Monthly Archives: February 2021

What Do You Crave?

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David writes in Psalm 27:4 (TPT), “Here’s the one thing I crave from God, the one thing I seek above all else: I want the privilege of living with Him every moment in his house, finding the sweet loveliness of His face, filled with awe, delighting in His glory and grace. I want to live my life so close to Him that He takes pleasure in my every prayer.”. So much truth in this verse for the Christian walk. I must point out that David wrote this before the temple was built. David longed for being in God’s presence frequently.

David craved a good thing, he craved being in the presence of God at every moment. What more could we really want? Keep in mind, David was under the Old Covenant when this was written. To be put in right standing with God a blood sacrifice was required. Thank God we are under a better Covenant now, because of what Jesus did on the cross.

But as we are believers under the New Covenant, do we really understand the depth of what it means to crave being in communion with God at every moment?  So many believers have not come to the knowledge of who we are as a result of the finished work of Jesus Christ. My Bible says that the moment we repent and accept the finished work of Jesus Christ by faith we are New Creations.

We not only are New Creations, but we also have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. 1 Corinthians 6:19 (AMP) tells us, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is within you, whom you have [received as a gift] from God, and that you are not your own [property]?”. Read that verse again and again. The very presence of the living God is within us as believers, the Spirit of Truth dwells within us Who will lead us into all truth. We don’t have to wait for a temple to be built as David did, the Bible says we as New Covenant believers are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We must recognize this truth here, there is a power source that is within us and that is the Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit that fell on those in the upper room in the Book of Acts.

If we could just rely on the source of Power that is poured out into us as believers how our very existence would change. Jesus told His disciples in Acts 1:8 (NKJV), “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…”. 2 Timothy 1:7 (TPT) tells us, “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity or cowardice or fear, but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of sound judgment and personal discipline [abilities that result in a calm, well-balanced mind and self-control].”.

Too often we believers rely on the things of this world to strengthen us rather than the Holy Spirit. We must ask God every day to fill us up a fresh and a new of His Spirit so that we can be poured out for His Glory. Since we are temples of the Holy Spirit we can be in total communion with God at every moment if we just yield to the Holy Spirit fully surrendered. David craved for this very lifestyle that we all can walk, but sadly not many believers want to fully surrender to the Holy Spirits leading. It is one thing to get into the presence of God during a corporate service, but it is a whole other thing to do this in private. We must be developed in the secret place. Jesus during His earthly ministry would go into the secret place and seek the Father.

If you can set aside just 20-30 minutes a day to get alone with God and yield to His leading you will not be the same. Don’t just read the Word to mark off your Bible reading plan, cry out to God for Him to teach you and reveal truths to you. If you can yield yourself to this for 20-30 minutes a day, He will change your total existence. We make huge lifestyle changes to move across the country for a new job, go to a better school, or even lose a few pounds, but why don’t we take this same level of dedication when it comes to our walk of faith for the Glory of God?

I pray that you will begin to crave this more and more to be in communion with the Father so frequently. I pray that the church’s focus this year would be taken off the things of this world and that the church this year would cry out to God for greater manifestations of His Glory. I pray that everything that is worldly that has infected the church would be ripped out and that there would be a call to repentance for loving the things of this world which are passing away. It is time for us believers not to have the aroma of the world, but to have the aroma of the Kingdom of God. Let the people who are lost in darkness be able to immediately tell something is different with us, rather than us quietly just blend in with the rest of the world. Let us crave things that are above and be more Kingdom-minded!

Have We Fully Surrendered?

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This is going to be a different post than usual, not fully a teaching, but also a bit of a word mixed in the Lord has given me. I gave a teaching recently about the importance of surrendering the carnal mind. I do not know about you, but I am honestly sick of the casual and powerless Christianity. Go to church once or twice a week, and then blend in with the rest of the world the other days of the week. Are we sitting under preaching that is developed with man’s made methods or is the preaching we sit under led by the Holy Spirit?

So many profess to be Christian, but yet their lives do not reflect the working of the Holy Spirit. If we are new creations then why are we still in love with the things of this world, the things of which are passing away (1 John 2:17). We do not realize how much time we spend focusing on things that do not really matter. Do not get me wrong we all have various obligations in life such as school, work, and family. However, many of us and myself included have fed off carnality rather than spending more time feeding off the things of God.

The Lord wants His people to take worship more seriously this year, and the years to come. This is both in corporate worship and private worship. Too often we have become too led by our man-made devices rather than by the Holy Spirit. In Leviticus 10 we see what happened to Nadab and Abihu when they brought strange incense to the Lord, they were consumed with fire and died. Why? Because they went against what the Lord had commanded them to do when it came to worship.  Nadab and Abihu brought innovation to God’s altar rather than what God had already ordained. How often do we get wrapped up in our man-made programs in the church rather than being totally led by the Spirit? Now I am not saying all church programs are bad, I am saying we really need to be careful not to get all wrapped up in programs and our own strength.

Too many people in church pews are more religiously developed than they are spiritually developed. Too many people know how to follow a dead religious system rather than the true leading of the Holy Spirit. Are we to be filled with religion or are we to be filled with the Holy Spirit? I think the New Testament makes that clear. (Ephesians 5:18)

Biblical Christianity as found in the Early Church was not about religion, it is about being in relationship with the Lord. When we are born again, we are put in right standing with God. This is only through the finished work of Jesus Christ. Go back to the Old Testament and look at all the rules that had to be followed with all the sacrifices. Thank God for sending His only Son to be the only final Sacrifice.

We must take the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ seriously. So many people do not understand the depth of what Jesus accomplished on the Cross and through His resurrection and ascension. He paid the penalty for our sins; without Him, we would be deserving of eternal death. Because of His finished work we have authority over sickness and demons. (Mark 3:15, Matthew 10:1, Mark 6:7, Luke 9:1, 1 John 2:13-14, Ephesians 6:11, and Romans 16:20)   When we get saved, we do not receive a hell insurance plan. When we get saved, we do not get a pass to live our life however we want, our life is not our own! (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) The Bible tells us to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12)

The Bible says when we get saved, we are a new creation. (2 Corinthians 5:17) This is spiritually speaking, we were once spiritually dead, but now we are alive. We must learn to surrender to the new creation we are through Jesus Christ, rather than continuing in the sickness of the old dead self we were before Christ.  This is why the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is so essential, we must continually be filled with the Holy Spirit. Not only is being filled with the Holy Spirit evidenced by your own private prayer language and other spiritual gifts as the Spirit wills, but it is also about walking in all the Fruits of the Spirit, holy living, and most importantly walking in the love of Christ.

It is time that the body of Christ as a whole and individually begins to surrender to the leading of the Holy Spirit.