Food For Your Spirit

Delve into enriching content designed to encourage and enlighten your spirit.

Food For Your Spirit

Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
Matthew 4:4

Filled With the Holy Spirit

After Jesus death and resurrection He returned to his disciples and in John 20:21,22 they were born again. From that time on they were no longer just servants of God but sons and daughters with the ability to enter into the throne of grace with boldness and talk to the Father openly.

There was still more God wanted to give them, to equip them for their work. Jesus said in Acts 1:4,5 “Wait for the promise of the Father, which, He said, you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.Read More

” And in Acts 1:8 Jesus went on to say, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth.” As Christians they had the authority but lacked the power needed to fulfill the task ahead. In Acts 2:4 we see where they received that power, “and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance.”

We find another example of this in Acts 8:5,12,14-18, “And Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them. But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike. Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit. “For he had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles hands, he offered them money,...” Notice that Simon saw something when the people were filled with the Spirit. There must have been an outward sign. When Peter was speaking to Simon about it in Acts 8:21 he said, “you have not part or portion in this matter...” that word MATTER is the greek word logos which is translated in other places as UTTERANCE. “You have not part or portion in this utterance...” This gives us more clarity as to what Simon saw.

Another example of people being filled with the Spirit is in Acts 10:44-46 “While Peter was still speaking these words the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message and all the circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon the Gentiles also. For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God.”

Also, in Acts 9:17 Paul was filled with the Spirit and we know he spoke with tongues because in I Cor. 14:18 he said “I thank my God I speak in tongues more than you all.”

In our last example of being filled with the Spirit in Acts 19:6 we find “And when Paul had laid his hands upon them the Holy Spirit came on them and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying.”

Though many regard tongues as minor, the bible plainly shows that in every example of people being filled with the Spirit they spoke with tongues. Tongues is a very powerful way of enhancing and developing your relationship with God. Being filled with the Spirit is the door into the supernatural, for there will be no manifestations of the Gifts of the Spirit without it.

The power of being filled with the Spirit is available to every Christian that desires it. For it is a free gift that God longs to give all born of his Spirit. By no means is it a place to stop but rather a beginning of many more blessings, that God has for us.

So If you have been born again you can be filled with the Holy Spirit. If you haven't been go to the home page and pray the prayer to become a child of God then you will be ready to receive. When you were born again the Holy Spirit came on the inside, being filled with the Spirit is just giving more of yourself to the Spirit of God. If you are born again you qualify to be filled.

Secondly you are filled with the Spirit by faith. You believe you receive the Spirit when you pray. So when you ask to receive the Spirit believe that you did.

After you pray expect the Spirit to move on your vocal chords and put supernatural words on your lips. The Spirit gives us the words but we have to speak. Just like when you get a word from your mind your mind doesn't make you say its your lips that have to speak it. So when you get a word from the Spirit it comes up from the inside but you have to speak it. Jesus explained it this why "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, From his belly will flow rivers of living water. (John 7:38)" Then in Acts 2:4 it says "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance" (or prompted them to speak). Notice who did the speaking "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak" they spoke the Spirit gives the words and we speak it out.

Just know when you ask God to be filled with the Spirit he will not give you something else. Luke 11:11-13 says "If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

Now that you have been filled with the Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues, speak in that heavenly language everyday. Jude 1:20 says "But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit."

Be sure to find a church that believes in being filled with the Spirit if you are not already in one. Hebrews 10:23-25 says "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

If you have any questions you can email us at info@friendinjesus.com

Being Led By The Spirit Be Lead By The Spirit

2 Corinthians 2:14
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.

In the day and hour we are living it will be impossible to always triumph without being led by the Spirit of God. But the good news is that every born again believer can be led. (If you are not sure if you are born again go to the home page and read "Meet my friend Jesus") For Romans 8:14 says "For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God." Being led is part of being in the family of God. So I want to talk to you how to follow the Spirit in every area of life. Just like everything in life it's a learning process. We must learn to follow the leading of the Spirit. If you continue to practice following His leading it will be become more clear. Just like when you spend a lot of time with someone you learn their voice, how they communicate and their likes and dislikes, in the same way when you start spending time with the Spirit and reading His Word you will begin to learn His leading and His ways. Read More

In the most important area of life the way God leads He gives us a knowing in our inner man that we are children of God. Romans 8:16 says

"The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God," . Every person is a three part being, spirit, soul and body, 1 Thessalonians 5:23 mentions this "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." It is the spirit, our human spirit, that fellowships with the Holy Spirit. The human spirit is the part that is born again 2 Corinthians 5:17

"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." The heart the bible calls it sometimes or the spirit of man is we're God speaks to us.

John 7:38-39

"He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive:for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified." when you are born again the Holy Spirit will speak to you its coming from your innermost being or the area where your belly is and floats up to your mind but it isn't coming from your head but from your spirit which hears from the Holy Spirit.

In John 16:13 Jesus said

"But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come."

For us to be successful in the day we live we must hear from the Spirit of truth. Things do not always seem like they are so it is important to hear from the Spirit of God who knows the future and everything that is going on in the world. Jesus says he will "reveal to us the things to come" . The Spirit of God will show us the way to go to stay out of trouble or to be successful in whatever we do.God is interested in every area of our life.

Romans 8:14 says

"For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God."

If you are born again you are a child of God and God will led you. Many a time the Spirit of God has led me in life and when I follow that leading it always works out for the best even though I might not understand it when he is leading me. Once I had an impression on the inside just a knowing that I needed to go visit a friend in a town about 100 miles away but not to tell him I was coming. So I drove to my friends house and pulled up in the drive way getting ready to go in when he came out of the house. when he saw me he was surprised to see me. After speaking with him he said that he was discouraged and had just said that he didn't want to have anything to do with God and walked out of the house and saw me in the driveway. I was able to talk to him about how much God loved him and that he sent me to encourage him. I didn't understand why the Spirit didn't want me to tell him I was coming until I did what he said. It had a far greater impact on him when he walked out of the house not knowing I was coming. Many times we don't understand why the Spirit tells us to do things or not to do things until afterward sometime we may never understand but It always is to help us or someone else.

Another time I had an impression not to do something but I reasoned it away "what could a couple of hours a week hurt" which was the time it would take to do what I was wanting to do. It wasn't bad thing actually it looked like a good thing helping people. When I started doing it I had a bad feeling about it but I over rode it.

I did it several years seemingly helping a person. But ten years later it created a legal nightmare when this person began lying. If I had followed that leading I would have been spared all the trouble. I would have never known why I shouldn't have done it but the Holy Spirit knew and was trying to protect me.

Never say that you can't hear from God, because what you say is so important as I have spoke about in other articles.

Jesus said in John 10:27

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;

Just say what God's word says about you no matter if you feel like you can't hear from God at all begin saying "Jesus is my good shepherd and I hear his voice and a stranger I will not follow."

"I'm a child of God and I hear his voice" . Also begin praying in the Spirit in other tongues ( if you don't know what that is or never have been filled with the Spirit after you were born again read my article on the website called "Filled with the Spirit" ) because praying in the Spirit will build you up and make you more sensitivity to hear from God. 1 Corinthians 14:4 says "One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself"

By praying in the spirit you become more aware of spiritual things. During the time of the legal problems the attorney I had, I knew on the inside that he was not the right one for me but I told the Lord I need to know who to go to if I left him so I determined to set a few days and just pray in the spirit I still did things throughout the day but while I was driving and alone I prayed and under my breath when I was in public and decided to go on a partial fast. By the end of the first day I was leaving a stores parking lot praying in tongues when I started praying out a last name of a person in English. When I heard the name I thought I think that's an attorneys name. Sure enough it was and when I changed to him it was the best decision I could have made he was an outstanding attorney. My point is that I got direction by praying in tongues and out of the same place that I was speaking in tongues

When the Spirit leads he will give you steps and when you do the step He will give you the next step to do.

The Spirit of God lives inside of us if we are born again and it's His desire to lead us in every area of life big or small and if we will follow those leadings we will keep from being taken advantage of from people and know what we need to do in every situation to succeed.

Divine Protection

The bible says in 2 Timothy 3:1 “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. Whether we are in the last days or not, though I do believe we are, we can say with certainty that we are living in perilous times. It seems that you cannot go anywhere but that there are dangers, whether it be in a movie theater, a school, or even church. But if you know my friend Jesus you can live in peace and safety Jesus said “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” Also Jesus said “so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage;
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I have overcome the wold.” If Jesus overcome the world what does that mean for us? Psalms 34:7 says “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and rescues them” Isaiah 54:17 says “No weapon that is formed against you will prosper”. If these scriptures are true and the many more like them, how do we get them to work in our life? That’s what I want to talk about how do you get divine protection operating in your life.

First you need to know my friend Jesus. When Jesus comes into your life the great Holy Spirit comes to live on the inside of you. The bible says he will guide you into all truth. If we will listen to Him he will direct you around many of the dangers we face. 2 Corinthians 2:14 says But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ....(NASV)” If we will listen the Holy Spirit will lead us around the dangers in life. In many of the tragedies I have heard about on the news, it has come out later that there were people that felt impressed not to go to the place where the danger was about to happen, whether it was not to go into work that day or not to get on that plane etc.. and there lives were saved. I don’t believe that they were the only ones that the Holy Spirit was speaking too. Sometimes even though we know Jesus we ignore those impressions or checks down on the inside. when all the time the Holy Spirit is warning us but because we don’t follow them we get ourselves into a lot of trouble.I have personally followed those impressions and have been greatly blessed and I have over rode those impressions before at times and it caused me great sorrow. First thing then is begin to follow those Holy Spirit leadings on the inside.

Secondly in order to see divine protection operate in your life you have to believe that God will protect you. There are times that we all go through things in life, but if we will put our trust in Jesus He will see us through safely whatever we’re going through. Daniel was thrown into a lions den surrounded by lions and no way out but the bible says in Daniel 6:23 “...no injury whatever was found on him because he had trusted in his God.” if Daniel can trust in his God and be delivered we can trust in God and get the same.

But in order for faith to rise up that God will deliver us, we must do what the bible says about how to get faith. Romans 10:17 says “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” You need to find what the bible says about protection and start mediating on those scriptures, get them down on the inside of you. Mediate on them until you start doing what 2 Corinthians 4:13 says “But having the same spirit of faith according to what is written,” I believed therefore I spoke” we also believe, therefore we also speak.”

What you are saying will tell you where you are in your believing. If you believe that God will protect you, that will be what comes out of your mouth. Psalms 91:2 says “I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; my God in him will I trust.” Notice that he says “I will say” you have to say that God is your refuge before it is activated in your life no matter what the circumstance looks like or how bad it looks.

Psalms 91 went on to say “a thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand. But it shall not approach you.” Sounds like a lot is going on if that many people are falling all around you, but he said it’s not approaching you. Notice what the Apostle Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:17,18 ...I was rescued out of the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed” Paul believed in his heart that God not only delivered him but was going to deliver him and he was saying it with his mouth. In 2 Corinthians 1:9,10 Paul said again “indeed we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death and will deliver us He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us.” He believed in God’s protection and he said it with his mouth.

One time the Holy Spirit kept bring up protection scriptures to me and I kept quoting them to the point I thought there must be something He is getting me ready for. So I just kept saying what the word said about protection “No weapon formed against me will prosper” and “He has given His angels charge concerning me to guard me in all my ways.” In about 2 or 3 weeks I was driving in some winding roads in southeastern Oklahoma and I turned on too a highway and an 18 wheel truck come around a bend and went down the whole drivers side of my truck, the side I was on and totaled the truck, but I got out with out a scratch. The Holy Spirit knew that it was going to happen and had me send His word out ahead of me to protect me.

So whether the Great Holy Spirit leads you around trouble or through it safely you can be protected either way just listen and do what he says. “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifest through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.(NASV)” When we come out on top and win we manifest Jesus. No matter what your going through the Holy Spirit is with you and says he will never leave you or forsake you and he will always lead you to victory. Praise be to God!

Life and Death

One characteristic of being created in God’s image is the ability to choose the words we speak. God has placed in our hands a tool for good or evil, whichever one we choose. This is the reason Satan has such a desire to control men’s tongues, using them as a destructive force. However, God desires men to yield their tongues to Him as a powerful force for good. Proverbs 18:20 says, “death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat it’s fruit.”

As ambassadors for Christ the words that we speak should continually be filled with life. “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, Read More

Blessing and Curse

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give them.” Deuteronomy 30:19,20

Blessings or curses in life depend on the choices we make. God’s will and way brings blessings, the world’s will and way brings curses.
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Psalms,Hymns and Spiritual Songs

Ephesians 5:18-20 says “And be not drunk with wine, for that is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father”.

In Colossians 3:16 it says “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God”

Its Gods plan that all of us encourage ourselves and others with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs that will come up out of our spirit from the Holy Spirit. Just like when you speak in tongues
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(if you are not filled with the Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues read my blog on being “Baptized with the Holy Spirit”) words come up out of your spirit from the Holy Spirit and you pray out mysteries, praying God’s perfect plan for your life. The words don’t come from your mind but out of your spirit from the Holy Spirit. We can all have psalms, hymns and spiritual songs working in our lives the same way.

An example of a psalm that came up out of my spirit recently:

Blessed assurance
Jesus is mine
There is victory every time
I’m washed in His blood
Kept in HIs hand
Delivered from the enemies plan
Jesus is merciful
Jesus is kind
Always living with Him in mind
There is ups and there is downs
but steady is he
who keeps his eye on Thee

Speaking in psalms is like everything else you do with God, it’s by faith. Just like when you speak in tongues you don’t get all that your going to say at once you only get one word or phrase at a time and when you speak it out you get the next word or phrase. The same thing is true in speaking psalms you will get a word or phrase and as you speak it you will get the next phrase. Speaking psalms is a form of what the bible calls prophecy (inspired utterance) and Romans 12:6 says .... He that has the gift of prophecy, let him exercise it according to the proportion of his faith.

As you exercise this more, by doing it, your faith grows in that area and you will be able to speak out more.

One way to help you get started speaking psalms is praying in the spirit (tongues) because 1 Corinthians 14:4 says “One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself” and then in 1 Corinthians 14:13-15 it says “Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the understanding also.” So as you start speaking in tongues from your spirit you can switch over to speaking in your known language out of your spirit. Thats also a good way to pray, because you will get things that your mind never knew or thought off. God would not tell us to pray for something that we could not have.

If you are more given to singing you can sing hymns and spiritual songs out the same way I spoke of speaking psalms. When Ephesians , Colossians and other places in the bible were speaking of hymns and spiritual songs it wasn’t speaking of singing out of a hymn book, even though many of the hymns in hymn books were given the way I am referring too, because there were no hymn books at that time, but the bible was saying let the Spirit give you a song or a psalm for the moment.

Speaking to yourselves in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs is for everyone that is born again or the bible would not have told us to do it. You will find that it is a great blessing if you will do it. Several times when I needed to be encouraged the Spirit would give me a psalm and help me through what ever it was I was going through.

Friend in Jesus

Food For Your Spirit