Love suffers long

Sermon in series on the fruit of Holy Spirit, “the school of neighbourly virtues”

Clevedon Baptist Church,  – May 5/2012

In this series we have been looking at the fruit of the Holy Spirit, listed in Paul’s letter to the Galatians chapter 5 and verse 22-23. As it says in the New Living Translation,

“²²But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self control”

Or if I read these verses from the New King James version

“²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, self-control”.

It is always a good idea to have a few English translations at hand to get a feel for how different translators translate the original Greek and Hebrew text of the scriptures. And we are very blessed to have so many English translations.

In our series so far we have considered, Love, Joy and peace. So today we shall dwell on the “neighbourly virtue” of patience or the New King James version says longsuffering.

But before we consider longsuffering it would be good for us to go back to the beginning and consider the idea of fruit again. Why does the apostle Paul use this term fruit and not gift or blessing? The terms gift and blessing remind us of the things we have. But Paul uses to word fruit to talk more about who we are rather than what we have. The context of Galatians 5 is all about the way we live, our lifestyle, our choices, and manner of being. This work of the Holy Spirit is the processes of sanctification; that is becoming more like Jesus. There are many thoughts that come with this picture of fruit.

Firstly, think on this: good fruit is generally sweet, tasty and pleasant. And is this not what Paul is staying, one the one hand you have the way of the world that is listed in verse 19-21 and one the other the way of the Spirit listed in verse 22-23. The ways of the world could be summarised like this: not trusting God, serving yourself first and not caring about others.  Paul is saying this way is not the way to go; this life is not the life to have, this way leads to misery, death and judgement. It is like rotten fruit that is ultimately not sweet, not tasty and not pleasant even though it may appear pleasant for a while. However, God’s way will ultimately be sweet, satisfying and fulfilling.   

The second thing about fruit is that is takes time to grow. We do not see a tree with no fruit one day and then on the very next day full of ripened fruit. No, bearing, growing fruit is a process that takes time. The heart of the Christian life is this process. We must faithfully and patiently let the Holy Spirit grow the heart of Jesus within us and among us. So that we may be the love of Jesus to those we meet. And this growing is done through the up and downs of life. It is through all the seasons of life that this work of the Holy Spirit occurs. For there is a time for growing and there is a time for preparing to grow. Without the preparation of winter the growth of spring will not occur. God does much of His great work when it looks as if nothing is happening and all hope of new growth is lost.

Trust Him. Open your eyes of faith to see that God is always at work in your life. In every season and situation, in every struggle and trial our Father who is in Heaven will find some way to bring you good.

For “²⁸ we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them”. [Romans 8:28]

The final thing about this picture of fruit is that it grows from another. Not from your own strength does this fruit grow, no. It grows by the strength of another. Without the tree the branch withers, and without the branch the fruit cannot grow. Jesus, reminded us of this is John’s Gospel chapter 15:5-8

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

Apart from me, Jesus says, you can do nothing. Jesus says to us we can, on our own, do nothing of eternal consequence, nothing to help the Church, nothing to grow the nature of Jesus in our hearts, nothing to change ourselves. He goes on to say

⁶Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. ⁷But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! ⁸When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father. ⁹I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.  

The simple message of fruit is that it can only grow in our lives if we remain connected to God and His word. This is the gospel, the eternal and changeless gospel. The Apostle James encourages us to

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” [James 4:8, NKJV]

 

And be Paul reminds us that we should be

“confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;” [Phil 1:6, NKJV]

So let us never lose heart and give up. God has done, is doing and will continue to do His part; for His love for us will never fail [1 Corinthians 13:8]. So we should do our part and remain connected to Him. Let His words remain in our hearts and minds: trust truly, hope truly and love truly.    

Now let us reflect and meditate on the fruit that is patience and longsuffering.

Longsuffering is the hallmark of Christian love. It distinguishes Christian love from the other kinds of love that found in the world. It is a shame that English only has one word for Love in all its different forms. New Testament Greek has four words for love.

The first Éros (ἔρως)  is the passionate love, with sexual desire and longing. This love has its place within marriage, between a man and woman. Philia (φιλία) is a mutually supportive love between friends. Storge (στοργή) is the affection felt by parents for their children.

While all these three can be good in the right setting, we get something back by this kind of loving, some pleasure, some affection, and some personal support. But a different word is used for Christian love in the New Testament - the Greek word for Christian love is Agápe (ἀγάπη). This is an unconditional love, a love that does not get anything back from the person whom you love! It is selfless; it considers first the needs of the other and not our own.

And this is the love is mostly mentioned by Jesus, read John 15

⁹I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.  …   ¹²“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. ¹³“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

Christian love is nonsensical, to the world. It is a love that does not get anything back. It is all about self sacrifice, laying down your life for the sake of others. Now is this not hard? And how can you learn to love this way without understanding the way of patience, humility and longsuffering? It is possible to circumvent this path, this way of the cross, to understand and practise Christian love truly?

You see the character of God, in the people of God, is grown through hard times, suffering and self sacrifice. Not only is Christian love the capstone virtue, it is the way by which we learn and grow all fruit, all the virtues listed in Galatians 5.

We are all called to acts of kindness, goodness, faithfulness and gentleness. This is costly; we are called to love those who do not care to love us.

This must be especially true in the church, for if we cannot love our brother and sisters in Christ how can we truly love those who are not Christians and those who may even be our enemies? If a suggestion is made for some change in our church what is our reaction? Do we first think about how it will affect us? Do we say to ourselves “I have a nice oasis away from the struggles of life here in the church and please don’t ask me to change what I am doing” Do we focus only on our own needs and wants or do we love, with Christian love? Do we seek the good of others first and foremost? This is the heart of the problem with our modern churches, with us. We accept Christ's sacrifice on the cross but we are reluctant to follow too closely the way of the cross, the way of Love.

Jesus told us that it is “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” [John 13:35]. Now this love that Jesus was talking about was not the love of friends, a love that gets something back! No, it was the self-sacrificial kind of love; Christian love. You see when people who are not believers see this kind of love in the Church they will notice something wonderfully nonsensical is happing among us. This is our true Christian witness. This is how some parts of the Church shine more brightly than others. It is not through sound doctrine or large congregations or even wonderfully worship services, but through sacrificial love expressed one to another in the fellowship. And I believe that this can only be done with the help of God.   

So, it is in laying aside our own agendas for the greater calling from above that the Spirit of God grows the fruit of God in us and among us. As a church are we prepared to do this? As individuals are we prepared and willing to do this? For as Paul says to us

⁴Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; ⁵does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; ⁷bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ⁸Love never fails. [NKJV, 1 Corithians 13:4-8]

Can you hear the words of the Spirit through Paul: Love suffers long, is not self seeking, bearing the failings of others, enduring the state of the church. This is not some fluffy, cuddly love. It is gritty and hard. It is steadfast, realistic and genuine. Is this not difficult? Does this not require some braking of our natural pride? May it not also result in heart ache and suffering? Who then is up to such a challenge? Who among us can live such a life? CS Lewis, in his wonderfully way, put the case to us

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

 ― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

To love is to be vulnerable and so to love is being more open to the possibility of suffering because there is evil in this world. As Christians we must not shy away for this calling to love – for it is the only way that leads to life. Remember, we continue in this way because we trust God has a plan for Good here and His plan will not fail.

The scriptures are littered with examples of those who patiently suffered for the sake of trusting God. I could mention patriarch Job who was struck down for season with almost soul destroying set of circumstances. I could mention Joseph who was betrayed by his own brothers sold into slavery to eventual be thrown into a wretched dungeon for many years. I could mention the prophet Elijah who had to suffer a complete collapse of faith amongst the people of God when they started to follow false gods. I could mention the prophet Isaiah struggles with evil despotic kings, or the prophet Jeremiah who was cast into a cesspit by his own people for speaking out the word of God.

If you believe that the Christian life is easy open up your bibles and read. But God can use hard times help to focus our attention on our utter need for Him. The spiritual preacher Oswald Chambers remarked

Of course “we all know people who have been made much meaner and more irritable and more intolerable to live with by suffering: it is not right to say that all suffering perfects. It only perfects one type of person ...... the one who accepts the call of God in Christ Jesus.” - Oswald Chambers

The character of God, in the people of God, is grown through hard times and suffering if we do not turn away from Him. CS Lewis again put it like this

For it when a Christian has known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. Then they have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” 

Beautiful people do not just happen they are grown through a life of trusting Jesus. The Apostle Paul summarised this process of growing the character of Jesus in our hearts in the book of Romans 5

¹Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. ³Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

The Apostle Paul knew a thing or two about longsuffering, just read the second letter to the Corinthians; He was beaten, flogged, thrown in prison, shipwrecked, betrayed by some of his closest friends, had people in his churches say he was not a good enough preacher, had people in his churches say he was not spiritual enough – and this is the Apostle Paul here! At one point he even despaired of live itself [2 Corinthians 1:8]. He was struck down with some affliction, we know not what, that he called a “thorn in the flesh”. He begged God, on three occasions, to remove it but the Lord said “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” [2 cor 12:9]. God’s power is most truly revealed in our lives when we understand that his presence, his grace is all we need.

The Holocaust survivor Corrie Ten Boom, who lost her father and sister to the concentration camps, put it like this

You may never know that Jesus is all you need, until Jesus is all you have. - Corrie Ten Boom 

Paul knew this, He knew that that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope.

This is sanctification: the process of growing more Christ-like. It is founded on trust in Jesus but it is a life long journey of remaining close to Jesus through all life’s ups and downs. The fruit of the Holy Spirit are the signs of a growing Christ-like heart and mind. And Paul reminds us also at the end of that passage in Romans 5

God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us  

This last verse is the key to what we must do. It’s not about effort, knuckling down to try and develop more patience. Impatiently saying to yourself ‘I really need to develop more patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control!’ I’m not sure it’s ever about effort and self will. You cannot make yourself holy or good. You cannot grow the fruit yourself. God grows the fruit when we remain connected and obedient. You see, you can let Him fill your heart with His overwhelming love. In doing so you will understand that He is all you need, that His grace is sufficient for you in every circumstance. For it is only when we allow God to fill us with his love, that we will understand what we must do, how we must live our lives.

I pray that we learn to do this more in this place. Let us welcome God’s love shed abroad in our Hearts by receiving afresh the Holy Spirit of God. Let us not fear suffering rather let us draw close to Him as he draws close to us. May the mercy and peace of God keep us safe during all life’s trials – I pray. 

Be filled with the Holy Spirit

First Sermon in series on the Holy Spirit, Clevedon Baptist Church,  – April 15/2012

We start a new series today on the Holy Spirit and what a challenge this is for us - to understand more fully the person and the work of the Holy Spirit, is the most vital thing for our church today. This is because the Holy Spirit is God Himself. Let us humbly confess that God is infinite and we know Him in only in part. But let us not fool ourselves, this part is very much smaller than it should be because of our sins - or in plain language our lack of commitment to Him, our complacency, and our fear.

The works of the Holy Spirit are the actions of God, and His plans are the will of God for us as individuals and for our church.

The Holy Spirit is person who convicts the world of sin[1]. He shows us our utter need for God. If we say ‘yes’ to the prompting of The Holy Spirit then He will breath into us a new life. Since God is Spirit we must be spiritually alive before we can know him, as Jesus says to us we must be born anew[2].

The Holy Spirit brings us assurance. He helps us feel in our hearts[3] that we truly are God’s children, forgiven, accepted and loved[4]. He can and does bring healing[5], healing of heart and minds, healing of broken and damage relationships, and sometimes healing of our bodies. He is our helper and Guide in the Christian life, the source of all transformation. He helps us to become more like Jesus – although this work is never complete before we see Him face to face. 

The Holy Spirit continues to teach us deep truths about God if we will listen.  He increases our understanding of the Holy Scriptures; and this understanding is not just some intellectual activity. This is the mistake the Pharisees made. You cannot understand scripture without experiencing the love of God in your hearts. The more you experience this love the more you will understand what God’s word means.

The Holy Spirit enables us to worship God, in spirit and in truth, intimately, reverently and lovingly. True worshiper is what God is looking for not a people just singing a bunch of songs without feeling or understanding anything.

And most importantly, the Holy Spirit is the power of God in his Church. Without this power, this wonder working power, this power shown throughout the book of Acts and the New Testament, our witness is lifeless and will be without much fruit. In our thinking let us not put limits on God. Let us not interpret God’s word through our shallow experiences and understanding. Let us not say, I have not experienced this therefore scripture doesn’t apply to me now! If you think this, you are on very doggy ground with this argument. No, God’s word does not change, and his ways do not change. Let us seek God, return to God and ask God for more of this power of the Holy Spirit – for with this power I just wonder what things are possible.

So you see the Holy Spirit is not some optional extra. He is not something added, once every generation, to make a deluxe type Christian[6]. He is an absolute necessity. He is vital and essential for He is truly God among us and within us.

If you are truly a Christian then you must know something of the Holy Spirit within you. The Apostle Paul makes it plain when he says

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved”. (Roman 10:9) (NLT) And “no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit”. (1 Corinthians 12:3) (NLT)

And listen to the words of Jesus in John 14 (NKJV)

“I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— ¹⁷the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you”.

Note that the Holy Spirit is another helper, or as it says in other translations, a counsellor, an advocate, a comforter and an encourager. He is another one, just like Jesus, and like Jesus He is fully and truly God. The Holy Spirit is a person, not an impersonal thing, action or force! And if we are Christians He dwells among us and within us. I think scripture is plain on this point.

We are living in challenging times – but maybe this is always true for God’s people. In every age, in every generation the baton of faith is passed and it is our turn to run the race, to live the life that God would have us live, the life of faith and hope and love. Our Lord Jesus said to us this: “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows, but take heart because I have overcome the world”[7].

Today, the challenges to our faith are real, for we live in a secular, atheistic society that seems to neither know nor care about what we do in our churches. We must not detach ourselves from the society in which we live because Jesus wants us to remain as a light to the world[8]. But by in remaining in the world the danger is that we do not go on being transformed by the Holy Spirit of God and that we become conformed to the patterns of this world.

The apostle Paul puts it like this “Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect”[9]. Therefore “ .. letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.”[10]

So this is the heart of the challenge for us today. Are we to be conformed the patterns found in the society around us or are we to be transformed by the Holy Spirit of God to live the life that Jesus would have us live?

In his book Discipleship, David Watson (1981), said this

‘the mood in our affluent modern society is that of apathy, cynicism, frustration, alienation and increasing hopelessness. In our spiritually bankrupt generation people are looking not for religion but for reality. .. Unless God is manifest in our midst people have little time for the Church. Unless we become the living, loving, caring body of Christ on earth why should anyone believe in the saviour? The call of Jesus to his disciples was absolute: they had to deny themselves, take up the cross and follow him – no turning back.’.

We, as a people here, are not just some club or society meeting together for our own pleasure. We are called and chosen to be the people of the living God. We believe and trust in the almighty, eternal, creator God. Even though we are just like simple clay pots[11] we have this precious presence, among us and within us, that world does not understand. We have a connection with the eternal, this knowledge of the infinite, this hope, this faith, this trust in the way of Love. We do not need to copy the world’s ways, no. We need to redeem of our own true calling – the ways of the living, creator, God. We need, like that prodigal son, to return, repent, and reconnect with our Lord.

In the Letter to the Ephesians chapter 5, Paul puts it like this,

“¹⁵So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. ¹⁶Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. ¹⁷Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. ¹⁸Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit” (NLT)

Be filled with the Holy Spirit, literally in the Greek, a present command.  This is not a one time event - go on and on being filled with the Holy Spirit. Yes, we have the Holy Spirit within us as Christians but the scripture also says that we can put out the fire of the Holy Spirit, Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:19 “Do not quench the Spirit”. If our brother or sister has some insight or blessing or prophecy from God, let us encourage them as they try and encourage us. Let us not try and put out their fire for God because of our own fears. In Ephesians 4:30 Paul warns us not to fall into habitual sin, “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God”. Let speak the truth, one to another, in a loving way. Let us try speaking words that are helpful not harmful. Both, a lack of truth telling and a lack of love in our words grieve the Holy Spirit. Superficial politeness is not godly. If it masks an uncaring and un-reconciled heart, it grieves God. For God requires that our love for one another is honest. If we are completely alienated from God we read in Acts 7:51 that it is possible to “resist the Holy Spirit”. Please never do this!

You see, for some of us, at some periods of our lives, do not walk forwards. We lose our way; we step backwards from a deep commitment to God. You see living the Christian life is not easy; it is not easy and God understands this. We are not people who are naturally attuned to the way of love, self-sacrifice and putting other people first. We are born in a world that seeks to pull us towards its own ways.

So to avoid these dangers, we must “be filled with the Spirit”, for “the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness” as it says in Roman 8:26. We must go on and on drawing close to God – continually listening to the Spirit in prayer, continually learning from the Spirit through the scriptures, continually walking and living in the Spirit in our actions.   

There is much to learn of the works of the Holy Spirit and this sermon is only the first in our series.

  

Now let us consider the text from John’s Gospel chapter 20. What a week the disciples had been through, they had witnessed the highs of Palm Sunday and the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. It almost seemed that all the Jewish people and the whole world were going to accept Jesus as the Messiah. And then that Friday, oh no they must have thought, it was too terrible to remember. All their fears were realised and their hopes crushed. You see our faith, this mere Christianity, is always present in the darkest and most bleak settings – when it seems as if there is no hope, no faith, no love, when everything is lost, the miraculous God turns up. Our faith in Jesus is real and honest and true, so it does not seek to avoid unpleasant times, times of despair and death – no, God has a way of bringing life out of even death - for nothing is impossible with God. On that Sunday morning, what hope was there left for the disciples? None, yet Jesus rose from the dead, and came back to life. – Hallelujah.

It was Mary that saw him on that first morning, and let those who question the role of women in his Church meditate on this fact. It was to a woman, Mary Magdalene, that Jesus appeared first after the resurrection. And it was to this Mary that Jesus gave the first commission to speak, to tell, to proclaim His resurrection and ascension. This is the same Mary who at one time was so complete messed up in her mind and heart and spirit that she was possessed by seven demons! Does this not tell us something of the way God works? As Isaiah reminds us “’.. my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD”. (Isaiah 55:8)

The disciples listen to the testimony of Mary but presumably they could not fully accept it as they were still bound by fear. Listen now as I read from John’s Gospel.    

¹⁹On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”

Our God is a God of peace, a deep, abiding, heartfelt rest and comfort. Jesus says to those disciples “chill – it’s ok” - “be at peace I understand your weaknesses and failures and we are at peace because I forgive everything. Jesus knew all they needed was this “shalom” – this peace and forgiveness of God. Is this not true for us also?  If you have fears and troubles let the peace of God comfort your heart today. And when you know this comfort bring this comfort to others – let us learn to say one to another “Peace be with you”

 ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. ²¹Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” ²²And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  ²³If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

The word I want us to dwell on here is “breathed”. The Greek word (emphysáō) used for ‘breathed’ is the same word used in the most ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament. Listen to Genesis 2:7 which reads “the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed (Hebrew: Ruach) into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7).

God forms man’s body out of the dust, and it’s a body with no life until he breathes into it. Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones put like this

‘Jesus had finished his work and presented himself and his blood in heaven, and is now head of the church and he come to these disciples and apostles to make it clear to them that they are his body. He breathes his Spirit of life in the body, in this extraordinary parallel with what happen in man’s creation at the very beginning’

The breath of God brought life, literally creating mankind. Now Jesus breathes on his disciples saying “receive the Holy Spirit” and this was also an ‘act of creation’. I believe this ‘act of creation’ is the beginning of the Church. The commission of the church is given in the following verses 21 and 23 “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you ..  ²³If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

As His church we are sent to preach peace and forgiveness, literally to declare the facts that God. This is our primary message. ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:16). Because of Jesus death on the cross all our sins can be forgiven. He exchanged places with us, he took everything that we have done wrong and its punishment in his death on the cross. We have this sweet exchange, he died for us that we might know peace and forgiveness. Because of His resurrection we know this is true. Those who confess, repent and believe that Jesus rose from the death shall not perish but find life eternal, an abundant and full life.

This is the message of reconciliation that we have as Christians. It is the power of God. It is the way of love, we have this great commission from Jesus to proclaim that we can be reconciled to our loving Father God and that we can also be reconciled one to another. Let us learn and re-learn the way of peace and forgiveness.

The ‘breath of God’ was a one time event. We are born again only once, the church began only once. But the work of the Holy Spirit is not just with beginnings, remember Pentecost, Acts chapter 4 and rest of the New Testament. He is with us for the whole journey of faith[12]. Let us not “quench” his work in our lives or his church, let us not “grieve” him, pray God let us never “resist” him. But rather let recommit our ways to him, let us let go of our complacency and fear and “be filled” afresh day by day with the Holy Spirit of God – that the glory and love of God may be more fully know to us and to the world. –Amen

Ask and you shall receive, come to Christ Jesus, believe, repent and be filled with His Holy Spirit of Peace and forgiveness.

 

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[1] John 16:8

[2] John 3:7

[3] Romans 5:5

[4] Romans 8:14-17

[5] 1 Corinthians 12:8-10

[6] A W Tozer

[7] John 16:33

[8] John 17:15

[9] Romans 12:2

[10] Romans 8:6

[11] 2 Corinthians 4:7

[12] Philippians 1:6