05/14/2021
We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and as we learn to do this we long to know Him all the more. God’s desire is that in this way we commit ourselves to Him completely. We use our ever increasing love to seek Him out in every aspect of our lives. Our complete love becomes a means of not only worship, but knowing Him, and dedicating ourselves fully to Him, and His will for us. It is by seeking that we come to know the Holy Spirit.
“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”
Jeremiah 29:13 ESV
I have heard people bemoan the fact that they have prayed, and prayed, for the Holy Spirit to come upon them, and yet, they say, that it has never occurred. They have told me about their faith, and love for God as proof of their worthiness, and asked why it isn’t enough, and how they can increase their faith. Some have come to doubt. Almost every time they are praying for what they believe the Holy Spirit to be, and not what He desires to be in their lives. They seek a preconceived manifestation of the Spirit, and have yet to yield themselves to His Will for them.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:2 ESV
The Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles as tongues of fire, and they began to speak in previously unknown languages, then they taught those around them, and were sent out into the world to preach and teach the gospel of Jesus abroad. Sometimes we misconstrue their specific calling to be ours, and their experience, and gift of the Spirit, to be what we should have. We interject our will where we should be searching for, and yielding to Him by seeking His will with all our heart. So the Holy Spirit has arrived with a gift of charity, and we don’t see Him because we are looking for our own interpretation of God’s will. Perhaps we are expecting tongues, wisdom, perseverance, or some other manifestation when He has brought us dreams or visions. The giver decides the gift that is given... not the recipient who ultimately benefits from it.
“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”
1 John 5:14-15 ESV
Have you ever met someone who you immediately recognized as a saint? It doesn’t take long for us to see Jesus in a man or woman’s life. There was a woman in a church I was attending in whom I immediately saw the gift of charity. According to others who knew her prior to her conversion she was once a proud woman who looked down on the poor, and treated the needy with a sense of disdain, but something amazing happened to her when she came to know Jesus.
This woman came to me and asked that I pray for her to receive the Holy Spirit, and I smiled, because the Holy Spirit had already poured himself into her. She was looking for what the apostles had received, and hadn’t recognized her own calling, and what the Spirit had already given her. The Holy Spirit had filled her with the gifts of kindness and charity, then sent her out to minister to the needy. She was going about doing God’s will for her without realizing what she was doing. Just as the apostles did not decide to receive the gift of tongues, or what language they would speak, this sister had not chosen to become humble, or what she would receive. She had neglected to seek Him, and ask what His will for her was; so she was not seeing clearly what He had for her. So often we seek a specific gift as a means of dictating God’s Will for us... not God’s will that will ultimately determine the gift.
If we haven’t done so already, let’s seek god with all our heart, and ask Him to send His Holy Spirit to instill in us those things we need to accomplish His will. Let’s open our eyes by seeking, and coming to know Him. Are you ready to yield yourself, and give him your heart in its entirety as you search for Him?
“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.”
Romans 12:3-8 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your Son Jesus Christ, and for your Holy Spirit that he sent to us. Thank you Lord for your perfect will for our lives, and we pray that you open our eyes so that we can see that will at work in us, and through us. Teach us to seek you as we love you Lord, with our whole heart, and in this way reveal yourself to us. Thrill us Father as we come to understand you more, and see the amazing desire you have for our lives. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who we love with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Praised be your name for calling us to Christ, and for sending your Holy Spirit to prepare, and outfit us for our journey into your will. Merciful are you who gives us your Word as armor to protect ourselves against temptation and evil, and the body of Christ, to nourish us, as we quench our thirst for you by drinking from the cup of the new covenant. Great are you Lord who by your grace have redeemed us through Jesus. Hear our prayers as we seek you with all our heart, and show us your will for us as we find you, and come to know you. Remove our sins by the blood of Jesus, and find us worthy through Him. Seat us at your table Father, and let us praise you for every good gift you gave us as we loved you, and obeyed your will.
Rich Forbes