For Your Glory

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Updated: August 31, 2020

This is the first of four songs, titled “For Your Glory!”

This song was inspired by a friend during a bible study. Another person in the group asked this one friend how she reconciled all the things in her life with some of the teachings in the bible. My friend had the most poignant answer, she said, “It’s all for His glory. The bad stuff, he’s turned it around and I’ve been able to bring comfort to others in similar situations, and although some of this happened years ago, it’s still bringing good for His kingdom.” I was so struck by her faith, her statement of how good God is in the midst of trials and life horrors, and I was impressed upon the need to write a song. Several rewrites, tweaks, and some banging of my head against the proverbial wall ~ later, here’s the first available download for you all. If you enjoy this song, download it, share it, give it away, make copies of it. I’d rather you have this and listen to it, hum it to yourself, than to feel obliged to have to pay for it, if you cannot afford it. I’d rather see you grow in your faith and be reminded that our walk in faith, our relationship with Him and others is not about here, it’s about eternity. If you can’t afford it, that’s ok. If you can but don’t donate, that’s ok too. Do what God requires of you, not what I suggest. Build your relationship with Him and His people and bring more people into the kingdom, because the more people the more fun we’re going to have after this life.

Download it from Noisetrade here: http://noisetrade.com/rebekahanncurtis/for-your-glory

Religion or Relationship?

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Updated: January 29, 2020

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The United States is filled with people of religion, but do not have relationship.

Those with religion regularly deceive themselves. They attend churches, they give their money to good causes, they pray, they do as much good as they possibly can do, they even talk to their neighbors, and help out their friends. They believe that all these things ensure that they will have a place in heaven, but these things alone do not ensure that they have eternal life. Their message is a wide gospel, love conquers all, God is love, God wants the best for you now, and if you experience the opposite, you are in sin and in danger of hell!

If this were true, I wouldn’t be writing what I am writing this very moment. It would not weigh so heavily on my heart, because all of that sounds so good, but it’s so far from the ultimate truth.

What I am about to reveal is offensive, and I don’t care if it offends you, because if I truly love you, I will reveal truth to you.

You must have a relationship with God.

You must have a relationship with your Creator, the one who made the heavens and the earth, the one who designed you to be who you are.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 14:6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. 7If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!”
8Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”
9Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? 10Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. 11Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do.

God sent Jesus Christ to die, be buried and resurrected because of mankind’s disobedience. Mankind did not fall away from God because there was something better to do, no, they were tricked.

There is a way to relationship with the Creator, our heavenly Father and that is through Jesus Christ.

Luke 13:22-30

22 Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. 23 Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”

He said to them, 24 “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. 25 Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’

“But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’

26 “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’

27 “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’

28 “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. 29 People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. 30 Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”

Matthew 7:13-14

13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

That way is by entering a relationship with God through Jesus.

It’s simple, but do not be deceived, simple is rarely easy.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

and

Romans 10:9-11

9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. 11 As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”

There are no other requirements to entering into relationship with the father than this. To believe.

And here is where relationship and religion divide.

Relationship is the beginning of talking with God, the conversation between you and your heavenly father.

Religion is the beginning of doing what some words written on a page, in order to finally have that relationship with God in heaven, not now, but when we get there. It involves a myriad of good works to make sure that you are in right standing with God! It is clear in the scripture that good works do not make you right with God!

Matthew 7:21-23

21“Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. 22On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ 23But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’

The key words in this passage are “I never knew you.” Religion grabs onto the last part of the text ignoring the first part of verse 23.

Relationship, through our high priest, the narrow gate, the narrow way, is not dependent on how good we were that day, or days prior, or how many minutes we stand praising, and doing good things before God will have a conversation with us. Read all of the book of Hebrews, and you will see that we can boldly enter into the presence of God at any time. In the book of Romans (10:3), we learn that our own good works mean nothing. Nothing!

There is only one way to please or gain the favor of God and that is through faith.

Read Hebrews 11

Let’s discuss the deeds of these heroes of faith.

In each instance, these people heard the voice of God and then acted upon it. They all had interactive relationships with God. Where they listened to the voice of God and believed.

It wasn’t what they did, but what they believed.

Out of their belief and walk with God, they saw God do great things through them. But in each case, it was out of faith. Not fear, not for some distant candy dispenser in the sky, not for a reward or trophy in heaven, but out of relationship with God.

Relationship with God begins with the word.

John 1:1-4

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

Relationship agrees that not everything that someone experiences in this life, good and bad, is a reward system. (Have you read Job?)

Religion blames negative experiences on sowing bad seed and ignores scriptures like these:

James 1:2-4

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Religion forgets that the man who wrote most of the new testament wrote this:

1 Timothy 6:8

8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

The only way that anyone can persevere and have joy (Galatians 5:22) in all seasons and circumstances in life is through relationship.

If you try to live this life by religion, it will kill you.

Religion breeds competition, jealousy, striving for position, hiding flaws and presenting ones best self at all times in order to ‘stay in favor.’ Religion sees mans favor as an indication that God is pleased with your observations of rules. Religion looks for external confirmation.

With relationship, you have internal confirmation, you don’t need the approval of giftings, callings, etc, because God has spoken that to you already. Prayer is not a one way addressed letter, it’s a conversation.

Maybe you think you believe, but you haven’t heard God’s voice speak to you. To begin, it starts with your Bible. Not just speedily reading it, or endless hours of studying it in an academic manner, while those are good and beneficial, it’s reading the Bible to encounter God himself. It’s meditating upon the Word of God, thinking about Jesus and His worthiness. The only way that you can experience the richness of God’s love fully is by spending time in reading the word of God.

Faith starts with a footstep towards God.

God has already stretched out his right hand towards us, it is up to us to reach back.

Relationship starts with the word of God.

Religion is a set of rules and things to do and pray in certain circumstances, using a book like a manual for a job.

Relationship is encountering the living God through His word.

What do you have?

No, I’m Good

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Posted: February 23, 2018

 

Proverbs 1:5 Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance.

I firmly believe that learning and the application of knowledge is a constant necessity in life. Proverbs is filled with sayings about wisdom, knowledge and learning. Timothy was encouraged by Paul to continue to learn. 2 Timothy 2:15. Even the prophet Hosea declared that God’s people are destroyed because of a lack of knowledge. Not just knowledge of God, but knowledge in general!

While I was on a recent social media site, I had commented on an acquaintance’s post about improving and increasing in knowledge and how easy it is to obtain knowledge with all the information available on the internet. I was surprised by this response:

“No, I’m good. I know all I need to know.”

That response just floored me. I think I was surprised because we share similar interests and I thought similar goals, and we may still, but the idea of not wanting to increase in knowledge and apply it was shocking, to say the least.

On occasion, I have come across people who have resisted my insistence that they should learn new ideas and thought processes. I have become frustrated at trying to convince people to see something in a different light. I’m a bit stubborn myself and felt for a long time that it was my job to persuade, convince, and sell people on changing themselves. Anyone else who has shared this crusade knows how easily discouraged and frustrated someone can get. I’ve berated friends, bible beat verses into my fellow believers and stood on the edges of ponds, just to prove a point, and God has put up with my pride, my anger, and my own stubbornness in trying to convince others.

It took me a while to change, but I learned a few things.

I can’t change myself.

No amount of will, self determination, or sheer strength can I live the gospel or live a godly life. I have an incredible sense of self and self will. When I want to, I can present myself to appear to be running for the Lord, and I even thought for a while that I was, because I was doing so much in my own strength. It wasn’t until that I got to the end of the rope, and there was a lot of it, that all the struggles and things I had dealt with and wrestled with in my life, in secret, I had no strength left to take care of them.

See, it’s when we realize that no amount of struggle can remove the shackles and the burden of this life, that we are able to see who is able to remove the things that bind us. I can twist, turn, but I didn’t put that burden on myself, and I can’t take it off. Like an ox strapped into a yoke, it cannot shake it off, but I am either under the constrains of the yoke of one master or another. The only one who can remove the yoke is the one who owns the ox. If I belong to no one, then I am confined by whatever the yoke catches as I wander. I could be dragging a lot of baggage that I may have tried to avoid, but by with I am found being ensnared. If my master is cruel, I will find little to eat and too much work and little rest and my body being beaten for not accomplishing the most simple of tasks. In all cases, whether I am owned or a wild beast, I have a burden that I carry. In order to remove or lighten the load, I need to be owned, I cannot change the requirements or the load of the burden by myself.

I can’t change others.

If I cannot remove my own burden, clearly I cannot do that for others. I may know how to have the burden removed, I may even see the burden that another is carrying. The only thing I can do, is to help carry the burden if I am yoked to that person. If that person does not have the same owner as myself, it will be a perpetual conflict. If they have no owner, they are going to wander and get entangled in fences, brambles, and maybe travel through waters that are dangerous, without a guide. If their owner pushes them past their capacity, I am forced to help in the never-ending struggle, and I don’t want to serve that master. I cannot convince them to change owners, they have to realize that for themselves. However, I can tell them about another owner who has purchased them, but they will need to call that owner by name and come under his yoke.

Often, there will be those who have decided that they don’t want the yoke of the previous owner and want the yoke of the new owner, but do not understand that the new owner will instill some discipline into the ox, especially if they have been a ‘free’ ox. The free ox will be broken, eventually, or they will die.

The previously free ox may not see the value in work, or in the conditioning of an animal to be the best at their job. They don’t realize that with learning knowledge and training, not only do they become more efficient, but their job becomes easier with training. Again, I cannot convince someone that this is the best path for them, they must decide this for themselves. I cannot convince them that they can change, I can only tell them how following the guidance of the new owner, that the burden is much lighter and easier with knowledge and by following the new owner closely.

I know this, because it’s taken me years to learn it. So when I was faced with

“No, I’m good.”

followed by language that could have been the start of a flame war, I explained my stance, and we mutually came to an agreement that did not dissolve into a stubborn battle.

Now, had this person been a good friend, one in which we had founded upon a good solid foundation, I would have been ready to do some friendly sparring.

As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. Proverbs 27:17

I know that the gospel, the bible in its entirety is offensive to people, and when I find someone who is excited about the challenges within the Bible, even though what is address may be a difficult thing to do, but desires to do that which the Bible states and wants to be held accountable to the standard (oh we all fall, but its running the race inspite of falling down, it’s getting back up and running towards God even with a bunch of mud and dirt, because ultimately it will be glorious and those who cheer me on as I run and those that I get to cheer on to run, those friendships are the best!) This is the kind of friendship I live for! Where one person says something to another sparked by discussion of the Bible! Sometimes, it can get heated, even a bit on the opposite sides of the spectrum, and even a bit weird, but if a friendship is founded on Christ, that friendship will survive and even thrive with some clashing. I don’t know if you know or not, but sometimes, sparks can fly when iron is being sharpened.

Now, there are times when I’ve discovered that some friends weren’t really friends, or that they weren’t as in love with the Word or the Bible as I am, and I had to realize that they were a previously free ox, or were passing through with a lot of baggage, or belonged to someone else. At those points, I had to drop my iron and let them wander off or stop and explain that if they go to the owner that I know, abide with that owner, that everything will become clear and they can lose their entanglements.

We use the word ‘friend’ very loosely. We exchange the word ‘friend’ for acquaintance frequently. An acquaintance is someone you know socially. Many people at church could be considered acquaintances. We see them briefly for a few hours a week with several other people, often to hear a sermon together. In many cases, many of these people are no different than fellow movie goers. There’s really nothing to connect you with the other person, except that you are in the same room together every week.

An acquaintance is a person you may know by name, you may even know their children, their family, what sort of job they do, where they grew up, where they live, and what sort of hobbies they enjoy. You may invite them over, but only when everything is picked up and put into it’s place. You may enjoy meals together, joke around a bit, and hang out or discuss things you both enjoy. These are acquaintances.

A friend is someone who knows you well and in return, you know them. This is someone who you can invite into your messy home and they will deal with it. This is someone who will help you move heavy furniture, who will go on road trips in a crowded vehicle, with whom you can share a tent for a week in the wilderness, who will go into places that are dangerous and will have your back. This is a person who will help you out when you are down and out, and be excited for you when you are on top of life, and not expect you to share your wealth, but is grateful if you do, and doesn’t want to take advantage of you in either spot. This is a person who will hold your hand when your marriage is shaky, who will continue to root for you even if the season of life they are in is different than yours. They will look for the common ground and continue to be friends on that foundation, not whether or not you are in completely different places and seasons in life.

At one point in my young college age life, I had several months where I had a nice portion of disposable income to throw away on eating out and doing stuff. The group of friends I had, we did a lot of stuff. Part way through, my income drastically changed and I was unable to go out three times a week and drive several hours to larger cities with this group of friends. I explained to my closer friends that I wasn’t able to afford doing all this stuff. I learned that all my friends weren’t truly friends, they were acquaintances. Even some of my closer ‘friends’ abandoned me. They continued to do what they did and were unwilling to additionally spend time outside of all the expensive activities. My finances excluded me, and my acquaintances didn’t care. Had they been friends, they would have found a way to include me in their social time, and I don’t mean by paying my way, I mean in spending time with me. But I couldn’t convince them that I needed to be a part of their social group, and in the end I learned a valuable lesson.

Out of that lesson, I developed a friendship with another person who we couldn’t be more opposites. That friendship has lasted through ups and downs, my lament with the church, and so on. In truth, it was that friend that gave me a tongue lashing for continuing to lament and wallow in church hurt years after I had moved out of the area. I thank God they did, I wouldn’t be where I am today if they hadn’t.

When I’m confronted with the words:

“Nope, I’m good”

in the context of learning and growing as a person, I have to ask myself one question:

Is this person a friend or an acquaintance?

That ultimately decides how I will respond.

 

——

Apart from the “no, I’m good” acquaintance, and again recently I was reminded that some whom I thought were friends, indeed were not. Our friendship consisted more of me knowing them, but not them knowing me in return, not because I wanted it that way, but because the other person never took the time to want to know me. We spent hours together at church, in bible studies, at young adult services, at choir rehearsals, I knew about when she felt she was supposed to be married on a certain date given to her by God but had to move it because it was her fiancé’s birthday, I helped paint her apartment bedroom a sunflower yellow, went over to her parents house when she graduated from college, gave her gifts, celebrated birthdays, triumphs, etc with her. Again, I was recently reminded, that she didn’t know me. I knew her, but she had not reciprocated in kind in word or deed the entire time I knew her. True friends reciprocate, those that show Christ’s love reciprocate.

How to Increase Faith Part 7

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Updated: August 16, 2017

 

“A sated man loathes honey, but to a famished man any bitter thing is sweet” Proverbs 27:7

How hungry are you?

How much of God do you desire?

Let’s be honest with ourselves and with God.

Do we go to church to please ourselves, to please man, or out of our relationship and love for God?

Let’s break down these positions.

Sometimes, we go to church to please man. Do we go because if we do not, we will have to answer the questions and constant badgering from mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, spouses and grandparents? What sort of position does this place us in when we participate in praise and worship?

Why do we sing? Is it because everyone else is singing? Do we sign up for things because our friends at church or the pastor expects us to do so?

Sometimes, we go to church to please ourselves. Church is a wonderful place to socialize, find friends, be involved in activities that enrich and encourage our souls. Do we go because it makes us feel good? Do we receive a certain amount of adoration from people and acceptance that makes us feel wanted and desired? Does it fill a piece that we feel is missing from our daily lives? Do we go because it reminds us how to be better versions of ourselves?

All these personal reasonings for attending church can be done apart from a personal relationship with God. In fact, if you removed Christ from the church, it would continue to work as it currently does: supporting others, being a social club for like minded people with empowering messages.

While this seems good on the surface, it is the motives that are the issue.

Do you go to church to be a better version of yourself?

Let’s consider a deeper reason for attending and participating in church.

That we engage in church as an extension of the relationship that we have with Christ.

This act, in and of itself can be challenging and stretch our faith and relationship with Christ. For we are then rubbing shoulders with people who are either there because they are there as a part of their relationship with Christ, or they are there because they are there for themselves. It is the latter that can cause us to be drained and challenged. The former can also cause us to be challenged if our motives are for ourselves.

But this is not just about attending Church, this goes beyond that.

Church should be a small portion of what our relationship looks like with God.

Even if you attended a meeting every single day of the week, sang songs, clapped your hands, had discussions about what’s in the Bible, hugged some friends,it’s the actions once you leave and are by yourself, apart from church people that matters most.

How hungry for God are you?

Do you want to get to know who created you?

Is your preference for communicating for God, or for doing things that pull you away from communicating with God?

Think of your favorite person, the person, if you could, spend 24/7 with. If you’re married, hopefully it’s your spouse, or maybe it’s a best friend.

Why do you love this person so much? Was it instant attraction, or did the friendship build over time or both?

Even by spending small amounts of time with a person most day, you get a stronger bond and connection to that person. If you were to call a person long distance, say a grandmother or a mother and talk with them for 10 – 15 minutes, your relationship would grow with that person over time.

In the same way, approach the Lord in small pieces of time. Devote ten minutes, even five minutes to spending time reading the word and in prayer.

Taste and see that the Lord is good – Psalm 34:8

You may feel at times that the Lord is not near when you are in prayer or reading the bible. It is at these times, we must put emotions aside.

This does not mean that emotions are a terrible thing, be we cannot be carried away by our emotions. If we are honest, our emotions come from two places. The internal and external. Internal emotions are peace, patience, hope, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control: all of which stem from love. Galatians 5:22-23 The second type of emotion is manipulated by what we see and hear from the external. Watching a film, hearing a musical composition, and the actions of others can cause a reaction within us. Not all of these externally motivated emotions are bad or terrible, but if we are led by the external day to day, we are nothing more than a bag floating on a wisp of wind, without an anchor to the soul. It is here that we must learn to abide in the relationship with God, despite our emotions and circumstances around us.

Sometimes, we feel God closely, as if He is present and closer than any other has been, at other times, we feel God as distant. We cannot assume that He is distant, but that we are the ones who are distant. Press forward.

Until the next time, set aside a small amount of time each day and purposefully with great intention read the word of God, or pick up a devotional book and read it alongside the bible, and be open to hearing the voice of God as you set forth in your journey. This time could be be as little as five minutes or as long as you would like, but make that time to taste the Lord and see that He is good.

 

PART 6

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How to Increase Faith pt 6

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Updated: August 16, 2017

 

“My sheep know my voice, and I know them, and they follow me”

There is no fear when listening to the voice of God. If you are born again, and know your Savior, there is no fear when you hear His voice. This is not a revelation apart from scripture, this is not seeking some secret knowledge that God only dispenses to you, this is merely participating in a conversation with our Creator. Most times, God will speak to you through scriptures and some will have more meaning to you than they do for others. At times, God will prompt you to share with others, at times it is a special conversation of His divine love meant for you.

In these times of listening, they are to be cherished and relished. Much like a parent whispers to their child as they read their favorite stories during times of rest, or just before bed, these are meant to encourage you, to ease your heart, and to encourage you to further place your trust in your heavenly Father. Do not be dismayed if your friends or family do not understand the love He has bestowed upon you, they have either not spent enough time with their heavenly Father or made Him a priority in their daily lives. It is only required that you love God, and in turn to love your neighbor as yourself.

If you eagerly desire to hear His voice, and have not, return to the first post and earnestly seek what is written within. Meditate upon John 3:16, cry out to God from your heart with honest emotion for Him to reveal himself to you and wait until He reveals Himself, and He will. Your experience of waiting will vary from other people’s. This is not a cruel test or sadistic torment, this is the patient waiting out the intentions of your heart. Jeremiah 17:9

There is no shame in crying out to God and waiting for Him, just set within yourself the determination to do so, examining your heart as you do.

If you are born again, Christ lives within you. 1 Corinthians 3:16, 2 Corinthians 13:5, Romans 8:10, 2 Corinthians 4:6-7, Galatians 2:20, Luke 17:20-21, Galatians 5:16-23, 2 Timothy 1:14, John 14:17, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Colossians 1:27, 1 John 4:15, Philipians 2:13, etc.

This does not happen because you will it, or demand that Christ inhabits you, but by faith. Believing that there is a result of being in a perpetually fallen human state, and knowing that the consequence is separation from God, but by coming to the knowledge of redemption through Jesus Christ, and thereby believing upon that, one enters into the divine relationship with God. At that moment one believes, truly believes and makes that leap of faith, spiritual rebirth occurs. It is here, that the relationship begins.

Much like being married, you know if you are married or not. Having a relationship with God is very similar. We are the bride and we know our suitor. If you do not have communication with your suitor, or the groom does not acknowledge the bride, there is no wedding, there is no relationship. The divine groom has one request, to enter by a specific door, that door being Jesus Christ. If a bride refuses to communicate through those means, there is no wedding. It’s the divine prenuptial agreement, no one goes to the father except through Jesus Christ. Titus 3:5, John 3:1-8, Romans 8:15-17, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Ephesians 1;13-14, Romans 10:9-13, John 14:6

If you have a long held belief that there is another way, and yet have to hear God, perhaps you have not truly believed. There is no shame in acknowledging that you have been wrong, that the way you understand God to be is different than who He truly is. Repentance is nothing more than a hard change of mind. Again, if you have trouble hearing God, return to the beginning of this series and think about John 3:16 and Romans 10:9-13, wait patiently for God to reveal Himself to you.

For those who have the reassurance of eternal life and begun the journey of knowing God, we know that John 10:28 rings true for every station of life. If you have strayed, you have been the one sheep, and He has been faithful to collect you. If you have been hurt, He has not been neglectful in healing your heart over time. For those just beginning out on your journey, this will become apparent as your continue your conversation with God.

Perhaps you are familiar with the verses 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. In verse 17, we are told to pray without ceasing. If we read this verse apart from the rest of scripture, we may believe that we are to lock ourselves into a room and spend hours upon hours with little regard for nothing else but our face buried into the carpet or ground and pray, only to rarely get up and eat, or to interact with our fellow man. This is not the intended meaning.

To pray without ceasing means to allow yourself to have open communication with the Holy Spirit that lives within you at all times. To consult the Holy Spirit on all matters. To have that conversation throughout the day, this is what it means! That in all things giving thanks.

If you are familiar with Brother Lawrence’s “Practicing the Presence of God” this will sound familiar. Here was a monk, living in a monastery, where his duties consisted of cooking and related activities. His conversation and meditation with God did not begin and end with a 5 minute devotional in the morning, but he carried that with himself throughout the day!

I want to encourage you to do the same!

Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, is your constant companion, your ever ready comforter in times when you think you need Him, and when you feel you don’t! The truth is, we need Jesus every minute, every day. The more you interact, the more you connect with God, the more time you spend with your heavenly father, the more peace, joy, love, and grace you will discover!

For this next week, let’s contemplate and focus upon the Holy Spirit that dwells within us.
Communicate with God, even just to chat about your day, or even ask God what He’s up to and what He’s about, sincerely, if you are up to asking.

Make your communication with God more than small talk, be ready for real and honest communication with the Holy Spirit.

Your communication does not need to be external, He is within you, He knows you intimately, share your life with Him.

Until next time, spend quality time interacting with the Holy Spirit.

 

How to Increase Faith Part 5

How to Increase Faith Part 7

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