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January 6 - January 19, 2020
While the direction, pace, and length of the routine are the same whether I walk alone or with someone, a good companion makes a distinct difference in my overall enjoyment and well-being.
What I have needed is a walking partner. For life. Someone who would come alongside me and share every step of my journey, day in and day out. Someone in whom I could confide. Someone with whom I could discuss issues that are on my mind. Someone who would answer my questions. Help me with decisions. Listen to my complaints, my fears, my worries, my dreams. Someone I could trust. Believe. Enjoy. Someone whose very presence would bring joy. And peace. And hope. Someone who would know me. Who would understand me. Someone who would love me!
Because God has given me the ultimate walking partner for life: His Spirit. And not just for life, but forever!1
One thing I know for certain: He is not an optional extra in my Christian life. He is a divine necessity.
I
have learned day in and day out that the Holy Spirit is all that Jesus is, though without His physical body. He is Jesus without skin. Just as Jesus is the exact representation of God the Father, the Spirit is the exact representation of Jesus’s mind, will, and emotions. He is the invisible Jesus. The Holy Spirit is…Jesus in me!
The Holy Spirit is not a thing but a person. His personhood is emphasized in John 16, when eleven times in eight verses, He is referred to by the personal, masculine pronouns He, Him, and His.1
We are speaking of a “He.” He is a living person who has a mind, a will, and emotions. He is referred to as the third person of the Trinity not because He is the least but because He is the third person to be more fully revealed in Scripture.
In fact, the book of Acts is not about the acts of the disciples or the early church. It is a book about the acts of the Holy Spirit as He worked in and through the disciples and the early church.
Whereas the Holy Spirit in His role as advocate pleads your cause and defends you, as an intercessor He actively works between you and others to reconcile differences. An intercessor is a mediator, and the Holy Spirit stands ready to serve as your go-between when relationships are strained or broken.
One wonderful aspect of the Holy Spirit is that if He indwells you and indwells the person with whom you have a strained or broken relationship, you can pray and stir Him up within both of you. Ask Him to work in your heart and the other person’s heart to bring you together.
So it’s critically important to establish a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ…now.
…That the Spirit was another counselor. …That the Spirit was a distinct person from Jesus but just like Him. …That the Spirit would come from the Father. …That the Spirit was with the disciples at that time but would be in them at a future time.
The Holy Spirit no longer just comes upon certain select people. The Holy Spirit now comes into anyone and everyone who places faith in Jesus Christ.
The very same power of the Holy Spirit that transformed planet Earth in the beginning is available to transform human life today.
The Savior looked at him and saw not who he was but who he would become.5
Finally you come to the point where you acknowledge you need more than your own willpower.
Ask yourself whether it’s worth the cost to withhold some area of life from the Holy Spirit. Because His power in your life is activated in direct proportion to the degree you surrender and fully rely on Him.
You and I have not been commanded to be successful as we tell others about Jesus. We have not been commanded to lead others to place their faith in Him. We are commanded simply to be faithful in declaring the truth.
It’s a huge relief to know that it’s not my job to convict anyone else of sin. That’s the Holy Spirit’s job.
But in the end the most effective thing I can do is to pray for them with a heart full of love. Because the power to transform is His alone.
We lack clarity in prioritizing our days because we have no clearly defined purpose in life.
Our rebirth is a result of His quickening miracle in our lives.
“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”3 In my experience the quickening of spiritual life has come in tandem with the reading and studying of God’s Word.
he followed God in obedient faith one step at a time, for the rest of his life.
So if we don’t know Him as the people did in the Bible, nothing is wrong with God, but there is something wrong with us.
our lives’ purpose overall is to glorify God and enjoy Him in the process. In other words, we are to live so that when others see us or hear us or know us, they will be drawn to God and want to know Him too.
whatever you are, your goal is to draw people to Jesus by what you do and say…by who you are…so that they want to know Him for themselves. Achieving that goal helps fulfill your life’s purpose of bringing glory to God!
And the Holy Spirit quickens, or stimulates, our love for God to such a degree that we want to do something for Him.
Your entire life’s experience is worthwhile and can be used to make an eternal impact in the life of someone else.
the Holy Spirit can use the broken pieces of our lives to bring blessing and life to others—and ultimately glory to God!
“What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”
It would be because He was intentional. Focused.
“Therefore have I set my face like flint.”7
Like a falling row of dominoes, your life’s purpose determines your goals that determine your priorities.
He uses everything that comes into our lives, good and bad, to apply the pressure that forms us into the shape He desires.
While the Holy Spirit is the source of our spiritual gifting, the gifts themselves are incredibly diverse. They are also individualized specifically for us, which makes each person’s unique—and uniquely crucial for bringing glory to God.
Read it, study it, love it, live it.
When you or I go outside His directions for living—His road markings—we wind up with less than God intended us to have.
“If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me.”
“Just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’ ”8
One of the responsibilities of the Holy Spirit is to make us holy as He is holy.
It’s as though we just wanted to add Jesus to our lives, instead of turning everything over to Him so that He is our life.
The Holy Spirit within us is our “engagement ring.”
The law was considered God’s gift of love to His people.
The indwelling of the Holy Spirit—the seal—guarantees that we belong to God.
The thrilling application for you and me is that the Holy Spirit is God’s proof of ownership!
Well, God doesn’t doubt or question or lack assurance of His ownership, because He has sealed you with His stamp of proof, the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is your pledge and your proof that God is committed to you. He will be faithful to you.
My mother had the ability to quickly wrap her mind and her heart around whatever the issue was. She just “got it.”
