Encourage & Edify Each Other in The Holy Spirit

 

1 Thessalonians 5:17

Therefore encourage and build one another up,

just as you are already doing.

    Ephesians 4:16 (AMP Bible)

 From Him the whole body [the church, in all its various parts], joined and knitted firmly together by what every joint supplies, when each part is working properly, causes the body to grow and mature, building itself up in [unselfish] love. 

    What causes the church, the body of Christ, to work properly? The Love of God must be present in each one of us. And this is only possible when each one of us has God's Holy Spirit thriving within our hearts and reflecting the Love of God--Jesus Christ--in our lives. 

    When we listen to The Spirit, we learn what is True and what is evil; what is Righteous and Holy, and what is unrighteous and unholy. We begin to discern what it is that God is revealing to us, when we read and study our Bibles every day. We learn to recognize God's Voice--The Holy Spirit of God--and we are filled with gratitude that God has given His Spirit to us. 

    When Isaiah speaks of Jesus in Isaiah 11, he declares six aspects of The Holy Spirit of God that will rest on The Branch (Jesus Christ): The Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding; The Spirit of Counsel and Strength; The Spirit of Knowledge and Fear of The Lord. 

    Wisdom imparts wisdom to us. Knowledge of The Holy Word of God comes from Him. We can memorize chapter and verse, but it is The Spirit of God that writes The Word of God on our hearts. 

    Understanding The Word of God is given us when we receive The Holy Spirit and allow Him to reveal to us what God wants us to know. Moment by moment, day to day; gradually, for we are not able in and of ourselves to know and understand 'all that God has prepared for us' [1 Corinthians 2:9]. 

    As our Counsel, He is also our Adviser and Advocate. "Walk The Way of Holiness" [Isaiah 35:8]; "Speak The Word that I give you in season" [Ecclesiastes 3:1-8; Philippians 1:14; 2 Timothy 4:2; 1 Peter 3:15]. It is He Who defends us when we are come against in our trials. And when we listen to Him, as one who listens to his lawyer (defender/counsel), we will always come out ahead, even if we have to suffer first for the sake of the gospel we proclaim. 

    He is our Spirit of Strength. The joy we have in our Savior and His salvation is only possible when we have The Spirit of God in us, calling us to Rejoice! in The Lord. Therefore, we can truly say, "The JOY of The LORD is My Strength!", just as Nehemiah declared to the Israelites after Ezra had finished reading The Law to them. A reading which took from daybreak until midday. And though The Word of God caused broken hearts and weeping, the day was holy to The Lord: celebration was called for. 

    The Spirit of Strength empowers the bearer to preach the gospel message of salvation through Jesus Christ to people who need to hear it. We do not preach to the stars, nor to forests and babbling brooks. Those things have no need of a Savior. We speak The Name of Jesus in The Love of God, with compassion, integrity and honor. 

    We speak Jesus with boldness, humility, and perseverance. We speak Grace of God with patience and faith, believing that God will have His Way in each soul with whom we share our faith in Christ and why we believe what we believe. 

    The Spirit of Knowledge draws us to The Word and imparts knowledge beyond our ken, then breaks it down and makes it possible for us to know and understand what our God wants us to know. Do you know that you know that you know that Jesus is your personal Lord and Savior? Beyond a shadow of a doubt? Are you born again through the blood of The Lamb into the family of God? 

    The Spirit of The Fear of The Lord trains the body of Christ to have a reverent attitude towards its Creator: our heavenly Father: GOD--The I AM THAT I AM. 

    When we read Psalm 19:9, we see that The Fear of The Lord is Pure. In Psalm 111:10 The Fear of The Lord is The Beginning of Wisdom. In Proverbs 1:7 The Fear of The Lord is The Beginning of Knowledge. In 2 Chronicles 17:10 The Fear of The Lord brings terror to Israel's enemies. In Proverbs 10:27 The Fear of The Lord prolongs life. 

    In Psalm 25:12 The one who fears The Lord is teachable. In Psalm 128:1 The one who fears The Lord and walks in His Ways is blessed. In Psalm 34:11 The Fear of The Lord can be taught to those who delight in life. 

    This is how we edify--build up--one another. This Spirit of God Who teaches us in The Ways of The Lord God speaks to our hearts and joins us together as the body of Christ. He is our Wisdom, our Teacher, our Friend. And He is preparing us, at the beginning of our walk, all through our walk, and into the end of our walk with Christ, for a greater glory than we could every imagine. 

    ENCOUNTER - Here Be Lions

Who Encourages The Encouragers?

 

1 Samuel 30:6

 Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David encouraged himself in The LORD his God. 

    When everyone is against you, even the people you have surrounded yourself with, there is no better place to receive encouragement than from The Lord your God.

     Things go wrong and sometimes people need someone to blame, to hold accountable. These are the times we need to seek God's face and His presence. We run to The Father and He wraps His wings of mercy around us, sheltering us from the storms of criticisms, vitriolic language and persecutions. 

    At times, it may feel as if we have fallen into some deep pit, and we cry out to God; whereupon He reaches down and picks us up, holding us in His hands; holding us upright and strengthening us with Himself and His Word and His Spirit. Many are the days when a body feels as if it has fallen into a never ending abyss; God reaches way, way down and lays hold of us, cradling us in the palm of His hand. There is nowhere we go that God cannot reach us, when we cry out to Him. 

    Crying out to God is necessary to activate God's hand and Word in our lives and our hearts. Salvation is made in us when we believe and confess (out loud) that Jesus Christ is Lord. We must open up our hearts and speak aloud The Word of God to God in our hearing, where possible. I am aware that some folks cannot speak, or speak well, nor can some hear with their ears. But we can read The Word and The Holy Spirit will apply it to our open, listening hearts. 

    What is another way we encourage ourselves in our Lord? Prayer. Prayer with our God is the most vital form of communication we have. He is, after all, our heavenly Father and desires to hear from His children daily. He wants to meet our needs and grant us the desires of our hearts. He longs to spend quality, family time with us. We need to embrace Him and all that He has for us, is for us. 

    We encourage ourselves in The Lord, when we sing songs that glorify God; songs that lift up His Name; hymns and psalms that speak Scripture into us when we sing or read them. Music is vital to me. Ever since I got baptized in The Spirit during a revival, I cannot help but sing: even in my frail, sometimes failing voice, I will sing as long as I have breath to sing. 

    We encourage ourselves in The Lord when we encourage each other in The Lord. In 1 Samuel 23:16, Jonathan came to David and encouraged him in God. In 1 Thessalonians 5:11, Paul encourages the church in Thessalonica, writing that they are to encourage each other and build each other up, edifying one another in The Lord. 

    To be encouraged in The Lord is to be strengthened and made firm/steadfast in The Lord. It is to hear The Word via The Spirit and set our faces like stone, immovable in our faith, unwavering in our belief. We will be called haters, stubborn, intolerable. And we will be hated. We will be, and currently around the world some of us are, beaten, tortured, jailed, killed. Our children may be taken from us or they may turn us in to the authorities. Families are divided and sometimes one's own family will do the killing. This Christian life is a tough life, but so worth the journey. 

Psalm 18:2

The LORD is My Rock, My Fortress, and My Deliverer. My God is My Rock, in Whom I take Refuge, My Shield, and The Horn of My Salvation, My Stronghold. 

Jude 1:20, 21

But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in The Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God as you await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you eternal life.