Pastor's Thought For Today: Maintain A Right Spirit
Today's message is rather lengthy because I am becoming aware of a need for this teaching lately. I want to shed some light upon some issues that I am seeing.
There is a simplicity in all that God does. God has a way of speaking a simple Word over your life that gives you something in your heart that you know is your destiny to fulfill. What a wonderful blessing this truth is!
When you have read the life of Paul, you realize that God's first words to Ananias concerning Paul were fulfilled. when God told Ananias to lay hands on Paul, He said, "I will show you what great things he must suffer for My name's sake" (Acts 9:16 ). Then a whole life of suffering followed; yet how beautifully Paul related to the Lord Jesus Christ in it. Christ came forth in his life through it.
And so we realize that God was not concerned about how many things a man could suffer; He was concerned about manifesting Himself through all of that suffering and about deepening that man's relationship to Himself.
The apostle Paul indeed suffered many things, but through all his suffering, the presence of the Lord was demonstrated in his life. God would never have permitted the sufferings in Paul's life to any occasion of grumbling and complaining.
Those sufferings were to glorify Himself. God would never have allowed Paul to suffer so that he could say, "See how much I am suffering." In one instance in his letter to the Corinthians where he spoke about all the things he had suffered, he said, "I speak as a fool" ( II Corinthians 11:23 ). To him it seemed foolish even to recount what he had gone through in his sufferings.
The references to Paul's life, as well as other references in the Scriptures, reveal a very important truth. You will find that having a right spirit is related to the fulfillment of God's will in your life. God will never let you fulfill the things that He has promised for your life until you are prepared to do them with a right Spirit. Some people receive prophecies over their lives, and the next day they start walking in them. Other people with the same words for their lives, and with the same anointing and the same confirmation, cannot move; they cannot fulfill God's will. Year after year goes by and that Word is unfulfilled. Finally, after utter disaster in their lives, they come to the place where they begin to do the will of the Lord.
What keeps us from instant fulfillment? What keeps us from doing the will of the Lord with all our heart? The answer is within our own spirit. It is not really a matter of how many words God has spoken over a church, or what Word He has brought forth in the earth, or what people He has anointed and commissioned to fulfill His Word. What really counts is how each person is walking with God. How are you walking with God? How is your spirit?
We all may come to the place where instead of saying to a prophet, "How do you do," we will ask, "How do I do?" We will be more concerned about the things that are wrought in our own spirit. More than anything else, we will be concerned about our having a right spirit.
Faith has a way of bringing everything within our spirit to focus in submission and aggressive faith to do the will of the Lord. When a man's ministry does not work, look closely and you will see that his spirit was not actually right. It was not really the leading and the anointing of the Lord to fulfill the prophecy at that time because his spirit was not ready. The Word spoken over him was true; and when his spirit becomes right, he will have a glorious fulfillment.
There are many components of a right spirit. There must be an aggressive faith; there must be no withdrawal; there must be a willingness to sacrifice; there must be pure motivation; there must be a release from human ambition. To have a right spirit, there cannot be any bitterness in your spirit. A right spirit means that we have a broken and a contrite heart that God does not despise ( Psalm 51:17 ). David prayed, "Renew a right spirit within me. then I will teach transgressors Thy ways" ( verses 10, 13). The fulfillment of your ministry, the effectiveness and the fruitfulness that God wants to bring forth in your life, all begin with that renewal of a right spirit within your heart.
This truth may seem to be over-simplified in context with other truths that God has given; but we must deal with this need and pray, "Lord, what is in my spirit that hinders? What hinders me Lord? What is it in my spirit that is wrong?" It is very important to have a right spirit. The man who serves God in this hour must persistently keep his spirit open to God.
A right spirit has a focus on God and never alters its focus from God. If you have a wrong spirit, your spirit has been distracted and you are focused on something else. A person who has a wrong spirit focuses on a problem, or something someone said, or something that happened to him; his focus is not on the Lord. A right spirit focuses on God; a wrong spirit on something else.
Is something bothering you? Has something crippled you so that you are not functioning, you are not worshiping or moving ahead? Look to your spirit to see what is there. A right spirit focuses on God, but a wrong spirit focuses on circumstances, problems, and a number of other things.
The children of Israel murmured and complained. They did not like manna or anything else that God provided for them. Never once do we read that they were excited because of the pillar of fire, for the Shekinah glory of God that was actually leading them. They did not focus on that- they focused on something else because their spirits were wrong.
Renew a right spirit in us O God.
Have A Right Spirit
Avoid
carefully becoming stalemated in your life. Do not be so frustrated
that you say, "I can't understand why God doesn't do what He said. He
prophesied it; it is long overdue!" It is long overdue, but it is not
God who is overdue; your own spirit has to be right first.This truth may seem to be over-simplified in context with other truths that God has given; but we must deal with this need and pray. "Lord, what is in my spirit that hinders? What hinders me, Lord? What is it in my spirit that is wrong?"
James and John, the disciples wanted to bring down fire from heaven and burn people up. But the Lord said, "You do not know of what spirit you are." Luke 9:54-55.
It is very important to have a right spirit. The man who serves God in this hour must persistently keep his spirit open to God.
When you start opening up your spirit to the Lord and to everyone else around you more than you have before, then the enemy of the Lord will come against you. It seems that Satan is allowed to test you when, before the Lord, you say, "I want to be perfect in my way before the Lord. I want my spirit to really be right."
God allows you to be tested on it. And if you can come through the testing with a right spirit, you will be walking in the days of miracles again. It seems to be such a simple formula, but it becomes effective in everything you pray for. It opens the door. You will learn that when you say you are going to keep your spirit open, you have made a big statement. When you are going to have a right spirit, you have made a declaration.
Of all the things that frustrate us, that limit us, that lock us in a state of limitation, at least half of them come because we tolerate things in our spirit that are wrong. Yes,we tolerate them! Do you say, "Oh, it is just a little sin. It is not too bad. I have a little bit of a bad temper. I have a bad feeling about so-and-so, but I just put it aside." If you do, you are petting a tiger that will rise up at the wrong moment and keep you from doing the thing that God wants.
"Well how can God use me if I am angry all the time? I am under a cloud! I am defeated!" That is His way. He must show you what has to change. When the Lord finds a sore spot in your life, He begins to rub it, just like a chiropractor. He makes it hurt worse so that it will feel better later. That is the way the Lord deals with you. It is the way that He gets at your problems.
We have such a spirit of self-sympathy and understanding for ourselves that rarely do we believe we are really wrong. We always wish that the Lord would teach us discipline some other way.
II Thessalonians 1:10.
when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed...
People will see Jesus revealed in your life. You will become a barer of His presence to others. There will be miracles, there will be souls saved.
Have a right spirit!
WordWise Meat "Bitterness Of Spirit"
1 Corinthians 3:2
I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
Let us begin with some teaching about your human spirit.
Once in a while, some people seem to be ready to give up. Actually, they reached a place where fatigue and pressure have caused them to either go on a crying jag or eat a gallon of ice cream or do something even a little more foolish. But they tend to pull out of that state because it has not deeply affected their spirit. It was usually an isolated incident that did not have much permanent significance. It was a safety valve. They blew off a little steam and repented, "Lord, I'm sorry that I was ready to run the other way!" Then they usually press on.
It is not easy to help Christians who have experienced difficulties which have deeply affected their spirit. The serious problems occur when difficulties reach a person's spirit. I am always amazed to read in the Scriptures that the disciples were able to penetrate down into a person's spirit. An incident such as this occurred in the eight chapter of the book of Acts.
Philip had gone down to Samaria because of the persecutions which scattered the Christians after the stoning of Stephen. Philip performed great miracles and signs there, and he preached and won the whole city to the Lord (Verse 6). In Acts 8:14-17 we read, Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit.
Peter and John were ministering to the believers in Samaria when something unusual happened. Verses 17 through 24 tell a story which illustrates how the apostles penetrated into the spirits of the people to whom they ministered.
The apostles conclusions were not occasioned by what they saw or by the actions of an individual. Rather, they penetrated into his spirit, which was and is the determining factor.
This is important and of interest to us, because today people are generally evaluated by their actions. We might automatically assume that a person has a bad spirit if he hits someone. We tend to reason by the physical action that he commits, rather than to discern what was in his spirit. If we could reach his spirit, we could help him before he starts hitting someone.
Let us see what happened when Peter and John began laying their hands on the believers and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles hands, he offered them money, saying, "Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit."
We cannot blame Simon too much for offering them money; he was not familiar with the grace of God. He recognized their authority, and he thought this was great; he had never seen anything like it. But Peter said to him, "May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God."
Peter exposed what was in Simon's heart, rather than judging him by his actions.
Notice how Peter dealt with Simon's spirit. "Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of inquity." But Simon answered and said, "Pray to the Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me." Acts 8:18-24.
Peter gave us a good example of how to deal with someone's spirit. People ask questions about everything; and when you listen to them, you know that something is not right. They do not want information; they are trying to put you in a corner. Others ask questions; and you perceive immediately, "This person's spirit is open to the Lord. There is no gall of bitterness here. This is an honest seeker."
If we were to go up and down the highways and byways and try to talk to people about things of the Lord, many would say, "I can't be bothered." Among those who would talk, we might be rather amazed that although some would ask the same questions as others, they would have an entirely different attitude of heart. Some would have a bitter spirit.
Talk to some people about religious Babylon, and they may say, "You don't need to talk to me about Babylon! I don't know about Babylon, but I will tell you what my church did to me and what our church was like and what they are doing. It was terrible!"
There is bitterness in their spirits. That bitterness keeps coming out by their lashing at everything. Talk to another man and you may find that he is not bitter in his spirit. He may have gone through similar experiences and could be bitter, but he is not. In his spirit, in his heart, he has a deep overriding hunger for God. and because he has a right spirit, he has not been embittered by the difficulties he experienced. Although he may have been very upset at the time, he did not retain any bitterness in his heart.
Simon the magician was rightly discerned by Peter, though he seemed to be an honest inquirer: "I want to lay my hands on people and see them receive the Holy Spirit, too. What a neat trick!" However, behind his inquiry was not just the motivation to buy a gift of God with money. Even more than that, he was in the gall of bitterness. Deep in his heart he had no part or lot with God. Peter said, "Your heart is not right with God. You have no part or portion in this matter." Not one thing was right because bitterness had cut him off.
Bitterness can be a great deceiver. It is surprising how many people hide their bitterness so well that it is difficult to detect. Sometimes this happens in a marriage. A wife may act pious in church, but be very bitter at home over the way her life has turned out. At times, we see this also in husbands. Colossians 3:19 says, Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Bitterness can build up, until after a while a veneer of toleration exists, while actually that bitterness goes down deep.
Some of the seemingly religious and spiritual homes should be analyzed for bitterness. Though entire families go through the right motions, at times there are uprisings of insidious criticism. They talk sweetly; their terminology is just right; their inflections of voice are just right. but look a little closer. Within these families there is bitterness. There is not the deep love. Tension and edginess come out. There is that gall of bitterness beneath the surface.
Do you realize where bitterness really is? Proverbs 14:10 says, "The heart knoweth his own bitterness." Doesn't this seem true? We have a way of detecting the bitterness that we accumulate within our own spirit. When you think back on the people who have stopped walking with God, you cannot point to any specific problem that was too much for them to bear. The reactions in their spirits, more than anything else, caused some to lose out.
Others, who went through the same problems stayed on. Maybe you excuse a brother for losing out because he seemed to have so much to put up with. Maybe you thank God for the work he did, and you think, "He was a good man at heart." Take another look. All the way along the bitterness of his spirit may have been constantly building up a reaction in him to the testings that were taking place.
When someone else went through the same testings, God used them as a catalyst to prepare his spirit to go on into deeper things of the Lord and to seek Him with all of his heart.
In Hebrews 12:5-6 we read, "Do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines... Any time you go through a testing which seems to cloud your walk with God, be aware that the problem is not the testing; the real problem is your reaction to it in your spirit.
Walking with God in the Body of Christ is deeply personal. It is between you and the Lord. It is not based on the way the Body of Christ treats you. It is not based upon the way that your brother treats you. Good strong ministries, who should walk on with the Lord and be on top of every situation, sometimes begin to blame their circumstances and other people for the fact that they are not moving in the Lord.
Passivity and bitterness build up in their spirits. Their bitterness builds up while everyone else is breaking through. In the same worship services, we see some breaking forth to become prophets of God and others losing out because of their own bitter spirits.
People react differently, and the difference in their reactions often is based upon the bitterness or the brokenness of their spirits. What is in your spirit? A broken, contrite heart before God? or bitterness? Look back and analyze a time when you were in trouble. It was not necessarily the severity of the circumstance that caused the problem as much as it was your own spirit reacting to it.
Bitterness of spirit does not always result in people becoming vicious and leaving the church and criticizing it. they do not always react that way. Some keep going to services without ever becoming active. Meanwhile bitterness is in their spirits. Then in a difficult situation they become champions to criticize everyone else. Their bitterness may manifest itself in numerous ways. Sometimes they become aggressively defensive to a point of blaming someone else. But more than blaming someone else, they may even pose as being very spiritual.
In the New Testament churches that are coming forth today, there are people with beautiful, hungry, tender spirits who wholeheartedly press on with the lord. There are others with beautiful spirits who love the lord with all their heart, but they cannot seem to adjust to intense expressions of music and intercession. Still they worship and pray in their own way and keep a right spirit. At the other end of the spectrum are some people with bitterness! They may be critical and withdraw, or they may become aggressive to a point of berating everyone else.
How are we to deal with this? how can we deal with the varying responses of the human spirit to the things that happen? It would be marvelous if we would all bow down broken before the Lord. then He could give us an overall vision of the Kingdom and of the people who are ready to be brought in. With a right spirit coming forth, we could forget ourselves and bring other people in.
What kind of spirit should we have? We should not be self defensive or self assertive, but in our spirit we should be dedicated to bring forth the will of God in people's lives. If our dedication does not lead to this, we are not motivated in the right direction. A wrong spirit always dead ends before the true issues arise.
A wrong spirit stops at an impasse without seeing the great issues of the Lordship of Christ and His Kingdom coming all over the world. A wrong spirit always stops one at the local, personal level. It can ground you.
Do you realize the amazingly simple wisdom there is in this message? You can apply it to a thousand situations; to what you have experienced and what you are in now; to what other people have gone through and what they are in now. You will see how to best assist and help others.
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
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