VOICE OF HOPE
10 June 2022
Now I know that believers or even non-believers for that matter may feel to some extent that too much emphasis has been placed on “what one should do before we depart from this earth?’’, but how many of us can truthfully say that we are living a life that is holy and pleasing before the Father? And that as Christians we are living a life of repentance?
Initially, we need to understand how important it truly is to have the Holy Spirit within our lives, and how valuable our relationship with Him is as believers. We also need to know that the Holy Spirit is called to dwell in us and with Him, there will be shifts in our lives because as we rely on Him with everything we do, our lives will never be the same. John 14:16 declares that Jesus asked the Father to give us another advocate the Holy Spirit to help us and be with us forever, who is the Spirit of truth. But, the Holy Spirit cannot operate completely in us if we do not carry the fruits as stated in Galatians 5. Everything will always lead us back to the basics and the foundation of our spiritual lives. Lacking the fruits of the Spirit limits the Holy Spirit in our lives. In other words, it is safe to say that you may have an anointing but without the Holy Spirit, it would not be so effective. We need to understand that it is only through the Holy Spirit that wisdom, revelation, and knowledge of Christ are given to us through means of meditating on the Word of God.
The bible tells us in John1:1 that “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” which is the source of life. The Word further declares in verse 4 that ‘’In Him was life and that life was the light of all mankind." How phenomenal is it that the Word now resides in us who have been given the Word? Through the Holy Spirit, it is now revealed unto us through Scripture as we read John 8:12 that as Jesus stated, He is indeed the light of the world and whoever follows Him will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life. This leads to the question as to why so many believers in Christ are walking in darkness when we are promised that we will have the light of life and that we have it in abundance too. Revelation 21 tells us that there will be a new heaven and a new earth and that God will dwell amongst us and be with us, there will not be any need for the sun or moon to shine to bring light for the glory of God gives it light and the Lamb is its lamp. Matthew 5:14; 16 testifies that we are the light of this world, and in the same way we ought to let our light shine before others so that they may see our good deeds and glorify our Father in heaven.
Secondly, God desires for us as Christians to live a repenting life because the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41). God knows that it is the nature of mankind to fall. Therefore, we need to repent after we have sinned before the Father who testifies in Revelation 2:5 “consider how far you have fallen, repent and do the things you did at first, if you do not repent I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. See, if we read Psalms 51 we see David repenting before God for his sins and begging the Lord not to cast him away from His presence nor take the Holy Spirit away from him. He understood the importance of the Holy Spirit in his life. Therefore, when we sin we should not run from God because the moment we do that we become carriers of the fruit of the flesh and less of the spirit, building a bridge between ourselves and God. At the same time, we grieve the Holy Spirit which we have been warned not to do, Ephesians 4:30. We must understand that we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption. But if we choose to grieve the Holy Spirit and as we drift further away from His presence who will then produce the fruit of the Spirit in us. We eliminate ourselves and would force God’s hand to take the Kingdom of heaven away from us and give it to those carrying the fruits thereof, Matthew 21:43. Also, keep in mind that when you sin, run to God not to man, because man will judge you by your limitations but the Holy Spirit will judge you by your potential for He knows us better than we know ourselves.
Lastly, as believers, we should be able to identify our calling and purpose in our Christian lives and this too we cannot do without the Holy Spirit. The Bible says in Proverbs 3 that we should acknowledge Him in all our ways and He will direct our path. We cannot qualify ourselves, for example, if you find yourself in ministry and you act as an Evangelist whereby God called you to be a Prophet you won’t prosper in that area because God does not fund projects He did not assign. You could possibly end up losing battles spiritually and be tormented with the goal to bring you onto the correct path that He ordained. A lot of times believers end up giving the devil a big audience when it is not even Him who torments us. Lack of knowledge of the Word would cause you to end up not ever being able to ever identify the season you are in. God at this time has to take extra measures to bring you into the path you’re supposed to be on because you through your own understanding and desires brought uncalled for warfare into your life, but orchestrated by God himself not Satan, (Ecclesiastes 11:5) ‘’As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the maker of all things. When we read 1 Samuel 16 we find that Samuel mourned because rejected him as king over Israel because he went against God's instruction so God chose one of his sons to be King. Knowing Saul he knew that if Saul found out that Samuel was to anoint one of his sons he would kill him, but God with all authority instructed that Samuel was to anoint the one God indicates. Eventually, we see that the moment Samuel anointed David, whom God chose, the Spirit of God departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him (1 Samuel 16:14). So, we realize that God sent the spirit to torment him, not Satan, to the point where he knew that the tormenting spirit was from God, and at some point, he called for David as he realized that each time he was in the presence of David the tormenting spirit would leave him, but it worked out because it was God’s plan from the beginning. So, we should understand that not every battle is because of an enemy but God who allows us to be tormented when we stray away from the path of righteousness and disobey Him.
In conclusion, the main points that I believe a believer should do before they depart from this earth is to live a life that is pleasing before the Father; a life led by the Spirit of God; to live a life with a heart attitude that is always willing to repent. Our desire ought always to be that in all things we choose to not grieve the Holy Spirit. Very importantly let us never sin against the Holy Spirit as this is a sin that God will not forgive, (Matthew 12:31) The road is narrow for a reason.
In His service
Prudence Cornelisson