Meditation: September 8

“He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.”  John 16:14

The work of the Holy Spirit is to arrest our thoughts and energy and guide them in a new direction. He will give us an understanding of all things that belong to Jesus Christ. Beforehand our thoughts would wander and attach themselves to things that destroy the soul. Before He intervened there existed no passion to pursue Christ because His life to us had no appeal. Some would attempt to redefine Christ’s  life and mission in order to pursue their own passions and goals. Their emptiness remained when the activity ended. There was no lasting effect to their experiences.

There is no contentment unless the Holy Spirit is completely in charge. He will not compete with the pettiness of selfish interests. He is committed to those things that please the Father alone and will not allow anything to get Him sidetracked. What we have learned and received of Christ is clarified and applied to the soul. As the Son did only those things that please the Father, so it is with us who are led of the Holy Spirit. We will sense His grief when our ways sway towards a different path. We will sense His pleasure as we maintain that course that He has prescribed. What a privilege we have to be led by the Holy Spirit! The Eternal reaches down into time in order to envelope the temporal in order to lift mortals to a new place and a new vision. Once we see with the Lord what He has always seen, we no longer wish to entertain ideas beneath the standard now revealed to us. Even when we drift in thought and action, the same Spirit reminds us of who we are. It is the knowledge of Christ that changes us. Once we have been changed, our contentment is with godliness. Those allurements are outside of us and no longer in us. His glory is our good and His pleasure becomes our peace of heart and mind.

Meditation: September 7

“And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees.” Matthew 3:10

Many have sought justification for wrong habits of the heart in which they have grown accustomed. They strain to admit when they hear an unfamiliar voice from an unfamiliar place preaching an unfamiliar message. It is baffling to the mind to accept the fact that all previously known by them was in error. The truth contradicts our folly. We by nature try to fight against what we feel is right. Yet what we may be resisting is our true love calling us to a higher place. The call is away from our pride of knowledge that we may really know truth that beforehand was too elusive. The skillful artisan does not bring a scalpel to remove minor excess but an axe to completely remove the whole thing. It must be completely uprooted if it is ever to be replaced with what contains virtue. There will be something new replacing the old once the old is brought down in defeat and ruin. There is a defeat, a loss that must preceded victory and gain. Then God will plant seed in place of plant. The potential of the godly is far greater than the success of the wicked. As we continue to listen to His voice and wait on His promises, in a little while new growth will sprout up from the ruins of the past.

Meditation: September 5

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” Jeremiah 1:5

It was all about God before consideration is given to self. God had a purpose in mind, unknown to us but awaiting us by our Creator. “I knew where you were to fit into My plans.” Self-discovery is the challenge given to each person to consider what God already knows about us. “If any lack wisdom, even that which pertains to self, let him ask God.” Our reasoning can merely draw from what is already known. To observe God’s creation and to see merely through the eyes of others; their experiences and life alone may limit us from knowing what God desire to show us. God is aware of your uniqueness because He made you the way you are. Not to be weird and merely associate with those who different for the sake of standing out in the crowd, but participate in a plan far greater than even our most sophisticated plans could take us. God has a plan for your life .It is His desire to use everything that He has given to you for His glory. His plan is also to remove from you everything planted in you by the enemy of your soul to disqualify you from achieving your predetermined goal. Let Him fill the void and emptiness in your life and complete the task that He has begun.  

Meditation: August 29

“So he answered and said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.'” Luke 10:27

God gives us the strength to love. The heart is guided in a direction and the soul agrees to give full expression to that particular emotion. To love is not a miracle. It is a part of man’s nature to love. Without guidance the heart gravitates by default away from God. Loving then is not deliberate, but the result of some forceful habit that captures the mind and heart in order to condemn the soul. The passions must be harnessed by an object that is capable of containing all that is offered and reciprocate by providing what is desperately needed in return. When love gives but does not provide the person with what is needed, he eventually becomes bankrupt and bitter having been taken advantage of. Then love is inverted and transforms into hatred that is primarily directed towards the true Lover of his soul.  They feel shortchanged having not received from Him what they needed, but refused to give Him what He commanded. When God is loved with the whole heart, the heart is made whole. Then the heart guides the soul with every emotion towards what is good. One will engage in activities using his strength to glorify Him alone. Thought and action is unified when the Word and Spirit are experienced. They empower us to do what we will and will to please the One who provide both will and ability to do for His good pleasure. Then He will show us our neighbor in a different light. We see him through God’s eyes. He directs our affection towards them in ways far beyond the levels of selfishness and competition. We see ourselves in him, thus loving him as we love ourselves.

Meditation: August 26

“Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, measured heaven with a span and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?”  Isaiah 40:10

The question God asks causes us to think of His majesty and glory. It magnifies the Lord and minimizes all other things that once appeared to be so overwhelming and intimidating. It is not a matter of what but moreover, a question of who as we consider what we daily observe a coincidental. Things and people being held together, maintaining their set boundaries, is the result of an ordered plan. The thought and the power displayed in nature, if more carefully examined would have us stand in awe and the wonders of God! He created all things and is above all things. He calls to mind from the greatest to the smallest.  The telescopic expanse and mystery of universes created by His Hand and the microscopic expanse and mystery of the molecule both are in need of the invention of instruments powerful enough to examine what is yet to be seen. God has full knowledge of both extremes. “He has measured the waters the hollow of His hand.” He knows the limits of His creation that is measureless to man. Light years are used to describe the distance of planets and galaxies.  Things that appear limitless have their limits. “He has calculated the dust of the earth in a measure”, i.e.; He has knows the number of particles of dust existing in the planet earth! He knows how much each mountain weighs and the combined weight of all the mountains in the universe in both pounds and ounces. And not only mountains but hills are accounted for. If He pays that much attention to details, there is little wonder that God knows whatever challenge we may be facing. Nothing happens without God having full knowledge of it, the God who loves us!

Meditation: August 19

“And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, Yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, But your eyes shall see your teachers.  Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” Isa 30:20-21

The departure from the Way is the root cause of the adversity that comes from the Lord. There are challenges that come as result of obedience and challenges that are rooted in rebellion. The difference between the two is the adherence on the part of the challenged to hear the instructions that come from the Lord. He is available to deliver us from all of our trouble, but do we listen to His voice before us to lead or have we left what He has to say to us behind? Their teachers were sidelined and replaced with guides who misguided them. They listened to falsehoods as blind guides led them into pits. But God did not abandon them even though they had abandoned Him. From behind His voice could still be heard. From the rear, the places inhabited and celebrated was the voice of God speaking to them in order for them to return to the old landmarks and to walk in the tried and proven Way. What foundation was the Lord building within you and what is being built upon it now? The wood, hay, and stubble of worldliness are of a different quality from the gold, silver, and precious stones of righteousness, holiness, and sanctification. Though your heart may desire many things, God will often calls us to go back rather than forward in order to revisit what we have left and be restored to the spiritual state we were once in. Those who were there are still there, but the question is, where are you? Can you in this state of mind and heart receive or has the hardness set in so that the journey is determined by feelings rather than faith? God says, “This is the Way, walk in it.”

Meditation: August 11

“He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” John 14:21

The attachment to God’s Word is the same as being attached to all of His promises. The heart must be made ready to contain the infusion of life that comes as result of God speaking into it. It is not just the mind even though the message must pass through the mind. The heart must agree wholly with the Spirit who causes the Word to come alive within the Christian. The result is a quality of love that surpasses any effort on the part of the person to love Jesus. It is His love deposited within the heart and directed towards Him without reservation. It is His power that preserves the believer through making the Person of Jesus Christ known in every situation. He is not absent when things are tough. He does not conceal His identity in the midst of one’s greatest trial. He is there causing all things to work together for the good of all who have His love within them. He not only manifests His love, but His glory is revealed.

Meditation: August 6

He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; (3) and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.  Matthew 16:2-3

The corporate decisions made by both our spiritual and civic leaders are the uneasy breathing of this generation gasping for lack of spiritual air. The deficiencies reflect a climate of desperation, but without the knowledge of the Savior. The world has resorted to measures which are appeasing to the fallen masses, pacifying their appeals for pleasure thus taking the path of least resistance. Many Church leaders have relented to providing blind leadership by getting in front of the parade of fools. They hold the office and gain the attention, accolades, and allegiance of the people by giving them what they want and taking them where they desire to go.

Where discernment is lacking, all things appear to be right. Every person is right in his own eyes because the King is absent from the consciousness of those who decide for us. These things are not just happening. There is a plan behind the fallout. The Deceiver is accelerating his activity because he knows that his time is short. Any degree of falsehood or hypocrisy cam be appealed to and magnified by him. It is high time to awaken out of a state of slumber and be alert and aware of the times in which we live. If it were possible, even the very elect would be deceived by him. But God stands above the fray with what we need. Only those who have been given ears to hear and use them accordingly will hear the voice of reason leading them through the destructive landmines of enemy.

Meditation: August 3

A book, a letter, or a sermon is result of the deep meditation of the presenter. It is usually expressive of much of what has been read, prayed, and is birthed out of the relationship that person has with God and with others. Therefore, words may mean different things to different people. That is why I take pleasure in reading both the preface and the bibliography contained within books. I like to know what the person was thinking when he said what he was saying.

Jesus spoke with the deepest of thought. Everything He said was expressive of the heart and mind of His Father. He was asked on one occasion a question. “Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22.35-40) Such a simple yet profound answer to a question would have baffled the most astute professor of religion. Yet His answer went far beyond the level of their understanding. All that Jesus was gave definition of the love that He addressed. Then to understand how love was to be applied to both God and to neighbor would send them back to their classrooms in pursuit of the elementary discussions of both categories.

In order to understand the statements of Jesus we need the mind of Christ. As His mind is developed within us, His Words will be accurately interpreted. It is the unrenewed mind that misconstrue and misapply messages processed through it. As we commit to God’s Word pray that His mind would be given to handle what comes your way.

Meditation: August 2

“SINCE ALL this is true, we ought to pay much closer attention than ever to the truths that we have heard, lest in any way we drift past [them] and slip away.”  Hebrews 2:1 ( AMP)

The things we neglect we forget. The things we give attention to are remembered. It is easy to have good intentions and resolve to apply great truths to various aspects our lives, but unless that commitment is immediately acted upon, the urgency of the moment will fade. Even if the thought returns, the zeal would have diminished. Obedience to God is to make Him the priority of your life. It is to make first things first at all times. Disobedience will dull the senses and the spirit becomes sluggish in its response to the Word of God. That person will eventually become a selective hearer and not be able to contain great truths when they are conveyed because the capacity to comprehend them has not been developed.

Pay attention to God’s Word, especially those truths that you do not understand. Your interest in the deep things of God will prompt your inquiring mind to search with all diligence. Then when you ask God through prayer, the answers to life’s most perplexing questions and the resolve to the most difficult challenges will be yours for aspects Jesus will be revealed to you and you will see and know Him in the midst of all that you encounter.