Your life with the Holy Spirit will be revealed with the peace that you have. The more the Holy Spirit is in your life, the more at peace you will be in this world. This is not a peace that the world can understand because it doesn’t rely on the circumstances we are in.
Jesus never said you would discern others by their gifts but by their fruits. “…by their fruits you will know them” (Matthew 7:20 NKJV). “The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: …peace…” (Galatians 5:22 NLT).
If your peace is tethered to anything in this world, then you are one circumstance away from losing it. There are many cherished things and people that bring us peace right now, but it is only the Holy Spirit that can keep it there no matter what happens.
To change the world around you, there must first be a change within you. “…let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes” (Ephesians 4:23 NLT).
Growing in your spiritual life has as much to do with growing in your attitude as increasing with any knowledge. Anyone can gather facts, but only a man or woman who is changed by the Holy Spirit can develop a heavenly attitude.
You’ll overcome sin when you let the Holy Spirit overcome you. “Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace” (Romans 8:5-6 NLT).
If you want to be filled with more peace, then seek to be filled more by the Holy Spirit. The greater filling does not come by your effort but by your willingness to let Him have you. If you want all of Him, then you must give Him all of you.
The surrendered life is a peaceful life filled with the Spirit of God. “For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God, and others will approve of you, too” (Romans 14:17-18 NLT).
If you have not gone through a major personal crisis in surrendering all to the Holy Spirit, then you have never done it. We think we are far more spiritual than we are, right up until the time when it is going to cost us something.
Most Christians are willing to do anything for God unless it’s going to cost them something. “…offer your lives as a living sacrifice to him—an offering that is only for God and pleasing to him” (Romans 12:1 ERV).
There are some who will step right up to the edge of their natural lives, but it is only a rare soul that will dare to leap off the edge and let the Holy Spirit have them through and through. When you finally do it, you will wish you had done it years ago.
The great work for a Christian is to yield themselves more to God. “Submit to God, and you will have peace; then things will go well for you” (Job 22:21 NLT).
To have more peace requires that you let go of everything that should not worry you. If you really trusted God, you wouldn’t worry. Every worry you have is a statement to God that you cannot trust Him in that thing you are worrying about. Be honest about that.
The more that you trust God, the more that your life will show it. “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You” (Isaiah 26:3 NKJV).
When you rightly have your mind on the Spirit, then the Spirit will fill your mind with His peace. When you are filled with peace, your mind is set free from worrying and free to think about heavenly things above since you’re no longer tethered to the things below.
Our spiritual potential remains buried beneath any of our natural selves that we refuse to die to. “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:5 NKJV).
When you operate on kingdom principles, you will be living in peace that is like no other. You will not only be filled with peace, but you will pour out peace onto those around you. People will think you’re strange, but inside, they will wish they were more like you.
Better to have unity with a few than division with many. “Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace” (Ephesians 4:3 NLT).
If you want to model the ideal life of a Christian for others to follow, then it will take the Holy Spirit moving in you to fill you with peace that overflows from heaven. You cannot be a model Christian without the Holy Spirit helping you.
Whatever fills you will spill onto those around you. “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13 NLT).
Determine in your mind today to grow in the Spirit and allow the Holy Spirit to change you. Start changing from a person who says they can’t, but they really just won’t, and become that man or woman who finally says that they will.
You can’t be filled with the Spirit of God and continue as you were before. “For the mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set controlled by the Spirit finds life and peace” (Romans 8:6 TPT).
Blessings to you always,
Paul Balius
Shalom blessings. Thank you fof reminding andcdncouraging me with that Word. GOD IS GRACIOUS. THANK YOU LORD FOR YOUR KINGDOM
I’m so lifted up by the truth in the great peace the Holy Spirit can bring me!
“If you want to model the ideal life of a Christian for others to follow, then it will take the Holy Spirit moving in you to fill you with peace that overflows from heaven. You cannot be a model Christian without the Holy Spirit helping you.”
Bless our Father of mercies fervently, for the inalterable truth of this excerpt and the entire writing anointed, of the Son of His love, the Prince of Peace, from His glorious throne of grace, everlastingly unsettled and eternally undiminished.
John 1:16-17 AMP
For out of His fullness [the superabundance of His grace and truth] we have all received grace upon grace [spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing, favor upon favor, and gift heaped upon gift]. 17 For the Law was given through Moses, but grace [the unearned, undeserved favor of God] and truth came through Jesus Christ.
It is the most blessed soul of all that allows the Holy Spirit to help them in everything!
May 28th, 1983, I asked Jesus into my life as my personal Lord and savior. The transformation was both real and life changing. For instance previous to that wonderful Saturday for years when I woke in the morning all of the bedding would be on the floor. From that day on and to present day my sleep is so peaceful simple pulling the bedding up in the morning makes the bed. One year after in 1984 I was challenged as only God can challenge, to present my body as a living sacrifice as this is our reasonable service (Romans 12:1) what followed was 3 months of intense testing of that act of obedience, this testing was by no means pleasant. I had no concept of just how carnal I was in mind, after all was not I now a good born-again man. What I was unable to foresee was that the next 10 years would have both joys and deep sorrows, a bride, a baby, cancer surgery for my wife just two months into marriage, a baby 6 years later with birth defects. Why do I mention all of this? God has made it clear to me that without total sanctification the outcomes would have been tragic relationally and virtually every other way of measure.
What a wonderful testament to a life well lived, walking with the Lord for over forty years, through good times, and through some that were very hard. I’m always so blessed to hear the stories of perseverance and faithfulness. The journey of our faith is not easy and we need to tell that to those who are just getting started, so that they will know that no matter what, win the the good times and the bad, that the Lord is with us and He will never forsake us. I pray that the Lord is using your life story, your testament, as a blessing and an encouragement to others. May the Lord bless you and fill you with His endless love. Blessings to you, Paul.
Super encouraging!!
Thank you!