The Father Knows We Need Proof We Are Acceptable To God

Some things are just hard to believe. We’ve all heard stories of the huge fish that got away and of sure-fire ways to get rich. Perhaps you’ve been burned and as a result have been disappointed or perhaps it cost you money. Many of us are rightly cautious so that when something incredible comes along we want proof.

One of the most incredible things you will ever hear is that as Christians we are acceptable to God. This is hard for us to believe because there are so many things that tell us that this can’t be true.

• Our sinful past life – We’ve done horrible things and still feel shame.
• Our sinful heart – Even if we’re forgiven for our past we still have evil desires.
• Our family upbringing – Growing up we were told we aren’t any good. We can’t shake that thought.
• Our experience – We’ve never experienced genuine acceptance from anyone.

[Tweet “The Father, Son and Spirit all work to assure us we’re accepted in their family”]

The Father, Son and Spirit love us with a love that is greater than any sin past, present or future and have worked hard to let us know this. In recent posts we’ve seen what Jesus did to make us acceptable to God. Today let’s see what the Holy Spirit has done to make us acceptable to God. The Apostle Paul tells us

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:13-14 ESV

The Holy Spirit’s Role In Making Us Acceptable to God

1. We were sealed with the Holy Spirit.  In the Roman world a seal was a sign of ownership and protection.  A Roman seal on a bag of grain meant it belonged to Rome and would be protected by the Roman Empire.When we trusted in Jesus as our Savior the Trinity decided we needed to be marked as part of the family of God. The seal of this, the proof of this is the third member of the Trinity.
2. We were given the Spirit as a down payment of our salvation. In Greek the word translated guarantee is “arrabon.” In modern Greek the word is used of an engagement ring. In the New Testament it also had the sense of a down payment. If a person gave a down payment for some property and then backed out of the deal the person kept the down payment.The Spirit of God, who is living in all Christians, is our permanent down payment of our salvation. He is with us every moment of every day and will be until we are fully saved in heaven!

[Tweet “The Spirit of God as our permanent possession is proof and assurance we’re acceptable to God.”]

Join the discussion! Please leave a comment or question below.

The post The Holy Spirit is the Proof We Are Acceptable To God appeared first on To Every Nation Ministries.

When the Holy Spirit Prompts You to Act, Act!

In yesterday’s post I discussed four indicators when it’s time to act. A friend commented he would add one more. When the Holy Spirit prompts us to act, we need to obey. He’s absolutely correct. His point is so important I am going to devote this post to that topic.

In general I lean towards objectivity. I trust you have seen in my posts that I seek a biblical basis for everything I teach. Listening to the Spirit is subjective. That makes this a tricky subject. We have all heard people say, “The Spirit (or God or Jesus) told me to do this.” That phrase has been used to justify all kinds of actions. Even if you think a person is flat out wrong in what they’re saying, how can you respond when someone says that? You can’t disagree with what they say they heard.

There are abuses or mis-uses of the principle that the Spirit of God communicates with us. Does that mean we should ignore this topic? By no means! The scriptures are clear that the Spirit of God communicates with us. Here is a list of 50 different things the Spirit does in our lives . We need to grow in learning how to discern the Spirit’s work in our lives. We don’t have the space to talk about everything the Spirit does, so I’m going to highlight five ways the Spirit prompts us to act.

5 Ways the Holy Spirit Prompts Us to Act

1. The Spirit leads us to be godly Galatians 5:18, 16-25; Romans 8:14. In both of these passages the Spirit’s leading is related to Spirit-filled living. He tugs at our hearts, leading us to make the right choices. He prompts us to say no to the flesh and yes to Him to manifest the fruit of the Spirit.
2. The Spirit convicts people to change John 16:7-11. In this context He convicts the world, not Christians of sin, righteousness and judgment. A person only comes to faith when they receive the truth from the Holy Spirit of their need for Jesus.
3. The Spirit compels us to worship. Ephesians 5:18, 16-21. We can choose to worship, but there are times when our hearts overflow with worship, praise and thanksgiving because the Holy Spirit is filling us.
4. The Spirit prompts us to change our behavior Ephesians 4:29-31. When our words or attitude doesn’t honor God the Spirit lets us know by sharing His grief in our hearts.
5. The Spirit guides us to use our spiritual gift 1 Corinthians 12:4-7. There is a special grace and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit unique to each gift. When we follow the prompting of the Spirit we’re supernaturally effective in the area of our gift.

The communication from the Holy Spirit, who doesn’t have a body, is with our spirit. So we don’t actually hear a voice, we sense His prompting. Some say they hear a voice. No one can debate what people say they experience. Let’s all agree on this; today let’s be sure to do what the Spirit prompts us to do.

I’d love to hear from you on this. Please leave a comment or question below.

The post When the Holy Spirit Prompts You to Act, ACT! appeared first on To Every Nation Ministries.

Walking by The Spirit – Producing Good Fruit

When I was young our family occasionally went out to pick fruit in an orchard. It was fun as long as the fruit was where we could reach it. There were long sticks to knock it off the higher branches but that was hard work. Us kids would wander around looking for any fruit within our reach.

Fruit is an important metaphor for the Christian life. As we walk through our lives as Christians we continually make choices that result in fruit, some good some bad. Learning how to make the choices that result in good fruit is called walking by the Spirit.

The phrase “walk by the Spirit” is from Galatians 5:16. The word “walk” means to live or behave in a certain way. It’s how we order our life. What’s interesting is Galatians 5:16 gives us the reason for walking by the Spirit. When you order your life by the Spirit, “you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”

Walking by the Spirit is our defense against the attacks of our enemy the flesh.

This is a big deal. This is the key to victory over the flesh. The problem is many don’t understand what walking by the Spirit means.

How to Walk By the Spirit

As obvious as it seems, many people don’t connect it with the idea of walking. It is active not passive. For years in my Christian life when I struggled with the flesh I would pray, “Father help me! Please take this desire away and give me a good desire!” It didn’t happen. We have to do the walking. The Father won’t do it for you.

Walking by the Spirit is like walking down a pathway. Suddenly an evil desire jumps out and tries to get you to change directions. We looked at those desires in a previous post. At that moment if we look to the the Spirit we can see an alternative good desire. You have a choice. You are going to take a step! If it is toward the good desire, produced by the Spirit, He comes alongside you and empowers you to keep going. If you step towards the evil desire you know what happens.

As an example let’s think about the evil desire strife. Strife is conflict based upon a disagreement. Imagine you have a disagreement with someone. The evil desire strife jumps into your pathway. It suggests, “You need to fight for yourself here! Don’t let them walk all over you. Get in their face.” You’re tempted. It would feel good, at least for a minute. But you stop and think about what the Father wants. The idea of gentleness comes to mind, to have a mild emotional response to the other person. The flesh is screaming “Let them have it.” The Spirit tugs at your heart, “Be gentle.” Which do YOU choose? You WILL choose one.

When we walk by the Spirit we choose the good desires the Spirit.  That results in good fruit Galatians 5:22-23 and defeats the flesh.

How have you learned to choose the good desires of the Spirit to defeat the flesh? Please leave a comment or question below.

The post Walking By the Spirit: Our Defense Against the Desires of the Flesh appeared first on To Every Nation Ministries.