| 個人檔案Practicing His presence....相片部落格清單 |  工具  說明 |
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1月23日 Practical filling of GodI'm learning to feed off of His word more than ever now. About a
week or so ago... At night... I just got done watching csi or without a trace or
something... and then I sat down to give God His "15 minutes". I prayed the
usual prayer... Lord, fill me with your word. Open my heart to receive it. But
something clicked. Its like He said to me... "so let me get this straight. You
just filled your head with the world for the last 2-3 hours, and you want Me to
fill you in 15 minutes?" And it just made so much sense. I thought of that
Phil 3 verse last night where Paul said that he considers whatever would have
been gain to him as a loss so that he could gain Christ. I mean... Yeah... I
enjoy those shows. They are interesting. They are exciting. But they are the
world. The worlds ideas. The world's belief system. The world's misery. So I
determined, for our household, that we were not going to turn on the TV in the
evenings. I figured if Teresa and I were just going to sit there and watch the
box and not talk, then we might as well be productive and read something
edifying and not talk. It has been really fruitfull last week doing that.
There is a practical part of being "filled" also... What is the ratio of how
much you are being filled with the world vs how much you are being filled by God
and His word. How much time does God get vs the world. I really wrestled with
that question last week. 1月10日 Just ask...Luke 11:9-13 Let me start with an analogy. You get in the car and turn the key. Crank.... crank.... crank..... nothing. Crank.... crank.... crank..... NOTHING! Hmm. You pop the hood and everything looks good. In fact... this could be a top of the line race car to the tune of $100k. So everything in the engine looks really good. There is not a thing wrong with this car. Then you figure out that its out of gas, only you don't know that it takes gas.... you just know that the tank is empty. Until you fill it, you have a really nice car that is just taking up space. It seems lately that God has been pressing on me the importance of asking for a filling of the Holy Spirit. In reflecting on why that is, I've realy begun to notice that we are so dependant on the flesh. Ponder on this for a bit, it's not the fruit on the tree that CAUSES the tree to be good or bad. The fruit are simply an indicator of whether the tree is good or bad. In the same way... our works don't CAUSE us to be good or bad, they are an indicator of whether or not the Holy Spirit abides in us. Dare I say, for believers, it indicates to what degree the Holy Spirit abides. Most of us who don't believe that works save us would say that that is stating the obvious. Yet how many of us think that if we just pray more frequently, or if we just read more, or if we just give more that we will be spiritually blessed. Though these are good things, they are but fruit. My friends... we have this backwords. We think the fruit is going to bring the Holy Spirit into us. Though we don't voice this, our mindsets tend to move this direction. In whatever we do... we need to ask the Father to fill us with His Spirit. It always starts there. Listen to what Paul says to the Galatians. Infact... don't stop there, pull out your Bible and read all of Galatians. You see... much like noticing the bad fruit of the car not starting, we are noticing the bad fuit of our temper, impatience, lust, pride. No amount of works will bring the Holy Spirit into us to fix these things, just like replacing the battery or the engine isn't going to start the car. Luke 11 is in the context of Jesus teaching His disciples to pray. He is telling us that the Father knows the Holy Spirit is the essential part of our spiritual life, in the same way that a father will feed his children and will not keep from them what is needed. So... I leave you with your solution, just ask and believe. Start there. Father, thank you so much for your Holy Spirit. He is the best gift you can give any one of us. Forgive us that we think too little of Him and think of Him merely as a tool. He is a person in the Godhead and has power beyond our wildest imaginations, yet we do not think He can help at times. Forgive us Lord and fill us every moment of the day. May we ask in every situation and every decision. Fill our cups till they are overflowing. Drench us with Your Holy anointing.
12月7日 Turn your eyes upon JesusHebrews 12
2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. I've been reflecting lately on the holiness of God, trying to imagine someone being absolutely perfect in word and deed for all of eternity. It's just impossible to wrap our minds around. In fact, we tend to give up. Well, I've been reflecting on the "giving up" response.
If you're competitive like me, you tend to get a little defensive when you see someone doing something better than you can do. That is especially true when it is something that you are supposed to be excelling in. This is what I was tending to do with my focus on Christ. I was getting frustrated when it didn't seem as though I was being conformed to the image of Christ. My natural response was to stop looking at Christ because that was a constant reminder of how I was failing. I was focused too much on my sinfulness. We know that He died for our sins, that we have been cleansed by His blood. But there is this "working out your salvation" or walking out what we know to be true. Here in lies the problem. I was focused too much on my sinfulness.
Lately, by God's grace, I've been seeing it a little differently. I began spending most of my quiet time just focusing on His holiness. I found that the awareness of my sinfullness was fading and it became a time of just basking in His holiness. For that short time it seemed a wonderful escape from my sinfullness and an enjoyment of Him in His holiness. Focus has changed from my shortcomings to His cleansing presence. This isn't something that I set out to do, but became a natural response in finding enjoyment in who God is.
Recently I started a book called "Desiring God" by John Piper. In it he describes the fact that we are wired to seek pleasure. We can't stifle that. But the target of that pleasure seeking was meant to be God Himself. I'm not talking about physical pleasures here, but the pleasures in knowing the Father and the Son themselves. Isn't that what we are actually called to? To love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength. Our affection is to be for Him. Its much like a person finding a boyfriend or girlfriend for the first time. The burdons of everything that that person is required to do seem lighter because of this new joy in their life. That shoud be the same in our life with Christ. He is glorified when we find pleasure in Him. Christian duty and pleasure are not supposed to be seen as being incompatible. They are supposed to be found together in our walk. The words of this song seem to be more true than ever:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace
Lord, I'm incapable of loving the way I'm called to love. I'm incapable of loving you they way I should. Shed Your love abroad in our hearts. May our pleasures be sought in Your being and may You be glorified by it.
6月2日 Fullness of God...Ephesians 3:14-19 All I have to say is wow. Paul was a man who had confidence before God in Christ. Let's look at this prayer. In short... there is one thing that Paul is praying for the Ephesians. The rest of this prayer is the outcome of the thing he is praying for. What is he praying for? It is nothing less than the filling of the Spirit. "that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man." Paul asks for them to receive the power of the Holy Spirit in the inner man. This is the very beginning and end of our spiritual lives. Without the Holy Spirit, we can do absolutely nothing. Now let us look at the outcome of this: Luke 11:13 Lord, thank you so much for the faith and power that You give us through Your Spirit. Every good thing that comes forth from us has its roots in Your Spirit. Pour out Your Spirit on Your entire Church until we are full of the fullness of God. 5月31日 United in one mind and Spirit...Philippians 2:1-5 Our society is such an individualistic society that it carries over into our personal lives with God. You hear it all the time. God is a personal God. But this is a half truth. God desires us to be one, not a bunch of individuals. Sure we need that quiet time with Him, but we also need fellowship. The danger of this attitude is that we ignore the command, "Seek ye first His kingdom and His righteousness." We get in the habit of praying for our kingdoms, our comfort, our joy. The Holy Spirit was not sent to us to build our kingdom and as a result will not flow if that is our focus. The Holy Spirit was sent to build the kingdom of the Father and only His kingdom. He knows what our needs are physically and spiritually. The reason He set us free from these concerns is so that we could be free to work toward His kingdom. My brothers and sisters, remove the latch of the flood gates by joining me in seeking His kingdom first. Watch what happens when we are united in one mind, one spirit, and one goal - building His kingdom. |
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