Daily Bread – April 6, 2022 (The Fourth Day – Genesis 1:14-19) Galatians 3:2-3 – This one thing I want to learn from you, did you receive the Spirit through the works of the law or through hearing of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit, do you now finish up by the flesh? Born Of The Spirit For Continual Cooperation With God This is a question each one of us must ask ourselves: Have we allowed God to work the miracle of the new birth in our lives through the Spirit only to turn to religious practices as a means of justification? (John 3:3; Titus 3:5; Ephesians 4:24). We were born of the Spirit of God so we can have a relationship with God – and live by the Spirit of God. God’s people must learn the principles of walking out a relationship with the Holy Spirit. This relationship should be like that which existed between the disciples and the Lord Jesus when He walked this Earth. Jesus told the disciples He would send them the Holy Spirit: the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17, 15:26). The Spirit of Truth is to both accompany us and dwell in us, so we might know all the things freely given to us by the Father. He is the One Who guides us, even as Jesus guided the disciples and showed them the Father, as well as all the things pleasing to the Father (John 16:12-13). The Holy Spirit takes us beyond the restraints of our own understanding, and fills us with the revelation of the Father (John 16:12,14; 1 Corinthians 2:9-10; Ephesians 1:17-18). He takes us beyond the confinement of our own human strength, and gives to us the strength of the Lord and the power of His might (Ephesians 6:10, 3:16; Colossians 1:11). One of the first principles of this relationship is that each person must recognize his/her life is over, and now that person is to live the life of Christ (1 Corinthians 6:20, 7:23; Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Galatians 2:20). We then turn to the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of life – in order to live out the life of Christ. We recognize the spiritual food provided for us in the Word of God, and we depend upon it even as we do natural food (John 6:63; Luke 4:4; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; Hebrews 4:12; 1 Peter 1:25). Through a life of prayer that is both speaking by the Spirit and having conversation with the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, we drink of the living water that fills us up to overflowing (Luke 3:21; Ephesians 6:18; James 5:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; 2 Thessalonians 1:11; John 4:10, 7:37-39). Through prayer, we participate in a communion that causes us to be continually filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18; Jude 1:20). Blessings, Pastor Mark Spitsbergen
Daily Bread 4/6/2022
