Sue O’Donnell. 25.07.20
“The steps of a good (wo)man are ordered by the Lord; and He delights in his (her) way. Though (s)he fall, (s)he shall not be utterly cast down, for the LORD upholds him (her) with His hand.” (Psalm 37 v 23, 24)
This is the Spirit in Jesus,
Enabling us to seek, find and live in holiness,
As the Spirit is the anointing Spirit,
The Lord, the Third Person of the Trinity,
Giving us the ability to live a life made holy.
“O Holy Spirit of God,
Come into my heart and fill me:
I open the window of my soul to let You in.
I surrender my whole life to You,” (The Bishop of Bloemfontein)
That I be made worthy of being called a Christian.
Please increase my capacity to love and serve fully.
Fill me please with a love and admiration of Jesus
That is so full, it has to overflow wherever I go.
Christian love must desire to be like God’s Son,
The perfectly holy One we can depend upon.
Glorious is our progress made in the love of Jesus,
As the Lord God, the Spirit directs this to happen,
Entering our prayer to shape this progress properly,
To show us how to pray as the Master would.
For He always wished to radiate holy love everywhere,
This height and depth of love is without compare.
If “I have all faith so that I could move mountains,
But have not love, I am nothing,” (1 Corinthians 13 v 2) for love is life’s necessity,
Ever given, driven on by the power of the Holy Spirit,
Acting in us, guarding and guiding us wisely.
All that we, God’s family, be conformed to Jesus,
Presenting to the world, the image of His likeness,
Which means we have to daily concentrate on being all loving.
If praying the Holy Spirit will help us to inspect our conscience,
To spot the imperfect and help us to correct this,
For we know the Lord Jesus offers us the heritage of His love for us.
That love which accepted the †of suffering.
The Spirit keeps us able to focus on Jesus,
So we live within the centre of God’s designed purpose.
We are called by our Father, to follow Jesus’ leading,
By adhering firmly, daily to the Holy Spirit.
He develops our fruitfulness, our gifting in holiness,
Coming from Jesus, through Him as we devote to Him.
The work of the Spirit is to ever strengthen our focus on Jesus.
Jesus is the source of our Father’s gracious assistance
As we stand ever in need of His merciful forgiveness,
That which cleanses, heals, then moves us forward.
We progress in holiness according to the truth we live by wisely.
The Spirit of truth helps us learn this in Jesus,
He who is “ ‘The way, the truth and the life” (John 14 v 6) our Father wishes for us.
“Truth can impose itself on the human mind by the fire of its own truth, which wins over the mind with both gentleness and power.” (Dignitatis humanae l)
“ ‘...I have come into the world that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice’.” (John 18 v 37)
Lord Jesus, You give us a most wonderful promise, thank You: “I will pray the Father and He will give you another Helper that He may abide with you forever.” (John 14 v 16) So we obtain a Person similar to Yourself, in addition to Yourself.
How richly we are blessed. “Let judgment run down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream,”
(Amos 5 v 24) for the Holy Spirit is the very One to establish for us a pattern of right living.
Come Holy Spirit of wisdom and truth, descend upon us for, although the world in general cannot receive You because they, as none believers, do not have sight of Jesus we, His followers do.
This insight into reality is due to You, Holy Spirit of truth, our faith Enabler with a diversion of operations and ministries similar, but different to that of the Lord Jesus.
He comes to us according to the mercy of our Father, to be our Saviour, to prepare us for consecration to all the works and ways of holiness.
You come to cleanse and sanctify us for all the works and ways of holiness. We need You both to be at work with us consecutively. With Jesus ascended to heaven, You are His holy presence amongst us.
You show us how our Father fulfils His statement to “Make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plummet...(that the) covenant with death will be annulled,” (Isaiah 28 v 17)as Jesus lived and died
for us.
You are our spiritual Informer, a Teacher, Counsellor and Adviser we have to learn from, so as to recognise all the awesome works of salvation, our re-creation.
You instruct us in right judgment by devoting us to respond to the merciful love of our Father as manifest by the Lord Jesus. We are a lost cause without this. We need to be filled by You.
You show us what it means to become a Christian so we can in all sincerity say: “I will freely sacrifice to You” (Psalm 54 v 6) dearest Father, Your Spirit showing me what this is to be, different for each one of us.
“I will praise Your name O LORD, for it is good” (Cont.) lovingly kind and compassionate, merciful and tolerant, patient and forgiving Your character, so we call You, ‘Abba’.
“For You have delivered us out of all trouble,” (based on v 7) by sending us Your Son as our Saviour and Your Spirit as our Sanctifier to teach us how to live by means of godly precepts.
You guide us into complete truth transmitting, explaining, making relevant the teaching of sacred Scripture so we put into practise the law of love.
You help us to believe in our Father’s mercy, in the Christ Incarnate, the living and abiding Word of God, ever with us to bless us, making us His Church, His body on earth which is apostolic in nature.
You help us to implement the Lord Jesus’ commandment to love one another as He has loved us, the greatest commandment which when accomplished, makes holy love and human love one and the same thing.
For all this marvellous work of transforming our life to become holy, truly worthy of the name ‘Christian’, we praise and thank You. Please continue to prepare us to believe and receive from the Lord Jesus, through You.
You are a Trinity, at work together, to illuminate our conscience, leading us into all truth as to our human fallen status and what we are to do about this to live in love.
You place uppermost on our mind and in our heart, the words and example of the Incarnate Word, established as Saviour, although our Brother. The Lord Jesus shows us the path of life we are to walk and
You guide and safeguard us.
You build up our faith, our response to the Father and the Son, trusting in their mercy, relying upon the truth of every godly promise, which You show us, is fulfilled by Jesus living and dying on our behalf.
Jesus gives His life for those He loves, which is all of us. Holy Spirit Lord, Your work is always to convince us of this as You open our eyes and ears to perceive all that wisdom can teach us.
Thank You for reminding us time and time and time again that we must prove our love for Jesus, whereby we delight and honour our Father, by living according to the command to love.
We have to, by Your impact and inspiration, implement fully, daily, the greatest commandment of all, which is to love one another even as the Lord Jesus has loved us, always willing to venerate the †.
Thankfully You warn us of the ever dangerous enticement of sin because the devil “...walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Peter 5 v 8) So You put us on our guard.
You do this by teaching us to pray. We pray troubles and trials away, realising our Father and Brother are ever with us to support and strengthen us. How wonderful this love is!
Please ever be the power in our prayer, alerting us as to what to pray about, even giving us the words to say that are most applicable, richly meaningful as we attempt to conform our life to that of our Saviour Lord.
Draw upon us the image of the Lord Jesus, instantly recognisable and readily applicable in or everyday life, enabling our love to be selfless, just as Jesus’ love was. He must be our total focus.
Please continue to develop our fruitfulness, that Christian service is Your gift to the needy world through us praying and endeavouring to live through Jesus, the source of our Father’s gracious assistance.
Jesus “Was manifest in these last times for us who, through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that our faith and hope are in God,” (based on 1 Peter 1 v 20, 21)as You convince us of holy truth, ever loving Spirit We offer all praise and thanks to our Father, for who You are, all You say and do, through the Lord Jesus,
ever drawing us close to heaven as the blessing of our new identity and graced destiny. You are the Spirit of Glory! Amen.
CATEGORY: (HOLY SPIRIT, Yearning)
Images by Artist Christine Garwood
http://www.christinegarwoodartist.co.uk/
Season
Key Themes
HOLY SPIRIT
YEARNING
