Gosh I haven't blogged for so long! I've missed the opportunity to write and express thoughts and ideas and musings. Life becomes so busy sometimes there is little time for writing.
This week I've been thinking about the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Often I think we can assume that the Holy Spirit speaks through our mind, that its synonymous with our conscience. When I first became a Christian I assumed the Spirit would speak through my mind. But though he can use our mind to convict, I don't think we should rely on our conscience all the time. Our minds are a busy place, not only influenced by the Lord but by other forces....the morals we have been brought up with, popular culture, the evil one...When we understand the Spirit and learn to live by the promptings of the spirit we will recognise a heart and soul tugging as our witness of the Lords promptings.
It talks in the New Testament about the Sword of the Spirit. In Ephesians 6v7 Paul writes "take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." In Hebrews 4v12 it is written "for the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."
You see the Spirit is not just the written Bible sitting on our laps it’s the truth of the word penetrating the very depths of us...the thoughts and attitudes of our hearts. It makes me think of the image in Ezekial 3v1where the angel of the Lord said to Ezekial, "Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel." The word has to be in us by the Spirit. Have you recieved the truth of the Word through the Spirit like that?
So often the Church and Christian culture is so full of popular culture that we no longer live by the promptings of the Spirit. Our minds our full of the cultural norm and we don't know what is right or wrong or holy living. This is why we need the Spirit. Without the Spirit scripture and the truth are just words, churches are just business and relationships are not communities and environments where we are living out Spirit filled lives.
So what is the answer? How do we live Spirit full lives that our holy? I think the Lord has been speaking to me a lot about clothing myself in Him. Reading Colossians 3 and Ephesians 6 has made me think about the importance of regularly clothing myself with the armour of God. Ephesians 6v12 says clearly that our battle is not against flesh and blood but the powers of this dark world. Sometimes I go to work and I feel that oppression of the world around me. It is not in my imagination, it’s real and that’s why I need the clothing of the Spirit and the armour of God as my protection.
You see once we know Christ I believe we already have that Christ like clothing readily available. In Colosians 3 it starts "since then you have been raised with Christ"...note the 'have' this is something that has already been done! We need to remind ourselves daily 'You belong to Jesus, you are filled with his Spirit because you have been raised with Christ!' And that clothing...those spiritual fruits of compassion and peace and truth etc..can so often get left in the wardrobe. We go out into our daily lives without the knowledge of the Spirits presence because we haven't daily clothed ourselves in resting before Him. So lets believe the truth that we are saved and walk in the Spirit and allow him to convict and comfort and strengthen us and so become more Christ-like.
