Pentecost Sunday!

Lord, God, we thank you for the gift of Holy Spirit, which we celebrate today.  I pray that we will never forget nor take for granted what an awesome and wonderful Gift He is.  I thank You for all that Your Gift has meant in my life, for all that He has done in me and for me and through me.  

Holy Spirit is so precious to me.  He has changed my life so tremendously and blessed me so far beyond anything I could ever have imagined.  But so often we as the church seem to overlook Him or take Him to be an afterthought of God.  If Jesus told His disciples to wait for the Gift of God, the Gift foretold throughout the Old Testament, how can we take Him so for granted?  He is the embodiment of God and all that Christ has done for us dwelling within us.  Our Comforter, our Counselor, our Teacher and Guide.  

Father God, I love You!  Lord Jesus Christ, my Savior and my Righteousness, I love You.  Holy Spirit, my Guide and my Hope and my Inspiration, I love You.  

On this Pentecost Sunday, I encourage you to recognize the ministry of Holy Spirit in your life.  Take this opportunity to thank Him and to praise Him for all that He is and all that He is doing in your life.  He is so worthy of our praise and our love!!!!

Love,

Ev

One thing have I desired and that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in His tablernacle. Psalm 27:4

Holy Spirit and MORE!

(Sorry, it got away from me this morning. I started out wanting to say something nice and interesting, but my heart just took over and ran on ahead of me with something else.)

Hi! I was reading Experiencing the Spirit this morning and came across this:

"And why does He send the Spirit to believers today?
"Simply this. He has a mission. In sending the Spirit, God is at the same time giving an assignment. For unless there's an assignment, there's no need for the gift of Pentecost.
"Because God has a purpose for your life, He has sent you the Holy Spirit to enable you to fulfill the assignment He wants to accomplish through you. God isn't looking for proven leaders; He's looking for those who have hearts that are pure and responsive, and then He equips them by His Spirit to be leaders. So hear this carefully: The Lord is looking not for the talented, but for the obedient. He's looking not for the skilled, but for those who are sensitive to His Spirit." Henry and Melvin Blackaby, Experiencing the Spirit, pages 83-84.

Wow! A powerful chapter, "Shaped for Service." The author(s) also make the point:

"Many want the Spirit's power but not the Spirit's purity. The Holy Spirit does not rent out His attributes. His power is never separated from His glorious Self." (page 92)

"Remember again, your spiritual gifts are for the particular assignment God has for you, and assignments are always based on your character. So don't seek gifts of the Spirit -- seek the Holy Spirit in His fullness, and let Him prepare you for God's purposes." (page 96)

"It costs much to obtain the power of the Spirit: It costs self-surrender and humiliation and yielding up of our most precious things to God; it costs the perseverance of long waiting, and the faith of strong trust. But when we are really in that power, we shall find this difference, that whereas before, it was hard for us to do the easiest things, now it is easy for us to do the hard things." A.J. Gordon (as quoted in Experiencing the Spirit, page 96)

Maybe that is one of the reasons we see so little of Holy Spirit's power in our lives, our unwillingness to set aside distractions, our desires, our priorities, and to embrace the cross of Christ and the will and priorities of God (Are we willing to accept His assignments, or are we caught up in doing what we want to do for Him?). We want the power, if nothing else the power over sin, but the cost is so great.

I believe another reason is that many of us are not even aware that such power is to be expected in our lives. We see the lives of those in the Bible, especially the Apostles, and we believe that the power and purity of their lives was the exception, God's purpose and will in that day was somehow different that His will today. We think that God wants eloquent preachers, large venues, mission boards, media outlets, and internet sites to accomplish His purposes in this day and age, that these are "the greater works" that Christ said we would do. We have come to expect less because we see less. Perhaps we see less BECAUSE we expect less. Shouldn't we be basing our expectations on the Word of God rather than what we are seeing "in the world."

My goal first and foremost is to KNOW God, to draw as close to Him as I can get, to wrap myself up in Him and to be filled with Him like a sponge (the ONE THING of Psalm 27:4, Luke 10:41-42, and Philippians 3:13-14). But my second goal is to know and experience all that God has for me. I don't want to be limited by what the world, the denomination, the well-meaning, or anyone else says. I want to know what God says He has made available in His Word and go for that with all my heart!!! My desire is to know and understand all that God has purposed for me and provided for me and to go for it full steam and straight ahead.

BELIEVE ME!! I am NOT THERE . . . YET! I am still asking, seeking, knocking, as well as longing, desiring, and waiting on Him. I have tasted of it. I have a measure of it. I want MORE! I want MORE of GOD, MORE of CHRIST JESUS, MORE of HOLY SPIRIT, and MORE of the WORD of GOD in my life.

Love,
Ev


One thing have I desired and that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in His tablernacle. Psalm 27:4