Hello Fellow Faith Walkers!

With the beginning of the New Year many people set resolutions for themselves.  I think it is a wonderful endeavor to contemplate what you truly desire, and to express your intention and plan accordingly. 

I would encourage to bring your plans before the Lord and ask Him to line your heart and plans up with His heart and plans. 

If your plan includes growing spiritually read The Dark Side of Spiritual Disciplines to help you approach Bible study, prayer, and evangelism.   Remember that it is God who causes your spiritual growth! 

So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.
1 Cor 3:7

No matter what your resolution is you can engage your Father and your faith.  Any change that you are seeking whether it is to be healthier, kinder, more organized, etc. would need a spirit of power, love, and discipline.  

For God has not given us a spirit of timidity,
but of power and love and discipline.
2 Tim 1:7

You can strive for changes based on fleshly (human) strength and self-control; or you can trust in the Spirit of which self-control is a fruit! (Gal 5:22-23)

The Spirit He has given you can provide you will all the power, love, and discipline you need!  As you practice trusting and releasing the Spirit into your life remember that the process is messy; yet is sometimes of greater value than your end goal. So give yourself some grace!

I pray that you alway look to Him for any changes in your life.  May you experience His power, love, and discipline as you practice living by faith!

I recently prayed that the Lord would increase my anticipation.  It might sound like a weird thing to pray for, but I think it is a holy desire that pleases the Lord. He takes joy in our anticipation and He Himself has joyful anticipation. 

Anticipation is a wonderful state of expectation or looking forward to something or someone. Of course anything good started with Our Father Himself.  In fact, I see this trait of His from the very beginning of creation!  Read this passage from Genesis and look for the ways in which God build up desire and anticipation.

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
Genesis 2:18-22

God hints that it would be good for Adam to have a helper suitable for him.  With that thought and expectation inserted in Adam’s brain, God then parades His creatures in front of him to name.  I can imagine Adam thoughtfully evaluating each animal as a helper for him; his desire increasing as he disappointedly dismisses each and every one of them as not being suitable.  God planted the desire and build up the anticipation in order to lovingly fulfill that desire in an unexpected way!  

We don’t need to look far to find examples of how humans echo the Father’s heart.  We see it in how parents cultivate anticipation for their children leading up to Christmas.  The wrapped presents under the tree is a tantalizing hint of what is to come.  And the parents receive as much joy in the fun of building up the anticipation as the children do in waiting to receive! 

In the same way Our Father also takes delight in giving us things to look forward to.  He delights in hints and suspense that add to our joy.  I love that it is a reflection of our Father’s heart when my husband buys me a gift he can hardly wait for the proper time in order to give it to me.  His joyful anticipation almost surpasses mine!

But my favorite example of joyful anticipation and waiting is exemplified by an engaged couple in love and eagerly waiting for their marriage to consummate their union.  Each one waiting with much anticipation not only for their own happiness but for the happiness of their beloved. This is my favorite because it emulates our relationship with Christ. Our waiting for our bridegroom to come and claim us. The groom being as excited for us as we are for Him. The suspense and joy of being fully together without earthy limitations is indeed something to look forward to. 

In our culture of instant gratification we can easily overlook that unique joy that anticipation brings.  So this Advent I pray that my heart and yours are stirred in joyful anticipation and expectation!  I pray that we see God’s joy in His anticipation at His coming.  May we find joy in this period of waiting as every hope and desire we have will find its satisfaction in and from God. 

Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope that you had a wonderful day and spent some time considering what you are thankful for. The top of my list is that I am thankful for Christ!

I can’t resist sharing this passage from Colossians where Paul is describing Christ our Savior! I pray that you are encouraged just by the reminder of who He is!

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
Colossians 1:15-20

Have a blessed weekend! You are loved!

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Art by IckySkyMaze. Icky’s Instagram.

As believers I think it is natural for us to want to grow spiritually!  Our new hearts yearn for an ever deepening relationship with God and a desire to discern between good and evil. 

Many decide that the solution to answer that holy desire is to practice Spiritual Disciplines.  It is an earnest decision in order to grow in godliness and in the inner man.

If you are being led by the Spirit to follow one or more of certain disciples then I rejoice with you!  I pray that you grow in grace and in real knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for HIs good pleasure! (Phil 2:13)

Yet I also want you to be attentive to a possible pitfall that Satan would love for you to veer off into.  It is a dark side that I haven’t heard discussed in church.  

Let’s start with this verse:

Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
Galatians 3:3

There is a hazardous temptation for us to take control in the flesh where the Spirit was previously leading!  How can that happen with Spiritual Disciplines?  Is it possible for them to be done a wrong way?

Let’s consider some commonly encouraged Spiritual Disciplines that can be used by the Spirit or in the flesh.  Beware, I want Scripture to speak for itself so get ready to read a lot of verses!

Bible Study

• All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.  (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

• You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.  (John 5:39)

Jesus was admonishing the Pharisees, who significantly studied the Scriptures, because they would not receive Him!  A Bible study will not make you godly.   It is the God of the Scriptures that makes you godly.  

Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.
2 Timothy 1:13-14 (emphasis mine)

Prayer

• Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.  (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

• And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.  (Matthew 6:7)
  
• You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.  (James 4:3)

There is a wrong way to pray.  We should not be approaching prayer assuming that He doesn’t hear us or as a means of manipulating God.  And it is interesting to note that prayer is to be done without ceasing!  So it is vital to understand the beginning of the next verse; Do not quench the Spirit!  It is by faith and by the Spirit that our relationship with God thrives through prayer.

Evangelism 

• But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.  1 Peter 2:9-10 (emphasis mine)

• Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will;the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel;the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment.  Philippians 1:15-17

What a contrast in how we preach and proclaim Christ!  It can be done by the Spirit with good will because of Who we belong to, but it can also be done in the flesh from envy, strife, selfish ambition, and impure motives.

I can list more Spiritual Disciplines, but I’m hoping that the Spirit has revealed to you as to why I caution about a “dark side.”  The issue is not whether we do Spiritual Disciplines, but the HOW and the WHY we do them.  

When Paul wrote to the Galatians he has strong words against those who were pushing the work of circumcision in order to be right with God.  I think that goes for anything that we work out by the flesh (instead of by faith) in order to be right with God. Just replace circumcision with Spiritual Discipline in the following verse:

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.
Galatians 5:6

You are greatly loved!  I don’t want you to fear that you are doing something “wrong,” but I want you to be encouraged to strive for the faith of the gospel!

The apostle Paul was set apart by God and called to establish the early churches.  (Acts 13:2, Rom 1:11)  He traveled the known world risking his life to preach the gospel.  He took great care in instructing the church in truth and appointing elders. He wrote many books included in the New Testament to the churches in order to give doctrine, encouragement, and rebukes. 

With our recent visiting of different churches we have heard much about their values, goals, and purpose statements.  I found my mind wondering, to what type of church would cause Paul to thank God for them?  What attributes of the church would cause the original church planter to speak proudly of them?

I found some enlightening verses written to the church in Thessalonica in both of his letters to them.

We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father, 
1 Thes 1:2-3

We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater; therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure. 
2 Thes 1:3-4

What qualities of the Thessalonica church did you observe?  Are these aspects of your local church body?  Are they attributes that your church leadership values?

Here is what I discovered from 1 Thes 1:2-3:

Work of faith –  What a fun phrase!  It almost seems like an oxymoron, but living out our faith is hard work!  This is the work of God, that you believe in Him who He has sent. (John 6:29) We labor to rest from our own works. (Heb 4:9-11) Instead we strive to receive Jesus’ finished work on the cross.

Labor of love – We are called to walk in divine love just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God.  (Eph 5:2)  This love lived out can be intense, painful, and laborious.  1 Cor 13 has a beautiful presentation describing this love.  

Steadfastness of hope – This is a patient enduring, perseverance in expectation and confidence that God will keep His promises!  How can we keep steadfast with hope? “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit!”  (Rom 15:13)

One could look at this list and see Work, Labor, and Steadfastness.  Indeed, some in the church focus more on those concepts and on what they must accomplish for God.  But look again.  “And now these three remain; faith, hope, and love.  But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor 13:13)  These are virtues found in our Lord Jesus Christ and we will abound in them by the power of the Holy Spirit!

Paul didn’t commend the Thessalonica church because of their record-number baptisms or growing church memberships; but because their faith is greatly enlarged and their love for one another grows ever greater!  

It is true that churches can grow in numbers and membership from a result of their faith, hope, and love. Just as it is true that a church cold in love can have new members coming in through the front door and the wounded members leaving through the back door.  (This I have personally seen over and over again. )

My fear is that we, believers, have allowed church leadership to focus on external measures of success… attendance to service, community groups, building funds, service projects, evangelism, etc. Instead of focusing on the internal spiritual growth of the body. Internal growth can lead to external evidence like the above list. However if it is not sourced from the Holy Spirit it will be dead works just as the religious, misguided Pharisees performed in Jesus’ time.

My prayer is for you as a member of God’s household to grow ever greater in work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope.  That as a body we shred any earthly or fleshly measure of success for our churches but look to our Lord Jesus Christ as our head to lead us.  That by the power of the Holy Spirit we would grow into a mature body!

 “By this all men will know that you are My disciples,
if you have love for one another.”
 John 13:35

Here are a few other verses to consider from Paul to other churches. (Emphasis mine.)

We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; ⁵ because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel 
Col 1:3-5

For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers;
Eph 1:15-16