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- Written by: Don Goulding
So then, brothers and sisters, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh (for if you live according to the flesh, you will die), but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. (Romans 8:12, 13)
Three enemies plague me—the world, the flesh, and the devil. It’s the one in the middle–the flesh–that is the most dangerous. The world and Satan are menacing to be sure, but neither of them can touch the real me in my spirit. Only my flesh can volunteer my whole being for hell.
I am my enemy. The battle of life is against my carnal nature. I fight the world’s injustice when I find it, and I’m zealous to attack that murdering lier, Satan. Now it’s time to stand in the power of Christ against my own waywardness.
Today, I admonish myself. Know your failures. Be strategic. Don’t compromise with your darker self.
Rather than more losses, commit this day to gain ground for Christ. When you lose a battle, don’t wave the white flag in resignation, but regroup and resume the war.
Most importantly, deploy the filling of the Holy Spirit. The world, the flesh, and the devil all melt in the presence of the Spirit of Jesus. Seek his filling early and often.
If Jesus has already died for my sin, then why is it important that I battle so fiercely? The answer is simple. Gains against the fleshly nature result in character. Character is the bullion of eternity. Why leave those gains on the table, unclaimed?
On this battleground, and against your carnal you, your entire future will be made or destroyed. Be bold. No matter how much you love your old self, rout him as the enemy he is.
Prayer: Present Holy Spirit, help me in today’s battle against myself.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. (Psalms 51:11) (NIV)
I walked in the life-throbbing forest mouthing prayers of thankfulness, and the press about me increased.
Over tuna sandwiches, a friend effervesced about the joy of Jesus’s touch, and the heavenly ether thickened.
A timid inchworm worked his way across my table. I wondered at the diversity of creation, and the spiritual barometer rose.
Dozens of experiences each day add to the quickening pressure of God’s presence. I feel it, revel in it, and hunger for it. The evidence is never direct, and yet, it remains my everything.
It is the pressure of the presence that lifts my head above the clouds. Troubles clamor and clutch, but they do it down below in the thunderheads. Up here, joy, peace, and love hold hands around me. It would be madness to break out of their fun and sink into worldly chaos.
How do unbelievers face life without the Spirit of God? They must be another species—a life form that exists where I cannot imagine. Were his presence to leave me, I would revert to animal life. I could eat, talk, and breathe, yet I’d only be an organism, like a flea or a paramecium.
God, if ever you have to leave me, please erase my existence first so I’ll not have to experience the loss of you. Surround me with the worst of nightmares. Send me to face demons if you must, but I beg you, don’t take your Spirit from me.
Prayer: I praise you again, Holy Spirit, for the pressure of your presence.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the one who was proclaimed among you by us - by me and Silvanus and Timothy - was not “Yes” and “No,” but it has always been “Yes” in him. For every one of God’s promises are “Yes” in him… (2 Corinthians 1:19, 20)
God asked man to love him above all else. Man said no. That no reverberated through time into every crevice of life.
Is nature healthy? No. Will you live forever? No. Are you whole without God? No.
No is the most devastating word in any language. It condemns us to suffer for eternity.
Jesus came so that everyone living in the world might have a second chance at God’s question. “Through my Son will you love me above all else?”
When we say yes, anything a purified imagination dreams is granted with a laughing, almighty yes. God, do you love me? Yes. Do you forgive me? Yes. Are you with me? Yes.
Say yes to God through Christ, and he will say yes to you through eternity. It sounds easy, but this world slams noes into our face with such frequency that we lose hope in the word yes. Rejection is a no. Loss of health and income are more noes. The noes pile up until it’s difficult to see a yes right in front of us.
God’s yes resounds, it knocks down our heap of noes. But He doesn’t merely remove our noes, he converts them into yeses. As we hand each no to him, trusting in his recompense, he redeems them to yeses of eternal reward. Such is his mighty power over every no.
In Christ, life is yes. Yes, yes, and forever yes.
Prayer: Father in heaven, I rest in your yes.