Hi family!
I pray by the grace of God you are doing well and are blessed!
I wanted to encourage you today on the lines of the baptism in the Holy Spirit because it is A SEPARATING FORCE. It you are 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 a great essential power for living a victorious life and service to God. I want to encourage 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 has 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 are 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! The old company has no room for you anymore, because the Holy Spirit binds you. You are bound to go the narrow way. You will not want to conform to the world any longer. God does not begin in this Spirit and lead you back to the flesh. You have no liberty to go back. Besides that, ask yourself, “Where are you going to?”
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.
The way of the cross is separation from the flesh and nonconformity to the world. But in doing this, you will see an ever-deepening and enlarging life that will abound with the fullness of God that flows from His throne.
So, will we draw back? I cannot!. It costs so much to come, but it costs a thousand times more to retreat. Jesus says in Luke 14:26-28,
• If you want to be My disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison – your farther 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 such a costly thing to follow Jesus. But John 6:68 says,
• “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
I love the Lord Jesus Christ with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, so I want to encourage you that there is no other life than a life that is 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 flames of fire, carrying salvation, healing, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit everywhere we go. Oh what a thrilling life!
Let us keep the vision clear – pure in heart, upward, onward, and heavenward, until the day break and the shadows flee away (see Song of Solomon 2:17).
I exhort you to “set your house in order (see 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