He Hasn’t Departed – The Power of the Holy Spirit – Purity 1867
Purity 1867 01/21/2026 Purity 1867 Audio Podcast
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Good morning,
Today’s photo of “clear blue sky over the vibrant, multi-colored hills of the Artist’s Palette located along the Artist’s Drive in Death Valley National Park, California comes to us from an unknown FB friend who shared this dry and rocky scene on social media back on April 9th, 2022.
Well, it’s Wednesday and I share today’s photo of rocky hills to visually represent our arrival to another midweek summit, happy hump day, and to encourage us all to seek out the beautiful places in God’s creations to appreciate the handiwork of our Creator and to listen to His voice.
I am currently reading Pete Greig’s “How to hear God” and the first chapter reveals the various ways that God “speaks to us” and offers us guidance, one of which is through God’s creation. While I have often experienced the presence of the Lord through the quiet still beauty of many a forest trail, I always walked away from those experiences understanding that I wasn’t necessarily supposed to stay there.
As much as I felt that God was with me in the “middle of nowhere”, I didn’t receive the message to start making a log cabin or to establish a shelter in a cave or a hollowed-out tree. I understood that those wilderness moments were given to me from God to provide me with rest and to recharge my spiritual batteries but I was to take the peace and goodness of the experience with me to empower my walk and ministry to others. Humorously, at the end of those moments, I often got the impression that “we are done here” as what seemed like an amazingly beautiful or worthwhile place one minute suddenly lost its charm, probably because God’s manifest presence moved along or was trying to get me moving back home, lol.
With that, I don’t want to suggest that God’s Spriit departed from me like King Saul, because as a born again Christian that just can’t happen. Since Jesus’ redemptive work was done and the Holy Spirit was given, all Christians (those who put their faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior) have the Holy Spirit living in us. Nothing can separate us from the love of God and likewise the Holy Spirit goes wherever we go, albeit sometimes quite quietly as we have the ability to quench Him.
If we choose to sin, live a fleshly life, and ignore the Spirit’s convicting promptings to repent, the Holy Spirit’s presence may seem like He has left us as He allows us to make our own decisions and to feel the weight of the consequences of living outside of God’s wisdom. When we sin, we will eventually suffer and we can remain in the pain and bondage of a fleshly sin cycle for quite some time if we don’t repent. However, if we confess our sins and commit ourselves to following the Lord, the Holy Spirit will empower us to be restored to the joy and peace that we knew before we went astray. And when we start walking in the Spirit, we experience positive results from entering into God’ process.
Recently, I have made a hard turn back to a committed life of the Spirit and although it has only been a week, my spirit and my body is already lighter. Through focusing on the things of the Spirit and following the principles for healthy eating that I learned in the past, the Lord has blessed me with a 6.6 pound weight reduction in a weeks’ time. I know that I recently wrote about the importance of focusing on the process more than the results, but I can’t help but rejoice over the progress that has been made. My lightness in spirit and body are due to the power of the Holy Spirit and my decision to be faithful in following where he leads.
Speaking of the power of the Holy Spirit, the In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley devotion from yesterday addressed that topic so I am sharing it on the blog today to encourage us all to cooperate with the Comforter. Dr. Charles Stanley writes:
“The Power of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit transforms the believer from the inside out.
Galatians 5:22-26
The Holy Spirit is vital to the Christian life. Read today’s passage, which details the fruit of the Spirit. It is impossible to achieve this level of Christlikeness on our own. We need divine intervention to live as God expects. That’s why He sent believers the Helper, whose job is to produce Christlike character in us.
The heavenly Father knows that His children need support. That’s why Jesus, before returning to heaven, ordered the disciples to put their missionary work on hold until the Holy Spirit arrived (Luke 24:49).
The Spirit enters a believer’s life at the moment of salvation and immediately sets about the work of producing spiritual fruit. This is the outward expression of a transformed heart. When we yield to God’s nurturing hand, our actions and attitudes become more loving, more joyful, more kind, more gentle, and so forth. He reaps a harvest of service from our life—good works that grow our faith and expand His kingdom.
For the Holy Spirit to bring forth Christlike character, we can’t be passive bystanders. Our part is to meditate on God’s Word so we can learn about His character and apply His principles. Then, we must make wise decisions each day that allow the Spirit to develop godliness in our life.” – Charles Stanley
Amen. Thanks be to God for the help and power of the Holy Spirit.
So no, we are not capable of becoming the people that God created us to be by our own strengths or efforts. We achieve what God wants for us on our own.
This is good news because it means that when we are I. Christ we are never alone and we are not expected to do the Lord’s will for our lives on our own.
As Christians, our partner for life is the Holy Spirit and He will comfort and help us all the days of our lives. We can lean on Him to comfort us when we experience loss. We can go to Him to receive the strength to overcome the challenges we face. And we can listen for His voice to show us the way and to lead us into all truth.
To truly benefit from our relationship with the Holy Spirit, we must walk in the Spirit, by meditating on God’s word and making decisions that are consistent with God’s truth, one day at a time.
When we cooperate and do this, the Holy Spirit will give us the power and wisdom of God to navigate our lives with abiding peace, love, and joy and will equip us with the patience, faithfulness, kindness, gentleness, goodness, and self control that we will help us to accomplish God’s will for our lives and transform us into the people we always wanted to be.
So relax, rest in the knowledge that God is on our side and the Holy Spirit is working in us to help us along the way, wherever this life will take us.
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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. (The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling By John G. Kruis on Amazon )
This morning’s meditation verse comes from the section on Progressive Sanctification – Growing in Faith & Godliness.
Psalm 119:11 (NASB) Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You.
Today’s verse is the fourth of five passages of scripture that fall under the third point of our counseling reference guide resource section on Progressive Sanctification – Growing in Faith & Godliness.
3. God works in us through his Word to bring us to spiritual maturity, to sanctify us.
Today’s Bible verse indicates what can happen when we treasure the word of God in our hearts: that we will not sin!
In earnest turn back to a more committed life in the Spirit, I was reminded of the power of proclamation – of speaking God’s word over our situations and to remind and empower us with the truth of God has done and will do in the lives of Christians.
In my attempt to repent and to forge a new path that I wont turn from, I have been meditating on and verbally proclaiming Bible verses that speak of God’s power to give me strength and self control. The results of this practice? I am walking in freedom and while I won’t claim sinless perfection just yet, I will state that I have not given in to the sin of gluttony and am convinced that if I continue to hold God’s word in my heart, I won’t sin against Him.
Of course, whatever success I may have, won’t be because of me, it will be because of God’s power working through me by His word and His Holy Spirit. We have to believe God’s word, cherish it in our hearts, and allow it transform the way we live.
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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 “Pause for Power” By Warren Wiersbe.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Wiersbe’s 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 1 – Consistent Actions, Read Romans 2:1–3:20
To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. – Romans 2:7–8
God had given Israel great material and spiritual riches: a wonderful land, a righteous law, a temple and priesthood, God’s providential care, and many more blessings. God had patiently endured Israel’s many sins and rebellions, and had even sent them His Son to be their Messiah. Even after Israel crucified Christ, God gave the nation nearly forty more years of grace and withheld His judgment. It is not the judgment of God that leads people to repentance, but the goodness of God; but Israel did not repent.
In Romans 2:6–11, Paul was explaining a basic principle of God’s judgment: God judges according to deeds, just as He judges according to truth. Paul was dealing here with the consistent actions of people’s lives, the total impact of their character and conduct.
True saving faith results in obedience and godly living, even though there may be occasional falls. When God measured the deeds of the Jews, He found them to be as wicked as those of the Gentiles.
Something to Ponder : Is it possible for people to grow to have consistently good (not perfect) character and conduct? If so, how? How does this fit with Paul’s claim that no one is righteous apart from Christ’s sacrifice (Rom. 3:9–10)?[1]
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[1] Warren W. Wiersbe, Pause for Power: A 365-Day Journey through the Scriptures, 2nd Ed., Year in the Word Series (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2010).
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