Sunday, June 7, 2020

Overcoming - Part 3

Arizona sunsets are otherworldly #sky #skies #nature #photography 


The shepherd’s rod and staff are a comfort to the sheep. They could be used to defend the sheep from predators, but usually used to gently guide the flock and redirect individuals to safety. Here’s the point; that is what God does with us. There are times when we don’t feel like doing something or like going our own way, and God says “this is the way that is right, so we need to react in faith and trust. Pastor Kyle is trying to give us some “north star” constant and guiding principles that we can know and understand which give us confidence that the Holy Spirit is helping us overcome situations in life that arise, and the fact that He is leading us in one of them. Once we have been gently led and are experienced, then we can gently lead others around us. We often get frustrated when people are not listening to us, so sometimes we are not gentle and ruin our witness. This is a great moment for us to look deep inside ourselves and ask: “Are we gently leading like the Holy Spirit or taking a heavy-handed approach and calling it faith?”

The next thing to know is that the Holy Spirit enables us to overcome by returning good for evil, letting God settle the score and living in peace with all. When Jesus was reviled, He never reviled in return. Instead, He entrusted Himself to God the Father. Jesus same and endured the evil unto death so that we could be healed. That means being healed of our sins and finding our true home in Heaven when we die. Jesus endured the wickedness of men and the sins of the world on the Cross, so that the Holy Spirit could come into anyone’s life who would simply repent and believe in Him as their Savior and Lord. It is totally natural to desire and seek payback and revenge for wrongs done to us, but it is the power of “God the Holy Spirit” to return good for evil, to let Go settle the score and make the choice to live at peace.

John 14:15-17 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”

Pastor Kyle reminds us that the Holy Spirit is not “God the Son” or “God the Father”. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead of the Trinity – “God the Holy Spirit”. The Holy Spirit indwells every Believer with the breath of eternal life. When God breathed life into Adam’s lungs, the Hebrew word used there is “ruach” – the breath of God. Because of what Jesus Christ did on the Cross, we are healed of our sin separation from God and we have our citizenship in the kingdom of Heaven.

The Holy Spirit is who grows us as Christians. The Holy Spirit wrestles with the sin nature of our flesh that we may walk in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit points us to our Heavenly Father. The Holy Spirit is always acting in submission to the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit teaches us to submit as we model the Spirit’s submission. The Holy Spirit is the power that enables us to overcome. The Holy Spirit is the power in your life and the church in the name of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit has made you an overcomer.

In Christ, Brian

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