Do you have a Sense of God’s Presence?

“That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith . . .” (Ephesians 3:17).

A good friend asked me, “Do you feel you are adequately experiencing the presence and power of the Holy Spirit?” That is a probing question every Christian should pause and consider.

I firmly believe that every born again believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but not every believer is yielded to His control. Our experience of His divine presence depends upon our yielding to Him moment by moment. If the Holy Spirit is to have a larger part of our lives we must make a deliberate choice and allow Him to take control.

The Spirit wants to fill our lives so that Christ may settle down and make Himself feel completely at home as a permanent resident in our hearts (Eph. 3:17). Our prayer should be that Christ would settle down, even now, in our hearts and take control as the rightful owner.

Imagine what it would be like to experience the “fullness of God” (v. 19). Paul was praying that we may be filled up to or unto all the fullness that is in God Himself. That will not take place until we stand complete and perfect in the likeness of Christ at His coming, but it can be our prayer and vision now. Paul was praying that we would be filled and filled and filled and filled forever, as God out of His infinite resources increasingly pours Himself into His redeemed people.

David Brainerd wrote in his diary April 21, 1742, “O My sweet Savior! Who have I but Thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.” Then he added, “If I had a thousand lives, my soul would gladly have laid them all down at once, to have been with Christ. My soul never enjoyed so much of heaven before; it was the most refined and most spiritual season of communion with God I ever yet felt.”

Oh, for a mature, intimate love relationship with Christ. The Holy Spirit always points us to Him and in that a felt presence and power that is wholly beyond man.

It is from that inner resource of “the riches of His glory” that we are “strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man so that Christ may dwell in your hearts and through faith. . .” (3:16-17).

The filling and control of our lives by the Holy Spirit is not automatic. We are baptized once when we believed on Christ as our savior, but filled many times. It is a deliberate choice we make each day. This empowering presence of the Holy Spirit within us enables us to live an abundant spiritual life.

“Do you feel you are adequately experiencing the presence and power of the Holy Spirit?” Why did you respond that way?

When He is in control, our minds are set on the things above (Rom. 8:5).

Do you have a richer, fuller desire to know the Lord Jesus Christ and fellowship with Him? That is the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart.

Who is in control of your life? Have you made a conscious deliberate choice to let the Holy Spirit be in charge of your life? Is He a dynamic, shaping, controlling presence in your life today? How can He become an ever-present reality in your daily life?

Will you make a conscious decision to let Jesus Christ rule your life from this day onward? From that moment on begin each day with a solemn commitment to let Him take control of your life through out the day.

“Lord Jesus I give this day to you. I make myself available to you to live Your life in and through me. Take these hands and feet, this tongue and these eyes, and let them express a heart full of Thee. Here, come live in and through me this day. I yield myself to You.”Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006 Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author’s written consent.

Do You See What I See?

“Christ in you the hope of glory,” wrote the apostle Paul. It is one of the greatest blessings of the Christian life that we share the image of Jesus Christ and go “from glory to glory.”

“We all, with unveiled faces reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, which is from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NET).

Every believer has the privilege of entering into the holy of holies and enjoying an intimate communion with God.

“Glory” as used in the Bible is a quality belonging to God.  The word “glory” suggests something which radiates from the one who has it, leaving an indelible impression behind.

In the Old Testament “glory” is seldom used for the honor shown to men, but it is frequently used for the honor brought or given to God. His glory and power is manifest or shown forth.

“Lift up your heads, O gates, And be lifted up, O ancient doors, That the King of glory may come in! Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, The Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates, And lift them up, O ancient doors, That the King of glory may come in! Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah” (Psalm 24:7-10).

We are constantly reminded in the Scriptures that the LORD God will not share His glory with another (Isa. 42:8; 48:11).

The Hebrew word kabod brings out the luminous, manifestation of God’s person, and His glorious revelation of Himself (Isa. 6:3; Ex. 33:17-23; 34:29-35; Num. 14:10, 21ff; Hab. 2:14; Psa. 72:18-19).

The Lord Jesus Christ shares in this same glory that the Father enjoys. Jesus said, “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:5). It appears above all in His work of salvation on the cross, His resurrection and ascension into glory. Jesus possessed the glory continually, but not in open demonstration except on various occasions (Matt. 17:1ff; John 1:1-3, 14, 18, 2:11, etc).  Jesus will be revealed in His glory and power for all men to see at His Second Coming (Matt. 19:28; Lk. 22:30; 24:30; 1 Thess. 4:13-18). We will see Him as He is now (Rev. 21:22-23; 4:8-14; 5:9-17; Phil. 3:21; 1 Thess. 2:12; Heb. 2:10; 1 Pet. 5:1, 4, 10; 1 Cor. 15:48-53; Rom. 8:17, 29; Col. 3:4; 1 Jn. 3:2).

Moreover, Christians are to be like mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of God wherever and in whatever circumstances we may find ourselves.

The glory of God with its transforming power is operative even now among believers through the risen Christ and our fellowship with Him (Rom. 8:29-30). The believer shares this divine glory now as it is reflected in the person of Jesus Christ and will in complete perfect manifestation of that glory in the great consummation when Christ returns. The Christian’s confidence is in “the hope of glory” in Christ (Col. 1:27; Eph. 1:18; 2 Thess. 2:14; 2 Tim. 2:10).

The highest obligation of man is to glorify and praise the LORD God in worship. The only way this can happen is through an intimate personal relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. God’s power is demonstrated and operates in “salvation history.” The supreme manifestation of the power and glory of God appears in His work of salvation (Matt. 17:2-5; Jn. 1:14; 2:11; 2 Cor. 4:4, 6, etc).

Jesus gives His glory to those who believe in Him (Jn. 17:15, 22). The veil of unbelief is removed in Christ. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

The mirror is God’s Word (James 1:22-25). As we look into God’s Word and see the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit transforms us into the image of God. It is important in this process of sanctification that we be honest, open and transparent with God and do not wear a veil. We are changed on the outside because of the change that comes about on the inside. We radiate the glory of God because He has placed it within us through the new birth, justification and sanctification. We meditate on God’s Word and look into the face of Jesus and the Holy Spirit transforms us. As we grow in the knowledge of Him and His grace, we continually grow from glory to glory in His likeness. The glory of God’s grace continues to increase in the yielded believer. Only the grace of God can make us like Jesus.

The glory of the Christian does not fade away like Moses’ did, but is an ever-increasing glory, i.e., from one stage of glory to another. A believer’s glory is eternal because of God’s abiding presence through the Holy Spirit. This glory is the work of the Holy Spirit in our regeneration and sanctification. We are being progressively transformed into the likeness of Christ. Christ-likeness is the goal of the Christian life (Eph. 4:23-24; Col. 3:10).

The veil of unbelief was lifted, and remains lifted, as we behold the glorious face of the Lord Jesus. It is like looking into a mirror or contemplating something glorious. We reflect in our person that same glory of the Lord. We are being continuously transformed. Our inward reality is being changed because we are being transformed into the likeness of Christ.

Christians seeing in Jesus the image of God, are not deified, but are transformed into the same image. The glory that we share with Christ ever increases from one stage of glory to a higher stage of glory. This is our grand inheritance now in Christ. Can you find a better picture of the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures?

The veils, once lifted, remain lifted. All of us Christians without any veils over our faces continuously reflect like mirrors the glorious splendor of the Lord if we keep on beholding Him in the Word of God. We are being transformed into the same likeness of Him, in an ever increasing splendor from one degree of His splendor to another, since this change of outward experience comes from the Lord who is the Spirit working in our hearts (Pounds’ Paraphrase of 2 Corinthians 3:18).Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006

Do You Have the Mind of Christ?

Do I see the beauty of a holy life as Jesus saw it? Do I see lost people through His eyes? Do I understand the eternal purpose of God with the same conviction that Jesus had?

The apostle Paul said, “We have the mind of Christ” (I Corinthians 2:16). What are the implications of having that mind?

In contrast to the pagan false “wisdom” Paul sets forth the wisdom from God, “That is found in the righteousness and sanctification and wisdom of God in Christ. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.”  Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 

In God’s magnificent wisdom, He has been “well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe,” and the message preached is “Christ crucified.”

The unregenerate, sensual person who lives his life as if there is nothing beyond the physical “does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised” (I Cor. 2:14).

In contrast Paul says the believer in Christ has “received” not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely give to us by God” (v. 12).

We have the mind of Christ because we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us.  Therefore, since we are new creatures in Christ, our habit of mental activity needs to be like that of Christ.

The apostle Paul uses the word “mind” signifying the exercise of the mind, including our emotional and spiritual responses creating activity.  It refers to understanding, intelligence, and mental presence.  It is the whole knowledge of Christ including emotions and volitions based on thought.

Perhaps John 17 reveals the mind of Christ in its rare beauty.  “Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life’” (John 17:1-2).  That is the passion of God incarnate.  He came to reveal the Father and give eternal life to all who will believe on Him.  In the mind of Christ, we understand the cross.  Only then will the passion our preaching be “Christ crucified.”  “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).

The mind of Christ is revealed in the cross.  In the mind of Christ we see “the beauty of holiness.” Christ came to reveal the holiness of the Father and the sinfulness of sin.  The cross of Jesus exposes our sins, and we stand condemned before a righteous God.  The cross reveals the mind of our Savior who knew no sin and became so identified with us that He gave Himself as the substitutionary sacrifice on our behalf.  The mind of Christ reveals an attitude of self-emptying and humility so profound that He would empty Himself “taking the form of a bond-servant and being made in the likeness of men” and give Himself a ransom for sin.  “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8).

Jesus saw everything in perpetual relationship to His Father.  He saw the whole universe related to the Father and for that reason He gave His life in obedience to Him.  The master passion of Christ Jesus was to glorify His Father in saving sinful man.

“We have the mind of Christ” when we see the Father in all of His holiness.  “We have the mind of Christ” when we sin as it breaks the heart of a holy and righteous God.  We have the mind of the Savior when we understand the penalty for sin must be paid in full by a divine, sinless substitute.  “We have the mind of Christ” when we feel the passion of His soul in submission to the will of God, even unto death.

If I have the mind of Christ, I can see the infinite beauty of holiness as He saw it when He clothed me in the robes of His perfect righteousness.  “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Do I have that same passion to see lost people as He saw them?  If I have the mind of Christ, I will pour out my life in obedient sacrifice and believe and trust in Him.

Hear my prayer, oh God. I give my mind to you; let me think the way Christ thinks.  Help me make the choices the way You would choose.  I want to do what You would do and feel as you feel. Help me to obey You—even unto death!Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006

Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author’s written consent.

Do You Have Life’s Greatest Satisfaction?

One of the most delightful books I have read was Surprised by Joy in which the brilliant Cambridge scholar C. S. Lewis tells how the “Hound of Heaven” tracked him down and brought him to his knees to surrender to Jesus Christ.

“I was going up Headington Hill on top of a bus. Without words and (I think) almost without images, a fact about myself was somehow presented to me.  I became aware that I was holding something at bay, or shifting shutting something out.  Or, if you like, that I was wearing some stiff clothing, like corsets, or even a suit of armor, as if I were a lobster.  I felt myself being there and then given a free choice.  I could open the door or keep it shut; I could unbuckle the armor or keep it on.  Neither choice was presented as a duty; no threat or promise was attached to either, though I knew that to open the door or to take off the corset meant the incalculable. The choice appeared to be momentous but I was also strangely unemotional.  I was moved by no desire or fears.  In a sense I was not moved by anything. I chose to open, to unbuckle, to loosen the rein.  I say, ‘I chose, yet it did not really seem possible to do the opposite.’’

A short time later in his room at Magdalene College in Cambridge, England, he made a final personal commitment to Jesus Christ.  “In the Trinity Term of 1929, I gave in and admitted that God was God and knelt and prayed:  perhaps that night the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England” (Surprised by Joy, pp. 224, 228-29).

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6).

Jesus used a strong word for “satisfied” meaning “completely satisfied,” like when feeding cattle are satisfied after grazing in a beautiful lush meadow.

Do you have that satisfaction that comes from an intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ?

It is the result of a spiritual hunger and thirst that only God can satisfy when we submit to Him.

Do you carry a heavy burden that weighs you down? Have you grown weary fighting with God? He is ready to give you His perfect rest if you will come to Him and yoke up with Him. When you submit to Jesus Christ you find rest for your soul as Lewis did.

Are you weighed down by a heavy load of anxiety? Christ invites you to humble yourself “under the mighty hand of God . . . casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6-7).

There is no greater spiritual satisfaction, inner peace and joy than that which is found in an intimate, personal love relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Have you entered into that personal relationship with Him? Admit to Him your need and ask Him to be your Savior. “Lord, I confess to you my need for you to be my Savior. I am a rebel at heart and want you to forgive me of my wandering sinful ways and unbelief. I ask you to forgive me and cleanse me of all my sins. I believe Jesus Christ died for my sins and rose from the dead, and I want Him to be my Savior and Lord today.”

“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost” (Revelation 22:17). Will you come today and drink freely of the water of life and be satisfied?Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006

Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author’s written consent.

Do You have Eternal Life?

Jesus Christ said, “And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3). How do you obtain eternal life? Have you experienced the real thing? What is this knowledge of eternal life?

Life eternal is God’s life in us produced by His Holy Spirit. It issues in a personal encounter with a holy God who in His grace forgives us of our sins based on the atoning death of Jesus Christ. No one can have His life and not be changed. God is holy and His Spirit makes us aware of our sinfulness and of our deep personal need of His grace. It is by His grace that we are turned to Christ who is our Savior. This knowledge occurs only where God’s Holy Spirit is at work beforehand to make it possible, and it always changes us, issuing in a heart response and true devotion to Him.

When we become aware of the true and living God we are confronted with our sinfulness and depravity as opposed to His holiness and righteousness. We are all together corrupt and He is altogether holy. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). Our sin bars our entrance into the presence of a righteous God.

Have you ever been really disturbed knowing that you must ultimately deal with One in whom is no sin at all, who cannot tolerate sin in any form and who must judge it?

All knowledge of God begins with His holiness and the reality of your sin.

It is good to remind ourselves that we cannot fool God. He is always aware of who we are and what we are thinking and doing. Only the fool says, “No God!” “No God!” Nothing catches the LORD God by surprise. “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).

This is where the good news of Jesus Christ is so very important to us. God applies these truths to us personally. God’s free gift is eternal life to those who will respond to His free offer of saving grace.

Jesus Christ went to the cross and died for sinners. “For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for (instead of and in behalf of) the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6). Moreover, “God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (v. 8).

We are without excuse because God has taken every measure to demonstrate His love for lost sinners. He has made us aware of His holiness, our sinfulness, and God’s saving grace through faith in the death of Jesus Christ.

The good news which you have just read is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. . . For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘But the righteous man shall live by faith’” (Rom. 1:16-17). Our holy and righteous God is both “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (3:26). He can be so because Jesus paid our debt for sin.

Eternal life is this personal knowledge of God who has revealed Himself to us by applying these truths to us by the work of His Holy Spirit. Eternal life is to be found in this knowledge of Him in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The fullness of God’s personal revelation of Himself is found in the One who died for us, paid the price of our sin, rose form the dead, has satisfied God’s justice, and has taken up residence in our hearts through His indwelling Spirit. This is eternal life, to know Him in His saving grace.

Do you know Him? To know God in a personal, intimate, love relationship with Him is to have eternal life.

God has made provision to blot out every sin you have committed and therefore remove every barrier to His holy presence. Will you come boldly to His throne of grace knowing all your sins are under His blood? “I came that they might have life and might have it abundantly” (John 10:10b). To know Him in saving grace is to have eternal life.Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006

Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author’s written consent.

It Symbolizes the Relationship Between

I am grateful The Holy Spirit suggested making a healing path ( like I saw in China in the front garden. It is a path of patio stones with rounded stone cemented into them. When you walk on the when they are warm they cause healing while giving a foot massage ).

I am grateful The Holy Spirit suggested making a shrine beside the walkway. It symbolizes the relationship between Jehovah, Jesus, The Holy Spirit, angels and me in my walk with Christ

I am grateful The Holy Spirit suggested planting specific flowers around the walkway and shrine. They represent powerful symbols.

I am grateful The Holy Spirit suggested

putting the raised gardens in a specific sequence to represent my dedication and suffering for Christ

I am grateful The Holy Spirit suggested arranging the biggest raised garden in a special way representing Jesus and His followers.

Dead to Sin

The apostle Paul wrote of Christ, “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:10-11).

The believer’s “old man” or “old self” is what he was spiritually before he believed on Christ when he was still under sin, powerless, depraved, ungodly and even an enemy of God.

Our fallen nature was not changed at conversion. It was not annihilated, but it was “rendered inactive, made of no effect” (Rom. 6:6). Our physical body is not sinful. It is neutral and can be controlled by sin or by the Holy Spirit. It was controlled by sin before we trusted Christ for salvation.

“In Jesus Christ we died to sin, and the old nature was crucified so that the old life is rendered inoperative.” This is a great fact for the believer to rely upon.  Now that we have died with Christ the power of controlling sin is broken and is rendered powerless or ineffective (Rom. 6:3-5).

There is a change in relationship with God and sin. Because of this new living union with Christ the believer now has a new relationship with God and different attitudes toward sin. Sin is no longer his master. Christ is the new master. We no longer want to continue in sin. Now because we are in Christ we have a choicer whether we choose to sin, or choose to obey our new Master.

In our unregenerate state we were slaves to sin. Now that our old self was crucified with Christ we have been delivered from this slavery. “Anyone who has died has been freed from sin.” We have been declared righteous, “freed,” with the result that sin no longer has the legal right to force us into its slavery. Sin no longer is the master of the believer because he has died with Christ and risen with Him “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with so that we would no longer be slaves to sin” (Rom. 6:6).

Not only did Christ die for me, but I died with Him. That is my new identification. I am no longer identified with the first man, Adam, but with the Second Man, Christ. Christ paid my sin debt and broke sin’s power over me. By His substitution for me on the cross Christ charged my account with His own imputed righteousness. By identification with me He imparted or made that righteousness a part of my daily life. Justification is also a living relationship with Jesus Christ. It is a justification that brings life. I am in Christ and identified with Him and whatever happens to Christ now happens to me. When Christ died, I died. When He rose from the dead I arose in Him. It is now a fact that I am now seated with Christ in the heavenlies (Eph. 2:5-6; Col. 3:1-3).

The believer is “dead to sin.” “I am crucified with Christ.” In Jesus Christ we have died to the power of sin so that we no longer want to continue in sin. It is no longer our master. Before we were saved we had a cordial relationship in which we were fully yielded to and dependent upon that sinful nature. We were under the control of the power of sin. It was our habit of life. We are now alive in Christ. Christ raised us up from the dead and now we walk in the power of His resurrection. The issue is the believer no longer chooses to continue in a cordial, dependent fellowship in sin.

The death of Christ not only paid our penalty of sin, but God also used it to break the power of indwelling sin in our life.

The Christian is under no compulsion to live his life under the control of evil nature again. We remain a free moral agent capable of choosing good and evil, but it is impossible for the Christian to habitually sustain a relationship to evil which he sustained before he was saved.

The Christian now has the authority and the power to say no to sin. You do not have to obey the sin nature. You now have a divine nature you can choose to respond to which is alive in Christ. You are free to choose. You do not have to do what you do not want to do. You can be as holy as you choose to be.Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006

Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author’s written consent.