Hi how are you all today? I apologise for this post being late this week. Last weekend I served at ladies conference at our main church and then I was a little unwell. I was tired from conference and my motivation was low. All good now so back to writing.
This week I want to look at the scripture in Romans 8:9. It states in the Message Bible:
9 But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about.
Have you ever thought about the fact that God lives in me? The Holy Spirit has taken up residence in my spirit. He resides there. I wonder if the residence is nice and welcoming or full of things that shouldn’t be there.
When I gave my life to Jesus, and same for you, our spirit was renewed and came alive. The Holy Spirit came to reside there. My soul (mind, will and emotions) needs to be renewed daily by reading the Word of God and my body is slowly aging. My human nature (flesh) is continually warring against my spirit in the soul realm.
That is what life is like and it feels like a real battle that maybe we can’t win. Until….we remind ourselves that God resides in us. God is with us and has given us everything necessary to win the battle. But if we don’t remind ourselves of Who lives in us, then we tend to fight the battle in our own strength. If we do that, we will lose.
A great illustration of this is found throughout the Old Testament. I love the Old Testament as it is a natural picture of what happens in the spiritual.
In battles fought where the Israelites went out at Gods direction and with Gods strategy, they always won. This didn’t matter whether the strategy was to send the singers out first or to march around walls. With God on their side, they won.
However, when they were disobedient to God and went out to battle, they always lost. This is the same for us, if we fight the battles without God, we will lose.
What is the major battle we fight today? It is not against people or even the devil, it is the fight of faith. It is hanging on and believing and trusting in the Word of God regardless of what our five natural senses are telling us. Without faith it is impossible to please God, it tells us in Hebrews 11:6. The practical application of this is that I need to remind myself that God lives in me and is with me and I can trust Him through and in everything.
This week let’s make a conscious effort to remind ourselves Who lives in us. Let’s make decisions in our daily walk with this in mind so that the residence of the Holy Spirit is good and nice.
Have a great week and keep living the life God intended for you.
Bless you
Karen
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