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May 17 - May 21, 2024
Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is knowing the difference between right and almost right.”
God is infinite, beyond our comprehension, and outside of the limits that creation is bound by.
He moves from coming “upon” believers in the Old Testament to entering “into” believers under the new covenant through Christ. The Holy Spirit is God,
The Father loves you and calls you his own (1 John 3:1), the Son died for you and calls you to believe (John 11:25–26), and the Spirit fills you and transforms you as you follow Jesus (1 Cor. 6:11; Eph. 5:18).
If someone were to say they believe in the Holy Spirit but do not believe he is God, what would you say to them to prove his deity?
How do you encounter the Holy Spirit? By believing the gospel of Jesus Christ, placing your faith for salvation wholly on him, abandoning your works and human strivings, repenting of your sin, and relishing in his perfect ability to save you from a life of destruction here on earth and in eternity.
The Holy Spirit invades your life not through feelings but through faith. Feelings undoubtedly will be a byproduct of faith, but faith is the foundation.
We hype and promote and position and tweet and inadvertently create pews full of consumers instead of devoted worshipers of God,”
Jesus promised that when the Spirit comes, he would convict the world about their sin because they do not believe in him (vv. 8–9). Even if people are not Christians, the Spirit will convict their hearts regarding their unbelief. He will impress upon their hearts the truth that they are great sinners and that Jesus is a greater savior.
No matter what the response of our human hearts, the Holy Spirit’s convicting work is universal. He presses in on every human conscience regarding morality, and especially does so when the truth of Scripture is put in front of them.
God has put eternity in the hearts of all people (Eccl. 3:11). Everyone is searching for the “more” that can be found only in God.
It doesn’t matter who someone is or how successful they are in earthly circles of influence, the greatest influencer is the Spirit of God, and without him, every human soul will remain empty and in search of lasting satisfaction.
Make a list of the sources he uses in your life to bring conviction upon your heart.
you need to commit to loving correction.
Think of it in spiritual terms: the worst form of judgment on this side of heaven is to be left to your own devices, lost in sin—for God not to even bother to intervene. That is the scene in Romans 1:24, where the Bible says that “God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity” (NASB 1995). People who ignore the conviction of the Spirit are left stuck in the muck of their love for sin. In contrast, people who live with conviction go farther, grow faster, and get results more than those who live without conviction, because they are living for something bigger than themselves.
If you’re going to grow as a believer in Jesus and take full advantage of the Spirit’s powerful work, commit to loving his conviction, loving the discomfort of hard truth, loving the disruption of correction, and loving the pain that comes with spiritual progress.
Why do you think people have a difficult time being teachable and receiving correction?
Who do you look up to spiritually? What is it about their walk with the Lord that inspires you? Ask them what the keys to their growth are.
We have this idea that the older we get, the more perfect we will be and that eventually we don’t ever sin. But older men who have been growing in godliness for years are much less likely to talk about their sinless perfection. On the contrary, their increase in wisdom with age breeds great humility.
What a humbling reality that even though we are great sinners, our God is a greater savior.
To be holy and set apart means to live your life in a way that seeks to honor God above anything or anyone else. To be holy as he is holy means to consider your conduct, decisions, worldview, and mindset in light of his Word, not according to the pressures or winds of this world. This is what it means to be sanctified.
The strongest Christian still sins, wrestles with pride, says things they wish they didn’t, covets what others have, loses eternal perspective, and makes decisions they regret. Even if they’ve mastered being well-behaved on the outside, the mind is the last great battleground against sin. Our actions may be tamed, but our thoughts need to be taken captive daily (2
Sanctification is not instant perfection but steady progress toward eternal perfection.
“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” (Ps. 119:11 KJV),
The bottom line is that though the two people were saved at the time same, one person is more diligent in seeking out solid teaching, discipleship, prayer, knowledge, and nurturing their growth, while the other is more lazy in their effort. Both are saved, but one is more diligent, so that person grows all the more.
Today, while we are not apostles receiving direct revelation to write down Holy Scripture, the Spirit is our teacher and he uses the Word implanted in our lives to bring about spiritual fruit.
They are disciplined in their reading but neglect to ask the Spirit to illuminate the Word.
One of the most helpful books I have ever read on the subject of studying God’s Word is by my friend Nate Pickowicz, titled How to Eat Your Bible.
If you’ve felt grief over people like this, it’s a good sign of your own salvation, because a deep love for others is the mark of a genuine believer (John 13:35).
spend more time in prayer today or tomorrow, asking the Spirit to open your eyes, to ignite your heart with a never-ending hunger for the Word, and to give you greater understanding of and appreciation for who your God is and how you ought to live
It doesn’t matter whether we’re pastors or new Christians, you and I need to make a bigger deal about our sanctification. Let’s admit our weakness, embrace the Spirit’s strength, and prioritize the things that progressively grow us, not the things that prohibit our growth.
one day you will either look back with gratitude on the hard decisions you made to prioritize your sanctification, or you’ll look back with excuses and regrets.
The Father prepared our salvation, the Son paid for our salvation, and the Spirit preserves our salvation. How should this reality impact the way you pray and praise God?
We either live purposefully according to the flesh, or we live purposefully according to the Spirit. If you preoccupy yourself with worldly pursuits, the deeds of the flesh are going to dominate you. If you preoccupy yourself with Spirit-focused pursuits, the deeds of the Spirit will direct and rule you.
If you want to work hard at something, work hard at resisting legalism. Work hard at cutting out anything that tempts you to think you can earn God’s favor by man-made rules. Work hard at fixing your eyes on Jesus.
No one was ever commanded to seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit or to pray for it. Unlike some of the practices of charismatics or Pentecostals today, no one in the book of Acts, or in the whole Bible for that matter, was ever commanded to be baptized in the Holy Spirit or to seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It was never presented as something one must seek. Not one instance in the Scriptures even slightly mirrors today’s charismatic practice of inviting people to the altar to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and receive the gift of tongues. The Spirit always came upon people according to
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You cannot experience the ongoing filling of the Spirit and the benefits of that if you walk in the flesh.
When the Holy Spirit is the dominating influence over a person’s life, that person will produce fruit from the Spirit.
something always happens when people are filled with the Holy Spirit: they proclaim the gospel.
Based on what Scripture teaches, the filling of the Spirit may accompany a special zeal or a feeling of exuberance and joy or a deep conviction that erupts into godly action, but much of it will focus on obedience to Christ and bearing fruit in everyday life.
A heart that is bowed low before God in humility is prepared to be used greatly by God.
God’s holiness calls us to worship with reverence and order, not with a casual spirit or one of chaos.
The way they present the worship of God matters because God’s holiness matters, and God’s people matter.
We can worship with passion, but let’s not compromise truth. I heard John Piper once say, “A congregation learns its theology by the songs they sing, not just by the preaching they hear.” Passion, no matter how good it sounds or looks, must be rooted in truth.
Do you focus on God’s holiness in your worship? Are your prayers marked by adoration even more than by supplication? Oftentimes our songs are a reflection of our hearts. Do the lyrics point to us? Is God a means to our end? How many repeated choruses are about us, how we feel, what we want, what we need, going on and on about ourselves?
The truth is that people with the gift of faith don’t deny facts and are very aware of the realities but smile with confidence in God because the bigger the mountain, the more glory he receives when human fears, doubts, worries, and wisdom are put to shame by his great power.
Tongues are quite obviously human languages in the book of Acts where Luke records the various languages that were being spoken:
Some use 1 Corinthians 14:2 as an argument for tongues not only being known languages but also being ecstatic utterances (as many charismatics practice today). Paul writes, “For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit” (ESV). But I do not find the arguments for this very convincing since the mysteries can simply be defined as that which was never known before, much like prophesying, not to mention that Paul’s overall point is to explain how prophecy is more helpful for the Corinthians than tongues anyway,
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Gene] always depicts things that are related to each other. For example, there are many ‘kinds’ of fish, but they are all fish (Matt. 13:47). There are many ‘kinds’ of demons, but they are still demons (Matt. 17:21). There are many ‘kinds’ of languages and tongues in the world, but they are all known languages. Paul could not have possibly combined known foreign languages with unknown ecstatic utterances under the same classification. They are simply not related.”
Biblical prophets were able to hit the bull’s-eye every time. They did not miss once. Prophecy was a miracle, not a human attempt to share something encouraging.
