Hi family!
How are you today? I wanted to encourage you today about the baptism in the Holy Spirit because it is A SEPARATING FORCE. If you’re not baptized in the Holy Spirit and you are born again, the Scripture declares in Luke 11:13,
- If you then, being inherently evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?
So, according to this Scripture, all you have to do is ask Him. Being baptized in the Holy Spirit is an essential power if you want to live a victorious life serving God. I want to exhort you though, because Jesus says in Matthew 10:36,
- A man’s enemies will be those of his own household.
This is why the baptism in the Holy Spirit is A SEPARATING FORCE. But be encouraged because Jesus wants you sanctified, which means He’s called you to be separated from the world. Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:14,
- Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
This word, “difficult” in the Greek implies: to press, to press hard upon, a compressed way; narrow straitened, contracted. Metaphorically, it means trouble, affliction, and distress.
So, if you are being persecuted for righteousness’ sake, Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:10 that,
- Blessed are you if you’re being pursued in a hostile manner, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.
So, not only is the gate narrow that leads to life, but the world narrows up to you! Your old way of living has no room for you anymore, because the Holy Spirit binds you. You are bound to go the narrow way. You won’t want to conform to the world any longer. God doesn’t begin in the Spirit and lead you back to the flesh. You have no liberty to go back. Besides that, ask yourself, “Where are you going to go?”
The Apostle Paul tells us in Acts 20:22-24,
- And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
Being a true disciples of the Lord means we are separated from the flesh and we’re not conformed to the world. If you’ll do this, you will see you’re life grow deeper and larger and you’ll abound with all the fullness of God that flows from His throne.
So, will we draw back? I can’t. It costs a lot to come to the Lord, but it costs a thousand times more to retreat. Jesus said in Luke 14:26-28,
- If you want to be My disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison – your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters – yes, even your own life. Otherwise you cannot be My disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow Me, you cannot be My disciple. But don’t begin until you COUNT THE COST…
Oh, it is a costly thing to follow Jesus. But John 6:68 says,
- “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
I love the Lord Jesus with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, so I want to encourage you that there is no better life than a life that’s totally submitted to God. So, I ask You, Father, to cause our hearts to throb after Your divine call. You yearn over us with tender compassion. Your precious Holy Spirit overshadows us. We ask that You make us burning flames of fire, carrying salvation, healing and the baptism of the Holy Spirit everywhere we go. Oh what a thrilling life!
So, let’s keep the vision clear – pure in heart, upward, onward, heavenward, until the day break and the shadows flee away (Song of Solomon 2:17).
I exhort you to “set your house in order (Isaiah 38:1). Be jealous for God – He has the joy of heaven for you!
Living in the Holy Spirit,
Lisa Gordon
Jesus City Church
Glastonbury, CT