All tagged holy spirit

Praying and the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, Paraclete

As I prepare to move into the second half of the year reading a daily devotional each morning that was written by Pastor E.M. Bounds (The Power of Prayer), I would like to direct our contemplation today towards the Holy Spirit and the impact that he has on our prayers, and our prayer lives. Will you walk with me as we study some of the important aspects of praying that the Holy Spirit brings into our prayer closets with us? Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as our paraclete, which means our helper, counselor, and comforter. Merriam-Wester’s dictionary defines paraclete simply as the Holy Spirit.

From Whence Does My Help Come

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Possible With God

How do we judge what we are contributing to the kingdom of God? Are we looking at our efforts, or the Lord’s? This is our topic for the day. When God calls us to perform His will, how do we go about determining if we will accept His calling? Do we look at our own skills and determine if it is possible for us, and then reject those things that we feel are beyond our ability? Or, perhaps we look at Jesus and say to ourselves "He could do all those things because He was the Son of God" and thus justify our silence when God calls out our weak and miserable name? Well, we should not look at our own strengths and weaknesses, but to the promises and power of God who calls us, and can do all things.

Being Transformed by our Belief

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Transformed

When we accept Jesus as Lord are we open to a complete life altering change in who we are, or simply asking Him to alter us in a few handpicked ways? Do we want to become like Jesus and be transformed into His perfect image by becoming a better and more righteous person, or do we simply want to pick and choose those attributes He exhibits that we believe will serve us well in our existing lives? Let’s ask ourselves questions like this… Do I want to be a slightly kinder person, or do I want to be kind as Jesus is kind? Do I want to be more humble, or do I want to be perfectly humble as Jesus is? God wants us to be transformed, but to what degree are we willing to accept the transformation? Will we conform to a complete mental, behavioral, and spiritual change and in so doing obey God’s will for us in its entirety?

Our Personal Teachers and Tutors in Faith

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Lessons of Faith

Our Lord does not want us to wander lost through life. He calls us to Himself through His Son Jesus Christ, and guides us with His Holy Spirit. No matter where we are in life He is there watching over us. Our Father teaches us as we follow Jesus, and gives us understanding through His Spirit. So, with all God’s love, and His personal instruction, education, and guidance, what is our excuse for wandering lost, not understanding who He is, or feeling alone?

The Holy Spirit in us, and His Gifts for Us

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Holy Spirit

When we believe in Jesus Christ as our savior, the Son of God, and are then baptized, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This gift plays an important role in our spiritual lives by giving us such things as scriptural understanding, remembrance, prayer when we don’t have the words, and the various other gifts of the Spirit when we need them to obey and do the will of God. In the upper room, following the ascension of Jesus, the disciples received the Spirit, but they were not the first nor the last that the gospel of Jesus tells us of receiving him. We read first of Elisabeth the mother of John the Baptist, and John in her womb, being filled with the Spirit.

Praying in the Spirit

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Spirit Prayer

Have you ever been in prayer and found yourself unable to express yourself to God in words? In that moment did the Holy Spirit well up in you, and with a moan, a groan, a sigh, or even in a deep tearful silence, did you feel a connection with the Lord that was far beyond your ability to express in words, or even understand the depth of? This is prayer at its very foundation. This is the language of the soul. Have you experienced it?

Stepping Away from our life, to meet our Lord Anew

Richard Forbes
Daily Devotional , Sabbaticals, Pilgrimages, and Wandering

I am leaving on a trip for a couple of weeks, a kind of sabbatical if you will, and during that time away, I will pray for refreshment, and a renewed filling of the Holy Spirit. I will not only relax bodily, but will seek God’s peace, and call for His Spirit to fill me anew with insight, and inspiration in His Word. When the Holy Spirit comes over us we are filled with incredible power, and in that state of divine expanse, and closeness with Jesus, our Heavenly Father will bless us with a newness of spirit. Do we desire to experience this?

Traveling God’s Mountain Road

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , God’s Road

In the time of Isaiah, God promised to restore Israel, and through His Son Jesus Christ He has not only made a similar promise to us, but has fulfilled that promise to restore us; having redeemed us today. In Isaiah 49 God promises to do many things for Israel, but one in particular should stick out in our minds; He tells them that He will make His Mountains into a road. Has the Lord made His Mountains to be our personal road today? Do we travel across them, back and forth into His presence? Have we worn deep paths along their steep passages as we have journeyed onto His Holy Mountain to worship Him? To the unfaithful, mountains are obstacles, but to we who believe they are places of awe, and are holy beyond description. As we look at our lives, do we view the mountains before us as encumbrances, or do we see them as a divine road we follow… our highway to holiness, eternity, and God?

Easter, the Holy Spirit, and our Testimony

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Testimony

Once the Holy Spirit begins to move on us we receive great power, but the often overlooked gift of the Spirit is our ability to give testimony to others. The apostles testified regarding the resurrection of Jesus, and although we can speak of that too, our most effective testimony comes when we not only speak of Jesus, but give witness to our own experiences, such as how we came to know Jesus as our savior, our own moments of amazing faith and grace, and how we now await anxiously for His return, and our own resurrection.

Lord Open Our Eyes to Heaven Around Us

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Seeing Heaven

Oh that our eyes would be opened to what God has surrounded us with. We walk through our days and think that we are alone, or listen to the silence on a quiet walk when we are sad or contemplating some problem, when all about us there are amazing spiritual things occurring. We should pray each day that our eyes be opened to the wonders that swirl about us. Then perhaps in those moments when we are longing to speak with Jesus, or calling for the Holy Spirit to come, we will realize that all we must do is speak, and that the Holy Spirit is all about us.

Has the Holy Spirit been set free within us?

Richard Forbes
Council and Advice, Ordinary Time, Christian , Daily Devotional , Call , Holy Spirit

As believers, and Christians, we focus, and pray, to God and Jesus Christ, but too many of us neglect the importance, and power, of the Holy Spirit in our prayers, praise, worship, and indeed, every aspect of our faith lives. We lean on God’s Word with the limited understanding of men, yet without the true understanding the Spirit brings, we intercede alongside Jesus without the direction and remembrance of our helper, the Spirit, and when our hearts are overwhelmed, and our prayers begin to fall silent as a result, we forget to ask for the comforter’s help… for the Spirit to step in and pray for us.

Jew or Gentile, this is our solution to Sin

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Believing

Peter preached the gospel of Jesus to the Jews, and told them how they had crucified the Son of God. When they came to understand this as truth they were distraught, and asked what they could do to save themselves. Today we hear the same gospel, and find that we are just as lost to sin as they were. When we come to understand this truth we are equally distraught, but brothers and sisters, fear not, because the solution that Peter preached to the Jews in his day is still sufficient to save us today.

Born of Water and Spirit we are anointed

Richard Forbes
Christian , Spirit Prayer, Holy Spirit

We pray, and as we do so we ask that the Holy Spirit guide us, but when we exit our prayer closet, or other place of prayer, do we leave him behind? Those who do so don’t understand him fully, and the impact he has on our daily lives. However, if we do know him better, and we feel him surrounding us all day long, do we think that he is just hovering about us as we do whatever it is that we do in the world? If so then we misunderstand our relationship with him; he is not meant to follow us about like a puppy, but we are to keep in step with him. Do we walk in the steps of the Spirit through our lives?

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