The Spirit-filled walk demands, for instance, that we live in the Word of God as a fish lives in the sea. By this I do not mean that we study the Bible merely, nor that we take a “course” in Bible doctrine. I mean that we should “meditate day and night” in the sacred Word, that we should love it and feast upon it and digest it every hour of the day and night.
A. W. Tozer, ‘The Divine Conquest’ p.125
The Bible teaches that when a man and a woman are united in marriage they become ONE. The same principle apply wen a person receives Jesus as a personal Savior. Years ago a young Christian author wrote,
“Someone says “I am lost whenever I think of Christ and myself as two,” and it seems so to me now. Think over the expressions “Christ, who is our life;” “Alive in Jesus Christ;” “He that hath the Son hath life, & he that hath not the Son hath not life;” and many others like them, and tell me if you don’t think they teach a most marvelous and glorious reality? Our only life is Christ, and in Him “dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily!” It almost takes my breath away to think of anything so glorious! Surely this will answer every question about our individuality, our independent will, our fighting etc.
The grand fight of all our lives is, as you say, with Amalek and other enemies which typify the flesh. It is not the temptations of the flesh we are to resist, so much as the flesh itself, the legal element in our natures, which is continually turning us back to reliance on the flesh. Our fight is emphatically a fight of faith not a fight of effort. It is a fight to cease from effort in fact and to suffer another life to be fully worked out in us. And I think a deeper typical meaning than has ever been discovered yet, must lie hid in Israel’s old contests.”
—To a Friend, March 28, 1867
Hannah Whitall Smith and Melvin Easterday Dieter, The Christian’s Secret of a Holy Life: The Unpublished Personal Writings of Hannah Whitall Smith (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).
Could we say that a successful Christian life consists of having victory over sin? It is easy to focus on ministry and activities a person does. We measure the success of a pastor by the size of the local church he leads. We read a missionary biography and are impressed by how many tribes that person reaches. In the secular world success is measure by accomplissement.
More I read the Bible more I find that true success is more related to holiness. We are engaged in a spiritual battle against sin. Real success seems to have a moment by moment victory over sin. The good news is that God gave us the power to have such victory. It is a live a life similar to the life Jesus lived on earth. To live like Christ in a fallen world.
Let me share with you a note written by Hannah Whitall Smith to her cousin Carrie on February 26, 1867.
The whole matter lies in this—trusting Jesus to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. It is taking Him to be our daily, hourly, momentary Saviour from the power of sin, just exactly as we took Him to be our Saviour from its guilt. We have actually no more to do in the one case then in the other. He assumes all the responsibility and accomplishes all the work. Our only part is to commit ourselves to Him, and trust Him with implicit faith. All you can do is to commit yourself to Him this very moment to begin the work from now and carry it on in His own way. Just say to Him continually, “I trust you, I trust you.” And you will find that your faith will grow wonderfully.
Try the plan of handing over your temptations to Him to conquer, and you will be astonished at its success. In short, trust Him with your whole self, with all your life—every moment of it, with everything you are, or have, or do. Let Him, in short, be your life. It is a great trust, but He is worthy of it. He cannot possibly fail you in the least particular. He is infinitely trustworthy. No human words can set forth His worthiness to be trusted to the uttermost. It seems to me I never really trusted Him before, and it makes my heart ache to think of the long years in which I have dishonored Him so much when He was so worthy to be trusted!
Hannah Whitall Smith and Melvin Easterday Dieter, The Christian’s Secret of a Holy Life: The Unpublished Personal Writings of Hannah Whitall Smith (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).
Three works God does for mankind: Justification, Sanctification, Glorification. Justification is a legual term that declare a person saved by the work of Jesus Christ done on the cross. Sanctification is the process of transforming a sinner into Chrkist image. Glorification will take place after death or at the Rapture. Today we are dealing with the second aspect, how the Holy Spirit work in the life of a saint to make him become like Christ. I hope you will enjoy Hannah reading.
I realize that Christ dwells in my heart by faith and that He is able and willing to subdue all things to Himself. And with a deep feeling of my own utter weakness and powerlessness to help myself, I give myself into His hands to be dealt with according to His will. If I am to be sanctified, if I am to be preserved blameless and harmless, it must be by the power of God for my own efforts have utterly failed. I believe that it is God’s will that I should be sanctified in that way, and I know He never will cast out any who come to Him. Therefore I believe that He receives me, and that He is working in me now to will and to do of His good pleasure. I believe this simply because of His promises to do just what I am asking Him to do for me, and I know His promises never fail.
As for feeling, I don’t have any. I see no signs of any work of God being wrought in me, but oh, I pray that I will not seek after a sign, but will simply take God at His word and will believe that He is doing what He has promised. Here I will wait and rest.
—Journal, October 22, 1866
Hannah Whitall Smith and Melvin Easterday Dieter, The Christian’s Secret of a Holy Life: The Unpublished Personal Writings of Hannah Whitall Smith (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).
Satan called his team for a worldwide convention. In his opening address to his evil angels, he said, “We can’t keep the Christians from going to church. We can’t keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can’t even keep them from forming an intimate, abiding relationship experience in Christ. If they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken. So let them go to their churches, let them have their conservative lifestyles.
“But steal their time, so they can’t gain that relationship with Jesus Christ. This is what I want you to do, angels. Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day! How shall we do this shouted the angels? ‘Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds,’ he answered. ‘Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6 – 7 days a week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles.’
“Keep them from spending time with their children. As their family fragments, soon, their home will offer no escape from the pressures of work! Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice. Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive. And see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ.
Go ahead, let them be involved in soul winning. But crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Christ. Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause. It will work! It will work!”
This Christmas season let’s not forget the essential: enjoying family and friends, but let’s focus on the essential meditating on what God did 2000 years ago.
1 John 3:16 (NLT)
We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us.
Want to change your world for Christ? Then consider this:
CATCH the passion for God and the knowledge of the Holy from extended time alone with Him, or from people who are infected with Jesus Christ. Get around those who are impassioned with being used of God to make a difference in this tired world. Keep in mind that “it is easier to cool down a fanatic than to liven up a corpse.”
“You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.” (1 Thessalonians 1:5b-7)
LIVE — Prayerfully delve into the Scriptures with the anticipation and trust of a child at Christmas time. Dare to unconditionally live out the truth God reveals to you from His Word. Respond sensitively to the conviction and leading of the Spirit. Claim and appropriate God’s promises to release you from life’s bondages: The fear of man, the love of money, the lust of the flesh, the desire to impress others; a wounded or embittered spirit; the ruts, the familiar, the safe… perhaps even the traditional. (James 1:22; Romans 8:14; Hebrews 6:11, 12; Romans 8:2; Psalm 34:4; Proverbs 29:25; 1 Timothy 6:6-10; 1 John 2:15-17; Hebrews 12:15; Matthew 15:8, 9)
“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free… If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:31b, 32, 36b)
Allow the Spirit to lead you into areas that demand trust and stretching. Be prepared to be surprised by the goodness of God upon your life. That is because God loves to bless those who dare to take Him seriously! (Acts 4:31; 1 Corinthians 2:10-12; 1 Samuel 3:9; Psalm 30:5)
“The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him… ” (2 Chronicles 16:9b)
IMPART — As Biblical truth becomes living reality, pass it on to others. That is fish for men. Engage and infect people’s lives with yours. Take it a step further by making a sustained investment of your life into theirs. Embrace missionary martyr Jim Elliot’s impassioned heart-cry, “Lord, make my life a crossroad in the life of everyone I encounter.” (Matthew 4:19; 2 Timothy 2:2; 1 Corinthians 16:14)
QUESTION: Today, is your life “business as usual,” or is there a fire burning in your soul? If the fire is flickering close to extinction, ask yourself what root issues need to be reexamined? What changes need to be made? Jesus’ word of encouragement may be timely:
“A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” (Matthew 12:20a)
“Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart; for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts.” (Jeremiah 15:16) KJV
When I discovered your words, I devoured them. They are my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God of Heaven’s Armies. (Jeremiah 15:16) NLT
Jeremiah was devoted to the Word of God.
This verse shows his great devotion to the Word and the resulting effects which included his call into service. To look into the details of this verse about Jeremiah’s devotion to the Word, we note his pursuit, partaking, pleasure, and placement.
Pursuit.
“Thy words were found.” (KJV) “I discovered your words” (NLT)
You will not find the Word unless you look for it. This says you will not learn much Scripture if you do not study it. “Search the Scriptures” (John 5:39) is one of the keys to finding great truths in the Word. Our lack of learning of the Word is often a lack of industry in pursuing the Word. “Thy words were found” also says that when one moves to a new community, he needs to look for a church where the Word is preached faithfully. Do not settle in a church where the Word is not preached.
Partaking.
“I did eat them.” (KJV) “I devoured them.” (KJV) “They are my joy and my heart’s delight.” (NLT)
After the finding comes the feeding. Many get new Bibles but never read them. This is like filling your cupboard with food but not eating the food. Some do not eat the Word because of poor appetites. They have filled their soul with the junk food of the world (such as TV), and so they are about as interested in the preaching and teaching of the Word as children are in vegetables.
Pleasure.
“Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart.”
If you get into the Word faithfully and “eat” the Word spiritually, you will find it a great delight to your soul. But most people have little delight in the Word. They are like those Jeremiah spoke to whom “the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach, they have no delight in it” (Jeremiah 6:10).
Placement.
“I am called by thy name.” (KJV) “I bear your name.” (NLT)
This means Jeremiah was called into service for God. If you are devoted to the Word of God, you will have a place in the service of God. Being devoted to the Word of God is absolutely essential if you want to truly serve God. Unfortunately, many churches and mission boards ignore this basic truth. This results in workers without a message and hence without value.
By John Butler, Butler’s Bible Reading
An anonymous Christian said one day “When I was filled with the Spirit, I loved the Scriptures so much that if I could have gotten more of the Word of God inside of me by eating it, I would have eaten the Book. I literally would have taken and eaten it—leather and everything—if I could have gotten more of the Book inside my heart.”
Well, you don’t get it by eating it, but the Word of God is sweet to the Spirit-filled person because the Spirit wrote the Scriptures. The spirit of the world does not appreciate the Scriptures—it is the Spirit of God who gives appreciation of the Scriptures. One little flash of the Holy Spirit will give you more inward, divine illumination on the meaning of the text than all the commentators that ever commented.
It 1727 the Moravians who were quiet people, like you and me, but they waited and prepared their hearts, and one morning, suddenly, that which they called “a sense of the living nearness of the Savior, instantaneously bestowed,” came upon them.
Now, when the Holy Spirit is allowed to come with particular intimacy in a human soul, He never talks about Himself, but always about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Count Zinzendorf wrote that the small group of 75 German Christians arose and went out that building so happy and joyful that they did not know whether they were on earth or had gone on to heaven. The historian says that, as a result of that experience, within twenty short years those Spirit-filled Moravian Christians did more for world missions than the entire Church in all of its parts had done in 200 years. It made missionaries of them.
The New Testament speaks of the sense of “wonder” among the early Christians. The Church in our day seems to have lost this. I remember that Dr. R.R. Brown, of Omaha, once said to me, “God is so good to me that it frightens (amaze) me!”[1]
[1] A. W. Tozer, The Counselor: Straight Talk About the Holy Spirit from a 20th Century Prophet (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 1993), 149.
Many young people have to leave home either for study, or work, or military life. For many it is a challenging time in their life, many new pressures are building up on their shoulders. History offers an interesting example of a young man that was force away from home. His own country lost a war and the enemy tactic was to expatriate young promising people to the enemy territory. This young man name was Daniel. We can learn some important lessons on how to survive in anew surrounding. Like many of today cities Babylon was a very wicked place to live. We can read in the Bible that Daniel determine in his heart what not to do. Away from Daniel familiar network into a new one came with many new temptations. Here is how Daniel manages the situation. He “determine” not to compromise with he knew to be evil.
Some year ago I read the life story of R. G. LeTourneau. I was moved to make a few resolutions. The author A.W. Tozer summarized well my stand. “Tie up the loose ends of your life. Begin to tithe; institute family prayer; pay up your debts as far as possible and make some kind of frank arrangement with every creditor you cannot pay immediately; make restitution as far as you can; set aside time to pray and search the Scriptures; surrender wholly to the will of God. You will be surprised and delighted with the results.” Inspire by LeTourneau example, I decide to give God the ‘first place’ with my time and money. Reading God’s Word became a top priority each morning. I also realize that God did answer prayers. I avoided like pest going into debt. I can say that life was never the same since.
Like Daniel, LeTourneau’s life had a very positive testimony after taking a stand for God. LeTourneau was a known as “God’s businessman”. You could read more about LeTourneau. [1]
I try to be as positive and optimistic as possible, yet the Creator also teaches us to be cautious and alert. Alertness is exercising my physical and spiritual senses to recognize the dangers that could diminish the resources entrusted to me. Thomas Jefferson said, “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance”. Apostle Paul under the leading of the Holy Spirit gave us a very serious warning in 2 Timothy 3:5 “Avoid these people!” Whose people was he describing in in those first five verses? I find that the author H.A. Ironside summarize it very accurately. “In 2 Timothy 3 the Holy Spirit is describing conditions in the professing church in the last days! There are twenty-one outstanding features in this prophecy of church conditions in the last days. Paul challenge you to look about you and see if these are not the conditions that characterize a great part of Christendom today—no reality, no power, yet much profession. The Church which began as “the pillar and ground of the truth,” is, in this twenty first century of its existence, “seeking” the truth, thereby acknowledging they never yet have found it!”[1]
In His Sermon on the mountain, Jesus said that a <Tree is identified by its fruit>. “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” Matthew 7:15 Remember Jefferson advice “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance”. How to keep your freedom?
Two simple questions will help you;
Do you guard your daily time with the Lord and His Word?
Do you ask God for daily guidance and find His will?
Let me rephrase them, “Do you pray and read the Bible daily?”
[1] H.A. Ironside, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon (Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers, 1947), 220
John Gaucher 