Abide in the Holy Spirit
When the Day of Pentecost had fully come the disciples
realized why Jesus ascended up into heaven. He left them in order that He might
be with each one of them in a more intimate relationship.
The Holy Spirit came to fulfill the ministry of
Jesus Christ. “I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly,”
Jesus said (John 10:10b). He indwells so that He can reproduce the character and
likeness of Jesus Christ within the born again believer. He continues to do and
teach all that Jesus began to do and teach when He was here on the earth (John
14:26; 15:26; 16:13-17).
He longs for us to respond to His love and make ourselves
available to Him to live His life in and through us (1 Cor. 3:16-17).
What does the Spirit find in the temple of our body? Too
often the temple looks like a desecrated shrine, unkempt, unclean, perhaps even
defiled.
We grieve Him, and quench His fiery presence by our
attitudes and behaviors. The Holy Spirit is always ready to use us, and longs to make us
His instruments of grace and mercy to a lost world. How tragic when we deny Him His rightful
place in our hearts?
We have each learned again and again that our God is the
God of a second chance. How grateful we are that He “will restore the years the
locust has eaten” (Joel 2:25). “This is the everlasting mercy,” says Fitch. “He
gave us another chance of doing what we have failed to do” (p. 125).
We abide in Him as we die daily to self-love and reckon to
be dead unto sin and alive to God.
Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after
Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke
9:23).
We usually treat ourselves as if we are the only ones of
significant value, the most important person in the world. Instead of Jesus
being our most valued person, we make ourselves the priority. Jesus said we must
die to self-love and make Him our first love.
The apostle Paul applied this great truth to the believer
when he wrote, “Even so consider [be constantly counting upon the fact, reckon]
yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11).
As we daily die to sin and self and reckon upon Jesus we
abide in Him. This is the vital ministry of the Hoy Spirit in our daily lives.
This is an important aspect of our spiritual growth.
God is with us and in us by the abiding presence of the
Holy Spirit. Our responsibility is to make ourselves available to Him. He will
take us and cleanse us and use us to fulfill His eternal purpose in and through
us.
The Holy Spirit has come to fulfill the ministry of Jesus
Christ. He does that in those individuals who have believed on Christ and who
make themselves available to the Spirit without reserve. Allow the Spirit of
holiness the freedom to apply the blood of Jesus to keep on cleansing us daily,
moment by moment from all sin. Permit Him to apply it to your conscience daily
and serve the Lord with the fullness of His Spirit. We walk in the light with
Him and abide in His presence, as we allow the blood of Jesus to cleanse us from
all sin. As a result the Holy Spirit strengthens our conscience and deepens our
faith in Christ. In doing so we give Him the freedom to use us to His glory.
When we are cleansed and restored daily we keep short
agendas with God and the Spirit keeps our hearts tender to the slightest whisper
of His will. The Holy Spirit gives us a sensitivity to the disquiet when we are
tempted to sin or not walk by faith. He makes us hate sin as God hates sin, and
realize that sin breaks our fellowship with God. As Charles Wesley wrote, “Ah
give me, Lord, the tender heart that trembles at the approach of sin.” And may
He constantly remind us that the only way to restoration of that abiding
fellowship is the cleansing blood of Jesus.
Keep your heart tender toward Him and He will abide in you
and you in Him.
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
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