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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
You women who are so
complacent, rise up and listen to me; you daughters who feel secure, hear what
I have to say!
In little more than a year, you who feel secure will tremble; the grape harvest will fail, and the harvest of fruit will not come. Tremble, you complacent women; shudder, you daughters who feel secure! Strip off your fine clothes and wrap yourselves in rags. Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vines and for the land of my people, a land overgrown with thorns and briers—yes, mourn for all houses of merriment and for this city of revelry.
The fortress will be
abandoned, the noisy city deserted; citadel and watchtower will become a
wasteland forever, the delight of donkeys, a pasture for flocks, till the
Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and
the fertile field seems like a forest.
The Lord’s justice will
dwell in the desert, His righteousness live in the fertile field. The fruit of
that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence
forever. My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in
undisturbed places of rest.
Though hail flattens the forest and the city is leveled completely, how blessed you will be, sowing your seed by every stream, and letting your cattle and donkeys range free.
Isaiah 32:9-20
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Have you experienced the
awesome power of the Holy Spirit?
I firmly believe everyone
does, whether they are a believer or not. It’s just that some choose to reject
or ignore the Spirit while other embrace and treasure it.
Think about it. When the
Lord God Almighty created us, He placed within every man and woman, a
conscience. Ask anyone to explain the conscience to you and they will be hard
pressed to describe it. I took a basic psychology class once and asked my
professor if he could explain the conscience to me and all I could get from
that question was the statement that the conscience is a mystery. To which I
say, “Exactly!” Science will never be able to capture the conscience because it
is not for mankind to be concerned with. It’s a part of our spiritual DNA and
the mechanism through which the Lord communicates with each of us, whether we
choose to listen or not.
When we go onto to do
something that is wrong, don’t we get a weird sensation that tries to get us to
stop before we do the wrong thing? What is that exactly? And what about after
we have done wrong? What is that constant feeling of guilt we feel until we
admit our wrongs and seek forgiveness? Where does that sense of conviction come
from anyways?
Conversely, have you ever
done something really good for another or for a certain cause? Afterwards, didn’t
you experience what a lot of people refer to as a “warm and fuzzy” feeling inside,
a feeling that makes you feel good about yourself and what you have done? Where
does that come from?
And how about when you
are praying over a situation you are struggling with and either during that
prayer or sometime after you finished praying, you started to get some thoughts
about how to solve what you are going through. Did you somehow fashion that
solution using your own intellect? Hardly. Instead, you were open to the
guiding of the Lord, petitioning His assistance during prayer and receiving the
response to your request through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Friends, there is an
outpouring of the Holy Spirit on us all the time. It comes to us when we need
it most, not based on our demand as don’t order the Lord to do anything, but we
do receive the things we need to fulfill His will in His perfect time. If it’s
His will to lead you to a solution, He will impart that solution to you by the
Spirit. If He wants you to grasp a certain truth from the scriptures, He will
use the Holy Spirit to unlock that truth to you as you seek His direction and
guidance through your bible study. If He wills for you to receive healing, then
He will send that healing within you, whether emotionally or physically, by way
of the Holy Spirit.
I could go on and on but
you get the point. We receive all the wisdom, spiritual direction, and healing
we can handle through the power of the Holy Spirit freely poured out to help us
during our life on earth. But these things are not the only things we will
receive. For in today’s scripture passage, we find still more we will receive
as the Holy Spirit is poured out upon us. Look at these words:
till the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the desert becomes a
fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest.
The Lord’s justice will dwell in the desert, His righteousness live in
the fertile field. The fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect
will be quietness and confidence forever. My people will live in peaceful
dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.
Though hail flattens the forest and the city is leveled completely, how blessed you will be, sowing your seed by every stream, and letting your cattle and donkeys range free. vv. 15-20
Look at the other things
we receive by the Holy Spirit, things the people of Israel were about to
experience:
1. Fertility.
When our lives might seem
dried out by the challenges and difficulties we face, we can always expect that
the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon us to water our spiritual soil and
quench our thirst for deliverance and rescue. For when we receive the Holy
Spirit, we receive the Lord’s righteousness that will always reside in the
fertile places of our souls, bearing the fruits of righteousness in and through
us (Galatians 5:22-23).
2. Righteousness.
Want to live right, in a
place where the Lord favors?
Then you need to receive
His outpouring of the Holy Spirit that will always lead us to righteousness, to
do the right thing every time. We don’t have the ability to do this in our own,
the sinners that we are. This is why we need the Spirit to lead and guide us in
the right way, a way that will bring us peace with the Lord, a way that leads
us to point 3.
3. Peace.
One of the fruits of
righteousness is peace and there is no greater peace than knowing you are
living fully under the Lord’s guidance and thus within His favor. No one wants
to be in the crosshairs of the Lord’s judgment and the only way we can assure
we are out of it, and thus living in peace, is if we are living right in full
accordance with the Lord’s will, word, and way, a place where we will be
blessed, our final reward from receiving the Holy Spirit.
4. Blessing.
Want to feel happy,
another word for feeling blessed?
Never allow their to be a
time when you are not living with the Holy Spirit active inside your heart and
mind and soul. For it’s there that you will find your life fertile, righteous,
and in a state of peace. In other words, blessed.
Friends, the word of God
was assuring the women of Jerusalem that they could expect an outpouring of the
Holy Spirit to come. For you and me, that outpouring is always happening as the
Lord rains it down upon His people, hoping that it will be received by those
who have relied on the world and its ways to water their dried souls and bring
fertility, to bring a righteousness that leads to the right way of living, and
to through that righteousness, bring His people to peace with Him and through
that peace, blessing.
Have you experienced the
Holy Spirit fully in your life today?
If not, why not receive it
for the Lord is offering it to you and all mankind in abundance and there’s
more than enough to go around.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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