For Your Own Good

Have you ever considered John 16:7? On some level, I guess I’ve always considered its implications to be something along the lines of, “Of course it’s to my benefit that He goes away. That’s how salvation was bought.” But I’d NEVER considered the full implication of this verse.

To that point, Jesus had been walking with His disciples for a while, but had only walked WITH them. In order for them (and us) to have God IN us, however, He had to ascend and come back as the Holy Spirit. He tells His disciples it is for their good that He goes away. That way, He can indwell them (and us) so that they (and we) could be the temple where He lives!
What does that mean for you? The indwelling that this Spirit gives me means that how I feel/my circumstances DO NOT have to define my day. HE can define my day, no matter what my circumstance or environment! No matter what is going on around me, the Creator of the Universe lives IN ME, and all of His resources are mine because He knows me and lives in me. This really is a good thing!
So, what keeps you from experiencing His presence in your life? A couple of observations come to mind.
1) You do not belong to Him. If you’ve never given Him your life, you have not been indwelled by His Spirit. To solve this, place your hope and trust in Him today.
2) You’ve never really “needed” Him. For too many followers of Jesus, faith consists of asking His blessing on our already well-laid plans. We seek comfort, affluence, and prosperity, missing the fact that God is near to the broken hearted. Recently reading a book about the Holy Spirit, I read about a group of Korean missionary who were abducted by the Taliban. Two were martyred for their faith, and the rest squabbled over the honor of being the next to go. Before anyone else could be killed, the Korean government negotiated their release. Upon returning home, all of the former captives voiced a desire to be back in captivity because of the intimacy with Christ they found during their captivity. At their darkest hour, they found themselves closer to Christ than they ever had been.Their story reminded me that God doesn’t strive for my comfort or safety. He strives for His Glory.
3) Noise: our lives become so cluttered with busyness that we simply CANNOT focus on a relationship with Christ. With text messages, voice messages, music, television, reading, FaceBook, cell phones, etc., we lack the capacity for a quiet conversation with our Creator. Many times we create the noise with noble causes that seem to deepen our intimacy but only keep us from God.All too often we substitute a book, Bible study, or spiritual event for intimacy, quenching the Spirit in our lives and missing His presence in our lives.
Give your life to Christ. Realize your need for Him each day instead of comfort. “Unplug” for the sake of your relationship with Him. He has given you His Spirit for your own good.

Where Are You?

According to Roger’s Innovation Adoption Curve, people fall into one of five categories. He defines the categories like this:

Innovators: Brave people pulling the change
Early Adopters: Respectable people, opinion leaders, who try out new ideas in a careful way.
Early Majority: Thoughtful people, careful, but accepting change more quickly than the average.
Late Majority: skeptical people, they will only use ideas or products when the majority are using them.
Laggards: traditional people, caring for the “old ways,” are critical towards new ideas and will only use them when become the main stream or even tradition.
Now, let’s have some fun. Go to my blog (http://www.thejiggybishop.com) and read these descriptions to someone who knows you well. Ask them which one you are. I would be willing to bet that most of us put ourselves on the more adventurous end of the spectrum than we really are. Post their responses as replies.