Discovering God’s Will – Walking in the Spirit – Purity 1570
Purity 1570 01/30/2025 Purity 1570 Audio Podcast
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Good morning,
Today’s photo of yellow and red tulips opening wide to receive from the light of the sun comes to us from yours truly as I paused to capture their beauty back on April 23, 2021, at my place “down by The River”.
Well, It’s Friday, thank God, and even though my shifted tour has me working on Saturday this week, it is my prayer that all who read or hear this message would find peace as we enter into the first day of February and the weekend tomorrow.
Yeah, the previous owner of my home in Stuyvesant had been a real horticulturist and their landscaping and planting work is still enjoyed by me a few years later, but I have to admit that plants were not my passion and many of the previous owner’s good works have been mowed down or slowly faded away.
The investment of the hard work of someone planting can be enjoyed for quite some time but the sowing and tending work must continue if one expects to receive a harvest of blessings in the future.
Similarly, if we on the path of Chrisitan Discipleship seek to enjoy our freedom in Christ and to experience the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, we must be diligent in sowing the “good seeds” of spiritual practices and seeking the Lord’s will for our lives.
Speaking of God’s will, the In Touch with Dr, Charles Stanley devotion for today talks about discovering God’s will so I am sharing it on the blog today to encourage us all to be persistent in our attempts to know God more and to follow His plan for our lives. Dr. Chales Stanley writes:
“Discovering God’s Will
The Lord is actively working to create something beautiful with our life.
God wants His children to obey Him and make right decisions, so He accepts full responsibility for guiding us. In fact, He promises, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go” (Psalm 32:8). However, our lifetime isn’t mapped out in an instruction manual to read in its entirety the day we’re saved. Following God’s will is a daily process of trust.
We learn God’s will by reading His Word. There we find rules and commands that will lead to our success and principles for daily application. The Bible doesn’t detail every possible situation we might face, but its principles equip us to make decisions about any and every circumstance we encounter. Studying God’s Word is the only way for a believer to recognize His will. Today’s passage says the sacred writings can give us the wisdom we need in order to be fully capable and equipped for the work God wants us to accomplish (vv. 15, 17).
Our heavenly Father is actively guiding every incident of our life, stitching the seemingly unrelated “threads” together to create something beautiful. As believers, we must be listening so we can discern when He’s revealing His will. Pray every day that He’ll make you sensitive to His ways.” – Charles Stanley
Amen. Pray every day that God will make us sensitive to His ways!
So often in life we get distracted by the tasks we have to perform, the problems we encounter, and the work we have to do that we can forget about connecting to the Lord and His will for our lives – which is primarily to live with Him.
Yesterday’s message to focus on God rather than the obstacles we face really opened up a flood of insight for me as I am usually so busy taking care of all I have to do. Most days I’m just happy to get things done and stay ahead of my responsibilities.
But yesterday I realized that I was so busy in the day to day that I was missing out on really enjoying God’s presence in my life and how prayer, our conversation with God where we listen as much as we talk, was the key to getting back to that place of reverence, peace, joy, and wonder that I have known in the past.
I realized that the combination of my busyness and the poor choices I made in terms of what I did to relax (watching secular entertainment or YouTube videos and eating too much) – wasn’t meeting my needs for intimacy with the Lord. My choice to turn away from God in my leisure times may have given my body and mind some relaxation but it was a poor substitute for the rest that my soul and spirit receives if I simply sit quietly in God’s presence or engage with Christian materials that highlight my relationship with God.
This realization brought me right into the peace of God’s presence and woke me up to the fundamental truth that it is by abiding in His presence is what can give us rest and lead us further into God’s will for our lives.
So, as we move into the weekend, consider putting your focus on God in your leisure time instead of how you learned to relax according to the world. It just might bring you into the Lord’s presence and give you the rest that you have been looking for.
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/.
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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 Humility (Pride).
Romans 7:13–25 (Paul humbly acknowledges his constant struggle against sin.) 13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Today’s verses are the second of three passages of scripture that fall under the twenty-first point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on Humility (Pride).
21. The apostle Paul, a mature Christian, highly gifted, and successful in his calling, remained humble, setting an example for all of us to emulate.
Today’s Bible verses reveal one of our greatest struggles as Christians who seek to do God’s will for our lives – we often fail in our intention and can despair over doing what we don’t want to do.
As humbling as our failures in the areas of sin or doing God’s will in our lives can be, we are not supposed to proclaim Romans 7 as our inheritance. We are not destined to struggle in this “sin confess” cycle that is so aptly described in Paul’s letter to the Romans because The Lord – through the Apostle Paul – answers Paul’s question in verse 24 – Who will deliver me from this body of death? In verse 25 and in Romans 8. Jesus will deliver us from this body of death! And Paul expounds on the truth of overcoming in Romans 8
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.[1]
The righteous requirement of the law – to live holy lives – is fulfilled in us when we walk in the Spirit! So be humbled by your failures but then turn to the Lord to ask for help and walk in the Spirit to be set free.
We have our victory and freedom in Christ, but we need to believe that it is a done deal, and we have to walk in the Spirit to demonstrate the work that Christ has already done fore us. Christ has set us free from this body of death – so believe it and live it – to experience the fruit that the Spirit has for you to enjoy.
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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.com 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 “Day by Day Along the Way” By Jay E. Adams.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Adams’ books for your own private study and to support the late author’s work. This resource is available online for less than $20 at many sites.
Day 69
The integrity of the upright leads them … – Proverbs 11:3a
A person who has it all together, whose every slice of pizza is filled with God’s truth, will not go astray. There is no aspect of his life where he is so spiritually inept and immature that he is likely to miss the boat. This integrity, as we have seen, means that he is daily filling every area of his life with God’s truth. Hence, there is no opening for error to slip in. As James said, those who are not “complete and entire” leave open doors on various sides of their lives into which ideas that mislead will creep in (1:4). You are led by your knowledge and commitments. As these are solidified biblically, your way will run more and more on a proper course. If chunks of your thinking are not solidified, you will lead yourself astray. That is why you must lead a life of integrity. What are you doing to gain the integrity that will enable you to live uprightly? What within you leads you most of the time?[2]
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[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ro 8:1–4.
[2] Jay E. Adams, Day by Day along the Way (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2020), 77.
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