“Our Daily Bread”…    http://odb.org/2012/07/06/stop/

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

Acts 6:8 & 10… And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. ¹⁰ And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.  (NKJV) 

Stephen, in the opening scripture, was one of 7 holy men chosen by the Church, to help Christ’s disciples with all the new Christians that had been added to Christ’s Church… These 7 chosen men of God were added to allow the 12 disciples to concentrate on their main objective given to them by Christ, to grow His Church… 

The power of the Holy Spirit should not be underestimated in the help He can bring into the life of a believer… I remember speaking to my fellow church members right before I was baptized…a few weeks after God graced me with salvation… I am in no way, a public speaker…  I had prepared a written speech, because I have always had a tough time speaking in front of people (especially the large number at my church)…  I remember saying a pray, asking the Lord for help before I started talking; and they told me I spoke for over 15 minutes…  The Holy Spirit took control, and it was only because of His help that I managed to keep from embarrassing myself…   

The unbelievable power of the Christian’s Helper, the Holy Spirit, has to be experienced to be believed… The apostle Paul wrote this, in…

Ephesians 3:14-21…  For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, ¹⁶ that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, ¹⁷ that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— ¹⁹ to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. ²⁰ Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, (NKJV) 

Read this scripture a second time, and let Paul’s thoughts about Christ’s love and the power of the Holy Spirit sink in !!  The love of Christ “which passes knowledge” …  And the Holy Spirits ability “to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think”… The secret to availing oneself to this powerful Helper God has given to all Christians…is to remain ”filled with all the fullness of God”…

Once again I remind the Christian’s reading this, that this being filled with (controlled by) the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18-20), is only possible if the Christian remains humble and allows the Holy Spirit to take control; all sins have been confessed and repented of… This must be done on a continual basis as needed, every time the Christian finds themselves sinning… They must seek forgiveness from any sin that keeps them from being righteous in God’s eyes… This re-cleansing from sins, is accomplished by praying something similar to this scripture 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) 

God’s Word calls us to be as “Christ like” as possible… We can never be perfect, as Christ was perfect… But we as Christians should be striving towards that unattainable goal, coming closer every day as we live our lives to honor and glorify the Lord…1 Peter 1:15-16… but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, ¹⁶ because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”  (NKJV) 

Heavenly Father, Your Word, the Bible, is written to teach us how to become righteous in Your sight…2 Timothy 3:16-17… Help all of Your children Lord, to step aside and allow the Holy Spirit to take total control of their lives… I pray for this fullness of the Holy Spirit for all of us, in Jesus’ most precious name and for His sake…Amen…

written by bruce