Living by the Spirit

God has given us a wonderful choice once again.  He graciously gives us free choice when we decided to have faith in Him or not.  And here again he is giving us another choice.  Do we want to life in the "Flesh" as Apostle Paul describes it? Or do we want to live life by the Spirit?  Similarly James touches on this issue as well but instead calls it earthly and heavenly wisdom.


Below I will list the scriptures for reference of these particular characteristics.


My first question is: Why do we even have a choice?  Imagine that choice once again.  This question is more geared towards non believers who think Christianity is merely about legalism.


God is always giving us options whether it would be about salvation or even what the Christian Principles look like.  


First let's look at living in the flesh.  What do you accomplish or long to attain when you satisfy your sinful desires?  Galatians describes these as sinful natures, "The acts of the sinful nature are obvious; sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.  I warn you as I did before that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God".


On the other hand Paul describes how to live in the Spirit, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, and kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.  Against such things there is no law."


Again we do have a choice to make.  In choosing this option of living by the Spirit, it is not going to be pretty and entails suffering.  It will mean we have to learn what it means to "take up our cross" on a daily basis.  


By choosing to live with the Spirit it produces blessings.  These qualities are from God and not earth and more certainly not from man.

Christian Unity

Lately I have been praying for God to help me to use my gifts.  God never disappoints and He has been bringing people into my life that is not just coincidence.  It has been heavenly to say the least.  On Friday I went to get my hair done and I brought some books to keep me busy because it takes a few hours when I go to the Salon.  I thought it would be a great time to catch up on some reading.  


God obviously had different plans for me and my hair dresser.  When I initially made the appointment earlier in the week I asked for a certain lady but she was booked so they gave me another woman.  Sadly the whole week before my appointment I just prayed this woman would not butcher my hair since it is so thick.


Anyway, the moment I sat down this woman commented on the fact that I was a Christian.  Honestly, I thought she was going to attack my faith but was pleasantly surprised at God's plan.  We had a wonderful talk about our life experiences and how she grew up in the church but did not like the church's rules.  She grew up with a church that created a lot of man made rules that are not of God.  I could clearly see how someone like this would reject all church's thinking that is what church is about.  I felt sad knowing she is not the only one who feels like this.  


What are we doing as the body of Christ to reach out to our fellow Brothers and Sisters in the Lord??  Apostle Paul wrote a whole book on how we are to encourage and love them.  


Apostle Paul tells us it is not up to us to judge others.  We are to love them as God loves us.  Now that does not mean we should not encourage others to turn from sin.  We are called to help them live in The Way.  Just like an older sibling seeing their younger sibling making a mistake or what could lead to a mistake we want to guide our brethren away from danger.


So what does love and encouragement look like??  Pastors are great at conveying The Bible and helping us understand certain scripture.  However, it takes experience, either your own experience or hearing of someone else's experience to learn how to apply that to your life.  In other words it takes being vulnerable and showing your heart.  We cannot be concerned with other people's opinions of us.  In our weakness we may be able to show other Christians and non believers the love that God has for us.  As Christians we of course should be pursuing God with all of our being.  Next to that we should be creating relationships with our Brothers and Sisters in Christ.  We were created for relationships and to learn and help one another.  


We can rejoice with one another during times of great success as well as times of deep pain.  Struggles create bonds on a deep spiritual level.  If you do not believe me ask any combat Veteran.  They are a prime example of the importance of relationships and the bond humans can have.


"Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory."  (Romans 8:17)  

Corporate America Meets Apostle Paul

Recently I had the opportunity to start working at a large corporate office in telecommunications.  I cannot state any more details of my job since I would probably get fired due to confidentiality.  Anyway, this job has been a hard switch from what I am use to.  There are about 500 employees at my particular building.  At first I thought God why in the world am I here with this company.  What possible good can come out of this?  I am way outside of my comfort zone with this company and it is a daily challenge to learn what I need to know for my job.  My ideal job is working in the church either teaching or writing about biblical related topics to other women or some sort of encouragement.  This current job was a complete curveball and one I though God you must not be paying attention to how this job isn't an ideal fit for me.

This week at work a co-worker mentioned a particular product line available to certain customers but added she did not agree with it because it was unfair to the customers.  It was another example of companies just wanting to make an extra buck or two.  She then proceeded to say. “Well I believe all of us will have to answer to our actions”.  That particular statement stuck with me the rest of the day and here we are at 11pm at night and I cannot go to bed because I am still thinking about her statement. 

We all will have to give a statement of why we did certain things the way we did them.  Did we just follow someone else’s orders over fear of losing our job??  Not this lady.  She has a tenacious spirit for making a statement like this in a large corporate company that is worth billions of dollars.  She is always seeking the truth about a product line and giving us way more knowledge then we really need.  However, I admire her drive to get to the truth and not accept half answers. 

Customer service is such a huge part of our job where we work but what if we took this one step further.  What if we treated all our customers and clients as if we really were interested in their personal life.  Afterall, in my opinion I believe inherently we all want to feel needed and validated in life.  It does not matter what background you come from we all have some very basic needs.  What if we treated these people with real love as Apostle Paul teaches in the New Testament. 

As I was contemplating what my platform is for God to use to me I discovered it is right here.  This is my platform (at least for now).  To make people aware of how when we serve one another with getting these basic needs met how satisfied customers and clients would be with these large corporations (our boss).

What if these large corporations realized the meaning of hope, faith, and love, but the greatest one of these is love.  What if we started treating these customers with this great love?  Do you think they know what they are missing?

These large companies are realizing to compete in the Corporate world they need to have the best service.  Well how about if they treated their customers so good that the customer felt like they were as close as friends or better yet, family.

Now this does not mean sucking up to your client or making false promises.  It means taking a real interest for what is happening with your clients.  We all have issues going on in life and through these issues we can create kindred spirits. 

Many times I have prayed for God to break my heart for what breaks His and this time not only has he broke my heart but He is showing me the solution.