Good Morning, Meetpastordan Readers…Happy Belated Father’s Day to all the fathers out there. I want to share something with you that is happening in my life right now that has really challenged my faith. Not challenged my faith in terms of “have I lost my faith” or “am I doubting the truth of God’s Word”, but challenging my faith in terms of “stepping out in faith”, or “walking by faith”, or “living in the Spirit”…different phrases, but all with the same meaning. In other words, we can profess our faith; we can say we stand on our faith; but when the rubber hits the road, are we willing to “live by faith”? For those of you who have experienced this challenging decision, you know what I’m talking about.
So here is my scenario. I am going to be very non-specific with many of the details of this presentation because it is still in progress, but… About a month ago I got a call from a very prominent organization asking me to accept a leadership role…in fact, doing something I thoroughly love doing. And the goal of this organization is something that I particularly admire – carrying the Truth of God’s Word throughout the world through music and the arts, and out-reach ministries. So, I met with the local leadership, but because of the different ethnic backgrounds, communication was a challenge. In fact it was so challenging, for the second meeting I took Pam (my wife) with me so we could compare notes afterwards. (Pam has a lot of not-for-profit experience, (ie. The ins and outs of how they work, plus she has much more patience than I have.)
Here’s what we concluded. They have asked me to accept a certain role, which I would love, but there are certain shortcomings. Primarily this…want they want me to do does not really exist yet, so they have asked me to put it together and have it in ready to go for a world-wide conference that is to take place in St. Louis in early July OF THIS YEAR! Now I have done what they want me to do on numerous occasions, but never in this time frame. (July of 2017… maybe??) I reluctantly told them I would put out feelers to see what I could do, but would make no promises. Oh yes, and one other problem …it takes a huge manpower to pull this off.
Well…once I got started – and I immediately assembled some people to help me – we ran into one obstacle after another. After about ten days of failure, I was ready to admit that I could not do this, and was prepared to go back and share with them my abysmal results… wish them good-luck… and bow out.
That was my plan. But God had different plan. The evening before what I thought would be my final presentation to the organization, I didn’t sleep for a minute. The Holy Spirit was challenging me big-time… “So, do you really believe you can do all things through Christ who gives your strength”? “Do you really believe I will never leave you or forsake you”? “Do you really believe that if you put first the Kingdom of Heaven, all these things will be added”? “Do you really believe that God works for the good in all things for those who love him and are called to his purpose”? Etc. etc…. He never stopped! The next day, much to my surprise, I said I would do it, knowing full well it defies all logic and rational thinking!! This can only happen through a miracle, which I’m happy to say, is now beginning to take shape.
But I have to conclude my scenario with this encounter with the Holy Spirit the next day. This in itself is nothing short of miraculous. I was driving down to St. Patrick’s Center to do my men’s class and was on I-70, deep in conversation with God. “OK, God, I’ve said I will do this task, but will you give me a sign…something tangible that will put me at ease with my choice? Because I gotta tell ya…I’m still not real comfortable with my, or rather…YOUR choice.” At that moment, passing me on the left, was a big tanker truck, perhaps a petroleum product truck, or maybe a milk truck, all bright and shinny steel. As it passed me, painted in red on the back was, “and the truth will set you free”. Following immediately behind was a second tanker truck, just like the first, and painted in red on its side was, “Jesus Saves”, and on the back as it completely passed me was painted in red, “the answer is in Jesus Christ!” I could only smile and say, “Woowww! Very impressive God. I think I get it. It’s not up to me…it’s up to you!”
The whole purpose of presenting this scenario is to set-up what I want to write about today – Living in the Spirit. Being a Christ-follower is an active and challenging endeavor. And Jesus was very explicit when he said in John 16:33: “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But fear not because I have over-come the world.”; and again in Luke 9:23 when Jesus was talking to a crowd, “if any of you want to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross daily, and follow me.” Jesus never said this would be easy, nor did he say it would be smooth sailing. In fact, just the opposite! These trials and tribulations are our means for growing and maturing into the person God crated us to be. Becoming more Christ-like is a matter of us facing and overcoming these trials and tribulations in a way that brings honor and glory to God. This is how we become the Masterpiece referenced in Ephesians 2:10: “For we are now God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” This is the manifestation of God’s promise in Ephesians 1:4: “Long ago, even before he created the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.” So as we all know and can clearly see, the trials and tribulations are nothing compared to our reward at the end of our journey. “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind can conceive what God has prepared for those who love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9)
When we make the decision to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we have only taken the first step in a life- long process called “sanctification”…or becoming more Christ-like. But, however, at the moment we do make that all-important decision, “we become a new creation in-Christ: the old is gone (our sin nature); the new has come”.(the Holy Spirit) (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are immediately “justified” (made right) with God because we are now in-Christ. That means:
- we are grafted into God’s family; we are now a child of God:
- our sins are forgiven (past, present and future), we are no longer sinners: The sin issue IS over!
- we are worthy and acceptable in his sight, all because we are covered with the blood of Jesus. Therefore, even when we do fall short in our walk to “sanctification,” the good news is…God now sees us as a Saint (one who falls short; not one who sins ). All he wants us to do is get up and rely on the Holy Spirit to empower us to be successful until our journey is complete.
- we are heir to all the Spiritual blessings in the heavenly realm.
- and we are heir to all the promises in the Bible.
All of this happens instantaneously. And not because of anything we did or did not do. Nor is it because we were worthy through our own effort. All of this is ours because Jesus paid the ransom for our sin at the cross.
We develop our platform of faith as we grow in our knowledge of the truth of God’s Word, and as we develop our relationship with Jesus Christ. The more we stay connected with Him, the stronger our faith becomes. And no doubt, it is important that we know the scriptures so we can quote these truths back to the devil in times of Spiritual Warfare (I wrote about this for the past two weeks.)
But because the process of “sanctification is a walk with Jesus”, it is equally important to be ready to “step out in faith”, or to “live in the Spirit”. To do that requires that we realize our own insufficiency, and rely on the Holy Spirit to empower us to do what we cannot do for ourselves. In other words, we get out of the way so Jesus can live His life through us. Just as God’s will never trumps our will, the Holy Spirit does not spring into action until we call on Him. We have to make the choice to call on him to empower us to be the person God created us to be, or to make a choice that brings honor and glory to God! That, My Friends, is “stepping out in faith” or “living by the Spirit”. And it is also the manifestation of the truth found in James 4:10, “When you bow down (come in humility) before the Lord and admit your dependence before him, He will lift you up and give you honor.”
In my scenario that I described above, I am totally dependent on God to make this happen! God wants us to trust him so he can do things through us that are far greater than anything we could ever do ourselves. He wants our faith to come alive in the way we choose to live, and he wants our life to be a testimony to the Truth of his Word and to his Greatness! A-men!!
Feel free to respond to this posting, and please feel free to share it with other social media friends.
May God Bless Ya…
Dan Presgrave, (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
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