Where are the Aarons and Hurs?

"Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he wsat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword." (Exodus 17:11-13)

Joshua and the army of Israel were fighting against the Amaleks. Throughout the day they fought the same. The variable in this story is the position of Moses' arms, which represent prayer. When Moses was faithful to stand in the gap in prayer, the Israelites prevailed. When he grew weary and did not, they were being defeated. Aaron and Hur undergird him. They support him. They pray with him.

Prayer is not something we do when we cannot do something else. It is the most important aspect of our work for God. When Jesus said to the disciples in John 14 that He was returning to the Father, He promised them they could do even greater works than He did. But how? He said through prayer. So where are the faithful prayer warriors?

Who's Your Teacher?

"When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come." (John 16:13)

Babies need predigested food, so they nurse on their mother's milk. But how many followers of Christ continue to drink milk that is food predigested by someone else? Who is teaching you the Word of God? Have you considered whether or not you are leaning on other people all the time to digest God's Word for you? If all you every receive is instruction from a pulpit, a Sunday School teacher, a commentary, or a devotional book, then you are still eating like a baby. Don't misunderstand what I am saying. All of these things are helpful, but they should not become our main diet.

God Himself wants to be your teacher through the person of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God will teach you from the Word of God if you will allow him to, if indeed He lives in you. Why not draw aside today with God, and ask Him to speak to your heart as you open His Word. Why not make that a daily habit in your life.

God bless you as He leads you.

What an Awesome Gift

"In him (Christ) you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit." (Eph. 1:13)

The normal Christian experience is that when a person responds to God's offer of eternal life through Christ by faith, God moves into that person's life as the Holy Spirit. By faith we understand that God is one God in three persons. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, are all the one and same God. So understand this. When a person becomes a believer, God comes to live in them. Their body becomes God's temple.

What was impossible through the entire Old Covenant becomes suddenly possible. No longer does someone simply adopt a religion and try and imitate the behavior that God desires. Every world religion offers that. Uniquely, becoming a Christian means that God moves into a person's life and gives them the ability to live the Christ life. Instead of imitation, suddenly the Holy Spirit is reproducing the character in Christ as long as we abide in Him (John 15:5)

Vs. 14 of Ephesians 1 speaks of the Holy Spirit as the guarantee of our ultimate deliverance in
eternal life. How do you know whether you are a Christian or not? It is not by the externals of things like baptism, or church membership, or doing anything. It is by the witness of God's Spirit in our heart. WOW!. Praise the Lord.

Fruit Happens

"Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh." Gal. 5:16

I do not mean to imply by titling this "Fruit Happens" that we are to be lazy or undisciplined. Paul describes two contrasting ways of life. One is a life that is lived by human effort that can at best produce the "works of the flesh". And we can read in this text what a nasty list that is. The other life is one that is lived surrendered to the Spirit of God working in us, so that He can produce His harvest of fruit. Paul tells us that these two lives are diametrically opposed to one another.

In John 14 as Jesus prepared the disciples for His departure, He told them He would send the Holy Spirit to live in them. Can you imagine? No longer would God simply be with them, He would live in them. Every Christian is indwellt by God's Spirit. If you are a believer, God lives in you. The more completely we manage to surrender to Him, the more He manifests His power to enable us to live the life that He created us for. So to use Paul's imagery, "Walk by the Spirit." Our responsibility is to stay vitally connected. If we stay connected, He will produce fruit that glorifies God in our lives.