Further the Kingdom

The Holy Spirit is Comfort, our Guide, the very Life of Christ living and breathing in and through us. The Holy Spirit is Power, unconstrained by any physical laws that we operate under. It's fuel is God's love for us, for all of His creation.

The Holy Spirit is wonderful. It is God's presence dwelling inside of us. Can we really understand the magnitude of that? God, our Lord, who is infinitely huge, who is not contained in any physical form (Christ, the Son, is), who knows ALL things (have you ever tried to sit and understand what "knowing all things" REALLY means? Ever try to wrap your mind around that? Mind = blown.), who controls all things, that God sends HIs Spirit to you so that you can be in HIs presence here on earth, before going to heaven. Because your earthly body can't stand the glory of God, if you were to stand in His presence now. Your body would explode or melt or crumble to dust or something else equally, horrifyingly freeing. (The image of that is disturbing to us, because we operate so much on the physical realm and hold the physical world above that of the spiritual. For those of us who are in Christ, losing our physical bodies just means we are in the presence of God...and we can find no greater joy than that!) Isn't it crazy, that God wants us to experience the best that He has to offer, before He can technically offer it? Because offering Himself automatically kills our body. Moses had to hide in a crevice of the mountain and hide his face until God had already passed him, and then catch just a glimpse of the back of God's head...and he was greatly affected by just that little bit! I would guess that God protected Moses in ways he didn't understand, for him to even glimpse that much of God the Father.

Understanding all of this, why do we bury our faces in the physical? Why am I so obsessed with getting that extra hour of sleep or eating my favorite food for dinner? Why do I concentrate all my powers of concentration on weaving through traffic to avoid being late to work or school? Why is nothing ever my fault, it's all the forces of the world working against me?

Don't we know that the physical and the spiritual are seamlessly intertwined? Yet we continue to separate the two in our mind. My quiet time, my prayers, my reading the Bible before bed, all of these things are the spiritual aspects of my life. Maybe even the times I witness to my friends or family. But the rest of my life is mine, as long as I obey the 10 commandments. As long as I'm not lusting, I can watch as much tv as I want. As long as I'm not stealing, I can window-shop for hours. As long as I'm not disobeying my parents, I can hang out with whoever I want.

We don't understand that everything is under God's dominion. The spiritual world is not God's, and the physical the Enemy's. Nay, it is all God's and to exalt His own glory, God allows the Enemy to operate in both worlds for a while. From the healing power we see in miracles, to the food that you eat, God is in control. God does not wait for us to relinquish control, He already has it. What He waits for is our willingness to pull our heads out of our butts, look skyward, and realize that it's not all about us.

Surrender every aspect of our lives. Not just in the quiet times of the morning, when we list off "friends, family, possessions, life". How much time do you spend on the toilet? Did you ever stop to think that God could use that time for His kingdom and yet you eat burritos every day that leave you pooping for hours? Do you take any care in your food or your exercise and understand the spiritual aspects of it? If you are constantly tired and take naps, how are you impacting God's kingdom? How is He able to use you if every time He turns around you are listless or sleeping?

Are you getting it? Everything matters to God! From the decor of your room to the classes you take in college to the texts, emails, phone calls you have with other people to the books you read to the movies you watch.

Ask, in everything, does this glorify Christ and further His kingdom? If the answer is no, or you're not sure, seek the Lord on cutting that out of your life. Because we want nothing to hinder us in our pursuit of Him. We want nothing slowing us down or holding us back. Lose that which so easily entangles, that which you do not even know is entangling you!