Your Challenge... In His Word 11-16-2020

 

Your Challenge.. In His Word 11-16-2020



Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to walk in the Spirit in this year, in this lifetime, in this day of unbelievable odds.




Walk in the Spirit, live by the Spirit, and walk in peace.

To walk in the spirit means to live a life according to the Word of God, but to live accordingly we must know the Word, our Bibles. To know the Word of God we must read the Word and pray.

 

Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow [a]thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. 1 Peter 2:1-3

 

We pray first because God wants to communicate His word with us, and He wants us to understand the Word of God, obvious to some may not be obvious to others.  If we pray first, then we can be putting aside the things that hinder us.

 

You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth?  It certainly isn’t God, for he is the one who called you to freedom. Ephesians 5:7-8

 

We all have the Holy Spirit within us to enlighten or heighten our knowledge of what we read, but unless we pick it up and open the book then pay attention and focus on what we are reading its not going to get in our head. If it does not get in our head, it will not influence our heart, our soul and our lives.

Romans Chapter 8:9-11 says, But, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.  And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Study it out! Study to show yourself how to live approved by God and stop trying to live your life approved by man.  What is more important? Approval of God, or man?

 

God, -- peace, hope, love unconditionally, eternal life, direction, good things happen when we follow His directions, for all things work together for the good of the called… we are the called according to His purpose. (

 

Man’s approval—temporary, no peace, just stressed out trying to keep up with everything that they are doing, or what you think they are looking for in a friend, or in a situation, it’s a totally long process trying to please man, take it from me, a people pleaser!

 

I have tried to keep the peace in my family, I tried to keep the peace in my life around me, and often times it made me  so overwhelmingly upset because all the work I try to did to appease people, and do what they want me to do. Inevitably, I get tattered and torn, like an old sweatshirt that you have warn because it feels comfy, but it does not keep you warm anymore. It’s so thin that holes are showing up, you try to patch it but its just not the same and you really cannot use it. Sometimes you want to but are afraid to toss it because its your feel-good sweatshirt. You have memories of it being good. I am telling you that influence must go!

 

That sweatshirt may have kept you warm in the past , just as that influence you have to be perfect, or rowdy like your friends or dark because they are dark, it has to go!

 

You need to find the focus in the Word that God has for you! You need to keep your mind on things above and not on the earthly things that draw you away from your commitment to follow after Him.

The enemy will do what he can to threaten your resolve, he wants you to fail, but if  you keep in focus to walking in the Spirit, He will remind  you of the scriptures when you need encouragement. In a sense, like a new sweatshirt, God will keep you warm!  He will give you a new garment of praise! A new sweatshirt is all soft and comfy!  The perfect fit!

When we get a new sweatshirt, we do not settle for one that is too big or too small, but one that is just the right fit!

God is the right fit!

 

Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another.

“Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:25-32

 


All of this is walking in the Spirit.

Getting rid of the things that hold you back, stepping into the things that give you joy, peace, hope, and a good direction to follow.

All of this comes from piling in the words from the Word of God. The Bible is the same book people have been reading for generations, it is the best seller of all times, and it’s God breathed! God inspired.

To walk in the spirit, is to walk accountable to God, doing what is right in His eyes and not our own.

For I am not my own I was bought with a price, I was purchased by the precious blood of Jesus Christ… the song rings true!

 

Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. Colossians 2:14-16

God’s approval comes when we walk in His Spirit.

His approval is the reward for a challenge well met! You can do this!

Get in the Word today, study to show Him you can do it. Then as you read pray asking God to show you the lesson you need to receive from it, or to reveal the personal connection or answer He has given you in this. Then walk in it.

 

Heavenly Father, give us the words to live by from Your Word, the Bible. Help us to live it as we walk in Your Spirit… in Jesus’ name Amen.

Read some more?

Romans 8: 1-39, Ephesians 4: 1-32, and 1 Peter 2:1-25