9)
For this cause we also,
since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye
might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding;
10)
That ye might walk worthy
of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing
in the knowledge of God;
11)
Strengthened with all
might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering
with joyfulness;
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W |
hen
one comes into salvation, he should have a desire to be as strong in the Lord
as possible. Of course, this desire will be present only in those who come to
understand the debt of love owed to the Lord. All too often, we seek to attain
a "place" in the Lord through our own understanding. Seeking to do anything one's own way will lead to a
"struggle"—that cannot be won. You see, what the Lord wants done, He
will have done His way, or not at
all.
A
problem throughout spiritual history has been Man's lack of change, chiefly, of
the mind. It is very "natural" to depend upon one's own ability. But,
if one is ever to please the Lord, he will have to be willing to put behind all
that he thinks he knows. Of course, this can prove to be al real problem for
those who take pride in what they think that they know. Therefore, any
correction or required change that would come their way would be looked at as
"lessening" him.
One
of man's biggest problems with serving the Lord is that while He requires that
control be given to Him, too many of His "servants" fight to maintain
control over their lives. This is particularly ironic because that truth is
that none of us have ever had
control!
Perhaps
we would be able to triumph in this present life in the Spirit if we would
remember that despite the fact that we take so much credit for being
"well-informed," we all came here knowing nothing . Despite this, once we
have learned a "little" something, we fail to give credit to the Lord
for all the wonderful things that He teaches us and choose, instead, to focus
on the " bad".
The
"strong tower' of salvation comes from the anointing of God's Spirit. Yes,
we are anointed upon receiving salvation, yet to be affected by the anointing, we must submit
ourselves to the direction of God's Spirit. This is why many are weak and lack
spiritual credibility. If we are ever to be strengthened, empowered and
energized, we must receive these things from Jesus. All too often, however,
when told that we are to rely on God, we feel that we will be taken advantage of.
The
first thing that one must do to be
successful in Jesus and saved is to trust Him. Only as we yield to
the power of God through the infilling of the Holy Ghost will we come to the
knowledge and power of who we are.
Hampering
the people of God as at no other time, is the prevalent deception that one can
be said to have a "handle" on the Lord and still be in sin. Some, of
course, are not too concerned about whether one has been baptized and filled.
As long as one believes that the Lord is satisfied with one's Life, he will not
seek very strongly to be changed.
You
know, we can remain such "babies" after we are saved. We sometimes
seem never to want to have to Accept responsibility
for ourselves. It is as if we believe that our situation has been so "severe"
that we need to be "waited on" for the rest of our lives. For some,
the focus of their entire saved life is to find someone to grant them a
reprieve; allow them to "rest"; give them some help. Basically, this
is the mentality of "Do something for me".
Many
of us, even now, have situations from which we need to be delivered. And many
of us now know that the person from whom we need to be delivered is our self.
The only way for this to be accomplished
is to change our minds. That change will allow us to keep God's law.
Yes, knowing more of the Lord will help us to do this, but total
victory requires God's help. God's
help comes only through God's Spirit.