Jesus said “David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared: ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.” – (Mark 12:36)

Jesus tells us that David’s great Psalm 110 is Spirit-inspired. And that Psalm speaks to the greatness of the Messiah — the greatness of Jesus! He is Lord. Lord of the nations. Lord of all. Lord of even David. He will rule. He will triumph. And the power of this testimony is the Holy Spirit.

Speaking By Holy Spirit. Yes, the Spirit gave this testimony about Jesus being Lord through the King David a thousand years before Jesus came. When the Holy Spirit is present, Jesus is praised and his identity is proclaimed and this has been true for centuries!

The Holy Spirit speaks to us primarily through the Scriptures that he inspired to be written and canonized. This is our foundation of faith and life, the word that everyone has access to, the word that can be studied and discussed most objectively. Often the word that we need to hear has already been written, and the Spirit simply needs to bring it to mind. When Jesus was tempted by the devil, for example, his responses were quoted from Scripture. He had studied and memorized those words, and in each situation the Spirit led him to the appropriate response.

With Scripture, there is the potential for nearly constant communication with God, as we read and pray and live consciously in God’s presence. As we pray, we should also listen, for God may use our meditations to help us understand what we should do. We have the responsibility to read and study, for the Spirit usually works with words that are already in our minds. He works with our vocabulary, with our ways of reasoning, with the desires and values he has given us.

Today we are free to preach the word of God with little hindrance from political or social forces. The operation of God’s spirit in our new mind, through a knowledge of God’s acts, provides a pattern of action. In John 6:39 Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scriptures said, `From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.’ But this he spake of the spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive; for the spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

Prayer : O Father, I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Lord. I believe the Holy Spirit gave testimony to this truth through inspired witnesses thousands of years before he came. I trust that as I draw close to you and I am filled with the Holy Spirit that my life will also be a testimony to the greatness of Jesus Christ my Lord, in whose name I pray. Amen.

Please read Speaking Boldly with the Holy Spirit

Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. – (Psalm 51:11)

This desperate cry is from King David to God in his deep sorrow for his sin with Bathsheba and his cry for God’s forgiveness. The king before David, Saul, had blatantly disobeyed God and sought to rationalize his sin. God took his Holy Spirit from Saul. So David’s cry is understandable: in the Old Testament, God’s Spirit didn’t come to dwell in his people permanently.

However, I believe that the New Testament teaches that when the Holy Spirit comes into a person at his or her conversion, this gift of the Spirit is permanent. They can grieve, quench, resist, and ignore the Spirit’s influence, but God doesn’t take the Spirit away from them. Jesus promised that the gift of the Spirit would be with us forever (John14:14-16). Paul talks about nothing separating us from the love of God in Christ Jesus in the context of a chapter focusing upon the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:37-39).

We shouldn’t have the concern David voices as followers of Jesus in whom the Holy Spirit lives. Instead, when we hear David’s heart-wrenching cry, we need to be reminded of two things.

First, we need to be thankful for this precious gift of God’s presence within us to be with us until we return home to the Father (Eph. 1:13-14; 2 Cor. 2:2). Second, we need to be reminded of the hurtfulness of sin to the Spirit of God living within us and commit to honor God with what we do, think, and say (Eph. 4:30; 1 Cor. 6:19-20).

Prayer : O Father, I cannot fully comprehend the wonder of you coming to live inside me through your Holy Spirit. I commit to live my live more aware that every breath, every thought, every action is part of my worship to you as the Temple in which you live by the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

“What sorrow awaits my rebellious children,” says the Lord. “You make plans that are contrary to mine. You make alliances not directed by my Spirit, thus piling up your sins.” – (Isaiah 30:1)

God’s people were in a very difficult predicament politically and militarily. They saw making alliances with foreign governments their only hope for survival.

Why is it that we, the people of God, so easily forget that God is our only hope for survival — not military might, not financial strength, not alliances with other people or other governments.

The problem is that we don’t live directed by the Spirit.

Galatians 5 reminds us, we are to “walk by the Spirit” (vs. 16), to be “led by the Spirit” (vs. 18), and to “keep in step with the Spirit” (vs. 25). Isaiah was challenging God’s people to do these eight centuries earlier. I wonder if we are listening to him today?

Prayer : O Father, King of Glory, I surrender my heart to be influenced, led, and directed by the Spirit so that I can produce the fruit of the Spirit in my life as I walk in step with the Spirit’s will in my life. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.