Take Some Initiative: Fan into Flames the Gift Within

[Vine Abider]

I really enjoyed and am chewing on what I read today in a devotional (see blue below), which I think has HUGE implications for our practical Christian lives, that is, how we actually pursue the Lord and know Him each day!

Take a look at the devotion's header verse below (in bold blue) from Jude 20-21.  We can build ourselves up and keep ourselves in the love of God.  How?  By praying in the Holy Spirit!  It does not say that we are keeping God loving us - NO!  He always loves us! But how do we actively keep ourselves and our hearts in His love?  It says by praying in the HS.  So we are to keep talking to Him and bringing Him everything!  When we feel or think we're out of it and that He doesn't love us, His love is still a fact and we are still His beloved children - this is solid. But our feelings may be all over the place . . . so what is the way to bring ourselves back into alignment with what is true?  We must pray and reconnect with Him!

This reminds me of something of a sister verse in Philippians 2:12,  "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure."  Yes, He has done it all for us - He died in our place and for our sins, now has put His life in us to make us His born-again children.  But again, our hearts wander all over the place - in and out of His reality, into fear and condemnation, etc.  BUT WE JUST NEED TO TAKE THE INITIATIVE, PRAY AND RECONNECT ONCE AGAIN WITH HIS SPIRIT IN US! Just start telling Him something simple, like: "Thank you Lord you died for me.  Thanks for being so good and faithful to me. Lord help me in my weakness . . ."

Another like verse:  "Fan into flames the gift of God which is in you."  (2 Tim 1:6) I fan this gift into flames in a number of ways - praying, chewing on His word, singing, fellowshipping, being of service to others, etc.  How about you?

"But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." Jude 20-21

God's love is made up of the Spirit's transmission. The Spirit transmits all that is in this love--God's choice and His plan, Christ's redemption, resurrection, ascension, and intercession. Now we can have the reality of this love in our experience. We can have "the good" of it by the Holy Spirit. The participial phrase "praying in the Holy Spirit" modifies "keep yourselves in the love of God." So the way we keep ourselves in the love of God is by praying in the Holy Spirit. When we pray in the Holy Spirit, we enter the realm of the poured-out love of God. This is how we keep our hearts in the unconditional love of God.

It is so easy for a day to go by--you go to work and come home. Maybe you have been burdened down with all the cares of life and have had no prayer and fellowship with the Lord. You feel somewhat beaten down. And you feel like God does not love or care about you that much. You do not have the present enjoyment of His love in your sensation. But Jude tells us, "Keep yourselves in the love of God." Take some initiative now. Do not go away from the love, but keep yourself in it. He tells you how--"praying in the Holy Spirit." It is not praying just from your mind, but praying in the Holy Spirit. That means you use your spirit to pray, fellowship, talk, call out, cry out, and sing. This activates your spirit and brings you into the realm of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes there is a breaking-through period, but the principle is that we can keep ourselves in the love of God. This is God's unconditional love toward us through the Spirit's transmission.

As we see the composition of God's love, we discover that it is not just a shallow, superficial feeling in God. This love is eternal. This love can never be defeated or frustrated, because it met the devil, it met sin, it met every obstacle, and it overcame. It overcame through death, through resurrection, and through ascension. And now this love is transmitted into us by the Holy Spirit.

HALLELUJAH!!!

[Neighbor]

Shepherd/Pastor Jim Coy  used to say  he would take time each day and simply ask of God, "Is it good between you and me? "He encouraged each of us to do the same between  God and ourselves asking is there something I need tend or change?

Like that old old song  have"Just a little talk with Jesus" ....

[Solus Christus]

5 hours ago, Vine Abider said:This reminds me of something of a sister verse in Philippians 2:12,  "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure."  Y

I did want to bring up the full thought of that verse in Philippians:

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13). Its Jesus who does the work, He died on the cross. We also need to account for that in the same epistle to the Philippians Paul says, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—” (Philippians 3:8-9)

I learned that epistles were meant to be read as a whole, like an email, not broken up, hence Romans has points at the beginning that connect to middle and end of the book. 

[Neighbor]

1 hour ago, Solus Christus said:

I learned that epistles were meant to be read as a whole, like an email, not broken up, hence Romans has points at the beginning that connect to middle and end of the book. 

Yep! The addition of verse numbering within text is a bit of a plague introduced by Stephanus in 1555 that hinders reading ( Within most Bibles) for fuller comprehension to this day.  

[Solus Christus]

2 minutes ago, Neighbor said:

Yep! The addition of verse numbering within text is a bit of a plague introduced by Stephanus in 1555 that hinders reading ( Within most Bibles) for fuller comprehension to this day.  

The numbering system is useful for finding things in Scripture, but the issue is Paul and other writers are creating a larger picture and thought via the whole epistle, and so breaking it in pieces as you said causes an issue. Would be neat if someone made a Bible with no chapters or verses. 

Edited July 25, 2023 by Solus Christus

[Neighbor]

1 minute ago, Solus Christus said:

Would be neat if someone made a Bible with no chapters or verses. 

ActuallyI found one used but clean in a Christian book store a New English complete with Apocrypha for $5.00

It has small verse numbers in the margins, but does not separate text at all. It reads like a book, so I can see paragraphs and even pages at a time, doing the Evelyn Woods reading technique. I think I am improving in comprehension as I read. 

More on topic, that helps me greatly  as I peruse what is being revealed to me, that I may better pursue confirming  within the word what I believe to be the lead of the Holy Spirit in daily matters.

 

[Solus Christus]

10 minutes ago, Neighbor said:

ActuallyI found one used but clean in a Christian book store a New English complete with Apocrypha for $5.00

It has small verse numbers in the margins, but does not separate text at all. It reads like a book, so I can see paragraphs and even pages at a time, doing the Evelyn Woods reading technique. I think I am improving in comprehension as I read. 

More on topic, that helps me greatly  as I peruse what is being revealed to me, that I may better pursue confirming  within the word what I believe to be the lead of the Holy Spirit in daily matters.

 

Nice find! I am going to try and find a Bible without separate text. 

[Vine Abider]

13 hours ago, Neighbor said:

More on topic, that helps me greatly  as I peruse what is being revealed to me, that I may better pursue confirming  within the word what I believe to be the lead of the Holy Spirit in daily matters.

 

I like that - letting the Spirit guide you as to where you should stop!

13 hours ago, Solus Christus said:

Nice find! I am going to try and find a Bible without separate text. 

Often times the chapter breaks are placed so awkwardly and very apparent the writer's thought didn't make the same break - that can be a distraction.  Several bible translators try to counter this by using that little "pilcrow" symbol (¶) denoting a paragraph, which is sometimes helpful.

 

[Vine Abider]

So back to the topic - taking the initiative. It's taken me quite some time, to start to begin to commence to realize that He is waiting on us to take the initiative.

I know this borders on "God helps those who help themselves" thinking . . . but it's really more like "God helps those who turn to Him!"

He's done it all and He's given it all to us.  He has given us the Good Land, which is just a picture of Christ and all His riches. We must now take the initiative to go and lay hold and possess it.  Though the giants may be big, they are grasshoppers in His sight!  Apart from Him we can't do it, but with Him we are well able to possess it.

Therefore we take the initiative to "fan into flames the gift of God" within us (which is Christ in us).  No matter our feelings or even whether we feel/think we have faith, we turn to Him and exercises ourselves unto Godliness.

This is one big reason why we need the saints. I can't tell you how many times I felt down and/or inadequate, but I just got with some fellow believers to sing, pray, fellowship and get into the word.  Viola - my born-again, joined to Him spirit (1 Cor 6:17) is enlivened and I then am encouraged to say, "With Him we are well able to possess this land!"

He is able. We can do nothing apart from Him, but we can take the initiative to call out to Him and energize our spirit . . . and then be lead of Him into all that is true!

[Vine Abider]

Been thinking about this - how He's given it all to us and now He's waiting on us to reach out and possess what He's already given!

I still have a lot of the "I'm here waiting on God's Spirit to fall on me and bless me" idea in me!  But what does the word say?  He's already given us every spiritual blessing in Christ!

Over and over in scripture I'm seeing that the thing He wants us to realize, is that we are now to take the initiative and "Rise!  Kill and eat!" It's not about going out and doing something on our own - of our own energy & flesh, but rather first nourishing ourselves in spirit with what He's already given us. (and from this we have the spiritual strength to do His work)

So does anybody else see this?