The image of a dead battery is not mine!
What a very interesting series of events that I have experienced at the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021!
Yesterday morning 2020, I was moved to aid and assist a stranded neighbor whose car needed a jump start. Only within a 24-hour time frame, almost at the same time, I would likewise need to have my car jump-start on the first day of 2021!
Not to delay taking my car in for analysis on New Year’s day, I was able to be the first customer at a local auto care service facility. After being checked in and five minutes later, the courtesy check stated the following:
“We highly recommend replacing your battery. Even though it may still start your vehicle, it no longer meets the minimum requirement, which could cause it to fail at any time. Replacing the battery now can help you future battery failure.”
One hundred and seventy dollars lighter, I was off and running, after purchasing a 5-year guarantee Interstate battery, while slipping on the last of my coffee, relieved, dry and safe while driving in the increasingly heavy rain of New Year’s 2021.
My mind began to think of all of the events that transpired over the 24-hour time frame, as I thank God for His provisions and care for me throughout 2020 that I may be a blessing for others. I also begin to think about just how important the role and function of the battery are for cars.
SOME OF THE (5) KEY CRUCIAL CAR FUNCTIONS OF YOUR BATTERY
1. A battery stores chemical material for conversion to electrical energy.
2. A battery starts up the ignition system of your vehicle.
3. A battery keeps the energy system of your vehicle sustainable.
4. A battery transfers initial currents of energy over to an alternate performance system of your vehicle (an alternator).
5. A battery receives and gets a regulation update from a measuring system to keep enough ‘charge’ for the next ‘startup’ session (a regulator for voltage). https://www.isser.org/the-5-functions-of-a-car-battery/
While waiting on my car to be fixed, and throughout the remainder of the day, I began to meditate about what things, thoughts, and actions that I needed to “get rid of” were useless as well as draining my spiritual life going on into a New Year.
This time of meditation/reflection inspired me to write this blog post to communicate some useful spiritual wisdom, principles, which like a dead battery, parallels the lifeless inner workings of the human souls when the minimum will eventually lead to failure in ours lives.
“Self can never cast out self, even in the regenerate man. Praise God! The death of Jesus, once and forever, is the death to self. And the gift of the Holy Spirit makes our very own the power of the death-life.” -Andrew Murray
Each human life just like my lifeless car with a dead battery is useless and without purpose until the power source was restored, regenerated, or replaced. For any human being to live an abundant faithful life it has to be a Christ-directed life by which Christ lives His life in and through us in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Every willing living soul on the earth today, can be filled with the Holy Spirit by trusting God to produce in us the fruitful life He has promised as we intentionally desire to live for Him.
The writings of Paul in Ephesians 3:16-21 clearly identifies that genuine spiritual regeneration is far greater than people just living a safe minimum life, or just being content with being able to perform a standard of ethics or rituals.
Those who are spiritually reborn live a life of moment-by-moment intimacy with a living God who rewards those who are faithfully reconciled and dependant on the finished works of Christ as Lord over their lives.
Ephesians 3:16-21 I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to Him who can do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, 21 to Him be glory in the church and Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.
Some of the Key function of your Spirit
Walk in My Ways:
Let all of our actions be subjected to the ever-present spiritual discernment of a personal covenantal God. God is the Lord of our soul salvation. He alone promised to reach out His mighty Right hand in deliverance in our journey on the earth while leading us and holding each of us.
There are three major noble spiritual yet objective virtues of anyone walking in God, Uprightness, Piety, and Honesty.
Uprightness: righteous, godly.
The Righteous shall be glad in the Lord and take Refuge in Him; all the upright in heart shall glory. Psalm 64:10
Piety:
But you, as a person dedicated to God, keep away from all that. Instead pursue righteousness, godliness, faithfulness, love endurance, and gentleness. 1 Timothy 6:11
Honesty: integrity
The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the unfaithful destroys them. Proverb 11:3
Be Blameless
To be blameless means mature in one’s spirituality while maintaining wholeness along your earthly journey. Our heavenly Father requires each of His children to come before Him without attempting to hide those very things that already know by Him. He is acquainted with all of my ways. Psalms 139:3
“It is not the success that God rewards but faithfulness in doing His Will!-Anonymous
One Final Spiritual Reminder
My last spiritual study of 2020 was Genesis 47:28-48:22 where the Book of Genesis closes the powerfully recorded age of the Patriarch family as God would later begin to build His Nation.
The outstanding intimate conversation between older Jacob [who eventually transitioned] and his son Joseph, touched my heart. Here are the very words that essentially is the very heart of this blog post!
“El Shaddai appeared to me at Luz in the Land of Canaan, and He blessed me…, Genesis 48:3
Drawing on the ancient Jewish midrash of His particular name of God, El Shaddai is understood to mean in this context as God saying ‘Dai’ [meaning enough]. The inference then and now means that the people of the world have gone on long enough acting like children. It is time to demand righteous behavior of them, to proclaim that certain things are permitted and others are forbidden.
The great take-away is that in this life, any revolutionary soul-spiritual reformation is only made possible via a covenant agreement between God and humanity.
If 2020 taught us anything worthwhile, we just like Jacob, need to experience an appearance with the Living God who will mature and bless His children into His chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 1 Peter 2:9
El Shaddai, Lyrics
Through the years you’ve made it clear,
That the time of Christ was near,
Though the people couldn’t see
What messiah ought to be.
Though your word contained the plan,
They just could not understand
Your most awesome work was done
Through the frailty of your son. El Shaddai, El Shaddai,
El-Elyon na Adonai,
Age to age you’re still the same,
By the power of the name.
El Shaddai, el Shaddai,
Erkamka na Adonai,
I will praise yo ’till I die,
El Shaddai.
Prayer
It is my heartfelt prayer that each of us who are faithful followers will throughout this 2021 year, moment by moment, set our hearts, minds, soul, and spirit toward turning away from the world and turn toward God and all of His ways.
In this way, God will restore our lives toward the faithful service of victoriously honoring God, our neighbors, our families, and ourselves via the Holy Spirit of God.
Thanking God for His lovingkindness in making us His righteousness and blameless due to the blood of Christ our Lord and redeemer.
As this already judged world is quickly headed toward the prophecy of the Lord’s return, those of us who are set aside as His royal priesthood and witnesses will all be united with Him in this life, and the eternal life to come. Amen
Grace and Peace
Brother Alonzo