Thank You, Father, first of all for good times of worship today. May Your word bring forth much fruit. Also, I am grateful for Your enabling me to accomplish a few things this afternoon and for Your inspiration in preparing for a special service tomorrow.

Acts 1:4-5 (<<click here to read the passage)

I know of a young man that when he was a child to say that he was very detail-oriented, would be a great understatement. For example, at one point he put together an Excel spreadsheet that included all of the t-shirts he wore. It was to make sure that he wore them all and didn’t repeat any before he had done so.

One thing he really wanted to do was to start a boys-only club, but his parents never let him move forward with it because they knew from initial conversations that it was going to be a very detailed organization. “At 7:00 we will be. At 7:03 we will do this. At 7:05 we will do that”. Yes, it would have been a very organized organization!

Orderly associations for the most part function quite efficiently. There are rules to be adhered to and often many things from which to abstain. That’s the way they work.

When we choose to follow Jesus, we join a well-organized body of believers, as the Bible says. When we accept Christ as our Savior, we receive the Holy Spirit. That’s what being a part of this “body” means and moving forward we are under His guidance and direction.

Before Jesus returned to the Father

“…he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Of which,” He said, “you have heard Me speak. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized and empowered and united with the Holy Spirit, not long from now.”

There are a few things that we need to make sure we understand as Jesus’ followers.

We cannot be Christians without his Spirit…

But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) Romans 8:9 NLT

…we cannot be joined to Christ without his Spirit…

But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. 1 Corinthians 6:17 NLT

…we cannot be adopted as his children without his Spirit…

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering. Romans 8:14-17 NLT

…we cannot be in the body of Christ except by baptism in the Spirit.

Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:13 NLT

The Holy Spirit is our companion and friend. We can overcome the obstacles in our spiritual journey through life because He is with us to guide and direct us. May we pray that we will be attentive and once we hear that we will not hesitate to obey.

*Life Application Study Bible

Dec 5th, 2021, Sun, 6:41 pm