Tag Archives: god

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES: DEC. 10, 2024

Leave a comment

There is something I’m becoming very awake to as I am beginning each of my devotional times with a couple of worship songs. They awaken my spirit to God’s Holy Spirit and I desire fully for Him to be my spirit this day as I surrender to Him. With my spirit fully committed I find new meaning to the first piece of armor God provides for us as told in Ephesians 6:14–the belt of truth. In my flesh I want to rationalize all that I do. If a selfish act is being desired, I want to put brackets around it and say that it wasn’t hurting anyone and no one even needs to know about it. It is just for me. Well, when I am surrendered fully to God’s Holy Spirit in me, all I can do is admit the truth. It just doesn’t matter what the action is, if it is selfishly committed and I have to look away from God’s nudge within me, it is sin.

Romans 14:23b says, “…and everything that does not come from faith is sin.” The preface to this statement from Paul is stating so much about how we treat others. His closing statement in this chapter is the quote. God wants us to live by faith in His Son and His Son’s Gift of The Holy Spirit to us when we accept Him into our lives. We cannot continue to live by flesh’s desires rather than living by the faith that whatever temptation comes our way, God’s promise to “provide a way of escape” (I Corinthians 10:13) is ours. The belt of truth helps us to know this for the verse in Ephesians 6:14 starts by saying, “Stand your ground….”. When we put faith to work in our lives we can stand our ground for we are doing so in the strength of The Holy Spirit rather than the futile strength of our flesh.

For so long I’ve known all of this. Putting it together each day as I “worship” God is taking what I have known and allowing it to become my daily experience.

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES: DEC. 9, 2024

Leave a comment

It seems my journey has brought me face to face with something I’ve never intentionally faced before now–flesh vs spirit. We always have both, but which one is going to dominate? Our flesh houses our spirit and it was created to do so. Our mind, I’m rather certain, was the control center for our flesh to do its functional work keeping the home of our spirit healthy. Then came sin.

This focus for me on starting my devotional time with genuine worship that awakens me to my spirit yielding entirely to God’s Holy Spirit within is simply amazing. I find myself not wanting to end it for the transformation is a place where God is so present that all I want to do is remain, rejoice, fall on my knees, and so much more! I asked God this morning what He feels like when all of the world is basking in His Presence? I seemed to just catch a smile.

God is so AMAZING and so beyond what our words can express. His Love is His Grace and from His Grace we are given His Mercy. What more could a child want from his Heavenly DAD!

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES: DEC. 8, 2024

Leave a comment

As our small group of men met yesterday morning we began a lesson which needs to be done in two sessions. It was just too deep and too much to complete in one session. The topic is bringing the importance of worship into one’s worship and warfare praying. This very topic is what I have truly never understood until I started experiencing it. Starting my devotional time with worship (songs of praise and thanksgiving that quiet my flesh and allows my spirit to be overtaken by God’s Holy Spirit) has awakened me to a reverence I’ve only known once in a while through my lifetime. I’m now beginning to see my need for this worship each and every day. Being in spirit while I read God’s Word allows HIs Holy Spirit to bring meaning to the Word I’ve missed so many, many times. What is even more humbling to me is the tender, intense solidity of God’s Spirit’s grounding. As I pray I don’t need to pray in fleshly hope, but in the hope of assurance God IS in control of every aspect of life–not just for me, but for everyone for which I pray.

I hate to confess this, but I need too. As much as I love music, I even more so love quiet. Starting my devotional time with a worship song/chorus seemed invasive and I wouldn’t do this at first. Lately I’ve taken the step to do what the assignment said rather than avoid it. This simple step of obedience has been overwhelmingly insightful. In so doing I now know what entering into genuine worship during my devotional time does. It transforms this time into much richer meaning and confidence for what God wants me to know from Him. This carries into my day even when my flesh wants to control a portion of the day.

Oh, the importance of simple obedience!

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES: DEC. 5, 2024

Leave a comment

There is a beautiful awakening God has for each one of us as we start to grow in our new life given to us. This new life is entirely consumed with our understanding of Spirit-living rather than flesh-living. Romans 6-8 defines this extremely well. I’ve read these chapters endlessly over the years. Much of all three chapters are underlined and underlined again for their significance. However, when I read them before I did so for the sake of knowing and then wondered how this could be true for me? I’d pray that God would make what is written real for me.

This morning as I asked Jesus what He wanted me to know from Him for today, as I was ending my journal writing, His response was to praise Him and His Holy Spirit for what they are doing which I can see and experience. Then, continue to praise Them for what they will be doing and are doing that I know nothing about but TRUST They are doing.

As I began reading again the three chapters of Romans I quit trying to wrap my mind around the message and simply asked God’s Spirit to speak. This time as I read the words I quit attempting flesh understanding of this message for the message tells how Spirit is at work and all of what these chapters say is about God’s Spirit through Christ and His Holy Spirit paving our way to HIs GLORIOUS FREEDOM. I can never be anchored in my flesh for it is sin based. My spirit however is Christ-based and my anchor is found there so letting my surrendered spirit to Jesus be the center of my new life is my anchor. PRAISE BE TO GOD OUR FATHER!

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES: DEC. 4, 2024

Leave a comment

My awakening to the significance of spirit is completely consuming. I can’t get away from it and I don’t want to get away from it. This reality of our own spirit given to us now surrendered to God’s Holy Spirit which is also within is no longer a concept to have with little understanding; it is a genuine reality I can see within me and I can truly rejoice because of it.

There is a gentleman who has been coming for a few months now. When he first started he wanted to overcome a “somewhat addiction” to alcohol and to grow in his walk with God. At the time of his arrival I simply asked if he would be ok working on his walk with God and to see if this walk would possibly take care of his “somewhat addiction”? This has been working. So, yesterday when he came he was attempting to tell me about an experience he’d had during a devotional time just a few days back. As he was describing it and unable to put words to its significance, I asked if this experience was with his spirit? He said an emphatic YES!

It is very easy to put words to our flesh since we live very awake in it 24/7. Even though we have our own spirit 24/7 we rarely are in tune to it, so putting words to it seems tough. I use the idea that things of the spirit are better explained as an experience rather than something to know. Once you’ve experienced something it stays with you. Knowing something might stay in our mind someplace, but recalling it becomes dim quickly.

Oh how I want to grow in God’s Spirit within me letting Him better consume me 24/7 replacing this dying flesh of mine. There is always something new about God’s Great GIFT to us that we can benefit from experiencing once we are awake to His Presence in us. I want to stay very much awake!

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES: DEC. 3, 2024

Leave a comment

Well, the last chore of fall clean-up got finished yesterday. My 2nd oldest grandson came out and we bagged all of the fall leaves. Raking them is one thing easy for one to do. But, bagging them is so much better done by two and waiting for my helper to come was well worth it. Not only is he a great help, he is just a great young man. He’s my barber now so it is fun to hear his barbering stories as we work.

God has been awakening me to my need to come to Him daily understanding that if I’m to truly worship Him I need to do so in spirit and truth. I’ve always loved worship for it awakens my own spirit which has seemed dormant as I have lived much of life. But, most recently I’m being brought into the Light of God’s Spirit.

Yesterday, as I was doing the lesson for my Saturday morning group, the focus is on spiritual warfare. The previous lessons have been on Worship in spirit and truth and let this experience take root in routine practice. Now, moving on to spiritual warfare, I become fully awakened to the truth that Satan is spirit too. These things I’ve known most of my life but not had them confronted as this curriculum does so well. This is called spiritual warfare because it is spirit. Christ defected Satan’s plan in His Spirit and He wants us to be very aware of our own spirit and our need to address the evil attacks of our flesh with our spirit surrendered to His Holy Spirit Who is God’s Holy Spirit given to us. There is a huge difference between knowing this and experiencing it. I’m finally into the experiencing side. It is AMAZING! It is an entirely different thing to move from knowing into experiencing. Good experiences grow healthy habits and that is what we want to do.

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES: DEC. 1, 2024

Leave a comment

There is a growing awareness within me regarding spirit. God is Spirit, Jesus was first Spirit and took upon himself flesh so He could be the righteous sacrifice for you and me. Then, there is God’s Holy Spirit Whom Jesus gave to you and me as we accepted Him into our lives as our Savior and then Lord. All of this is just plainly wonderful! Yet, what is wonderful is only a beginning to our new life. This new life given to us cannot be understood in our logical flesh mind. If I cannot connect to my surrendered spirit so God’s Holy Spirit can lead me, this logical mind of mine will try to put fleshly understanding into God’s Heavenly meaning.

Satan is fully aware of our flesh and its sinful limitations so that his deceptive ways factor right into what my fleshly mind and emotions grasp. I lived a very long time thinking these deceptions were truth for me when they were only evil’s lies. As I am going through this study with a couple small groups of men, I am awakening to the meaningful truth of God’s Holy Spirit within me. Spirit and flesh are not a marriage. They are opposing forces at work within us. Only when I surrender my willful flesh to God’s Spirit within me do I find the Peace I am to put my feet into as I allow God’s Spirit to put on His armor on me each and every day. This particular piece of armor is called the Gospel of Peace which we are to put our feet into.

Well, this journey of life does continue and I never want to stop learning especially from God’s Holy Spirit Who has been waiting for me to be a better student for HIm.

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES: NOV. 26, 2024

Leave a comment

Praise–In the flesh, praise is given when something great has taken place and you give praise and thanks to the one who is praiseworthy. There is an entirely different realm to praise when it comes to giving praise to God. In flesh we praise when it is connected to something concrete that has taken place. In spirit, we praise because of Faith in God. Praise in this case is not tangible. It is built on FAITH/TRUST/HOPE that the God Who gave us salvation will walk us through anything we are presently facing.

I recall when I was facing my divorce and the years subsequent to it, being asked to praise God in spite of these circumstances. I recall years later when I was asked to praise God not because of my childhood abuse, but because God is always praiseworthy. In those years of my life I would attempt to do this (not often) and most always I’d end up hating God at the moment because NOTHING seemed praiseworthy. I’d ask, “Why am I suppose to praise you when I try so hard to serve you and I keep getting more hurt piled onto what is already there?!”

I have several counseling cases of present where their hurt is raging. They come for counsel and then they call during the week needing encouragement and daily guidance. I know God is wanting me to do for them what He had others do for me–point me back to Him. Today I see so clearly how God was using everything in my past to grow me into a more complete servant. I had a lot of “boundaries” for God back then. I would serve Him in ways that I felt safe and would never serve Him in the ways I do today.

GOD IS PRAISEWORTHY! It has taken me a lifetime to grow FAITH to where it is today. Planting seeds for others is a step I need to take. Helping to grow the garden of FAITH, TRUST and HOPE within each of us is a garden God wants me to help bloom. The season may be winter for some, but SPRING is on its way.

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES: NOV. 17, 2024

Leave a comment

I wrote yesterday about the session in the morning would be the last one for the week re-engaging all of them. The session was with the young men I’ve written about in past using the material titled: Every Man A Pure Warrior. The lesson title was Aggressive Worship. That title bothered me somewhat in that I’ve always seen aggressive as a negative rather than a positive. Doing the lesson ahead of time was enjoyable, but going through the lesson yesterday brought about some awakening I have needed all of my life.

Worship has always been an important time for me. It is easy for me to lose my flesh self momentarily and let my spirit soar praising God and letting His Spirit be mine. A line in the lesson said, “Offer your body and body parts to God as an act of worship and clothe your body with the armor of God.” During the lesson time we discussed the part of clothing oneself with the armor of God as a part of worship. I’ve never once thought of this act as a part of worship until this became a talking point. This morning while journaling I was expressing my question mark to Jesus. It was then He pointed out that when my spirit joins The Holy Spirit and I allow the Holy Spirit to be my spirit I begin the opportunity to do as the phrase above says–offer my body and parts to The Holy Spirit which then allows Him to be my Armor of God. If I have this right, it is in Spirit I find strength of God becoming my own strength. I’ve never found God’s Strength maintained when I approach it in my flesh–my mind. It is when I approach this in my spirit that I find God’s Strength. Good grief, God is Spirit so why has this been such a mystery until now? I’m going to be spending a good deal more time allowing this to manifest itself in me.

Well, the journey does continue!

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES: NOV. 11, 2024

Leave a comment

The day has come to return home and reengage in the life of home. I believe each one of us on this trip has profited from being gone these 12 days and God has strengthened an appreciation for family in us. Only in these last few years have I believed that I could be an important member to our family. Realizing that differences in talents and personality are on purpose and not weaknesses is a real awakening for me. God does on purpose what He does in creating you and me.

As I began to read the book of Acts this morning I am reminded how unifying God is with His people. When we allow the Holy Spirit to become our leader we will automatically unify. God has different assignments for each of us, but in doing these assignments, we are not to think someone else’s assignment is of lesser importance. That is our flesh speaking, not The Holy Spirit. We shouldn’t bicker over differences, but work to understand why the differences are important. Unifying our efforts is always critically important.

Keeping our eyes of Jesus and listening to His Gift–The Holy Spirit within us is an everyday, every moment of each day assignment. I never want to forget this.