Choice Greetings:
I have a verse on my heart for you today:
Romans 12:12 TPT
“Let this hope burst forth within you, releasing continual joy. Don’t give up in time of trouble but commune with God at all times.”
In the past I have referred to this as a devotional lifestyle. For a few weeks it has been my privilege to share with you my thoughts in regard to my friend the Holy Spirit. As I have revisited these wonderful scriptures which help us to know Him better and recognize He is a person. As I have meditated on this incredible revelation of who He is as the third person of the God Head, my thoughts went to:
Philippians 1:10
“That I may know him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death”.
Here is what we know about His resurrection; Jesus was raised after He had been crucified in our place for our sins. To know Him in the power of the resurrection is to know the Holy Spirit who raised Him from the dead. Paul writes this for us to gage where we are spiritually.
Galatians 2:20
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives’ in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Can we say that we also want to know Him, in the Power of His Resurrection? Take a moment to think about what Paul was asking God for. I think Paul realized that he could know the available power that raised Christ from a lifeless state. He knew the resurrection was the message, which could transform people from death to life. He lived in what he knew and demonstrated what he believed as seen in the book of Acts, which Luke records for us. The spirit of the resurrection is
the spirit of life. (Romans 8:11)
Have you ever experienced the resurrection power? If you have, you now know that it was the Holy Spirit that was operating in behalf of the Godhead. I was about 15 when my mother prayed for me when I was delirious with raging fever and boils all over my body. In a moment of time I was set free, from the pain and the fever. It was the Holy Spirit who worked in tandem with the Word of God bringing life into my body. It is with this in mind, I can pray with boldness knowing
that God honors His Word above His Name. I believe that even then the Lord introduced me to the power of the resurrection, which was the Holy Spirit who also incubated the earth in creation and through Him, God worked His wonders. I never have questioned the power of the Lord to heal from that moment on my bed, with my head in my mother’s lap, when the Holy Spirit touched me. Just think about its Jesus went down into death and when He came up from
the grave, He came back with keys to hell and death. He could not have done this if it had not been for the precious Holy Spirit, bringing the Word back to life. Therein He became the Living empowered by the Holy Spirit who is your Friend and mine. Peter should not be left out of this conversation; he has this to say as found in:
1PETER 3:18
“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.”
It is important for us to recognize the work of the Holy Spirit is to quicken the crucified Christ. Just as he quickens Christ, he quickens the believer. That being the case it is important to welcome the Holy Spirit into our lives to maximize God’s presence and enduement of power.
Luke 24:49
“And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.”
The word endue means to provide with a quality or an ability, a transfuse or to clothe. My desire and prayer for each and every one of us that God would clothe us with the Presence of God in a measure that we can operate in and in so doing bless the world around us. I want to thank you, for joining me in praying for this as well the times demand it. Paul also prayed that he would be able to know Him in the fellowship of His sufferings. What a prayer, in another passage he wrote
his grace is sufficient for us and His strength is made perfect in weakness. I believe he gives a bird’s eye view into the way that the Holy Spirit came, alongside to be with him, in the conflicts he experienced. I pray you will sense his continual presence with you at all times in the good and difficult stretches of the road before you.
HELP US MAKE IT KNOWN THAT LANCE WALNAU WILL BE HERE BEFORE THE MIDTERMS TO RALLY THE CHURCH TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN 2022
Let’s stand together for change.
Your loving pastor,
Cleddie Keith