Faith Promise

In order for us to be involved in Faith Promise, we need to see the vision of God, and then respond to it as God wants us to respond. The Apostle Paul, while in Troas on his 2nd missionary journey, received a vision from the Lord to go up to Macedonia and preach the gospel. A Macedonian man pleaded for Paul to come and he responded, and as a result many were saved and a church started. God seldom gives us details when He calls, but he always leads us with a vision. 1) God’s vision and call is personal. When Jesus said to “go ye into all the world,” He called for us to go personally. Personally to our world, and personally to help others reach the world of their vision. 2) God’s vision is purposeful. God’s purpose is always to lead us to people who need to be saved, and grow in the Lord. There are Macedonian men everywhere, pleading for God’s help. 3) God’s vision is pursuable. Meaning that it is do-able. Whatever God calls us to do, or whatever vision He lays on our hearts and minds, He will help us achieve. While in Macedonia, Paul and his company were beaten & jailed for their faith, but God still provided for them. Macedonian men were saved, & the gospel preached, because they responded by faith to God’s vision.

God promised, now will you ?

November is again upon us, and I do believe that God is again asking us to continue giving toward Faith Promise. Some of you might be asking yourself whether or not you can give to Faith Promise this next year, while others of you are contemplating what to give. If you would just glance at the missions board, I do believe that the Holy Spirit would again remind you of the great need of world missions and our continued commitment. So don’t let the flesh win, but rather increase your giving or at least stay the same. Our God is still faithful even when our funds are down. “For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.” Don’t let the fear of the unknown dictate your faith. God can supply even during a famine. “Every man according as he hath purposeth in his heart, so let him give…For God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” I wonder how many of us have already been convinced by our fear that we can’t give, when we know full well that God tells us we can. “Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food.” God promised, now will you ?

Walking in and after the Holy Spirit

Walking in and after the Holy Spirit takes both faith and commitment, but I wonder how many people today are really “walking in and after the Spirit?” In (Rom. 6:11-13) the Apostle Paul outlines for us 3 keys that will help us walk closer to God. 1) Recognize ourselves dead to sin. In (Chp. 7) Paul relates the old life that we had before Christ, to that of a bad marriage, wherein the husband dies and frees the wife to be married to another. This new marriage is the new relationship we now have in Christ, with in whom we now live. 2) Obey him from the heart . In order to obey Christ properly, the believer must dethrone the old master, and let the new master reign. Like a wife in a new marriage, she must obey the new authority in her life, and forsake the old. She must now learn to practice the will and way of her new husband, obeying him from the heart. 3) Submit and yield yourself to him. There can be no fruit without intimacy. Walking with and after a new husband takes yielding. Just as the new wife must yield her all to the will and way of her new husband, so must we yield all to God’s Spirit. For it’s through intimacy with the Holy Spirit that we too will begin to bear the fruits of righteousness!

As the Bible tells us

As the Bible tells us, when someone gets saved they receive from God His indwelling Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit has been placed within us to comfort us, guide us, and abide with us forever. So a good question would be, “how then does He communicate with us?” Does He talk to us audibly? Well, the answer is both yes and no. Since God is Spirit, His voice does not speak to us as man speaks, but rather he impresses upon our hearts and minds spiritually His voice at different times. 1) He speaks to us through His Word. As we read God’s Word, it’s not uncommon to hear the voice of God instruct us. When we come to church and sit under the preaching and teaching of His Word, the Spirit speaks. Although it’s not as man speaks, it’s heard just as clear. 2) He speaks to us in prayer. Prayer is communication with God. God speaks in a still small voice, and many times He reveals to us His will in ways that although we don’t hear Him audibly, we just know. 3) He speaks as we yield ourselves to Him. His voice can be heard as a command to witness to someone, or to serve, or to give, or to just do. The Spirit desires our obedience, but we grieve (offend) Him when we sin, and we quench Him (put out the fire) by telling Him “No,” when commanded. If we want to here His voice, we must yield ourselves to listen for His voice.

Walk in the Spirit

As I have been studying the subject of walking in the Spirit, I find that in the Word of God, the Holy Spirit systematically lays out for each of us how God expects each of us to walk after salvation. It’s interesting to note that although there are many verses on Christian behavior, there is basically only 10 general commands on how to walk in the Spirit. And even just as interesting is the fact that they are listed in a chronological way through the N.T. As steps to follow. 1) Walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4). 2) Walk after the Spirit (Rom. 8:1,4). 3) Walk honestly (Rom. 13:3-4). 4) Walk by faith (2 Cor. 5:7). 5) Walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16). 6) Walk in good works (Eph. 2:10). 7) Walk worthy (Eph. 4:1) 8) Walk in love (Eph. 5:2) 9) Walk as children of the light (Eph. 5:8). 10) Walk circumspectly (Eph. 5:15). Some additional verses that I didn’t list, but are contained in principle in the above ten would be, (Col. 4:5) walk in wisdom, (2 John 1:6) walk after his commandments, (3rd John 1:6) walk in truth. The Holy Spirit in the above scriptures, has instructed each of us to not only walk after Christ, but to also walk as Christ walked. As we begin to walk in the Spirit the Bible adds additional light as we progress along the way. I wonder how many of us truly understand the manifold wisdom that is available to us as we Walk in the Spirit.

How do we get in the Spirit ?

What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and what does it mean to walk in the Spirit? Both are good questions, but both can be accomplished by simply denying the lusts of our flesh, and yielding ourselves to the full control of the Spirit of God. Somehow as Christians we act like both of these conditions are impossible to achieve, when the Bible clearly states just the opposite. Simply, “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh (Gal. 5:16). 1) How do we get in the Spirit ? By simply getting saved. (Rom. 8:9) says, “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” 2) Learn to walk in and after the Spirit. This is not a quick process, but it is achievable. If we are in Christ, and Christ is in us, then logically someone must lead. When our flesh leads we bear the fruit of selfishness and sin, but when the Spirit of God leads us we bear the fruit of righteousness and truth, because we are filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. To walk in and after the Holy Spirit the believer must yield total control of his will and ways back to God. Walking after the Spirit takes practice, and we will fail a time or two along the way, but it is definitely possible. So yield, and walk in the Spirit!

“To comfort, guide, and to abide forever.”

I still believe that inside every believer there is the desire to walk with the Lord. I also believe that the reason so many struggle in practicing such a walk, is simply because they just don’t know how! Christianity was never meant to be an up and down walk, where today we’re spiritual and tomorrow we’re not, but rather it was designed to be a consistent daily walk with and in the power of God’s Holy Spirit within. Every believer has the capability to do so, but we first must understand 3 things. 1) We need to know who the Holy Spirit is. The Bible is clear that the Spirit that indwells every believer is God. In fact, He is the Spirit of the Father, and Jesus Christ. 2) We need to know why God placed Him within. Jesus said plainly, “To comfort, guide, and to abide forever.” This is a great comfort, knowing that He will never leave us. It was the Father’s promise to keep us saved, and its His Word, not our obedience that keeps us saved. 3) We need to know what He’s doing within. The Holy Spirit is the agent of salvation. He is the one who washes us clean in the blood of Christ, who indwells us, baptizes us into the body of Christ, comforts, guides us into all truth, and that seals us until the time of our redemption . Seeing that He does so much for us, ought we not to walk in His Spirit, rather than in the spirit of our old flesh?