What hinders the flow of the Spirit?

Have you ever asked yourself that question?  I know I have, and the answer is sin, disobedience to God, pride, bad thoughts and acting on those thoughts and I am sure the list goes on.

Romans 8:38-39 tells us 38) For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39) nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

God loves us so much that he sent Jesus to take our place on the cross as stated in 1 Peter 2:24.

1 Peter 2:24  24) and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

So we cannot allow pride, sin, disobedience and the bad thoughts to stop us from accepting God’s love and forgiveness for us.  He gives it to us freely, we don’t have to work for it or do anything.  We are not worthy of such a price that was paid for us by Jesus.

Ephesians 1:3   3) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 

Can our actions affect the flow of God?  Sure it can.  Our actions don’t effect the flow of what God gives, but it does hinder the blessings that we can receive.  Wow, now that’s a concept, God can stop giving us blessings.  Have you ever been struggling with why you are not receiving the things that you need or ask for?  I know that I have.  God does not guarantee us anything like health, wealth and prosperity as a New Testament believer.  So what we have to do is put our trust and faith in Him so that we can receive what and accept what he has for us.  The flow of the spirit is God’s working power within us and the things that we do to disrupt that power in us, because in the bible we should be walking in the spirit and not in the flesh.  Yet sometimes we do.  

The phrase in heavenly places may suggest that a christian living any where in the world today is in a spiritual sense that we are seated with Christ in the high place.  I learned from my bible study that we will be seated on a throne with Christ in heaven.  To me that is amazing.  Imagine being seated with our heavenly father and Jesus.

Christ took our place on the cross for our sins and by his stripes we have been healed.  We don’t have to go looking for anything else or anywhere else for that matter. By Christ dying we have a way to the Father and we can have eternal life with him.  God doesn’t owe us anything fore he has given it to us freely through Jesus Christ.  Can you accept that and grasp that concept?  I know that it is hard, but it is something that we can do.  

What do you think and what are your thoughts?  

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Getting ahead of God

Have you ever done something that you regretted doing later on?  Have you ever prayed for or about something and instead of waiting on God to answer you, you went ahead and tried to do it yourself?  I know that I have and it never seems to work out the say that you want it to, but we are not alone.

1 Samuel 13:11-15 tell us;  11 But Samuel said, “What have you done ?” And Saul said, “Because I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the appointed days, and that the Philistines were assembling at Michmash, 12 therefore I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not asked the favor of the LORD.’ So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering.” 13 Samuel said to Saul, “You have acted foolishly ; you have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you, for now the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever . 14 “But now your kingdom shall not endure. The LORD has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has appointed him as ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.” 15 Then Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul numbered the people who were present with him, about six hundred men.

Saul got impatient waiting for Samuel and did what he thought was best, but he did not make a good choice.  He was too impatient to wait until Samuel arrived.  We however should not be that way.

Jesus went through the same type of problem when Peter jumped the gun so per say and cut off the guards ear.  Which I don’t think that was suppose to happen.

Luke 22:49-51 says;     49 When those who were around Him saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword ?” 50 And one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. 51 But Jesus answered and said, “Stop ! No more of this.” And He touched his ear and healed him.

Comparing it to John  18:10, 26    10 Simon Peter then, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear ; and the slave’s name was Malchus.    26 One of the slaves of the high priest, being a relative of the one whose ear Peter cut off, said, “Did I not see you in the garden with Him?”

In the book of Acts we fine that Moses wanted his people to realize that he was being used by God to rescue them from slavery, but they never did see it that way.

Acts 7:25     25 “And he supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting  them deliverance through him, but they did not understand.

Which is why they spent 40 years or more in the wilderness.  So how can we stop going ahead of God?  By letting him lead us and allowing him to answer your prayers and wait patiently.  Which is sometimes very difficult.  It is an easy thing to do.  I am sure that here are other New Testament scriptures that will say the same thing or similar.  However, I do want to say that we all have done this at one time or another.  So I say let us work on being more patient in our daily lives and turn it over immediately to God and let him work it out to our benefit.  Things will be more rewarding in the end if we do.   What are your thoughts?