A Jewish Priest Is Filled With The Holy Spirit Before Birth

When Luke wrote about John the Baptist, he said something that I haven’t really taken time to meditate on at all but I think John may have been the only Jewish priest that the bible mentions as being filled with the Holy Spirit of God before he was born.

 Luke 1:13-15

But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.   He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born.”

John The Baptist

Since John’s father Zechariah (Jesus’ uncle) was a Jewish priest, so was John.

Imagine knowing at a very early age that you were the one priest that Isaiah the prophet wrote about who would prepare the way for the Messiah and that the long awaited Messiah was your cousin!

Mathew 3:1-3

In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.”

Later Mathew writes that John said…

Mathew 3:11-12  “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Then Jesus, the person John is talking about Who will baptize not with water but with the Holy Spirit and fire, this Jesus comes to John’s baptism service and tells John to baptize Him!

Mathew 3:13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

After that, God the Father reveals that Jesus is His Son.

Mathew 3:16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Isaiah 40: 3-5

A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together…”

Experiencing God

Experiencing God is a study of looking around for evidence of Him near where you are and then deciding to join Him in His work, leaving where you are in order to be where He is. I like how Henry Blackaby, author of Experiencing God, talks about first seeking the Kingdom of God. He said, the wrong question to ask is “What is God’s will for my life?”. A better question is “What’s God’s will?”. Seeking first His will takes the focus off me, taking me into His kingdom, not mine.

The kingdom of God is all around you. It’s where His will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

If we don’t stay in touch with current events inside the kingdom of God around us, we will miss His will for our life.

Justice, Mercy and Faithfulness

The Cross

Justice, mercy and faithfulness are things well worth any amount of time we can give to them.  Any self development plan that is self-indulgent is not worth your time.

Jesus is very tough on people who are religious and yet live life without justice, mercy and faithfulness.  Mathew 23:23

Having faith in yourself without having faith in God is a self-development plan for a wasted life.  But if we filter life through even just a tiny bit of faith in Him at first, then the results are eternally amazing!

Filtering Life

more about “Filtering Life“, posted with vodpod

Christianity: Thinking Outside The Box About Time And Space

Consider thinking outside the box as a way to meditate.  Albert Einstein thought outside the box all the time.  I’d say he meditated on time and space a lot and then came to some conclusions in 1905 that changed how we think now.

Did he believe in God?  He didn’t want to but he eventually did believe – sadly, not in a personal God but in a divine creator.

In 1929, Einstein said “I believe in Spinoza’s God, who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God Who concerns Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.”

Wish he had studied this verse where Jesus talks about how God not only concerns Himself with our fate, He has prepared a place just for us to be with Him.

John 14

¹Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

²In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

³And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

Albert Einstein‘s work dealing with physics, time and space led him to see harmony and a “beginning” of the universe.   Can we see more than we see now by thinking about time and space, the heavens and the earth?

Like Einstein, quantum physics could be part of how Jesus saw what most of us don’t.

When Jesus walked the earth, He talked about the Helper, the Spirit of truth, that some see and some don’t.

John 14: 16,17  “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”

Time And Space

Jesus talked about time and space inside us.  That a Helper would be given later and be with his disciples forever, with them and in them.  And, as I mentioned earlier, He also talked about a space and time where His Father was.

He said  “in my father’s house there are many dwelling places…”  Well, where exactly? Did He see the house when He was there or could he also see it while He walked the earth?

He talked about a future time when He would go to His Father’s house and prepare a place for his disciples so that where He would be, there they would be too.  Is time and space real there too?”

Once when Jesus prayed, He started out with “Our Father Who art in heaven… Thy Kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven…” – that sounds like a future time that has literal space on our planet to me.

God Inhabits Eternity?

In Isaiah 57:15 it says in the King James translation, “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place…”

So, it’s a high up place, right?  But that’s not all.  There’s another place where He dwells that seems pretty lowly to me.

Here’s the rest of 15th verse in Isaiah 57 “…I dwell on a high and holy place and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. “

Quantum Physics Must Be Elementary

Have you been taught that God is everywhere, that He inhabits eternity,  and that 1000 years is like a day to Him?  Me too.  I wonder if that has anything to do with quantum physics.

He created time and the space of the universe but what we now know about the body and mind now makes Einstein’s knowledge of quantum physics elementary.  Just think of all the dimensions of time and space inside us – how the cells, atoms, protons, neutrons, etc. are integrated such that we are created to be physically, mentally and spiritually human.

Meditation Outside The Box

If you believe the bible, or even if you don’t,  just reading it, pondering on it,  will sharpen your mind.  Meditating on scripture will indeed change your life.  Your life will change, and your influence on others will change.

If you are a Christian, then you already probably know that thinking outside the box as a Christian is sometimes frowned upon by religious people.  But don’t let that stop you.

The religious leaders of Jesus’ time hated Him.  They hated Him even more when His thoughts influenced the lives of countless others.

Yes, meditating on scripture could change you in a way that some people will not like but the High and Exalted One does.

Somehow the High and Exalted One Who dwells on a high and lofty place, also dwells in lowly us if we accept His Son.  When that happens, meditation on God’s word is way more powerful than understanding quantum physics.

Just remember, Christian or not, reading and meditating on the bible is different than pondering on anything else.  “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”   (Hebrews 4:12)

Resources

The Holy Bible

Gilbert and Friends

Who Is This Jesus?

John 14

9Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? ^(A)He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

¹⁰“Do you not believe that ^(A)I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? ^(B)The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.

Hebrews 1

¹God, after He ^(A)spoke long ago to the fathers in ^(B)the prophets in many portions and ^(C)in many ways,

^2(D)in these last days ^(E)has spoken to us in ^(F)His Son, whom He appointed ^(G)heir of all things, ^(H)through whom also He made the ^(I)world.

³And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact ^(J)representation of His nature, and ^(K)upholds all things by the word of His power when He had made ^(L)purification of sins, He ^(M)sat down at the right hand of the ^(N)Majesty on high

Kingdom Secrets

Jesus said to his disciples, recorded in Mark 4:11 that to those of us who have been entrusted with the mystery of the Kingdom of God, the counsels of God are not hidden in parables to us.  We are in on the secrets of the Kingdom of God.

Mark 4: 11  And He said to them, To you has been entrusted the mystery of the Kingdom of God [that is, [b]the secret counsels of God which are hidden from the ungodly]; but for those outside [[c]of our circle] everything becomes a parable…”

One of the not so well known secrets of the Kingdom of God I think is this…

Practice strife and you can’t enter the Kingdom.  You can’t get in.  Even if we have trusted Christ as our Saviour, if He’s not the Lord of our life, we can’t access the spiritual realm of God that is at hand.

The Kingdom of God Is At Hand

We can live in the Kingdom now -  while we are here on earth, we can live in the spritual realm of God.

Choosing to not live there means a life without righteousness, peace and joy.

Even those of us who are Christians, if we choose to live like citizens of the world instead of who we are – heirs of the Kingdom, Royalty because of who we married, we are the bride of Christ – then to the world, we look like who they are, subjects of the prince of this world, slaves to the one who hates us, Satan himself.  Why do we even want to go there?

Because of trespasses and sin.  Without trusting Christ inside us to save us from our sin, making Him Lord, we ignore the power of His  Spirit within us.

I’m talking to myself more than you.  Living in the world and acting like we are of the world means we are on the outside.  It’s not a spiritual life.  We rob ourselves of the supernatural and just live natural, normal boring lives when we could be experiencing righteousness, peace and joy.  Why we sometimes choose to live an unrighteous life, full of strife and lacking  joy is because we still have the old unsaved person inside.  Letting that person back on the throne of our life instead of keeping Christ there as Lord is a really miserable way to live.

No Access – Keep Out – No What?  No Trespassing!

Just because we are Christians, we can’t  just walk into the Kingdom of God any time we want.  If Christ leads us and we follow, we’re there.  If He leads us and we don’t follow, we’re on the outside.  Be led, and live.

Not to follow Christ means following the dead person inside you, the one dead in trespasses and sin, with absolutely no power

• to live in joy and peace,
• to be a spiritual supernatural being
• able to move mountains,
• heal the sick,
• rejoice in prosperity,
• love the one you’re with,
• overcome any hardship,
• live in victory and
• be seen by God as righteous in His sight

…plus soooo much more!

What To Do First

The very first thing to do is to repent.  Repent in the Greek and I think also  in the old testiment Hebrew, means “to change your mind.”  We have a free will.

Did you know that if we just continually change our mind to follow Christ instead of our own sinful nature that we’ve done our part.  God does the rest.

He gives us faith.  We don’t have to stir that up within ourselves.  Faith is  a gift from God.  The scripture says By grace are we  saved through faith, and that (faith) is not of ourselves but is a gift from God, lest any man should boast. “

Change your mind, decide with your will to follow Christ and God will give you the desire and the faith to do it.

He gives us the desires of our heart and He gives us faith.

Don’t want to follow Christ??  No one does.

Just change your mind about that and decide to do it any way.  He will give you what it takes to love Him, to follow Him, to live life instead of death.

Keys To The Kingdom

“Keys to the Kingdom of God” is a phrase Jesus used to describe something that He would give to someone. Specifically, He said this phrase to the disciple, Simon, right after He changed his name.

Does that make you wonder what Jesus meant? What are kingdom keys? What if you were given the keys to unlock and lock up an entire kingdom? Maybe that isn’t quite what Jesus meant – control of the door…

I’m thinking that if you have a set of keys, it simply means you have access to the other side of the lock. Having keys to the kingdom might just mean you can get in.

Maybe having keys to a kingdom means being able to get in any time we want just to see what’s going on.

It could mean we have access to the King as well. If the King gave us the keys, does that mean we can go in and stay as long as we want?

If we go in to see the King, do we bring gifts? Or does He give us the keys because we too are royalty?

Kingdom Living

The bible talks about the Kingdom of God often with the three words

• righteousness
• peace
• joy

Are these three of the keys to the kingdom?

Romans 14:17

“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Luke 17:20

“For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

If the kingdom is inside me, why do I need keys?  Why would anyone need them?  Is the kingdom of God inside everyone?

1 Corinthians 6:9+ (ESV)

“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. “

Note – that’s pretty much all of us, right?  But read on…

“And such were some of you.  But you were washed,  you were sanctified,  you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

The keys to the Kingdom are given to sinners saved by grace, washed by the blood of Christ, sanctified and justified in His name and by His Spirit, the Spirit of God.

We can’t unlock the door of our heart to enter into the kingdom of God without righteousness, the righteousness that comes to us washing and by regeneration.

Newness of Life

Regeneration means a completely new creation, a change like a catapiller experiences in becoming a butterfly.

In the bible, regeneration means the change an individual experiences when he becomes a citizen of the kingdom of God.

It is a spiritual thing, a spiritual birth, being born again but not physically.   but of being born again only this time, spiritually.   It is by the “washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.”

Righteousness, Peace and Joy

Take the keys of the Kingdom, unlock your heart, invite the living Christ inside to reign in you over your body, mind and spirit.  Become the righteousness of Christ, filled with peace, overflowing with joy.

“Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” (Heb.10:22; also see Eph. 5:26)

Repentance Means “Never Having to Say You’re Sorry”

Repentance doesn’t mean saying “I’m sorry” to God. It actually means never having to say you’re sorry. Sorrow often leads to repentance but there’s never any sorrow inside repentance.

Inside repentance is pure joy.

It is likened to being a caterpillar when the miracle of change occurs. The caterpillar is a night creature that is naturally destructive. The new creation is a creature that can fly. The butterfly is a day creature that is naturally constructive, contributing to pollination.

Repentance itself means to change, to change your mind without regret, without sorrow, leading to salvation by faith.

Think of repentance as threefold:

• change mind
• change ways
• return to God

One bible scholar, Gilbert Laurance,  says that “repentance means to change your mind to the point of changing your ways to the end that you return to God.”

Isaiah 55 (NIV)

Invitation to the Thirsty

¹ “Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.

² Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

³ Give ear and come to me;
hear me, that your soul may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.

⁴ See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander of the peoples.

⁵ Surely you will summon nations you know not,
and nations that do not know you will hasten to you,
because of the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel,
for he has endowed you with splendor.”

⁶ Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.

⁷ Let the wicked forsake his way
and the evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.

⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

¹⁰ As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

¹¹ so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

¹² You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.

¹³ Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the LORD’s renown,
for an everlasting sign,
which will not be destroyed.”

Christianity and Me – “Don’t Panic, My Love…”

“Christianity and Me” might seem like a strange title for a blog post to many people but for me, it’s an every day thing so to write about it is like breathing. The only difference is that this isn’t my private journal. So in that regard, I do feel a little nervous about what I’m about to share publicly.

Here’s the thing… if you have read anything on this blog before, then you already know about Christianity and me. As with many people, for me it’s not a religion, it’s a relationship. I could have called this post “Jesus and me” because it means the same thing.

But the reason for this post is to put up a video. It is my first attempt to share my beliefs in film, so to speak.  I want you to know that there’s a place to go when your heart is heavy.  You can be lifted up in an instant.

Anxiety, Panic, Fear?   Go Deep…

Anxiety, panic and fear are all quite normal – normal meaning human.  Even living with the mild form – anxiety -  day in and day out is quite human.  It’s a natural state of being and it’s very harmful.

I’ve been writing my first book about our natural state of being and what to do about it.  I put a little bit of the book’s theme into a short video for you.

Here’s my advice… when anxiety comes, don’t take it in immediately.  Filter it.  For panic and fear, just think of these as natural, driving you even deeper into another place where there is no fear.  I’m talking about being driven deep into the Kingdom of God.  It exists here on earth as it is in heaven and we can go there, leaving the cares of this world behind – but only if we filter the natural with the supernatural…

more about “Filtering Life“, posted with vodpod

In the chapter “Don’t Panic, I’m Right Here” I talk about this scripture in Philippians4:6-7

⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

As Christians, we have access to a world of supernatural peace, the Kingdom of God – right here on earth, but we don’t always go there.  If you feel a little bit of panic or a LOT, no worries – it’s the temptation to live in it but we don’t have to live there.  Instead, let it be a reminder to go deep – in fact, be driven!  Be driven deep into the Kingdom any time anxiety tempts you to fear.

In this world of chaos, no one can escape anxiety.  In fact, when we feel the panic, it’s just a reminder that we don’t have to feel it, filter it. Remember, filtering life means to go ahead and respond to everything and to every one, let your whole being respond, but let it begin in the spirit.

Filtering panic through your spirit might not be your habit of dealing with anxiety but it can be. We have to practice living in the spirit where Christ is in order for it to become second nature to us.

Remember, Kingdom living means we are living where Christ is. It’s your second nature’s realm. “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation…” The Kingdom of God is a spiritual place on earth that’s like it is in heaven.

The body of Christ is still here on earth. That’s us – the Church. Christians are the body of Christ. That’s why if we feel panic and anxiety and are tempted to fear, if we immediately go to Him, we’re there – in the Kingdom – hearing Him say,  “Fear not, for I Am with you.” When you filter anxiety and even panic through the spirit first, then your heart, soul and body respond without it. As a Christian, the Kingdom isn’t just a place to visit.  You are married to the King of Kings so it’s home.  When afraid, just go home and hear His voice  saying, “Don’t panic, My Love, I’m right here.”

Video: Filtering Life

How To Find Purpose In Your Life

If you’re like most people, you have wondered about your purpose in life. Christians often wonder what God’s will is for their life. Think of it like this and see if it helps you gain some supernatural ease about life’s questions.

Jesus Christ, God’s Son, is hanging out somewhere near you. He’s been trying to get you interested in joining him for a night out but you put Him off because sometimes He hangs out where you have no desire to go.

Try this next time He invites you to spend time with Him. He might tell you where He wants you to go with Him but most likely He wants to surprise you so He doesn’t say. He says, “Oh, you’ll see. Just follow me.”

So this time you say “OK, why not.”

You don’t know when or where you’re going yet but you say, “Just let me know when, and I rearrange so that I can go.” He says, “Great! I will.”

Fairly soon you hear from Him, either while you’re reading the bible, or in prayer driving to work, or maybe something happens. An out of the ordinary circumstance. If you never read your bible or pray, this seems most likely. The circumstance can be really wonderful or it might seem really bad. Either way, you are aware of Jesus being near letting you know He’s there in your circumstances.

So you say, “OK, if you really want me to hang around with you now, I will but you’ve got to understand, I have these circumstances going on.” He says, “I know. Just trust me on this. You’ll be glad you did. Come with me. It’ll be great.”

You say again, “But where are we going.” He probably will say, “You’ll find out. Just stick with me.”

So you say “OK” knowing that you’re a little leary but you’re going with Him. You said you would.

God’s Will Soon to Be Revealed… This Happens to Me All the Time
I’d like to tell you where I think we’re going but I don’t really know yet. He’s starting to give me hints. Until I write again, please enjoy the beauty all around you. And if you like, talk to Him in the beauty you enjoy because He’s always there, always.