Message Library

The Spirit Gives Life

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The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you--they are full of the Spirit and life.

John 6:63

What is it that everyone is looking for in life? Is it security, health, contentment, peace, comfort, love, less fear and worry, or assurance of eternal life? Can the flesh provide all of these throughout our earthly lives? If the Spirit gives life, does that mean all of these are provided throughout our lives? We will look at scripture to determine how our lives are changed due to the Spirit. We will explain the meaning of, “the words I have spoken to you– they are full of Spirit and life.”

We are created in the image of God, created to live in a sinless world with God, just as Adam and Eve did before they sinned. We are created to live with all the comforts listed above, all the days of our lives.  The reality is that everything we know is temporary, such as our earthly lives and the things of the world. Everything in life has tolerance, for example we buy a new house and we are very excited and joyful, but twenty or thirty years later we don’t have the same level of joy. It’s the same with our peace, joy, comfort, and security; the world provides these things and then something comes along like the loss of a job, loss of a home, or a terrorist attack. The world can give us peace, joy, and security and take it all away in a flash. The world in no way gives us assurance of eternal life.

If the Spirit gives life, must He continually give us a peaceful and joyous life? But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)  The Holy Spirit lives in the believer, which means the fruit of the Spirit from our Lord is always available to us. We learn how to access the fruit in order to live with continuous love, peace, joy, etc.

When we accept Christ, he sends the Holy Spirit to live in us, and his Spirit-filled Word tells us how to live. The more we read the Word and pray and fellowship with our Christian brothers and sisters, the more Christ-like we become. If we walk in obedience to his will, we come to know him and our hearts are drawn closer to his. We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. (1 John 2:3) If we continue in his Word, in prayer, and in fellowship and obedience to his loving will, we will grow spiritually and become closer to the Lord. We will be more in the Spirit, and have more love, peace, and joy. This growth continues throughout our lives, meaning the fruit of the Spirit fills our souls more and more as time goes on.

The spirit provides life as our minds and hearts become Christ-like with his love, peace, and joy. The Spirit also gives us a divine purpose for life that supersedes anything else we do in this life. God changes our hearts with his love, and the most important thing in our lives becomes pointing lost souls to Christ. The church, which is God’s family, is tasked to minister to the world. This is the most important thing that anyone can do in life, and God changes our minds and hearts to be Christ-like so that we can live a Christ-like life.

The Spirit gives life; He changes us to have the mind and heart of Christ, motivating us to bring people to Christ. We can be confident that we have eternal life because we are obedient to the will of God. Fear and worry all but disappear, and are replaced by love, peace, and joy, as our faith gladly puts God in control of our lives. We are now free in Christ. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)

Today, live in the Spirit and overcome the desires of the flesh, because the more you live in the Spirit, the more love, peace, joy, security, and contentment you will have. Live life to the fullest in Christ, and don’t let Satan fill you with fear or anger. Recognize when Satan attacks, and counter attack through the power of the Holy Spirit, which is the power of Christ.

Let’s pray: Lord, control my mind through the Holy Spirit, and not through my worldly, fleshly desires. Let the Spirit control the flesh and let my soul rest in the comfort of the Spirit. Help me to experience life to the full through the Spirit, and to live today with your love, peace, joy, wisdom, and confidence. In Jesus name, Amen