In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and bare them, and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them (Isaiah 63: 9-10).
The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives is one of the greatest blessings we have as Christians. He is our advantage and the secret to a glorious and successful life. Thus you must recognize and take advantage of His ministry in your life. Some Christians ignore the ministry of the Holy Spirit, hence their lives are out of joint; full of ups and downs.
It’s the ministry of the Holy Spirit to guide and lead in all affairs of life; it’s His ministry to grant you the wisdom and counsel you need to win every day in life. Consciously acknowledge His presence with you and in you, and learn to yield to Him always. Never ignore His counsel. The Bible says in Isaiah 30:21, “And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.”
Whose voice do you think that is? It’s the voice of the Holy Spirit. He speaks to us daily on life’s issues through God’s Word, but many ignore His counsel because His voice is never strong and harsh against us. It matters that in whatever you do, you honour the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life. Don’t wound his tender compassion by consistently rejecting His counsel.
Perhaps you talked to someone rudely and Holy Spirit corrected you, be quick to heed His correction and make the necessary amends. Otherwise, His voice that used to be clear to you may soon become faint and distant if you continually ignore Him. Live your life in a way that brings honour to the Holy Spirit; appreciate His presence in your life and you’d be glad you did.
In life, what you see determines how you live. So it’s important that you see spiritually; you see by the Spirit. Seeing by the Spirit is seeing through the Word, seeing with the eyes of faith. Many are ruled by fear and anxiety because they’re seeing from the valley; they look at things from the human or earthly perspective.
But when you see by the Word through the Spirit, you realize that you’re neither the sick trying to get healed nor the poor trying to be rich. You’re not the defeated trying to become victorious. Rather, you see that you’re the glory of God, a victor in Christ Jesus, the perfection of divine excellence. Hallelujah!
The Word of God gives you spiritual elevation. It lifts your perspective and vision above the mundane and lets you see from God’s vantage point. This is what John experienced: he heard a voice saying, “Come up hither,” and when he did, he was transported in the spirit to see divine realities.
God has called us to function by revelation. We walk by faith, not by sight. And faith is living by the Word, acting on the basis of God’s Word and not on impulses or sensory perceptions. That’s how you live above limitations. That’s how you stay ahead of the world. That’s how you dominate circumstances and triumph over the adversary and adversities.
You may have been diagnosed with some terrible ailments without hope for a cure; see yourself through the Word and you’d discover that the sickness or disease is a mirage. You’re whole, perfect, and sound in Christ. You’re the perfection of divine beauty. This is the truth.
In John 8:32, the Lord said, “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” In Christ Jesus, you’re in the vantage position of health, prosperity and victory. This is why you have to develop yourself in the Word. Consciously increase your knowledge of the Word. The Bible says, “…grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ…” (2 Peter 3:18).
There’s a spirit world that’s greater than this physical world. The physical world is a region or part of the spirit world. The Bible says God is a Spirit, and He created all things; meaning that there’s a spirit connection to everything that God made. Nothing is detached from Him. In the realm of the spirit, He created a region for the physical man, even though man himself is a spirit being.
God gave man a physical body to live in, while in the physical region of His spiritual world. The earth isn’t a separate entity from God’s realm. Remember, in Genesis 1:2, the Bible says the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. The Spirit of God incubated over the chaotic mass, which means the earth was within the coverage or reach of the Spirit, and governed by the Spirit. Many, because they don’t realise this, and because they haven’t understood the importance of it, limit their lives to the earthly region of this world. They don’t realise that there’s a greater play in the spirit world.
For every one of us that’s born again, the Bible tells us to walk in the Spirit. How do you walk in the Spirit? It’s walking in the light of God’s Word; walking according to Kingdom principles. Become conscious that you live in, and are from another realm, a heavenly realm that’s greater than this world. That consciousness will put you over the elements, failures, frustrations, darkness, and corruption in this physical world.
Life is spiritual, and we live in two worlds. But most people, every day, are only conscious of the physical realm. This is why many go through pain and affliction; victims of incurable diseases, because they’re unable to control life from the spirit. The Bible says you’re in the world, but not of the world. You’re born after Christ, the man from heaven; you bear the image of the heavenly. You’re from the Kingdom of God’s Love Son. Hallelujah! And in that Kingdom, we play by divine principles; the strategies and weapons of our warfare are not of this world (2 Corinthians 10:4). We reign by grace through righteousness, and we prevail with, and through the Word. Hallelujah!
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19).
In the Old Testament, the children of Israel transported the presence of God from place to place every time they carried the Tabernacle of Witness, which contained the Ark of the Covenant. In 1 Kings 8:9, the Bible tells us specifically that “There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.” The only thing in the ark was God’s commandments.
Today, your heart is the ark of God; that’s where the Word is. Remember what the Lord said in Jeremiah 31:33: “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” This was fulfilled in us when we were born again.
We were born again by the Word of God, and have become one with the Word; we’re living epistles, “written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God—not in tables of stone—but in fleshy tables of the heart” (2 Corinthians 3:3). Blessed be God!
You’re now the living ark of testimony and the tabernacle of His presence: “…for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (2 Corinthians 6:16). He dwells in you now. His hands are in your hands, and His legs are in your legs. He walks in you and talks through you. Where you go, God goes. You’re in Him and He’s in you!
Not only are you now in the presence of God, you carry the presence of God. Every time you show up, you come with the presence of God: Christ in you, the hope of glory!