THE HOLY SPIRIT'S CONTROL

This week’s Devotionals will focus on “The Holy Spirit’s Control!”  The battle is on! Two formidable opponents, the Spirit vs the flesh, vying for dominance and who will win? Join us this week and let’s purpose to commit this scripture to memory and let’s hear what the Lord has given our Devotional writers to encourage us in our walk!

From the moment we are born we fight for self-control; we fight the light, we fight for breath, we fight the silence, we fight the stillness, we fight the hunger, and we challenge space as if we owned it, wishing it smaller and more manageable [or wishing ourselves bigger]. We come as a small goddish package until taught differently, and even with that we rebel. We holler. We riot. Enter, the parents.

Where the 'wine' of the world [or the world of 'wine'] distorts the good that ought to be, and makes a pedestal for the awful, the Spirit opens the door to the clarity, come of worship. The opposite of calamity is worship and such even tames the natural child, regardless of age.
Now the overseer parent of our spirit is God, the Holy Spirit, who in cultivating us, produces a person looking more and more like Jesus over time. Much as is evident with phototropism, we sprout and arise, much like plants defying resistance to reach toward the Sun, distinctive in our flowering... distinctive, but not perfect... hopefully prone to improving and growing 'up'.

Whether life gives us an intolerable season of stillness, or outside of ourselves the contention of a storm, the call is to not be worldly-filled, but to be filled and moved by the Spirit. Our default position is to lean upon the Word of God, and to yield to the Holy Spirit, by which the 'fruit of the Spirit' is declared. Know the 'Whom' which is your anchor, and embrace God unto trust. Let us then 'walk in the Spirit'. 'Goodness and mercy will follow' us, 'all the days of our lives' [says the Psalmist] as the residue of our redeemed, and redeeming lifestyle built upon our believing in Him, and His finished work. Life will be lived out as one of two species; worldly or worshipfully. Choose ye this day whom ye shall serve. Let go, and let God, and let the chips fall where they will.

Walk in the Spirit, and show LOVE. Walk in the Spirit and let JOY be reasonable. Walk in the Spirit and be at PEACE. Walk in the Spirit and let PATIENCE have her perfect work. Walk in the Spirit and value GENTLENESS. Walk in the Spirit for the GOODNESS God has shown you. Walk in the Spirit for the FAITH His faithfulness has raised. Walk in the Spirit and walk in HUMILITY before the majesty of the LORD. Walk in the Spirit, and let SELF-CONTROL matter much.

Paul, as a ship-board prisoner let all his fellow travelers know, during a severely threatening storm, just Whom His 'owner' was... by Whom he was anchored to an unfailing trust. In Acts 27, the storm was recorded, the panic was recorded, the failure of sailors was recorded, the steadfastness of Paul was recorded, and the salvation of the crew despite the destruction of the ship was recorded, as his walk in the Spirit was shown as fruitful. How was his determination in this crisis? "For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve..." Acts 27:23

Let us recognize what we have received, and let believing bring us to live better, to be holy, glorifying God, and letting our salvation speak to others. Walk in the Spirit. Amen.

Prayer: Dear Jesus, have Your way. Amen.
By Bro. McNeal Brockington