Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
I am continuing today to write concerning grants given to us by God in Christ. So far I have addressed the grant of salvation, the grant of a changed and enlarged heart, the grant of an ability to be bold in speaking God’s word accompanied by God’s healing power, signs, and wonders, and the grant of repentance unto life.
Now let me address some more grants given to us by God in our lives as believers in Him. The first of these is a grant to be patient with others and to comfort one another.
Romans 15:1 We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. 3 For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.” 4 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. 5 Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Being patient with one another cannot be a discipline of our flesh. Patience motivated by control is really imprisonment of our thoughts and attitudes. This type of discipline can only force our emotions into an internal chamber of our lives that fosters bitterness and a cry to be freed. True patience with another must be a new birthed compassion in our hearts. We must desire to be patient. We must desire to comfort those who are struggling. This desire is motivated by true compassion – a life-giving love. There is a decision on our part to choose to posture our hearts and minds to be patient, but true patience is a gift from God to our hearts. The written account of the testimonies of men and women in the Scriptures inspire our connection to Holy Spirit in being empowered for patience in our walk of faith. For this reason we must all read the Scriptures as a treasure for our learning and position our hearts to receive the gift of patience. As leaders we must excel in this reality, it is a gift to us by God’s grace at work in our lives. God wants to give this gift, but we must willingly and willfully desire it and seek to find it.
There is also a grant to be strengthened with might through God’s Spirit in our inner man, to know Christ in us with a revelation of God’s love, increasingly filled with the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
This grant is the gift of Holy Spirit’s empowerment to our spirit from within. It is where divine revelation occurs. Holy Spirit intercedes within us, drawing what is in heaven into our spirits so that our spirits flood our souls with life-giving thoughts, reasoning, emotions, imaginations, and desires. The mind of Christ within us becomes the source of our fruitful thinking. We grow in intimately knowing God. It is from within that we can know the love of Christ and that love goes beyond the reasoning of our minds. It floods our hearts and transforms our minds from within. It is about knowing God through an intimate connection with Holy Spirit in our hearts. Leaders set an example in knowing God to receive this intimate connection.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
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Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728
