Sometimes in your spiritual walk does it feel like you are walking alone? Have you started feeling like you have no guidance, or any leading from the Holy Spirit as to which direction to take? Does the fellowship seem to be getting more distant? How is this possible? What have you done to deserve this? (That is what you are thinking, at least you are thinking you are good and why has that sweet fellowship been strained?)
I can tell you that the Spirit is still there but a wall has separated you and it is harder for communication to get through. How do I know this?
Hebrews 13:5c –”for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”
So what, or who, has built this wall? The short answer is you! You, by your choices have built up the wall and the longer you go without doing something about it the bigger that wall will be and the harder it will be to communicate with the Spirit? How does it happen? Let’s take a look at a small daily experience example and see how it can snowball.
You are standing, talking with some coworkers and one of them starts telling a dirty joke or a risque story. Instead of walking away you stand there and listen. The Spirit is now in a box.
Not only do you listen, you stand there and laugh because you think it is funny. The Spirit is in a box that now has dust on top of it (harder to communicate).
Later that evening you are sitting down and that joke, which is in your brain now, pops up in your mind and you are laughing again. The Spirit that was in the box that has dust on it, has now been moved into a closet (even harder to communicate).
The gist of all this is, you are the one with the problem, not the Holy Spirit. You have moved away from Him. All it takes is something small, like listening to a dirty joke, or watching a show on TV that you know you should not be watching, but you do it anyway.
How do you overcome this? Well, there has to be a daily repentance, an asking the LORD daily to forgive us of our sins, big or small, that we have committed. The dirty joke thing may seem small, and sometime that or some thing that is similar can be so far in the back of your mind that you don’t even remember having done anything. When you are in your daily repentant mode, don’t forget to ask to be forgiven for the little things you don’t remember. . Have you ever looked at the inside of your bathroom sink drain? When the sink is installed the drain is pristine. Daily things are going down into that drain. After a year that same drain is now filled with all sorts of gunk, hair, filth; so much so, that the water takes longer to get down the drain. It was accumulated over time. It builds up and eventually stops up altogether. Now, I do not expect you to start taking out your drain daily and scrubbing it clean but just imagine how much easier it would be to clean (at least washing part) if you would give it a daily washing.
Now, apply that to you. If you let things build up over time it gets harder and harder to communicate with the Holy Spirit. Just think how much easier it would be if you would do a little scrubbing daily.
When we are saved it is a permanent thing, but we are still in these earthly bodies, and we still have these earthly minds. Through communion with the Holy Spirit is how you (we) are conversing with God. We have to keep communication lines open and that is through daily surrendering of our wills to Him.
The old hymn, “Surrender All” talks about salvation and acceptance, but it also covers a daily surrendering of self. Just look at the words.
Surrender All
All to Jesus I surrender, All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him, In His presence daily live.
All to Jesus I surrender, Humbly at His feet I bow,
Worldy pleasures all forsaken, Take me, Jesus, take me now.
All to Jesus I surrender, Make me, Savior, wholly thine;
Let me feel the Holy Spirit, Truly know that Thou art mine.
4. All to Jesus I surrender, Lord I give myself to Thee,
Fill me with Thy love and power, Let Thy blessing fall on me.
5.All to Jesus I surrender, Now I feel the sacred flame;
O the joy of full salvation! Glory, glory to His name.
Chorus: I surrender all, I surrender all,
All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.
AE
and continuing…
Living for Jesus a life that is true,
Striving to please Him in all that I do;
Yielding allegiance, glad-hearted and free,
This is the pathway of blessing for me.
O Jesus, Lord and Savior,
I give myself to Thee,
For Thou, in Thy [redemption],*
Didst give Thyself for me;
I own no other Master,
My heart shall be Thy throne,
My life I give, henceforth to live,
O Christ, for Thee alone.
Living for Jesus who died in my place,
Bearing on Calv’ry my sin and disgrace;
Such love constrains me to answer His call,
Follow His leading and give Him my all.
Living for Jesus wherever I am,
Doing each duty in His holy name;
Willing to suffer affliction and loss,
Deeming each trial a part of my cross.
Living for Jesus through earth’s little while,
My dearest treasure, the light of His smile;
Seeking the lost ones He died to redeem,
Bringing the weary to find rest in Him.
Romans Chapter 8
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I don’t have a whole lot to say about this because Paul said it so well, but I do want to add for those who are following the new gospel being preached in many churches in our country today that what we do as Christians does matter. Yes, Jesus sets us free when we are saved, and nothing will separate us from the love of the father, but we are still accountable to the Father. We still need to walk worthy of his kingdom. Following God’s Word is the way to stay in close fellowship with the Father, Son, and Spirit. And nothing will make life better than that.
GA
Voice of the Introverts 