Excerpts from Notebooks - July 10, 1983
7/10/83
(Excerpts from--)
Practice the Presence of God - By Brother Lawrence Fleming
'We should establish ourselves in a sense of God's presence by continually conversing with Him.'
'When he had failed in his duty he only confessed his fault saying to God, I shall never do otherwise if You leave me to myself it is You who must hinder my failing and mend what is amiss…After this he gave himself no further uneasiness about it.'
(Thinking about that- the Presence of God, I believe we rely way too much on feelings. I don't feel it- I don't feel right - I feel this way, I feel that way. It's all about our feelings isn't it?
Sometimes being around someone that doesn't seem to rely on feelings but exists more in the neutral manner of acceptance that life is just this way and so be it, makes it hard to understand. The tendency to want to pick at the whys and wherefores, to distrust that there can be an acceptance of things that really there is unhappiness, non-contentment there. We are so hyped up about our feelings that to live in such a way makes us *boring or *odd.
We are promoting being in touch with our feelings more and more. On the popular websites Myspace and Facebook they both have places for people to express their current feelings. This is supposed to promote interaction with others. If you see a friend is sad it encourages others to uplift them. If you are happy it encourages the sharing of that happiness.
The other day I was at my mother's house helping her out with a few computer things and she wanted me to set up her Myspace so it was book-marked for easy access. While I was doing that she saw where others were writing about their various feelings and happenings - and asked where she could put hers in. I showed her and asked her what she wanted me to put in for her right then and she said 'I don't know.' So that's what I put in there. She obviously wasn't exceptionally caught up in recognizing an emotion she might be feeling at the moment. And you know what, that's not so bad. Some might think it is, they might instantly be concerned that she's not in touch with herself. But rather than that, I'm choosing to believe it's her not being caught up in how she feels.
When we do Practice the Presence of God in our lives we have to separate it from how we might be feeling or it'll become dependent upon that feeling. When we depend on our feelings to Practice the Presence of God then we can be sure that there are going to be headed our way a lot of negative feelings that will make us not believe we can Practice the Presence of God.
This from that book- 'We should establish ourselves in a sense of God's presence by continually conversing with Him.'
Is true. And it's a conversing that needs to go beyond feeling 'right' with God. It has to be a knowledge of God's presence as being with us no matter what. We don't have to wait to feel a thing, we can believe and have faith beyond the feelings we'd like to have.
And this-
'When he had failed in his duty he only confessed his fault saying to God, I shall never do otherwise if You leave me to myself it is You who must hinder my failing and mend what is amiss…After this he gave himself no further uneasiness about it.'
Is this acceptable? It has to be doesn't it? We get so caught up in our faults, our failures, and it does seem overwhelming, as if we'll never cease to fail. If we count on ourselves for success it's just as well we fail in order that we know we can't find success on our own, of our own accord. We HAVE to have God with us, we have to rely on God to mend whatever is amiss inside us. We have to surrender ourselves to God for that mending. If we get caught up in worrying over our inability to succeed we will never let God work in us, we'll constantly be waiting for the power on our own to succeed. We'll take pride in that success and attribute it to ourselves. Much better to remember always that it is God working in us to fix our failings.
The part about, 'After this he gave himself no further uneasiness about it.' Is that trust? It must be. To worry over something after confessing it and entrusting our need to God is pointless. It only shows a lack of faith in God truly hearing and helping us.
It seems to be in our nature to worry over things, to feel uneasiness about things, but we truly have to give to God and trust beyond our understanding. We might not understand one whit how things might be healed, helped, or changed but we aren't called to understand, we are called to trust, to believe. To realize our place as creatures and God's place as Creator.)
(Please note- information taken from my old notebooks may be altered by me to take what I think is pertinent from among all that is written. All additional writing which will be my current thoughts on past writings will be in parentheses. Thank you.)
By the grace and mercy of Christ Jesus now and forever! Amen.
4/12/10
Gal 3:2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Gal 3:3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
Receiving the Spirit.
1Jn 5:6 ... the Spirit is truth.
1Jn 3:24 ...And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.
1Pe 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren...
Php 1:19 For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
Eph 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit...
Eph 6:17 ...the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God
Eph 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit
Eph 5:9 For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth
Eph 4:3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace
Eph 2:22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Gal 6:8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
Gal 5:25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Gal 5:24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
Gal 5:18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Gal 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Gal 5:24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
Gal 5:5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
Gal 4:29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Gal 4:6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Gal 3:14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Gal 3:5 He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
2Co 5:5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
2Co 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
2Co 3:17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
1Co 12:3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
1Co 12:4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
1Co 12:5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.
1Co 12:6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
1Co 12:7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
1Co 12:8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
1Co 12:9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
1Co 12:10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
1Co 12:11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
1Co 12:12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
1Co 12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 2:10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
1Co 2:11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
1Co 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
1Co 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
1Co 2:15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
1Co 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Rom 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
Rom 8:4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Rom 8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
Rom 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Rom 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Rom 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
Rom 8:10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Rom 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Rom 8:12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
Rom 8:13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
Rom 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Rom 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Rom 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
Rom 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Rom 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Rom 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Rom 8:24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Rom 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Rom 8:27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
4/12/10
Gal 3:2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Gal 3:3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
Receiving the Spirit.
Beginning in the Spirit, we must stay in the Spirit.
How?
1Jn 5:6 ... the Spirit is truth.
We must stay in truth. Truth must be our standard that we hold high in ourselves. There are a lot of things we don't have control over in life, a lot. One thing we do have control over is the truth. We can hold truth to be paramount and not abide a lie. If we choose to lie over anything we are choosing to follow the father of lies, Satan, and not the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is truth in all things the truth.
By the grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ now and forever.
Amen