“Our Daily Bread”     http://odb.org/

The Daily Devotions of Greg Laurie                                  

http://www.harvest.org/devotional/daily-devotions/home.ht   

“Homily Grits Devotional”   http://www.homilygrits.com/ 

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 worldcannot receive, because it neithersees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for Hedwells with you and will be in you. ¹⁸ I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. (NKJV) 

These comforting words of Jesus in the opening scripture were spoken to His disciples at “The Last Supper”, after Jesus had told them He was going away to be with His Father in heaven…  The Holy Spirit (“the Spirit of truth”), will truly give comfort to Christians who take full advantage of the help the Holy Spirit wants to provide them…IF !!    There is always an IF attached to the good things in life, right ?? 

A little later, Jesus tells His disciples this, in…John 15:5… “I am the vine, you are the branches. He whoabides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for withoutMe you can do nothing.” 

I like the way the Apostle John uses the word “abides” in the following scripture, to describe the Christian who is abiding in Christ…since this is the key to bearing “much fruit”, as Jesus teaches in this scripture and also in…Matthew 7:17… 

1 John 2:5-6… But whoever keepsHisword, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this weknow that we are inHim. ⁶ He who says he abides in Himought himself also towalk just as He walked.  (NKJV) 

No Christian can “walk just as He walked”…indicating that we should walk as Jesus walked…  Only Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life…   But as Christians, the closest we can come to walking like Jesus, would be (as the Apostle Paul puts it)… to “Walk in the Spirit”…  The Apostle Paul pens this, in…Galatians 5:16…  I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall notfulfill the lust of the flesh.  (NKJV) 

I spent a day writing about…“Walking in the Spirit”… that will go into more detail than I can discuss today…  You can go to www.Godsmanforever.wordpress.com and type 5/13/2013 into the search window, to read about it… 

Getting back to the “IF ”, in order to take full advantage of the help and the comfort the Holy Spirit will provide the Christian…  Jesus tells us that “withoutMe you can do nothing”…   Jesus is speaking about the Holy Spirit here…indicating in the opening scripture that He and the Holy Spirit are One, when He says…“I will come to you.”…  This is confirmed again in Jesus’ last words before ascending into heaven, in…Matthew 28:20…   teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.  (NKJV) 

It is indeed the full power of the Holy Spirit, if left in total control (Ephesians 5:18-20) of the Christian’s life…that will provide the comfort and the help in directing the Christian in all things…   It is this fullness of Christ in the Christian’s life, which will also mature the 9 fruit of the Spirit…Galatians 5:22-23… The 3 most important of the 9 fruit of the Spirit are love, joy, and peace…  We see these as…the supernatural love of Christwhich passes our mortal knowledge… Ephesians 3:19-20…as the fullness of joy when the Christian is walking in the Spirit… John 15:11…&…Jude 1:24…and as a supernatural peace, that goes beyond our mortal understanding…Philippians 4:6-7… 

All of these richest blessings from God, leading to bearing “much fruit”, are only possible when we get out of our own way and let God do what He does best…Psalm 23:3… Herestores my soul; Heleads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.  (NKJV) 

The Christian cannot be living with unconfessed sins, and still be seen as righteous in God’s eyes…  But we are promised that if we confess and repent of our sins…that we will again be righteous before the Lord…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) 

Heavenly Father, help all of Your children understand the importance of not harboring unconfessed sins in their heart…  Help Your children Lord, to do our best to walk in Your will and Your ways (Walk in the Spirit), by allowing the Holy Spirit to control our lives, as we submit to His authority for the direction of everything we say and do…  I pray for this fullness of Christ for all of us, in Jesus’ most precious name and for His sake…Amen…

Blessings in Christ,  bruce r mills