So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves.
Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children.
Now we call him, “Abba, Father”.
For his spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.
And since we are his children, we are his heirs.

Ah, I love this passage. Love it. We are not fearful slaves. (Doing my little dance of freedom.) We are children God has chosen and taken as his own. And we are heirs. Oops. There’s that word again. I guess we should move on to take a look at exactly what we’ve inherited.

But first a few more words about our Spirit connection.

God’s spirit within us affirms that we are His children. The amazing knowledge comes that we belong to Him, that He is indeed our Father; it is a knowing that we cannot explain logically or describe in this world’s language.

So God’s Spirit is planted within us, and He will ……

Stop.

Do you really believe that the Spirit of God lives within YOU? Or are you having a little trouble believing that?

It is quite a claim to make, isn’t it — that the Spirit of God Almighty is within you.

Maybe you don’t feel the Spirit of God within. Maybe it’s difficult to see any evidence of Him. Maybe it’s just too crazy a concept for you to believe.

Maybe, at this point, all you can really say for certain is that you believe the Bible is the word of God and it is truth. If so, then read these passages and listen to what the Father says to you, His child:

John 14:16-17
1 Co 6:19-20
2 Co 1:21-22
1 John 4:13
Gal 4:4-7

God says He has planted His Spirit in you. Can you believe that? Will you believe what God says?

Spirit, help our unbelief.

Scripture: Romans 8:15-17a (NLT)

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

What’s your picture of God? Is He a power somewhere “out there”, a being that knows all that happens but just distantly watches over the events on this little speck in the universe? Does He leave us to our own frantic efforts to get through this life? Does He have a hand in what happens to you today? Does He care what happens to you today? Does He even exist? Or is he just a crutch, a perceived lifeboat that desperate people grab onto?

God gives us a picture of Himself. God puts his Spirit in his children, so that you may know him better. The Lord of the universe, our Father, wants us to know him. Does that warm your heart, as it does mine?

He is not just the Lord of the universe. Not just the One who created us. Not a stern disciplinarian who will judge us someday. Not some remote power watching from afar. He is a father who wants his children to know him better.

And so He has taken the initiative–He came into human history as Jesus Christ, and now He plants his own Spirit within us, so that we can begin to know. He doesn’t leave us to our own devices, floundering about. He creates a connection to Himself, and, oh, my! What the Spirit can do within a child of God!

This can only be believed in the spiritual realm. It’s not something that will be explained by human logic, science, or even theology. It is not a physical, emotional, intellectual thing but a supernatural thing. The Spirit of God actually lives within us, to teach us and to connect us with our Father. So that we may know Him better.

Scripture: Eph 1:17 (NIV)

Children of God? Are we really? That’s a big claim to make. And to many people in the world today, that claim probably sounds a bit pompous, outrageous, ridiculous, fanatic, and just downright crazy. But if you’re a believer in Jesus Christ, you are a child of God.

Here’s what Scriptures say:

Wait. First let’s talk about the dangers of growing up in a church. I know, I know–there are all kinds of reasons to be thankful for a heritage that placed you in a family and church from the time you were born. But there are also some disadvantages, and one of them is this — you might no longer “hear” Scripture.

Those of us who have heard familiar Scriptures since we were children sometimes no longer have the ears to hear. We hear or read familiar words, and we let them run over us like water flowing over stones in a creek bed, never soaking in, penetrating, permeating, changing.

So my challenge to you is this: let the Scriptures soak in and change you. Hear the words God has for his children.

(And now back to your regularly scheduled blog…)

Here’s the story:

He came into the world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him.
He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.
But to all who believed him and accepted him,
he gave the right to become children of God
They are reborn–
not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan,
but a birth that comes from God.

Long ago, God chose a people that He named and cared for as His children. They were to receive His blessings and protection, all the benefits of His power. Their story is the story of the Old Testament. But the story is a sad one, a history of generations of rebellious children, children who too often did not understand what their father offered, children who turned their backs on God.

And so there’s a twist in the story. God himself comes into human history, in the form of Jesus Christ, to bring His children back to Him. Even then, in human form before our very eyes, flesh and blood just like us, living in our history–even then, He is not recognized by most.

But those who do recognize, those who do believe–those are the privileged who now become His sons and daughters. The inheritance now has nothing to do with race or lineage, forefathers or tradition; now the ones who believe are the ones God takes as His chosen children, set apart, marked and touched specially by Him.

Did you notice that we are reborn? It’s a new life! A birth that comes from God, a new standing. We become children of God when we believe in Jesus Christ.

And you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.

Keep this verse in mind when you read Scripture about “Israel” or “children of Abraham”. If you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. Your faith in Christ Jesus has made you heirs to all the promises God has made to his children.

This inheritance is now yours.

And don’t you want to know what that inheritance is?

Scriptures: John 1:10-13, Gal 3:26,29

I begin this journey with you as my own journey began, with a piece written ‘way back in the 1800s by George MacDonald, a Scottish preacher and storyteller who wrote from a life of poverty and struggle.

If poetic form and archaic language set off alarms in your head, then skip reading the two stanzas below, and I’ll just give you a summary. MacDonald creates a sad picture of a child living on the streets. The child is actually a child of the king who lives in a palace nearby. The child is unaware of his heritage, but the last few lines urge him to run to the palace; his father, the king, is waiting to welcome him.

This piece made me wonder: Am I living in the streets when I could be living in a palace?

From George MacDonald’s Diary of an Old Soul:

I see a little child whose eager hands
Search the thick stream that drains the crowded street
For possible things hid in its current slow.
Nearby, behind him, a great palace stands,
Where kings might welcome nobles to their feet.
Soft sounds, sweet scents, fair sights there only go —
There the child’s father lives, but the child does not know.

On, eager, hungry, busy-seeing child,
Rise up, turn round, run in, run up the stair.
Far in a chamber from rude noise exiled,
Thy father sits, pondering how thou dost fare.
The mighty man will clasp thee to his breast:
Will kiss thee, stroke the tangles of thy hair,
And lap thee warm in fold on fold of lovely rest.

Ever feel like an orphan living in the streets, scrounging for food, fighting to survive?

Our powerful Father waits for us to come to Him. He wants to give us His kingdom. Yes, we are heirs to everything! The Lord of the universe claims us as His children, not in some faraway future realm, but here and now, in the circumstances of our lives today.

Is it possible to leave homelessness behind and move into a palace as heir to the kingdom? What will your life look like if you claim what your Father wants to give you? How will you live if you are convinced God holds your life in His hands and supplies all you need?

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

Scripture: Eph 1:17 (NIV)

New Year’s Day. Seems like a fitting time to begin a new cyber-venture. So here it is.

At last!

Others have claimed the title, but I feel I have a fair shot at being crowned World’s Greatest Procrastinator. Some of you have kept nudging me forward, asking and encouraging me to do this, so already this blog is a joint venture.

If you’re hoping for an online journal of my most adventurous and fascinating life…sorry. Not here. This site will be about listening to the words of our Father, letting the Spirit work, living our days on this earth as children of the Lord of the universe.

If, in the next weeks and months, you find these posts helpful, feel free to Tweet, post a link, chat on Facebook, email, call a friend — in whatever way you communicate these days. And if you want to contribute a guest post, contact me. I’m hoping to feature many of those.

Today, I’m going to start out with one short thought, the verse that’s been following me this week:

His faithful promises are your armor and protection.

This is the reason we will focus on Scripture. Our Father’s promises, His words to us, are the only thing we can truly rely on as we pick our way through the litter and trash of this world. We can depend on His words to protect us, encourage us, and strengthen us.

The question for each of us: Do you believe what He says?

Scriptures: Ps 91:4 (NLT)