Next Step

It seems our lives are full of next steps.  Certainly lately, our family has been taking very frequent "next steps". There is still so much work to be done that it seems overwhelming at times.  But the good news is that the Lord is working. We are seeing changes and improvements. We are learning and slowly willingly submitting our lives.

This seems like a simple thing but it is not. We live in a time when you can go to church religiously and never "get it".  It is so sad. People are desperately broken.  I know this because it was out of such brokenness that I have begged the Lord's help.  In 2 Corinthians 4:5-12, it talks about us as fragile earthenware vessels.  We truly are.  Think of how many deal with depression, loneliness, unforgiveness, fear, anger, etc.  Often the circumstances of our lives in this broken world are difficult but perhaps the biggest problem is that the heart is deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9).  We believe the lies of the enemy and our own desires. Then we so often loose hope. Without hope what good is anything?

Because of my own journey, I am convinced that knowledge of the Holy Spirit is often what is missing.  Isn't that what seems missing for so many Christians.  How is that? How is it that we can profess to be Christians and yet not realize that the Holy Spirit Himself lives within us? We have the power and presence of our God within us!!!  If He does not live within you, then you are not a Christian.

“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." John 14:25-27

I want so badly to experience His spirit even as never before.  I don't want to miss a moment of Him and His work around me.  I was to be a usable vessel that is over flowing with His love which also fills every broken crack.  Fully submitted! Humbled! All His! Nothing held back! That would be daily victory in our King Jesus.

As God gives me such hunger to be closer to Him and in His will, I take another step forward.  Far too often they are baby steps, but I am prayerfully waiting and hoping for what might be a giant step.  Too much has been held back for too long.