Thursday, August 12, 2010

THE HOLY SPIRIT Pt. 7

By Joseph Akinola

Sustaining the Holy Spirit/ Spiritual Gifts

The word Sustenance is synonymous to Maintenance. Maintenance is the act of upholding, preservation in order to make something to continue to exist; to make something to continue to exist.


The Cost and Price of maintaining a possession is always far greater than the Cost of Obtaining it. Maintenance is a life-long exercise/activity as long as that thing still exists.


Sustaining the Holy Spirit in your life as a believer is very crucial. Why? Because, when you don’t sustain it with the required ingredients (food), He begins to leave you – you begin to lose Him in your life. There is nothing as miserable as someone who had enjoyed the presence of the Holy Spirit in the past and now living his/her life without the presence of the Holy Spirit. The truth is, life will be unbearable to him/her.


It is very important to know that when you cannot maintain anything you have acquired, you are not really due, ripe and mature for it. Because if you are due for it, you will rise up to the Task and Price associated with it in every way it demands.


Below are listed and explained, some of the things you could do / exercises you could engage in order to sustain the Holy Spirit in your life and this would make you to always Keep Fit spiritually.


1. Righteousness: You need to live a holy life; a sinless life, to operate a righteous – bound lifestyle. Bible says in Proverbs 14:34 “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.” If you really want to be exalted (dignified, high-ranked) in life as a person, in all you do and you want to keep growing spiritually, the need for righteousness and abstinence from sin is a must. 1st Peter 1:16 says, “Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy”; like begets like. You are a Vessel and the Holy Spirit is the Dweller of the Vessel – He knows the condition of the place to which He can dwell (live in), so He gives you the prescription of how His abode should be. 2 Timothy 2:21 says, “If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.” 


If the Holy Spirit would really dwell inside of you, you need to be holy/clean/spiritually healthy and sanctified – to deliberately set yourself apart for Him (if you are expecting a guest, you prepare your house for his visit, so that he would find your place comfortable in order for him to stay longer). Before you will operate the verse of the Scripture that says, ‘Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world’, you must make yourself Clean and Clear of all filthiness; you must ensure that where the Greater One will dwell is clean and garnished so that when He comes, He will stay permanently and then, would start to reproduce fruits upon fruits in your life because He doesn’t stay where there is filthiness. 


Note that when the temple is not holy, the Holy God will not come and dwell/reside in it. Also note that when you live a righteous life, you automatically make yourself readily accessible to and for the Master’s use and also for His abode and when you become the Master’s abode, you begin to exhibit the acts of the Master and with this, you soon become a master in and to your world both in the natural and supernatural.

Righteousness, as defined by some Bible scholars, is said to be ‘your right standing with God’. Where and how are you standing with God? This is a very critical question no one can answer for you but for yourself. It is important to know that how you stand with God determines how close or far He is / He will be to you and this will literally determine what happens to you and how much of Him you will know, have/possess because when He is with you, He will tell you things, including things to come (John 16:13).


Always note that Who lives with you or Who you live with greatly influences and determine your influence in life both physically and spiritually.

When he lives with you, He will influence your life into full/maximum success.

2. LOVE: 1Corinthians 13. Love is from God. God is love and anyone who will truly love must have God. Anyone who has God must have love and anyone who loves must surely experience God. Love is very vital. Without love, you cannot give and when you give, it must be without any string attached. It is not the person you give that rewards you but God. Love is the greatest of the Law of God 1st Corinthians 13:13. Without love, you cannot really see God. Ephesians 3:17-19.


3. FELLOWSHIP: Hebrews 10:25. Don’t forsake the assembly of God’s brethren. When you embrace fellowship, you will enjoy Synergy. Coming together enables you do things with ease, also, you exert less energy on things you do. Note that no man is an Island. You need others. God never created you to be alone, neither does He created you for yourself. Even God, the Creator of heaven and earth embraces the principle of coming together (Genesis 1:26 {come, let us create……..}). How enormous the result is when people (believers) come together. In Isaiah 1v18, God painted a picture of synergy through coming together both ‘to learn from others’, ‘reason together’ and ‘to do together’.


4. FASTING: Joel 2:12. Fasting breaks/disconnects you from the natural and makes you spirit-man attuned to the frequency where you can hear God audibly and clearer. Mark 9:29; Ist Corinthians 7:5.


5. PRAISE: Psalm 100:4. This is the key / access into the Supernatural. Praise also brings down the presence of Divinity/Holy Spirit. Psalm 34:1


6. PRAYER: 1Timothy 2:1; Acts 10:4


7. BOLDNESS: Proverbs 28:1. A righteous man is as bold as a lion. Acts 4:13; Acts 4:31; Ephesians 3:12.


8. SANCTIFICATION: 1Thessalonians 4:3-4. The world of spirits can never be comfortable to those who plunge themselves in the filth of the flesh; nor will the righteous and holy God ever admit such into his favour and presence, unless they be first washed and sanctified, and justified in the name of our Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God, 1st Corinthians 6:11. 2nd Thessalonians 2:13; 1st Peter 1:2


9. THE WORD OF GOD: Acts 6:7. The Word of God Increases your Capacity Physically and Spiritually. Your spiritual health is geared / powered by the Word of God. The Word feeds your spirit-man, feeds your soul and also boosts your faith causes you to walk and live in the Spirit always.



Food For Thought

"Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh."