Acting on “Good Thoughts” - Walking in the Spirit - Purity 856

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of the sun setting the misty clouds of morning ablaze with God's glory comes to us from yours truly as I was racing to work yesterday and took some blind shots as I drove up the overpass of 787 North on my way to work. I didn't know what I would get at the time, but I trusted that something good may come from my efforts, and I was blessed with this scene of the clouds and fog enshrouding Rensselaer being illuminated by the sun, with a sliver of the Hudson River reflecting the shoreline, with the cold hard gray wall and guardrail of the overpass in the foreground highlighting the contrast between the splendor of God's creation and what man can create. Don't get me wrong, while the beauty of God's creation will always be superior to what man can create, God put man on the earth for a purpose. And while the— that guardrail may not be pretty, it keeps us safe and is part of a structure that is extremely useful for travel and for giving us a different perspective that just wouldn't exist if man— men didn't make it. Well, it's Friday and And it is my prayer that all my friends have a good and quick workday, as some of us will be enjoying a 3-day weekend on the other side of our 9 to 5. This morning, while I was working out, the worship song I was listening to caused me to think of a brother who recently asked for a moment to talk about his walk of faith and how negative thoughts have been plaguing his mind. As he seeks to follow the Lord's will for his life. The Holy Spirit put it on my heart to share that song with him as an encouragement, so I stopped what I was doing and immediately emailed my friend and brother in Christ, um, a link to the song on YouTube. Even though it disrupted my workout, I answered the call that I felt the Holy Spirit put on me this morning. And I didn't regret it. And this is a good example of how the Holy Spirit may work in our lives. We suddenly get a thought to help someone or do something for someone that we could easily dismiss as a quote-unquote nice thought. But if we are seeking to do the Lord's will for us, we have to realize that these quote-unquote nice thoughts may be the Lord inviting us to quote-unquote, to good works. The question is, will we just dismiss those nice thoughts, or will we act on them? Um, back in my pre-Christ days, in the midst of euphoric experiences brought about upon me through the use of psychedelic drugs, on occasion I would get some grand altruistic vision to do something good for others or to clean up my act. Uh, in, in the heights of my euphoria— sorry, I'm just doing an edit— in the heights of my euphoria, I thought I could do that. But do you know what happened? Absolutely nothing. In fact, it was worse than that. Perhaps this was the spiritual forces of darkness discouraging me, or just my habitual low self-esteem that plagued me back then. But on the summit of my altruistic vision, I would have the realization that I wasn't, quote unquote, a good person. I was a drunk and a drug addict. I was high, and the idea that I could do anything good was ridiculous. So the joy of the experience of imagining myself doing something good came grinding to a halt as I realized that I was just some guy high in a basement, but up late reveling on drugs and alcohol by himself while his wife and children slept upstairs. This guy was crazy if he thought he could do anything good. And so I would turn my attention to something else and forget about the good things that I could do. Well, like I said, whether it was me recognizing the facts, my low self-esteem, or the spiritual forces of darkness seeking to keep me in bondage to my addictions I didn't do the good things that I had thought of, and I was in that basement for years. But God, right? Yeah, while I do work out in a basement during the week, I can— I no longer spend time hiding away in my man cave reveling and entertaining myself. God called me out of the darkness, and now when I get a thought to do something good I act on it. I do it as soon as possible. And I have learned that regardless of the results of my actions, I have never regretted doing the good things that I felt compelled to do. And sometimes one good thing leads to another. So after I emailed my friend that link to a song on YouTube, I remembered that I wanted to compile a list of Christian worship music that inspired me on my journey to victory and freedom in Christ to share with the participants of the Freedom in Christ course that I facilitate. So this morning's workout was cut short and I rushed upstairs to get it done now. So I did, and I already shared it on, on Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit, and I'm sharing it here. So there's a link on the blog mtforchrist.org today for the YouTube playlist that I've created. Um, you see, one of the things that I have discovered on the path of Christian discipleship, that is, that our worship is a weapon and a spiritual practice that increases our joy and our love for our Heavenly Father. How does this martial art of the Christian disciple work? It's simple. You get alone, you play the music, you sing the songs and think about the Lord and what he has done. In general and in, in your life specifically. You can do this while driving to work, or you can do this in the privacy of your own home. I also recommend singing with feeling, uh, preferably as loud as you can. Perry Stone says that when we open our mouths in worship, singing and crying out to the Lord, it quote unquote rolls away the stone. And allows the Holy Spirit to come out and opens us up for his infilling. And based on my experience and growth through worship, I would say that Perry Stone sums it up pretty good. I have experienced the manifest presence of God at various times and periods of worship and prayer. When we draw close to God and give him thanks and praise, he draws, he draws close to us. And sometimes in dramatic fashion. I have no doubts because I know God lives, because I experienced his presence. So there's the, the play— so there's the playlist and my advice: seek the Lord, repent of your worldly ways, make a commitment to follow him, worship him, and ask for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and see what happens when, when you keep seeking Uh, when we keep seeking, when we keep asking, when we keep knocking, eventually the door to God in our lives will swing wide open and reveal to us the manifest presence of God and the reality of what a relationship with God really means. Through the Holy Spirit, God will reveal biblical truths to you in ways you never knew, uh, knew when you, when when you have a practice of Bible study. He will compel you to do good things that we may not be comfortable with, and he will, he, and he will touch our hearts and minds when we surrender to him in worship. So keep walking and talking with God because you, you exp— because when you experience his presence, you will realize that you have never been alone and that he was waiting for you to answer his call, uh, to the new and abundant life that he has for you. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Psalm 52— 57:2, and it says, I cry out to God Most High, to God who, who will fulfill his purpose for me. Today's Bible verse encourages us to cry out to the Lord Most High and to take joy in the fact that he is the one who will fulfill our— his purpose for us. So let's see, uh, I posit that our relationship with God is an interactive and cooperative experience. We do our part by seeking to know God through his word and by applying it to our lives, but God is the one who brings the results for our efforts and the blessings we could have never expected. God is sovereign. That means he reigns and he determines the course of his creation and human history. History is his story. What has come to pass was ordained by God. He even uses evil for good. So if you want to know what God's will is, look at what has happened. Our pasts reveal the consequences of our actions for good and bad choices, but they also reveal the path that God has put us on. Why were we born into this age? Why were we placed in our families in this part of the world? God determined it. So where should we go? Well, God invites everyone to have peace with Him through, through Jesus Christ and to follow Him to find their purpose. And as today's verse indicates, God will fulfill our purpose for us. If we follow the Lord, we will find His good, acceptable, or perfect will for our lives, according to Romans 12:2. So which will it be? That is determined by how we, how we follow the Lord, by how much we renew our minds and present our bodies as living sacrifices for righteousness. So we have free will, and the more we follow the Lord, the more perfect our purpose will be. But if we don't make peace with him by placing our faith in Jesus Christ The purpose he will fulfill is to realize his just wrath, to be punished and to be separated from him for all eternity. As we chose to reject his love and wisdom in life, we reject his presence after life and reap the consequences of our rebellion and sin. So don't do that. Submit to God and make peace with God through Christ. And follow him to experience the good things he has for you. And the best thing about all, uh, about it all, uh, is that he fulfills our purpose so we can answer the calls that God puts on our life and leave the results up to him. He will be— his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org where we share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue to share from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship, and today we start sharing from chapter 6, which is on the Sermon on the Mount, um, and Matthew 5, on the extraordinary, extraordinary, uh, of Christian life, uh, with an examination of the Beatitudes, which we are sharing on m.tforchrist.org this morning. So If you want to see that resource, the beginning of chapter 6 of Bonhoeffer's Discipleship, go to mt4christ.org to check out that resource. As always, we encourage a life of discipleship and worship, so listen to that YouTube list that I put out there and sing along with it. If you have a video monitor attached to your device, they'll even give you the lyrics. So you don't need to know the lyrics necessarily, but you do need to have your eyes on the screen, I guess. Um, but yeah, worship is a big key to our faith. It's a practice that we need to do. We need to worship and praise the Lord in song because it opens a gateway from our minds to our hearts and allows the Holy Spirit to move in our lives. So we highly recommend it, and it's a spiritual weapon against the forces of darkness. When we're singing and experience the joy of the Lord, um, and proclaiming God's goodness in song, the enemy's got no place, uh, there, and he's got to run away. So it will cast out the, the, the forces of darkness. So be sure to engage in worship as a regular practice. To fill your spirit and to resist the devil. I can't recommend anything more highly. And it's not some contrivance. This has got to be a genuine, you know, genuine approach to the Lord, you know, to really just to sing about the joy of your salvation should be enough. Like, hey guys, we're not going to hell, you know, there's something to celebrate there. We know the Lord that's created all things, and he called us to be with him. That's good news. So we should rejoice in song and, uh, you know, praise, praise the Lord forever and ever. Amen. Um, well, it is Friday, and, uh, time was short, but I sort of made quick— uh, well, the Lord, I guess, directed me to make quick use of today's blog. I got everything done, uh, in record time here, but not really, you know, we're talking about a difference of 10 minutes. Um, but, uh, well, we won't extend the message just because we have the extra time. We'll just get to the things of prayer, um, so I'm not rushing out the door like I normally do. Um, Lord God, Heavenly Father, uh, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we just thank you for anyone who's listening to this message as today If there's just a couple people, we'll be over 8,000 downloads on our audio podcast, much to my amazement. Um, you know, we only have a few listeners, so I, I appreciate, um, everyone who downloads the message whether they're listening or not. And actually, we are— as, as I look at it this morning, we are over 8,000 downloads. We are at 8,002. And so maybe I'll announce that as well. Um, well, I just did, but you know, maybe on the vlog. But, um, so we thank you, uh, for, for your— for the few who listen. Um, we pray for you to share that, uh, share the encouragement you get and share it with other people. Um, and I just didn't mean to interrupt my prayer to say all that, but, uh, Lord, thank you for these people. We pray for your divine favor to be poured out upon them and, uh, to guide them as they go about their day. Lord, as always, we pray for you to go before us, to protect us and guide us along the path of Christian discipleship. We want you to open our eyes to the good things that you have for us to see, and we want you to direct our paths into the good things you would have us do. Lord, we just thank you, we praise you, and we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.