Tag: Walking in the spirit

Day 23:Putting Christ First
28 Day Love Challenge · Christian. · February · Love

Day 23:Putting Christ First

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Thought long and hard about walking with the Spirit; about being one with Chist.

5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will[ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

From my birth as a Christian, the Holy Spirit has stayed with me.  But across my life there are times I am close to the Lord and there are times when He feels very far away.

The times when He felt far away, the Spirit had gone no where, but I typically had.  Those were the times when my prayer life grew less and less.  I stopped reading the bible.  I did not do any of this dileberately.  I just slid away.

At other times there would be something I wanted that I knew was wrong.  I convinced my self that God would understand.  Sure he wrote in the bible it was a sin, but it would make me happy and didn’t God want me happy.  I would ease into a life style I knew violated God’s will.  Justifying everything.

It’s not hard to find the times when I walked with the Spirit.  They almost always follow a time of straying.  My world starts falling apart.  Those God would want me happy activities start blowing up in my face and I am broken.  I don’t normally run back to Jesus as fast as I should, but I always run back.  A broken person, I fall on my knees and beg God to heal me spiritually.  I want back next to Him more than anything.

Those times when I can say I have walked with God.  Those days when I have heard the Spirit and know I am walking with Christ are the best periods of my life.  What they have in common are time of bible study, times of listening to sermons on the radio, but mostly, I spend time through the day asking God what I should do on the little things.  I listen for His voice.  I am in tune to His desire for my life and I try to follow his guidance.

These times of joy and closeness have actually occurred in times of quite in my life and in times of great stress.  The closeness comes from my putting Christ first.   My talking to Him through the day about all the issues, about all the problems and about all my choices.

If I am to love with Agape love, then I must be walking with the Spirit so that the Spirit can love through me.  I must not just have a quite time that I spend with Jesus (which I need big time), but I must be talking with God about everything through the day.  I must discuss the people who come into my life and ask for His guidance.  Or when my temper wants to flare, to ask him to calm me and direct me.

Day 22:Without Me ye Can Do Nothing.
28 Day Love Challenge · Christian. · February · Love

Day 22:Without Me ye Can Do Nothing.

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As soon as I set my mind to do even one aspect of the many traits of Agape love, I fail.  I can’t do it. I fail even with my family who I hold the dearest of all.  Imagine how short my determination gets with people who don’t share DNA with me.

When I should be patient; I lose it.

My kindness leads to my resentment

Envy, pride and selfishness sneak into my day to day.  I only see them after I act.  But they are for sure a major part of my life

My temper flares and I promise you I am keeping a list of everything that others have done against me.

I try to “always” protect, trust, hope and persevere, but I fall short of always.

Can you imagine what a testimony we could be if we lived Agape love, but how?

I believe Jesus explained to us how this is to be done in John 14-16.

We can only love with Agape love if we are one with Jesus.  Not if we are believers.  Not if we go to church on Sunday or even say a prayer every evening before we go to bed.  We must be one with Jesus through the spirit.

John 15 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.

10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.

11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

Paul also tells us that Agape is one of the fruit of the spirit.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

 So the question is how to walk in the Spirit.