“Our Daily Bread”   http://odb.org/2012/07/03/e-mail-prayer/ 

The Daily Devotions of Greg Laurie              http://www.harvest.org/devotional/daily-devotions/home.html

Acts 2:46-47… So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, ⁴⁷ praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.  (NKJV)

Yesterday, I wrote about the beginning of the Christian Church, as Christ’s disciples were empowered by the filling of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost… The apostle Peter boldly preached the gospel of Christ, and 3000 new believers were added to the Church (Acts 2:4)…

These brand new Christian’s had reason to be filled with the joy and the gladness that a heart filled with the love of Christ will bring… All the past sins had been forgiven these new believers, and this “simplicity of heart” Luke writes about in the opening scripture, had them praising God all the time…

Christians today can have this exact same God focused, joyful feeling; but this can only be accomplished if the Christian leaves all of their past sins and failures behind them… Their old life, filled with the distractions Satan used to keep them in bondage, should no longer be a problem for them, if they remain humble to the leading of the Holy Spirit that God has given them…

The absolute supernatural power of the Holy Spirit, is the only thing that will be able to thwart Satan’s daily temptations, that he will use to drag the Christian down…  Satan’s power of persuasion over all humans, cannot be overcome in their own strength… This is why so many Christians still suffer, as they allow Satan’s temptations to overcome them… Satan has mastered the use of all kinds of deceiving temptations, since he was thrown out of heaven along with 1/3 of the angels way back in the beginning (Revelation 12:3-4)… 

But thankfully God has given the Christian the power to overcome Satan… But this power first sent by God as a lifelong Helper (John 14:26), can only be realized if the Christian gets out of their own way, and lives in the will of God, not Satan’s…2 Timothy 2:26…   and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. (NKJV)

This concept of allowing God to control the life of a Christian, as the Christian seeks to be filled with the Holy Spirit…is really an amazingly easy and gratifying way to live… This “simplicity of heart” that God would love to see all Christians exhibit, can really become the daily norm for the obedient Christian…  But just like the opening scripture alludes to, when Luke writes… “continuing daily with one accord”; Christians must focus on God, and His will for them, day in and day out… 

The apostle Paul was having a problem with the people from the church at Ephesus… Paul had spent 3 years there; and most of them were believers…  But after Paul left, false prophets had undermined the teaching by Paul, and many of the Christians were no longer being controlled by the Holy Spirit… Paul wrote a letter to the church, recorded in the Bible as the Book of Ephesians, with instructions on how to best regain their walk with the Lord…  This most important scripture was written by Paul, in…

Ephesians 5:18-20… And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ submitting to one another in the fear of God.  (NKJV)

This filling of (being controlled by) the Holy Spirit, can re-energize the life of any true Christian… All they have to do to be supercharged by the Holy Spirit, is to give up control of their lives to the Holy Spirit, and then confess and repent of any and all sins…  This is done by praying a prayer similar to this one, written by the apostle John, in…1 John 1:9…  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (NKJV)

This “simplicity of heart” feeling has to be experienced to be believed… But once the Christian experiences the freedom that they are able to achieve by humbly submitting to total control by God through the Holy Spirit, they will hopefully never again want to fall prey to Satan and his sinful ways…

Heavenly Father, I pray Christians out there reading about being filled with the Holy Spirit…will see the blessings that walking with You in Your will for their lives will bring…  I pray Lord, that all of Your children would turn once again to Your will and Your ways; to be able to experience true joy and absolute peace beyond mortal understanding (Philippians 4:7), that living their lives for You will bring… I pray for this perpetual feeling of peace and joy for all of us…in Jesus’ most holy and precious name, and for His sake…Amen… 

written by bruce r mills