Living from My Spirit

When I am living from my spirit, my mind and my body will always demonstrate the appropriate response.

Living from my spirit means my actions, my words and my body language are not dictated by what I feel but are determined by the truth I know in my spirit.  Living from my spirit means that my attitude is reined in and aligned with the word of God.  Because at that time, I’m not living for my emotions, I am living in obedience to God and His word.

Why is it so important not to be ruled by my feelings or emotions? Because there can only be one captain on every ship.  Either your feelings and circumstances rule you or Jesus does.  You can’t have it both ways.  Someone must always be in control. The bible says you can’t serve two masters.

Living from my spirit means I’m living from a place of revelation and truth not feelings.  Yes, sometimes my feelings and thoughts are totally in line with the truth.  Other times, they’re not.  That’s why I have to take courage from 2 Corinthians 10:5 “…bringing every thought into captivity” means that I must not be a captive of my feelings or thoughts.  It has to be the other way around.  And the way that I do that is by acting out of the truth that I know in my spirit.

When my feelings, emotions and thoughts are unruly I can pull from the strength that’s in my inner man (spirit) and make a conscious decision to believe God.

“That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.” Ephesians 3:16

Believing God is not just something I confess with my mouth I must act it out.  My faith is proven by my actions. This means I must carry out actions and convictions that demonstrate what I believe in my heart.

When I am living from my spirit, I choose to believe the unseen realm more than the physical realm.

Living from my spirit means that I embrace an eternal perspective. I always say, everything in life is perspective.  The way you choose to look at life and God makes all the difference in the world.  The way God sees things and the way man sees things can sometimes be worlds apart (Isaiah 55:8).  However, when I allow my mind to be renewed by the Spirit of God and the word of God, I start to see things the way God sees them.  I see things from the view of eternity.  When you look at your circumstances from the point of view of eternity, it makes all the difference.  It’s what I call high-level vision (Hebrews 11:16).

When you start to see things from Heaven’s viewpoint you realize that everything isn’t about you.  It can be difficult to embrace the idea that “everything is not all about me.” Should that revelation be so hard to accept?  Think about it, someone paid a price for you to have the faith you have today and have the type of relationship you have with the Lord.  Is it so unreasonable to expect you to pay the same price for the next generation?

God expects us to be a people that choose to eat only from the tree of life.  What this means is that we trust Him to tell us what is good and what is evil.  We relinquish our independence and give up the right to choose for ourselves.  We say to Him, whatever You decide is fine with me because I know all things are working together for good. And if we trust Him to work all things together for good, then we are free to rejoice and praise Him even when our circumstances don’t seem favorable.  Jesus died on the cross so He could give me a choice.  His sacrifice gave me the choice to obey God even when my soul or my body doesn’t want to. Prior to salvation, we had no power to obey God.  We just followed whatever our feelings or nature directed us to do.  But when we received His glory within us, He gave us the power to choose. So, even if things aren’t looking favorable or things don’t seem to be going my way, I can still worship Him. This is the power of grace.

I implore you to build yourself up in your most holy faith and in your spirit that you may learn to live from a place of strength.

© Solape Osoba 2011

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Necessity of Vulnerability

Vulnerability can be hard but I find it absolutely necessary.  In order to be deeply connected with the heart of God we have to be willing to be vulnerable. Father God was vulnerable with us when He gave up His very best.  He gave up Jesus on our behalf.

I don’t know anyone that is more vulnerable than God.  Everyday, He stands there presenting His Son to the world saying, “See, I gave up My precious Son for you.  I allowed Him to be bruised, whipped and pierced through for you so that we could be together.  Isn’t that great?” And day after day, many in the world say no, they’re not interested in salvation or in God. Many in the world turn away.  No one is more vulnerable than God.  No one has had to deal with rejection more than God.

God invites us to this deep place of vulnerability because it’s the path to a deep place of love.  It’s what apostle Paul really wanted.  Many people like to teach and preach about verses they understand but here’s one verse that I don’t understand.

“that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,” Philippians 3:10

I am still learning about what it means to be conformed to Christ’s death.  That’s still a puzzle to me. I do however think often about this phrase “the fellowship of His sufferings”.  What could Paul mean about joining in with Christ and His sufferings?  Could he be referring to going through persecution or martyrdom? Maybe.

I was lying in bed one morning and started to think about this phrase in terms of vulnerability.  God’s love for us was put on display when Jesus was crucified.  Jesus hung naked on the cross.  He was punished publicly and openly. He had never been more vulnerable and the Father’s heart had never been more transparent.

Today He asks us to be vulnerable with people by loving them over and over and over again.  Even when they reject us and reject the One who sent us. Love them anyway.  When you take a step of faith for the kingdom and you experience some sort of rejection from people-love them. God is saying, “Yes, you are experiencing just what I feel-the fellowship of His sufferings.”  He hurts too when people turn Him down and when we experience the same rejection, we hurt.  It brings us to a place of intimacy that we wouldn’t be able to understand otherwise. We enter into communion with Him and feel what He feels. What do we do, while we’re standing there all hurt and rejected?  We go to the One that understands our suffering and we have fellowship with Him.

© Solape Osoba 2011

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

In the Secret Place

Psalm 91:1 NKJV

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

 

Song of Solomon 2:14 AMP

[So I went with him, and when we were climbing the rocky steps up the hillside, my beloved shepherd said to me] O my dove, [while you are here] in the seclusion of the clefts in the solid rock, in the sheltered and secret place of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.

Psalm 91 talks about the protection that we get from being in the secret place of the Most High. We’ve all heard teaching about how to enter the secret place and how to abide there. Spend time in praise, spend time in worship, welcome His manifest presence then stay there. My question lately has been, once I get into the secret place, what do I do?

If I think of the secret place as a place where two close friends come together to have fellowship and share secrets, then it clues me into what should happen there. Some might say well, once I get into the presence of the Almighty I’m going to war against all of His enemies and mine. Is that all the secret place is about?

Others might say, when I’m the secret place I pour out my heart to Him and I talk to Him about my needs and prayer requests. I can’t imagine a couple sitting at a romantic dinner then all of a sudden one spouse whips out a clip board and starts to go through a laundry list of issues that need to be solved and the latest problems that just came up. Nothing about that seems intimate or secret.

One day, I stumbled upon Song of Solomon 2:14 in the Amplified version and I found the term “secret place” again. The Beloved is speaking to the Young Woman (the Bride) and He says, “….while you are here…in the secret place…let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely.”

Ok so let me get this right, once I’m in the secret place my Beloved just wants to look at me and hear me talk? Wow!!! That’s weird. I don’t know about you but it made me feel uncomfortable to think that Jesus loves me that much. When we have our quiet time He just wants to hear my voice and look at my face. To Him, it is sweet and lovely. No binding and loosing, no songs of worship, no exaltations-just intimacy. Just be-ing is enough for Him. Wow!

© Solape Osoba 2011

Living Worry-Free

I have found that as humans we focus way too much on things we cannot control. I’m not talking about contending for healing or financial breakthrough. We should continue to pray persistently until we see the Lord’s promises manifest. But there are certain circumstances in our lives that have to be handed over to the Lord. We just have to trust Him to come through for us. In those areas, people (however well intentioned) always seem to try to get us to fret or worry.

Or worse yet, they suggest that we take things into our own hands.

Why should I worry about something that I have no control over? If I worry then I find myself in the pit of despair and self-pity. When that happens I am no longer living under the light and revelation of God’s ever-present goodness and power in my life. Then I become highly un-resourceful; unable to encourage myself or bless the people around me who need it.

I’ve decided to just shrug my shoulders at things that other people choose to take on as burdens. I give them all to my Lord and Savior. He’s good at carrying burdens. “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.” 1 Peter 5:7 NLT

Why is it so important that we give our cares to Jesus? Well for one, the bible tells us that there are those who will receive a great word from God but the cares of this world will choke them out.

Mark 4: 18-19 NLT

The seed that fell among the thorns represents others who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced.

I want to produce fruit, don’t you? So, I have to be on guard against any worry that would try to crowd out the seed of God’s word in my heart. I want His promises to go deep and produce a mighty harvest in my life.

© Solape Osoba 2011 

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Freedom in the Spirit: Manifestations

I wonder if so many people would have an issue with manifestations of the Spirit if it were something generally accepted by the church.  I mean you don’t see people debating over soul winning or bible study. Why is that?  Those two practices have become accepted and celebrated in the body of Christ.  As a result, few people have a problem with them.  Manifestations of the Spirit are still criticized, scrutinized and looked down upon in many places in the body of Christ.  I wonder if that has anything to do with all the conundrum around it.  Maybe it’s worth considering why we’re so bothered by them or even why we’re so comfortable with them.

Some people are bothered when there are manifestations others are bothered when there aren’t any. I think at the core of this is security-a heart issue.  The Father’s love and our identity in Christ, fixes that.  We should be able to love anyone regardless of his or her outward demeanor, denomination or doctrinal beliefs.  Love is not conditioned on agreement.  I love because I choose to love.

The drive to reduce or control manifestations in corporate settings is sometimes influenced by the fear of man.  In my opinion, the fear of man is idolatry.  When we fear man it means we have put man in a place where God should be. If the fear of man is motivating our need to control people or settings then we need to repent and change our way of thinking.  I will not trade my relationship with God for the approval of men.  Our need for control is simply an expression of fear.

It’s important not to major in something that Paul only minored in.  Policing the church is not mentioned as one of the five-fold ministry gifts nor is it mentioned as one of the gifts to the Church.  Paul did this from time to time but he was an apostle and a father.  Therefore, he was rightly positioned to correct the church and help them foster what the Lord was doing.

Many people are able to quote 1 Corinthians 14:40 (let all things be done decently and in order) but few even know what verse 39 says.  1 Corinthians 14:39 AMP is Paul’s conclusion to what he had been saying in the previous chapters.  So in a sense, we can consider verse 39 as the end of chapter 14.  It says:

“So [to conclude], my brethren, earnestly desire and set your hearts on prophesying (on being inspired to preach and teach and to interpret God’s will and purpose), and do not forbid or hinder speaking in [unknown] tongues.”

Paul knew that human nature would try to formulate rules and live on extremes.  So his warning and conclusion to us, is not to forbid or hinder the gifts of the Spirit in any way.

I also think that our persuasion when it comes to manifestations is highly influenced by our earthly culture. If I randomly pick five Christians from five continents I bet they would all give me a different definition of “decently and in order.”

I remember once I was visiting my cousin back home in Nigeria and was spending the weekend with her.  This meant that I would have to go to her church on Sunday.  I was glad to because she was really excited about her church and was plugged in there.  I was pretty comfortable with the church and was looking forward to the service.  Then the praise and worship started.  The next thing I knew people were dancing all over the place.  I consider myself a fairly good dancer but these people were totally “getting down” with Jesus.  I was blown away when I noticed the Pastor take off his jacket so he could dance even more wildly. It was great. After the service, my cousin asked me “why weren’t you dancing?” What? I was totally dancing but I guess my idea of dancing was stiff compared to what they were used to.  You see, decently and in order for them was dancing until you broke a sweat and had to lose an article of clothing. The same can be said of how we view people experiencing God in a corporate setting.

Do we have a priority for orderliness or for transformation?  Do we want revival or a nice, pleasant move of God?  We tend to defend whatever we have a high value for.  Let us not lose ground in what other people have fought for and have bled for.

Our goal should be to map heaven on earth.  Let the values of that heavenly world be the blueprint for how we live in this one.

© Solape Osoba 2011