Sorrow/Grief Blog 7

Greetings, precious saints of the triune God . . . the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Again, I find myself continuing to write about the peace stealer - “Sorrow/Grief”! One would expect non-Christians to be wallowing in sorrow and grief, in that tragically, they are living in the flesh and are standing on “sifting sands”, but surely not God’s children who are to be standing on the Rock of Jesus Christ. Jesus tells us, “Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who build his house on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24-27) In keeping this analogy, we must keep in mind what is written in James 1:22-25 “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in the mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of a man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the word, this one will be blessed in what he does,”

We, therefore, must first “hear” what the Holy Spirit is saying to us or we would not have any idea of that which we are to be “doers”! It is here that it is crucial that we keep in mind the first step in the importance of hearing what the Holy Spirit is saying to us! It must be declared, however, that a believer, meaning born again, must also become “Spirit-filled” – i.e. asking the Holy Spirit to “fill” (baptizing) him/her. Please keep in mind just Who God is . . . the triune God . . . God the Father, Jesus, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, thus, the “Three in One”!

The Holy Spirit, obviously then, is found throughout the entire Bible . . . from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22-21. In the New Testament (Matthew 3:16-17), Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist then “the heavens were opened to Him and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alightening upon Him, and suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’”

This then was the beginning of the availability of the Holy Spirit to believers as we read in Acts 1 verses 4 and 8

4 “And being assembled together with them (the Apostles), He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, ‘which,’ He said, ‘you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’ . . . 8 ‘But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’”

In order to truly be “empowered by” the Holy Spirit and “Go do the things that I did while on the earth” as Jesus commanded His apostles, ask the Holy Spirit to “fill” or baptize you. Your life will never be the same and you will truly be able to hear “His still small voice declaring ‘this is the way, walk ye in it.’” Tragically, too many Christians are not aware of such a blessing, and thus are not “empowered” to fulfill His desire for us to “witnesses” to the ends of the earth!

Thus, it is so very crucial that we exam just where our focus is in our daily living! Are we so caught up in the flesh (our own living with all that that entails) giving little attention to the need to be focusing on Biblical truths and God’s promises?

Let’s return to Exodus 14 and to Moses and the incredible experiences he was having dealing with the severe trials and tribulations concerning the children of Israel. This is an excellent example of living in the flesh.

Remember the story where finally Pharaoh let the children of Israel go and they thought that finally they were free from slavery under Pharaoh. What happened next? Pharaoh and his finest six hundred chariots took off after them. Now the “lesson” begins . . . it did not take long for the people to “be very afraid” and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord and came against Moses most harshly. Obviously, they were walking in the flesh neglecting the promises of the Lord God Almighty concerning their freedom from Pharaoh! Consequently, the spirit of fear came over them. They were so focused on their “emotions”, i.e, the battle that furiously was going on in their minds - looking at things seen, not on things hoped for, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen.” (Heb. 11:1) This is the trap we Christians fall into all too often! We must also keep in mind that Satan who tragically is very often the instigator of tricking us believers into a “lack of faith” and as a result, we spiral into sorrow and grief, in that we continue to look at things seen, and not on things hoped for.

Considering the necessity of having faith, their focus certainly was on what they were experiencing, pure and simple! How many of us fall into such traps where we are walking according to the flesh, tragically forgetting God’s promises, especially concerning His “watch care over His children, spirit, soul, and body”.

We must keep in our minds that the deceiver, Satan, will trick us into “thinking” (focusing) so much on fretting, worry, fear, depression, the way we treat our bodies, despair, sorrow/grief, the “what if’s etc. It is imperative that we be so discerning as who is talking/influencing us! Our lives so depend on such discernment . . . in fact the ‘gift of discernment” has been made available to us by the Holy Spirit as are other “Gifts” of the Spirit, thankfully! There will more concerning the Holy Spirit in blogs to come.

Thus, the battle . . . it has been said “there is a battle between our feelings and God’s truths!” Which ones are we going to pay attention to – our feelings or God’s truths?

Blog 8 concerning sorrow/grief will consist of the four enemies we have as we walk through the “battle of life”!

1. The flesh
2. The world
3. Satan
4. The church (man’s church as opposed to God’s Church)

BE GLORIFIED, ALMIGHTY GOD, BE GLORIFIED

FOR YOU ARE WORTHY TO BE PRAISED