Guard Your Thoughts ***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  He whispers His counsel into my ear as my mind comes to conscious attention.

 “Bring every thought into the captivity of Christ”.

The Holy Spirit knows my deepest wrestles and there is no point in trying to be “righteous” and deny the mental assault by evil.  Almost before my feet hit the floor, He takes me back to a day when Jesus was asked by a distraught father to help his demonized son. The disciples were powerless to deliver this young boy and the matter ended up at the feet of Jesus.

Upon deeper assessment of the situation, Jesus addressed the father and asked if he believed that his son could be delivered.  The father replied, “Yes, I believe, help me in my unbelief”.   Mark 9:23

This situation is one we will all experience one time or another in our earthly journey with Jesus.  There will always be situations that call for faith beyond what we have at the moment of a crisis.  And, most of us who are Christians, will say, “Yes, I believe”, but then realize our weakness and come to confess, “Help me in my unbelief”.

The wisdom of God in creation is greater than we could ever attain with our finite minds.  We never arrive at the place where we know all things or where we can completely control anything.  The Holy Spirit reminds me yet again the words of Jesus, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” and that applies even to the condition of our faith and the caliber of our thoughts.

Jesus made it clear that His departure from planet earth was the best thing that could happen to humanity once He died for our sin.  By departing He would then send the Holy Spirit to supernaturally indwell all who would come to believe and acknowledge that He, Jesus, is God.

The 3^rd Person of the Triune Godhead was sent to dwell within us to complete our design.  The Holy Spirit is the final element to the human being that completes us and makes us whole.  We are not perfect nor flawless but with Him we are complete in our design according to the work of the Divine craftsman; Creator of all.  We are all born with that God ordained and God shaped hole (void) that can only be filled by the Holy Spirit of Christ Himself.

The father of the demonized boy had a physical encounter with God in flesh form and had to wrap his brain around that fact and then choose to believe.  Since the resurrection of Christ, the Holy Spirit has been unleashed into the world and for those of us who believe, we have the Holy One within.  His strength and His power, His wisdom even His faith is always available to us 24/7.

The enemy of our soul is ancient and always present in this fallen world.  His weapon of choice is the same he has used since confronting Eve in the garden and his strategy never changes:  He is a liar and his field of battle is our mind.

As the days draw down and we get closer to the return of our Lord Jesus, the King of Kings, the battle will get more intense and the lies more convincing.   The Holy Spirit reminds me that in order to stay out of the grip of the serial liar, I must bring every thought and make it captive to Jesus. 

This is a tall order and I am not sure how to manage it given my analytical brain, so, like the father of the demonized boy I say, “I will to obey, help me in my weakness”.  I need the Holy One to discern the truth from the lie and then I need Him to empower me to reject the lie.

More and more I realize that my helpless cry is music to my Lord’s ears.  The very thing He is and plans to be, is my strength in weakness.  What a wonderful God we serve.  He never leaves us to face life and its challenges on our own. 

Relief surges as I know His Presence and Counsel will ultimately resolve all the wrestles.  With the Holy Spirit I am whole, complete and one with the Trinity by Divine design.  Now, what about those thoughts?

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?  

Resurrection Life****

The Holy Spirit calls to me this morning. Resurrection Sunday is now over and the relationship with our Heavenly Father that Jesus died to provide is in full swing.

As we settle back into our daily familiar routine, I am compelled to ask the Holy One what resurrection life for us here on earth should look like now that Jesus is secure on His Throne?

His response is as peaceful as His Presence and He speaks out of His Word through 1 Thessalonians 4.

The value of learning the Word of God must never be under estimated for the Holy Spirit speaks through the Word of God to our minds.  In thought exchange, He brings scriptures back in personal communication and for application to all these situations I encounter and questions I might have in life.

Today the Holy Spirit draws out of my mental file cabinet just a few words that start me into today’s counselling sesson for Holy Living.

Inquiring minds want to know more.  I always seem to wonder.  When I wonder, I ask my indwelling “Truth Teller”.  And He always provides interesting conversation on the subject of my inquiry.  It is important to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth.  That is part of His role as the Holy Spirit of Truth.

When we ask for wisdom from our Lord and Father God, the Holy Spirit is the One who provides us with the Divine wisdom.  When we ask, James 1:5-6 tells us that God provides, but then warns that as we ask, we receive, and we must not doubt that we have the wisdom we request.

Faith trusts the “Source” of our petitioned wisdom even as the enemy of our soul tries to twist God’s Word at times. The Holy Spirit is our reality and the possessor of our being. He will always cue us when we are being deceived and bring our thoughts back into right alignment as we surrender to the truth whether it be easy or “inconvenient” to our flesh will.

Today as I ponder the resurrection life we can live here while still on planet earth, thoughts of the super natural and great miracles that can stop even time itself, flood my mind. 

My desire is for all to come to the saving knowledge that Jesus is the One sent by our Sovereign Creator to redeem and restore us to the original relationship we had in the Garden of our origin.

The miracles that Jesus brought as the evidence of His Divinity and partnership in the Trinity Godhead are the ones we all would love to replicate.  Sight to the blind, hearing for the deaf, strength to feeble arms and feet of the weak and lame, all great and mighty works of supernatural intervention is my idea of living the resurrection life.

But then the Holy Spirit says this:

“But we urge you brethren that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, mind your own business, work with your own hands as we commanded you, that you may walk properly toward those who are outside and that you may lack nothing”.

Hmm, not exactly the grand display of mighty and powerfully convincing proofs we all might have thought to be God’s dramatic way and display of Heavenly intervention. 

Once I get past the awkward confession of my flesh pride that hoped to hear of mighty acts on the horizon, I begin to get His point:

The resurrection life is uncommon power in day-to-day struggles with our flesh enemy that demands satisfaction for our flesh lusts.

This word to the church in Thessalonica exhorted them to continue on in the “brotherly love” and orderly lifestyle they exhibited.  But there was also an important warning brought in this letter that they should abstain from sexual immorality and exercise self-control in the sanctification process, in honor and not in “passion of lust” like the non-believing world around them. 

He goes on to say: “That no one should take advantage of or defraud his brother, for the Lord is the avenger of all such inappropriate behavior.  God does not call us to uncleanness but to Holiness.  Therefore, he who rejects this does not reject man but God who has given us His Holy Spirit.”

Brotherly love and purity is the expected lifestyle of one who follows the Lord Jesus into His resurrection life. I know that this is not a shutdown of my desire to see and experience miracles but rather a reminder that we live the majority of our life in the valleys not on the mountain tops.

Faith is tested in many ways and miracles are sometimes very simply the reality of uncommon power in the face of great adversity or strength in our everyday battles with the lust of our flesh.  

Thinking about the temporal life of Lazarus post his resurrection from the dead, he must have gone back to a “common” life with his sisters and community.  His was a true example of resurrection life on earth and yet there is no record of supernatural events associated with him even in the wake of Jesus calling him out of the tomb.

The Holy One has returned my inquiry with a question of His own and it is all about my obedience and contentment:  Can I pursue a “common life” (to me) of resurrection power with the miracles being simply His strength in all my weakness?   His sweet love pouring out from me to the world of angry and hostile people I might meet in a day?  

Can I be content with my assignment if it is simply to lead a quiet life, with no great fanfare but only a peace in the storms of my temporal existence? And can I be a cheerleader for those whose gifts may be more dramatic and exciting than mine?

My idea of “resurrection life” has been refined today.  The fact that I can have a conversation with the God of all Creation IS a miracle in and of itself.  The supernatural life we all might long for looks different when we understand that apart from the Lord, we can do nothing in and of our flesh selves that He is asking of His servants.  

In looking at all the miracles Jesus performed in the lives of those who crossed His path, love was the motivation.  What if living the resurrection life is as simple as living a life of uncommon and unconditional love?

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?