The Melody of the Holy Spirit

“Do you like mysteries?” the young man asked the old man the next morning.

“I am confounded by mysteries,” he said, “especially concerning the cross. I understand that redemption took place on the cross, but why a cross?”

The young man looked straight into his eyes as if He could see right through him, which in fact He could. “Where did disobedience first take place, Joseph?”

It didn’t take long for the old man to answer. “In the Garden of Eden.” Then a word came into his mind from somewhere other than his own imagination. TREE was that word. The young man could see that the old man knew at that moment.

The old man’s face lit up like he’d just won a jackpot. “It was a tree where the fall of man took place, so it had to be a tree where the redemption took place. And that tree was the cross.”

The young man smiled and said nothing. He didn’t need to say anything.

The old man’s mind was racing now as he blurted out. “Adam was totally disobedient when he chose himself as lord instead of God. That was where the fall of all mankind took place, where all of us became disconnected and separated from God. Jesus Christ was totally obedient even to death on the cross and took upon Himself the sinful nature of Adam, and mankind became reconnected with God as He wanted us to be. That’s why He sent His Son to die on a tree (that is, the cross).”

It’s not that the old man knew redemption for the first time. He was, after all, a saved person and knew it without a doubt. He just hadn’t seen it in this light before.

Ten men in a sober house in Buffalo are doing a Bible study using the book I wrote with Pastor Bill Hicks called THE BIBLE REVEALED IN 10 STORIES. LINK If you’d like to receive a free PDF of this book to see what it is they are studying, send me an email at patrickday@pyramidpublishers.com.

I have been meeting with these men for the past year to study the Bible by looking at different chapters and books of Scripture, but they wanted to understand the whole Bible starting with Genesis and ending with Revelation. That’s what this book does, and they are finally satisfied that they will have a better grasp of the Bible in ten weeks or so.

BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT

Blessed are the poor in spirit, Jesus preached on the mountainside.

“Blessed are those who don’t try to usurp Me … and those who put themselves in the background … who don’t try to draw attention to themselves by being clever or smarter than the rest … who don’t demand their own rights. Yes, blessed are those.” 

A proud person acts and thinks on his/her own. When you take off the wrappings, pride is simply independence from God. Proud people make decisions based on their own reasoning, skills, and abilities.

A humble person depends wholly on the Lord for everything in every circumstance. Humble people know the Lord has to direct them, empower them, and enliven them – and that they are like a ship without a rudder on their own.

A proud person who is vaccinated says, “I’ll take care of myself. I don’t need God.” A proud person who is unvaccinated says, “No one is going to tell me what to do. If God Himself told me to get vaccinated, I still might not do it because it would go against the beliefs of the people I associate with.”

Humble people read Scripture daily and pray for guidance, keeping an open mind to the leading of the Holy Spirit. They would not say, “I’ll figure it out on my own.” Instead, they would say, “There’s too much confusion out there for me to make an informed decision. I will go to God’s Word and be in communion with Him. I will not make one decision or the other and then claim He supports that decision. I will be so dependent on Him and so close to Him that He’ll make the decision for me.”

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Spirit means breath in Greek (pneuma), Hebrew (ruah), and Latin (spiritus).

In Genesis 2:7, God breathed into Adam and gave him life, so spirit means life.

Now the verse makes sense. Blessed are those who are poor in their own lives and rich in God’s life.

He must become greater; I must become less.

Do You Love Jesus?

If you really love Him, you won’t ask Him to follow you around like a little puppy dog. You won’t treat Him like a vending machine to supply everything you want.

Do not ask Jesus to follow you. You follow Him.

It’s not, “Where I am Jesus is,” but rather, “Where Jesus is I am.”

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.

“You need the Holy Spirit’s witness every day – on your job, at home, out and about, in recreation and social events, at rest. This is what Jesus was trying to tell us about the foolish virgins who ran out of oil in their lamps (Matthew 25). They had a supply of the Holy Spirit – but they did not have His witness at the final moment.

“Do not end up like a foolish virgin! If you are running out of oil – trusting your church or your pastor to keep your soul – then repent. Cry out to God to get rid of all your anger and bitterness. Confess your sins and forsake them – and depend on God once again for everything.”

David Wilkerson

You need the Holy Spirit’s witness every day-on your job, at home, at school. You need to rightly judge politicians and leaders so you will not suddenly be sucked into the antichrist system.

This is that Jesus was trying to tell us about the foolish virgins who ran out of oil in their lamps (see Matthew 25). They had a supply of the Holy Spirit – but they did not have His witness at the final moment.
David Wilkerson

What is the antichrist system? I believe it’s anything that takes our eyes off Jesus, any cause that calls us to action apart from Jesus, any person that says “Follow me” rather than follow Jesus. You don’t have to look far to see politicians and leaders who say, “I have the market cornered on truth.” or those on-line who say, “This is the truth or that is the truth.” Where are those who say, “What does God say about this in the Bible?” Not what I think God says or means but what the Bible actually says. Where are those people? I don’t see many of them around, even in churches.

I crave this time of stillness and quiet as the world wakes up with me. I want these first moments to be perfect, peaceful, and perspective-shaping, but they are often characterized by internal battles and external interruptions of my mind.

The battle in my heart can only be won through Christ’s work within me, remaking my desires, rewiring my mind, and renewing me heart. It’s hard to put Jesus first. I desire to hide God’s truth in my soul, but the world and my interaction with it want to be first instead.

But take heart—He who is in me is greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4)! Christ who loved me first will also help me put Him first thing in my day, my thinking, and my life.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. Rev 22:20

You can understand the basics of the Bible in just three hours in this 147-page book that starts with the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and ends with the second coming of Jesus Christ in Revelation. 

Pastor Bill Hicks is the lead author, and I worked with him on this book. If you want to understand the 730,000 words of the Bible, this book of 33,000 words would be a good place to start.

This LINK will take you to the book on Amazon. Available both as a paperback and as an eBook.