Do You Feed On The Fire Of Holy Spirit?
Good Morning Friends,
There is nothing so challenging in our faith in the flesh than to grasp the person of the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit’s effects are seen but the Holy Spirit is invisible like the wind and sometimes ethereal like a dream or vision. And yet we get a glimpse of this power in today’s scripture about the bread of Angels and the bread of life given to us by Jesus. And thankfully this Holy Spirit power is manifested in the message of the Gospel, the Power of Scripture, the fellowship of believers, the recognition of our spiritual gifting and the utilization of our gifts in callings and not just in the dreams of sleep but in the flames of our faith. How Do You Feed On The Fire Of Holy Spirit?
Scripture: But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.
1 Kings 19:4-8 (NRSV)
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Ephesians 4:30-5:2 (NRSV)
Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
John 6:41-51 (NRSV)
Message: When we are converted, we received a change of mind, and a change of heart. Yet this is not a once and done experience, but an on-going process which will not be completed this side of eternity. For we have been changed, we are being changed, and we will be changed by the Holy Spirit. Thankfully the Holy Spirit has been made available to us all, so we really need to do is to make ourselves available to the Holy Spirit. You see, I hope, that Jesus has poured out this gift, so we might experience God and be transformed. And the beauty, so we not get too heady about it, is that God has done this for everyone not just a few. Regrettably few take advantage of God’s gift of God and many try to suppress, stop or stifle the Spirit. The great sin is in grieving the Spirit with a bad attitude marked by bad behavior. And sometimes we just need a fresh vision of Jesus dying for us to open our eyes to just how sinful we really are to each other and to God. Friends, the Holy Spirit is invisible, unpredictable, and uncontrollable. The Spirit comes and goes as the Spirit wishes for God will be what God will be. And yet, the Holy Spirit is caught up with the person of Jesus and the person of the Father as to blur in our minds in a dance so ordered as the courses of the planets in the solar system, but still motivated by love more than the laws of gravity. And that is the mystery. The multi-dimensional aspect of the Trinity plays into the experience and becomes a revelation that prompts our belief and gives us strength to go on with a proper attitude of love and so we might see more clearly the will of God. So, the Holy Spirit remains a bit enigmatic and yet I would say that the love of the Holy Spirit sustains us and is manifested in the redemption of Jesus and creates in us, through the Father, a newness of mind that is nothing short of divine revelation. This is not a fleeting and capricious reality but an anchor for our very souls in the only reality of life that really matters. Friends, we are to be on fire for God and the Holy Spirit will help us. Join the dance.
Pray we embrace the high calling of God in Jesus Christ revealed through the Holy Spirit. Pray we experience the Holy Spirit in the message of the Gospel, the Power of Scripture, the fellowship of believers, the recognition of our spiritual gifting and the utilization of our gifts in callings. Pray we operate as free men and women in Christ Jesus, unhindered by personal fear and guilt yet still comforted and convicted by the Holy Spirit so our love might grow. Pray we seek to match up to the standard of holiness set by God, manifested in Christ and revealed by the Holy Spirit to us. Pray we press on to the goal in peace and harmony with others on the quest. Pray we be in the world but not of it. Pray we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Pray we not quench the fire. Pray we take and eat of the mystery so we might have strength for the journey. Pray we take the direction and guidance and grace of the Holy Spirit seriously.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 