Tears of Our "Faith Encounters" Glorify God

God has touched my life in very specific ways in the past.  These ways are my testimony.

The remembrances of my encounters with God cause my eyes to well up with tears as I recollect and speak of them.  God uses our testimonies to bring others to faith or to increase the faith of those who share in our tears.   God is glorified through our tears because these emotions are proof of the reality of our experience and of our faith.  We grow in faith and move on into a deeper dimension each time God touches us.  He grows our spirit by touching it with His Spirit.  Our spirit experiences a new birth.  The Holy Spirit enters our being.  We believe and receive.  God’s Spirit within us grows deeper as we seek, study the word, and come face to face with the reality of God’s existence.  My faith has matured as the Holy Spirit continues to fill me with His Spirit.  As His Spirit increases, mine decreases.  The more I grow in Christ, the more I can be used by Him.  A changed life is the result of a God encounter.  It is the result of what God has done, not anything which I have done.  As we experience God and His love; our life changes.  These changes can be seen by others.   We become a witness to God’s Glory.  He is reflected in our daily lives and we want to share the certainty of our faith in Christ and His promises with others, especially our family and our loved ones.

I want to live by the Spirit’s power in my life.  The Holy Spirit and our natural spirits, which are sinful by nature, are constantly in conflict.  Galatians 6: 17 tells us that, “These two forces are constantly fighting each other and our choices are never free from this conflict.”  Verse 19 says, “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature your lives will produce evil results.”  Verse 22 says, “But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, He will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control”.  When our lives reflect these gifts it is because the power of the Holy Spirit has become greater than our own nature when reacting to life, people, and circumstances.  We are not to take the credit for these gifts of the Spirit.  It is God who is to be thanked and glorified in our lives.  They are God’s gifts to His children. 

I have received the gift of faith.  My little faith has grown into big faith.  My faith has developed as I have learned to know God.  I meet Him in His word and in His creation.  I talk to Him in prayer, stillness, song, praise, and worship.   The more I know God, the more I experience His faithfulness.  The more I experience God’s faithfulness, the more I trust Him.  Faith is trusting God even when I don’t understand.  Proverbs 3:5 tells me to “Trust in the Lord with all of my heart, and lean not on my own understanding”.  As I remember and share my testimony and my God encounters, sometimes through my tears, I gain courage to believe and trust even more today than I did yesterday.  May God be glorified in my faith, my trust, my testimony, my tears, and my life.     

I Walk by Faith Not by Sight

I do not know what the New Year will bring but I know who will guide me through the days of 2013.  I will take one step at a time into the future.  I will walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).  I am starting the year out in the Word, specifically in 2 Corinthians 5.  It reminds me that I have been reconciled to God through Christ and I am therefore Christ’s ambassador.  Christ’s love compels me because I am convinced that He died for all.  He died for me, for my family, for my friends, and for everyone.  I believe the promises of God.  I am confident of the words which I read and I claim God’s promise of reconciliation in my life and in the ministry of reconciliation which this chapter talks about. 

I pray daily and continuously.  For me praying is being in conversation with God.  I feel His presence, He hears me, and He speaks to me.  He answers and gives me glimpses of His presence in many different ways.  On this New Year’s Day I specifically pray that God would keep me aligned in His perfect will.  I pray to be filled with His Holy Spirit and to be used in the lives of everyone I am praying for.  It is God’s Grace that has brought me to this place of faith and commitment.  I am open to His leading.  I want Him to use me and to grow me wherever He places me. 

I will not list by name all who I am in prayer for.  My family and friends know who they are.  I pray for specific needs and God’s Blessings in each life.  There are some who are presently in need of God’s healing presence and power.  I enter this New Year praying for healing for Sebastian, Margaret, Ott’s husband Bill, Judy’s grandson Timmy, Frank, and continued healing for LaVerna.  Thank you Lord for hearing my prayers.

I extend my New Year’s Blessings to each of you.  I have spoken to the Lord and have promised Him a renewed commitment to share my faith and my spiritual insights with you, the readers of my Blog.  I cannot see into 2013 and beyond but I am reconciled to the one who does see the beginning and the end; the Alpha and the Omega.  Walk with me as we increase in faith and in the knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  It is an exciting journey and I live in anticipation of what God will be doing in my life, and yours, in 2013.