Holy Spirit

VerseAt this time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. The moment he came out of the water, he saw the sky split open and God's Spirit, looking like a dove, come down on him. Along with the Spirit, a voice: “You are my Son, chosen and marked by my love, pride of my life.”

— Mark 1:9-11 msg

ThoughtI hope you can look back on your baptism and remember it as a precious and powerful moment. What great joy to know that we can share in an event...

 

VerseI look behind me and you're there, then up ahead and you're there, too — your reassuring presence, coming and going. This is too much, too wonderful — I can't take it all in! Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight?

— Psalm 139:5-7 msg

ThoughtPsalm 139 has long been one of my favorite psalms. David gives us words to talk about God's abiding presence across every nanosecond of life. He is there at conception, knowing us, purposing our lives, and...

 

VerseWhenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are — face to face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We're free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives...

 

VerseTeach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

— Psalm 143:10 tniv

ThoughtIn this psalm, we cry out to God because we are aware of enemies who are set to attack us and of our personal sins that so easily entangle us in evil. On our own, we have no personal power to stand up under the weight of these two realities. Yet, our heart cries out to God asking him to teach us to do his will and for the Spirit to guide us to the place where...

 

VerseAnd I will give them singleness of heart and put a new Spirit within them. I will take away their stony, stubborn heart and give them a tender, responsive heart, so they will obey my decrees and regulations. Then they will truly be my people, and I will be their God.

— Ezekiel 11:18-19 nlt

ThoughtThe work of God's Spirit is at the core of God's promise to make a new people, a people with an undivided heart, a tender and responsive heart that moves us to be the people who God...

 

VerseThe old way, with laws etched in stone, led to death, though it began with such glory that the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses' face. For his face shone with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already fading away. Shouldn't we expect far greater glory under the new way, now that the Holy Spirit is giving life?

— 2 Corinthians 3:7-8 nlt

ThoughtWe live under the new way of the Holy Spirit, not under law! While the Old Testament Law, given on Mount...

 

Verse"And I will never again turn my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit upon the people of Israel. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!"

— Ezekiel 39:29 nlt

ThoughtGod speaks of the coming of his New Covenant relationship with his people. One dynamic of that covenant is that the Spirit will be part of a permanent relationship with them. Paul speaks powerfully of this in Romans 8 (esp. vs. 32-39). Unlike God's leaders before Jesus who had the Spirit for a time for specific...

 

VerseI'll give you a new heart, put a new Spirit in you. I'll remove the stone heart from your body and replace it with a heart that's God-willed, not self-willed. I'll put my Spirit in you and make it possible for you to do what I tell you and live by my commands.

— Ezekiel 36:26-27 msg

ThoughtSometimes, I'm afraid... that's me — heart of stone and self-willed. And when I check around, I find most folks don't believe that people can really change who they are, at least not deep down...

 

VerseFor I will pour out water to quench your thirst and to irrigate your parched fields. And I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your children.

— Isaiah 44:3 msg

ThoughtJesus spoke of being the water of life, a spring of water welling up to true life. He identified this living water with the Holy Spirit (John 7:37-39). The New Testament also uses the imagery of water to talk about the Holy Spirit being poured out on us (Titus 3:3-7) and being washed...

 

VerseIt is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life.

— 2 Corinthians 3:5-6 nlt

ThoughtUnfortunately, most folks who claim to follow Jesus miss the incredibly radical claims of the apostle Paul. We are not under law. It's not that...