God was at Passion. It was so awesome to see God moving in each person's heart and soul at Passion. I praise God that I was blessed to be a part of it. For those who did not get to go, i bring good news. Telling you to encourage you in your walk. God did amazing things at passion. Know and be glad that God's word went out in Atlanta and the body of Christ was challenged and uplifted. I know it is hard to get excited about something that happened in another state that you were not at but I pray that God will give you an excitement for your brohers and sisters who's lives were transformed by the almighty God! Be excited and praise God for what he did even if you were not ther. I love each of you and pray that God does amazing things in each of your lives in the upcoming year. Keep fighting the good fight of faith!
Our journey with God has never been about getting closer to Him. When we accepted Christ we received the Holy Spirit, which is God. He is living in each Christians soul. Nothing can get closer than that. God is never changing and will never leave us. So he never moves. He is dwelling in each of us. Our walk with God is not about getting closer to Him, it is about learning how to stay in tune with God who is already and always so close. He is never changing. He began a transformational journey when we accepted him..... It is up to us each day to learn how to hear and sense him in our souls. I beleive to do this we must practice spiritual diciplines to allow ourselves to become open to the Holy Spirit's guidence..... To tune into the Holy Spirt and walk step and step with Him. In doing this we are transformed by the only one that can transform us.... The Holy Spirit who is God!!!!
Keep fighting the good fight of faith for our Lord Jesus Christ!
Aright i know my last post was long but I really want to know what you think of this...... Every area of our walk with God ultimatly comes down to how in tune we are with the Holy Spirit. - - - If you want to read a longer explination of this look at my last post.... What do you think about this thought and if not this.... then give me your thought on the role of the Holy Spirit in the Christians life. Thanks guys. I love each of you and hopw you all have a great end to your semesters! Keep fighting the good fight of faith!
Living in step with the Holy Spirit.... That is what this life journey is about... The Holy Spirit has been given to each Christian and it is up to us to allow him to transform us to be more like Jesus.... We can not transform ourselves.... We obviously can't or we would of never felt the need to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord. Why did we do that? If we were to be honest our first ambitions were very selfish. But as we grow in this relationship we gradually turn our focus from an inward desire to "feel good" outward to giving God the glory he truly deseserves.... But we so often end up forgetting about the Holy Spirit along the way. The Holy Spirit who is the part of the trinity that does this transforming work we so desperatly desire. You see, my life and I am sure many other Christians lives are marked with distractions and we are so distracted that we begin to loose our ability to hear God's guidence and to feel his presence around us... But my answer to this is it is simply a lack of tuning into the Holy Spirit....I do not doubt our desire to be transformed.....But we can't be transformed except through the HolySpirit! I wish i had a way to diagram.... Ok here is my best try - - - so no relationship with God and we do not have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. We flail around trying to do things in this life utill we finally get fed up and decide to take a step of faith and ask God to enter us and have a relationship with us...... At this moment we receive the Holy Spirit, whho begins transformation. We feel his presence and transformational power and it excites us. But the next thing we know it feels like God is distant... Why? He isnt distant.... He is never changing.... It is us! We do not spend the time tuning into God's voice! When we dicipline ourselves to give God the time of day and to truly seek him our hearts begin to tune into Gods presence around us (Holy Spirit) We hear his voice and guidence..... But here is the big kicker - We must take the time to do this. It takes dicipline and perseverence. God wants more than us to transform us! We are the problem when it comes to feeling like our spiritual state is stagnant. God is near! May we spend time tuning into his voice! May we open our hearts to the transformational power of the Holy Spirit! May we continue to allow God to do his work in us. May we dicipline ourselves to seek God!!!!! God is calling. God is beckoning us to listen! He is so so so so very close! Closer than we can ever imagine! He is dwelling in each of us! In our eternal soul! Nothing is closer than that! He wants to transform us and use us. God is whispering to each of his children every day andevery second.... It is up to us to learn how to listen....... I love each of you. May God bless each of you! Keep fighting the good fight of faith for our Lord Jesus Christ!
Isn't God good? I mean here i sit thinking how amazing it is that i am privalaged to be a part of this calling to somthing that is so much bigger than I am.... I mean isn't that what i have been striving for my whole life? To find purpose for my life by seeking to be a part of somthing that is bigger than I could ever be..... Well, I see now I AM A PART OF THE BIGGEST, MOST IMPORTANT STORY EVER! And so are you who have chosen to be sons and daughters of the living God! God is calling each of us to become a part of thi wonderful and exciting story of his redemtive plan! May I praise God for giving me this oppertunity! May I praise God for the eternal blessing he gives me! May I not waist this time God has given me on myself! May God be glorified in all that I do!!!!! I pray that we as the body of Christ will take an extremely proactive view on the world around us! It is in us choosing to live in Gods Kingdom each day of our life that we finaly begin to truly experience God and his plan for us! God is calling both you and me! Lets not deny that calling. Lets embrace it and run full speed into God's loving arms! God loves you and I love you whether you are a saved or choose against God's grace or even if you do not beleive in God. I pray that you will see that God cares and loves for you.
I love each of you and hope you have a great day!
Jonathan
Do you get tiered of the same old rutein in you times with God? Do your prayers seem to be fervant one day and repetitive the next? Do you feel like God is distant and uninvolved in your life? These are ALL things I have felt time and time again in my pursuit of God. Believe me. Their were days, and weeks that went by that I did not spend time with God because it almost made me sick how stagnent my time with him was. I failed to see his tranformation in my life so I saw it as a waste of time somtimes.... But I have good news if this is how you might be feeling.... The truth is that God is beckoning each of us into a deep relationship with Him that is fulfilling and transforming. He is near and is whispering for our attention! He is active in each of our lives. It is up to us to learn how to listen. When we learn how to do that, we give reign for the Holy Spirit to transform us on this exciting journey of faith! - - But how? I have tried what I know to try. I have wanted that so bad. But I keep falling into a rut of apathy. - - I have had the blessing of being introduced to some new spiritual practices or diciplines which ever you might call them.... Anyways it is so much fun to get to try different things that are not the usual ways of spending time with God. The whole point of these practices is to constantly keep the mind set that God is all around us moving and acting. With that mind set we begin to see God in new ways and to me shaped by that relationship. It is not to be more spiritual than another or to reach some state of self saticfaction. It is to take time to allow the Holy Spirit to tranform our lives in different ways. It is facinating to me how the Holy Spirit transforms us, but only to the point we allow him to. These practices give us ways to learn how to allow him to do just that. Anyways, I say this with caution because these practices are not meant to replace bible study and prayer. But coming from somone who has struggled with his "quiet times" with God, I am LOVING getting to know God in all these new ways! It is exciting and most of all transforming! I do not say this to sound more holy or to sound like I have reached a pinacle. I say this to encourage you. There is a book called Spiritual Dicipline Handbook. It is absolutly wonderful. Very Very Very practicle and easy to understand. There is literally hundreds of spiritual practices in this book. You have five different main catigories and then many sub catagories. The practices target the disire of God you are experencing. Our time with God does not have to be boring or repetitive. God is all around us. These practices are amazing. I encourage anyone that has felt the same negative feelings about their times with God to pray wbout purchasing this book or asking for it at Christmas. They sell the book at Borders. Maybe other places too. The author is Calhoun. Pray about it. Seek God's guidence. A exciting, transformationsal, real relationship with God awaits you and me. Lets choose to live for God and to truly know him and make him known.
I love each of you,
Jonathan
If you have any questions please feel free to message me.
I know that people say, I do not beleive in God. I can't see how God could be real with all the things that go on in the world. I cant understand how God is at all active if he is even out there because I have never seen him.... Well these are questions that every person who is presented with the idea of a higher being has to answer. These are questions that still creep into the minds of even the firmest beleivers. But this God, if we choose to beleive exist, has placed this relationship in front of us. It is not by visible sight or by verbal words that he prooves he is real. He prooves he is real by the transformation he takes us through on the journey of life. When one has experienced the power of God in that way they have no choice but to acknowlege he is who he is..... I know that a lot of people have been burned by life and by religion. I do not pretend that all is well with what we see as religion, but I do claim that al must aswer the question of whether they beleive in God or not. And in my own personal journey i can not deny his presence. I know that sonds like a sunday school answer but it is the truth.... God has been real to me. I pray not that each person can in some way see God somwhere n their life because it breaks my heart knowing people have to deal with life and its crap without a relationship that has been so fulfilling to my own life. I wanst sooooo bad for others to love God and most of all ee that GOD DOES LOVE THEM!!!!! Don't look at religion. Look to see how God is real in your own specific life and the circimstances around you. He is there. I love each of you.
I am so over myself! What do i mean by that? Well i am sick of serving myself and caring so much about myself that I miss out on serving God and serving others! So therefor I am over myself. I wish time and time again that I would deny all of who I am but instead I continue to wallow in my own selfish desires. it is making me sick to be completely honest. I am tierd of it but I seem to be stuck in this... I know that I want to serve God... But how many times is that put into action? That is my problem, I have the desire and passion to serve God with all I have but I never seem to loose myself in my pursuit no matter how bad I want to....
Jr. high fall retreat was awsome! God did some amazing things! I had great feelings about the weekend before it happened and well God exceeded all that i had hoped for. I was wondering how God was going to fill the leadership roles in the Jr. high ministry and paraying for God to raise up some new leaders......... Well this weekend, God blew me away by the leadershi i saw in the new 7th grade group! God has big plans for this group. I praise God in advance what he is going to do thorugh them. Thank you God for the giving me the amazing blessing to work with you in the youth ministry. Thank you father for what you are doing in the youth!
God is rockin'! I wanted to encourage each person who reads this. God is rockin and he loves each of you! Praise God today for his unfailing love and show that love to the people around you!
Lipscomb is rocking my socks off! I am really looking foward to this year. I got good vibes. God is gonna do some really cool things this year! I can already see him in so many ways and it has only been two weeks! So rock on or aas bono would say walk on!
Christ is my life. The Holy Spirit is the presence of Christ
in me. I am a bearer not a producer of fruit. He is the vine, I am the branch.
Aright, Christ is my life….. and the holy spirit is the
presence of Christ in me…. If the Holy Spirit is the presence of Christ in me
and he is the author of life then he too is the supplier of life. So I have
already come to the conclusion that the Holy Spirit is as much God as God the
father is. I have also come to the conclusion that the Holy Spirit (being God)
is living within me! So as I type he is living within my soul and in my heart!
So if the God of all the universe is moving within me, and he is the source of
life, I must live knowing that! The Holy Spirit is Christ living in me! So if I
believe that Christ is the author of life and he is the only thing I want to
live for, then I must live knowing that he is living and active within me! That
is so so so so so exciting!!!!! Now on to the third statement, I am a bearer
not a producer of fruit. So here I am trying so hard to be good and seek
Christ….. And I am not sure the balance of my pursuit and God’s. But here is
the deal, I have been seeking to be close to God my whole walk with him but
what if I have been missing how very close he is at this very moment! I have
practically ignored the Holy Spirit in my walk. I have been striving to be near
a God that seems so far away when in actuality he is so very close! Closer than
anything else in my life because he is moving within my soul. Living in me!!!!!
So if God, the author of life is living in me then I must surrender trying to
reach reach reach until I grasp God and let the Holy Spirit who is God work
through me. It is almost like I have been restricting God by ignoring the Holy
Spirit this whole time. Because the Holy Spirit IS God! God on an extremely
personal level!!!! So here is the vine living within me. It is not up to me to
produce the fruit of the spirit. Instead I am called to bear it. I am called to
be in tune with the Holy Spirit in order to let him bear the fruit through me!
I have been going at it in the wrong direction! I have been trying to produce
the fruit and well, not doing a great job at it. All the while the Holy Spirit has
been within me waiting for me to give him complete control over everything I
do. Ahhhh I don’t like the term control…. It is more like letting go of my
efforts to be a good Christian and instead first seek to lean on the Holy Spirit
within me to accomplish anything! To abide in Christ is to allow the Holy
Spirit to produce His fruit through me. It is not me + God to accomplish what God has called me to do. Instead
it is God + my willingness to abide and allow him to work that = a spirit led
life…. I don’t know if that makes sense…. It makes sense in my head haha…. I
can change because Christ lives in me…. OK so this is the thing that I am most
excited about!!!! For so long I have been defeated time and time again with
sin…. But you see the Holy Spirit is living in me. He is God! He is all
powerful and all knowing! He wants me to have victory over sin and this life!
He wants to help me produce fruit and give me power to defeat sin!!!!! This is
so cool because I never really understood fully relying on God to conquer sin!
But I think that God is opening my eyes to see what that truly means!!! You
see, God is living in me. He is the source of life. He is the source of power.
I must surrender and let go knowing he is plenty powerful enough to get me
through anything. But it is me being aware of that and actually believing it
that will give me victory! Christ desires to live his life through me…. Hmmmm.
Well I would say that Christ passionately desires to live through me. He
passionately wants me to experience victory through relying on him. He wants me
to experience life to it’s fullest and use me in all the ways he has set out.
He wants all that even more than I do! So it is me seeking to let go and trust
in the Holy Spirit to do ALL of that through me!!! It is not up to me at all!
It is up to Him living in me! He has all the power I could ever need to
accomplish what he has set out for me! I do not need to worry how I will do the
things he has called me to do. I must instead trust in him for ALL that I need.
It is not me! I am just the branch he is the vine that produces the fruit!!!!
All I have to do is love Him above all else and seek his will and trust!!!
Nothing comes against me that the new life in me cannot handle!!!! Well this is
also really cool!!!! Because the Holy Spirit is living in me and through Him I
pull all power nothing this world throws at me will be too much for God to
handle!!!! No temptation! No circumstance! No person! Not death! NOTHING! Its
almost like I am a super hero with God living through me haha….The life of
Christ can produce the character of Christ through me…. So the Holy Spirit is
God who is also very much Christ is living in me!!!!! Therefore the Holy Spirit
will produce the characteristics of Christ through me! It is God! God living
through me=Christ being shown through me and me bearing the fruit Jesus
produces!!!!! Christ is my life!!!! I am really excited about all that God is
showing me! It is almost like I am getting to know God all over again because I
have neglected to get to know the Holy Spirit this whole time! Who is God!
TOOOOOO COOOOOL!!!!
The holy spirit is God and the Holy Sirit lives in me……
The Holy Spirit is God. I have been taught my whole life
that the Holy Spirit was a part of the trinity. Therefore the Holy Spirit is
God being three in one….. Yet so many times have I dismissed that thought
because I didn’t understand…. I didn’t understand what the holy spirit really
did and how I could relate with it. Well Charles Stanley is trying to break me
of the habit of calling the Holy Spirit an it. Haha but I just did…. It seems
so natural. It seems so natural to not attach much a of a humanistic value to
the holy spirit seeing as it’s described as a spirit or a ghost. But the Bible
clearly calls it a He. So The authors of the Bible clearly thought that the
holy spirit was characterized as human or God in this case….. So here is what
this idea comes down to in my head…. If the holy spirit is God and just as much
a part of the trinity at the son and the father then I have been denying myself
and God something by storing the holy spirit away in some area and letting Jesus
and God the father take my attention…. It would almost be as silly as if I
ignored God the father and just focused on Jesus in my relationship with God.
But this brings up another question…. How in the world is a human mind supposed
to comprehend, much less have a relationship with the trinity in the entire?
But the way Charles makes it seem is that we are called as a believer in Christ
to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit because he is as much a part of the
trinity and plays just as much of a role in our walk than the father and the
son….. So here I am trying to comprehend that the Holy Spirit IS God. He is a
he. He is God in the world we live today. Here is something I think is cool.
Jesus talks about how it would be worse for him to stay here because we would
not receive the gift of the holy spirit…. So obviously Jesus knows it is better
for us to have the holy spirit living in us rather than him still being here in
person! That’s cool to think about! But do we believe that? So many times I
think how easy it would be to believe if I lived when Jesus did….. But why did
Jesus think so highly of the Holy Spirit which is living within me as I
type?!!!So in a way, maybe I have it
better than the disciples did in the first century before they received the
Holy Spirit… I dunno. There is just something cool about thinking that the holy
spirit, being just as much God as Jesus and God the Father are, is living in me
and guiding me and teaching me! I would think that God moving within my soul
and heart teaching would have much more of an influence than Jesus would
telling me what to do from the outside…. I’m not sure… All of this said I have
come to a few conclusions. What I do know is that I have pushed trying to
comprehend the presence of the Holy Spirit out of my head for too long. God is
God whether he is the father, son, or spirit. God is the spirit and he is
living in me! That is awesome! There is power in understanding that! I do not
want to deny God his identity. Which is what I have been doing. I want to know
and love God. ALL of God. Including the most personal side of God to my soul
right now, that being the spirit which is living and moving in me! COOL!
