May 27, 2013–How to Walk by the Spirit

May 26, 2013 By

Barry AdamsBut I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. (Galatians 5:16-18)

There is a battle that is raging in each one of our lives every day. It is the battle between the flesh (our old nature) and the Spirit of God (our new nature).

There are many things that have shaped our old nature as we have grown up… life experiences, parents, the world system, and of course ourselves.

The enemy of our souls has his grip in this part of our lives as well. Any chance he gets, this is where he will launch his attack.

The new nature on the other hand, comes from God. The Bible says that we are born from above, seated in heavenly places, a new creation, hidden in Christ with God, a child of God and a joint-heir with Jesus.

When we believed in Jesus, His Holy Spirit took up residence in our hearts and we were born again into His kingdom.

The truth is that this is who we are now. This is our real identity for all of eternity.

Growing in our relationship with our heavenly Father is all about discovering who the ‘new us’ is and rejecting the ‘old us’.

Since our old mindsets are engrained in our thinking, it is easy for us to default to our old life which the Bible calls our flesh. Sometimes it is easier to just believe what we have been told or what we experienced, rather than to believe that we are now holy, loved, forgiven, free, transformed, empowered children of God.

My prayer today is that we would all have a deeper revelation of our true identity in Christ.

My hope is that we would all have the grace of God today to simply yield to the Spirit’s leading and follow wherever He goes.

When we simply sink into our new identity, we will truly discover who we were created to be. In this place of rest and peace, the law has no power over us. Our past has no power over us. The world system has no power over us.

We are simply God’s kids, holy and dearly loved.

Dear DWOD friend, as you continue to advance toward your destiny, please remember that this is your identity, now and forever.

(Barry Adams is the humble vessel chosen by God to bless the world with the revelation known as the Father’s Love Letter. Along with his wife Annelise, Barry ministers the Father’s Love all over the world. Today’s DWOD is from a post he wrote for A Son’s Life Blog.)

Filed Under: Guest Authors

May 26, 2013–The Magnification Factor

May 26, 2013 By

magnifying glassOh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. (Psalm 34:3)

The Greek word translated “magnify” is “megaluno” which means “to make large.”

The first part of the word “mega” shows up quite regularly in words such as megabucks, megaphone, megamall, megachurch, megalomania and megabytes—all of which describe something that is greater than “normal.”

In the Bible, we see the word “magnify” used with reference to God, as in the aforementioned verse and elsewhere. Here are two examples:

I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving. (Psalms 69:30)

Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; And let those who love Your salvation say continually, “Let God be magnified!” (Psalms 70:4)

Another well-known use of the word occurs in the Magnificat. And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour.” (Luke 1:46)

What does it really mean to magnify the Lord/God? How do you make God any bigger than He really is? Is it even possible?

A helpful analogy would be the way we use a magnifying glass or instrument.

For example, when we study a micro-organism under a microscope, we are not actually making the microbe bigger. We are simply seeing it bigger than it really is.

Using a magnifying glass does not make the words in a newspaper bigger. It only helps us to see them bigger than they are in print.

In a similar vein, when we magnify the Lord, we are not making Him bigger (an impossibility), we are seeing Him bigger than we would otherwise.

So, how can we actually wee God bigger?

The DWOD for April 06, 2013 made reference to “Celebrating God’s goodness” time at Morgan’s Point and Forks Road East United, the two churches I pastor. Every time we gather for worship or study or prayer, we invite anyone who so desires to share how they have experienced God’s goodness in their lives, especially in recent times.

Every time a testimony is shared, it is as though The Magnification Factor kicks in and we begin to see God bigger than He is simply based on our own limited experiences! We are indeed “magnifying the Lord with thanksgiving!”

Also, whenever we take time to worship God and focus on how awesome He is, we “magnify the Lord and exalt His name together,” don’t we?

Two things happen as we keep on magnifying God.

Number one, we see that God is bigger than the enemy. You see, when we focus on the problems sent our way, the enemy appears bigger than he really is, even to the point of obscuring our vision of God.

As Rob Critchley sings, in reality we have a “Great big God” and an “itty bitty devil!”

Secondly, when we magnify God, we are filled with hope that no matter what we face, God will see us through, because He has seen others through in similar situations!

Dear DWOD friend, I pray that you will realize why it is so critical to magnify the Lord on the road to reaching your destiny.

Please share with the rest of us if you are doing this already…if so, how you do it. Would you also share also any testimonies you may have of what happened when you started realizing the benefits of The Magnification Factor? Thanks in advance.

Filed Under: Pastor Jeeva Sam