Living IN God

We know that when we believe in Jesus, God lives in us.
Have you ever wondered though what it means for us to live in God?

Wow!

Just read these scriptures..

All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God.
We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.
1 John 4:15-16

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit
John 15:5

“I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.
John 17:22-23

Your spirit knows your thoughts

I watched part of sermon by Leslie Ramiah yesterday evening on Spirit Word channel.

He said something about a passage of scripture we have read so many times but I don't think we realise what we read! Well, I didn't!

No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit,
and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit.

(1 Corinthians 2:11)

Your spirit knows your thoughts.

Everybody feels inclined to say, "Duh, of course!"

But stop and really think about it. We are spiritual beings who have a body, not a body who happens to have a spirit. That part of you that will spend eternity with Jesus, the bit that's "you" when your body falls away, is the "being" that knows you, that knows your thoughts.

A lot of "new agers" talk about their inner Self or their inner Being and we go "froooooot cakes!".

But like the devil usually does, he takes something with truth to it and twists it.

And God's Spirit communicates with our spirit, who then communicates God's message to us.

1 Corinthians 2:10-16 (New Living Translation)

10 But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets.

11 No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit.

12 And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.

13 When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. [b]

14 But people who aren’t spiritual [c] can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.

15 Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others.

16 For, “Who can know the Lord’s thoughts?
Who knows enough to teach him?” [d] But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.

Footnotes:

b 1 Corinthians 2:13 Or explaining spiritual truths in spiritual language, or explaining spiritual truths to spiritual people.

c 1 Corinthians 2:14 Or who don’t have the Spirit; or who have only physical life.

d 1 Corinthians 2:16 Isa 40:13 (Greek version).

It really helps to stay calm and believe for the best possible outcome

Our thoughts really are SO important!

"Now to Him who by the power (**dunamis) at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine."
--Ephesians 3:20 (nrsv)

**dunamis: force; specifically miraculous power (usually by implication a miracle itself): - ability, abundance, meaning, might, power, strength, violence, mighty (wonderful) work.

So what are you asking or imagining? Are you thinking about the things you want to happen or about all the bad things around you that are making you unhappy?

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing.
Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable.
Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing.
Then the God of peace will be with you.
--Philippians 4:8-9 (nlt)

Love by another name: praise and worship

Driving to work this morning I got to thinking about that age old question...why would God create people and then want them to worship Him? It really can't be about a big ego. And then out of the blue an answer came up... what if we think of praise and worship in the wrong way? Yes, God is holy and good and awesome and mighty and deserves to be praised, BUT what if praise and worship really just boils down to adoration and love?

God IS love, created us out of love and for a love relationship. So it must feel pretty empty and lead to heartache if we don't love God back when He already loves us sooo much. I mean, I could actually imagine that empty aching place in God's heart when we don't return His love.. almost like human love relationships when the one you love doesn't love you back.

Today my heart feels the pull of God's "need" for me to love Him (although of course in the strictest sense God doesn't need anything). And it's my joy to be in this love relationship with the King of the universe.

Monday Praises

- taken from Psalm 86 (nlt)

I am devoted to You.
I serve You and trust You.
You are my God.
Give me happiness, O Lord, for I give myself to You.
O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive,
You alone are God.
With all my heart I will praise you, O Lord my God.
You, O Lord, are a God of compassion and mercy,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.

Where are you afraid to die today?

John 3:30

He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.

John 12:24-25

I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives. Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity.

Amos 9:9

“For I will give the command and will shake Israel along with the other nations as grain is shaken in a sieve, yet not one true kernel will be lost.

Revelations 12:11

And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony.
And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.

Thought for the day:

In what area of your life are you afraid to die today?

All who are thirsty..

Luke 23:31
For if these things are done when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?[a]”
--Footnotes:
[a]Or If these things are done to Me, the living tree, what will happen to you, the drytree?

Ezekiel 37:4,5,9,11,14
4 Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord!
5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again!
9 Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’”
11 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones represent the people of Israel. They are saying, ‘We have become old, dry bones—all hope is gone. Our nation is finished.’
14 I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live again and return home to your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done what I said. Yes, the Lord has spoken!’”

Psalm 63:1,5
1 O God, you are my God;I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water.
5 You satisfy me more than the richest feast. I will praise you with songs of joy.

Psalm 68:9
You sent abundant rain, O God, to refresh the weary land.

Psalm 107:9,33-38
9 For he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.
33 He changes rivers into deserts, and springs of water into dry, thirsty land.
34 He turns the fruitful land into salty wastelands, because of the wickedness of those who live there.
35 But he also turns deserts into pools of water, the dry land into springs of water.
36 He brings the hungry to settle there and to build their cities.
37 They sow their fields, plant their vineyards, and harvest their bumper crops.
38 How he blesses them! They raise large families there, and their herds of livestock increase.

Isaiah 32:15
until at last the Spirit is poured out on us from heaven.
Then the wilderness will become a fertile field, and the fertile field will yield bountiful crops.

Isaiah 41:17-20
“When the poor and needy search for water and there is none, and their tongues are parched from thirst,
then I, the Lord, will answer them.
I, the God of Israel, will never abandon them.
I will open up rivers for them on the high plateaus.
I will give them fountains of water in the valleys.
I will fill the desert with pools of water.
Rivers fed by springs will flow across the parched ground.
I will plant trees in the barren desert— cedar, acacia, myrtle, olive, cypress, fir, and pine.
I am doing this so all who see this miracle will understand what it means—
that it is the Lord who has done this, the Holy One of Israel who created it.

Isaiah 44:1-4
“But now, listen to me, Jacob my servant, Israel my chosen one.
The Lord who made you and helps you says:
Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant, O dear Israel, my chosen one.
For I will pour out water to quench your thirst and to irrigate your parched fields.
And I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your children.
They will thrive like watered grass, like willows on a riverbank.

John 7:37-39
On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds,
“Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink!
For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’”
(When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.)