In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
Isaiah 6:1, 5, 8
On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.
For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 1:4, 5
"He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less."
John 3:30
It seems to me that the person and power of the Holy Spirit is misunderstood, His purposes rarely grasped. When we say: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is it really being expressed as: "Featuring the Father and the Son," ... With an "oh, by the way, don't forget the Holy Spirit"...? Second billing in the minds of so many.
In these scriptures selected here, it is the Holy Spirit at work - poured out on willing, surrendered vessels in the Upper Room, as promised in Joel 2, that Isaiah saw... What enabled Paul and the other Apostles to move forward after Jesus' ascension? Could mere men have spread the Gospel on their own, had the resolve to continue in the face of persecution, stoning, beatings, threatened with and sometimes, receiving, death? What's missing here in these scriptures?
What's missing is SELF. There is no "me", there is only "Him", examples for us to follow.
The question is: who is on the throne, who is enthroned in our temple, in our bodies, in our lives? What are our expectations vs. the realities of a spirit filled and directed life? When we pray, are we praying for the Lord to do things for us for the sake of blessing us, which isn't a bad thing, but isn't that backwards? Aren't we supposed to be surrendered, emptied out, for the Holy Spirit to fully occupy us, to use us? What is it about human nature that causes us to be so self-centered and selfish? When we pray, "Lord, not my will, but Your will, be done in my life"... Do we mean it, are we willing to let the Holy Spirit take His place in the center of our lives...to be living sacrifices? Are we willing to pick up our own crosses daily, to deny ourselves-the "me, my, I"' the self-driven paradigm done away with?
Today I leave you (and myself) with this scripture:
"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.
Philippians 3:12-15
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
Isaiah 6:1, 5, 8
On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.
For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 1:4, 5
"He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less."
John 3:30
It seems to me that the person and power of the Holy Spirit is misunderstood, His purposes rarely grasped. When we say: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is it really being expressed as: "Featuring the Father and the Son," ... With an "oh, by the way, don't forget the Holy Spirit"...? Second billing in the minds of so many.
In these scriptures selected here, it is the Holy Spirit at work - poured out on willing, surrendered vessels in the Upper Room, as promised in Joel 2, that Isaiah saw... What enabled Paul and the other Apostles to move forward after Jesus' ascension? Could mere men have spread the Gospel on their own, had the resolve to continue in the face of persecution, stoning, beatings, threatened with and sometimes, receiving, death? What's missing here in these scriptures?
What's missing is SELF. There is no "me", there is only "Him", examples for us to follow.
The question is: who is on the throne, who is enthroned in our temple, in our bodies, in our lives? What are our expectations vs. the realities of a spirit filled and directed life? When we pray, are we praying for the Lord to do things for us for the sake of blessing us, which isn't a bad thing, but isn't that backwards? Aren't we supposed to be surrendered, emptied out, for the Holy Spirit to fully occupy us, to use us? What is it about human nature that causes us to be so self-centered and selfish? When we pray, "Lord, not my will, but Your will, be done in my life"... Do we mean it, are we willing to let the Holy Spirit take His place in the center of our lives...to be living sacrifices? Are we willing to pick up our own crosses daily, to deny ourselves-the "me, my, I"' the self-driven paradigm done away with?
Today I leave you (and myself) with this scripture:
"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.
Philippians 3:12-15
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