Marshmallow Peeps and the Gospel

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Well those little cute candy birds have been around for the Easter season from the year after I was born in 1952 and I have consumed a lot of those tasty diabetic induced candies in the past LOL!   There have been many Easter traditions that I’ve shared with my family as a child.   I continued these traditions with my own family until I became a committed Christian and realized the true meaning of Resurrection day.  We still provided our children with Easter candy… but as a table setting decoration and not baskets, Easter egg hunts and toys.

Marshmallow Peeps has nothing to do with the Gospel and I guess this statement is not a surprise to you.  Is it ok to still eat them?  Yup!  Is it ok to have all the other Easter candy and things?   I think so… but maybe after church at your  family gathering and dinner.  I don’t think the Lord  would mind that at all.

Does the Lord mind that you dress up for Easter?  I don’t think so.  Your motives are to honor His Sons sacrifice and look your best for Resurrection Sunday worship at the Lords house.  I believe that it’s not wise to overdo it and just buy new spring attire and not spend hundreds of dollars on clothes and things. (Just my personal thoughts here)

What can be a problem is when the major emphasis is on all the Easter trimmings and little emphasis on the reason for the remembrance of the Sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us for our salvation.  This is a holy time for Christians of remembering this special act of Love.

Our children and our grandchildren should be taught this by us and have this instilled in their heart and minds.  When this is accomplished all the Easter trimmings won’t have that place of importance.

I love the Good Friday service and reflections, the Easter Lilies on Sunday, singing…Christ the Lord has risen today…seeing all my brothers and sisters in Christ all filled with the awe and wonder at our Easter morning service.  This is my family’s tradition since 1984.  It’s a tradition that keeps me in a good place in my heart and spirit.  The tradition continues that day with a family dinner and thanking God that we can all be together.

There is one more tradition that I do…and that is…to try and remember Jesus Sacrifice not only Easter week…but every single day.

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Philippians 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

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Message for today: Go ahead and eat a marshmallow Peep….But remember that old saying…JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON….that goes for Easter too!

Remember those great family Easters? Did we ever wear those hats and carry the little handbags any other time other than Easter? Every kid on my block had them!

Remember the family dinners? Great traditions!

Now these are Easter bonnets!!

Grieving the Holy Spirit

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I never want to grieve the Holy Spirit


Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Grieve means to feel sorrow or grief. It’s being overwhelmed with sadness or anguish about a situation that’s happened whether it happens personally or publicly. Grieve also means to lament or feel the loss of something or someone.  When you read the scripture above and know that we can grieve the Holy Spirit of God…that grieves me…because the last thing I ever want to do is to grieve the Spirit of God.  Many people ask this question…how does one grieve the Holy Spirit? Well I can tell you it can be done because the bible says so…and I have done it.


There’s so much that the Holy Spirit does for us. This is a very intimate relationship because the Holy Spirit dwells in us Christians and this means He is very very close to us. Because He is so personally involved with us… it would be very insulting to disobey Him or do the opposite of what He’s advising us to do. The word grieve is a word the bible uses to describe the feeling that the Holy Spirit experiences when we disobey biblical commands and spirit lead leadings.
I don’t want to list out all the things that can grieve the Holy Spirit because it would be a very long list…but when you do a bible study on the Holy Spirit…you will find out how much influence He has in our lives and you’ll know what grieves Him. I’ll give you an example later.

You can also know what grieves Him because when He does guide you and you don’t listen to Him…things will happen around you and things will affect you negatively. You can also know you grieve the Holy Spirit because you’ll feel sick or sad in your heart and you too will grieve because of your own disobedience.
The Lord taught me a lesson that I will NEVER forget. When I first became a committed Christian in 1984 I was asked by my pastor to sing at a prayer breakfast in church. I agreed to it. I‘d never sung in church before and was upset about having to sing. I told many people my displeasure about singing at this breakfast.

I have learned to always do things for the Lord with a willing heart.

The day before the breakfast I got stricken with the most violent stomach cramps and you can guess the rest of the bathroom drama. While I was in the bathroom and feeling so sick… I said out loud…oh God!….Why all this pain?…Help me! The lord spoke to me and said…If He ever ask me to do anything for Him and I agree to do it…don’t complain. He said it would be better not to agree to it than to do it with a negative heart and spirit. I know I grieved the Holy Spirit. I’m very thankful to this day for the correction, patience and forgiveness from the Lord.

We must think about the Holy Spirits effect in our lives. He is a person and living being…the third person of the Godhead. It’s God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and they are uniquely intertwined in our lives. God loves us so much and has given us so much of Himself. He gave us His Son and He gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit. We have the wonderful fullness of God. Let’s be conscious of the divine purpose of the Holy spirit of God in our lives…Lets consider the daily things we do and think before we act or speak.

Message for today: Let’s not grieve our wonderful comforter and counselor. Grieve not the Holy Spirit. Accept His gentle leadings.

Lord...Help me to never disappoint you

The Holy Spirit revives me

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Psalms 85:6 Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?

The Holy Spirit is there to guide me into doing the right thing. When I don’t do the right things and I sin…He points this out to me. I want Him to because I want to be right with God. I ask God to forgive me in Jesus name and Jesus washes me clean.

Because of the Holy Spirit’s work in my heart…I experience revival in my spirit. In fact I have lots of revivals. I don’t always stay this way…but I seek to be right with my God. I have my revivals right in my own home… in my room. My husband has come home from work many times and has seen me so caught up in the spirit. In my prayer times… I ask the Lord to forgive me and I begin to worship Him. You see… the Holy Spirit in me helps me to see my wrongs. After I repent…I feel this freedom and love from the Lord and in my interaction with Him… He manifests Himself in my life and I feel a revival in my spirit. As The Holy Spirit fills me to overflow… I feel the presence of God in a supernatural way. I good-cry a lot during these times…sometimes speak in tongues…sometimes I can say no words and just enjoy their presence…sometimes I receive visions and or messages.

My soul is so revived after these times. I always want to have these times in church…but I can’t do this by myself in church. I’ve had a few times when it has happen to me and I just go into the fellowship hall and have a brief timeout and calm myself down and go back into the service. There have been times in my past when the congregation has gotten very close to a group revival.

I’ve only had one experience of a revival like I have by myself in a group and that was at a meeting that another woman and I had with the girls in our choir because a few of them had gotten caught up in the Spirit at our church service a few night before.  We wanted to explain to them what had happened that night…but our group of girls, me and the other woman got filled up all over again for hours. We were praying, crying, singing, and praising God…some just laid on the floor. It was so incredible!!! It was like being in a womb…feeling safe and secure. Nobody wanted to stop or leave.

Lets all join together and pray for revival. It starts with ourselves first!

Revival is not a scheduled meeting but an unexpected visitation from God resulting from an earnest desire to seek His face and be in His presence. God will ALWAYS show up this way when we earnestly seek Him with a clean heart.

Message for today: Revival starts with you and it can happen to a group of people and spread. Let’s all pray for the Holy Spirit to move in people’s heart, mind and spirit. Let pray for truth…let’s pray for revived lives. Wake up…Wake up and be revived. Can the church say…Amen?

The Holy Spirit is my life coach

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Listen to your coach and you can endure in your trial

Ephesians 3:16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,

I feel like the Holy Spirit is like a labor coach to me. I have been on both sides of labor…as a patient and as a coach. Labor is a time of extreme pain…pain with a great purpose…to have a baby. It’s a very difficult time for most women going through the natural labor process. When you have a labor coach….it doesn’t make the pain less…but it gives you support in your suffering and guidance in how to get through it.

I feel this is what the Holy Spirit does for me. At those times that I have to endure suffering…. He is there to coach me in how to get through my situation. Instead of saying push…He says endure and reassure’s me that I can indeed make it. He strengthens me and can even pray for me when I don’t even know what to pray.

Romans 8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

Message for today: The Holy Spirit is my helper….He coaches me all day and night every day. How can I fail with this very powerful being living inside of me… directing me and guiding me? My job is to listen and take my coach’s advice and obey God’s commands to me.

 

The Holy Spirit will guide you

 

 

 

The Holy Spirit will help you....YOU CAN MAKE IT!!!!!!!!!!!

What my fellowship with the Holy Spirit has done for me

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We are connected to the Holy Spirit because Jesus promised to send another comforter and He came. When we repented of our sins and believed in Jesus...the Holy Spirit came inside of us and will be there for all of our earthly life. We ARE connected to the third person of the trinity. The connection is complete and I want to take in every benefit of this awesome indwelling.

2 Corinthians 13:14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

This whole week I’ve been blogging about the Holy Spirit.  I can’t stop thinking about Him. I’m so awed by whom He is and all that He does for me.  I reflected back on all the interaction I’ve had with Him.  My first big shocking interaction was when my husband spoke in tongues and then I did.  It was so shocking and so exciting.  I knew speaking in tongues was real because the language was so beautiful and I know I could not have made that up on my own.

The experience went through every part of my body.  I was so excited that all I wanted to do was pray to God.  The Holy Spirit also manifested Himself to me in other ways.  We truly have a very close relationship.  It wasn’t that He was only in me… but through me and all over me.

The Holy Spirit not only reveals Himself to me in prayer…but at so many other times…like when I found out I had cancer and when my children were in the intensive care.  His counsel to me has been incredible.  He advises me every day about something.  I have felt His arms around me when I needed comfort.

 In my singing ministry…I walk up to the microphone to sing and sometimes I’m not feeling up to par…I start singing and halfway through the song I feel the Holy Spirit fill me and I know then that the music has gone to another level.  I feel like we are singing and not just me.  I feel the congregation feels His presence too.  Sometimes I get so nervous before I have to sing and I ask Him if He’s with me and He makes me know in some unique way that He‘s with me.  Sometimes I can feel Him escort me up to sing and other times like I said…He manifests Himself while I sing.

My point in continuing to talk about the third person in the trinity is to show how much He does for us and how much we need to be aware of His presence in our everyday lives.

The Holy Spirit has even showed me a vision of Himself when I first committed myself to the Lord.  I will share this in my book when it’s published. I love Him so much.  He will always be with me and will be there the day I die which is so comforting to me.  I am always in the presence of my God.

Message for todayThe Holy Spirit is amazing. Get your consciousness to connect with Him in your spirit.  Know what the bible says about Him and then make every effort to commit yourself to becoming more aware of His constant presence in your life.

Be filled with the Spirit!!

The Holy Spirit is not an “it”

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The Holy Spirit is as I have said is the third person in the trinity or the Godhead.  I just want to emphasize that the Holy Spirit is His own person… as Jesus is and God is.  They each have their own distinct personalities.  The Holy Spirit is not to be referred to as…”it” or anything other than who He is.  There is God the Father…God the Son…and God the Holy Spirit.

Our God is a very unique being to us humans.  He is three persons in one being.  He is not three gods but one God.

Please read my archived blog on the trinity  https://godspeaks-i-listen.com/2011/07/12/shocking-truth%e2%80%a6god-is-three-persons%e2%80%a6-really/

Message impressed on my heart from the Lord

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I feel the Lord speaking to me very strongly.  He is telling me to tell everyone about being filled His Holy Spirit.  I believe the Lord is about to do something very big.  Many people are praying for a revival…but we need to be open fully to God’s Holy Spirit.   Since it is Their power (Father Son and Holy Spirit) that we are seeking for this revival.  We should have our hands out and cupped…ready to receive from the Lord.

We need the Holy Spirit…we need an outpouring.  We need to educate ourselves about the Holy Spirit through God’s word and have an expectant heart.

The Holy Spirit is powerful!!!  I need more of Him You need more of Him! 

God is making this very clear to me to share……we need the Holy Spirit!  We need Him today!

Please…seek an outpouring of Gods Holy Spirit.  Those who have ears listen to what the Spirit is saying.

Come Holy Spirit…Come…Come…Come…Come…Come…………….

The Holy Spirit is so incredible to me

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I want to blog today about the Holy Spirit again because He is so important to our daily lives. He’s so important that Jesus told His disciples not to go to Jerusalem to start spreading the gospel…but to wait for the Holy Spirit.  They needed His knowledge, wisdom and power…and so do we.

Acts 1:4,5 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

We are disciples of Jesus Christ and we are supposed to make more disciples.  How can we do this in a dynamic and powerful way without the full power of the Holy Spirit?  How can we have more power in our personal lives without knowing all that the third person in the trinity can do?

I found this website that is power packed with great information about the Holy Spirit.  They have done all the hard work of putting all the information together.  Check everything as always in your own bible and write study notes of what you learn for future reference and study.  http://www.theholyspirit.com/default.asp

Are you a Christian?  Then the Holy Spirit is living inside of you right now!

John 14:16-17 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

The Holy Spirit is a real living spirit being.  Although He doesn’t have a form that we can get a clear picture in our heads with…He is the third person in the Godhead and the bible has given many examples of His manifested presence here on earth.

This is my own feelings and thoughts about the Holy Spirit.  I love the Holy Spirit…but I worship God.  The Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to me and Jesus points me to God the Father. My interaction with the Holy Spirit is very sensitive and personal.  I try to be thoughtful and sensitive about what He does for me.  I try not to offend Him because I know He is at work in me for my good.  You can get mad at Jesus and people have not only gotten mad at Jesus… but talked about Him…beat Him…even killed Him and He let them do it and He forgave them.  I try not to offend or sadden the Holy Spirit. 

Jesus had the Holy Spirit come down on Him and He received Him

 God gave Him to me to help me.  What if you bought someone a beautiful and expensive gift and they turned around and smacked you and told you off.    You would be stunned and offended by their action towards your kind gesture.  Well if God sent the Holy Spirit to help us and we dismissed Him… I believe God would be VERY offended by the rejection of His wonderful gift He gave us.

Because Holy Spirit is invisible to me and a quiet voice in me… if I’m not aware of Him at the moment…I tend to forget about Him.  Or I may be doing something and I don’t want to hear from Him…like when I’m shopping or mad at someone.  He’s probably telling me to do the right thing…but I tune Him out…ignore Him.   On the other hand…When I’m going through a hard trial… I really listen out for Him to speak to me. 

As I’ve gotten older and more mature in the Lord… I feel like I’m more aware of His presence and I feel the need to STAY aware of Him at all times.  I also find it easier to obey the Lord commands if I keep my mind on Him and follow the lead of the Holy Spirit.

Embrace the Holy Spirit of God…let Him be that integral part of your life.  Learn to feel His presence and His movements and instruction in your life.  Let Him impart God’s love in your soul…this will keep you running into God’s arm and growing your personal relationship with the Lord.  The Holy Spirit will help you worship the Lord.  We need the Holy Spirit so much.  He has sooooo much to offer us.  Close your eyes and feel His presence over you and in you.

 Look for Him to fill your spirit up with more of Him. Look for His unusual way He makes the bible come alive to you when you read it and even reminds you of God’s words at a time when you need God the most.  Remember always that He is the third person in the trinity…a spiritual being who has His own personality and He is a part of your life and wants to be fully involved with you every minute of every day.  Let Him have His way with you.  God loves you…Jesus loves you…The Holy spirit loves you…You are soooo blessed!

Message for today: Desire more of the Holy Spirit of God.

OH MY GOD!!…THE HOLY SPIRIT

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Oh My God!!  The Holy Spirit…thank you for Him!

I have an very close walk my Lord.  I have an incredible relationship with God.  I love Him so much.  I thank God for His Holy Spirit and I thank Jesus for making all this possible.

You see…I was born bad to the bone.  I was a worm, a retched soul.  My parents kept mentioning the name of God and Jesus to me as a child.  They took me to church and I learned more about God and Jesus.  The Holy Spirit sent by God… was there to hover over me and whisper to my heart and mind the names of Jesus and God.

This is why the names of God are so important!  With the knowledge and power of those names and the drawing of the Holy Spirit…this is what confirmed who God was in my heart mind and spirit man.  Then one day the Spirit of God led me to watch Billy Graham on our black and white TV and at the age of about 12 years old…I repented and invited Jesus to be the Lord of my life.  The Holy Spirit opened my eyes that day.  My eyes were opened to the reality of God, but my spirit was not open to completely surrendering myself to Him until 19 years later.  That’s when the Holy Spirit finished the task of completely winning me over 100% for the Lord.  From that day on the Holy Spirit was in control of my life and Jesus Christ is the head of my life.

After all of this I wanted to know every single thing about God so I dug into the bible for information.  This Scripture verse had a big impact on my prayer life and my relationship with the Lord:

1 Corinthians 2:10,11 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

When I read this I knew this was the way I was going to get to know God.  So I closed my eyes…and talked to God about 8 hours day for 7 years straight.  I told God to show me everything He could that was humanly possible to know about Him.  I wanted to know what He was doing, how He was feeling, His favorite color…just everything about Him.  He said He would never do anything to make me afraid of Him or the Holy Spirit.  I’ve been on a great adventure with God ever since.  I gave myself over to His will and the Holy Spirit took me over and showed me incredible visions and told me many things about God.

I’ve had awesome experiences under the power of the Holy Spirit.  I tell you this not to brag or so you can say crazy things like…ooh, she’s so anointed.  I am nothing without God’s Holy Spirit in me. It’s all been for a purpose…to glorify God.   I opened myself up to Him fully…so He came in.  I’m a servant of the Most High and everything in my life is to glorify God and lift up the name of Jesus.  I am a decreased individual!  I am less and the Lord is more in my life.

I know some people are scared of the Holy Spirit.  If you are a born again Christian…the Holy Spirit is already living inside of you.  But you can also be filled with Him.  He will not do anything you don’t want Him to.  God’s Holy Spirit is very gentle because God is sensitive to our feelings and so is His Spirit.

God is in constant communion with me through the Holy Spirit and all I can say here is…OH MY GOD!!!  I can be in touch with the most holy and power being in the entire universe anytime I want!!!!  OH MY GOD!!!!

When I try to explain the greatness of God to people who are not a Christian…they don’t get it.  It’s a mystery to them.  The Holy Spirit of God is trying to speak to their heart about Jesus and His Father…but there is doubt, fear and rebelliousness and they shut their heart and minds down to His call.  But the Holy Spirit of God keeps trying to reveal Jesus to them.  Then one day after many attempts they are ready and they open their heart to Him.  They see their need for Him and they want to be cleansed and spiritually healed.  They want forgiveness.  They need love.  They need God.  Once God gets in there…He begins the deeper life changing work.

The Holy Spirit  is the third person in the trinity and does His job in the new believers life.  The Holy Spirit reveals the baby Christian with the milk of God’s word as he reads it and gives gentle little cleansing baths.   He fights the enemy’s attempts to pull the new Christian back into their old life and gives this baby a lot of invisible hugs and kisses from the Lord so He knows He’s loved.  As the baby grows, the Holy Spirit is constantly helping the child mature and He teaches Him the things of God.  The Holy Spirit does so much for us Christians and He does all of this throughout our whole lives… until it’s time for us to go our home in heaven.  OH MY GOD….YOUR HOLY SPIRIT!!!!

Do you understand how much He is doing for you?  Do you want to be filled by Him?  Do you want Him to take over your life and guide you?  If you are one of those who don’t know what to make of the Holy Spirit…I tell you He’s already at work in you so why not let Him have more power and authority in your life.  If a doctor said…I have a pill that can solve all your problems and make you better than new… you would take it.  The Holy Spirit is a million times better than that for you.  Be filled with Him.

You say how can I be filled?

  1.     Ask God to fill you.
  2.     Have a receptive heart and Mind.
  3.     Expect the infilling.
  4.     Have the right motive…which is to know or walk with God.
  5.     Spend time privately talking with God.
  6.     Have no fear about God and His Holy Spirit.
  7.     Desire His love, His blessing and His Spirit.

Why should you live with half of your blessing when we have the fullness of God for now in this life.  Take full advantage of all of what God has for you.  Life is difficult at times and we need all of God.  God is not only there for the bad times…but the Holy Spirit of God can bless you with so much JOY in your spirit.  The Holy Spirit of God reveals God’s happy side too.  God is funny, sensitive, compassionate, affectionate and joyful.  God showed me this side of Him in my prayer times with Him..  I could go on and on in telling all the great and amazing things about the Holy Spirit…but my blog post is getting to long.  I have so much to share from my heart of my life experiences with Him.

Have you ever said…Oh I want to know God more?…… the…HOLY SPIRIT……IS THE WAY TO….KNOW GOD MORE!

Message for today:  God’s Holy Spirit……………Be filled!

Ephesians 5:18  Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,

Jesus said He would leave us another comforter…The Holy Spirit

Given a message for someone 4 today

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Mark 4:40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

Roman 8:15  For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

2 Timothy 1:7  For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

 

Message for today:  Don’t live in fear.  Fear affects your spirit man and separates you from your confidence in God.  Don’t let fear shut you down…you shut down fear!  This message is for someone for today and I say to you….fear not!

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