Good afternoon God. Thank You for this day! Thank You for allowing my family to experience a peace that surpasses all understanding, a peace that only You can provide. The enemy of our souls is trying to attack us every chance he gets, but when we stay focused on You, You have allowed us to experience peace that words cannot yet describe. Thank You, Jesus! Praise You, Lord! I ask that You continue to make me more aware of Your presence in my life. Thank You for making me aware of Your desire to have a relationship with me. Thank You for the thoughts that I believe You give to me. Thank You! I ask that You make me aware of Your presence as I write this entry. I thank You and ask all of these things in Your mighty, holy, and precious Name, Jesus. Amen.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, right? What about God the friend? I have listened to the audiobook CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD by Neale Donald Walsch and ran into some cognitive dissonance along the way, but it was certainly interesting. Interesting enough, in fact, that I have now picked up his book FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD. As Socrates stated “One thing that only I know and that is that I know nothing.” I believe this is a key to starting a relationship with God. What was mind-blowing for me was having an awareness that the God that I pray to each morning now, before my feet hit the floor, God, Master Creator, King of the Universe, He wants to have a relationship with me? While I believe God does want me to have a relationship with me, it still doesn’t fully compute to me what that fully means. He wants me to do things for Him, like I would do for a friend and at the same time, He wants me to expect Him to do things for me like I would expect of someone I call a friend? As I’m writing this though, I can’t help but think about the covenant that God made with Abraham. While God expects us to do things that fulfill our end of an agreement with Him, He knows that we are not perfect like He is, and while He will never fail, it appears that we as humans often do. In the dream that Abraham had, He watched a symbol of God pass through the animal halves that he set forth for the covenant. A pastor had shared with me that Abraham must have been very scared because he thought he knew what was coming next, he was going to be expected to pass through the animal halves. The idea behind this that would have been very understood by the people of that time was that a covenant, a promise was made between two parties and if one of the parties were to break the covenant the other could kill the one who broke the promise and stomp in his blood. So, yea, Abraham, knowing that he was imperfect, would have been very scared to have to keep a promise to a perfect God, who knows all. But, God, knowing that Abraham would not be able to hold up his end of the agreement, chose to pass through the animal halves for both sides of the covenant. In John 15:13 Jesus stated, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” And, also in John 14:26 in a reply from Jesus, He stated, “But the Advocate, 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.” So, God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit of God? Yes, I’ve been taught that He is three in one, the Triune God, this allows us to see several of the character traits of God. One of my favorite quotes so far, regarding the Holy Spirit comes from Francis Chan and his book FORGOTTEN GOD, “Know that even as you seek to understand the Spirit more, He is so much more and bigger than you will ever be able to grasp. This is not an excuse to stop seeking to know Him, but don’t limit Him to what you can learn about Him. The point is not to completely understand God but to worship Him.” Can you imagine what the world would look like if there were more people that realized that they could have a relationship, a friendship with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit? We all are running through this life with the greatest teacher, and that teacher is closer than most of us know. When the student is ready, the teacher will appear? And remind us to look at and study God’s Word and all of the things that Jesus said. Thank God for the example of Jesus, showing us among many things; how we should live, how we should treat others, to trust God, and not to be anxious for tomorrow. Imagine with me for a moment if more people trusted God’s word, verses like that of James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Or maybe Ephisians 6:10-11 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.” Can you imagine the kingdom of satan crumbling out from underneath him as the world wakes up to the truth he’s been trying so desparately to hide? Is the Bible 100% truth? I don’t know, however, the way it is written works better than anything else I’ve learned so far. And every time I question it, and sometimes when I go astray for a bit, something happens. Something that I’ve come to understand and call the Holy Spirit leads, guides and directs me through whatever it is that I think I want to research and each and every time I end up coming back to the Bible and my faith is then stronger than when I was questioning it. I don’t pretend to understand it, I can barely find the words to do it justice as I try to explain my journey to you, whomever you are. What I do know is that when I trust the voice of truth, submit myself to God, resist what I currently understand and call the devil, he does flee from me. I don’t understand it, but one of the best parts about faith that I’ve found so far is that you don’t need to understand it for it to be true. Walk a mile, see a mile. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” It doesn’t say, not that I’ve found so far anyway, “I met God, we became friends and then He lit up the whole world for me.” He doesn’t do that because He knows we can’t handle that much truth in one shot, our brains would fry and then melt. Or at least that’s what I’ve found with a small portion of what’s being revealed to me along this journey. What we need to understand is that we’ve been lied to, on a scale greater than I can currently comprehend. So, if you haven’t already, submit yourself to God, once you do that the devil will come, it’s a guarantee because he doesn’t want you to learn the next part. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. It doesn’t say he’ll go away for good, believe me, he’ll be back and he’ll try a trick that may be new to you, but certainly is not new to him. Ask God to make you aware of His Holy Spirit inside of you and to wake you up to the truth that He is there and that He’s always been there. Don’t take my word for it, ever hear hindsight is 20/20? Take a look back through your life and reflect and realize all the ways He’s protected you and blessed you to make it this far in this life. Ask Jesus to show you the truth, ask Him for His Spirit, and for His wisdom. And then buckle up, it may get a bit bumpy as you unlearn everything it is that you thought you knew. When more people do some form of this and share their version so that it may be just the right thing to make another person aware that the Spirit of God resides in them too, that is when we will start to see this world change into the Heaven that God wants for us here on earth rather than the hell that can be seen if one were to follow the mainstream media or many forms of social media. Shine your light in the darkness and watch the darkness scatter. -A humble warrior in God’s army
“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” -Isaiah 26:3
Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil, for Thine is the Kingdom, and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. -The Lord’s prayer
Destroying the kingdom of satan with the Holy Spirit 