Monday, February 17, 2025
Prevenient
We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19
Today we are looking at the word and what the doctrine of prevenience is. Basically, it means that God always goes before. He is always prior. This becomes significant when we begin to think about the Holy Spirit. Moses encouraged Joshua by letting him know that the Lord would always go before him (Deuteronomy 31:8). How many times have you held on to peace in the midst of a storm because you knew the Lord was going before you? But there is an even deeper meaning to the prevenience of God. He not only goes before you, but he is also before you. He is before all things. Genesis begins with the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters. As one of the Persons of the Godhead, he has always existed. And he has always been working, revealing God and his power. Paul asks that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you (Ephesians 1:17-18a). This refers to the insight and clarity the Spirit brings into the truth of God. The Spirit illuminates the truth of God. Before we ever come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior the Holy Spirit is revealing him and the truth of the gospel to us preveniently. I would not have known the Lord if the Spirit had not made him known to me. Consider the prevenience of the Holy Spirit.
How does it impact your life to know that God reached out to you before you responded? How can you pray that God may reveal himself to those you know have not yet turned to him? Ask the Holy Spirit to make God known!
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Pentecost
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Acts 2:1-2
Please read Acts 2:1-41 today. This is a familiar passage to many. It is the day of Pentecost.
Chosen People Ministries brings clarity to the significance of this day: “The Jewish name for this holiday is Shavuot, meaning “weeks.” Shavuot is a harvest festival, celebrating the end of the barley harvest and the first fruits of the wheat harvest. The term “Pentecost” is a Greek word referring to the fiftieth day of counting the harvest after Passover (Lev 23:15-16). I is one of the three pilgrimage festivals, meaning God commanded the Jewish people to travel to Jerusalem to celebrate it.” So, there would have been many people in the city of Jerusalem celebrating the festival. It has been ten days since Jesus ascended (Acts 1:3, 9). They are waiting, just as Jesus has told them. They are waiting together for the coming of the Spirit. They could not have known what that meant since it was yet to come. They were living in anticipation. Suddenly, things got very loud! The announcement was made, and the promised Holy Spirit of God fell upon them and filled them. The Holy Spirit had begun his mission in the world. I think about the announcement of the birth of Christ. Things got loud there as well (Luke 2:13-14). Luke records for us the announcement of the birth of Jesus and the announcement of the birth of the Church. The incarnate Son and then the indwelling Spirit. The redemptive plan of God continues to unfold.
Take time today to praise God for his plan for redemption and for the sending of the Holy Spirit to indwell those who repent and believe.
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Mission
And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38
Please read Acts 2:1-41 today. Fred Sanders, in his book The Holy Spirit says this: “The two most important events in salvation history: the mission of the Son in the incarnation and the mission of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. These are the two sendings that make known the two eternal processions in the life of God. These are, in fact, the two ways God is with us precisely as he exists in himself. The eternal Son’s mission means taking human nature and being the incarnate Son among us, while the eternal Holy Spirit’s mission means indwelling redeemed human nature on the basis of the finished atonement. In both cases, we confess that God is with us, as Immanuel and as the one who indwells his people. This is our experience of the Trinity in the history of salvation: the Father sends the Son, and Father and Son send the Holy Spirit.” This quote, while needing to be read and reread to fully understand what Sanders is teaching helps us see the mission of the Spirit and why that mission necessarily follows the mission of the Son. The incarnation of Jesus makes salvation possible. The atonement, purchased through the sacrifice of the incarnate Son of the repentant sinner, is the basis for the indwelling of the Spirit. Jesus has conquered sin and death and has returned to the Father. The Spirit has come, and indwelling is possible for all who will believe. The mission of the Spirit has begun. Now God is in us. There is something quite new! If you know Jesus, praise him for his indwelling Spirit!
Thursday, February 20, 2025
Gift
And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38
Please read John 14:15-26; 15:26-27; 16:5-15 today. Notice in these verses what Jesus explains for his disciples about the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells the disciples that the Spirit dwells with them and will be in them (John 14:17). I have often wondered what the disciples thought as Jesus told them these things. The Son of God expressing the truths of heaven to men. Jesus himself was living proof of the generous nature of God. God so loved the world that he gave his Son to the world.
Jesus came as a gift himself. He was now trying to help his disciples know about the next gift that was to come to them. Another gift from the amazingly generous God. Every good and perfect gift comes from him (James 1:17) and the Son and the Spirit are his greatest gifts to us. God desires us to have restoration and reconciliation with him which is not possible apart from the Son and the Spirit. If he does not give these gifts, we are left in our sins and deserving of death. But if we receive the gifts, we experience the forgiveness and the presence of God in our lives. I don’t know what you would say if I were to ask you to mention the best gift you ever received, and perhaps thinking about the gift of the Son and the gift of the Spirit would cause you to call it a tie.
Take time today to thank the generous Lover of your soul for these amazing gifts you have received. Another thing I am thinking is that when I receive a really great gift, I love to tell others how incredible a gift it truly is. Lord, thank you for the gifts. Help me tell others! Help me live in the fullness of your presence within me!
Friday, February 21, 2025
Indwelling
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. Romans 8:9
Please read Romans 8:1-11 today. As we have seen, Jesus makes it clear that the Spirit does not come to merely be with us, he comes to be in us (John 14:17). When the 3,000 people at Pentecost repented and received the forgiveness of sin they received the Holy Spirit. He came into their lives and dwelled within them, just like he has in every person since who has trusted in Jesus for salvation. Romans 8:9 makes it clear that anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ within them is not saved. They do not belong to Jesus (see also 2 Corinthians 139). The giving of the Holy Spirit to indwell the life of a believer is the seal that is given (Ephesians 1:13-14). That seal comes at the moment of salvation. Our lives, when cleansed through rebirth (Titus 3:5-6) become the temple where the Spirit dwells (1 Corinthians 6: 19-20). The old is gone and the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). You are no longer who you were. You are the place where the Glory of God dwells. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord! When you consider the impact of these truths, you begin to realize that if you have truly been reborn then you will no longer be able to live the way you did before. Do you truly have the Spirit in you? Have you truly repented and received the Holy Spirit? How has that impacted your life? Has there been a change in your life that reveals that you are the temple of the Spirit? Are you glorifying God with your body? Ask him to show you if you truly have the Spirit and if you do, ask him to show you the places that you need to give more of yourself to him!
Saturday, February 22, 2025
Temple
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Today I would like to invite you to ponder the verse above. One of the amazing works of the Holy Spirit in our lives is to give us the power we need to live the life God has designed for us. Once we are saved justification) we begin the process of living a transformed life (sanctification), which involves a great deal of setting aside. We need to put away all the things that belong to the flesh. This is not at all easy and clearly does not happen all at once. Think about the things you have been able to set aside. What are some of the desires you used to have that no longer have your heart? Praise God that through his presence in your life in the Person of the Holy Spirit, you have won these victories! Consider the other areas in your life that need to be set aside. These things that you are holding onto keep you from experiencing the fullness of the Lord in your life. We don’t set these things aside so that God will love us more, we set them aside because of our love for him and our desire to know his love even more fully! What are some things that take time and attention away from God in your life? Are there any ways you are bringing idols into the temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells? Ask the Lord to reveal and then help you take away those things!
You will experience new victories and new depth with the Lord!