Breath on Me
Breathe on me, breathe on me, Holy Spirit, breathe on me:
Take Thou my heart, cleanse every part, Holy Spirit, breathe on me.
Holy Spirit, breath on me, Until, my heart is clean;
Let Sunshine fill its in most part, With not a cloud between.
Holy Spirit, breath on me, My stubborn will subdue;
Teach me in words of living flame, What Christ would have me do.
Holy Spirit, breath on me, Fill me with power divine;
Kindle a flame of love and zeal, Within this heart of mine.
Holy Spirit breath on me, Till I am all Thine own,
Until my will is lost in Thine, To live for Thee alone.
Edwin Hatch 1835-1889
The Futility of Striving in Our Own Might
I must confess that today’s blog post has been very difficult for me to produce in that, deep in my heart, I am grieving for the modern Church as a religious institution within our culture and the insidious innerchurch dysfunction that is very destructive and evil. Noticeably, the most recent disclosure of the sexual abuse that now is within the Protestant and Evangelical denominations.
[see articles: Child Sexual Abuse in Protestant Christian Congregations: A Descriptive Analysis of Offense and Offender Characteristics, Religious 2018, 9,27 and The Epidemic of Denial About Sexual Abuse in The Evangelical Church, The Washington Post, May 31, 2018, Pease, Joshua.Weblog post.]
The more data that I examined relating to these crimes, the more that I became angry and depressed. Not wanting to transfer my negativity into writing a blog post on this shameful insidious evil, I decided to take another approach, to encourage and exhort the Body of Messiah in remaining faithful to Her high calling!
For anyone who is in need of some help and or assistance due to sexual and or domestic violence, please contact this Hotline as we are praying for your situation: https://www.rainn.org/resources
In my own spiritual life, God has been recently encouraging me to stop striving in my own might, strength, and abilities. The very poem above by Edwin Hatch clearly articulated just where my own soul is needing to be when I begin to walk in my carnality. Whenever I have found myself restless, angry and bitter, unfulfilled and devoid of peace, My Heavenly Father reminds me that I have forsaken the Rest that only He has bestowed for His Children that remain faithful.
Abiding In His Rest
One of the routines that I begin to incorporate into my daily practice in an effort at keeping myself spiritually grounded, is to remind myself of 1. Where do I obtain my identity? 2. Exactly what is my calling? 3. Just what is my commission?
First, very briefly I simply refuse and reject what the world and our culture have attempted to define me as a living being. My new identity is and forevermore is shaped and defined in my relationship in The Messiah. The reformation of every aspect of my spiritual rebirth is in direct correlation to my continuous abiding in my Lord.
Next, I am a disciple of The Master for the duration of my earthly life until I am glorified after my physical transition from this evil age. I have discovered in my willful submission to The Master, and His plan of redemption for my life, clearly assures me of my purpose and reason to live under His Grace and Mercy.
Finally, I am commissioned by The Messiah to live out loud, the transformational impact of the Gospel Message in my life, serving as a living example of a sinner who is saved by grace that lives a lifestyle of self-denial and spiritual regeneration.
Next, The Messiah has commissioned me to proclaim The Gospel Message throughout this generation to those who have not heard nor responded to its life-giving, soul-care properties.
With so many unanswered questions that are currently raging within my soul about the sexual sins within the institutional church, my focus was redirected to Hebrews 4:12-13 to comfort my soul. Below are just some of the most important spiritual trues that was highlighted to me in my personal study.
I deeply pray that your soul is blessed as well. Grace and Peace
The ancient record states that did not Our Master and Redeemer was tempted, afflicted, and suffered in every way as His own people? Even though He was and remains sinless, His very actions on earth namely His prayers, petitions, grieving aloud and His weeping to the One who has the power to deliver Him from the Cross due to His successful demonstration of godliness. As our perfect example as The Son of Man, He like each of His following disciples, learn obedience through suffering.
Now each faithful disciple of The Master can be assured of obtaining Spiritual Rest by humbly abiding in Messiah thus coming to the throne of Grace with new found boldness in faithful expectation of having grace and mercy bestowed on their souls as their daily portion from above.
Such a daily blessing is available for all faithful souls whom our Heavenly Father has loved and have adopted into His Household through the successful and finished Kingdom works of Messiah and His eternal covenants.
This matter of Spiritual Rest is granted to the faithful disciples because of the working power of the Gospel Message of salvation to all souls who see the Messiah as Lord and Redeemer of lost and sinful souls.
We who are alive today in The Messiah are admonished not to dishonor The Master’s completed works that granted each of us salvation as well as all of the spiritual blessings and gifts that are associated with a Child of God.
We all can and we all must enter into and remain in this Spiritual Rest, this peace and joy in Messiah at various degrees while we labor here on Earth, for it will not be Full due to our on-going challenges, difficulties, discouragements and willful attacks, temptations of Satan, as well as our own corruption that is hidden within each of our hearts.
WORD UP
True spiritually called and faithful disciples of The Messiah may fall into sin and from a degree of the abuse, misuse of grace within their walk. There are faithful disciples who questions and or doubt the Gospel if not the Word of God at times in their spiritual journey.
But a True spirit-filled disciple of The Master cannot finally and totally fall away because of the power of God within their lives that keeps them and sustains them in their coming and goings.
From the womb to the tomb,
all of us Are wounded, souls!
The only relative question is in Your woundedness,
Are you still Wounding Other or Are You a Wounded Healer?
A joyful heart is
The Great Critical Perception of The Secret of Our Hearts.
God as Judge has the moral justification toward showing indifference in the discernment of all of the secrets within our hearts. This is one of the most powerful if not most important aspects of the power of The Word of God within the inner-workings of a Child of God.
For because of His Grace, He is the author and giver of every expression of life: whether it be our physical, spiritual and our eternal life, it is by His continuous creative/recreative working, He alone is the sustainer of all things that are in full view in His recorded Word.
None of which are as important and as endearing than His ceaseless working in man’s redemption as made possible through the finished works of The Messiah, as well as His eternal promises of keeping and preserving His people as we all engage this very culture in which We Live!
We are warned in Hebrews to continue paying attention while being forever careful in heeding the things of the Gospel message that one’s soul shall never drift away.
It is out of His love for us that His living Word when spoken and or read, and or received by a faithful disciple, cuts like a sharp sword, cutting the heart of the receiver wide open; dividng all things seen and those which are invisible. the body and spirit, the natural and unregenerate parts of men, reaching and penetrating the most secret and hidden things of all humanity.
As the Son of Man, Messiah knows what is in each human being, He is the searcher of the Hearts of Modern Humanity and He is the Trier of the Reins of all humans up to the very last day, when He will make manifest the counsel of the heart and will, critically inquiring and judging accordingly.
Grace and Peace