MONDAY
“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me” Psalm 51:10
A spirit lead life. Made New. Having a Spirit lead life means being a follower of Christ and allowing God’s spirit to lead and guide us. This week we will look at what are the steps we need to take to have a spirit lead life.
In this verse of Psalm, the request is being made to create a clean heart and renew a right spirit within. One of the very first steps we must take on our journey to being lead by God’s spirit is to bring ourselves before the Lord and use him as our mirror to our lives.
We need to first recognize that we need to have the right spirit within us. We need to have God’s Spirit within us in order to understand that which is of God, otherwise we are still lost in the darkness of this world. So in order to have God’s Spirit we must first accept Christ’s sacrifice for our salvation.
Secondly this is also referring to us having a right spirit in terms of our attitude and our behavior. When we become Christians we need God’s Spirit to be taught how to change our behavior and our attitudes. We need the directing of the Holy Spirit. See if we could do all this by ourselves, we wouldn’t need the direction of the Holy Spirit.
We need to ask God to make us new. This scripture also let’s us know that daily we need to ask God to check our attitude, our thoughts and our actions. If anything in me is not in line with God, then I need to ask him to clean my heart and bring my spirit back to the place where it needs to be.
So today, let us go before the Lord and ask him to renew our minds, our attitude and our hearts. I pray for us that we go to God daily to seek his direction in our lives.
TUESDAY
“Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” Ezekiel 36:26-27
A spirit lead life. A Right spirit. When we ask God to create in us a new heart, he will do just that. He will cleanse us from all that would make us unclean. He will take away the heart of stone. When we think of a heart, we know it functions to pump the life giving blood to the entire body. So when we talk about the heart of man, as in this scripture we are talking about the vital center and source of one’s being, emotions, and sensibilities. We are talking about the place where you make the choices that give life to the spiritual body. Just as a physical heart that isn’t working well will create problems, so will a spiritual heart that is not functioning well cause death to the spiritual body.
When we ask God to change us he is willing to do it, and then we must follow what he does. He says if we allow him to cleanse us, we are to then walk in his ways and keep those things, which he tells us to. How are we able to keep them? We are able to keep them because we are following God and his Spirit is leading us and empowering us to do so.
So today I pray that we allow God access to our hearts so that we can give up all the things that would hinder us and entrap us. When we do, then our hearts are able to function as God intends them to, allowing the life giving actions to come forth and bring not only life to us, but also life to others around us.
WEDNESDAY
“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and build up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” Romans 2:6-8
A spirit led life. The Christian walk. When we have taken ourselves to the Lord for his check of our hearts, and we are allowing him access, we then must go forth in that which we know. In other words, we need to start doing.
It amazes we how many Christians don’t really study their word. How can you know what the instructions are, if you don’t read them? It’s great to go to church and hear what the Pastor is saying, but how do you know if what you hear is accurate or not?
In these verses we are warned to beware that we are not spoiled because of vain traditions or philosophy. When I think of something spoiled it isn’t worth much of anything. Do you want to eat spoiled food? I think not! We don’t want our lives to become worthless because we are not taking the time to be taught in the word. Go to your Bible studies at church. Get yourself a time dedicated to the studying of your word. And if anyone has the thought they understand the word so they are fine, you are already deceived. It doesn’t matter how many times you read a scripture, there is always some new and fresh thing for the day in the word.
I have just completed a book, called “God is speaking, are you listening – A walk with the prophet Jeremiah”. What this book has shone me is I have so much more to learn about God and his goodness. I have been in the book of Jeremiah since October of last year. And guest what, I’m going to read it again from the beginning.
What am I trying to tell us? We need to have the word inside of us. We need to sit down at the table and pull up the word and dig in as if we are digging into our most favorite meal. We need to eat the word and allow it to flow through us. Think about this. When you eat, the food is broken down in your body and the nutrients are distributed throughout the body to help it keep healthy. Some of the nutrients are stored and others are used right away. If we go too long without eating, we will eventually die. Yes first our bodies will try to break down what we have already stored, but when that’s gone, it’s over.
That’s how it is with our spiritual life. When we read God’s word we get what we need and it blesses our souls. Some of it however is stored inside for another time when we will need it. It becomes the nutrients we need to stay spiritually healthy. If we don’t sit down and feast on the word, what will happen is we will seem to be just fine at first. What is happening is our body is living off of what was stored. But when that’s used up, we begin to die, slowly and painfully.
So today I pray that we become grounded in truth. We can only do this by getting in the word. The word comes to bring us life. Let us take a hold of it to help us with the day-to-day things we must face. God bless us as we seek to follow him in the truth of his word.
THURDSAY
“God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” St. John 4:24
A spirit lead life. Made New. Having a Spirit lead life means being a follower of Christ and allowing God’s spirit to lead and guide us. This week we will look at what are the steps we need to take to have a spirit lead life.
In this verse of Psalm, the request is being made to create a clean heart and renew a right spirit within. One of the very first steps we must take on our journey to being lead by God’s spirit is to bring ourselves before the Lord and use him as our mirror to our lives.
We need to first recognize that we need to have the right spirit within us. We need to have God’s Spirit within us in order to understand that which is of God, otherwise we are still lost in the darkness of this world. So in order to have God’s Spirit we must first accept Christ’s sacrifice for our salvation.
Secondly this is also referring to us having a right spirit in terms of our attitude and our behavior. When we become Christians we need God’s Spirit to be taught how to change our behavior and our attitudes. We need the directing of the Holy Spirit. See if we could do all this by ourselves, we wouldn’t need the direction of the Holy Spirit.
We need to ask God to make us new. This scripture also let’s us know that daily we need to ask God to check our attitude, our thoughts and our actions. If anything in me is not in line with God, then I need to ask him to clean my heart and bring my spirit back to the place where it needs to be.
So today, let us go before the Lord and ask him to renew our minds, our attitude and our hearts. I pray for us that we go to God daily to seek his direction in our lives.
TUESDAY
“Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” Ezekiel 36:26-27
A spirit lead life. A Right spirit. When we ask God to create in us a new heart, he will do just that. He will cleanse us from all that would make us unclean. He will take away the heart of stone. When we think of a heart, we know it functions to pump the life giving blood to the entire body. So when we talk about the heart of man, as in this scripture we are talking about the vital center and source of one’s being, emotions, and sensibilities. We are talking about the place where you make the choices that give life to the spiritual body. Just as a physical heart that isn’t working well will create problems, so will a spiritual heart that is not functioning well cause death to the spiritual body.
When we ask God to change us he is willing to do it, and then we must follow what he does. He says if we allow him to cleanse us, we are to then walk in his ways and keep those things, which he tells us to. How are we able to keep them? We are able to keep them because we are following God and his Spirit is leading us and empowering us to do so.
So today I pray that we allow God access to our hearts so that we can give up all the things that would hinder us and entrap us. When we do, then our hearts are able to function as God intends them to, allowing the life giving actions to come forth and bring not only life to us, but also life to others around us.
WEDNESDAY
“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and build up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” Romans 2:6-8
A spirit led life. The Christian walk. When we have taken ourselves to the Lord for his check of our hearts, and we are allowing him access, we then must go forth in that which we know. In other words, we need to start doing.
It amazes we how many Christians don’t really study their word. How can you know what the instructions are, if you don’t read them? It’s great to go to church and hear what the Pastor is saying, but how do you know if what you hear is accurate or not?
In these verses we are warned to beware that we are not spoiled because of vain traditions or philosophy. When I think of something spoiled it isn’t worth much of anything. Do you want to eat spoiled food? I think not! We don’t want our lives to become worthless because we are not taking the time to be taught in the word. Go to your Bible studies at church. Get yourself a time dedicated to the studying of your word. And if anyone has the thought they understand the word so they are fine, you are already deceived. It doesn’t matter how many times you read a scripture, there is always some new and fresh thing for the day in the word.
I have just completed a book, called “God is speaking, are you listening – A walk with the prophet Jeremiah”. What this book has shone me is I have so much more to learn about God and his goodness. I have been in the book of Jeremiah since October of last year. And guest what, I’m going to read it again from the beginning.
What am I trying to tell us? We need to have the word inside of us. We need to sit down at the table and pull up the word and dig in as if we are digging into our most favorite meal. We need to eat the word and allow it to flow through us. Think about this. When you eat, the food is broken down in your body and the nutrients are distributed throughout the body to help it keep healthy. Some of the nutrients are stored and others are used right away. If we go too long without eating, we will eventually die. Yes first our bodies will try to break down what we have already stored, but when that’s gone, it’s over.
That’s how it is with our spiritual life. When we read God’s word we get what we need and it blesses our souls. Some of it however is stored inside for another time when we will need it. It becomes the nutrients we need to stay spiritually healthy. If we don’t sit down and feast on the word, what will happen is we will seem to be just fine at first. What is happening is our body is living off of what was stored. But when that’s used up, we begin to die, slowly and painfully.
So today I pray that we become grounded in truth. We can only do this by getting in the word. The word comes to bring us life. Let us take a hold of it to help us with the day-to-day things we must face. God bless us as we seek to follow him in the truth of his word.
THURDSAY
“God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” St. John 4:24
A spirit led life. Our expected worship. What do you mean worship in spirit and in truth? God is a spirit. He is not natural or physical in nature. God is not carnal in nature. God is supreme and perfect. We are not able to worship in spirit, without the indwelling of the spirit of God.
We receive his spirit when we become part of his family. We are purified and sanctified by his spirit. We cannot understand the word of God without his spirit. So for us to worship in spirit and in truth means we must first be of the spirit of God and then we must allow the spirit to lead us in the worship of God. The spirit leads us in worship by teaching us in the word of God what is our expected service unto the Lord.
What is carnal cannot show true worship unto God. So it’s not us having more bigger or better programs or activities that constitutes worship. Those things are physical, natural. But it is our hearts being in total submission unto the Lord and his will that we are able to come into true worship of the Lord. For we are worshipping in spirit and in the truth of who God is. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that services or things of that nature are wrong, but they cannot be the deciding factor on true worship.
We have to seek God first on what his plan is and then we make our plan, not make our plans and then ask God to bless them. We also have to be careful, because the outward seems to be what a lot of people are using in deciding what is true worship. We look at the big and better and think something must be wrong with our worship service because we aren’t doing the same. Don’t be fooled by bigger and better. That isn’t an accurate way to know if God’s spirit is being worshipped in truth.
Now I have to say this so allow me a moment, we all don’t worship in the same way. Some people are emotional people. I happen to be a cry baby. I was nicknamed the weeping prophet several years ago by friends that know me. I cry because my mind thinks about the goodness of God and how much he loves me. My crying doesn’t make me a true worshipper it is my heart condition.
Why do I say that, because we have allowed ourselves to look at outward signs to determine true worship. I’ve seen some true believers that are very quiet and reserved. Are they not worshipping? Not so. God looks on the spirit, not physical, outward activities. So today I pray for us to seek to worship God in true worship. Let’s not allow ourselves to be caught up in things that don’t constitute true worship.
FRIDAY
“Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” 2 Corinthians 3:17
A spirit led life. Freedom. When we are allowing God’s spirit to lead us and guide us, our understanding is opened to the things of God. We are no longer in darkness. We have freedom from the blindness that darkness brings. If you can’t see, you don’t know what you are walking into or what is around you. When your eyes have been opened, you are able to see clearly the things around you.
That is what God does for his people. His spirit allows us to see clearly the world around us. We are able to see and understand how we are to walk, how we are to talk, how we are to behave. We now have the freedom from those things, which would bring bondage to us.
When we are tied up in situations we can’t seem to get ourselves freed, yet where the spirit is, there is freedom. If God’s spirit is present, then the situations cannot tie us up or trip us up. The verses before this one tells about the people not having understanding, because their minds were blind. The veil was taken away with Christ, that veil of darkness or lack of understanding. So it is because of Christ that our darkness is removed.
We have the freedom of spiritual sight. We can see through the spirit’s leading how to side step traps and snares. We can have the freedom to worship without condemnation, because there is now no more condemnation in Christ Jesus. We have the freedom to come asking from the Lord all that we need. Free, yes free indeed.
So I pray for us today to rejoice in the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus. And when we go to worship this weekend, let us ask God to remove any darkness from our eyes. If there is anything that is keeping us from seeing clearly, remove it Lord. Let us rejoice in the total freedom he brings.
FRIDAY
“Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” 2 Corinthians 3:17
A spirit led life. Freedom. When we are allowing God’s spirit to lead us and guide us, our understanding is opened to the things of God. We are no longer in darkness. We have freedom from the blindness that darkness brings. If you can’t see, you don’t know what you are walking into or what is around you. When your eyes have been opened, you are able to see clearly the things around you.
That is what God does for his people. His spirit allows us to see clearly the world around us. We are able to see and understand how we are to walk, how we are to talk, how we are to behave. We now have the freedom from those things, which would bring bondage to us.
When we are tied up in situations we can’t seem to get ourselves freed, yet where the spirit is, there is freedom. If God’s spirit is present, then the situations cannot tie us up or trip us up. The verses before this one tells about the people not having understanding, because their minds were blind. The veil was taken away with Christ, that veil of darkness or lack of understanding. So it is because of Christ that our darkness is removed.
We have the freedom of spiritual sight. We can see through the spirit’s leading how to side step traps and snares. We can have the freedom to worship without condemnation, because there is now no more condemnation in Christ Jesus. We have the freedom to come asking from the Lord all that we need. Free, yes free indeed.
So I pray for us today to rejoice in the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus. And when we go to worship this weekend, let us ask God to remove any darkness from our eyes. If there is anything that is keeping us from seeing clearly, remove it Lord. Let us rejoice in the total freedom he brings.
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