365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 327

I have read some books about listening but the one I am reading now is about listening to the Word of God. The book is called Expository Listening by Ken Ramey. In the first chapter, he discusses how we are by nature not good listeners. It is because of the Fall and Sin that we don’t have the ability to hear God and obey him. Thankfully, we who believe in Jesus have the power of the Holy Spirit within us who will illuminate the Word of God for us and give us understanding and the power to obey God’s Word. This all makes perfect sense because of my study on temperament and how our soul is connected to our spirit but there is a wall up called sin that needs to be broken down with the inviting of Jesus into your heart. He will take a sledge hammer and break the wall down. But those bricks of sin will keep coming back and piling up so we have to call on the Holy Spirit to clean away those bricks of sin to allow our soul to truly connect with our spirit which is the way to connect to the Spirit of God.

Here is a section from the book:

We are all born without this key component (listening) that allows us to hear God’s Word. It’s as if we have been wired with an AM receiver, but God is broadcasting on FM. Without the indwelling and illuminating presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, all we are able to pick up is static.

 

Lord, help us to dial into your FM channel today and all our days to come. With you all things are possible. Amen.

Psalm 51:5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 264

Our relationship with God is as a parent and child. When a child is being obedient, it is a demonstration or act of love for you, the parent. It is the completion of the circle of love. God, our father starts the circle by all his creation given to us, by creating rules to live by and by rewarding and punishing for following or not following his commands. The circle comes around through Jesus who is the greatest example of love and who is the greatest gift of love given to us by God. The Holy Spirit within us guides us onward towards completing the circle. In completing the circle and keeping Gods commands, we are showing God our love for him. All the family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and even strangers are inside this circle of love being loved by God and you. It all comes down to love. Every command has its foundation on love. How do we live our lives more and more with love pouring out of us? Commit yourself to reading a scripture about love every day. There are hundreds to choose from. Just go to the concordance of your bible and start with the first one listed. Keep love on your minds and hearts through His Word and you will find yourself completing the circle of love.

1John 5: 3-4 This is love for God: to obey his commands and his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 8

Demonstrating love comes in many forms; surprising a friend with an unexpected gift, a hug for a co-worker, doing a chore for a family member so they don’t have to, spending quality time with anyone. How do we demonstrate our love for God? It is definitely by loving others like in the examples above but also by obeying God. To obey means complying with the command, direction and request of an authority. We must submit to the authority of God. If he tells us to love others as we love ourselves, than we should comply with His directive. But we all know from trying to obey authorities here in our world like the government, police or our boss; that sometimes the compliance doesn’t happen, it is challenging or comes but with a price. Obedience to God has its own challenges, especially if you are not in the Word of God regularly, worshiping with other believers and generally open to hearing God’s voice in everything. We do have to discern what is it that God wants versus what this world wants or what we want. Thankfully, we have Jesus who has overcome. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can have that discernment to know the voice of God and be able to comply with His requests but it is something we need to pray for everyday.

Father God, you are the ultimate authority figure for us. Forgive me for not listening to your command, for not discerning what you want for me to do, for not loving you and others as I should. I do not have it within me to do it so I ask the Holy Spirit to open my heart today to see you and hear you, to know what your will for me is and to love you and others like there’s no tomorrow. With you all things are possible. Amen.  

1 John 3-5 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.