Jesus told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from God. The Holy Spirit is the One of the Trinity that gives us boldness just as He did with the disciples. He teaches us and guides us to be able to do the things that God is calling us to do. If you belong to Jesus and you have truly been clothed with the Spirit then you live with a Person of the Trinity every day. Think how wonderful that truly is! He is part of the Godhead and He teaches you about Jesus and helps you to understand the truths found in God’s Word.
Without the Holy Spirit’s influence, you wouldn’t have come to realize that you needed Jesus as your Savior. You didn’t make that decision on your own, it was God’s Holy Spirit that touched you and caused you to realize that you are a sinner. This is how every person has ever been led to the Person of Jesus for their salvation. Once you accept Him as your Savior, the Spirit comes to dwell inside you to teach you more about who you are in Christ and how to be His on a daily basis. We can’t walk as His children without the Holy Spirit guiding us every step of the way. Until we learn this and take it to heart in our daily lives, we are walking as if we are in the dark. We are trying to do “Christianity” in our own power and strength and we can’t do that.
Will God allow us to be this way? Yes, He will. Until we surrender our hearts and our life, taking up our cross every day, we will be living and trying to do His will on our own. It can’t be done that way. God will allow it until we realize that we aren’t getting it and then He will help us get back on track.
I wonder at times if Christians realize what a wonderful gift God has given us? His grace comes to us through the work of Jesus and it is because of this grace that we have hope in Him. We don’t deserve it and we have no way of earning it but God gives it to us freely when we believe in Jesus as our Savior. What a wonderful and loving Creator is He who loves us enough to extend His grace to each of us through Jesus the Christ!
Reading God’s Word allows us to learn of His love for us more deeply and completely because His love is not just for one race of people but for all. Learn of God and His grace and His love by reading the scriptures and seek Him as your Savior because the day is approaching that the whole world will see the Truth of God coming for His Bride. When that day comes and is done, the time of Tribulation will come upon the whole world. I pray that everyone who is looking for a Savior will seek Jesus soon.
God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit had always been together in eternity before the creation of the universe. This is not a myth or some raving of old men and one day soon the world will know. When sin entered the world in the Garden of Eden, the Son knew that He would have to pay the price for humanity’s sin so that they could be in the Father’s house one day. If He had not given His life for our salvation by being obedient to His Father’s will, we would not have the hope of eternity.
Jesus had to give up His part in the godhead to become human and live a sinless life in order to be the spotless Lamb to pay for our sins. Why? Because it had been known by God the Father since before mankind was created. Jesus had to go through the crucifixion because it was necessary for us to have a place in eternity with God. Mankind was created to have a relationship with God and he did for a while. They were perfect and sinless until they gave in to temptation.
Why did they give in? Because God created the angels and humanity to have a choice. Love and service aren’t real if it is forced. Only if it is given. It was the ability to choose which caused a third of the angels to follow Lucifer. This is the same ability that God gave to Adam and Eve, the ability to choose to follow God’s rules and to follow Him. We still have that same choice today but there are many who choose to go their own way because they are listening to the lies of the world around them.
Money, power, fame, and other “stuff” don’t fulfill your life and it doesn’t fill that empty space in your heart either. All of us grow up having a space inside that we can feel and we know it needs to be filled but some of us live a long time before we find out Who actually fits in that space. We think it’s something like more cars or a bigger house or a younger wife or husband and sometimes these do satisfy us for a time. But that empty space usually comes back if we don’t fill it with Jesus. He is the only Person that fills our empty space completely.
Seek Him out soon because not one of us is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow.
In life, you can fail at anything. The one thing that you shouldn’t fail at is claiming your salvation. As a pastor and in life, you can fail by trying to please everyone. Preach a message that doesn’t hurt anyone’s feelings and doesn’t tell them that they are born a sinner. Tell them that everything will be fine if they are good enough and live by the “golden rule”, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you“. Teaching and preaching a “sermon” that makes people feel good is the way to be a failure if you are trying to “preach” for God but it might bring you success if you are doing it for your own gain financially or personally.
Jesus didn’t preach a message about feeling good or just doing good, although He did that very well. He taught that God loves you and He calls those whom He knows will work with Him and for Him. He taught that your life has meaning and purpose in God’s Kingdom if you follow Him and listen to Him. While the “golden rule” is good teaching that Jesus taught, it is not the only rule. It will not save your soul.
Believe in Jesus as your Savior and accept Him as your Lord, then you shall have eternal life in Him. There are no specific things that you have to do or perform. There is no specific amount of time that you have to give to Him in His service. But…when you realize the complete salvation that He bought for you with His blood and His life on the cross, you will want to serve Him and give Him whatever you can to work for Him. Because when He calls you to become His disciple you need to search the Scriptures and see what He paid for your soul and that’s what will humble you to the point of being His forever.
It doesn’t take a lot of education. His disciples were fishermen except for Matthew. God can use your talents whatever they may be simply because He is the One Who gave those talents to you. He knows what you can do and He will empower you to be able to do what He calls you to do. Having lots of letters behind your name and certificates on the wall doesn’t make you any better than one of the disciples. They learned at His feet and their education was just as good as any college education today. Make sure of Who you are serving in your walk with Him.
The Living Message of Christ 