Build Yourself Up
Build yourself up. When we need our physical bodies to become stronger, we are told to build ourselves up by taking vitamin and mineral supplements and by exercising, working out to strengthen our muscles and to become the healthy people we were designed to be. Today we are going to talk about working out, building ourselves up in the Lord.
In Acts 20:32 in the Amplified Bible, Paul says that He commits the brethren to God. He deposits them in His charge, entrusting them to His protection and care. Then He says that he commends them to the Word of God’s grace, to the commands and counsels and promises of His unmerited favor. Paul then states that the Word is able to build them up and give them their rightful inheritance among all God’s set-apart ones, those consecrated, purified and transformed of soul.
We can see from this scripture passage that Paul considers the Word to be the tool to build up God’s people and to show them how to partake of their rightful inheritance. That understanding of God’s provision for us is gotten as our souls (mind, will, emotions) are transformed, consecrated, purified. Our minds must be transformed by the Word of God. Our wills must be conformed to His will. Our lives must be consecrated, “sold out,” to Him. We are to allow the Holy Spirit of God to purify us, to cleanse us of those things in our fleshly beings that interfere with God’s way of doing things. When Paul said that he died daily, he meant that daily he submitted himself to the Lord to remove and keep removed those fleshly parts of his being that wanted to yield to temptation.
Of course, we know the scripture that tells us that we are cleansed with washing of the water of the Word. The Word presents a cleansing to those who will accept it. If the Spirit of the Lord shows us an area in our lives that we need to deal with, it is because He knows that it will hinder us in our walk with the Lord and in our pursuit of the destiny God has for us. Every bit of our flesh that we have not yielded to the Lord will be a stumbling block in the path that God has chosen for us to follow Him. I don’t know about you, but I am asking the Lord to keep me pure and clean before Him so that we can have intimate fellowship and enjoy our times together. But one of the most important things is that I be a pure vessel through whom He can flow to minister to those around me.
Jude 1:20, Amplified Bible tells us that we are to build ourselves up on our most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, so that we can make progress, rise like an edifice higher and higher. We are to pray much in tongues; we are to pray much in the spirit. Why? That keeps us in tune with God’s realm, with what He is doing and wants us to understand. We are on a mission and how can we carry out our mission if we don’t know the orders. And the only way we can understand what we are to do is to be tuned in to the Holy Spirit. He is our translator. He is like those translators in Christian meetings who are translating the language spoken into one that you can understand. It is only as we pray in the Spirit that we get the mind of Christ and are able to carry out our duties, carry out the orders given. And our faith will be strong in the Lord to do it.
And we see that both the Word and praying in the Spirit build us up, make us stronger and stronger. These two things will cause us to be strong, standing immovable against the antagonistic forces that may come against us. You know, a bully won’t mess with a big, strong, muscular person. He looks for the weaklings to pick on. That is exactly the way the devil is. He looks for someone he can push around and deceive, someone who will cower at the least little advance he makes toward them. We are not to be cowards huddled in a corner somewhere until the world comes to an end. No, we are to stand up tall like David did with Goliath and run toward the enemy, all the time telling him what you are going to do to him. And God will do the rest. All it took was one little stone. That stone is not what killed Goliath. It is the force with which God made the stone to hit the target of the giant’s head. David spoke what he was going to do. And God took those words and performed on David’s behalf.
It is giant slaying time in the Body of Christ. What is the giant that is breathing fire in your face? Don’t back away from him. Run with the fire of the Word of God in your mouth and slay your enemy.
In Acts 20:32 in the Amplified Bible, Paul says that He commits the brethren to God. He deposits them in His charge, entrusting them to His protection and care. Then He says that he commends them to the Word of God’s grace, to the commands and counsels and promises of His unmerited favor. Paul then states that the Word is able to build them up and give them their rightful inheritance among all God’s set-apart ones, those consecrated, purified and transformed of soul.
We can see from this scripture passage that Paul considers the Word to be the tool to build up God’s people and to show them how to partake of their rightful inheritance. That understanding of God’s provision for us is gotten as our souls (mind, will, emotions) are transformed, consecrated, purified. Our minds must be transformed by the Word of God. Our wills must be conformed to His will. Our lives must be consecrated, “sold out,” to Him. We are to allow the Holy Spirit of God to purify us, to cleanse us of those things in our fleshly beings that interfere with God’s way of doing things. When Paul said that he died daily, he meant that daily he submitted himself to the Lord to remove and keep removed those fleshly parts of his being that wanted to yield to temptation.
Of course, we know the scripture that tells us that we are cleansed with washing of the water of the Word. The Word presents a cleansing to those who will accept it. If the Spirit of the Lord shows us an area in our lives that we need to deal with, it is because He knows that it will hinder us in our walk with the Lord and in our pursuit of the destiny God has for us. Every bit of our flesh that we have not yielded to the Lord will be a stumbling block in the path that God has chosen for us to follow Him. I don’t know about you, but I am asking the Lord to keep me pure and clean before Him so that we can have intimate fellowship and enjoy our times together. But one of the most important things is that I be a pure vessel through whom He can flow to minister to those around me.
Jude 1:20, Amplified Bible tells us that we are to build ourselves up on our most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, so that we can make progress, rise like an edifice higher and higher. We are to pray much in tongues; we are to pray much in the spirit. Why? That keeps us in tune with God’s realm, with what He is doing and wants us to understand. We are on a mission and how can we carry out our mission if we don’t know the orders. And the only way we can understand what we are to do is to be tuned in to the Holy Spirit. He is our translator. He is like those translators in Christian meetings who are translating the language spoken into one that you can understand. It is only as we pray in the Spirit that we get the mind of Christ and are able to carry out our duties, carry out the orders given. And our faith will be strong in the Lord to do it.
And we see that both the Word and praying in the Spirit build us up, make us stronger and stronger. These two things will cause us to be strong, standing immovable against the antagonistic forces that may come against us. You know, a bully won’t mess with a big, strong, muscular person. He looks for the weaklings to pick on. That is exactly the way the devil is. He looks for someone he can push around and deceive, someone who will cower at the least little advance he makes toward them. We are not to be cowards huddled in a corner somewhere until the world comes to an end. No, we are to stand up tall like David did with Goliath and run toward the enemy, all the time telling him what you are going to do to him. And God will do the rest. All it took was one little stone. That stone is not what killed Goliath. It is the force with which God made the stone to hit the target of the giant’s head. David spoke what he was going to do. And God took those words and performed on David’s behalf.
It is giant slaying time in the Body of Christ. What is the giant that is breathing fire in your face? Don’t back away from him. Run with the fire of the Word of God in your mouth and slay your enemy.
posted by Rev. Kialeen Potterton @ 2:27 PM
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