God calls our walk with Him to be filled with the Holy Spirit. This daily devotional looks at how that incorporates wisdom and submission.
Nuggets
- Disciples are to diligently live in line with how God wants us to live.
- We need to live a life that follow’s God’s manner.
- We must put God as our top priority.
- We learn a God’s Will through wisdom and understanding.
- The opposite of being wise is being a drunk living foolishly.
- We must be filled with the Holy Spirit in order to be set apart, but we will struggle with being set apart.
Devotions in the Never Alone: The Holy Spirit in Our Lives series
Being filled with the Light and with the fruit are the results of being filled with the Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit should be a life-time pursuit.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
Watch How You Walk
“Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk …” (Eph. 5: 15 CSB)
Disciples are to diligently live in line with how God wants us to live.
Walking is the term used to describe how we live our lives. But it is more than that. It deals with our habitual state of mind, behavior, and manners.
God has given us specific orders to follow in living our lives. We must walk the path that leads to the narrow gate. We are to consistently walk toward the gate.
Glossary
Our walk changes us. Specifically, it changes our character to be like God’s.
Worldview people at times think disciples are to have this character after conversion. Evans contradicted that. He wrote, “We do not deny that in the family of God there is oftentimes great weakness of character; that they make oft mistakes as to doctrine; and yet, compared with their wisdom, there is no wisdom upon earth.”
Resource
Our wisdom still surpasses the worldview wisdom. Yes, even the scientific wisdom.
We are wise in the things of God. We know God.
Walking in a Godly Manner
“… not as unwise people but as wise” (Eph. 5: 15 CSB)
We need to live a life that follow’s God’s manner.
Paul warned us to walk in a godly manner, following God’s laws and commandments. We are to walk as if we are walking toward a specific goal.
We are. We are walking toward Heaven.
Alford described what our walk should look like. He wrote, “The prudent man, in the world’s estimation, is one who walks circumspectly; who goes through life, as the saying is, with his wits about him; with his eyes open to mark every opportunity; ready to spread his sail to every wind; one who does not rashly commit himself, but rather stands aloof and studies others, and uses the results for his own advantage.”
Resource
We have to focus on God.
Redeeming Our Time
“making the most of the time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5: 16 CSB)
We must put God as our top priority.
Since we value time, we talk a lot about making the most of it. We talk about having quality time rather than just quantity time.
But then we also talking about getting back time that we’ve lost. That implies that our priorities are wrong.
The Essex Congregational Remembrancer told us how we redeem time. They wrote, “We must redeem time by sincerely repenting of sin and devoting ourselves immediately to the great business of life.”
Resource
Hmmm. Not exactly the way I would say it.
Oh, I agree with the repentance of sin part. Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God and expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to change our sinful ways to ways of righteousness through obedience.
- Sin is not believing that Jesus is our Savior to save us from our actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Obedience means submitting ourselves to the will of God as it is presented to us and living our lives accordingly.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
Glossary
I just have a little problem with the “… great business of life …” part. To me, that could easily be misconstrued as the prosperity gospel.
Disciples aren’t entitled to anything from God.
We need to evaluate how we spend our time and identify use the areas of our time that needs redeemed. Then we have to put in the time to form the habits to serve God.
We have to get on the stick, though. The window for the redemption of time is short and unpredictable.
Most of the time, we tend to think about time as what the clock says. We shouldn’t limit ourselves to that. We have to look at time as being an opportunity. We don’t want to miss the opportunity to serve God.
Understanding God’s Will
“So don’t be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is” (Eph. 5: 17 CSB)
We learn a God’s Will through wisdom and understanding.
We’ve talked a couple of times about what the Will of God is. With a worldview focus, we like to think of that as what job we will have, who our soulmate will be, and what a wonderful life we will have.
To be in God’s Will is to obey His laws and commandments. That is part of our job description as a disciple.
The Disciple’s Job Description
Complete Job Description
Individual Description
Job Duty #1
Be a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12: 1-2)
Archer agreed. He wrote, “The will of God, which determines the whole extent of our obligations, is principally unfolded to us in the doctrines and moral precepts which are delivered in the sacred Scriptures.”
Resource
Still, we must possess wisdom. Wisdom is an enlightened acceptance of God’s principles, gained through knowledge, discernment, and good sense, that is put into practice through salvation, increasing our goodness and virtue.
- Discernment means we can evaluate the situation and recognize right from wrong.
- Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
- Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
- God’s goodness is His holy, pure, and righteous behavior.
- God’s holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
- God’s purity stems from the fact that He cannot sin.
- God’s righteousness is the result of His being pure.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
What we have to realize is that wisdom and understanding come from being filled by the Holy Spirit. We cannot obediently walk with God without it.
It is all about submitting to the Will of God.
Shying Away from Drunkenness
“And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living …” (Eph. 5: 18 CSB)
The opposite of being wise is being a drunk living foolishly.
Abuse of alcohol is detrimental to us. It helps remove our moral restraint and removes our dignity.
But then again, even a wise man can be a fool when he is drunk.
Filled by the Spirit
“… but be filled by the Spirit” (Eph. 5: 18 CSB)
We must be filled with the Holy Spirit in order to be set apart, but we will struggle with being set apart.
We have to remember who Paul is talking to here. His letter is addressed to the saints at the church of Ephesus. They were saints because they were holy.
Saint means holy one who has been set apart.
Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
They may have been saints, but they needed to hear the warning. We are saints, but we need to hear the warning.
Evans told us why that is. He wrote, “No previous consistency of walk, no deep experience, no holy acquaintance with God, no near walking with God, can give them the least security. But besides this, there are constitutional temptations. Some persons are constitutionally tempted to anger, some are tempted to vanity, some are tempted to worldliness in its excess of folly, some are tempted to untruthfulness, and oh! there are some who are tempted to drunkenness constitutionally. “
Resource
We have to seek to be filled with the Spirit. I am sure we do that the same way as we seek God. We have to seek His wisdom and understanding.
Let’s look at it this way. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would come to comfort and guide us. We have to invite Him into our hearts. He doesn’t just come and take over.
Making the Connections
Alford gave us a great reminder. He wrote, “The redemption of Jesus Christ was wrought to comprehend man’s whole nature, and man’s whole history; there is no lawful advance of mankind, no wholesome invention, which it may not; include in its instruments for God’s glory, and by neglecting which it does not lose space and power for its work; no symptom of the state of men’s minds and of society, which it ought not to turn to account for its high purposes.”
Resource
Okay, Elaine-speak. The salvation Jesus brings is intended to change our whole character. It isn’t a plan to reward us for breathing.
We are rewarded for submitting to the Will of God.
We cannot save ourselves. It is only through the sacrifice of Jesus that the penalty for our sins was paid. Being a good person isn’t going to cut it.
The Plan of Salvation was designed to give God glory. Nothing more, nothing less.
It isn’t based on what don’ts we do and what do’s we don’t. It is based on Bod’s grace for us.
How Do We Apply This?
- Schedule our time so that we lose less of it.
- Form habits to govern our activity.
- Value our time because our eternity depends on what we do with it.
- Learn from our past mistakes so we can make better choices in the future.
- Don’t procrastinate.
- Stay focused on God.
- Be more than hearers/knowers — be doers.
- Seek God to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
- Make room in our hearts for the Holy Spirit to fill them.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
Resource
Father God. We choose to focus on You. We will do this by living our lives submitted to Your Will and filled with the Holy Spirit. Amen.
What do you think?
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