: With all speed and dispatch don’t be tardy in your soul; bring to a boil your desire to slave and serve for the Lord. We need to get revved up so that we won’t be slow to respond to the Spirit’s prompting. That battle to renew our minds continues.   The first reaction to hearing from God is to doubt.   That is followed closely by us questioning God as to the wisdom of our orders. Moses thought that God had chosen the wrong man for the task of liberating the Jews from under the yoke of the Pharaoh.   He came up with all sorts of excuses why he wasn’t the right man for the job.

Rom 12:4-8 “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach;   if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.” God was not done with creativity when He was finished with Creation. He does not have writer’s block; His creativity does not go into a slump. There are now over 6 billion people living on this planet and they are each unique and distinct. During the first 5 days of Creation He concluded each day but surveying His creation and declaring with satisfaction “It is good”. On the

Rom 12:3 “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.” Hmm… I think we all like to think of ourselves as humble people. Maybe before we came to the Lord we were glory hounds but we like to think that we have toned things down and have started to learn how to be humble. At least until certain situations start to pop up.   It seems like the enemy knows all the buttons to push. I recently have been doubling my efforts to get closer to the Lord.   In doing so, I have been reading several books that have challenged my “comfortable” Christianity and are pushing me to be more active in my daily walk.   I know that I am supposed to have a life changing impact on the lives of the people around me.   I am trying to serve more, become involved in more local ministries and am even praying about what missions’ He wants me to be

Rom 12:2 "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will" There simply isn't enough time or room in this blog to do this verse justice. There are many levels to the Christian walk but the level that we all aspire to is being a Christ follower, someone who lives their salvation on a daily basis.   To us being a Christian is not just a belief system or something we do; it is who we are.   We want to be more like Jesus. We want to be led by the Holy Spirit. We want to serve God and make His name famous. We want to be one and make one. We want to be disciplers, Christians who reproduce ourselves. What stands in the way of all of this is a lifetime of wrong thinking. We have bought into the lies of the prince of this age.   We have bought into the "rightness" of popular thought. This has become prevalent amon

Rom 12:1 " Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship." God has provided the way for us to have fellowship with Him. He sent His son that He would offer up His body as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. In His mercy He chose forgiveness over wrath. We deserved it and He was well within His right to dole out the punishment due to us for our transgressions.   Instead, He chose mercy over judgment. If He did that much for us, that we should enjoy His favor, then isn't the least that we can do to give up our bodies as living sacrifices. Instead, we complain about every little inconvenience that comes our way.   We want Him to give us lives full of pleasure and leisure. This is where discipline comes in. If we are to experience His pleasure we have to deny ourselves and dedicate ourselves to the daily spiritual disciplines of a walk yielded to Christ.

Rom 10:9-10 "That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." When you look at verses that make it clear that the path to heaven is narrow and not all who call on His name will make it to Heaven then you have to ask yourself, when does a person truly become saved. The Apostle Paul answers that question in this passage.   It begins with a profession of faith.   There is a moment when we have to actually say that we believe that Jesus is who He says He is.   There needs to be a time when we speak out loud what has taken place in our heart.   Much like baptism, it is a spoken affirmation of an inward change. This is the key to the whole thing; an inward change.   The prayer in and of itself does not gain us entrance into the exclusive company of the redeemed.   It

Matt 28:19-20 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Acts 1:8 you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem , and in all Judea and Samaria , and to the ends of the earth."   Dose anyone have a will?   What is the role of the executor of that will? In both verses these are among the last words of Jesus and they are the marching orders not just for the Apostles but for all the Church.   In effect, these words are last will and testament of Jesus for His church.   All of us that have been redeemed by His name are the executors of that will. In the western church we have become self centered where Jesus loves me has led to the belief that it’s all about me.   As a result, we have obey Jesus’ commands selectively depending on what benefits us. So, for example, when we read these Scriptures we think to ourselves that those commands are for so

Rom 10:14-15 " How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" Next to the words of Jesus Himself when He gave us the great commission, to me this is the other verse that makes it clear that preaching is not supposed to be a task that is left to preachers.   All of us are called to share the Gospel.   If we do not share the Good News that we have received then how are people ever going to hear it. Eternity hangs in the balance for everyone you know. If they are condemned to hell because you did not share God's love with them then they can rightly complain that they didn't have a chance to make a decision to love someone they did not know about. (Of course, this argument would fall short because Scripture tel

Rom 8:37-39 "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.   For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,   neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." The world tries to wear us down.   Life is often like the Chinese water torture.   Drop by drop it continuously pounds away at us.   Not the each drop is that big a deal but when it is there minute after minute, day after day, week after week, the accumulation of it all starts to put a dent in our resolve.   This is the enemy's scheme; to distract us and keep our focus away from God.   If we become belly button gazers and start saying, "woe is me" then the enemy has won.   But we don't have to fall into that trap because He has sent His Spirit that we might be more than conquerors.   God does not w

Rom 8:32-33 “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” Our God is a generous God.   He wants to lavish His love on His children.   How much does He love us if He didn’t spare His own Son for our sake?   We tend to think in selfish terms.   We have a laundry list of things that we want Him to give us or to do for us.   We are like children who when they don’t get their way throw a temper tantrum and complain that their parents don’t love them. If we approach Him with this mindset we will miss all that He actually gives us. Try this experiment. Keep a notebook handy and starting tomorrow when you wake up write down everything that God does for you.   Did you wake up? Did you have a roof over your head? Did you have clean clothes to put on? Did you have food for breakfast?   On and on write down everything that God has provided for you.   Pretty soon you will get tired of writing down everything