Learning To Follow The Holy Spirit 1

16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality,impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (Galatians 5:16- 25 NIV)

I thirst to follow the Holy Spirit in my life.  As a man of flesh, I fall ignobly short   As a novice I have found it strengthening to mentally recite the words of Galatians 22-23 (which I memorized some time ago) when I am aware of my own temptations.  Most times I miss the clues that I should be on guard and I fail- my flesh having it's way.

At times I hear brilliant things whispered to me that I know are the Holy Spirit, and I am grateful and recognize that this a Divine Word.  Other times I hear and believe I have had a great thought on my own, giving no credit to God.  Worst of all, sometimes I am impatient, angry or selfish and can't hear beyond my own wretched desires.  Lately, I have felt that the Holy Spirit wants to instruct me.  The word that came to me yesterday was Preparation.  It had to do with a panic attack I had over a job situation.  But there have been several crisis situations that have occurred lately that have underscored this Preparation thought this summer.  I won't go into them here and now, but suffice to say, they were game changers.

It came to me in my bed this morning that I must set aside time to meet with the Holy Spirit to set up my day and again at night to review, confess, and learn from my day.  Call it an exercise for an indeterminate period.  I was jolted awake by the idea and compelled to put some ideas down in blog form and it seems this is how I should record my learning.  

Holy Spirit come, guide my day.  Help me turn to you for answers, be prompted into action, and seek your inspiration and creativity.  Express yourself through me.  Form my words, inform my thoughts, and teach me.  Help me to show God's love and wisdom through my life.

Heavy on my heart is the need for confession.  That there are things that have done I need to ask forgiveness for that day.  That I have taken God's grace too much for granted and not learned nearly enough from my sin.  It makes grace cheap.  Part of my hope is that Jesus' sacrifice would move me to be more like him.  I hesitate to use the churchy term "sanctification", but to be "holy because God is holy".   I can't follow God better without addressing obedience (doing what God says)...

15If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever—…John 14:15-16 Berean Study Bible 

John 14:21
Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him."
John 14:23
Jesus replied, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make Our home with him.
John 15:10
If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and remain in His love.
1 John 2:3
By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments.
1 John 5:3
For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome,
2 John 1:6
And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments.

Religion is too much work.  God doesn't want slaves, he wants a relationship.  Let's not make this about trying to earn our way to heaven.  Jesus already took care of that.  Do this out of love for God's holiness, Jesus' sacrificial love and being teachable by the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual Selfishness

I don't believe in the "Post-Christian Era".  Post-Christianity belief is that we have passed from a society where Christianity is relevant into a time when the influence is waning.  I do believe that many Christians have lost their way and feel they can be successful in living the Christ-life without the church.  This self-ish-ness doesn't jive with the bible, so maybe folks don't know the heart of Jesus on this:

"that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—  I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity." (John 17:21-23)

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.  For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.  Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.  And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.  If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?  But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.  If they were all one part, where would the body be?  As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!”  On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,  and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty,  while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it,  so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.  If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it."   

1 Corinthians 12:12-27

 Can you love Jesus and hate the thing he loved most?  We all can get church-burned, but check your heart before you look to become a voice crying in the wilderness.

Put Your Hope In God

Trust and Hope are at the heart of faith, but how do you measure them?  How do you know you are growing in trust and hope?  In a human relationship it seems more concrete, but when we deal with God It seems harder to gauge.   What ways can we develop the hope and trust we have in God?

We hear the expression "put your hope in God" a lot but it rings hollow because we know our inability to walk the talk too well.

Hope is a level of courage, even encouragement, that we draw from our belief in a person or object, often because of trust based on past experiences.  

I believe that my car will help me get to work because it has done so dozens of times before.
I trust that you will keep my secret and you have always displayed confidentiality.
I have faith that if I continue to exercise, my body will change for the better.
I have hope that we will be married "til death do us part".

All well and good...even tedious.

I am not talking about tame, lukewarm hope and trust, I mean ALL IN.  What does FULL trust in God lead us?  Where do all our hopes take us from where we are presently?  Can we even imagine?

I would wager we cannot imagine, and if we could, it would cause us a great deal of soul-searching to count the cost of this kind of commitment.

What if we give up faith in our own power (our jobs, our relationships, our desires and ambitions) that is all our striving to be what WE want to be, to achieve and to have- Forgetting all worldly security, and walking faithfully as he guides and provides.

"It is harder for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God"

Does Jesus expect all his followers to be homeless, destitute vagabonds?  

No, but he does expect you to release the trust and hope you have in the things of this world.  To let go of the pride and independence you have because of what you feel you have accomplished alone (you did not) and what you have.  If you really feel that you have been blessed and it is all a gift from God then you should not care if God requires you to get rid of it to be used by him again, should you?

"Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature.  So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way.   And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him,[a]and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.”   So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully.   But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, “He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.”

 Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.”

 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham;  for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

What is half of what you own in cash value?  Think of giving that to the poor.  I imagine paying people back we had wronged fourfold might bankrupt most of us.  So what is the message?  

We don't want to hear it, because it will cause us to turn our world upside down.  I will cost us more than we are willing to pay.  It is Abram and Issac on the mountain, Moses leaving to return to Egypt to free the Israelites,  it is a sacrificial response to God's request.  Could you lay your son on an altar and draw the knife?  Could you leave your wife and head back to a likely death sentence?

So here it is: "No one is able to serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and he will love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and he will despise the other. You are not able to serve God and mammon."

(Mammon is often rendered as money, but that is inadequate- it means "wealth regarded as an evil influence or false object of worship and devotion" )

And we knew this, but we do not want to do it. That is the problem. We already know we cannot serve both as masters, both cannot share the throne, so rather deny ourselves we refuse to choose. In that, we have made a choice- mammon. It is a intellectual dishonesty, a spiritual compromise designed to sauve our self-centeredness.

Something has happened in my mind and heart recently that has me looking at the things in my life as pretty empty and meaningless. Where I use to think in terms of getting more, I began to think, "What is the point?" as I found myself less and less enamored of having my next big obsession. I find myself today (Christmas day) not having a single present to open and feeling content. I have not obtained a full trust and hope, but I stepped closer.  I heard it said once that we must love people and use things.  That seems to be a starting point mentally for me.  I know I use to love things and use people pretty regularly.  That happens less frequently now, and with the idea of two masters rolling around in my frontal lobe I find it being the bouncer at the door of my thoughts.

Next time you have a moment of recognition that things do not lead to satisfaction and they stand in your way, don't push that idea aside...

Being in Debt To One Another

“Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back” (Lk 6:30).

I made a personal decision that I would not lend to anyone ever. 

It has set me free to be more generous in my heart. 

When someone asks to borrow from me I readily give it not expecting it back, be it a book, money, a coat or a CD. I consider it gifted. There is no disappointment if I never see it again, or feeling that someone is in my debt (that is awkward for both parties and ruins a relationship). I don't think of possessions as mine but as a gift from God I TRY to hold things loosely and value people over things.

Being in debt is a form of slavery.  I don't want to be responsible for your bondage.

I personally owe a friend money, and I am grateful that they helped me out when I was in a bind but it creates a shame in me and a perceivable resentment in him.  I don't want to do that to others. 

It is hard to admit that sometimes we need help from others, that we are not independent.  You need help with a jump for your car, you need a ride home, you need to borrow a cup of sugar, you need a couch to crash on tonight.

It is hard to ask for these things...

and hard to receive- even when it is offered unsolicited.

Do you feel the same tension of obligation and gratitude?

The verse tells us we are not to withhold anything:  

“Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back” (Lk 6:30).

This discipline of generosity has room to be developed in every heart.

Joy Does Not Mean Happiness

Had a bit of a revelation this evening and it involves a word that we have misunderstood.  Here’s the definition Rick Warren came up with from studying Scripture:

Joy is the settled assurance that God is in control of all the details of my life, the quiet confidence that ultimately everything is going to be alright, and the determined choice to praise God in every situation.

The deep, abiding joy comes as we persevere through trials, with God’s help, and our faith matures and is strengthened. So happiness tends to be fleeting and depends upon temporal factors like circumstances or other people.

Joy, on the other hand, is true contentment that comes from internal factors like our faith in the Lord. True joy is everlasting and not dependent upon circumstances. 

Hebrews 12:2 “Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus experienced joy but it was also a focus for Him while He suffered excruciatingly on the cross. In fact, the root word for excruciating is the crucifixion.  Joy can help you endure suffering too, but none of us will ever have to experience what Jesus did.

James 1:2-3 “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.”

Joy can help us endure trials and suffering.

Can We Admit the Greed in Ourselves?

I think greed gets the best of everybody.  Greed is destructive (please don't justify it by calling it Capitalism).  Greed, like the love of comfort, is based in fear.

He who is greedy is always in want.  It is an insatiable hunger.  Unquenchable.

It is one of the ugliest sides of humanity, a gate to hell, like lust and anger.

We deny it is in us, there is always someone we perceive as worse than us to point to as justification for our behavior.

I don't want to pontificate in an area where I myself am so weak.  This is truly one of those areas Buddha spoke of when he saids, "When the student is ready a teacher appears".  May the wisdom of a wide array of Greater Minds take seed in the fertile soul of a receptive mind.

“He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.” 
― Socrates

“So the unwanting soul
sees what's hidden,
and the ever-wanting soul
sees only what it wants.” 
― Lao Tzu

“What win I, if I gain the thing I seek?
A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy.
Who buys a minute's mirth to wail a week?
Or sells eternity to get a toy?
For one sweet grape who will the vine destroy?
Or what fond beggar, but to touch the crown,
Would with the sceptre straight be strucken down?” 
― William Shakespeare, The Rape of Lucrece

Greed is not a financial issue. It's a heart issue.  ~Andy Stanley

…But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. 
-1 Timothy 6:9-10

“Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). 

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal… You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:19 and 24).

I am going to close this out with a survey from Christianity today which gives me insight into my own behavior.  Take some time with your answers in prayer, ask our Father to breathe into us what he wants to see develop in your heart...

To help you focus your own self-examination, answer the following questions. The questionnaire is a rough measure of your generosity. The questions provide only a generous and a greedy option. The import of the answer given may vary with the circumstances of the one giving the answer. It would be wrong to quantify your responses. The point is not to rate yourself, but to position yourself better to fight the spiritual battle.

1. If I fantasize about winning a magazine sweepstakes, what most comes to mind is: (a) what I could do for others with all that money; (b) what I could buy, the vacations I could take, and the freedom to do what I want.
2. When I hear of someone with about the same talents and energy and education as I have who earns $20,000 a year more than I do, I think: (a) how nice that he or she can earn that much money; (b) it's not fair.
3. When someone outside my family gives me a significant gift "out of the blue": (a) I feel good about being the recipient of that person's generosity, and am comfortable with remaining in his or her "debt"; (b) I refuse it, or if I accept it I feel uncomfortable until I have given the giver something of equal or greater value.
4. If I express my admiration for some possession of an acquaintance (a book, a painting, a piece of pottery), and the acquaintance offers to give it to me, I tend to think: (a) "This person is very generous"; (b) "What do you suppose he or she wants from me?"
5. When I give someone a gift: (a) I am content if the person acknowledges the gift with pleasure; (b) I feel cheated if the person doesn't pretty soon do me a favor or give me a gift of equal or greater value.
6. When I give money to the church or other charitable organization, I typically: (a) think with pleasure about the good that may be done with my money; (b) think of the things I could have done with the money if I hadn't given it away.
7. If I lend $15 to someone I meet at a retreat: (a) I don't mind much if I never see the money again; (b) I get pretty upset if the person doesn't repay me.
8. When I give money to the church, I do so because: (a) I like to see the church doing well; (b) I feel it wouldn't be right to not give.
9. When I get a significant raise or come into some money: (a) it does not affect my standard of living; (b) my standard of living increases.
10. When I get a raise or switch to a higher income job: (a) my feelings about myself don't change much; (b) I tend to feel very good about myself for a while, but soon I begin to feel "poor" again.
11. When something of value is being distributed in a group—fish at the end of a fishing trip or leftover food at a picnic—if I can manage to get a bit more for myself than others without seeming greedy: (a) I will not do it; (b) I will do it.

The Entitlement Trap

Christmas has become the epitome of entitlement thinking:
"My family deserves _______."
"I feel I have earned ______."
"I can't afford this, but my ______ is worth it."
"That will be credit, please."
"But Honey, it was such a good deal I couldn't pass it up!"

The Black Friday shopping is creeping up to the week before Thanksgiving, with the ravenous quest for deals inserting itself in advance of Thanksgiving.  Many stores are open on Thanksgiving day offering pre-Black Friday deals.  Some feel they are entitled to a season of shopping.

I am reading a book by John Townsend called "The Entitlement Cure".  In it he says, 

“Entitlement is the belief that I am exempt from responsibility and I am owed special treatment.” 

“Entitlement is: The man who thinks he is above all the rules. The woman who feels mistreated and                  needs others to make it up to her.” 

Entitlement has us believe that the world owes us something because of who we are.  It is our sense of justice gone rogue in a very selfish way.  It is the avoidance of the Hard Way that leads us to where we are suppose to be.

Here are other's thoughts on the entitlement trap...


“You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.” 
― Abraham Lincoln

“When we replace a sense of service and gratitude with a sense of entitlement and expectation, we quickly see the demise of our relationships, society, and economy.” 
― Steve Maraboli

“Legalism breeds a sense of entitlement that turns us into complainers.” 
― Tullian Tchividjian

“Taking things for granted is a terrible disease. We should all be checking ourselves regularly for signs of it.” 
― Kate Tempest

“There's a whole generation growing up thinking...the government exists to care for them.” 
― Dave Ramsey

“They all want to be happy. They all think they should be happy. And they’re quick to trot out their most cherished document and point to where they were promised “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” But you’ll find that though they all parrot that little phrase, they think none too hard about that word “pursuit”. To follow, to chase, to inquire, to hunt, to seek. To track in order to overtake and capture. This they don’t do. Instead, having been offered a promise of happiness, they progress to a feeling of entitlement for happiness, then make the leap that happiness should, therefore, be easily won, automatic. There’s too much wrong in there to even scratch at that!” 
― Geoffrey Wood

Entitlement is dependence, expectation that someone else is responsible for our happiness, provision and status quo.

I wonder what (or who)  in our lives is taken for granted as "our right to have"?