Life from the Dead!

Romans 8:11- “And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.” AMP

The Holy Spirit is the most ignored and misunderstood member of the Trinity. We understand that God is God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, the One we are reconciled to. We understand Jesus, the Son of God, the Lamb that took our sins away, and takes away the sins of the world. But most people are confused about the Holy Spirit, referring to Him as, It, or Something, or a Feeling. To me, that’s a clear indication that person is clueless about the Holy Spirit!

I originally started this blog like I do so many others, wanting to explain scripturally what I believe the word is stating about a verse or passage. After all, I speak a lot about studying the word and want my blog to be another place you can learn about the word. But after hours of trying to pull that type of study together when my heart is shouting, “there is so much more”, I finally gave in!

I know the impact the Holy Spirit has had on my life. My Sunday School teacher led me to the Lord as a little girl, after my mother died. And although I was saved and His Spirit was dwelling within me, keeping me from much of the temptations of the world, something was missing!

As a teenager, I was filled with the Spirit of God, and I can say that I truly came alive. Had I been accurately taught and encouraged in a life for God after I got saved, that feeling of life could have been there then, but it wasn’t. Getting saved was a lifeline, but it was learning of the Person of the Holy Spirit that gave life to my mortal body! Literally!

I was sickly as a young person. After being paralyzed for a short spell, it seemed that my body just didn’t want to fully recuperate. My legs never seemed as strong as they should have been, and I would be in pain, or sick, for no apparent reason, with no apparent cause. Then I was introduced to the Holy Spirit and my life changed! God healed me and that pain went away making my body strong enough for me to go to the Navy!

I remember thinking one day, “Lord, I need you to help me to stop cursing. I don’t want to embarrass myself around the church people.” Believe it or not, it was as if He took those words from my vocabulary and gave me a new vocabulary. I never did curse around those church folks and I haven’t cursed since, unless I was repeating something a student said. And I generally spell or write it out so that I don’t have to say it! Life changing!

I loved dancing. I thought that I was the dancing machine Michael Jackson sung about. But one day, I didn’t want to dance to secular music because I could dance before the Lord. My heart was rapidly changing. My lifestyle was rapidly changing. My family couldn’t keep up with the changes, they were happening so fast.

The more I allowed the Holy Spirit to lead me and to guide me, the more He did just that! I wasn’t perfection in the going, but my aim was to live for Him and to live like Him. And He was faithful! Over and over again!

We sang a chorus that was a constant reminder to me:

I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me!
It makes the lame to walk and the blind to see!
It opens prison doors and set the captives free!
I’ve got a rive of life, flowing out of me!
Spring up O well, within my soul!
Spring up O well, and make me whole!
Spring up O well, and give to me,
That life, abundantly!

It was my pleasure to attend church as I was growing up! My pleasure to serve God! My pleasure to read the word, or share my faith! Nothing was too much for me to do, and I didn’t see Him or anything about Him as a burden, or a chore! That was the power of His Spirit living in me and guiding me.

His Holy Spirit was real to me! Is real to me! And because of His Holy Spirit, I have been kept, loved, cherished, taught, encouraged, strengthened, blessed! There’s no greater testament to the life I am living than the reality of who God is to me, and the joy I have of knowing His Spirit lives in me!

Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit that was in Jesus being in us. He says that same Spirit will quicken our mortal bodies. I don’t know how many times I have embraced that truth in my heart for my personal health! Or the health of others! But I have! And I have seen Him raise my body off the bed of affliction with continued life.

I welcome the Holy Spirit in my life and my daily affairs. He has helped me to be a wife for over 34 years. He has helped me to raise three daughters whom I love dearly and who loves Him. He has helped me through turbulent years as an educator. He has helped me to not grow weary in the waiting, as I look for Him to fulfill promises He has made to me. He is my constant source of strength, and life without Him would not be this good. As a matter of fact, it wouldn’t be life! Because He is my life in Christ Jesus!

All of this carnality, this fleshly living, we’ve been learning about in Romans can really be dealt with, as Paul said, living life in the Spirit! When I’m tempted to operate in my flesh, generally I cry out to Him, the One who lives in me, to help me to respond as He would have me to respond. When I obey, things are great! When I don’t, I end up having to repent! But repentance doesn’t frighten me, because I am repenting to my loving, heavenly Father. And I fully expect to be forgiven and received. Yet, I don’t practice living in sin, because I don’t want to hurt the One who loves me so unconditionally! The One who has given me life! Who has given me so much!

The man in John said that he once was blind, but now he can see! I once was dead, but Jesus brought me from death to life by His Spirit! He has given me a reason to live, to love, to be vulnerable, to forgive, to do life! Wobbling in your faith is a sure sign you haven’t experienced Him in the Person of the Holy Spirit! But if you will try Him, you will feel the life that quickens your mortal body, that raises the dead! And you will never regret it, because He just gets sweeter and sweeter as the days go by!

I know I went off my usual path, but I did it for someone! And you are worth it! Keep loving Him and reaching for Him, for when you do, you will find Him, for He is reaching for you! Wonderful Jesus!