DO YOU HAVE A CONNECTION AND COMMITMENT TO THE HOLY SPIRIT? IF NOT THIS BLOG WILL HELP YOU LIVE IN, FOR, BY AND WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT SO YOU CAN HAVE A VITAL LINK TO JESUS CHRIST.
Lord when I realize the darkness within’ I feel false but with you, I can have truth I feel a hopelessness but with you, I can have hope. I feel lovelessness but with you, l can have love. I feel selfish but with you, I can be selfless I feel guilt but with you, I can have forgiveness I feel impure but with you, I can have purity I feel lonely but with you, I can have togetherness I feel fear but with you, I can be redeemed. The closer I get to you the more I see the folly of my life’s decision. In the essence of who you are I expect my salvation to be.
Dr. Don’s Reflection
The closer I get to the Lord the more I realize how foolish some of my life’s decisions and activities were. With most of these decisions and activities (not all), I did not realize I was being so foolish. When I say foolish I mean spiritually foolish and not worldly foolish. In the eyes of the world, I was right on but in the eyes of God, I was sinful. It is amazing how the views of the world are so different from the views of God. I just never realized this because I was too much in the world and not enough in the Holy Spirit.
Jesus knew man would be this way. Jesus knew the pull of Satan, the World, and “Self” would be too much for mankind. He told his apostles before leaving this earth that he would send the Holy Spirit to show us the way of the Lord in contrast to the way of the world.
There is one catch here. Christ promises to give me the Holy Spirit but I had to receive the Holy Spirit. The giving is assured the receiving is not. For that reason, I was living life without the guidance and counsel of the Holy Spirit because in that part of my life I had not received the Holy Spirit. My sinfulness led to the darkness within. Sin always does.
In that darkness, I could feel my false self, hopelessness, selfishness, guilt, impurity, loneliness fear, and anything else Satan planted in my being to destroy me. But I was saved from all that when I accepted the Holy Spirit. From that day on the Holy Spirit has been my teacher, counselor, advocate, and more. He gave me all the spiritual love and support promised by Jesus to his apostles over two thousand years ago. I was not always aligned with teaching and counseling but the Holy Spirit never gave up on me.
This is what is meant when someone says, “I have been saved” When I accepted the Holy Spirit he became alive in me, and in doing so he shined a light on all the corrupt feelings that I found in the darkness of my being. In that light, I was freed to walk with Christ in his righteousness and not mine. With Christ, there is no such thing as a self-righteous soul.
All righteousness and redemption come from Christ and that is OK with me because I tried it by myself without the Holy Spirit and it only led to sin. The Holy Spirit saved me from a life of darkness that always leads to damnation. With Christ, through the Holy Spirit, I have been redeemed. Praise and thanks to God.
Dr. Don’s Comments
Surely, you have experienced darkness in your life even if you have been walking with Jesus. If you have not been walking with Jesus then I know you have experienced darkness and most likely still do.
Darkness cannot exist in light. Darkness is the absence of light. Jesus who is the light and the life of a soul, through the Holy Spirit is the light that consumes the darkness. With all the darkness that can be found in the world and your life, it is beyond me how anyone can get by without the light of Jesus. Not having the light of Jesus in life is like not having a flashlight in a power outage. You are lost in the dark
Do you get what I am writing about? Jesus is the antidote to all the darkness that enters your life through sin or just the experiencing life events, such as, the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, financial difficulties, addiction and so many other sources of darkness which cloud over us. And while some of this darkness cannot be avoided in your life it can be lessened greatly by Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was given to you as Jesus told his apostles to guide, teach, comfort, console, and counsel you in good times and bad.
The Holy Spirit is with you in the darkness. That is where his roles as teacher, comforter, consoler, and counselor come in. In these roles, the Holy Spirit is the light of Jesus to help you navigate through your life experiences. As this Whisper calls out, when you do not feel love Christ is your love, when you feel hopeless, Christ is your hope, when you feel selfish, Christ helps you be selfless, when you feel can’t forgive Christ shows you how to forgive, when you feel lonely you feel togetherness with Christ. Christ is the life, the truth, and way through life. If you are not receiving what he has to give you then most likely you are in the darkness much deeper and longer than you would be if you have accepted the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
If the Holy Spirit is dwelling in you then you have the light you need not necessarily to avoid the darkness but to certainly get through it. If the Holy Spirit does not dwell in you then you need to accept the Holy Spirit to know Jesus better and to be guided by his light.
Simply say a few words like this. “Lord, please let me receive the Holy Spirit. I want the light of your being to be shone on my life. Shine the light on the path through the darkness of my life that will lead me to you. Give me the comfort and consolation of being in your grace.”
If you pray these words of words like this you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit and the light of Christ will be yours
Dear Lord, If I were to go to the depths of my being I would find my “self” But that self I know now would be in you. You are the “I” in who I am. My journey in life has been to find the real me according to the world but the real me is not in the world but in you. It is in you that I am true and complete. There is no sense of true love in me. There is no ability to feel the suffering of the world in me. There are no great sorrows for the sin of the world in me. There is no forgiveness for the sins of the world in me. There is no righteousness, redemption or divine love in me. My dear Lord all this and more is only found in you and I know in you is where I will be found.
Dr. Don’s Refection
I know I am not the only one in life that searches out their real “Self”. All of us want to know who the real “me” is even if we do not know it. The problem is where and how do we find our “self”.
I looked everywhere for “me”. In my family, in my work, in my ministry, in my social life, in my reputation and it was not until I found Christ that I realized who I am is who he is.
No this was not a falling off of the horse thing like Paul. It was and still is a long journey. But once I found Christ and fully accepted the Holy Spirit I had a travel plan to find who I was made to be. Again it did not come in a flash but rather a promise that if I followed Christ to the best of my ability I would know who I was.
It was great to know that I had a path to my true “self” and I knew if I followed it I would be there but I must admit it has been a long hard walk and I am still not there. It could have been much easier but I was the one that made it hard by veering off the path to my true self. From time to time I became sinful by going my way and not the way Christ and the Holy Spirit. Accordingly, I had to put up with much suffering because of my impatience, pride, and sinful ways.
Despite those detours, the Holy Spirit was always pointing the way to the real me. Along the way, he shared with me that I will find myself in Christ and that to find myself I had to lose myself in him. Really, I had to lose myself to find myself! That did not make sense to me but God’s way is not my way.
It took me a while to get that but once I did, I was OK with it. At this point, I was fully aware that I would never be who I thought I could be so following Christ must be the way. Nothing else was leading me to “me”. Nothing even close.
I know now that my true “self” is in Christ and the way there has been pointed out by the Holy Spirit. I am not there yet and I have a way to go but I do know that the real me can only be fulfilled when I die to “self” and come alive in Christ. In Christ is my true self.
Dr. Don’s Comments
So have you found yourself yet? Are you looking? Are you looking in the right places? The fact of the matter is once we are born we are on a journey to find our “self”. For our, God has put you on earth to prepare you for heaven. Heaven is not like Wal-Mart; not everyone gets to go in.
Whether you want to admit it or not, you are looking for who you are. I can tell you from experience, it is not in your work, not in booze, not in sex or looking sexy, not in drugs, not in money, not in your reputation. No, it is not in any of these things or any other things which Satan, the World, or your “Self” will lead you to believe it is.
Who you are is found in God and in God alone. So if you do not know God you will never get to know yourself. Every principle of Godly behavior is based on inner peace and that inner peace is where you find God and yourself.
Three evil tugs do not want you to have that inner peace. They are Satan, the World, and your “Self”. These are the enemies you fight when you are a Christian Warrior. The battlefield of self-knowledge is where these battles are fought, won, and lost, and for you to win the battle is for you to know God and yourself, and for you to lose the battle is for you never to know either one.
In this Whisper To The Holy Spirit, it is made clear that you will only find yourself in God. In finding yourself in God you find that special feeling you have been seeking. In finding yourself in God you forget who you are and who you want to be and become who he is.
This is the mystery of Christ that is to find yourself you have to lose yourself in Christ. You do not become who you are you become who he is and in doing so you experience a divine nature that makes clear the identity you were seeking all your life should not have been yours but God’s for in him you shall be.
Losing your identity in God so you can find yours most likely will not happen on this side of heaven but to live eternally you have to work toward it on earth as best you can and if you need to finish it up on the other side so be it.
Here is the important point of Christ teaching that you must totally understand. It is found in Ephesians 4:22-24
“to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
My son, there are so many challenges that my people must confront such things as anger, pride, judging others, lack of patience, fault finding, unnecessary curiosity, prejudice, bias opinions of people, places and things, dependence on others instead of me, the need to be in control. There is no way you can deal with these challenges unless you are in my grace. You cannot do it alone and only trying to do so leads to your suffering and the suffering of those around you. As you have found being in the state of grace allows you to take these challenges and throw them at the foot of the cross. These challenges then become mine to bear and not yours. It is only your God who can deal with your shortcomings for you, with you and through you. You cannot go it alone. Many have tried only to spend a life wallowing around aimlessly, without purpose, and in sin. In me, you will find the hope and strength you need to defend against the attacks of your “Self” Satan and the World. You are a warrior in my army fit to win the spiritual battles that come against you. In me there is victory.
Dr. Don’s Reflections
I tried to fight the battles of my world and spirit by myself for too long. I don’t know how many times I had to lose one of these battles because I was not up for the fight. But that was why I was defeated all the time because I thought I was up for the battle. I thought I had what it takes to solve this or get through that or win this challenge. But I was never equipped to win. Maybe I won some battles that I fought by myself but any victory through my sole effort was always short-lived.
It was not until I surrendered my life to Christ that I was able to mount a real battle. It was through the grace of God I realized that my journey would be full of battles and that through and with Christ I would win enough battles to win the war. What does winning the war mean? It means salvation, my eternal life with God.
With Christ winning a battle does not always look like a victory to the world. The world defines victory in a much different way than Christ. So while in Christ I won the battle to the world it may look like I was a loser. I found this very hard with which to reconcile. Because when I won a battle through Christ I wanted to look like a winner not only to Christ but to the world and that does not happen very often. As it reads in Isiah 55: 8-9
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
I realized I had to keep my mind on victory in and with Christ and not be concerned with how those victories look to the world. That was not always easy because while the angels blew their trumpets for my victory in Christ, I too wanted to blow my trumpet.
After enough battles in Christ, I realized that the important thing was to fight the battle in a Christ-like manner through the Holy Spirit and to let the rest of the world go by. As a Christian warrior, I fight under the command of Christ, not the world, and after a while knowing that was enough for me.
Dr. Don’s Comments
Have you been fighting life’s battles and not scoring wins? Are there battles inside of you that you have been fighting for years and making little or no progress? Do you feel that you are losing ground even though you feel you are trying as hard as you can? Do you have the sense that you are all alone in your fight to get some peace in your life? Maybe you need some help?
No, I am not talking about a banker, lawyer, teacher, or counselor, you may need their help too but I am talking about getting help from your Lord, God.
So many times Christians think that Christ through the Holy Spirit is only available to aid in spiritual matters but nothing can be further from the truth. With the Holy Spirit within you, you can seek aid from God in all aspects of your life.
Having trouble with your marriage, God can help you, Are your finances hurting and you are facing bankruptcy the Holy Spirit can counsel you. Are you stuck in a job you hate and that leaves you unfulfilled, Jesus Christ can lead you to where you need to be?
You got to realize that when Jesus left this earth, he asked the father to send to his followers the apostles the Holy Spirit. He told the apostles that the Holy Spirit will guide, teach, comfort, and counsel all his followers. However, he did not mean just in their spiritual life but in their secular life also.
Here is what the apostle John wrote in John 14:16,
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever”
And in John 14:26 he wrote
“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”.
Here John calls the Holy Spirit the “Helper” which is to say the Holy Spirit will help and teach you what to do by reminding you what Jesus said and did while on earth.
If you are fighting your battles by yourself whether they are spiritual or secular you need to call upon the Holy Spirit to help you for he was given to you as a helper.
If you’re a Christian and you have not accepted the Holy Spirit and you are living your life at a great disadvantage. Even if you believe you are walking with Christ your walk is not as strong as it could be if you were indwelled with the Holy Spirit. You are spiritually handicapped without the Holy Spirit. If this is where you are in your spiritual development you need to stop right now and say something like this, “ Dear Lord, I accept the Holy Spirit into my life. The same Holy Spirit you sent to the apostles over 2000 years ago. Fill me with the fire of the Holy Spirit and allow me to follow his lead in every aspect of my life”.
If you say something like these words your life will change. You will win have fewer battles in life and the ones you do have you will win with “Victory In Christ”.
My mind is so littered with the things of the world. I can’t stay still in you. I worry I am not a true follower of yours or that you cannot count me among your believers and if so you see me at the bottom of the class, so to speak. Even though I feel this way at this moment I know it is of Satan and not of me. For you have chosen me in strength and in weakness, in wisdom and in foolishness, in sin and sinlessness. There is no state of my mind or my being that I am not yours. No matter how I feel about myself be it from me, Satan or the world, I belong to you, always.
Dr. Don’s Reflections
The bottom line is I belong to God and no matter how I get down on myself through self-attacks or attacks from Satan or the world, I know I am his and he is mine. Knowing this puts any worries I have about how strong of a believer or follower I am in perspective.
Satan wants me to believe that I am unworthy of the love and peace of Christ and that you, God have abandoned me. He is right on the first part, I am unworthy, but Christ died on the cross to make me worthy and I do not have to worry about that. And he is dead wrong on his second perspective for God will never ever abandon me. End of story. Knowing that allows me to take these feelings and drench them with the love of Christ. This then takes the power of these feelings from Satan to the Holy Spirit allowing God to reassure me that no matter how I may feel about my effort in following Christ I am indeed a believer and his follower.
There is no grading by God relative to some soul being more perfect than I am or works harder than I do. I cannot earn grace it is given to me freely by God from my baptism. I just need to accept it and grow in it and with it.
God in his infinite wisdom and love never allows me to wallow in undeservedness. All I need to do is realize that my deservedness comes from the death of Christ on the cross. I do not have to earn it, it was given freely to me in the death of Christ on the cross.
Dr. Don’s Comments
We all get down on our spiritual life every once and awhile thinking we are not up to being a follower and believer of Christ. Of course, Satan is ready the minute you feel this way to pounce on you to convince you that you are a spiritual bum. Satan knows when you are feeling bad about yourself that is the time to penetrate through the grace of God to your very soul. When you are spiritually down Satan sees the greatest opportunity to get you to despair and sin.
You must remember that even when you are feeling bad about yourself spiritually God is feeling good about you. God loves you the same when you are spiritually down as when you are spiritually up. God is not going to abandon you because you feel you are not making the grade of a good follower or believer.
Look at it this way. Let’s say you are a parent and you have a kid whether he is a child or an adult. This kid is having a bad time. He is down on himself maybe because he failed a driver’s test or lost a job or did not get a promotion. As a parent are you going to give up on that kid? Are you going to tell this kid, you’re right you are a failure, you deserve to feel like a bum. No, of course not you love this kid, and if anything you are going to love and support this kid even more. Well, it is the same way with God, When you are feeling down and out all sorts of grace and spiritual strength are sent your way. In that way, you become convinced that no matter where you are in the army of Christ you are treasured and love as long as you are in the army and fighting the battle in some way. Maybe you are not fighting the best you can but you are in the fight. If this is so Christ will bring you to your best through power of the Holy Spirit.
Satan does not want you to believe this and understand it. He wants you to feel abandoned and worthless so he can convince you to be a deserter. But Christ is right there with all the ammunition you need to successfully fight off Satan and the World. The greatest gun you have against Satan is to realize and understand that you belong to Christ and he will be with you when you are up or down. Knowing that will save you every time. God loves you and will always be there for you.
If you have been walking with Christ for awhile you know that you are not always in an “up” mood when it comes to your spirituality. Sometimes you are feeling great about the progress you have made in becoming more Christ-like and other times you feel it is a hopeless, sinful walk that will not let you move spiritually ahead even a little bit.
Both of these mood swings are dangerous. The truth is when you’re feeling good about yourself for the spiritual progress you have made; you are usually not making as much progress as you think you are. And the other dangerous part of this thought is when you are feeling good about yourself for the spiritual progress you made, don’t give yourself the credit. That progress is not due to your efforts but God’s grace that supports your effort and it is not about you at all. It is all about the grace of God. With the grace of God, you will always be worth his blessing and support in moving closer to Christ.
Whatever good is in me belongs to you dear Lord for years I thought that any good within me was of my own doing but now I know that every ounce of good I have ever had in me or ever will have is of you. It is your grace that created any good in me your blessings that gave me the strength I needed to be good. Any good in me is a reflection of you and the result of your continued effort to make me in your image
Dr. Don’s Reflection
It is amazing how we humans think that we are the source of any good we do I use to think that. I guess it is only human to think so. However, when I matured spiritually I realized that any good in me or from me is of the grace of God. And frankly, I did not like that realization.
That is not to say I am a bad person it is just to say it does not take a long time to live in this world to get corrupted by conceit. Conceit, according to Dictionary.com “is an excessively favorable opinion of one’s ability, importance, and wit, etc.”
Conceit is an insidious attitude that permeates one’s mind convincing a soul to think all that is good comes from him or here.
It was the Holy Spirit that highlighted this for me and showed me that true everlasting good can only stem from God.
If you ever dealt with a conceited person you know there is no convincing that person that the good they do may be bad. It was not until the Holy Spirit showed me that good intentions do not always bring good. The good which is generated from the grace of God is all-powerful, pure, and never corrupt.
It was evident that the more I surrendered to the Holy Spirit the more capable of good I became. And while the good that was extended came through me the source of it was the Holy Spirit and not me as I had thought for years.
The good that comes from the grace of God is different. It looks for no reward or recognition. It requires no thanks. It always does what it set out to do. It may cause the giver of the good to sacrifice and suffer or even die and the good given lasts forever. God’s good is always everlasting. Once given God’s good will always remain.
Thank God I can see that now and realize how puny and pathetic the good I gave out of conceit was. All true good comes from God or said another way “All good, good comes from God.
Dr. Don’s Comments
Can you understand what I mean when I talk about the good that comes from you as opposed to the good that comes from God through you? It is the source of good that we are talking about.
You are only human and subject to all sorts of worldly ways such as bias, prejudice, anger, pride, lust, etc. So the good that comes from you does not necessarily come from a source of purity. But when the good you do comes from God, it is pure, unselfish, sacrificing, and in so many other sinless ways.
So when you want to do good do not believe that the good you extend has to come from you, that is to say, your being. Always when you want to do good the first question you should ask yourself is “is this good of me or the Lord.” If it is from you it is corrupt. If it is from the Lord, it is pure.
Now, this does not mean that you do not deliver the good of which I am writing, no, it means Jesus through the Holy Spirit is the source of good that you are to give. When you know this, you know that the good is not tainted it has been purely sourced and given to you to present. In other words, God is doing his good through you instead of you doing your good through you. Does that make sense?
If you check any good you want to extend in the world to be sure it is from God and it is you can be sure of its reach and effectiveness.
There comes a point in your spirituality where you have become so close to Christ that even the simplest good, like keeping your mouth shut in an argument is a good from God. Your goal, and the goal of all followers of Christ while on this earth is to get so close to Christ that all we do is of him, by him, with him, and of him. Christ is Christ through you.
That is being lost in Christ. That is when all good you do is from Christ.
Dear Lord why did I let the world shape my existence when my existence belongs to you and should be shaped by the essence of your being? Why is it so much easier to do the will of the world instead of your will? Why so many times did I care more about the world measuring me instead of how you measure me? Yes I am in this world and I ask your forgiveness for the countless times the demands of the world came before the commands of you my Lord? I realize that the only way I can be lost to the world is to be lost in you through the Holy Spirit. May I find the strength to be who I am in you instead of who I am in the world. In you I am.
Dr. Don’s Reflections
Christ has always been with me. In my baptism, I received the Holy Spirit and when I received my confirmation I became through the Holy Spirit a warrior for God. The problem was that I did not understand that spiritually just intellectually. I never realized how important it was for me to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit in my life so the world would not get a hold of me.
It is very shameful for me to say that I did let the world shape me and took no refuge in the Holy Spirit who according to Christ was to come from God the Father to help us in this world
And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, to be with you forever. John 14:16
For the first 32 years of my life, I had no idea of the role of the Holy Spirit and it was not until I was baptized in the Holy Spirit that my true relationship began with him.
Many Christians think being baptized in the Holy Spirit is hokey spirituality. But in Luke 3:16 John the Baptist answered his followers by telling them that he baptizes with water but the one who is mightier than he is coming and will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. That is exactly what I got and it changed my life.
My walk with Christ has been directed by the Holy Spirit and it has not been an easy walk all these years but that is because the world had such a hold on me. It had shaped me and the Holy Spirit had to reshape me and that process has taken years and is still going on.
At this point in my life, I am at the point where the only shaping I need is from Christ via the Holy Spirit and that is the only shaping I want.
I ask the Lord’s forgiveness for the hold I let the world put on me and I surrender to Christ for him to shape me totally to the point that I am no more. I am lost in Christ.
Dr. Don’s Comments
How much does the world control you as a Christian? Do you find it easier to answer the call of the world instead of the call of Christ? Do you feel it easier to meet the demands of the world rather than the commands of Christ? Do you realize that the world and its essence includes the call of Satan and the surrender to self-pleasure?
Answering these questions should create an awareness in you as to where you are with your walk with Christ and where this walk is taking you, if anyplace at all.
Here is what I have learned you cannot make progress with your walk with Christ unless you have a relationship with the Holy Spirit. Without the strength and guidance of the Holy Spirit, you are no match for the world, Satan, or your “self”. It is just too hard.
If you are a Christian that is being shaped more by the world than by Christ you are in trouble. With Christ, you cannot be shaped by the world and shaped by Christ too. Christ will not just shape part of you and let the world shape the rest of you; He wants to shape all of you. That is the way Christ is, it is all of you or nothing. A piece of you cannot receive salvation it has to be all of you.
I know how hard it is for many Christians and maybe you to accept total surrender, for me it was hard and still is. But somewhere in my walk, I realize there was no other way. I have to give it all to Christ or give it all to the world, I could not and you cannot give a piece of you to the world and a piece of you to eternity. It does not work that way.
If you are not in total surrender to Christ then that is Ok as long as you want to get there. Christ knows how hard it is to turn totally to him while in this world and that is why he gave all Christians the Holy Spirit.
So be sure to turn to the Holy Spirit and tell him that you want to get to giving yourself totally to Christ. Tell him you don’t think you have the strength. Or be honest with him and tell him you’re scared for the world is too much of a lure, Satan is so demonic and you, your “self” enjoy the pleasures of the world. Open up to the Holy Spirit and he will open up to you. You cannot get the Holy Spirit unless you accept him and you cannot do that unless you are honest with him.
You can win the battle to lose yourself in Christ. You just cannot win it alone. Just think about when you are drawing your last breath who do you want to have shaped you when it comes time to die? Your answer to that will give you the direction you need to go in your life.
Search not to define yourself against the backdrop of the world but rather see who you are in me. The question about who you are lies in union with me. To find out who you are does not lie in finding out who you think you are or who you want to be but who you are in my creation. Settle not for your false self you see in the reflection of the world You must seek your true self in me and in doing so that becomes your life’s journey
Dr. Don’s Reflections
The weakness of humanity will never cease to amaze me. Since Adam bit the apple to become someone he wanted to be instead of being well with who God made him to be, man has sought his “false self”. I think that most Christians have found their “true self” by way of their “false self.
Take Paul, who put early Christians to death yet became a great follower of Christ. St Augustine led a wildlife fathering a child out of wedlock before he became a believer in Christ and ultimately a Doctor of the Catholic Church. St. Thomas Becket was the richest man in England aside from King Henry and he ended up giving it all away for the glory of God. Countless big-time sinners became Saints during their life’s journey. So my journey through my false self into my true self is not an isolated event. It is not just me who had to lose myself to find myself.
Make no mistake about it my Life’s Journey has been daunting but even when I was most lost; I felt the pull of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. And that pull was telling me that the way I was following was not his way. There was a better way. Yet, even though I got the message I still sought the offerings of the world, the pride of self, and the temptations of Satan.
However, the pull to Christ never left me. I may have tried to ignore it but I never could. They don’t call Jesus the “Hound of Heaven” for nothing. He came for me over and over again and was there when I recognized what I was actually after.
I realized I was not where the Lord wanted me to be and it was at that point I accepted God and began to move closer to Christ to receive him more fully. Little did I know how up and down this life’s journey would be and that the Lord would be always there to help me move forward and find my true self in him.
In the end, I could not settle for my false self. I had to be true to myself by finding my true self, that is, not who I thought I was or wanted to be but who I was in Chirst, in creation. I realized the only place I could find my true self is in God.
It is not that I have found my true self totally. I haven’t, but I am a lot closer to it than I was a year ago or even a month or two ago. The finding of self is a journey that is constantly moving forward and in the direction God wants it to go. This journey to my true self is impossible to complete without the aid of the Holy Spirit. For me, it was hell on earth to try to go it alone.
Accepting Christ is one thing for I knew he was sent by Father God. However, accepting the Holy Spirit is another. To accept him I had to recognize him as my counselor, teacher, comforter, advocate, and guide. In accepting the Holy Spirit it was as if he was saying “All Aboard” on a journey that would lead me to not who I wanted to be but who I should be in Christ.
Dr. Don’s Comments
Have you spent a lifetime feeling like you are someone who you were never meant to be? Has the world painted a picture of you as to how they would like you to be and you spent your life trying to meet that expectation? Have you reached your self-set goals only to find it did not get you to where you wanted to be? Were you taken in by the evil Trinity of Sin, Self, and the World? Has all this led you to chase your “false self” instead of your “true self”, the person you really should be?
There is another trinity that can lead you to your true self. It is the Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the son, Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit. This Trinity can reveal to you your true self through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Remember Christ told his Apostles that he would ask the Father to send to them the Holy Spirit who would guide them, teach them, and remind them of what Christ said while on earth.
That same Holy Spirit is available to us and in that relationship you will find your true self. If you do not have the Holy Trinity in your life you are subject to wandering around this world in your life never to find who your really are.
Without the Holy Trinity, the Trinity of Sin will lead you to your “False Self” that is finding who you are outside of God. You see yourself as the world sees you and you are willing to sin to get there by serving Self and Satan. Any place the Trinity of Sin takes you is not good, it is not Godly.
Without the Holy Trinity, you are by yourself fueled by pride and led by Satan within the reflection of the world to be someone who you are not, that is your false self. You cannot find who you are outside of God. It has to be within the realm of the Holy Trinity. Who you really are, your “True Self” lies within God. There is no other place the finding of true self can take place except in the sacred heart of Jesus.
Your salvation is about finding who you are in God, not who you are in the world. So as a Christian if you are caught up in a worldly search for your true self, you will never be successful in finding you. For you were created by God and his intent was for you to live your life on earth preparing yourself for salvation anything different is not who you are supposed to be.
For the Holy Spirit to lead you to your true self you must surrender your prideful worldly search for who you are or who you want to be and leave it to the Holy Spirit to lead you to the real you. It is worth the journey for sure.
All things come from me, your God and no other. Even things that come from the world and the people in it come to you through me. God allows all, God gives all. In me you have everything and nothing is needed. I am a great giver. You are a poor receiver. Do not look from others what only I can give you. All is nothing without me. A gift is not a gift unless it comes from me
Dr. Don’s Reflections
Before I knew Christ I would look at the many gifts that I got from my family, my friends, my efforts in business (like the money I made) my homes, my travels, and everything good that happen to me as coming from others or the world itself.
Sure I thought God was blessing me but I was the one that made the money to buy the big house. I was the one that created the relationship with my family and friends. Wasn’t it me and my personality? My degrees in education were a result of my academic performance, wasn’t it? Sure I was being blessed by God but only as a result of the effort, I put out.
When I think of that now, I wonder how did I ever get so self-centered? Was it taught to me by others? Was it my insecurities and fears? Was it my need to feel a sense of accomplishment, a sense of importance? Why did I not realize that my every breath was a gift from God because he allowed it to be?
To get to the point where you look at everything in your life as a gift from God is a journey. And I had to take that journey with Jesus Christ with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. My adversaries, Satan, Self, and the World wanted me to think it was all me. How prideful!
God had a plan for me despite all my prideful self-serving acts. He wanted me to see him as the source of all gifts. To do that he had to give me many gifts and take many away. If I were a quick learner it would have only happened once or twice and then I would have figured it out. However, with me getting his gifts and losing his gifts it had to happen over and over. God wanted me to look at him as the Giver of all and no matter how many lessons it would take that is what he would put me through until I got it. Well, I get it now.
Dr. Don’s Comments
When you walk with Christ long enough you begin to understand that everything good is connected to God. Even good that comes from bad is connected to God. You cannot have good without God and you cannot have God without God. It is that simple or should I say that complex.
As a human, you think so many things which come from the world and others in it are part of humanity. But that is not so. Humanity would not be here if it were not for divinity. Everything good in humanity has a divine origin.
You get beautiful gifts for your birthday from family and friends bought with the money that they earned in working in this world. That money and work would not be available if it were not a gift from God. All gifts you received from others and the world, in general, are from God.
Having the view that everything you have or get is a gift from God no matter what the worldly source is, is in itself a gift. Your realization that all worldly gifts are from God is brought about by the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Because as you mature in your walk with Christ you are given these gifts which are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. And just an aside here, fear of the Lord is not being afraid of him but rather you are in awe of him.
In receiving these gifts as God wills you understand that every gift from others and the world are from God and every breath you take is a gift. With God, living is a gift and God is willing to give it all to you, you just need to be ready to receive it.
Ask God today to bless you with a different attitude about what you have and what will be given to you. Ask him to give you the humility to realize nothing happens in this world without God allowing it to happen. Ask him for the grace to see your life and everything in it as a gift for in doing so you will live a life of gratitude to your creator.
Knowing you Jesus is the deepest one can get in life. To move toward intimacy with you is to reach the depth of existence. Your being is majestic and mystical. The longer I walk with you the more I know you and love you. The more I know and love you the less of me there is. While I am on this earth I pray that I know you so well there will be nothing left of me. I want to be lost in you even though I do not deserve it. In you I am and in you, I shall be. Grant me the loss of myself in you.
Dr. Don’s Reflections
I did not always understand how a walk with Christ would work. But now after years of walking, falling, getting up, giving control, taking back control, asking for forgiveness, getting forgiveness, having a strong faith, doubting my faith, being taught, counseled, and convicted by the Holy Spirit there is one aspect of my walk that remained the same all my life and that is my love for Christ. In fact, it did not remain the same is increased.
Throughout all the aspects of my walk, all the ups and downs and bad and good, I remained in love with my God. This love grew because of the knowledge and understanding of God I received from my walk with Christ. The more I got to know him and understand him, the more I grew to love him, and just as important the more I grew to understand how much he loved me.
To feel the love of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit is to create an existence that is far above any existence that the world can produce. It is majestic.
To experience the intimacy of the love of Christ and to wallow in the mystery and the majesty of his being can only be had with the grace of God. Experiencing this state of being with the Lord is what I mean by getting lost in him.
I know I have such a long way to go to be completely lost in Jesus Christ. However, this little glimpse of being lost in him gives me the strength and belief that I can get there. I live to be no more and to be lost in the greatness of Jesus Christ
Dr. Don’s Comments
So many Christians feel that walking with the Lord is simply keeping the commandments and being in the word. But the reality is these are vehicles that allow you to become intimate with Christ and to enjoy a special state of love and peace with him.
Your goal should not be to try to earn your way into the love of God. That cannot happen. You cannot earn your way into heaven. You can love your way into heaven by denying self and getting lost in the love of Jesus Christ. By getting lost in his love you are getting lost in him. The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 3:18
“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
Your walk with Christ is a transformation. If you are the same with Christ today than you were a year ago, there is something wrong with your walk. Walking with Christ is becoming like him even if it is a little step at a time. And yes we sometimes take steps back but after tasting the sweetness of God’s love and care we bounce back to walk even further to become more deeply lost in him. For in him, with him and by him we find the depth of existence and love and peace that is beyond human understanding. You have to experience to know it and then it is still beyond words.
Whatever you do always seek intimacy with the Lord. In doing so you will see your “false self” who you and the world make you out to be and then you will be led to find your “true self”, that is, who God wants you to be.
Lord, I find you in everyone and everything. Help me see you in people who want to do me wrong. Show me how I recognize you in others who are angry at me. How do I remain in you when someone uses me over and over again. Let me be aware of you in my physical spiritual or financial difficulties. Teach me how to testify to your goodness and see you in an estranged family member. Know that I want to choose to see you in every aspect of my life. For if I didn’t then the only thing that remains and all that comes against me is evil. Open my eyes, ears, and my heart that I may recognize your presence in everything and everyone.
Dr. Don’s Reflections
It is so easy for me to be kind and non-judgmental to those I like and do me no harm. But it is a different story when people come against me whether it is my fault or not.
In this Whisper, I am asking something huge from the Lord. I am asking to see good and treat people well that want to do me harm in some way or simply do not like me. In a worldly state, it is so easy to blow someone away if they are not seeing things the way I see them. So here I am asking the Lord to show me how to see him in everybody and everything. Or show me how I should treat someone mad at me or someone who uses me. I am even asking for the grace to treat appropriately an estranged family member in the light of God.
Why do I have to ask for the light of Christ to do these things, it’s simply because in my human and earthly way I would most likely want to treat these people badly. “Well the heck with him” or “I am done with her” or “No way will I help that person again”.
These are all human reactions which come quite naturally but I am uncomfortable with these human feeling and thoughts. I do not want to live and breathe with corrupt feelings about people for any reason. However, the human way tugs me in that direction and I do not want to go there. Thus in this Whisper, I am asking for instruction on how to treat people as Jesus would.
Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to teach us so I am asking the Holy Spirit to tutor me beyond my human reaction to a spiritual dimension that may be painful on a human level but a spiritual level will bring me peace.
I have been walking with the Lord long enough to know I want to see and feel his presence in everything and everyone. I know I will fail at doing this more than I care to admit. I will never stop asking Jesus through the Holy Spirit to grant me his grace in recognizing Jesus in all things and all people. Please Lord grant me this grace.
Dr. Don’s Comments
I think you know what I am describing in the above reflections. We all have people and things that come against us and you know as well as I do what unpleasant situations it creates.
Think about people you know that have come against you. They have done you wrong in some way by stealing from you, talking bad about you, and challenging you in many ways which causes you to react.
Now stop and think about how you reacted. Most likely it is a predictable human response of some kind like anger, revenge, or wishing bad upon those coming against you.
You may think you can find satisfaction in these responses but it is very unlikely you will. These human retorts bring about unrest in your soul when you realize how badly you feel about having a less than a Christ-like response.
If you become angry at people or you come against them with revenge you know that is not the way of Christ. And if you do not feel bad about your human reaction then you need to check where you are in your walk with Christ because something is not right.
You are human and you have your falls but every fall when you are walking with Christ should fuel a desire not to fall in that area again. You should seek all the grace you can from God to respond in a spiritual way above your lowly human reaction. This will lift your soul and fill you with the forgiveness and grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit,
You have to live your life on a human level and in a world filled with evil. But spiritually you can rise above your human tugs and react in a Christ-like manner not using your strength but his
