Sunday, May 27, 2012

Shalom,


I am going to share today's devotional from "My Utmost For His Highest" by Oswald Chambers in it's entirety today because it is so good!

The disciples had to tarry, staying in Jerusalem until the day of Pentecost, not only for their own preparation but because they had to wait until the Lord was actually glorified. And as soon as He was glorified, what happened? “Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear” (Acts 2:33). The statement in John 7:39 — “. . . for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified”— does not pertain to us. The Holy Spirit has been given; the Lord is glorified— our waiting is not dependent on the providence of God, but on our own spiritual fitness.
The Holy Spirit’s influence and power were at work before Pentecost, but He was not here. Once our Lord was glorified in His ascension, the Holy Spirit came into the world, and He has been here ever since. We have to receive the revealed truth that He is here. The attitude of receiving and welcoming the Holy Spirit into our lives is to be the continual attitude of a believer. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive reviving life from our ascended Lord.
It is not the baptism of the Holy Spirit that changes people, but the power of the ascended Christ coming into their lives through the Holy Spirit. We all too often separate things that the New Testament never separates. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not an experience apart from Jesus Christ— it is the evidence of the ascended Christ.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit does not make you think of time or eternity— it is one amazing glorious now. “This is eternal life, that they may know You . . .” (John 17:3). Begin to know Him now, and never finish.
Everything that the Holy Spirit was sent into the earth to do, He is STILL doing today! The gifts of the Spirit are as necessary today as they have ever been! As long as we are still on this earth, living in these earthly bodies, we NEED the supernatural manifestation of the Holy Spirit in every area of our lives! It is only when "that which is perfect" comes, and THAT would be JESUS, that we will no longer need this precious and very valuable Gift! If YOU have never been filled with the Spirit, check out more about this on our website (link at the left) and then prayer THIS prayer:


Father, I am Your child. I desire to be filled with Holy Spirit and speak with other tongues as the Holy Spirit gives me the utterance. By faith, I receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit. As I lift my hands to praise You, I fully expect to speak in my heavenly prayer language. Amen.


Here is Hillsong with "Church On Fire". Let's BE THAT!




Shalom in Him!