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Day #27: Spirit Bears Witness
“Praise is of the Soul”
Praise is of the soul, not the mouth. However, as you choose to begin offering praise with your mouth, in honesty of heart seeking the realness of Him, the Spirit comes upon you rising up overwhelming you with Praise. Praise that is of the Spirit consumes your soul and your flesh. The Presence and Love of God, manifest upon you, is the single most precious abiding place.
This subject is not so much about my love towards the Lord, nor is it His Love for the whole world. It is not even the Lord’s Love individually towards you or me. It is however, moments when the Love of God comes upon you that is completely awe-inspiring. He fills you and consumes your soul and flesh in the awe of the Presence and Power of the Lord. It is altogether beautiful and deeply strengthening, and it is here that the Lord wishes that we all abide and remain; under the ‘Anointing of the Lord’ (Is. 61:1).
Firstly, Jesus has saved you and I in order to bring us close to Him, ‘to be with Him’ (Mark 3:14-15). And God continually and jealously desires us all, individually and collectively, to be drawn ever closer to Himself. Even intimately abiding in the ‘Bosom of the Father’, just as His Son Christ Jesus (John 1:18). And it is from this Place that we can truly set the ‘captives free’, and impart the same Seed of Life in them. Ie; Jesus manifest, the Love of God resting upon their lives, and a life full and free in the Holy Spirit and Power. From this same freedom, they themselves live their life joyfully setting the captives free, in the same Power and Presence of God.
It is in this intimacy, this deep-rooted relationship and bond with the Lord of Glory, of which ushers in the manifest Kingdom of God into your world. For as you are brought up into His Presence, into His Courts, and enjoy sitting with Him day by day; God of Heaven and earth also comes upon your life and seats Himself firmly in you. His manifest Presence in your life totally rattles your world. All doubt and unbelief, cares, fears, frailty, and pride flee in the Glory and Delight of the Lord. You truly are becoming as like a little child.
The Kingdom of God does not come through a ‘spirit’ of works, law or pride of knowledge, but through an ever deepening intimacy in the Love of God (Rev. 2:1-5). A knowing of Him, a walk that is so very close to Him; just as Jesus. The deepest of friendship, the deepest of trust and confidence that is brought about by your own closeness in Him. A closeness that He establishes as you earnestly wait upon the Lord, with the single-eyed purpose of meeting with Him.
Have you ever drank water with mud in it? Would you ever present a glass of water to a friend that is not totally clear and pure? Our love can be muddied and its purpose unclear. Therefore, in purifying your love, offering a ‘singleness’ of heart unto the Lord, His Love comes upon you immeasurably. So in earnest, purify your love unto the Lord, offering your King a pure glass of water as He comes and meets with you again. In your life you rely only on the Grace and Goodness of God to cover you, and this is right, this is our basis as well as vision. But at the same time, you fail to offer your love pure and your life fully unto Him. In this then you deny the fullness of the Freedom and the Power of the Holy Ghost, that He desires to come rest upon your life.
Works and pride are not the answer, but through love and intimacy is where the Father increasingly makes Himself known to you. Not just a knowing that is of the pages of the Bible, but the living closeness that comes through the regular encounters with the Person of Jesus. Truly the Lord shows you how to love, as His Love comes upon you. Truly as you love Him and seek Him with all that you are, His Love comes upon you and remains. The Love of God upon your life establishes a deepening and natural capacity to love. A love that is not of the flesh but is of God. His Love that remains in you, naturally builds a deepening loving relationship and closeness with your spouse and your children. His Love builds a deepening intimacy in your family and repairs and builds tight bonds.
This Love of God extends from your life into your friendships, associates, and people who you meet on the street, even towards your enemies. The Love of God is the single most precious Gift, and as we love and seek the Lord, as we seek His Presence, and sit with Him in person each day; it is He who builds you up in Him. He kindles and sets a burning of the Love of God in your soul. He does this in you by His Presence and Grace that regularly comes and rests upon you, in your closed sessions with the Lord of Glory. As you go about your daily life, the Presence and Love of God heals the soul, mind, and flesh, renewing your youth.
Jesus teaches us to approach the Father in the same way He Himself approached Him. He is the First Seed, and it is He of whom we are called to follow. I dearly wish to bear in my life the same constructive fruits and healing likeness and virtue of He who died for me. He died in order that I might have His Resurrected Life abiding in me. Hence I delight in Him regardless of what life presents or what opposition comes against, for He is so deeply worthy. For the Lord Himself is my Gift, not what I hold in my hands nor see with my eyes, but He who abides in me. It is He who gives me the capacity to produce the same fruits as He, for He calls me a ‘friend’, and He Himself makes “everything known to me” (John 15:14-16), withholding nothing, not even Himself.
Such abiding in the Love and Presence of God, is not in isolation away from everyone, nor disassociated. No, but in everywhere, with whomever, and in whatever situation of life that you are in. The Love of God continuously rising up upon you. “If you were a slave when you were called, don’t let that trouble you” (1 Cor. 7:21). Regardless of where or how busy you are, the Witness of the Holy Ghost can most powerfully rest upon your life. Now, this I like, it is this that is most precious, and guess what, this Witness becomes uncontainable, as you begin to ‘reek’ the Love and Glory of God.
To preach and share the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ is a good and noble way of life. But the right foundation is for the Person of Jesus and of the Holy Spirit to be a Witness to the Goodness of God through you. This is of the same nature and way as Christ Jesus of whom went before us (John 14:10). It is the same basis as the Apostles and of all the great moves of the Holy Spirit. Truly our flesh profits us nothing at all, IT IS ONLY by the Spirit that we can do the Father’s work. In the continual seeking of the Face of Jesus, the Holy Spirit ‘testifies’ about Him as you live and breathe in Him and He in you. It is from this place that we can witness and testify of He of whom we know, and to that of which we have both seen and experience (John 3:11).
Truly how far we have fallen from the Glory of God, but as the Lord lifts each one of us up in Him, the scales come off our eyes and we behold the Glory of Jesus of whom richly abides in us. How dry our life used to be compared to the tangible manifest richness of the Presence, Love, and Might of God resting upon each one of us. The Lord truly lifts us up from the miry clay into the Glory of His Presence (1 Cor. 2:7, 2 Cor. 3:18). He does this, it is His dream being fulfilled, and it is to this joy that Jesus saw as the Cross was set before Him (Heb. 12:2).
Pray this prayer with me. ‘Lord, I long for your Love upon me, your Praise that abides in my soul. Lord, may your Love truly enter my life becoming so real upon me influencing all that I think and feel. Lord, I choose to set my love in you, my tap-root of love into the Love of God, that your Love may gush up in me overwhelming my soul, in all that I think, feel and do. In Jesus Name. Amen’.
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