The link for “Our Daily Bread”   http://odb.org/2012/06/23/enemy-deceptions/

The link for the Daily Devotions of Greg Laurie                                  http://www.harvest.org/devotional/daily-devotions/home.ht

John 14:16-17… And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— ¹⁷  the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.  (NKJV)

The Holy Spirit, that God gives every Christian, really is the internal Helper who can lead the Christian down the right path in life… The Holy Spirit will reveal the “truth” that God wants all Christian’s to understand; in order to help them make the right decisions that will keep the Christian walking in the Spirit… Any time the Christian sins, and does not listen to their internal Counselor…they are grieving the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30)…

If a Christian is Spirit filled, and then they sin…they have made a decision that goes against the leading of the Holy Spirit…  Continued sinning, without confessing and repenting of these sins (1 John 1:9), will further demean the spiritual closeness of the Christian’s walk with the Lord; until they may eventually be walking in the opposite direction, away from God…

Knowing the truth from God’s Word, is part of the spiritual “whole armor of God”, that the apostle Paul urges all Christian’s to put on, for protection from Satan…Ephesians 6:11… Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  (NKJV)

Here is Paul’s writing about this truth, in…Ephesians 6:14a… Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth,  (NKJV)   …Other translations call this the “belt of truth”, which I equate to the Christian being surrounded (like a belt), with the truth from God’s Word; which will help protect us from Satan’s never-ending attacks on our lives, from any direction…

The opening scripture speaks of people living in the world who are not Christian’s; and how they can in no way know this truth, because Satan has blinded them from seeing this spiritual truth that only Christian’s can have (2 Corinthians 4:4)… Christian’s who spend no time in God’s Word…and who in no way are following the leading of the Holy Spirit…are living in sin…  They will have the same fears, and pain, and anxiety, and frustrations that non-Christian’s possess all the time…  They are no better off than non-believers; except for the fact that when they die, they will go to heaven, instead of hell…  (This is of course, if God has redeemed them as Christian’s)…

Being filled with this truth (the Holy Spirit), is the only way a Christian can be set free from Satan’s chains… Jesus Himself says it best, with this scripture recorded in…John 8:32… “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  (NKJV)

Until a person has experienced being set free from a lifetime of sins…they will have no first hand experience of how this freedom really feels… My experience on the day God chose to redeem me from my sins (the day God saved me, and I became a Christian)…was an experience that just can’t be put into words on a page…  It was like this enormous weight had been lifted off of my shoulders… I had a new-found peace, and a joy, and an urging to follow the Lord; with a desire to spend time in the Bible, and to learn all that I could about how to please my Father in heaven (1 Peter 2:1-3)…

This constant urge to please God by bringing Him honor and glory…is given to the Christian by the fullness of the Holy Spirit… It is a sure sign that God is in control of the Christian’s life… God’s children are chosen out of the world of sin and shame, for this very purpose of honoring God… The closer we get to the Lord…the closer He gets to us…James 4:8  & 10… Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.  (NKJV)

There is really no better feeling in life…that to be living for the Lord; with the Lord in return lifting you up out of the miry clay; and giving you a peace and a joy that the world has never experienced… David knew this feeling all too well, when he wrote this, in…Psalm 40:1-2… I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. ² He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps.  (NKJV)  …Here is the link for this entire small Book in Psalms…   http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ps40&version=NKJV

Heavenly Father, I pray that all of Your children would humbly submit to the Holy Spirit of truth, allowing Him total control…  I pray Lord, that this eternal peace and joy that being filled with the Spirit can and will provide, will bring about such a great feeling of freedom in all of our lives…that we will never ever want to be without this fullness of the Holy Spirit again… Help all of Your children Lord, to conform to Your will for our lives… I pray for this spiritual perfection for all of us…in Jesus’ most precious name and for His sake…Amen…

written by bruce r mills