Pastor Stephen Dedman

Tag: Holy Spirit

Is God Woking Through You?

Salvation, Trust

‘The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.’
Romans 8:16-17

How do you know that you are born again and saved by the blood of Jesus? What gives us assurance that when we die we know that we are going to heaven?

We are blessed that the Holy Spirit confirms and testifies that we belong to the family of God, that God is our Father and we have been born again. Paul says it’s “the Spirit Himself” that bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God.

We should be able to look at our lives and see how God is working in and through us to make us more like Jesus. The Spirit brings a profound awareness of how God is at work in our hearts. It’s this awareness that gives us assurance and confidence of salvation.

It would be very difficult to live the Christian life if we didn’t have the assurance of salvation. You must be confident that you are born again. You must believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that you have repented of your sins.

We don’t have to wonder if we are really Christians or not. God’s children know who they are.

Pray

Lord, thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit that gives us confidence that we belong to You. Allow me to see how You are working in my life today. Take my life and use it as You desire.

Are You Aware Of Your Sin?

Salvation, Trust

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!”
Psalm 51:1-2

Psalm 51 gives us a glimpse of how David saw his sin. To fully understand this Psalm we must realize that God caused David to see his sin from His point of view.

God made him aware of his sin and gave him the understanding of it. Psalm 51 is ultimately David’s response to God once he gained the knowledge of how greatly he had sinned against God.

David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then one sin led to another. Bathsheba sent word that she was pregnant so David developed a scheme to minimize the seriousness of what he had done. David sent Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, into a war zone to be certain that he would be killed and then David would take Bathsheba as his wife and everything would be alright. Not exactly.

God sent Nathan as a prophet to bring conviction to David’s heart. Sin spiritually blinded him and God had to intervene or else David would think he got away with it. David needed to be convicted of his sin and only God can do that. Once convicted, David realized the tragedy of his sin and needed God’s mercy.

How do you view your sin? Do you take it as serious as God does? God says the penalty of sin is death. That is serious business. God does not look lightly upon our sin and neither should we. If only we could see our sin as God sees it. We should never minimize the seriousness of our sin.

One of the works of the Holy Spirit is to convict the Believer of his or her wrongdoings. It’s not to shame you or embarrass you but to bring you to an understanding of what you did. You despised the truth of God. It is a great tragedy for a Christian to sin and not be brought to an understanding that we broke God’s commandment. It is up to us as to how we respond to the awareness and knowledge of our sin. Trust me, our sin is ever before us in our remembrance.

Will we continue in our sin or will we have an attitude of repentance? There are great consequences to those who do not repent.

Pray

Lord, will you bring me to the understanding and knowledge of my sin. Let me be aware of how I have sinned against You. Have mercy on me Lord, forgive me, and make me clean again.

The Demonstration Of Love

Encouragement, Salvation

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8

God wants to make Himself known to us. He shows and reveals Himself to us so that we shall know that we belong to Him alone. While He has never been seen by human eyes, His glory is revealed to us in various ways. He reveals Himself through the beauty of His creation. He will reveal Himself to us through people that He places in our lives. But most especially, God reveals Himself to us through His only Son, Jesus Christ.

Jesus is Emmanuel! He is the loving, good Savior who came to earth. Emmanuel means, God is with us. Jesus is God in word and flesh.

From the Bible, we learn that we all sin (Romans 3:23). And the punishment for sin is death (Romans 6:23) and eternal separation from God’s goodness. Because we sin, we cannot go to be with God in heaven on our own when we die. God loves us so much, and he provided a way to rescue us from our sins about 2,000 years ago.

God makes His presence be known among us through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the invisible truth of God that encourages and convicts us of our sin. Most importantly the work of the Holy Spirit is in bringing people to salvation. When God shows His love for us, He reveals His nature and character to us so that we may know Him personally.

Pray

Lord, I want to see Your glory. Let the power of the Holy Spirit give me wisdom to see You as a personal God who loves me and cares for me. Thank You for sending Jesus into my life.