How to be a happy and strong Christian
“These things I have spoken to you, that My Joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:11 NKJV) Through these two steps (continually receiving the Holy Spirit and complete surrender) Christ lives in us and it is the way to perfect happiness. The crucial point is that we (as a rule) daily surrender ourselves to God including everything we are and have and that we also daily ask and receive by faith the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Why We Need To Surrender To Jesus Daily
Jesus said in Luke 9:23: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” Jesus said that discipleship is a daily matter. To deny oneself means giving Jesus the control over my life.
In order to keep our spiritual life strong and healthy it is also necessary to take care of the inner person daily. “We are to follow Christ day by day. God does not bestow help for tomorrow.” DA 313. “However complete may have been our consecration at conversion, it will avail us nothing unless it be renewed daily … .” RH 1/6/1885. "If you will seek the Lord and be converted every day ... all your murmurings will be stilled, all your difficulties will be moved, all the perplexing problems that now confront you will be solved." MB 101.
We may be certain that: when we consciously surrender ourselves to Jesus every morning, then we are doing what He wishes us to do, because He said: “Come to me…” (Matt. 11:28 NKJV) and: “... the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” (John 6:37 NKJV)
Why we need to daily ask for the Holy Spirit
“To the consecrated worker there is wonderful consolation in the knowledge that even Christ during His life on earth sought His Father daily for fresh supplies of needed grace … His own example is an assurance that earnest, persevering supplication to God in faith – faith that leads to entire dependence upon God, and unreserved consecration to His work – will avail to bring men the Holy Spirit’s aid in the battle against sin.” AA 56
Our inward man needs to be renewed daily (2 Cor. 4:16). In what way does this daily renewal take place? According to Eph. 3:16-17, 19 NKJV it happens through the Holy Spirit: “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, … that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
God's word commands us to continually “… be filled with the Spirit.“ Eph. 5:18. This isn’t a one-time experience, but rather something that has to be continually repeated. Notice that the Ephesians had been sealed with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13) and yet it was necessary for them to be: “strengthened with might through His Spirit” and to “be filled with the Spirit” and “let yourselves be consistently and continually filled with the Spirit anew". “In order that we may have the righteousness of Christ, we need daily to be transformed by the influence of the Spirit, to be a partaker of the divine nature. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to elevate the taste, to sanctify the heart, to ennoble the whole man”. 1SM 374
Rom. 5:5 shows us that God’s love is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. We find the same thing in Eph. 3:17. The daily baptism with the Holy Spirit (being filled with the Holy Spirit) causes at the same time a daily baptism with love (being filled with God’s agape love). In addition, it says in Gal. 5:16 that as a result the power of sin is broken.
Being filled with the Spirit doesn’t mean that we quantitatively have more of Him, but rather that the Spirit has more and more of us. That’s why Paul commanded all the believers to be constantly filled with the Spirit. This is a normal condition for a Christian. One baptism, but many fillings.
The Importance of Personal Worship Time
Through daily surrender and through being daily filled with the Holy Spirit our lives will be benefi cially changed. This happens during our personal worship time. “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Matt.6:33 NKJV The kingdom of God is when you have Christ in your heart now. This is why we need daily surrender and to daily ask for the Holy Spirit during our worship time. When we are carnal Christians worship can be just an obligation. When we are spiritual then worship will become more and more a necessity.
Worship in Spirit and Truth
God's last message to the world is about worship (Rev. 14:6-12) and we must worship God in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24). To worship in spirit means be filled with the Holy Spirit and to worship in truth means complete surrender to Jesus, the person of truth (John 14:6) and living by God's word which is also truth (John 17:17).
Daily Need to Surrender and Ask for God's Spirit, Even After Baptism
Baptism is definitely a significant decision; this corresponds to God’s will. It has and will keep its great significance. But we shouldn’t look back to an event in the past as proof that we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Instead we should know now and experience now that we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Just like we constantly need food, water, sleep, exercise, etc after physical birth, even after being born, we constantly need surrender to Jesus and be filled with God's Spirit, even after baptism. Neither the physical nor the spiritual life remains automatically in us. By asking for the Holy Spirit, we're asking for Jesus to come into our hearts. “And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.” 1 John 3:24
The Effects of the Holy Spirit
When the Holy Spirit is in me, then He accomplishes in me what Christ achieved. Romans 8:2 says: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”
“When the Spirit of God takes possession of the heart, it transforms the life. Sinful thoughts are put away, evil deeds are renounced; love, humility, and peace take the place of anger, envy, and strife. Joy takes the place of sadness, and the countenance reflects the light of heaven.” DA 173
Prayer: Lord Jesus, I thank you that you want to remain in me through the Holy Spirit. Thank you that through daily surrender our trust and love relationship is growing. Lord, help me to get to know the Holy Spirit and His work better. I long to know what He wants to do for me, my family and my church and how we can have the assurance that we can receive the Holy Spirit when we daily ask Thank you for this. Amen
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