God’s command to “Rejoice Always” is bounced around in our reasoning mind. “But, I don’t FEEL like rejoicing.” God did NOT say, “Rejoice, only if you feel like it.” He said, “Rejoice always!” Happiness comes from the word happen. If my happenings don’t happen to happen the way I happen to want my happenings to happen, I am unhappy. Living and abiding in the Presence of God, His Joy is not like happiness. Joy is me being happy when my happenings don’t happen to happen the way I happen to want my happenings to happen. God spells it out clearly “Rejoice Always!” Choose obedience.

Our natural thinking mind easily makes excuses. In our rebellion, we rationalize that when we are unfairly beaten, cruelly rejected, offended, shipwrecked, bitten by snakes, held hostage in a stinking prison — during those times we are surely justified in feeling bitterly angry! In the garden, Satan said, “Surely God did not say…” DON’T BE DECEIVED by your old nature! Be aware of evil and his cunning ways. Obedience is to deny our feelings and obey God. We must discern the voice heard. God never condons bitterness.  Always trust God, not your feelings!

Imagine being loved, chosen, equipped, encouraged, discipled, anointed, and used by God. Our Father chooses the broken, the weak, the unschooled, unprepared, and He changes us for His purpose and glory. Without God, we cannot please God.

Forever students learn best when our rigid ways have been broken. Are we stiff, inflexible, impatient or contrite in spirit? The condition of our spirit matters to God. If we praise Him with an unforgiving spirit, our lip service is detected and refused.  What spirit is revealed in you?Jesus is our husband, and He knows if we have been flirting with gossip, envy, bitterness, or pride. He is the General who purifies His troops with a sharp two edged sword. Picture the Father as the Sun which we dare not gaze upon. The bright Light is Jesus, and the Warmth is the Holy Spirit. We sense His warmth as our eyes are opened to perceive what the Light pierces in us and in others.  Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father as our Judge. The sword of His Warmth melts down our resistance. He reveals any impure motive or any  hidden resentment. Humbled, we quickly confess and are purified and kept sharpened for His glory.

Loving the lost, we spread His joy in the midst of pain. Others watch and marvel at our peace in a firey trial. They notice our patience in traffic. They respond to our extended kindness instead of sterness. The goodness of God is admired when we don’t get offended. God’s faithfulness is recognized when we walk away from temptation.  During a debate, our gentleness is His victory.   Self-Control is our choice to quickly listen, and then wait on God to give us the appropriate word to speak.  Our daily lives reflect that His grace is more than sufficient. Are we confident that Jesus is pleased with our best efforts? A proud person does not deal with what he does not recognize in himself. Pride is a sin.

As His chosen kids, our obedience matters more than any sacrifice. His ways are not our ways, but they prove to be best always. We trust God, we obey God, and because He lives in us, we listen to what the Spirit of God reveals in us. Proverbs 22 “Pay attention and turn your ear to the sayings of the wise; apply your heart to what I teach, for it is pleasing when you keep them in your heart. Keep all of them ready on your lips. So that your trust may be in the Lord, I teach you to be honest and to speak the truth. Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared.” Amen

Even when we do not fully understand how, why, or His purpose, we rejoice because we know our Father is ever faithful to love us through His discipline.   He forgave us much, He changed us, He loved us first, and He chastens us to examine ourselves. The desire to please God demands that we reflect His glory by our daily choices to listen and obey. As His Spirit abides in us, we submit and comingle our spirit with His for personal direction, wisdom, correction, and application.

If we sense, “something is not right here.” then we are positioned correctly to effect change. Evil glares with arrogance, and we stare back in authority. Encouraged by the Truth, we know that God sees us, He hears us, and His holy Presence never departs from us.  The Holy Spirit gives us understanding, comfort, healing, and guidance. God takes what was meant for evil and turns it for good. He is ever with us, and He waits for us to ask. “We have not, because we ask not.” Let us ask that our soul, our thinking — yields to Him. That we are willing to be broken, for His purpose and glory.

The fruit of the Spirit, is a result of His presence within us. It is evidence of God at work in us. The inner joy of the Spirit of God should exude from us even in the midst of trials. Peace should permeate from us as the world frets about circumstances. Does the watching world witness your unusual patience to sit in a traffic jam and smile? We are those who choose not to complain or grumble whenever life goes sideways. A fruitful follower of Jesus extends kindness to the angry. Compassion is extended to the lost. We issue love to the unlovable, and we purposefully reflect Jesus. The character of a fruitful follower focuses on the goodness of God and His faithfulness. The eyes of the watching world think, “I want the peace they have.”

Look up and praise God for all He has done!  Count His blessings! Thank God for the eyes to see what He sees. To hear the Spirit’s voice. Thank God for His Spirit that bathes your spirit with mercy and direction. Like Joshua, Jesus came to bring down the walls of our hard hearted resistance. Rebels resist change. The church of Pergamus was seen to be a place where Satan took up residence. Recognizing the spirit in which one speaks, is vital. Some smile, but what they are not saying is loud. The Spirit of God in us gives us signals, then a word to speak, or to simply avoid the member who is wrestling. Keeping our own offenses in check, He sifts us like wheat, and our chaff is blown away by grace. The serpent is subtle and he slips in undetected if we are not wearing God’s shield, sword and helmet of salvation. Jesus found His disciples sleeping saying “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Our Father calculates according to His righteousness. In each trial, have we denied ourselves the right to complain? Or have we denied His Spirit to reveal our lesson with praise? Walk humbly and love on someone with the appropriate word He gives.  Be God’s agent of light and love today. Do a random act of kindness.  Be a blessing.

To know God’s heart for all people requires that we discern their current condition. We know who they once were, and who they have become. With grace, we determine if they speak from their heart, and what they may have left unsaid. Our effectiveness in service rests upon our ability to see through God’s compassionate eyes. Our Father gave us the Holy Spirit that we may be enabled in our spirit to know the truth about the person He places before us. God sees us, and He hears our thoughts, and He still lavishes His love upon us. 

With expert spiritual sensitivity, Jesus listens to us. In Luke 9:55, Jesus gives us a lesson on listening. When two of His disciples saw people refusing to hear Jesus, they asked, “Lord, why not command fire to come down from heaven to obliterate them!” As these believers were speaking, their spirit was exposed. Jesus listens to the spirit in which we speak. His or ours. He replied, “You know not of what spirit you speak.” For out of the abundance of their hearts, their mouths spoke destruction. Their motives were exposed by their angry looks, and their own limited understanding. If a person is arrogant, a proud spirit will manifest. If they are envious, a jealous spirit  will be evident in their speech. Jesus pays attention to what we say, and also to the spirit in which we speak. Nothing is hidden, zero is concealed.

Paul wrote: “I want you to grow, to abound, to increase more and more.” I Thess 4:1 They were lacking in their faith and needing to be encouraged. We are each at different levels of faith. Life on earth is a roller coaster, but God is  unchanging. In our youth walk, and during our elder walk, we grow in Him, from glory to glory as we PRAISE HIM. We praise and He pours out. His grace and favor are like gasoline poured onto a smouldering  fire of faith. 🔥 Oh Lord, Thank You for filling us with the Spirit! We don’t have to look far to find You. Wherever we are, He is. We honor and praise our heavenly Father for the promise of eternity without pain or suffering. For now, we do suffer many things, but only for a little while. Until Jesus calls us home, may gladness overtake you!

In the midst of chaos, look through the eyes of Christ, and see the glory of God revealed all around you. Praise God in every situation, because He has never left, He is here with us. Immanuel! God gave us the Holy Spirit with the intention-that every day, we are stirred within and by His power, the mind of Christ overrides our thoughts. The natural man cannot live one hour of a godly life unless by the power of the Holy Spirit. A person may live a consistent life, Bible reading, church attending life – but God knows the content of our hearts. To live a life acceptable to God, is to live in AWE of JESUS!  He was willing to sacrifice His life to save us from our sorry ways. To walk in the power of the new life, we must surrender our ways. Think about all the grumbling that sent our ancestors into the desert for 40 years! We must choose to submit to the Holy Spirit every day 🙌

“For the Lord Most High is awesome, the great King over all the earth. He subdued nations under us, peoples under our feet. He chose our inheritance for us. God has ascended amid shouts of joy, the Lord amid the sounding of trumpets. Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth; sing to Him a psalm of praise. God reigns over the nations; God is seated on His holy throne.” Psalm 47:2-8