food for fish

The Holy Spirit: Because I felt like writing a message, and its been on my mind for a while.

I�m sure you�ve made a bad decision before. Think of a specific time you made a decision, something deep down was telling you not to do it, but for whatever reasons (most of the time selfish) you did it anyway. Now, was this before or after making the decision to follow Christ? Most likely if you felt compelled to �justify� it, it was after accepting Christ, doesn�t matter how closely you were following� I believe this is one part of what the Holy Spirit does for us. If it was before accepting Christ, the Bible says �Right and wrong are written are your heart�. For me, I made plenty of decisions before Christ was in my life, many of them not good for me, or the people around me, some times I thought, this isn�t the best, but I never felt compelled to �justify� it or really double think about it. But, after accepting Christ things were different, I would actually have little �is this right or wrong� wars in my head� Well this lead to some confusion, so for some time I decided to �justify� things, make them right in my head� but even this, a lot of the time I felt �wrong� about it anyway, the still, small voice in me was saying NO.

What is the Holy Spirit?
In short the Holy Spirit is the �Mind� of God, when you accept to follow Jesus you are then filled with the spirit� Being filled with the spirit allows God the ability to speak and work through you. It�s like a teleprompter for your brain.

[1 Corinthians 2:1-16]

1 Dear brothers and sisters, when I first came to you I didn't use lofty words and brilliant ideas to tell you God's message.2 For I decided to concentrate only on Jesus Christ and his death on the cross.3 I came to you in weakness--timid and trembling.4 And my message and my preaching were very plain. I did not use wise and persuasive speeches, but the Holy Spirit was powerful among you.5 I did this so that you might trust the power of God rather than human wisdom.6 Yet when I am among mature Christians, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world, and not the kind that appeals to the rulers of this world, who are being brought to nothing.7 No, the wisdom we speak of is the secret wisdom of God,* which was hidden in former times, though he made it for our benefit before the world began.8 But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would never have crucified our glorious Lord.9 That is what the Scriptures mean when they say,

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard,
and no mind has imagined
what God has prepared
for those who love him."

10 But we know these things because God has revealed them to us by his Spirit, and his Spirit searches out everything and shows us even God's deep secrets.11 No one can know what anyone else is really thinking except that person alone, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own Spirit.12 And God has actually given us his Spirit (not the world's spirit) so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.13 When we tell you this, we do not use words of human wisdom. We speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit's words to explain spiritual truths.14 But people who aren't Christians can't understand these truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them because only those who have the Spirit can understand what the Spirit means.15 We who have the Spirit understand these things, but others can't understand us at all.16 How could they? For,

"Who can know what the Lord is thinking?
Who can give him counsel?"

But we can understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.

In this passage Paul is telling the people of the Corinthian church why he spoke to them the way he did, instead of using words that the people wouldn�t understand he leaned on the knowledge of the Holy Spirit to guide him (v2-6), he kept it simple and basic for the new Christians. God�s spirit knows how to meet people just where they need to be, so we do not need to worry about talking to people, for we have the Spirit to guide us. We also learn that no one can know God�s thoughts except God�s spirit, and God has given us HIS SPIRIT! (v12). Remember though, only people who have the Spirit can understand the Spirit, the Spirit will help us speak to these people about spiritual things, but they will not understand God�s truths until they meet Christ for themselves. But we, Christians, can understand these things for we have the Spirit, we have the mind of Christ (v16).

When you begin to follow and release your self to the Spirit you develop certain qualities, which the bible refers to as the fruits of the spirit�

[Galatians 5:22-23]

22 But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,23 gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law.

Love � Loving God first, his people and all people, God is love
Joy � Possessing what we desire or love
Peace � Knowing that everything is good
Patience � Time does not matter
Kindness � Serving other people�s needs
Goodness � Generally thinking/doing good
Faithfulness � Knowing God is there when there is no proof
Gentleness � Having compassion for others
Self Control � Able to control emotional and selfish outrages

Some versus to ponder�

1 John 2:26-27 � The Holy Spirit helps us discern false teachings
Ephesians 5:18-20 � How much of ourselves is under the Holy Spirit�s guidance?
2 Corinthians 5:16-17 � Holy Spirit makes us a new person
Luke 4:1-2 � Holy Spirit may test us
Ephesians 4:1-6 � It binds us together as a body of Christ
Ephesians 4: 28-30 � We can bring sorrow to the Holy Spirit
Philippians 1:1-11 � Holy Spirit helps us do God�s work.
1 Thessalonians 1:5 � By the Holy Spirit and the way we work gives assurance to those we share the good news with.

If we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit�s calling in our lives God will use us to spread his great news through all situations in our lives.