God's Word comes to us when
we are in a crisis; when we become despondent and disillusioned, facing
a seemingly impossible task. In this passage, the people were facing
the task of rebuilding their city, but they had no resources. They
were very aware their poverty and weakness. In their dismay, God
came to them with a promise that they would rebuild their city - not by
their own power and resources, but by the Holy Spirit. That's all
they would need.
There will be times when
we are obeying God and will find ourselves coming to impossible situations.
If we take an honest look at our own resources, skills, and knowledge,
we will always become very discouraged. As Christians, we have the
Holy Spirit in us, and He has all the resources we will ever need, and
then some. We have all of the resources of Heaven, and all we need
to do is allow the Holy Spirit to show us how to use them. Our success
will not depend on how we use our resources (which we can see), but on
how we obey His Spirit.
God has promised to give us the Holy Spirit as
our Helper, if we love Him and keep His commandments. (John 14:15-18).
Even though the world cannot see them, (nor can I with worldly eyes) He
dwells within me, and will until Christ returns. May we pray for
wisdom and discernment to allow Him to work in our lives!!
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"If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will
ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever--
the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees
him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be
in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
(John 14:15-18)
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He has promised that the Holy Spirit, the Helper,
will teach us all things, and bring to our remembrance all that He has
told us. (John 14:26) He has promised us His
peace, that we may need not have a troubled heart nor be afraid. (John
14:27).
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But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the
Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind
you of everything I have said to you. (John 14:26)
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Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.
I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled
and do not be afraid.
(John 14:27)
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His Spirit dwells in us.
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Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that
God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy
him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.
(1 Cor 3:16-17)
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The Holy Spirit gives us freedom to be obedient --
to forget ourselves and to serve others in love. (Gal
5:13-26)
These, then, are what I can victor over, according
to His Word:
adultery:
fornication:
uncleanness:
lewdness:
idolatry:
sorcery:
hatred:
contentions:
jealousies:
outbursts of wrath:
selfish ambitions:
dissensions:
heresies:
envy:
murders:
drunkenness:
revelries:
and the like.
Instead, I am promised the fruit of the Spirit:
love:
joy:
peace:
long-suffering:
kindness:
goodness:
faithfulness:
gentleness:
self control:
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You, my brothers, were called to be free. But
do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one
another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command:
"Love your neighbor as yourself." If you keep on biting and devouring each
other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So
I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the
sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to
the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They
are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. The acts of the
sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;
idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish
ambition, dissensions, factions ,and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the
like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not
inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong
to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and
desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the
Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
(Gal 5:13-26)
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If we live in the Spirit, may we also strive
to walk in the Spirit. May we desire to not become conceited, provoking
and envying others.
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Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
(Gal 5:25-26)
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He will make us righteous by His Spirit (Rom 8: 4,
10), leading us (Rom 8: 5-17) to obey Him rather than
obeying fleshly lusts and desires. (Gal
5:16-26)
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in order that the righteous requirements of the law might
be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but
according to the Spirit
(Rom 8:4)
But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet
your spirit is alive because of righteousness.
(Rom 8:10)
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Those who live according to the sinful nature
have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in
accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by
the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does
not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the
sinful nature cannot please God.
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by
the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have
the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in
you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because
of righteousness
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living
in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your
mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation--but it is not to
the sinful nature, to live according to it. or if you
live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit
you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live,
because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again
to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba,
Father."
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's
children.
Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and
co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that
we may also share in his glory. (Rom 8: 5-17)
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Setting my mind on things of the Spirit brings me
life and peace. It frees me from the spirit of bondage to fear; makes
me a joint heir with Christ that I may be glorified with Him.
In Times of Suffering
(personalizing the scriptures)
My times of suffering aren't even worthy to be compared
with the glory which will be revealed in me. All of creation eagerly
anticipates the revealing of His glory.
We all as humans have that longing - and our spirits
groan for His presence in our lives. We have been given that hope
of what is coming and we eagerly await with perseverance.
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I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing
with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits
in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own
choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that
the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought
into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the
pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but
we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as
we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all.
Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet
have, we wait for it patiently.
(Rom 8: 18-25)
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His Spirit helps us in our weaknesses, for we don't
even know what to pray for. The Holy Spirit makes intercession for
me with "groanings which cannot be uttered." And because He searches
our hearts, and knows the mind of the Spirit because of that intercession.
(Rom 8:26)
We know because His word tells us, that all things
do work together for good to those who love Him and are called according
to His purposes. (Rom 8:28)
He has not promised to protect us from suffering,
but to lead us through it. He has promised to "freely give" us all
things (Rom 8:31-32). And
how awesome to know His Son Himself is interceding for us (Rom
8:34, )and that nothing can keep me from His love (Rom
8:35-36; 38-39) and that I am more than a conqueror
through Christ (Rom 8:37).
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In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our
weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself
intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
(Rom 8:26)
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And we know that in all things God works for
the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
(Rom 8:28)
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What, then, shall we say in response to this?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how
will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
(Rom 8:31-32)
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Back to text
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Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who
died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God
and is also interceding for us.
(Rom 8:34)
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Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger
or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day
long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
(Rom 8:35-36)
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For I am convinced that neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any
powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will
be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our
Lord. (Rom 8:38-39)
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Back to text
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No, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him who loved us.
(Rom 8:37)
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