Hi
One thing that most businesses love is a payment plan. For no matter how manageable the rates of payment, they are guaranteed ongoing income – usually with compounded interest rates – for far longer than the lump sum payment. For many, that’s good business. The interest keeps them going. With God’s plan, we have an inversely parallel offer – we’re enjoying the interest now; But the Lump Sum is still to come! Consider today’s Holy Nougat
“It is God who enables us, along with you, to stand firm for Christ. He has commissioned us, and he has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment that guarantees everything he has promised us.” 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 NLT
Can you imagine that my dear, heaven is our GUARANTEED capital. It’s ours once we believe in Jesus (John 3). And, although it’s Us who stand to gain, we are living off the installment as if we are the business owners. And the more we exercise the installment; the more we get the ‘interest’ in our lives.
I believe that the challenge we face as believers, especially those of us who have become vested in institutional ‘church’, is our complacency with just living with the installment (interest). We’ve been hoarding the gift of God’s Spirit (possibly applying human rather than spiritual principles), and missing out on the benefits of interaction. And it is in expending the Spirit of God that we get a true sense of God’s power, glory and immeasurable wealth.
For many, interactions with God’s Spirit realizes a ‘buzz’ that nothing else can provide. We get a taste of God’s glory, the wonder and awesomeness of heaven. Again, it is opposite to a chemical induced high, as it can be achieved again and again without having to be faked.
It is wealth, for we tap into the glory of heaven – which is the treasure that doesn’t rot; and we each of us experience a different aspect of the manifestation as we utilize God’s Spirit. Unfortunately, as humans, we tend to think of wealth in concrete material ways; hence we either undervalue or, worse yet, exploit the Gift of God’s Spirit.
And both exist in our times today. There are some who capitalize to the extent of losing sight of the Gift as an installment of what’s to come, resulting in pain for others who soon confuse the vessel with the Gift. Sometimes, that generates the mistrust of God’s wonderful gift, and so we lose sight of the miracles available to us all through the Holy Spirit.
True, all earthly problems may not disappear when everyone maximizes use of this ongoing self-replenishing supply of God’s blessings. But what a difference we could make in the world!
Legitimately
Honestly
For the glory of God
Are we ready to make/already making the difference with our installment? There’s always more ‘interest’ when we use our investment.
May the world see and believe because of the positive transformation our Gift brings to others. In Christ’s love and grace . ..
