January 29 2015

January 29 2015 Greetings My Friend I read another Bible passage today about “being in the Spirit” and I find that I am truly understanding “being in the Spirit” more, I am absorbing this deep inside of me. I understood the meaning but did know how to apply it to myself. As I absorb this I review that since I asked Jesus into my heart in earnest I have been growing and learning and in that I find myself changing. When I began reading the Bible I absorbed God’s love for me and His creation. After I started feeling God’s love as a constant and not taken away depending on my actions I finally knew what love looked like and felt like. My journey to this moment has been just that a journey. Some days were better than others in my changing than other days. Slowly though a “new person” was forming and I kept liking this new “me”. For me the journey I take through the Bible each year works the best. In the Bible I am amazed at all the lessons I keep learning. I have learned about Agape love, truth in love, reaching outside of “me” and out to others in need and so much more. All of this was due to the help of the Holy Spirit and on one level I understood it and another I did not. Since I can’t say I feel Him. My idea of feeling Him in me was skewed at best. I thought when I was overcome with the Holy Spirit I would start speaking in tongues, be dancing and raising my hands etc. This happens to some people but no one can be in the Holy Spirit like that 24/7. I felt that I should feel Him in this way all the time or feel Him daily in this way. Wrong. Today I sense His quiet presence in my life. I realize I don’t want to allow my mind to go down some paths of lust, greed or gossip. Many times the thoughts come and I have learned to pray and ask for God to remove the thought, the desire and I am amazed when it goes away in a snap of a finger. The Holy Spirit convicts me, I sense the conviction so I ask for help and I get the help I need to not have those thoughts. In the home I grew up in we had put down humor and I believe the put down was truly meant as well. I developed this way of reasoning, speaking and even thinking. The more I hated it as I got older the more I did it and as I started my faith journey I sensed God teaching me to look for the good in people instead of each fault. This was a new concept and I was enjoying it. As I learned to look for the good in people I met people who saw good in me. They saw my talents and encouraged me. The more good I heard and the more I was encouraged I learned to speak good and encourage. I believe I am encourager and this is one of my spiritual gifts. God showed me what He wanted from me and as I learned to change (obey) I found a desire growing within me. I have loved writing from childhood on. I was rusty and all over the place as I began my writing journey. God directed my steps, the people I came across that mentored me and in a few short years I started writing. Today I am writing something daily and sharing my writing with others. The Holy Spirit has taught me and guided me. When I married Junior I did not want to be the kind of wife I was in my previous marriage. Divorce Recovery taught me I contributed to the demise of my marriage even if I felt I was a victim and as I absorbed this lesson I asked God to teach me to be a wife, the wife Junior needs. Being in the Spirit seems to be a daily walk and a lot of it is in the quiet of my heart. The heart is where I decide to be what God wants and not what I want. A passage goes something like “What does God desire? He desires, mercy, just scales, kindness, helping the widow and orphan.” The more I learn to desire these things the more I find myself doing them. I like learning to walk in the Spirit. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet.