Challenge of the Day

"You need to be a personal manifestation of the living Christ. Just as Christ walked about the earth, you have to walk about as a child of God, with power and manifestation."

"I once thought I possessed the Holy Spirit, but I have come to the conclusion that He has to be entirely the possessor of me. God can tame your tongue. God can so reserve you for Himself that your entire body will be operating in the Spirit."

Those two quotes came from a book I'm reading called 'Smith Wigglesworth on Spiritual Gifts' which is a compilation of his sermons on the gifts of the Spirit.

Wow! Read those quotes again and think about it: we are meant to be personal manifestations of the living Christ. We can talk about being ambassadors, we can decide to be stewards of the presence of God. All of those are wonderful things to be - but what if we think about our Christian walk as our spirits being so meshed together, alike the Spirit of God that none of our fleshly self gets in the way anymore, and we become a walking, talking revelation of who God is?

"God can so reserve you for Himself that your entire body will be operating in the Spirit." This, to me, is talking about a life walking in the Spirit 24/7 -- not just when we've been 'good', not just for a short time, but our whole being, all the time. I knew it was possible to walk and stay in the Spirit 24/7, but it seemed hard to me - maybe a bit too hard. Are you thinking the same?

He...makes His angels spirits,
His ministers a flame of fire. Psa 104:4

But if you think about it, of course it's more than possible. Jesus was in the Spirit 24/7. If He can do it, then so can we: we've been given sonship (Rom 8:15-17), the Spirit of God (1 Cor 2:12), and the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16).

However, having something does not mean much in itself: having a motorbike in the garage does not make you a motorbike rider until you actually ride it often; owning a basketball does not make you a great basketball player.

How many Christians have sonship but think they still need to earn it? Every true Christian has the Spirit of God - but do we have a habit of consulting Him, and including Him in our day-to-day life?

Have we set the bar too low for ourselves? Are we leaving an exciting life in the Spirit to 'those super-spiritual people' because 'I'm not good enough'? What if you are meant to be one of those people? What if you can be good enough, like a sprinter who doesn't know exactly how fast he can go until he trains and competes?

We are spiritual beings with physical bodies. We were made to walk in the Spirit! The key to walking in the Spirit is to deny the flesh (Gal 5; Rom 6) - it takes determined, persistent acts of the will to keep doing that. We are more than able through Christ who strengthens us! It is God who is able to reserve us for Himself. Will we let Him?