I am standing outside with a garden hose in my hand. It’s about 60 degrees and the sun is just peeking out of the east. I’m watering my lawn like I always do. This is my favorite time of 
the day. I have found this is when my best friend, the Holy Spirit, speaks with me. So, there I am recounting how hard it has been over the last year but especially the last couple months. It shouldn’t be this hard. I think, “Spirit why has it been so hard?” I hear him as clearly as I hear these words in my mind. He says, “You need to change the way you think.”
Jesus told us to love the Lord our God with all of our heart.
Proverbs 3 says trust in the Lord with all of your heart. We would just say “trust in the Lord.” God says with “all of your heart.” Why do you suppose He added that. Because He knows what’s in a man. You can talk about sanctification but at some point it has to be more than christianese (or church talk). Sanctification is a real work of the Holy Spirit in your life. It is for your whole heart.
We get saved. We confess with our mouth “Jesus is Lord,” and we believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead. We then begin a journey where our heart is being transformed. Our spirit is sealed at that moment by the Holy Spirit. Our soul or our mind is still seeing, tasting, hearing, feeling everything the body or our flesh is sending to it. Our soul is also hearing from our born again spirit. Our spirit is hearing Him, the Truth.
A hardened heart makes it very difficult to hear His voice. (more…)
In Matthew 4 Jesus
said, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.” He was responding to Satan after being shown all the kingdoms of the world and their authority. Satan’s offer came with a catch – worship him. The average Christian, maybe even the average per son, has figured out you worship God and you do not worship Satan. It seems almost too obvious, too simple. Everyone knows that. Is that really a temptation or a test? Jesus passed it. My question is have you? (more…)
I love the way the Holy Spirit gently shows you things. Over the course of about a year He kept pointing out scriptures defining the fear of the Lord. I had heard the “reverent respect and holy fear” definition
, but as you know scripture should interpret scripture. The funniest thing about that is I didn’t find one verse that supports people’s most common definition of “reverent respect.” I had a notes file and just kept throwing “fear the Lord” scriptures into it. I would review them regularly and then I began to write down what each verse was revealing about what it was to “fear the Lord.” I was set free! I pray this helps you too. I declare this out-loud regularly because I know the power of the spoken word and I fear the Lord and shun evil.
The fear of the Lord;
Is pure (Ps 19:9)
Is a choice (Pr 1:29)
Is a blessing (Pr 28:14)
