Spirit listener

Do not be anxious or worry about anything, but in all things through prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. ~The Apostle Paul What do you usually do when you experience anxiety, or when you worry?  I usually can't stop thinking about whatever worries me.  I can't sleep or concentrate.  I'm distracted by what I fear will happen, or by what's happening that I can't stop.   Is that true for you?   If so, God gives us a way to be free from anxiety and worry.  I know from experience that what I'm about to share is true.  God commands us not to worry or have anxiety.  This means it's not God's will for us to worry or have anxiety, so much so that we are sinning if we do it.   But don't let that discourage you.   Because God commands us not to worry, we have a choice; we have control ove...

"The Spirit will prove the world wrong...about righteousness...because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer."  The Lord Jesus We have seen that sin is rejecting Jesus , and that we are wrong to reject him.  We are wrong to reject Jesus because he was and is innocent, perfectly innocent, eternally innocent. He is love incarnate, having died for us while we rejected him.  We rejected the innocent and beautiful God, who is love, who is light, who is spirit and life. It's like hurting a new born baby's feelings. Like kicking a puppy or kitten. If we do things like that, we know we are evil. God is more innocent than the most innocent kitten, puppy, or baby.  God has never sinned. Jesus never sinned.  The Spirit never sins.  God is not only good, he is goodness.  And we reject him.  We reject our good Creator and Maker.  We do this with the very breath He gave us to breathe.  We reject righteousness.  God is ...

"When the Spirit comes he will prove the world wrong to be wrong about sin, and righteousness, and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me..." When we think of sin, we think about breaking God's commandments, and this is right.  Yet we may not think about the first and foremost command that supersedes and summarizes every command: Believe in Jesus. Before we believed, we disobeyed this command, and thus we sinned the ultimate sin. Another definition of sin given in scripture is that we don't do the good we know to do.  And what is that good:  to accept Jesus.  Yet another definition of sin in scripture is this:  whatever we do apart from faith.  Faith in scripture is the definition of righteousness, so doubt must be the definition of unrighteousness, or sin.  We keep getting back to the same things: The good we know to do is to obey God, and God's command is to have faith in Jesus. But we didn't do that at first....

If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin.  As it is, they have seen, yet they have hated both me and my father.  But this is to fulfill what is written in their law, "They hated me without reason."  John 15:24-25 Why do we fear the supernatural?  Or make light of it's place in our lives as believers?  Even if we  truly believe that miracles were a thing of our Christian past, we at least believe these supernatural things: 1. Jesus is God incarnate, was born of a virgin, died, rose, and ascended. 2. We have the Spirit of God in us, and thus God in us. 3. God hears and answers our prayers when they agree with His will, causing things to happen that would not have happened if we didn't pray.  (In other words, something beyond the natural--something supernatural.) Every believer, no matter what denomination, believes in prayer at least.  And prayer is asking God to do something that wouldn't happe...

"This is my command:  Love each other."  ~The Lord Jesus I used to wonder how to practically and permanently stay connected to Jesus--how to "abide in him."  I used to also wonder how to allow him to permanently stay connected to me--how he "abides in me." I wondered this because of his command to the 11, "Abide in me, and I in you."  I understood the vine and branch analogy, but I didn't know how to do it practically.  The Spirit showed me. First, to "abide in" or stay connected to Jesus, we "keep his command."  That's how we abide in him, or stay connected to him.  That's what he said.  (I'm not claiming new revelation, but insight into an old one, at least for me.  I hope the same for you.)  In other words, I'm learning that when I think something in scripture seems "impractical," it's because I'm not just trusting the simple instruction given in the very scripture I'm reading....

"He has no hold over me..." The Lord Jesus, speaking about the prince of this world "Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."   ~The Apostle Paul Satan had no hold over Jesus whatsoever.  None at all.  Jesus never gave the enemy an opportunity.  He lived in perfect victory.  And He gave us his pattern of perfectly resisting the evil one:  faith in the word of God. Our faith is our shield, just as Paul teaches us in Ephesians.  Our sword is God's word.  We use our shield and sword the way Jesus did.  This is our shield:  IT IS WRITTEN.  This is our sword:  QUOTING WHAT IS WRITTEN.  When we do this, we secure ourselves in truth, which is the belt of our spiritual armor.  By faith in God's word, we are righteous, which is our breastplate.  Faith in God's word prepares us to preach the gospel of peace, and this preparation is protection for our feet in battle....

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these because I am going to my Father.  John 14:12 What are the works of Jesus, the works he spoke of to the 11 before Judas came to betray him?  Jesus himself answers my question in what he said to the 11 in John 14:11: "Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves." Jesus was responding to Phillip's request for Jesus to "show them the Father."  He told Phillip that there was no need for him to show them the Father because if they had seen Jesus, they had seen the Father.  Jesus wanted Phillip to take Jesus at His word, that he and the father are one.  But if Phillip couldn't take him at his bare word, he could at least believe based on the works of Jesus: Signs and wonders, healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead. N...

"When the Spirit comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin, righteousness, and judgment." ~The Lord Jesus I saw the Spirit do this.  It was him, and only him.  Because only he can prove someone wrong about  sin, about righteousness, and about judgment.  Have you ever tried to prove someone wrong about anything?  How successful were you? But the Spirit can do it without any help from you and me at all.  Again, I just saw him do it. Someone spoke to me rudely.  I was angry.  I prayed that the Spirit would prove the person wrong in how she talked to me.  I waited.  I didn't confront her because I've tried before and it never works.  It only leads to arguments.  It only makes things worse.  So I waited.  And sure enough, she came to me and asked me to forgive her for how she talked to me.  I forgave her.  The Spirit did this. I'll take something back.  I have confronted her before and it worked...

Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.   John 12:31 NASB We've been waiting 2000 years for the end of this world, not realizing it already happened.  At least I didn't realize it until I read Jesus' words recorded in John 12:31.  I didn't realize that Jesus' death was the judgment of this world.  I didn't realize that Satan was cast out by the crucifixion of Christ.  Now I know.  Now you do too. But what does it mean?  By the Spirit in me (and in you who believe in Christ,) I believe it means that Jesus' death was the death of the old world, the world of Adam's descendants, the world ruled by Satan.  I believe when Jesus died, he took all of us with him, and in doing so, he freed us from slavery.  After all, when a slave dies, he or she is free.  The master can't command and whip a corpse.  And if the corpse rises, then there will be hell to pay for the former master!  The slave lite...

Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am my servant also will be.  My father will honor the one who serves me.  John 12:26 NIV Jesus gave one command to his disciples when he began his ministry:  Follow me.  That was it.  They were to go where he led them to go.  They were to go wherever he went.  He led.  They followed.  That made them his disciples.  They didn't vote on where they would go or what they would do.  They didn't determine their destination.  Sometimes they just went with him and listened to him preach and teach.  Sometimes they just went with him and watched him heal and cast out demons.  Later in Jesus' ministry he gave them authority to preach, heal, and cast out demons.  But first, he called them to simply be with him.  You and I who believe in him have the same calling: Follow the Spirit of Jesus. The Apostle Paul said, "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the ...