Posts Tagged ‘Holy Spirit’

How To Be Christ In The world

Sunday, August 8th, 2010
  • Shine Your Light

Shine Your LightWhy you should Shine Your Light. A comment by Teresa Martin on the last post read; “…if the world can’t see Christ in us, we are ‘salt that has lost it’s saltiness’.”  I like that. We are indeed the salt that has lost it’s saltiness.  I struggle all the time with trying to “be Christ in the world”.  Every time I lose my cool in traffic, or get terse with an unhelpful shop assistant, I am just another failed Christian.  After such a “fall from grace”, the Holy Spirit kicks in and I am heavily aware of not having acted like Jesus would have. Call it conscience if you are more comfortable with that term, but the result is the same.   We fall short of our own expectation of ourselves, and we suddenly realise that we have just wasted another great opportunity to witness Christ into the community.

  • Filled With a Warm And Loving Joy.

It is when we take those opportunities and reply to provocation with love that we are really “being the Bible” to the world around us.  If we do use the situation to show love, to offer practical witness, we will be filled with a warm and loving joy, we will have blessed that person, and we will have been an effective witness to the love our God has for this world.  Think how good it will be for your inner self if you come away from EVERY encounter with a warm glow, and are concious that you have blessed that individual, rather than leaving them with a scowl and feeling angry.

  • Practice what you Preach

The wonderful old cliché, “Practice what you Preach”, kicks in here.  It is totally valueless if we tell our congregation on Sunday morning to “love God and love our neighbour”, if we are not doing exactly that in our own daily life. Double standards are easily detectable and will show in our body language and in other subtle ways, so it is vital that we do indeed put into practice the things we are telling others.

  • Shine Your Light.

The same passage of scripture that speaks about saltiness goes on to use the idea that we are a light to the world.  We are urged to so show our light before men that others may see our good deeds and praise God in Heaven. This is how we “shine that light of God’s love”, by acting out His love for all men in EVERY place that we can.

“We can take every human encounter and turn it into a Kingdom experience simply by showing love to that other person.  It is that easy!”

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The Person of The Holy Spirit

Monday, August 17th, 2009
  • The Holy Spirit; His Fruit and His Gifts

Questions about the person of the Holy Spirit, His gifts and His fruit, are both simple and complex. Here are some simple answers -

  • The Fruit of The Holy Spirit.the-holy-spirit

The [fruit of the Holy Spirit] Galations 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. are those character elements that grow in our lives after we are born again, and the Holy Spirit is enabled to work within us. As a ‘new baby’ in the spiritual world we need to develop, just as does any new baby in the temporal world. When we give our lives to Him we are filled with love,  and we become filled with joy.  After the first excitement dies down we gain the peace; and the other fruits of patience, kindness, and so on start to develop. It is not by chance that the last fruit to grow is self-control; it naturally grows after the others have matured.

  • The Gifts of The Holy Spirit.

[The [9] Gifts of The Holy Spirit]1 Corinthians 12: 4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines are given at will by the Holy Spirit, and may be withdrawn also at will. Do not confuse these gifts with the [7] [motivational] gifts that are listed in [Romans 12] 5 So in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.. These motivational gifts [in whatever ratio we may posess them] are the God-given gifts we were born with, they govern our character and define our role in God’s kingdom.  On the other hand, you can pray for any one or more of the spiritual gifts, just as you like.

  • The Voice of The Holy Spirit.

For me, the best description of the voice of [God] the Holy Spirit, is the term used by the writer of  1 Kings [19:12] when he said; “a still, small voice“; in telling about God talking to Elijah after the voice of earthquake, wind, and fire.  I have this mental picture of the Holy Spirit in the same room in my head as my conscience, and speaking to me in the same way -  I have to listen real hard to hear Him, and it certainly helps to be in a quiet place, so as not to drown out the sound of the still small voice…

  • More About Hearing From God

You can read more about hearing from the Holy Spirit of God in Chapter 14 [Wisdom From God - Concience and The Holy Spirit] of my e-Book, “Good Lord, It’s Morning”!

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Evidence of the Holy Spirit

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
  • Evidence of God’s Holy Spirit

The only reliable evidence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a person is evidence of the ‘Fruit of the Spirit’. The 9 fruits of the Spirit are as described here in [Galations 5:22] But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control…………

  • By Their Fruit You Will Recognize Them

Jesus said everything must bear fruit of its own kind [Luke 14:43] 43 “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. 45 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”. And in Matthew 7:20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

The Nine Fruits of the Spirit
Fruit of the Spirit

  • The Fruit is the Proof.

So to see the evidence of the Holy Spirit in the life of someone, you look for the fruit of their life. If they love their fellows; if they have joy in the Lord;  if there is peace in their life; if they are patient, kind, gentle, faithful, and so on, then you can believe that they indeed are led by the Holy Spirit of God.

  • Words are Not Enough

It doesn’t matter what a person says about themselves, how plausible they may sound, what documents or certificates they might show, or what others may tell you or believe about them,  the only real evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit of God is the way they behave!

  • Prayerful Consideration

If you need to discern the evidence of the Holy Spirit in someone, then use the same methods as described in How To Preach, take it to the Lord in prayer!

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How to Preach

Sunday, January 4th, 2009
  • How Do I Preach?

Read on to find out more on how to preach without using notes and how to Preach with Conviction!

  • The best way to preach, is by conviction, from the heart, in your own words, just testifying to what you actually believe, whenever somebody asks you. That is how to preach with conviction…..preach
  • Testimony is vital and believable – Why? – because it is what we have seen and believe, and therefore the conviction of truth can be heard in our voice. When we relate what happened to us, people can believe that as fact. When you share some truth of which the Holy Spirit has convicted you, you will be believed because the conviction will ring in your voice!  This is the evidence of the holy Spirit. That is How to Preach with Conviction.


So, How Do I Do That?

  • If you have no set requirement for the theme of the day, then grab your Bible, and head for your quiet place and just ‘wait on Him’ until you are told [how to pray] what to do.
  • If you are working to a set theme, like lectionary readings, just go into your quiet place with your Bible and start ‘meditating’ those readings. As you read a verse or a phrase, close your eyes and let the Holy Spirit of God illuminate it to your understanding.
  • Follow each ‘train of thought’ thru to its end and the subject matter will be filled out and explained.
  • Just keep doing this until you feel there is no more to be understood. It may take several sessions of quiet to get the whole message. Strive for Spiritual Excellence!
  • Stop thinking about it and go on with your usual weeks activities until you feel to do it again.
  • Come Sunday Morning; you stand up and relate your subject matter as you are led so to do.  I find that it seems to come out in the same order it went in.  I.E. The first major point revealed comes first, and then the second point, and so on….
  • How to Preach without Notes. The above method works well for me – it just blows me away that I always get to the end of what I want  to say at exactly the time the service is scheduled to end – Hallelujah!

There it is – you just learned How to Preach!

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