God's Way to Real Fruit Part II

After all these years, I’ve found a marvelous fact.  The Lord has never left me nor forsaken me!  The Lord is His Holy Spirit in my heart.  I remember the exact time in my life and exactly where I was standing when I said aloud to the Lord, “I am convinced if you have not left me by now, you’ll never leave me!”

Now of course God wouldn’t have left anyway because He Himself had already said in His Word, “I will NEVER leave nor forsake you.”  So it wasn’t because I was convinced.  It’s just that the convincing or persuasion in my heart (which is the Holy Spirit’s work) gives hope and faith in His Word is what really brings more hope.  

We all know that God does want to change us and our lives to the image of His Son – yet it truly is the Spirit’s work and God’s Word that does this in and through us.

In Ephesians 1 we are told that we’ve been sealed with God’s Spirit as a “down payment” or like an engagement ring, for all the future glory that is yet to be revealed and lived throughout all eternity.  

And I love this passage, because God says the exceeding greatness of His power towards us is the same Spirit that worked in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead.

Romans 8 says this too:  that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in us, and He will quicken our mortal bodies.   God does this because the jar of clay we live in, was once under eternal death, before Christ came to live in us.

And yet in Mark 1, after reading this Gospel again, a precious thought came to me that the Spirit John the Baptist saw coming out of heaven descending upon Jesus Christ like a dove, is indeed the SAME Spirit of God that now dwells in us.  

That’s pretty unfathomable – for He is not a different Spirit – yes, He is the same Spirit of God that was upon the Son of Man, Son of God in His earthly life and ministry.

Then there is Pentecost – the Spirit came who was promised by the Father.  The Lord Jesus said these words before His ascension:  “You have heard from Me, for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 

The disciples then asked Him about the times and seasons. Jesus, after commenting on this said, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

When the Scriptures were completed, we find that Peter calls the Spirit of God – the Divine Power.  Paul calls Him in one of His letters – The Spirit of the Son crying “Abba Father.”  John in his letter calls Him not only Teacher, Guide to All Truth (and says we are to abide in Him), but says He is the Anointing – AND the witness and One bearing witness.

“And we know that He (Christ) abides in us BY the Spirit whom He has given us.”

I am writing all this as a prelude to more of what I would like to share from the last devotion, concerning HOW God has been working in my heart and mind all these years to show me more deeply, God’s way of walking in this Great Salvation. 

To make a smashing point, I would say that without our awakening to the LIVING Christ within us by His Spirit, we really are doing many things by our own efforts.  One of the things I am convinced God teaches, is that our abiding in Christ day by day and the awareness of doing so, is critical.  We’ve all experienced where we would pray and realize our dependence, when we needed to do a specific task, have a problem etc. but it’s so much more than this.  

There really is a work God does in our conscience as to our union with the Lord and His movements through us.

Even the Son of God learned from the Father.

Jesus did not begin His ministry until age 30.  Ever think about what He did before then?  Isaiah prophesied concerning His life.  Here are some Scriptures:

“Lord God, You have given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a Word in season to him who is weary.  He (God) awakens Me morning by morning.  He awakens my ear to hear as the learned.  The Lord God has opened my ear.  And I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away.  Isaiah 50:4-5.

The Scriptures following these tell us it is indeed about the Lord Jesus , because the following verse says this:  “I gave My back to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.”

The Lord Jesus grew and learned from His Father.  In John 8:28 Jesus said that he did nothing from himself – only spoke as His Father taught Him.

If our Lord is the supreme example in learning from God His Father, we too are called to the same.

Until next time,

Sue Gaither