The Spirit-filled Life

One of the first big truths I learned as a young Christian was how to live a Spirit-filled life. In 2001, I started being discipled by David Anglin, one of my heroes of the faith. He took me through a discipleship notebook and this topic was covered. In 2002, I hit a rather rough patch and began to isolate myself from God and other things. I recall getting a cup of coffee at Starbucks and Dave knew I was struggling but I wasn't ready to open up. But God was breaking me to the point where I needed to confess and get out some stuff. And I came to realize what was going on...I was not walking in the Spirit. The things intellectually I had learned were becoming heart truth. I confessed these things to Dave and he encouraged me and challenged me in these truths.
     Nine years later, I am reflecting on the work of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit-filled life and reading a book by Chuck Swindoll called Embraced by the Spirit which is a great reminder that we are sealed by the Holy Spirit in salvation and that the Holy Spirit helps to live a dynamic life that we can not live on our own. The Spirit confirms with our spirit that we are children of God (Romans 8:16-17). When we become followers of Christ, we are indwelt with the Holy Spirit, which means that the Holy Spirit lives in us. He convicts us of sin, He leads us and directs us in our relationship with the Father and Son. But we are not just to be indwelt with the Spirit, but we have the command to be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). How are we filled with the Spirit? Here are some truths of Spirit-filled living:

1. Confess all known sin to God (1 John 1:9)- This confession is not just for general sin but to be specific in where you have sinned. It is tremendously important that we keep our sin account short and restore fellowship with God. When you have confessed, forsake your sin and trust the Spirit when times of temptation come to flee from sin and kill sin in your life. John Owen, Puritan theologian writes, "Be ye killing sin, or sin be killing you."

2. Ask God to fill you.-If the desire of your heart is to live this Spirit filled life...ask God to fill you. This desire comes from God and we have the responsibility to live a life empowered by the Spirit. Therefore, ask and it will be given to you.

3. Spend time in the Bible.-God's Word is vital in the Christian life. This is one way how we know God and his character. He speaks to us through His word and we respond by what He says to us in His word.

4. Pray.-This is another form of communication with our LORD. He communicates through His word...His followers communicate to Him in prayer. I usually use the ACTS prayer strategy in time of prayer. It's not the only way to pray but it does help me not to solely focus on my needs but to give God the honor He deserves.

A-Adoration-Praise for who God is
C-Confession of known sin...ask God to make known sin you don't see
T-Thanksgiving-Thank God for what He has done
S-Supplication-Pray for needs and our daily bread

These are truths I have learned over the years and I hope they are of benefit to you. Soli Deo Gloria!

The Brightness of Christ

Last week, I began teaching the men of SafeHaven of North Mississippi through the book of Hebrews. Going into the study, I wanted to kick myself after reading this glorious book over and over again. My thought was, "What in the world am I thinking teaching this?" If you have ever read Hebrews, it has a lot of difficulties but it exalts Christ higher than Moses, higher than the angels, and higher than any sacrificial system. God really blessed in a neat way. Last night, I finished chapter one and we talked about the brightness of God's glory...Jesus Christ!
Hebrews 1:3 tells us, "And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power..." Christ is coequal with the Father. They share the same attributes...like holiness, omnipotence(all-powerful), good, loving, just...just to name a few. Christ fulfilled all the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament that is revealed in Hebrews 1 and the rest of the book. Another gleaning we got last night is that God is sovereign and all-powerful. I talked about how those attributes go hand-in-hand and what that means for our salvation...past, present, and future. We can know God and He keeps us by the word of His power. John 10 tells us that no one can pluck us from His hand. Our salvation is secure because "He had made purification for our sins" and "sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high"(Hebrews 1:3b). Today, remember who God is and who Jesus is and that The Trinity is awesome.

First post

This is my first post as a blogger. I will hopefully have pics up in the near future. The purpose of this blog will be to share what is going on in life with my relationship with God, my amazing wife, my sweetie pie daughter, and other things. I am looking forward to this new venture as this blog will serve I hope as an encouragement to you. I am about to go to chapel so I can't make this a long post. I am a follower of Christ along with my wife Rachel. We have a 3 year old daughter named Evelynn. My wife has a home daycare and I work at LifeWay and go to school at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary as an Associate of Divinity student. My next blog, I will share more stuff like favorite Bible verse, favorite music, and other things.

Soli Deo Gloria...which means To God alone be the glory.