Offence

Jeremiah 29:13 When you seek me in prayer and worship, you will find me available to you. If you seek me with all your heart and soul, 

I watched a little of the Olympic fencing.  I don’t understand much about that sport but i did observe the one on the offense was at the advantage.  I appeared once you are in a defensive mode it is difficult to get back into an offensive mode.  The same is true with our spiritual lives.  As long as we stay fully “armed” with God’s Holy Spirit and His Word we can stay on the offensive mode against all the firery darts and temptations of Satan.  Once we allow one to get through to us and we must then defend the struggle against the sins of this carnal world becomes harder.  Our question is how do we stay on the offensive?  We stay current with our confessions, current in an attitude of forgiveness for others (as well as ourselves), our minds full of  God’s written Word and maintained fellowship with God through prayer, meditation and obedience.  Once again, the choice is ours.  It doesn’t happen automatically.  It takes our time and effort.  No one can give it to us.  We must work for it.   God says we must seek Him with our whole heart, mind and soul.

Are We Sleeping?

Matthew 26:45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. (The Holy Bible, New International Version)

This is a question we must each ask ourselves. Are we sleeping and resting? None of us know when it is our last hour on this earth. None of us know when Jesus will come back for His Bride (the body of believers). What are we doing? Are we too tired to share His power and glory and Words with others? Are we too tired to reach our hand out to those in need? What are we doing with our time? Is what we doing going to last into eternity or will we have forgotten it by th3 next day? Let’s not be found sleeping and resting when God is moving. We must stay alert – keep our spiritual eyes and ears open to the movement of God on this earth and in the people of this earth. God will have His way. His purpose will be fulfilled. Our question is will we be part of it or will we miss it? Ask today and everyday for a refreshing infilling of His Holy Spirit to make our eyes, ears and hearts attuned to His movement. Let us be found working when He calls for us.

Be Dressed

Luke 12:35 “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning (The Holy Bible, New International Version)

Be dressed and ready for service? How do we do that? We can’t live our lives always dressed. Jesus is meaning for us to be dressed in His salvation. We are robed in His righteousness. We can take that robe off by turning our backs on Him and going our own ways. What is our service? Our service is worshiping God through our words, our thoughts and our actions. Are we always ready to give God the credit or do we like to take credit for His work through us as being our own credit? Keep our lamps burning? Our lamps are to burn so others can see God’s light shining in and through us. (See devotion titled “The Globe”) The only way I can stay dressed ready for service and keep my lamp burning is through what I call spiritual breathing. First I exhale by confessing my sins to God as soon as I’m aware of them. Then I inhale by asking Him to fill those places in me with His Holy Spirit. This is a multiple times a day event for me. There are many times I open my mouth and let words come out that hurt even though that is not my intention. There are many times I should open my mouth that I choose to stay silent. There are times I should pick up the phone and call someone going through a struggle or who is lonely and times I should make a visit but I fail to do either. Life is full of choices. We need to learn to choose according to God’s word and the furthering of His Kingdom here on earth.

Be Careful

Hebrews 2:1 We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. (The Holy Bible, New International Version.)

This is a very good caution. We tend to move ahead too fast and make decisions too fast without remembering what we’ve read in God’s written Word or what He has gently spoken to our spirits. So often we miss the quiet, inner voice of God because we aren’t careful to listen or to recognize Him. We live very distracted lives. We tend to think we are humans with a little spiritual experience but we are really spiritual beings living a human experience. We are in the human experience only temporarily. Our spiritual being is from the time we accept Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, into our heart, mind and lives all the way through eternity which has no end. It would be so much better for us to be more careful to pay attention to what we hear in our spirits rather than what the temporal world is saying.

Conforming to the World

Romans 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.

In today’s world when people see something they want the go ahead and get it by any means. Some put it on plastic without thought of how pay for it later. Some just take it from others by force if necessary. We are a world consumed with materialism and self-indulgence. In the 12th chapter of Romans Paul talks about us being transformed. The world would shape us from the outside in, gradually depleting us of life. God would shape us from the inside out though the infilling of His Holy Spirit. Paul calls this transformation. It is not an intellectual process. It is a spiritual process that only God can do. Our part is desiring the transformation process of God and turning aside from the world make us conform to it’s image. How can we tell if we are being transformed? Ask yourself a few questions. Is your life more like Jesus today than it was last year? Are your attitudes, values, convictions and the practical stuff of your life more consistent with the way God revealed in Jesus than they were last month? Are you more cent3ered in prayer than last week? Tomorrow we will see how we can co-operate with God in the transforming process.