Archives For Holy Spirit

All the world’s a stage

Brad Stanton —  August 1, 2015 — Leave a comment

Stream“All the world’s a stage” William Shakespeare

Shakespeare was a brilliant man. He understood that this world that we see and can touch with our hands is not the real world. Just as a stage has props made of wood and other materials to look like the moon or a boat or castle, they aren’t the real moon, castle or boat. It is the same for us. The things we can touch and see are not as real and important as the invisible things of the spirit world, such as angels.

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit (and therefore love) flows like a river to us and through us from heaven in John chapter 7. Romans 5:5 says that God pours out his love on us. In the book of Revelation, John saw prayers being poured out of a bowl.

The more I focus on spiritual things, the more I can imagine the love, joy and well-being that constantly flow to us from God. Sometimes when I read or listen to the Bible I can feel myself relaxing. It as if some healing tonic is flowing over me. Please leave a comment. Do you ever feel the presence of the Holy Spirit? What does it feel like to you?

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You are a spirit

Brad Stanton —  April 25, 2015 — 1 Comment

Spirit with a body

Most people think of themselves as a body, maybe a body with a spirit. But the Bible says we are created in the image of God. Since God is Spirit, that means that we are spirits too. We are spirits that have a temporary body, not bodies that have a spirit. In the latter part of John 17, Jesus talks about us being one with him and one with each other. What does that really mean?

Why is this important? Because our spirit is eternal, our body will only last a short time. Our spirit is much more important than our body, but we tend to think about bodies much more than our spirit. That is the source of much of our pain in life. Many feel that they are not good looking enough. They don’t understand that this temporary body is not as important as our spirit. Many feel bad because they are sick or tired. That won’t last long. This life is just as short as the blink of an eye in the grand scheme of things.

We are one

So Jesus said we are one. One way to think about our spirits being connected together is the example of knitting. Two colors of yarn can be knitted together into one scarf. The fabric of the Holy Spirit is knitted together into our spirit to make one being. Jesus said that believers are one with each other. That can only mean our spirits are connected somehow.

Recently I read that scientists find male cells in women who have had a male baby. Some of the cells from the baby move thru the umbilical cord into the mothers body and she keeps them as long as the cells stay alive. (from Scientific American) Another web site says that after having intercourse, the cells that a man leaves in the woman can stay in her body for a long time. So in a way, the baby and the mother really are one. The mother’s body contains parts of the baby’s body even after birth. Intercourse makes us one more than we may have thought. In fact, the Bible says that it does.

How big is our spirit?

So how big is our spirit? Well, I’m not sure anyone really knows. The Apostle Paul said that he was with a church in spirit,even though his body was not there. Some consider that a figure of speech, but when I combine that with some of the other things that Paul and Jesus said, I no longer believe it is just a figure of speech.

Elisha sent his spirit with his servant to watch what he did (2 Kings 5:26). A king wondered how Elisha always knew where he sent his troops and assumed a spy told him. Elisha was able to defeat the king in every battle.The advisers of the enemy king said that Elisha somehow knew what the king was saying even in his most private spot, his bedroom (2 Kings 6:12).

When you put perfume on your body, how big is the smell, how far does it go? Hard to say. A dog can smell it much farther away than a human can. Maybe our spirits are the same way, much bigger than our bodies. I doubt they are limited to the space our bodies take up.

Einstein told us that time and space are not what we think they are. Maybe our spirits are the same way. They completely transcend what we can see with our eyes and hear with our ears. They are of the spirit world, the real word. The world we can see and taste and touch is not the real world. Even Shakespeare said “The world is a stage.” By that he meant that the things we see are not real, just as the props in a stage play are not the real world, just something to set the scene.

Spirit sleep

I have never found any place in the Bible where it says our spirits sleep when our bodies sleep. So what does our spirit do while we are asleep? Leave a comment if you have any ideas. Maybe there is some reason why God designed us to spend one third of our life asleep. Maybe our spirit is somehow serving him while we sleep.

All we need is love

It really is true, all we need is love. We don’t need food or air. If we don’t get food or air, our body dies, but  we don’t die. Our spirit is then liberated from the ball and chain of this earthly body and (if we are a Christian) we go to paradise immediately (2 Cor 5:8). We live eternally, bathed in the joy and glory of God’s love for us.

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Love is flowing over you from heaven

Brad Stanton —  May 12, 2014 — 5 Comments

35224_european_bistroWhen I was about five years old I had my first encounter with the Holy Spirit, the spirit of God. I felt the incredible love of God as I walked through a forest with my Sunday school class. The teacher had talked to us about how much God loves us, and how we can see him in the things that he made, the trees and brooks, the wind and the leaves.

Today I was thinking about the incredible beauty of the love of God. Anyone who has felt it will always want it. Then I heard a sermon about it.

The sermon I heard tonight went something like this:

You might be in a low point in your life. You might be in the pit of despair. You might be feeling very depressed right now, or maybe you are doing fine, maybe you are going through a happy time in your life. But no matter what, God’s love is washing over you, taking care of you much more than you know.

Thousands of years ago, in fact even before anything existed, God already thought of you and decided to choose you and love you. God has been waiting your entire life for this moment, where he could get you to sit still for one minute and say this to you:

“You have no idea how much I love you. I have always loved you. There was never a moment of your existence when I didn’t love you. I planned that fertilization of the two cells that came together to make you. I planned your conception. I allowed that conception. I wanted you alive so I could love you because you are special to me. There is no one else like you, you are completely new and unique to me. I heard your first cry, there was no moment of your life that I didn’t love you. Through all your celebrations and difficulties, your sadness and happiness I loved and adored you even more than you loved yourself. I wanted good things for you even more than you did. Whether you realize it or not I have been gazing upon you in love because I made you to love you.”

How would your life change if you knew how much God loved you? Think about how it would feel if you got up in the morning and the first thing you felt was that you are deeply and unconditionally loved by God. What if you felt the love of God as you got out of bed to brush your teeth? And in the car on way to work or school you felt the love of God. What would it be like if you felt God’s love unconditionally, knowing that no matter what you do or don’t do, you know that God loves you? No matter what you do or don’t do, God will still love you the same amount.

Your first and most important calling in life is to let God love you. What happens if you accept this call?

You feel accepted rather than ashamed or condemned. You feel totally accepted, and that will change your life. Many avoid God because they feel ashamed or guilty. Maybe you feel guilty, criticized. God is perfect and I’m not. Why would I hang out with a perfect God to remind me of all the ways I’ve failed?

But God did not come to condemn the world but to save it. If you feel God is down on you, guess what? You are totally wrong. God is not down on you at all, he is totally for you, totally cheering you on, bragging to the angels and even the devil about you. He certainly did that about Job in the Old Testament.

You have spent your entire life in order to get peoples approval and love of other people. You dress the way you do to get approval. You wear your hair the way you do to get approval. You talk and act the way you do to get love and approval. You have been trying to get approval from some unpleasable people your entire life and you are not going to get it. Realize you don’t need the approval of other people. Most of your life you have been worried about what other people think because you don’t feel unconditionally loved by God. When you realize how much God loves you, criticism doesn’t bother you. You will no longer need other people’s approval to be happy. This idea will set you free.

The man who spoke these words is Rick Warren, the author of The Purpose Driven Life.

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Rejoice in all circumstances

Brad Stanton —  April 7, 2014 — Leave a comment

281774_140105412736176_2166789_nThe Bible says to rejoice in all circumstances. Be joyful always. If your situation seems bad, realize it will work together for good (Romans 8:38) if you trust in God for good things. When the Bible talks about hope it doesn’t just mean hope for salvation. It means to trust God to do good things in every area of your life.

But if we worry and fret and feel sorry for ourselves when bad things happen it tends to make the very thing we fear come true. Example: a man gets moved to another group at work and doesn’t like it because he feels it is a demotion. He gets a bad attitude and starts to criticize and complain. Because of this his boss feels he is not doing a good job. Faith is more than just believing in God. It is trusting God to take care of everything in your life.

Romans 5:2 And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 2 Cor 3:18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which come from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

In heaven we have a lot of glory. We will reflect God’s glory. It is like the moon. It doesn’t shine by its own power but reflects the light of the sun. But the moon is beautiful. That is how we will be in heaven. We will reflect God’s light, his glory. The Bible says that the whole creation is groaning with anticipation, longing to see us Christians.

Here on earth many people have dreamed of glory. Many a boy has dreamed of catching the game winning pass in the end zone to win the homecoming game. What a hero he would be, what glory! Everyone in school would be grateful to him. Another example is a fireman rescuing a little girl from a burning building while dozens of citizens stand watching. The high school girl dreams of becoming the homecoming queen. What glory she would have as she wears the crown and sash and stands beside the home coming king. Or the girl who dreams of winning a gold medal in Olympic swimming or a famous singer with thousands of adoring fans gathered to hear her sing.

But all these things are glories that last only a short time. Not many people can remember more than a few, if any, names of last Olympic gold medal winners.

Yet the glory we will have in heaven will last forever and ever. Ten thousand years after we arrive in heaven will be like we have just got there. All kinds of creation, from angels to other Christians to some of the heavenly beings mentioned in the book of Revelation will stand in awe when they see our glory, the reflection of God’s glory.

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A key to answered prayer

Brad Stanton —  March 15, 2014 — 13 Comments

hygdfsThere have been several movies about faith that have been shown to thousands of people around the world. One of them is The Jesus Film. Another is a movie called The Secret. This is a quote from the book The Secret:

“As the film swept the world, stories of miracles began to flood in: people wrote about healing from chronic pain, depression, and disease; walking for the first time after an accident; even recovering from a deathbed. We have received thousands of accounts of the Secret being used to bring about large sums of money and unexpected checks in the mail. People have used The Secret to manifest their perfect homes, life partners, cars, jobs and promotions, with many accounts of businesses being transformed within days of applying The Secret. There have been heart-warming stories of stressed relationships involving children being restored to harmony.”

So my question to you, dear reader is, do you believe in miracles? I certainly do because I have seen so many in my lifetime. When I was a missionary to China I began to spend a lot of time praying and I saw many amazing answers to prayer. Actually many of the miracles I saw and heard about happened in the USA.

Another question, do you believe that a movie or book like The Secret, which expands on Jesus’ teaching of faith, can really inspire miracles? This movie is free to watch on youtube.com. Please leave a comment. Let’s get a discussion going here.

Many people pray and don’t get answers, so they feel Jesus was not accurate when he taught about prayer, or that they are misunderstanding what Jesus said about prayer. But what if the problem is that they have not been trained to have strong faith? Over two dozen times Jesus said the key to answered prayer is faith.

John 14:14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

John 15:7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

John 16:23 Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

Remember, it took three years of full time study with Jesus for the apostles to learn faith well enough to perform miracles. Don’t expect to suddenly have mountain moving faith. It takes time. But never give up. Keep building your faith. https://bradstanton.com/2013/06/03/faith-takes-years-to-develop-but-it-is-worth-it/

I wrote a book about prayer. In it I include a number of things you can do to strengthen your faith, including memorizing Bible verses about faith. Another is an acrostic FAITH
F  Find a Bible verse that addresses what you are praying for. This is easier to do than it seems. For example, you can do a word search in Biblegateway.com to find a verse.
A  Ask God in faith
I   Imagine you already have the thing you asked for. This is amazing, it really strengthens faith
T  Thank God for it as if you already have it. Don’t beg, that shows a lack of faith. Once you place your order in a restaurant you don’t keep asking for it do you?
H  Hold on and be happy while you wait for the answer to your prayer.

Every penny I make from my book “Keys To Powerful Prayer” goes to spread faith, hope and love to people around the world through this blog and charity. https://www.createspace.com/4540174 Doing the research for this book really changed my life for the better. CreateSpace is an Amazon company. You can read sample pages of the same book as an ebook on Amazon entitled “Amazing Power of Prayer.” The ebook is the same, it just has a different title. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008EOCODK

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