Thankful in Light of Our New Covenant – Part 1 of 3

The Israelites didn't have the Holy Spirit available to them in the same way that He is available to us today. In the Old Testament days, the Holy Spirit visited specially appointed individuals. Usually those individuals had to fulfill a special role or convey a prophetic message. To have this kind of personal relationship with God was highly unusual.

Since Jesus, it is possible for everyone to have an ongoing and intimate relationship with the Father. By accepting His gift of salvation, we automatically receive His Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our seal guaranteeing that we are God’s people (Eph. 1:13), like the seal made by a king’s signet ring. Once the seal is made, it can’t be broken.

Moses brought the Old Covenant (the Ten Commandments), which was written on stone, to the people of Israel. This Old Covenant was imperfect because it couldn’t make them righteous. It only pointed out the problem of sin in their lives. Jesus brought us the New Covenant, where the law is written on our hearts instead of on stone. This New Covenant also makes us right with God in that He paid the penalty for our sin with His blood.

The New Covenant, which is made through faith in Christ, is not a two-way covenant. It’s not a little bit of us and a lot of God. It’s all God. The Old Covenant, on the other hand, was a two-way covenant. It was all about keeping the law. It was up to the people to keep the covenant, and if they didn’t, curses would follow. In Old Testament days, the priests had to make daily and yearly sacrifices to keep covering not only the sins of the people, but also their own sins. No one was perfect, and no one was without guilt.

In contrast, God Himself takes on completely the requirements and fulfillment of the New Covenant through His Son. Jesus Christ became our one-time perfect sacrifice. He took all that guilt upon Himself and paid the penalty for our sins. When we do something wrong, we don’t have to beat ourselves up about it. He took that punishment for us. The focus is not on our ability to try to do things right all the time, but on Him having made us right.

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Poem - There Once Was a Girl

There once was a girl on a sunny day
She was having fun in a carefree way
In a field of flowers with the honey bee
This is how life should always be

But growing up brought many hardships
As she jumped in and out of relationships
The flowers were exchanged for stolen kisses
Followed by the sting and shame she now nurses

She let life bounce like a ball at its own will
Each bounce a piece of heart would kill
Looking for love, but in the end she found none
Life without rules brought pain instead of fun

This is not how life should be
She was created with purpose and a destiny
Not to be left without direction or only to fate
For her to turn around now is not too late

Her heart may be torn into tiny shreds
And hope hanging merely by threads
But as she opens her heart to God’s ways
He’ll bring her back to sunshiny days

He is the Great Creator and Master Restorer
He can put anyone’s life back in order
Each person must follow His leading and call
And by Christ’s Spirit He’ll not let us fall

By Christina Morley

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Discovering Your Potential – Part 1 of 5

The devil doesn’t like it when Christians are in a healthy relationship with God. He knows that if he can keep us from really connecting with our Maker, then he can keep us from reaching our full potential. That potential is wrapped up in a God-given calling. Part of knowing our calling is knowing who we are as individuals.

God made each of us differently for His good pleasure. He has given us both natural and supernatural potential. The natural potential God puts in us and we discover it. He does this like a computer programmer. He wires each of us a certain way and He carefully writes out our DNA. Only God can do that. However, we were not born fully grown. We had to develop into who we are now. The supernatural potential we discover in Christ.

When we become believers, we are able to become more like Him. The more He becomes a part of our lives, the more His Spirit will operate through us. In those areas of our lives where we feel inadequate, Jesus by His Spirit makes us adequate as we call on Him. This includes enabling us to operate in the fruit of the Spirit, as found in Galatians 5:22, such as in faithfulness and kindness. Furthermore, we can ask for supernatural gifts of the Spirit, which include knowledge and healing.

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Hearing God’s Voice – Part 2

Besides helping us to interpret the written Word (as mentioned in my previous post), the Holy Spirit also speaks to us in other ways. Learning to hear His voice takes practice. Not only do we need to know how to obey Him, but we also need to know when we haven’t.

How to Know When You've Disobeyed God Maybe you’re not sure how to work out if you’ve disobeyed God. You’ll know by the conviction the Holy Spirit brings to your heart and mind. When He brings conviction, it’s not condemnation. Conviction leads to repentance and repentance brings full restitution, which is free of guilt. Condemnation, on the other hand, leads only to the bondage of guilt with no way out. It’s not from the Holy Spirit, but from the devil. Jesus is our advocate. Satan is our accuser.

Hearing the "Inner Voice" God wants to have a relationship with us throughout the day. It doesn’t happen only when we have a quiet time or when we go to church. The idea of hearing God’s voice may sound abstract, but it’s similar to learning to listen to our conscience and instinct. When we are born again, His Spirit speaks to us as an "inner voice."

Hearing His voice is not always restricted to “Christian” things either. During Jesus’ ministry, He often used every day events to explain godly principles. That’s why it doesn’t require us to be reading our Bibles to get a revelation from God. He can speak to us even while we’re washing the dishes.

God Speaks in Diverse Ways God doesn’t speak to every believer in exactly the same way. By looking at the world around us, we can see that He loves variety. Likewise, He speaks to us in diverse ways, such as through music, books, nature, TV, radio, or through someone else’s testimony. He keeps the relationship personal, because He loves the unique way that He made each one of us. We just have to learn to listen with our hearts as He prompts, guides, and convicts us.
What an awesome God we serve, taking the time to love us individually!

By fashioning each relationship with such care and precision, He makes it clear that He doesn’t want us to live according to formulas or rituals, but by His leading and guiding instead.

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