PSALM 71:21
Thou
shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side.
This verse
immediately made me think of Psalm 23 that says, “Yea though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thou rod and staff, they comfort me.
We need to
understand that when we speak of the Holy Spirit, He has given Himself to us,
which includes the Son and the Spirit. We have received all of God, and He does
this through the Holy Spirit. In the
same way that the Son was here and could say to His disciples, He could say,
“If you see Me, you see the Father.
Every work that I do, is not me doing it, but the Father doing the work
through Me.” There is a distinction
between them, but they are one. When I
say the Holy Spirit is our Comforter, by extension, it also means that the
Father and the Son is our Comforter.
The words
that caught my attention in this verse is that David said that the Lord God
will increase his greatness. This
greatness in the Strong’s Concordance speaks of nobility and excellence. Daniel was known for an excellent spirit and
because of this Daniel’s greatness was increased. His sphere of influence was increased and he
was given greater authority. He will do the same with us.
The word
greatness in the New Testament refers to children and servants. When you serve and how you serve is a form of
rulership, of reigning. His children
will be known by how they serve.
The Lord God
has been speaking to us about the disposition that is needed when we walk in
the Spirit, which is to become as a child.
The disposition of a child is very important. What do we know about
children? Well, children trust so
unconditionally and so easily. You can
say something is blue when it is pink and they will believe you. They trust
with their whole heart and also love unconditionally. They love so
extravagantly. Depending on their
personality some children will hug a complete stranger. They just love. They love to love and love to
be loved. That is how children are.
Immensely trusting and loving.
Then again, we have the servants.
The servants lay their lives down for their Lord. They love their master and therefore they lay
down their life. By extension they too are like children, because of their
love. The trust that they have for their Lord.
It speaks of an obedience that is unreserved, without boundaries and in totality
lay their lives down. “These are those
that I consider great in My Kingdom.” He
did not mean that when a little girl goes to heaven, that she will be more
important that Moses or Paul. The Word
of God works in such a way that there are always levels of degree. It is not just everybody in one basket and
then off we go. For instance, a soldier
that has just enlisted in the military, will not have the same authority that a
General, Brigadier or Major will have. He will have to work his way up.
Authority has been given him. We need to
grow in the area that Father shows us and as we grow, more authority will be
given us, because we can be trusted. Let
us read these two scriptures.
MATTHEW
23: 11
11 But he that is
greatest among you shall be your servant.
MATTHEW 18
1 At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, who is
the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the
midst of them,
3 And said, verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and
become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child,
the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Children trusts unconditionally and they
also love unconditionally. Servants obey
unconditionally and without reservation.
When we look at Yeshua when He was baptized, we hear the Father speaking
over His Son after the Holy Spirit descended on Him like a dove, saying “This
is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
Hear ye Him.” This declaration
was an affirmation of the sonship and the love that the Father had to the Son
and the Son to the Father. It was not
because He needed to be baptized.
Rather, John told Yeshua that it was him that needed to be baptized by
Him. Yeshua told him that it was
necessary in order for scripture to be fulfilled. It was an act of obedience to humble Himself,
to be baptized. Also, that we may have
an example to follow. At that moment of
obedience, the Father affirmed Him. With
that affirmation came also an instruction.
In other words, “When He speaks it is by My authority. I have given Him My authority, because He
lives in obedience and love towards Me.”
This is how authority works. We want to do great things for the Lord God,
but we need to understand that all authority, as well as all power, needs to be
upheld with a character that can sustain it. The Lord God needs to be able to
trust us with that which He will give us.
You do not give a pocket knife to a baby, neither a sword to a little
boy. You give that which is appropriate
and that which you can trust somebody with.
Why would the Lord God deal differently with us? We have received all power and authority
according to the Word of God, but the degree that we use it will depend on our
walk and where we are at. We read in
Acts…
ACTS 5:32
And we are his
witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost,
whom God hath given to them
that obey him.
The Holy
Spirit is given to those who obey Him.
Today,
authority has been given a bad name. It
has been looked down upon, not respected at all. By extension, because of that, submission has
also been given a bad name. We realize that the enemy has been working very
hard at this very thing, to break down all authority figures. Not just in society, but within the
household. We ourselves can testify of
what the enemy have done in our lives.
Different people have experienced abuse, sexual, emotional or spiritual
abuse. Experienced abuse at school,
abuse between peers, abuse on social media. People fall apart and are easily
affected by these things. They are
unable to deal with rejection. The worst
kind of rejection that we can get is that of a father. We feel completely as if we are a disappointment.
There are a lot of people that are unable to deal with the discipline of
God. They cannot deal with it when He
tells them that He is not happy about something. When, by the Spirit, He points His finger to
something saying, “You need to deal with this”.
When that happens, a lot of people crumble. They feel as if they have moved 4 steps back.
They feel as if they will never be able to please Him. They feel that no matter how hard they try,
it is just useless, because they keep on falling. The reality is that the word of God says that
without faith it is impossible to please God.
It really is. We are called to
walk by faith. At the same time, we have
to understand that the Lord God, in making that commandment, He also takes into
consideration that we cannot do anything without Him. He takes into consideration the true state of
man’s heart and who we are without Him.
And so, why would He require this of us?
He requires this of us, to walk by faith, because we cannot do it. The Holy Spirit is the one who is supposed to
do it through us and we are to learn how to allow the Spirit to do whatever
needs to be done through us. When we
fail, when we do not get it right, we are so disappointed in ourselves. Sometimes we give up. We feel, “Is this Christian thing worth
it?” We feel that no matter how hard we
try, we are just never going to get it.
Well, He knows that. In spite of
that, He gives us whatever we need in order to get up and learn from where we
are at, what He has shown us, and then to move forward. The Holy Spirit wants to teach us to walk by
faith. It is imperative for us to not fall
apart when He disciplines us. It is so
important that we see it as love. In
Hebrews 12 He says that the discipline He gives might not be pleasurable, it
might be painful, but afterwards it yields fruit of peace. It will produce fruit. He disciplines those He loves. If He did not discipline us, we would be
illegitimate children, bastards. What we
have learned through the ages is that there are fathers that are very
strict. Where the boundaries set are
like a noose around the neck. The
children are not allowed to do many things because of this abuse. The children
are screamed at or hit. The children are scared to do anything. On the other hand, we get the children that
grow up in households where the father does not take up their role. It goes to
the other extreme again where there are not the necessary boundaries. Boundaries that actually fosters
security. Children that have healthy
boundaries at home grow up with a healthy sense of security and a sense of who
they are as a person. They are not easily
fazed by rejection, because they are so secure in the love of their father and
their mother. Studies have shown that
the identity of children are mostly linked to the father. In other words, you can have a mother who
does everything right, being a good example, being a godly woman and teaching
the children to respect them as parents, sowing an immense number of seed that
will come up, but even if she does everything right and the father takes not up
his rightful place, then the children will still suffer in their identity. The Lord God has made it in such a way that
the father is suppose to represent Him and the mother is supposed to represent
the softness. In context we can see the
mother is the staff and the father is the rod.
As children, whom He wants to increase our greatness, we have the Father
and we have the Spirit. We have a father
and a mother in God. He comforts us on
every side. However, if those images are marred, we are bound to not to be able
to relate to them the way we ought to.
And so, the enemy knows exactly how to hurt us. Our inner-dialogue
starts to develop in our mind. The Word
says that as a man thinketh, so he is.
What do you think about your relationship with God? What do you think He thinks about you? Is He disappointed in you? Do you think that He has tried so many times
and that He is now at the point where He is hoping you will some day get
it? Or, do you understand that He is so
committed to you, that He invested so much in your relationship with Him? The investment of His Son dying on the cross
for you? He will never give up on
you. Never. You will have to turn away from Him, but He
is not going to turn away from His own children. He loves you.
And so, He will discipline you, because He loves you. The Word also says
that parents that discipline their children, loves them. When we grow up in households like this,
nobody immune to this, we develop trust issues.
Where the Lord God wants us to be like that little child who trust so
unconditionally, without restriction, we come and we are only able to give Him
so much. He requires all of you. Your whole heart, mind and all your
strength. All of your being He
wants. He wants you to trust Him with
your whole being. Some of us are unable
to do that. We want to, but we
struggle.
The last
devotional we spoke about the living soul.
This living soul that is who we are, our personality, mind, intellect,
thoughts, even our talents…all of you, is supposed to come under the control of
the Holy Spirit. This is so that the Holy Spirit can use all of you, all these
things as a means to express who the Father is.
This is our purpose, just as it was Yeshua’s purpose to be the express
image of the glory of God. So, we are now to express who Yeshua and the Father
is to the world. But we cannot do that
if we cannot trust Him completely with everything. The Comforter gently walks with us and
continually points to those things we need to address. We need to address these
issues we do not trust Him with. We need
to ask Him, “Why do I not want to give that over to You? Why am I still
struggling with this? What would it mean
if I had to give it up? What do I feel I would lose out or would be a
loss? What am I scared of if I had to
give up everything in the way He asks?”
He wants us
to be as little children. A little girl and boy that is so secure in His love.
So, that when He does discipline us, we feel loved. Yes, disappointed in ourselves, but loved and
secure, knowing who we are. If we trust
Him only 10% or 30%, or whatever amount, the additional percentage is then that
we trust in something else. We have to
be able to be very honest with ourselves and ask what area am I not giving Him
all? How does He look upon it? You, as a parent, knowing how much you want
your own children to trust you, it will break your heart to know that your
children only trust you 10% or 30%. You want them to trust you completely and
you want them to know how much you love them.
Our Father is exactly the same.
He wants us to trust Him completely.
Not to trust in anything else.
Not even on our own thoughts or understanding. Not our emotions when it
runs away with us. What man says or what
a book says. He wants us to come to Him and be wholly dependent on Him.
In John 15
Yeshua says that He is the Vine and we are the branches and we are to abide in
Him. The only way we can bear fruit or do the will of God, is to abide in
Him. It means to be vitally united to
Him. Cut off from everything else we
depend upon and completely united to Him.
So that the life that comes through us, is the Life of the Spirit. Rooted in the Tree of life, bearing eternal
fruit, fruit in abundance. He wants us
to abide in Him, which means we are going to have to trust Him. Willing to do what He says, to give what He
tells us to give. Not as slaves, not as people who do not have a choice. People who will be punished if we disobey, or
will not be taken with. Or scared that
through our disobedience the enemy will attack us. In love.
“This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him.” This is what He wants to say over all of
us. Please read the following scripture
and ask yourself whether this is your experience.
1 JOHN 4 –
AMPLIFIED VERSION
13 By this
we know [with confident assurance] that we abide in him and he in us, because
he has given to us his [holy] spirit.
17 In this
[union and fellowship with him], love is completed and perfected
with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment [with assurance
and boldness to face him]; because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There
is no fear in love [dread does not exist]. But perfect (complete, full-grown)
love drives out fear, because fear involves [the expectation of divine]
punishment, so the one who is afraid [of god’s judgment] is not perfected in
love [has not grown into a sufficient understanding of god’s love]. 19 We
love, because [b]he
first loved us.
I needed to
lay a bit of foundation with this, because it forms the foundation upon which
discipline is built upon. Discipline is
built upon love. Our obedience to the
discipline of the Father is built on love.
Yeshua said, “If you love Me, you will do My commandments.” When we live in deliberate disobedience
it says something of our love towards the Father. Father knows our heart, but do we know
that? He takes all things into
consideration.
ROD – H7626 - branch off; a stick for punishing, writing, fighting, ruling, walking, etc
correction, dart, rod, sceptre, staff, tribe.
Here you clearly see
the difference between the rod and the staff.
The staff was to console, to lean upon, support, and provision. Just like Jacob, whose hip socket was touched
and therefore had to walk with a limp, probably had a staff. We have to embrace our weakness in order to
lean with our whole being, our soul, upon the staff, the Holy Spirit. This cannot just be something we say, no
matter how much we confess it, it has to be a reality. Once you embrace your weakness, it is then
that you fully lean upon the staff.
The rod speaks of
discipline, authority, power and teaching and writing. To point and the dart makes me think of when
the Holy Spirit convicts us, that it is as a dart into our conscience. The scepter speaks of kingship and
rulership. All in all, the rod speaks of
the authority of God. Before speaking
further about the rod, I want to share a vision that I had.
I saw this little girl
with a snow-white dress on. She had a
bright red sash around her waist and red “Sunday shoes” on. She was holding an open scroll and was
looking very intently on this scroll.
The next moment I saw a wolf above her.
This wolf was beautiful. It was a
magnificent creature. Regal and majestic, with dark brown, even bronze
hair. I instinctively knew that this
wolf was protecting this little girl.
I knew what Father was
talking to me about the little girl.
Everything about the purity, innocence, lips without guile, trust and
love. But I was not sure what He meant
by the wolf as everything in the Word regarding a wolf is in a negative
way. I did however know that the wolf
was not something bad. About two weeks
after that, my daughter and I decided to watch something on Netflix. About the third thumbnail, my eyes caught
this video about a girl named Vicky and her wolf, called Mystery. We watched the movie together. It is about a girl and her father who went
for a hike and was lost. They stumbled
upon a house where an old man lives, who had a puppy. She loved the puppy and asked the man where
the puppy came from. His answer was that
it is a mystery. To which they decided to call this “puppy” Mystery. Eventually they realized that the puppy was
actually a wolf. So, this story is about
her very close relationship with the wolf.
Father then showed me that the focus is the wolf’s name. Mystery is a word that we often here in the
Word of God. Paul often spoke about the
mysteries of the Kingdom of God and Yeshua in John 12 told the disciples that
unto them is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. Father wants to reveal to us great mysteries
of His Kingdom and this was why He worked in my heart about the importance of
becoming like a child. To be innocent,
guileless, to guard my lips, trusting and loving. He wants to give us so much more and He wants
to trust us with greater mysteries, authority and power. But first we have to trust Him.
The thing about a wolf
is that the Alpha wolf will lay down his life for the pack, they are very
loyal, and have a lifelong mate. They are very ferocious animals. They resemble
strength and power. Father then led me
to do some research on the relationship between the native American’s and the
wolf. This is what I found on this particular
sight. Knowing that they consider the
wolf as their spirit guide, we know that we have the best spirit guide…the Holy
Spirit.
·
Wolves were referred to as brother or sister
(family members). Yeshua told me that He
is my Big Brother
·
The wolves were seen as pathfinders and
teachers, a guide to the spirit world and to this world
·
Their presence in the woods were considered
sacred and tangible.
·
They are a gift
·
It is associated with courage, strength,
loyalty and success in hunting
·
They play in certain tribes the role of the
Noble Creator God.
·
A true best friend
·
A guardian
·
Associated with the colour white
·
They have healing powers.
·
Also, the Indian wolf, a smaller wolf than the
grey wolf, has a black V on his back.
From these few
points, one can clearly see how Father was talking to me about the contrast
between this little girl and the wolf.
The one needs the other in a certain way. There needs to be trust, love and there needs
to be obedience. There needs to be an
understanding of what it means to walk under the rod of God, as well as the
staff. We need these two to comfort us
on every side. These are also the two
that He gives us to increase our greatness.
How we relate to the staff and the rod will determine how we increase in
greatness.
Another story where
we read about the rod is in Exodus 17 where Moses told Joshua to go into the
valley with men he chose for a battle against Amalek. Moses then went up a hill where he was to
stand holding up his rod whilst this battle was taking place in the
valley. Aaron and Hur went up with him. Every time Moses let down the rod, the battle
was in the favour of the Amalekites. And
every time he lifted the rod, the battle was in the favour of Israel. Aaron and Hur brought a rock or stone to
Moses that he may rest on this rock.
EXODUS
17
10. So
Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron,
and Hur went up to the top of the hill.
11. And
it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when
he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.
12. But Moses’ hands were heavey; and they took a
stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up
his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his
hands were steady until the going down of the sun.
13. And
Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
14. And
the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it
in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek
from under the heaven.
15. And
Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovahnissi:
16. For
he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek
from generation to generation.
This whole battle is a
type and shadow of our own lives. We all
have battles. Just like Psalm 23 that speaks of this valley of the shadow of
death. In our valleys we are not the ones who are fighting in the valleys, but
there is One in the valley with us, fighting for us, Yeshua. Moses on top of the hill represents many
things. He represents an Apostle and a
Prophet. Moses was the first apostle
sent to rescue the Israelites from Egypt, to tell Pharoah to “let His people
go!”. The first sent one. Moses is
holding up the rod of God that represents the authority and power of God. He is sitting on a rock or a stone. In his
own strength he cannot do it. The Lord
God increases his greatness with Aaron and Hur.
Aaron was the first High Priest and he speaks of sanctification. Speaking of that person who has allowed the
Spirit of God to sanctify every area of his life. In order to uphold the authority that God
has given him, we need a strong character to be that foundation. If Aaron was weak, he would not have been
able to uphold his side of the rod.
Then we have Hur and his name means white linen. This speaks of righteousness, which is right
standing with God. We receive this when
we are born again. This immediately made
me think of being a child in the Lord God, that innocence and trust. The one who lives under the love and
provision and care of the Holy Spirit and in the other you are living under the
discipline, the teaching, and direction of the Holy Spirit. They are both holding Moses’ arms in order
for the authority and power of God to be held up high. What happens?
Joshua, the one who fights our battles is in the valley discomfits our
enemy with his sword. Because we uphold all three of these things, the rod,
which is the authority and power of God, the sanctification, being a royal
priesthood in reality and then the right standing of a child in God, the battles
are won. This battle was a natural
manifestation of a spiritual reality. We
also know that Peter’s name means little stone and Yeshua is the Rock of our
salvation. When we think of Peter we also think of the church. In John 6 Yeshua asked Peter, “Who do you
say I am?” The Spirit revealed to Peter the truth and he said, “You are the
Christ, the Son of the living God.” Yeshua said to him on this rock, the church
will be built.” Meaning on this truth that I am the Son of the Living God and
the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
We have the church represented by Peter and Yeshua who is the Rock, the
truth that He is the Son of the Living God.
In Exodus 17 Moses sat on the rock or the stone. We understand that all authority and all
power are given unto us. The authority
and power of God rests on the church. It
is up to us to steward, reign, govern and deal with that authority according to
His will. We need a child disposition
and sanctification in order for our battles to be won. This is how the Father prepares us and how He
gets us to share in who He is. He is
also like a child who loves unconditionally and extravagantly. He loves sinners. Whilst we were sinners, He died for us.
This word “Nissi” in
Jehovahnissi, is the word banner, ensign, signal, pole standard. This made me think of when we watch movies of
mid-evil times when the calvary in front would have a flagstaff with the emblem
of the Kingdom under which they fall. It
was to say under whose authority they were making war. In the spirit world we are holding up His
banner. The word says that His banner
over us is love. There is no stronger
force than love. Love bears all things,
believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things. His banner over us is love. And this is the banner we are holding
up. In this love is also His power and
authority.
Thinking about the
rod, my mind went also to the 12th letter of the Hebrew alphabet
that also is the longest letter that looks like a rod. It is the letter called Lamed. The number 12 is very important when it comes
to authority. We have the following
examples of 12 in the Word of God…
·
12 Apostles, disciples
·
144 divided into 12 tribes /
·
New Jerusalem – 12 gates (gates places of decision making and judgment)
·
Solomon 12 officers over Israel
·
12 stones on breastplate
·
Yeshua started teaching at 12 years of age in the temple
The gates in those times were the places of
authority where the judges had to make important decisions. Boaz had to go to the elders at the gates to
ask permission to marry Ruth. Everything
in the word that is about 12 in the Word of God, speaks about authority. Speaks
of exhortation. In all this we see the wisdom
of Father in getting us to trust Him.
That our obedience and our disposition towards the discipline of the rod
cannot be without us trusting Him in the disposition of a child. People are often motivated by guilt or fear,
but we can only uphold that kind of obedience for that long before we fall flat
on our face. When we give ourselves in
totality to Him, when we allow Him to use our bodies the way He wants and give
every area of our life to Him, it is then that He can trust us with more. But
we have to take the first step and make the choice to meet Him with that which
He is busy with in us. To not move away
from those areas that need to be addressed.
Some people listening or reading this devotional might still have areas
in your life that you have not dealt with.
Maybe you have forgiven people, but not dealt with the hurt or the
pain. Very much like someone who needs
heart surgery and just place a plaster on his heart. Sometimes we treat forgiveness like a plaster. In certain situations, we can just forgive
and move on, but in other situations we need to allow the Holy Spirit to come
into our lives, minister to us in His Presence and heal our hearts. Some people have buckets still to cry. They have hardened their hearts, because they
do not want to go there. It is just
easier to move on and do their own thing and “fake it till they make it.” All
those feelings, trauma and pain goes deep down into the innermost being, but at
some point, it cannot stay there anymore. You must allow the Holy Spirit to
heal you so that you can trust Him with all your heart. Allow Him to minister to you, allow Him to
touch those areas that all these years been there. Maybe you are thinking it has been so long
already. Maybe 20 years ago, or 10 or
just one year ago. He sees it all, no
matter what we hide, He sees it all because He is in us.
In Psalm
32 we read:
PSALM
32: 8 - 9
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will guide you with my eye.
Be not as the horse or the mule that has no understanding,
whose mouth has to be held with bit and bridle, lest they come nigh unto thee.
When
I read this scripture, I think of the bit that is in the mouth of the
horse. The greatest area that we
struggle with is with our mouth, either very opinionated, to quick to speak or
saying things we should not be saying. A
few months ago, the Lord told me that when He has my mouth, He has me. The word says that the tongue is able to
control the whole body. All of your life
is controlled by your tongue. He has to
start with a bit in our mouth, because we do not have understanding. We still have to learn and He is teaching and
instructing us. The word says that we
have two ears and one mouth. The bridle
gives us direction, where we get this tug to go either left or right. Disciplined by these bridles. We do not like this and pull away like horses
into the opposite direction. We rebel
and say, “No, I do not want to, that is too much! Why must I do all of
this? Why can I not just live my
Christian life and enjoy it and have fun? Doing all these things that I want
to, not hurting anyone. This is too
controlling, this pulling and tugging!”
But He says to us, “This is not how I want to teach and instruct you.” This is why He says to us to not be like the
horse or the mule who has no understanding.
Why? Because He wants to be like
a rider on a horse who do not need a bit and bridle, but are so united to Him
that you are directed by His Spirit and His voice. In tune with Him and obeys Him immediately,
where your will has been broken, just like a horse has to be broken in. In the same way we are like horses that rebel
against the boundaries He has set. We
rebel against His totality. “Why is He
asking us so much?” Like a child, the
moment that he is born, is innate in him to rebel against control. But the moment He has us and we are submissive,
surrendering in this child love and trust in Him, the moment He speaks, we just
flow like a river with His Spirit, wherever He goes, that He increases our
greatness. Because we trust Him and He
loves us. He wants to give us these
mysteries and revelations. He wants to give us more. Every good gift comes from the Father of
light in whom there is no shadow of turning.
He wants us to be so united to Him that we will just listen to His instructions
without having to be pulled and tugged.
This
rod and staff can be summed up in two words…TRUST AND OBEY.
Two
dispositions, that of a child and that of a servant. Both are required of us.
ROMANS 12.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service.
When we hear the word “living sacrifice”, the word
sacrifice stands out. This is because it will mean sacrifice. When you give yourself as a living sacrifice,
your whole being, body, soul and spirit, are placed on the altar and our High Priest
Yeshua comes with the sword of God, His word, and He cuts between bone and
marrow, He discerns between the intents and motives of the heart and He divides
between soul and spirit. The purpose is
so that the Holy Spirit then has control over your mind, your decisions, your
talents…everything. It is for that
reason that you are laying down your body.
You are saying, “Lord, all of me I surrender to you. I am not going to trust in what I know
anymore. I am trusting in your Spirit to
express yourself through me, your body. My
body belongs to you.” This is something
we grow in, but also a veil that needs to be lifted. So that we understand that our Christian walk
is based on faith in Christ in us. It is
not based on just the Word of God. As if
when we read something in the Word it is then true, but knowing it is true, the
Spirit in whom I trust, works this out in me to make it true in reality. The Word of God is truth, but it has to become
a reality in our lives. The only one who
can make it a reality in our lives is the Spirit of God in us in whom we
trust. You can make a decision to speak
to someone, to pray for them or write something, even your gifts and talents,
when you clean your house, you trust in Him to do it through you. Or are you praying, “Lord, please help me”? “I hope I can get through this day. I hope she gets it.” The word says that we
have received according to the power within us all things that pertains to life
and godliness. We need to pray in such a
way as if we have already received it, because we have the Spirit of God in us. We have already all we need. Instead of asking, “Lord, please give me
strength and help me to do this or please give me wisdom” we need to ask
aright. Say, “Lord, you have given me
all things already, it is in me. I thank
you now for this wisdom and strength.”
How we think is very important and how we pray too. Start praying as if
you have already received and then trust that, because He has already given us
all things that pertain to life and godliness.
It is not what we can do, but what He does through
us. It is, “Lord, you do it through me.”
I am ending this devotional with a word Father
gave me a while back. It is a word about
understanding the rod of God, understanding discipline, power and authority
that He has given us through His Spirit and the disposition that is
required.
BY
THE SPIRIT
It
is by this Spirit, My Spirit resting on you that you are to govern. Not you from out of yourself, but My Spirit
resting on you, and you submitting to the promptings of My Spirit. I have given you the mind of My Spirit and My
Spirit also knows My mind and He intercedes for you with groanings that cannot
be uttered. Therefore, you have to be
led by My Spirit and submit yourself to His promptings. Listen and obey.
You
can no longer do your own thing, just like a king or ruler cannot do their own
thing. You are responsible for others
and to uphold a standard, the very one you proclaim. This can only be done by My Spirit, so listen
and obey. Your governing is directly
related to your submission to My Spirit, for it is My Spirit that governs
through you.
Therefore,
be zealous to obey Him for He will guide you in all truth. Have I not said that He will remind you of
everything I said? For it is My Spirit
that will work out My purposes in you as you yield to Him. Be zealous to obey for much depend on
it. I have told you that your strength
is only as much as your dependence on Me.
Be zealous to depend on Me in all matters. Walk circumspectly as one of whom much is
required and I will make your ways prosperous.
For
you are in My service and there is no higher authority than I. You walk before Me alone, to answer before Me
alone concerning that which I have given you.
You will be held accountable for that which I have entrusted you,
including My Spirit.
Therefore,
do not look lightly on the authority I have given you. Do not look lightly on your purpose and
calling. But more than anything, do not
look lightly on My Spirit. My Spirit is
your provision and your seal. I have
sealed you with My Spirit and you are Mine.
Therefore,
walk by the Spirit.
