A Tour Guide’s Tips for Walking in the Spirit & God’s Response – Purity 1167

A Tour Guide’s Tips for Walking in the Spirit & God’s
Response  – Purity 1167

Purity 1167 10/09/2023 Purity 1167 Podcast

Purity 1167 on YouTube: 

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a westward facing view of the Chicago
River and the Battan-Corregidor Memorial Bridge underneath blue skies comes to
us from yours truly as I captured this scene on Saturday as my wife, TammyLyn,
and I treated ourselves to a one day-urban adventure in the Windy City.  

With the spiritual pilgrimage, that was the Deeper
Walk Breakthrough Conference in Hobart Indiana, behind us I planned to make the
most of our short time in the Midwest by preemptively booking (what I forgot
was a 5-hour) Chicago in a Day: Food, History, and Architecture Walking Tour (https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductReview-g35805-d17565534-Chicago_in_a_Day_Food_History_and_Architecture_Walking_Tour-Chicago_Illinois.html). 

We had a most excellent adventure Saturday as our tour
guide, Dash, who reminded both my wife and I of a youthful Robin Williams, led a
group of us from the Chicago Theatre to places all over the Windy City to be stunned
by Chicago’s architectural works of art, its rich history, and some of the
staples of its local cuisine, ending the ride with a dinner of Chicago Deep
Dish Pizza. 

While I am no stranger to big cities, Chicago was a
brand new experience and I was extremely glad that we had a guide who knew the
lay of the land because after we parked our rental car in a garage on North
Wabash Avenue, I was practically paralyzed as the hustle bustle of the cities
pedestrian traffic and a complete sense of the unfamiliar came over me to the
point I had to give up an idea of seeing some of the city before our tour and
escaped to the interior of the Chicago Chik Fil A which was literally yards
away from where our tour was to begin.

On my own, I managed to go about 3 city blocks
before freaking out and returning to the Chicago Theatre but by days end I was
a lot more confident about making my way in the urban jungle because of the
lessons I learned from someone who knew their way.

Looking at maps and reading books about Chicago
could give you a lot of information about the city and prove to be helpful but sometimes
you benefit a lot more following and learning from someone who has “been there
and done that.”  

And that is a principle that I have discovered applies
to our walk of faith as much as it applies to making our way in the terra
firma.  Without faithful men and women to
help show us the way to walk out a lifestyle of Christian discipleship, many of
us would have undoubtedly given up and gone back to the familiar confines of
the shadows of secular life and never discovered the majesty, freedom, and
victory of living in God’s light.   

Before this latest adventure on the path of Christian
Discipleship, which took me from New York to Indiana and Illinois and deeper
into my walk with God with solid Christian teaching, Christian fellowship, and
the mere experience of actually going,  I
discussed some of the aspects of how a life of walking in the spirit works with
the men’s discussion group at the Celebrate Freedom Growth Group meeting on Wednesday
night.  

Wednesday’s lesson was on the reality of relapse in recovery
and the remedy of replacing bad habits with a regular routine of spiritual
practice as the prescription for success.  Celebrate Recovery’s lesson and our
experiences have taught those of us in the group with sustained freedom and victory
the importance of replacing our bad habits with good habits of faith and our
leader, Scott, invited those of us with years of freedom and a “regular quiet
time” to speak on what that was like and how it has helped us.  

While my comments offered up the standard Christian
discipleship encouragement to read the Bible and pray every day, I tried to describe
how there seems to be certain experiential cause and effect dynamics to our
walk with God that move us into maturity and to experiences where the manifest
presence and influences of God help seem stunningly evident.  

While I explained that our walk with God is by no
means reduced to a simple recipe or a religious formula that can be utilized to
give us certain results, I did speak of the phenomena of how the Lord seems to
use our “stepping out in faith” to bless us and move us deeper into His love
and purposes.  

Just like how my Chicago tour guide, Dash, showed
our group how to make our way around the Windy City’s downtown Loop with
confidence, my purpose for doing this blog, podcast, and any other ministry
work, is to instruct, encourage, and to show Christians to be confident in their
relationship with God and to receive the benefits of a life lived in His
presence. 

And just as Dash showed our group how we could make
our way through the city at a slow pace by walking through the streets and
tunnels or at a quicker pace by using the help of Chicago’s elevated subway
transit system, I tried to explain that our progress along the path of
Christian discipleship can be a combination of a slow methodical walk that utilizes
daily spiritual disciplines and “quantum leaps” of situational blessings and revelatory
paradigm shifts, both of which fall under the category of stepping out in faith.  

In Christian discipleship or “walking in the Spirit”,
we gain confidence and wisdom both through a cumulative collecting of “knowing
God more” over time and through major shifts of momentous moments that become mile
markers of our maturity – our core memories -anchor memories – that will bless
us with growth and give us something to hold onto during the days when we are
suffering trials or when we seem like we are walking in circles.   

I have experienced that the daily spiritual
disciplines of prayer and Bible study set a daily foundation for a lifestyle of
faith. They remind us each morning that – oh yeah – I’m really am a Chrisitan,
and I am living it – this is what we do -we connect to God with His word, by
talking to Him in prayer , and by agreeing with what He says about who we are
in Christ. 

These daily disciplines are an act of faith in themselves,
and they increase our knowledge of and intimacy with God and cement our
identity in Christ.  In the midst of a
regular process of these disciplines we can have times where it seems we are
just going through the motions and we can have times where we see something
about God, our relationship, the world, or ourselves that we have never seen
before that raises our awareness or maturity.

Also the regular practice of living or daily lives
according to God’s principles for living, which include things like:

·       Telling the Truth

·       Doing what is right.

·       Being a good steward to our relationships, our
possessions, our bodies

·       Helping and Doing good works for others

·       Praying for help and guidance or strength – for self
or others

·       Encouraging others in or sharing our faith

Can also be used by the Lord to move us along the
path of personal maturity and growth.  With
each problem, decision, and situation we face in life we are given the choice
to do things God’s way or our way.  When
we choose His way generally it works out. While we may not experience what we
think we will experience, and may actually suffer, when we do things God’s way,
we will at least have the personal peace, and no regrets, knowing we were trying
to be faithful to do things His way.   And
occasionally, our faithfulness will be rewarded in surprising ways – sometimes as
sudden blessings or as the result of a long period of waiting on the Lord for
things to move. 

The simple point I try to make by telling people to
keep “seeking the Lord” or to “keep walking and talking with God” is that when
we stay connected to the Lord relationally and keep choosing His ways over ours
a life that is surrounded by the fruit of the Spirit results.  If we do the things the Lord puts on our
hearts to do and keep following Him, our lives are transformed into what God
originally intended for them to be – a living and loving relationship with our
Creator where we increasingly become the people He created us to be and perform
the tasks that He intended for us to do.  

So, in my case, did I really have to go to Indiana for
the Deeper Walk Conference?  While I
could have just stayed home and watched the live stream to get the instruction.
But if I had stayed home, I would not have had the experience of meeting so
many of my faithful friends and heroes in person. I would not have seen or
experienced the beautiful things I encountered at the conference or on our tour
of Chicago.  Because I chose to go or stepped
out in faith, I believe I received much more by going than I would have if I didn’t
go.   

And while I cannot claim I was especially rewarded
for going on this latest spiritual pilgrimage, I can tell you this. 

Yesterday, while at the airport on the way back from
said spiritual pilgrimage, I received a call from the real estate agent who is
handling the sale of my old marital home – you know, the one that should have
been sold in 2020 and required a law suite to get listed. – that home. Well,
yesterday, the realtor called to inform me that we have 2 cash offers on the
house.  

So although I can’t claim that the offers came
because I went to the Deeper Walk Conference, I find it interesting that such a
blessing would come right after I “stepped out in faith”.  I also find it interesting that a couple of
hours after receiving this good news, the realtor contacted me again to tell me
that each potential buyer, unasked,  increased
the amount of their cash offers!  

After receiving this second good news – the news
that tells even a skeptic like me that it looks like this long difficult
episode surrounding my divorce in 2019, will finally be over – perhaps by year’s
end, I texted the real estate agent back that “I walk in the Spirit, brother,
and that’s definitely a God thing.”

While I don’t know exactly how all the details of how
our relationship with God works, and have given up in trying to predict what things
will come to pass and choose to just trust God, I can tell you that making the decision
to follow the Lord and to obey what He puts on your heart can be used by the Lord
to transform your life and to bless you in amazing ways.  

So as we begin another work week, today or tomorrow –
depending on whether you have the day off today or not, (thank you Christopher
Columbus or Indigenous People – for the day off), let me encourage you to get
on or to stay on the path of Christian Discipleship by doing the spiritual disciplines
of prayer, Bible study, and just doing “what is right” according to God’s word.  When we follow God’s guidance and “step out
in faith”, we grow and experience the life that God has for us and discover just
how good, loving, and faithful He is!

——————————————————————————————–

Today’s
Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By
John G. Kruis.

(
While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google
search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s
work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )

This
morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Assurance of Salvation.

1 John 4:13-16 (NLT2)
¹³  And God has given us his
Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us.
¹⁴  Furthermore, we have seen
with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior
of the world.
¹⁵  All who confess that Jesus
is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God.
¹⁶  We know how much God loves
us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in
love live in God, and God lives in them.

Today’s
verses fall under the third point of our counseling reference guide resource’s
section on Assurance
of Salvation.

 3. We know that we live in him; and rely on
the love God has for us.    

Today’s verses assure us
that our relationship with God could not be any closer and when we confess that
Jesus is the Son of God and Savior of the world, we can know how much God loves
us.

God loves us and will
never leave or forsake those who put their faith in Jesus and HE seals our love
relationship by coming to live in us – literally – through the indwelling
presence of the Holy Spirit.  

When we accept Jesus as
Lord and Savior, we receive the Holy Spirit and when we choose to listen to and
follow His guidance the truth of His presence in us becomes evident because His
presence and power in us increasingly reveals the truth and leads us into God’s
purpose for our lives – to be a vessel and agent for His life!

Our relationship with God includes
faith and acting on faith – by believing God is with us and believing the truth
of His word, we are moved to act – to trust, to learn, to obey. And when we do
that we are assured of the reality of our relationship and thus are assured
that we are children of God, are saved, and will live with Him and for Him forever.
 

——————————————————————–

As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.

Today we continue sharing from  The Holy Spirit By A.W. Pink.

As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own
private study and to support his work.  This resource is available online
for $0.99 (https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Spirit-Arthur-Pink-Collection-ebook/dp/B008CM5292/ref=sr_1_3?crid=AHKAQOM39CTN&keywords=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit&qid=1684376225&sprefix=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit+%2Caps%2C96&sr=8-3) 

A.W. Pink’s The Holy Spirit

28 –The Spirit Preserving

How the
Spirit Preserves

The preservation of God’s people through all
the vicissitudes of their pilgrim journey is accomplished, immediately, by the
Holy Spirit. He it is who watches over the believer, delivering him when he
knows it not; keeping him from living in the world’s sinks of iniquity, lifting
up a standard when the Enemy comes like a flood against him (Isa. 59:19). He it
is who keeps him from accepting those fatal heresies which deceive and destroy
so many empty professors. He it is who prevents his becoming contented with a
mere “letter” ministry or satisfied with head-knowledge and notional religion.
And how does the Spirit accomplish
the Christian’s preservation? By sustaining the new nature within him, and
calling it forth into exercise and action. By working such graces in him that
he becomes “established” (2 Cor. 1:21). By keeping him conscious of his utter
ruin and deep need of Christ. By bringing him to a concurrence with His
gracious design, moving him to use appropriate means. But let us be more
specific.

“Teach me, O LORD,
the way of Thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end” (Ps. 119:33). We
lost the way of true happiness when we fell in Adam, and ever since men have
wandered up and down vainly seeking rest and satisfaction: “They are all gone out of the way” (Rom. 3:12).
Nor can any man discover the way of holiness and happiness of himself: he must
be taught it spiritually and
supernaturally by God. Such teaching is earnestly desired by the regenerate,
for they have been made painfully conscious of their perversity and
insufficiency: “Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the
understanding of a man” (Prov. 30:2) is their confession. It is by Divine and
inward teaching that we are stirred into holy activity: “I will keep it”—that which is inwrought by the Spirit is outwrought
by us. Thereby our final perseverance is accomplished: “I will keep it to the end”—because effectually taught
of Jehovah.

“When wisdom entereth
into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee”
(Prov. 2:10, 11). For wisdom to enter into our hearts means that the things of
God have such an influence upon us as to dominate our affections and move our
wills. For knowledge to be pleasant to our souls signifies that we delight in
the Law of God after the inward man (Rom. 7:22), that submission to God’s will
is not irksome but desirable. Now where such really be the case, the individual
possesses a discernment which enables him to penetrate Satan’s disguises and
perceive the barb beneath the bait, and is endowed with a discretion which
makes him prudent and cautious, so that he shuns those places where alluring
temptations abound and avoids the company of evil men and women. Thereby is he
delivered from danger and secured from making shipwreck of the faith: see also
Proverbs 4:6; 6:22–24.

“I will make an
Everlasting Covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them
good; but I will put My fear in their
hearts, that they shall not depart
from Me” (Jer. 32:40). This statement casts much light upon the means and
method employed by God in the preserving of His people. The indwelling Spirit
not only constrains the new nature by
considerations drawn from the love of Christ (2 Cor. 5:14), but He also restrains the old nature by a sense of
God’s majesty. He often drops an awe on the believer’s heart, which holds him
back from running into that excess of riot which his lusts would carry him
unto. The Spirit makes the soul to realize that God is not to be trifled with,
and delivers from wickedly presuming upon His mercy. He stimulates a spirit of
filial reverence in the saint, so that he shuns those things which would
dishonor his Father. He causes us to heed such a word as, “Be not highminded,
but fear: for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also
spare not thee” (Rom. 11:20, 21). By such means does God fulfill His promise “I
will put My Spirit within you, and cause
you to walk in My statutes” (Ezek.
36:27).

“For we through the
Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith” (Gal. 5:5). It is the
stirrings of hope, however faint, which keeps the soul alive in seasons of
disappointment and despondence. But for the renewings of the gracious Spirit,
the believer would relinquish his hope and sink into abject despair. “Then the
eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in
the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert” (Isa. 35:5,
6): it is by fresh supplies of the Spirit (Phil. 1:19) that there comes not
only further light, but new strength and comfort. Amid the perturbations caused
by indwelling sin and the anguish from our repeated defeats, it is one of the
Spirit’s greatest works to sustain the soul by the expectation of things to come.

“Who are kept by the
power of God through faith” (1 Pet.
1:5). Here again we are shown how the
preservation of the saint is effected: through the influences of an exercised
faith—compare 1 John 5:4. Now faith implies not only the knowledge and belief of
the Truth, but also those pious affections and dispositions and the performance
of those spiritual duties which constitute practical holiness. Without faith no
man can attain unto that holiness, and without the power of God none can
exercise this faith. Faith is the channel through which the mighty works of God
are wrought—as Hebrews 11 so clearly shows—not the least of which is the
conducting of His people safely through the Enemy’s land (1 John 5:19).

Perseverance in
grace, or continuance in holiness, is not promoted by a blind confidence or
carnal security, but by watchfulness, earnest effort and self-denial. So far
from teaching that believers shall certainly reach Heaven whether or not they
use the means of grace, Scripture affirms, “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” (Rom. 8:13). God has not promised that, no matter how loosely a saint may
live or what vile habits he may persist in, he shall not perish; but rather does
He assure us that He will preserve from such looseness and wickedness as would
expose him to His wrath. It is by working grace in our hearts, by calling into
exercise the faculties of our souls, by exciting fear and hope, hatred and
love, sorrow and joy, that the saint is preserved.^[1]

—————————more
tomorrow————————

Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
Breaker”, “Freedom in Christ” series of Discipleship Classes via the
mt4christ247 podcast!

at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts

(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available
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Audible.com. 

These teachings are also available on the
MT4Christ247 YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MT4Christ247

Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and
to be encouraged.

My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian
encouragement via her Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ),  her
Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on
Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)  

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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship