Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Listen to the Spirit

My Utmost For His Highest
When you have a right-standing relationship with God, you have a life of freedom, liberty, and delight; you are God’s will. And all of your commonsense decisions are actually His will for you, unless you sense a feeling of restraint brought on by a check in your spirit. You are free to make decisions in the light of a perfect and delightful friendship with God, knowing that if your decisions are wrong He will lovingly produce that sense of restraint. Once he does, you must stop immediately. CHAMBERS

Have you ever seen the cartoon where there are two figures on the shoulders of the cartoon character .. one is an angel and the other a devil?  They are both trying to influence the decision of the main character.  It was not so long ago that the influence of the Word was seen in nearly every aspect of the American way of life .. today, not so much.  That voice in your ear to ‘do the right thing’ is the Spirit of God. 

Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left. (Isaiah 30:21)

‘For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God’ (Romans 8:13-16)

So when you are about to do something .. the Spirit of God will ‘check’ that act .. He won’t stop you from sinning .. but you will be reminded that what you are about to do is sin.  But on the flip side of that … the Spirit will also confirm that what you are about to do is the right thing.  The Spirit is not sitting in a car, behind a billboard with a radar gun, just waiting to catch you doing something wrong. We have not been given a spirit of fear ‘For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.’ (2 Timothy 1:7)

But at the same time, when the Spirit nudges us either way, the Word says ‘Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.’  (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22)

Listen for the Spirit to speak and then do what the Spirit says .. your life will be blessed … and you will be amazed at how God will use you for His glory. Oh, you are saying that you have messed up so many times that there is no way God can use you or would even want to use you … Read the Bible again about those men, and women, who messed up and God used in a mighty way … Don’t limit God and His grace and mercy, but at the same time, don’t trivialize Him thinking that you can live and do whatever you want and it doesn’t matter … God is Holy .. and He demands that we be holy … but we cannot be holy on our own .. only through the Cross … And if it took the Cross to bring us to God, don’t think that it doesn’t matter how you live your life in Christ … Well, this could go on and on .. I could probably write a book on the subject .. Oh wait, God already did!  Let your light shine among men today! 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

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