Category: purpose in life

Pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you.  – 2 Thessalonians 3:1

What can you do to help the spread of the Gospel and help increase the number of those who are saved each day? Well, there are many things: put in a good word for Jesus, share your faith with a friend, go on a mission trip, send financial support to a missionary, and many others. But one of the most important things you can do is to pray! Pray for missionaries and preachers and those who minister and share the Word of God and the grace of Jesus through the Internet, radio, television, and print. Pray for the message to spread rapidly and pray for it to grow in power and influence.

Loving Shepherd, I know you agonize over those who are lost. I pray that you will empower missionaries worldwide to speak the truth of the Gospel with boldness. I pray that you touch the hearts of those who hear so they will experience your salvation. Use me in whatever way you choose to be a part of the spreading of your salvation. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

[The apostles to the church in Jerusalem concerning ministering to the widows:] “And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility.”
–  Acts 6:3 NLT

Almost every religion defines spirituality a little bit differently. However, a follower of Christ defines authentic spirituality based upon people having the Holy Spirit living within them. A true servant leader among Jesus’ followers is a person who is well respected and who is full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. These are the characteristics that qualify a person to have the responsibility of being a servant leader. Being respected and having wisdom are vital to serve and lead well in almost any area of life. However, to serve and lead well in the kingdom of God, these qualities must be informed and empowered by the work of the Holy Spirit.

Lord God and Father, I pray for those who are servant leaders for your people. Please be with us, your children, as we seek to recognize servant leaders in whom you are at work. Help us to see their wisdom and to follow them with respect. Father, please help us see those whom your Spirit is influencing, maturing, and leading. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

Pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. –  2 Thessalonians 3:1

What can you do to help the spread of the Gospel and help increase the number of those who are saved each day? Well, there are many things: put in a good word for Jesus, share your faith with a friend, go on a mission trip, send financial support to a missionary, and many others. But one of the most important things you can do is to pray! Pray for missionaries and preachers and those who minister and share the Word of God and the grace of Jesus through the Internet, radio, television, and print. Pray for the message to spread rapidly and pray for it to grow in power and influence.

Loving Shepherd, I know you agonize over those who are lost. I pray that you will empower missionaries worldwide to speak the truth of the Gospel with boldness. I pray that you touch the hearts of those who hear so they will experience your salvation. Use me in whatever way you choose to be a part of the spreading of your salvation. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

[Peter, on Pentecost, quoting from Joel 2:] “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.”
– Acts 2:17 NIV

So much handwringing goes on to determine when the “last days” will occur. However, the prophecy of Joel 2 begins to be fulfilled in Acts 2. Therefore, the events happening then are the beginning of the “last days”! Since the coming of the Holy Spirit that first Pentecost after Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, we have been in the last days. Jesus’ coming again is assured. He stands at the edge of history. Since Jesus’ incarnation, we have stood at the “culmination of the ages” (Hebrews 9:26) waiting for God’s final victory when he sends Jesus to return for us (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). And the key to these last days? The Holy Spirit — God’s presence within us, God’s presence for us, and God’s assurance to us that we are part of his great victory (Ephesians 1:13-14). The Holy Spirit comes to all who belong to Jesus. No wonder old and young, men and women, have words from God to share and dreams from heaven to inspire!

Almighty God, thank you for the coming of your Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Thank you for sending your Spirit to me when I came to Christ. Thank you for your abiding presence within me and your assurance for me through your indwelling Spirit. I await, with the help of the Holy Spirit, the great victory that I know is coming in Christ. Thank you for this assured hope! In Jesus’ name, I praise you! Amen.

When the Feast of Pentecost came, [the apostles] were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force — no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them.

The image of “tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them” (using the language of another translation) is a powerful one. This wildfire of God’s grace signals the dawning of a new era in God’s work of salvation. The message of Jesus is boldly proclaimed. Hearts are touched and convicted. Faith in Jesus is spread. People are baptized. The Spirit is given as God’s gift. Sins are gone. A new movement that will sweep through the mighty Roman Empire is begun and is still with us today. The Holy Spirit is the wind that causes heaven’s wildfire to spread through human hearts and change the future of people, family, friends, cultures, and nations. So let’s pray for this wildfire to sweep through our lands, our churches, our friends, and our own hearts!

Father in heaven, I know that the Holy Spirit lives in me and in the hearts of your people. But we yearn for a fresh movement of your Spirit to bring renewal, to empower evangelism, and to bring conviction of sin and a realization of grace, peace, and joy. I ask that your Holy Spirit will break out like wildfire among us and propel us to be the people our world needs us to be! In Jesus’ name, we ask for this grace. Amen.

[Not long after Jesus’ ascension,] Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) and said, “Brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus.”

The crucifixion of Jesus was not an accident. The passion of Christ was part of God’s plan from the beginning (1 Peter 1:18-20). The Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms all speak of the Christ having to suffer (Luke 24:44-49). The inspiration behind these writings, these prophecies, was the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit spoke these things. Judas’ betrayal of Jesus was not a surprise to Jesus. While the betrayal and crucifixion of Jesus were tragedies and involved the work of evil people, they were planned by God and announced by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:23). It is amazing that this Holy Spirit, who moved the prophets to foretell the truth about Jesus, is the same Spirit who lives in us to confirm the truth about Jesus in us and to us (John 16:13; 1 John 2:24-28).

Father, I thank you for being present with me through the Holy Spirit, who brings so many blessings to me. As I seek to know Jesus, to really know him and not just know about him, I pray the Holy Spirit will guide me into all truth, into deeper and deeper truth, so that I can know the Son completely and perfectly reflect his character and compassion in my daily life. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

Jesus was filled with the joy
of the Holy Spirit.
– Luke 10:21 NLT

All too frequently, we pursue the wrong things hoping that they will make us happy. Real joy, however, comes from the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. When we look at the life of Jesus and at the lives of his early followers, we see that the presence of the Holy Spirit brought them joy. The Spirit’s presence can do the same for us. This joy from the Spirit comes from many things, including but not limited to these blessings:

• Insight and understanding into the scriptures and into life.
• The abiding presence of God within us.
• The connection that the Holy Spirit gives us with other believers.
• The assurance of our relationship with the Father as his children.

Joy comes to us because of the Spirit’s presence in our lives!

Father, thank you for providing me with your source of joy, the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name, I thank you. Amen.

Her children rise up and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
“Many women have done excellently,
but you surpass them all.”
– Proverbs 31:28-29 ESV

“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.”  –  Joel 2:28 tniv

Throughout the Old Testament, God’s Spirit would come upon special leaders or agents of God’s will to do his work. Most of the time, the Spirit’s presence would be temporary, to help with a pressing issue, need, problem, or battle. In a few cases, like David, God’s Spirit never departed from God’s servant. But the presence of the Spirit living permanently inside all of God’s people was the promise of the coming of the Messiah and the formation of God’s new people. This promise from Joel 2 is the centerpiece Scripture quoted by Peter in his sermon during Pentecost. This day, promised by Joel’s prophecy, comes with the dawn of the church and signaled by the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit first comes to those who proclaim the story of Jesus, but then to all who hear the message, believe, and respond by being baptized, on this day and all the days of conversion to follow (Acts 2:38-39). We live in the age of the Spirit!

Thank you! Thank you O God, for allowing me to live in the time of your church. Forgive me when I discount your power released in and through her through the Holy Spirit. Forgive me for not responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit to be conformed to the character and compassion of Jesus. Forgive me for the times I’ve grieved the Spirit by saying unkind things about others in whom the Spirit lives. I ask, dear Father, in the name of Jesus, that your Holy Spirit have more influence on my heart and in shaping my life. Amen.

“Yes, weep and grieve until the Spirit is poured down on us from above And the badlands desert grows crops and the fertile fields become forests.”   – Isaiah 32:15 msg

Throughout the Old Testament prophets, there are statements made about the coming of a new day for God’s people. It will be a day of healing, victory, and joy. It will be a time when bad things are made right and even the land will be healed of harshness, desolation, and unproductivity. And the key sign to all of this? The work of the Holy Spirit. With the coming of Jesus, all four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) emphasize the work of the Spirit in Jesus’ life and promise that Jesus will baptize in the Holy Spirit. The book of Acts connects to this promise, so that with Acts 2 and Pentecost, and with each conversion story, we are shown the Holy Spirit is involved. When the Spirit of God comes, God’s new work has begun and his new people are born into his Promise and into his Kingdom, where there is joy, renewal, and new life.

Father, I thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit’s presence — in your church, in my world, and especially within me. I look to your Spirit’s presence to renew my heart, to bring joy in everyday moments, to bring comfort in times of sorrow, and bring new life where there was none. Thank you for this incredible gift of power and your presence within me. Through the mighty name of Jesus I praise and thank you for this gift! Amen.