One of the things that I’ve noticed is that I don’t have the strength, or the power in my own right to live the life that God wants me to.  Have you noticed that too?  We try … and we fail.  What we need, is power.  Power from high.  Fortunately that’s exactly what Jesus has in mind.

Today we’re continuing this series of messages called ‘Walking In The Spirit’. You know I often think about this, it’s kind of strange to me how God has set things up. He Himself is Spirit, we can’t see Him or touch Him or hear Him here in the physical dimension where we live.

Now of course at one time in history He stepped into the physical dimension when Jesus came and dwelt among men but that was two thousand and something years ago. And whilst we can read about Jesus and who He is and what He has to say and what He does, we can’t experience God in the physical dimension in the same way as those people did back then in the first century. So now we have something of a dilemma.

God lives in a dimension that’s spiritual and you and I, we live in a dimension that’s physical. How do we communicate with God? How do we know not just about Him but how do we know Him? How can we have a relationship with Him? Well fortunately that’s something that God thought about. And to do that He sent His Holy Spirit, one of the three persons of the God Head, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, He sent His Spirit to dwell in us.

You see, this problem happened the moment Jesus was set to depart from this world, the physical God departing leaving what? Well fortunately leaving behind the Holy Spirit. And this is the promise that Jesus made to His disciples, the ones who were to become the Apostles who would spread His good news throughout the known world. John chapter 14 beginning at verse 15. He said:

If you love me you will keep my commandments and I will ask the Father and he will give you another advocate to be with you forever. This is the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him or knows him but you know him because he abides with you and he will be in you.

So Jesus promised to send His Holy Spirit to those who believed in Him with their lives. And in fact in those final days and hours before He was crucified this is something He promised over and over again. That through the Spirit of God the Father and the Son would come and make their home in us. Now you and I we have a body, we have a soul, our mind, our will, our emotions and deep down we have a spirit, it’s at this level that the Holy Spirit connects with us.

So after Jesus had risen again and just before He ascends into heaven and leaves His disciples behind, He gives them this instruction. Acts chapter 1 verses 4 and 5:

He ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there for the promise of the Father. This he said is what you have heard from me for John baptised with water but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

Now the disciples, as it turned out, thought that this was fine but that wasn’t the most important thing to them. You see, Jesus was their Messiah and to the Jew in the first century that meant something like the warrior King David of old to boot the occupying Romans out of Israel, to restore the kingdom of Israel. The disciples, despite three and a half years with Jesus, were more interested in what was going to happen in the physical dimension of their lives instead of the spiritual dimension. I wonder, does that remind you of anyone you know?

Have a listen to the exchange between them and Jesus about their physical concerns on the one hand and the spiritual priorities of Jesus on the other. Acts chapter 1 beginning at verse 6:

So when they’d come together they asked him, ‘Lord is this the time when you’ll restore the kingdom of Israel?’ And he replied to them, ‘It’s not for you to know the times and the periods the Father has set by his own authority but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in all Judea and Samaria and even to the ends of the earth. When he had said this as they were watching he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight.

Do you see that? They’re interested in perhaps the most important thing from their perspectives, so um when’s God going to finally restore the kingdom of Israel? And Jesus completely brushes that off because He didn’t come to restore the kingdom of Israel, He came to usher in the Kingdom of God and that’s spiritual not physical. Again have a listen to what Jesus said earlier on this subject. Luke chapter 17, verses 20 and 21:

Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees, ‘When is the Kingdom of God going to come?’ And he answered, ‘The Kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed nor will they say here it is or there it is for in fact the Kingdom of God is among you.

Now Jesus in the very last thing that He said to His disciples before He left them and ascended to heaven was the fact that He wasn’t so much interested in the physical dimension, His priority for them, these men who would go on to found the Church, His real concern is that they should have spiritual power, the power of God in them.

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and even onto the ends of the earth.

Why is that? Why was this Jesus greatest concern? Because He knew that without the power of God, without the witness and the communication and encouragement and guidance and truth of the Holy Spirit these men simply would not be able to do the things that they were called to do.

If you read the Book of Acts of the Apostles, which in my view should really be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles, what you see is that these men came across horrendous opposition. They were called on to do mighty things and many of those things were miraculous. They went way beyond the ability of these eleven men and Jesus knew that if these men had power from on high, if they were filled with the Holy Spirit of God they could do whatever God needed them to do and then some.

And friend that’s how it with us. We kind of think sometimes that it’s all up to us and our gifts and our abilities and our hard work. Hey, I’m not knocking any of that but even as I sit here and share the things of God with you I know, I know beyond any shadow of any doubt that I could not do what I’m doing if it weren’t for the power of the Holy Spirit.

Part of walking in the spirit is being filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit so that we have the power to do what God has called us to do. The power to resist the evil one, the power to overcome temptations, the power to love those who abuse us, the power to die to self, the power to take up our cross and follow Jesus every day. Friend those things take power. They take power that is way beyond any of us and it’s for this reason that God has sent His Spirit to dwell in us.

Now tomorrow we’re going to see how the Spirit of God, even before He came upon these men in power, guided them in the physical dimension and that’s the exciting thing. The spiritual and the physical dimensions aren’t two separate things. As the Holy Spirit dwells in us He gives us the guidance and the power that we need to operate for Gods glory in this physical world in which you and I live. That’s the exciting bit.

But let me encourage you to open your heart and your soul and your spirit to the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit. He would come and dwell in each man and woman and child who has set their trust and their faith in Jesus Christ the Son of God. He would come and clean us out from the inside. He would come and fill us with power and transform our lives so that we may be the vessels clean, pure and holy that shine the light and the glory of God into a lost and hurting world. That is Gods plan for each person who believes in Jesus.

Sometimes what we need from God is some practical guidance.  There’s a fork in the road – do I go right, or do I go left.  Of course the first place to look is in God’s Word.  That’s the absolute authority.  Absolutely.  But, you know, God is a creative communicator. Sometimes he speaks to us in ways we don’t expect.

Walking in the Spirit, that’s what we’ve been chatting about over the last couple of weeks and it’s an interesting concept that walking in the Spirit. Where does it come from? Well, Gods Word of course. The Apostle Paul writing to the Church in Rome, chapter 8 of his letter, this is what he had to say. Romans chapter 8, verse 5:

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit.

The original Greek word incidentally says, ‘for those who are after or chase after things of the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit’. So sometimes this is translated as ‘walking in the spirit’ or in this case ‘living according to the spirit’. It’s about how we live our lives step by step.

Do we walk day by day … do we live our lives according to our selfish, personal desires? That’s what Paul’s talking about when he talks about the flesh. Or do we walk each day by having our hearts set on what the Holy Spirit desires, what Gods will is for our lives? That’s the question here.

So how can we know what the Holy Spirit wants to do? How can we seek Him out and discover Gods good and perfect will for our lives? That’s what we’re going to look at today on the program but if you’ll pardon me for saying so, it’s from something of a different perspective.

Now just before Jesus ascended into heaven He gave His disciples a very specific instruction, the last thing He said to them before He left them. Acts chapter 1 beginning at verse 6:

So when they’d come together they asked him, ‘Lord is this the time when you’ll restore the kingdom of Israel?’ He replied, ‘It’s not for you to know the times or the periods that the Father has set by his own authority but you will receive a power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and even to the ends of the earth.’ When he had said this as they were watching he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight.

So there they were over the coming days waiting in Jerusalem just as Jesus had told them to do, to tarry in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came upon them in power. So it occurred to them that they were down to eleven disciples. And as a result of the ignominious exit of Judas Iscariot who of course betrayed Jesus and they had to do something about that. So here is what they did as they were waiting to receive the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s a fantastic story. Acts chapter 1 beginning at verse 15:

In those days Peter the Apostle stood up among the believers together with a crowd numbered about one hundred and twenty persons and said, ‘Friends the scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share of the ministry.

Now this man acquired a field (that’s Judas) with the reward of his wickedness and falling head long he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. This became known to all the residents of Jerusalem so that the field was called in their language Hakeldama, that is the field of blood.

For it is written in the Book of Psalms, ‘Let his homestead become desolate and let there be no one to live in it and let another take his position of overseer’. So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection.’

So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justas, and Matthias. Then they prayed and said, ‘Lord you know everyone’s heart, show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in the ministry an apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.’ And they cast lots for them and the lot fell upon Matthias and he was added to the eleven disciples.

Can I tell you something? This is a passage of Scripture that I have struggled with for a long time because me, I’ve always been taught that if I want to know Gods will, well the place to discover that is in God’s Word, the Bible and that’s true. You’ll see that they actually went back to the psalms and saw that they had to appoint someone else but the Bible didn’t tell them the specific thing of who they had to appoint.

And many is the time when I’ve been facing a particular challenge or dilemma and surprise, surprise in the very next chapter of whatever Book in the Bible I happen to be reading at that time in the very next bit something leaps out at me and the Holy Spirit speaks to me and I just know what God wants me to do. I’m sure if you believe in Jesus and you are someone who listens to Him in His Word that’s something that’s happened to you on more than one occasion because God in fact speaks to us first and foremost through His Word.

But that’s not always the way He does things and right here smack bang in the middle of Gods Word the eleven Apostles, the guys who’d spent three and a half years at the Jesus school of discipleship, the best theological seminary anyone will ever go to, these guys choose to understand Gods will, to discern Gods will by casting lots.

How did they quite do that? Well we don’t know, maybe someone flipped a coin, heads Joseph wins, tails Matthias wins and hey presto it came up tails so Matthias became Apostle number twelve. Now friend doesn’t that strike you as just a bit odd? I mean why didn’t they go to the Scriptures? What we now call the Old Testament, of course the New Testament hadn’t been written back then. They flipped a coin to make one of the most important decisions in the history of the Church. A coin, give me a break.

Why didn’t they take a vote among the hundred and twenty or so of the Jesus followers who were in the room that time? Why didn’t they have the remaining eleven Apostles vote? That’s probably what most Churches would do these days. No, no, they cast lots.

Well doesn’t that just take the cake? What God’s trying to say to us through this because all Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness (2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16). Well here’s what this Scripture’s done for me. It’s opened my mind to the creativity of the Holy Spirit in speaking to me.

I remember being convicted of sin one day when I was watching a family movie. God spoke so powerfully to me through what one character was doing, it’s like He held a mirror up to my face and said, ‘look, that’s you’. And over the years I’ve discovered that the Spirit nudges us and guides us and encourages us and convicts us in so many different ways.

I’m doing what I’m doing now, sharing the love of Christ with so many people across the globe because one man came to me at a conference and spoke some words to me and without any shadow of a doubt I know that I know that I know that God was speaking to me through this humble gentleman.

Is the Bible my absolute authority for the truth? Absolutely. Do I need to discern experiences and things people say to me and impressions I have from this or that? For sure. Test all things the Bible says but friend as we journey along our path, walking in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is with us every moment of every day He is with us and if we’ll open our hearts and our minds and our eyes and our ears to Him He will speak to us.

Sometimes in life I though I heard something from Him and perhaps I got it wrong but Jesus was right, little by little His sheep come to know His voice. Am I suggesting we discern Gods will by flipping a coin? Probably not but hey it’s in the Bible so the last thing I’m going to do is tell God what I think is appropriate and what’s not. You see God is a creative, edgy communicator.

When God first poured His Holy Spirit out on the believers on that day of Pentecost, it was one spectacular outpouring.  Question is – does He still do that today?  How do we know if we’re filled with the Spirit?  There are so many different views – question is “What’s God’s plan?”

Last week and again this week on the program we’ve been talking about what it means to walk in the Spirit. And yesterday we saw that God gives us practical advice on what His will is sometimes in the most remarkable of ways. Like the time they had to pick the twelfth Apostle after losing Judas Iscariot along the way.

So they proposed two Joseph called Barsabbas who was also known as Justus and Matthias. Then they prayed and said, ‘Lord you know everyone’s heart, show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry an apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place’.

And so they cast lots for them and the lot fell on Matthias and he was added to the eleven Apostles. So there it is, they prayed and then they flipped a coin as it were and it’s right out there when it comes to the Holy Spirit leading us and guiding us. And today I’d like to spend some time sharing with you the story of when, just as Jesus promised, the Holy Spirit was first poured out on the believers.

Again can I say in our experience, especially can I say for those who like me have something of a conventional, spiritually narrow, western mind set, this is pretty way out there too? So join me as we have a listen to what God is up to on this day of Pentecost:

When the day of Pentecost had come they were all together in one place and suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues as of fire appeared among them and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the spirit gave them ability.

There were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem and at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans and how is it we hear, each of us, in our own native language?’

Parthians, Medes, Elamites and the residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome both Jews and Proselytes, Cretans, Arabs, in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”

All were amazed and perplexed saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They’re filled with new wine’. But Peter standing with the eleven raised his voice and addressed them. ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem let this be known to you and listen to what I say. Indeed these men are not drunk as you suppose for it is only 9 o’clock in the morning. 

‘No, this is what was spoken of through the Prophet Joel in the last days it will be, God declares that I will pour my spirit out on all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams.

‘Even upon my slaves both men and women, in those days I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy and I will show portents in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the Lords great and glorious day then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

Now that’s quite an event isn’t it? I mean I don’t know about you but it’s never happened quite that way in my life. Now I’ve had a few powerful encounters with the Holy Spirit but nothing ever quite like what happened on that first Pentecost. A powerful sound like a rushing wind and then these flames of fire resting on everyone and all of them, all of them speaking in foreign languages.

All the different nationalities that were there could understand the good news of Jesus in their own native tongue and of course the first thing, the very first thing that happens when God does something powerful, unusual and surprising like this is that everyone else has to poke fun, to criticise what’s going on. Ha they must be drunk. Well sorry buddy, I know they perhaps look intoxicated but they’re all Galileans speaking in different languages. Being drunk doesn’t explain that does it?

So what do we do with this? Well Peter the Apostle gets up to explain what’s going on. He explains to the Jews assembled that, hey this is exactly what God promises in the Old Testament, that all these powerful things would happen. And in fact if you were to read on you’d discover that after he finished speaking many of those who were there gave their lives to Christ. Many of the very same people who were there only weeks before crying out to Pontius Pilate about Jesus, ‘Crucify Him’. There’s a clashing between the conventional – what normally happens in the physical dimension, and the spiritual – the super natural. And it was a surprise to everyone.

If you’ve been around the Church for any length of time you’ll know that there are some who say, ‘Okay, what happened there on the day of Pentecost, well you know what, it doesn’t happen today. It was a one off for way back then. It was the first time that God poured His Spirit out. Fair enough, He did some really powerful things.’

And there are some others of the so called Charismatic and Pentecostal persuasion who claim that God is still doing mighty powerful things just like what happened on Pentecost here and now today. What do you make of it?

One of my favourite lecturers at Bible College was also the president of the College. He’s a Pentecostal scholar with a couple of PhD’s to his name, his name is Barry Chant. Barry had been around for quite a while and he said to me once that he’d seen many stupidities committed in the name of the Spirit of wisdom and truth, many more than he’d care ever to remember and yet he was utterly convinced he’d seen with his own eyes the power that’s released when the Holy Spirit falls on people.

God’s Word is clear; if we don’t have the Spirit of Christ in us then we don’t belong to Him (Romans chapter 8 verse 9). And yet at the same time there are plenty of people who have the Spirit of Christ but where the Spirit hasn’t been unleashed in power into their lives.

These Apostles, these uneducated bumpkins most of them, went on to do the most amazing powerful things for Christ. Even Peter standing up and preaching so powerfully. The guy was an uneducated fisherman. Why? How could they do this? Because the power of God was unleashed in their lives through the Holy Spirit. So powerful was God’s presence in them through the Spirit that almost all of them, as far as we know, went on to die for proclaiming the good news of Jesus.

Friend, Jesus promised to baptise us in His Spirit. He did. And the wonderful thing is that the baptism, that drenching, happens in different ways in different people’s lives. He knows we’re all different but unless we are drenched in the Spirit we simply don’t have the power of the Spirit of God to do the will of God. We don’t have the power to humble ourselves, we don’t have the power to deal with the sin in our lives, we don’t have the power to be nailed to the cross as it were to die to the old self and live a new life under Christ.

It’s not about how it happens; it’s not about when it happens. God is God, God will do what God wants to do. What’s important is that it happens, it’s absolutely vital. This is the power from on high that Jesus was talking of and if you and I, if we want to live our lives for Jesus, friend, we simply do not have the power to do that in and of ourselves. We can only have the power to live for Christ and to die for Christ when the Spirit of God is poured out on us and when we are drenched in the Holy Spirit of God.

Each person who believes in Jesus has a battle going on inside.  Between the desires of the flesh, and the work of the Holy Spirit.  Each one.  Sometimes we feel as though it’s a battle we’re losing, even though we’ve already won.  How can we actually win the battle?  How can we walk in in the Spirit?

One of the most wonderful things about being filled with the Spirit of God, is the deep knowledge that we have, that we are, in fact, children of God.  Part of His family – and in fact joint heirs with Christ.  God is our … Dad.  That’s powerful stuff.  It gives us a new here and now.  It gives us a new eternity.

One of the greatest blessings in my life was my parents. Now, no one’s parents are perfect, and I know there’s a small percentage of them who are absolutely horrendous, but what I got from my parents as I grew up in the Dymet family, in the small but comfortable home just south of Sydney in Australia, was safety and security and nurture.

I tried to imagine sometimes what it must be like for a child to grow up in fear, afraid of being beaten or abused or afraid because they’re completely alone. And many, many children do grow up like that sadly. Their parents have died or they live in poverty, they’re completely alone. I can’t imagine what it must be like for a child to live in fear.

At a time when you’re weak and you’re vulnerable and you’re defenceless, there’s something precious about belonging to a family. We’re made to need that sense of belonging and frankly we’re not made to live in fear.

Over these last few weeks we’ve been talking about walking in the Spirit. Living our lives and journeying in the presence and the comfort and the guidance and the nurture and the blessing of God Himself because God’s Spirit dwells in us, God Himself dwells in us. And today we’re going to finish it off by looking at the powerful sense of family and belonging that comes through walking in the Spirit.

If you were able to join me on the program yesterday you’ll know that we were chatting about how to walk in the Spirit – laying hold of the Spirit rather than the desires of our flesh in our day to day walk. And it comes down to this one simple thing according to Gods Word:

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. Set the mind on flesh is death but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, it doesn’t submit to Gods law indeed it can’t and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

It’s about where we set our minds and what we desire in our hearts. It’s a powerful thing because when we set our hearts and minds on the Holy Spirit it’s like putting a car into gear and letting out the clutch, by faith we engage the power of the Spirit. But there are two other things that the Apostle Paul has to say about walking in the Spirit.

The first, the first of those has to do with family, belonging to Gods family. Have a listen, Romans chapter 8 beginning at verse 14:

For all who are led by the spirit of God are in fact children of God. For you didn’t receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear but you’ve received the spirit of adoption. When we cry ‘Abba’, Father it’s the very spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we’re children of God and if children then heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If in fact we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

The Spirit in us witnesses the truth that we’ve been adopted into God’s family. When we give the Holy Spirit full sway in our hearts through Him we know that we know that we know that we are children of God – precious in His sight. And here’s the thing with being a child, what happens whether we live with our natural parents or whether we’ve been adopted into a family, is we take on many of the traits and mannerisms of our parents.

I remember the first time I saw myself being interviewed on television, I was completely gobsmacked at how much I was like my father. The mannerisms, the way I spoke … it completely blew me away. How could this be? Well because he’s my dad and some of these things I’d inherited genetically from him and others, without ever realising it, I’d learned by mimicking him over the years. It was an absolute revelation to me.

As we come to the realisation that God is our Father, that you and I are His children, I have to tell you exactly the same thing happens. We start looking like Him and sounding like Him and thinking like Him and loving like Him and sacrificing like Him, right. That’s what’s meant to happen. Being a child of God takes the fear away from our lives.

The fear of being alone, the fear of not belonging because when we’re adopted back into God’s family, which is actually where we were always meant to be in the first place, we know the blessedness of having God as our Father. And when we cry to Him, ‘Father, Abba’ which means literally Dad, right then and there the Holy Spirit tells us that we are God’s children.

But secondly, children aren’t just children. Children are heirs, and in this case we are co-heirs with Christ, when we put our faith in Him. In other words, walking in the Spirit gives us the certainty that we have a ‘today’ as being children of God, but we have a ‘destiny’, an eternal destiny. Let’s go read the second part, Romans chapter 8 beginning at verse 17:

“And if we’re children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ if in fact we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. I consider (says Paul) the suffering’s of this present time, they’re not worth comparing with the glory that’s about to be revealed in us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God. For the creation has been subjected to futility, not of it’s own but by the will of the one who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from it’s bondage and decay and will obtain the freedom and the glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now and not only the creation but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit groan inwardly while we wait for adoption and the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved.

Yeah sure. What Paul’s saying here, we’re going to go through suffering. Jesus did and so we certainly will. But because the Holy Spirit is in every moment of every day with us we know that we have a destiny. As we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we need fear no evil because God is with us. And He’s witnessing to us that we have an eternal destiny.

One day this world as we know it will cease to exist. One day you and I will no longer be alive on this planet and when either of those two eventualities takes place, which ever one comes first, we will spend eternity with God. We’ll be there with Jesus so the suffering that we’re travelling through now simply doesn’t compare to the glory of our eternity.

Anyone who walks in the Spirit as the days and the weeks and the years pass by knows this truth more and more. Yes the whole creation, we ourselves are groaning as with labour pains looking forward to that time when the children of God come into the full glory of God.

Friend walking in the Spirit is about experiencing the presence and the power and the promises of God. Let me say that again. Walking in the Spirit is about experiencing the presence and the power and the promises of God. And what happens when we yield our lives to Jesus and set our hearts and our minds and our hopes and our dreams and our passions on things of the Spirit rather than this world is that God gives us a future.

Then all of a sudden, and many of you have figured this out way before I did, then all of a sudden we get the things of this world into perspective – the pleasures and the pain, the triumphs and the trials. Then we walk through each and every experience with power and peace focused on the end game, focused on the reality that we are safe in Christ. We are here to do His work and one day we will be there with Him for all eternity to worship Him and to rejoice with Him in His glory.

That’s Gods plan, nothing less for those who choose to walk in the Spirit. Hey it’s quite a plan isn’t it?