What Awaits Us at the End of Our Journey?

BY DAVE STEEL

Why do we spend so much energy pursuing earthly carrots like affluence, accolades, and pleasure when we know these things can’t satisfy our deepest longings? And why is it that these things disappoint us so consistently? 

King Solomon gave us a clue when he said that God has “set eternity in the human heart” (Eccl. 3:11). Nothing temporal will ever truly satisfy us--not money, not the praise of others, not any earthly pleasure, trophy, or commodity. We yearn for something eternal, something transcendent. C. S. Lewis reasoned that, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

We were made for heaven. Followers of Jesus rightly consider it their home. Jesus said, “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:2-3). The apostle Paul certainly took this promise seriously. He wrote, “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20; cf. Heb. 13:14). 

Ultimately, the reward that awaits us at the end of our earthly journey is Jesus himself. He’s what makes heaven so desirable. 

But the biblical writers also spoke of an inheritance that awaits us there. The apostle Peter calls it “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade--kept in heaven for you” (1 Pet. 1:4). The apostle Paul adds that the indwelling Holy Spirit serves as a deposit guaranteeing this inheritance (Eph. 1:13-14). What these biblical writers are saying is that our heavenly inheritance could not be more secure.

Still, the apostle Paul also spoke of this heavenly prize as something worth striving for. He said, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13-14). As Christ followers, we strain toward the finish line not to earn the prize but to claim it. Christ has secured it for us. 

For disciples of Jesus, then, this life is a journey to our true home. What awaits us at the finish line is a joyous reunion with our Savior. There we’ll enter into our heavenly inheritance. Disappointment with the fleeting pleasures of this world will give way to what is eternal, transcendent. Our deepest longings will be satisfied. 

We’re going home! 

The Secret to a Disciple's Resolve

BY DAVE STEEL

At one point in Jesus’ ministry many of his fair-weather followers found his teaching too difficult, so they quit following him. So Jesus asked his closest disciples, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” (John 6:67). That’s when Peter came up with this profound reply: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God?” (vv. 68-69). 

We will always have unanswered questions--sometimes big ones. But there comes a time when we know enough about Jesus to be convinced that he’s our only hope of ever sorting it all out. It’s what keeps us following him when others call it quits. We simply have nowhere else to go. 

In a culture that values having lots of options, it may seem regressive to suggest that there’s only one person to whom we can go for eternal life. On the other hand, there’s something incredibly freeing about being done with dead-end pursuits regarding life’s big questions and discovering what we’ve been looking for all along. In any case, when you’ve just seen Jesus walk on water, as Peter had (John 6:16-21), it seems a little silly to keep your options open in case a more impressive teacher comes along. 

Peter would later testify publicly that, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Likewise, the apostle Paul declared that, “There is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people” (1 Tim. 2:5-6). 

All this is corroborated by Jesus himself, who declared, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). 

As disciples of Jesus, we may not be able to explain everything Jesus said. We may not understand everything he’s doing even now. We’re still learning, still growing. But regardless of what we still need to learn from him and about him, we know this: Jesus holds the keys to life’s ultimate questions. 

Herein lies the secret to a disciple’s resolve. Even if we’re confounded by something Jesus says, we continue following him because of what we do understand: he has the words of eternal life. He is the Holy One of God.

Where else would we go if not to Jesus? Then again, he’s all we need. 

A Dozen Reasons to Meditate on the Scriptures Often

BY DAVE STEEL

From time to time, we all need to be reminded just how crucial it is to read and reflect on the Scriptures as disciples of Jesus. In case it’s been a while since you’ve thought about it, here are a dozen reasons to meditate often on the Word of God. Let these thoughts stoke your desire to live for Christ.

1.  To meditate on the Scriptures is to listen to the voice of God.

All Scripture is God-breathed . . . (2 Tim. 3:16)

Prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Pet. 1:21)

The Bible is no ordinary book. If you’re fortunate enough to have a copy, you can read the words of God himself!

2.  To meditate on the Scriptures is to embrace what is right and true.

For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does. (Ps. 33:4)

Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. (John 17:17)

What is truth? Only by squarely facing this question can we live well. Jesus said that the Bible is truth.

3.  To meditate on the Scriptures is to reveal the true state of your heart.

The word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Heb. 4:12)

Don’t be surprised if you start becoming more honest with yourself when you take time to reflect on Scripture. That’s what it’s supposed to do.  

4.  To meditate on the Scriptures is to invite God’s blessing into your life. 

Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. (Josh. 1:8)

For a Christ follower, the obedient life and the successful life our bound together. Meditating on the Scriptures in order to obey what it says is a formula for true success.  

5.  To meditate on the Scriptures is to equip yourself to resist sin.

How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word. (Ps. 119:9)

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. (Ps. 119:11)

How will you keep your heart from being stained by the evil of this world and by your own sinful desires? Scripture keeps us on the right path.

6.  To meditate on the Scriptures is to build your life on bedrock.

Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. (Matt. 7:24-25)

How will you prepare for the storms of life? Meditate on the Scriptures and you’ll be shoring up your foundation to withstand whatever comes your way.

7.  To meditate on the Scriptures is to anchor your life in what’s reliable and enduring.

Your word, Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. (Ps. 119:89)

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. (Matt. 24:35)

Want to leave an enduring legacy? Scripture will teach you how to live for what lasts.

8.  To meditate on the Scriptures is to feed your spiritual growth.

Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation (1 Pet. 2:2)

When an infant’s growth is stunted due to lack of nutrition, doctors call it “failure to thrive.” Tragically, this also happens in the spiritual realm when we neglect God’s Word.

9.  To meditate on the Scriptures is to shine a light on where you’re going.

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. (Ps. 119:105)

Have you ever felt like you were in a dark cave, confused and unable to see the way forward? That’s when the Bible becomes a headlamp.

10.  To meditate on the Scriptures is to be trained to serve God well.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Tim. 3:16-17)

Meditating on Scripture forges our character and trains us in the ways of God.

11.  To meditate on the Scriptures is to fight the good fight.

Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Eph. 6:17)

The Bible is the one offensive weapon God gave us to fight off those unseen forces that would discourage and destroy us. We must learn to wield it skillfully.  

12.  To meditate on the Scriptures is to be a faithful conduit of God’s truth.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. (2 Tim. 2:15)

Being a faithful disciple of Jesus includes sharing with others what he’s teaching us. This requires careful listening and learning on our part, which is another reason we meditate on God’s Word.

There are a dozen reasons to meditate on the Scriptures often. Can you think of some others?

Learning to Attend to Our Hearts

BY DAVE STEEL

If you could have asked Jesus’ contemporaries, “Who in your world are the models of moral, ethical living?” many would have pointed to the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. These guys were the recognized experts when it came to religious law. Nobody was more scrupulous about keeping the commandments than they were.

So when Jesus declared that “unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20), he shocked some people.  They must have thought, “If the Pharisees and the teachers of the law don’t meet God’s standard of righteousness, then what chance do I have of meeting it!”

And yet, when read in its larger context, Jesus’ statement begins to sound more like an invitation than an indictment. Jesus’ entire Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), of which this verse is arguably the theme verse,[1] is meant to be an invitation to a life of radical righteousness—one that far exceeds anything the religious leaders were capable of through sheer discipline and willpower.

Sure, the Pharisees and teachers of the law were the epitome of man-made righteousness. But self-righteousness is bankrupt. Jesus doesn’t even recognize it as righteousness. His Sermon compels us to re-evaluate what it means to be right before God. There Jesus says things like, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt. 5:27-28). He went on to say, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt. 5:43-44). What’s he saying?

True righteousness is a matter of the heart—not a matter of outward conformity to a set of rules.

Even if some were surprised by this talk of radical heart-righteousness, it was not entirely new. In fact, Jesus prefaced his statements about true righteousness by saying, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matt. 5:17). The Scriptures set forth a vision for true righteousness. But in our inability to attain this righteousness, we, like the Pharisees and teachers of the law, tend to reach for the cheap substitute.

God’s vision of true righteousness requires a radical change of heart—which is why centuries earlier he made a new covenant with his people, promising to write his law on their minds and hearts (Jer. 31:33), making them righteous from the inside out. Dallas Willard was right: “Biblical religion is above all a religion of the heart and of the keeping of the heart.”[2]

To be a follower of Jesus is to learn from him how to attend to our hearts.

 

[1]Wilkins writes, “Without a doubt, Jesus’ declaration in [Matthew] 5:20 is an interpretive key to the entire Sermon on the Mount and, by extension, to life in the kingdom of heaven.” Michael J. Wilkins, Matthew, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004), 233.

[2]Dallas Willard, The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship (New York, NY: Harper One, 2006), 108.

What We're Becoming

BY DAVE STEEL

So what exactly is Jesus, our Teacher and Master, trying to do with us, his disciples? What are the learning objectives in this school of discipleship? Jesus gives us a clue when he says that, “Everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40). This is certainly true when we have Jesus as our teacher. Discipleship is intended to make us more like him—or, as the apostle Paul put it, for Christ to be “formed” in us (Gal. 4:19).

George MacDonald puts it this way: "To follow [Christ] is to be learning of him, to think his thoughts, to use his judgments, to see things as he sees them, to feel things as he feels them, to be of the same heart, soul, and mind, as he is—that we also may be of the same mind with his Father. . . . Nothing less is to be his disciple."[1]

Imagine yourself thinking the way Jesus thinks, speaking the way he speaks, relating the way he relates, doing what he does. I don’t know about you, but that would be quite a transformation for me!

What are the chances of that actually happening? The apostle Paul often spoke not just of the possibility but of the necessity of this transformation. “Those God foreknew,” says Paul, “he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:29, italics added). God’s declared intention is to make us like Christ. And as we already noted above, Christ’s intention in training us is that we become like him. This is not just something we wish for. It’s something we earnest seek and expect. It’s what we signed up for when we joined Christ in the school of discipleship. Dallas Willard puts it in the form of a “gut check,” when he says,   

Examination of our ultimate desires and intentions, reflected in the specific responses and choices that make up our lives, can show whether there are things we hold more important than being like him. If there are, then we are not yet his disciples.[2]

The apostle Paul made it clear that for Christ followers this transformation is already underway. We’re already “being transformed into [the Lord’s] glory” (2 Cor. 3:18). The process must continue until Christ takes us home to heaven. “What we will be,” says the apostle John, “has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2, italics added).

Only God knows all that will happen to us once we say yes to following Jesus, but this one thing we know for sure: we will become like him.

Oh to be like Thee! Oh to be like Thee!

Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art; 

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart. 

—Thomas O. Chisholm

[1]George MacDonald, Knowing the Heart of God, 125-126.

[2]Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines (San Francisco: Harper Collins Publishers, 1988), 265.

Why Some People Feel Drawn to Jesus While Others Don't

BY DAVE STEEL

Why do some people choose to follow Jesus while others seem to have no interest in doing so? Is it determined largely by a person’s family of origin? If so, Jesus’ family is a notable exception. His own brothers rejected his message throughout his earthly ministry (John 7:5). Other explanations have been offered—such as, our personality predisposes us to either faith or reason. But this implies that religious faith and empirical reasoning are at odds, an assumption that plenty of scholars have debunked.[1] Some have even tried to reduce this to a matter of a person’s IQ, as if to suggest that following Jesus is clearly the sensible choice, or conversely that intelligent people can’t possibly believe that Jesus is God incarnate. Such disparaging generalizations are neither helpful nor true.

So what does Jesus have to say about why some people follow him while others don’t? He addressed this issue succinctly when he said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). In other words, whatever additional factors may be involved, the first condition for someone to want to follow Jesus is that God must draw that person.

But what exactly does Jesus mean when he says that the Father draws us? He doesn’t mean that God coerces us against our will. No, the Father opens our hearts to the truth about Jesus in such a way that we desire of our own will to follow him. Still, the Father can be very convincing, as Jesus points out a few verses earlier where he declares that, “All that the Father gives me will come to me” (John 6:37).

And it’s not just the Father who draws us. The Son draws us too. Jesus said, “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32). He meant that by his crucifixion he would draw to himself all kinds of people—both Jews and Gentiles. And indeed he has!

Charles Spurgeon, a well-known nineteenth-century pastor, put it this way:

Jesus knows how by irresistible arguments addressed to the understanding, by mighty reasons appealing to the affections, and by the mysterious influence of His Holy Spirit operating upon all the powers and passions of the soul, so to subdue the whole man, that whereas he was once rebellious, he yields cheerfully to His government, subdued by sovereign love.[2]

If true, this revelation upends the notion that those who choose to follow Christ are inherently more sensible or moral than those who don’t. It’s not like that. If you’ve come to Christ for salvation, it’s ultimately because God has drawn you to himself. Coming to Christ is without a doubt the best decision we can ever make, but we can’t take any credit for it.

Whenever I pause to consider how God has drawn me to himself—how I would not even know him if he had not done so—I find myself wanting to pursue him all the more. A. W. Tozer was right: “The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after Him; and all the time we are pursuing Him we are already in His hand.”[3]

So let us, as C. S. Lewis urges, “Continue seeking Him with seriousness. Unless he wanted you, you would not be wanting Him.”[4]

 

[1]See, for example, William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics, rev. ed. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1994).

[2]Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening Daily Readings (Lynchburg, VA: The Old-Time Gospel Hour, n. d.), 423.

[3]A. W. Tozer, The Best of A. W. Tozer: 52 Favorite Chapters, compiled by Warren W. Wiersbe (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1993), 13.

[4]C. S. Lewis, Letters of C. S. Lewis, rev. ed. (Orlando, FL: Harcourt, 1993).  

Discipleship Starts with Repentance

BY DAVE STEEL

I was on my way to an important meeting in an unfamiliar part of town. Though I had never been to this particular sandwich shop before, I had a rough idea where it might be, based on the street address. Yes, I had a GPS with me, but who needs one of those when you already have a vague idea where you’re going and an ill-founded confidence that you’ll get there?

(You know where this is going, don’t you?)

I got lost. When I could deny it no longer, I consulted Maggie (that’s what we called our GPS, though I don’t think that was her real name). She had four words for me: Turn around when possible.

Not bear left. Not slight right.

Turn around. It was Maggie’s way of saying I was going the wrong way, and the sooner I reversed course the better. Confronted with this reality, I changed my mind about the direction I was headed. I made a U-turn and followed Maggie’s instructions. To use a biblical term, I repented.

Jesus used that word repent a lot. Scripture says that early in his ministry Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matt. 4:17). What did Jesus mean by calling us to repent?

Essentially, he was calling us to change our minds (that’s what the Greek word metanoeō means[1]). It was an appeal for us to admit that we’ve gone the wrong way and to turn around and pursue a new direction, because it’s the only way we’ll ever get to experience the gracious rule and reign of God.

Eugene Peterson described repentance this way:

Repentance is not an emotion. It is not feeling sorry for your sins. It is a decision. It is deciding that you have been wrong in supposing that you could manage your own life and be your own god; it is deciding that you were wrong in thinking you had, or could get, the strength, education and training to make it on your own; it is deciding that you have been told a pack of lies about yourself and your neighbors and your world. And it is deciding that God in Jesus Christ is telling you the truth. Repentance is a realization that what God wants from you and what you want from God are not going to be achieved by doing the same old things, thinking the same old thoughts. Repentance is a decision to follow Jesus Christ and become his pilgrim in the path of peace.[2]

Had I disregarded Maggie’s directive to repent, I probably would have missed my lunch appointment. That would have been an embarrassing mistake, but one from which I would have recovered. That’s more than can be said when someone chooses to disregard Christ’s call to repentance.

Until we repent we’re still going our own way, which means we’re still lost. 

[1]BAGD, s.v. “μετανοέω,” 511-512.

[2]Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society, 2nd Edition (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2000), 29-30. 

Your Brand New Life

BY DAVE STEEL

“Narnia! It's all in the wardrobe just like I told you!” So declared Lucy Pevensie in C. S. Lewis’s classic, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Lucy perceived the otherworldly kingdom of Narnia while her siblings were still oblivious to it.

And so it is with the kingdom of God. It’s real, though not everyone can see it. 

Why is that?

Jesus declared, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again” (John 3:3). In saying this, he identified an essential prerequisite for participation in his program.

So what does it mean to be born again? How can a person be re-born? A religious leader named Nicodemus asked Jesus that very question. It turns out that being re-born is not something we do. It’s something that happens to us. Only the Spirit of God can impart the spiritual life we’re talking about here. No one can make themselves be born again any more than they could make themselves be born the first time. This new birth is, in the words of the apostle Peter, an act of God’s “great mercy” (1 Pet. 1:3).

And yet we do have to receive this new birth by faith, as Jesus explains to Nicodemus. In what has become one of the most quoted verses in the Bible, Jesus says that, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

As the “author of life” (Acts 3:15), Jesus often spoke with delight about his mission to impart new life to all who came to him. “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10), he said. And again, “I give them eternal life and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28).

This “eternal life” Christ gives us is not simply an extended life. It’s a fundamentally different life. In profoundly personal terms, the apostle Paul described it this way: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).

This new life is so much better than a “do-over.” We’re not simply given another chance at life. We now share in Christ’s own divine life, a life that enables us to live beyond our selfish, sinful nature, a life that brings us into vital union with Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul summed it up when he said, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:17).

Praise God! Through Jesus Christ, he imparts to us new life, without which none of us could see the kingdom of God. 

Why We Can't Opt Out of Discipleship

BY DAVE STEEL

Our self-perception has a profound impact on how we live our lives. If you see yourself as a disciple of Jesus, you’ll try to live like one. Conversely, if you don’t self-identify as a disciple, you probably won’t feel compelled to act like one. Why would you? Why would anyone expect you to behave like something you’re not?

But what if you actually are that something? You just don’t know it. What if you thought you were just coming to Jesus for forgiveness, when in fact you were also signing up to be his lifelong disciple? And what if Jesus has enrolled you in his school of discipleship but your seat has been empty ever since?  

That’s awkward.

But it happens. A lot. According to Dallas Willard, “The governing assumption today, among professing Christians, is that we can be ‘Christians’ forever and never become disciples.”[1] Willard referred to this phenomenon as “the Great Omission from the ‘Great Commission.’”[2] He wrote a whole book about it.

So why do so many professing Christians resist the disciple label? Many believe it to be presumptuous to declare themselves disciples of Jesus when they fall so far short of his standard of discipleship. (Don’t we all?) It’s ironic, though, that this sense of unworthiness that keeps Christians from self-identifying as a disciple of Jesus also tends to keep them from even trying to live like a disciple. Why should I act like a disciple if I’m not even sure I am one?

No doubt, this mental merry-go-round has waylaid many Christians. But identifying Jesus’ disciples is actually quite straightforward.

If you’ve truly come to Jesus for salvation, then you’re his disciple.

Willard was right: “There is absolutely nothing in what Jesus himself or his early followers taught that suggests you can decide just to enjoy forgiveness at Jesus’s expense and have nothing more to do with him.”[3]

Nothing undercuts biblical discipleship as subtly and effectively as the notion that discipleship, while a noble and worthwhile pursuit for those who aspire to spiritual greatness, is not essential to what it means to be a Christian. The problem with this view and the two-class system it creates is that neither Jesus nor the early church would have recognized it.[4]

Dietrich Bonhoeffer denounced this idea of Christianity without discipleship as “cheap grace.” “Cheap grace,” Bonhoeffer explained, “is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”[5]  

Trying to opt out of discipleship amounts to trying to deny something that’s fundamentally true about us as believers in Jesus.

When we received Christ as our Savior we became his disciples. We know the answer to the question “Am I a disciple of Jesus?” The real question for those of us who know him is, “How faithful am I as his disciple?”

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[1]Dallas Willard, The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship (New York, NY: Harper One, 2006), xi.

[2]Willard, The Great Omission, xii.

[3]Willard, The Great Omission, 13.

[4]I make a biblical case for this in Chapter 2 of my eBook, Seven Questions for Diagnosing Your Church’s Great Commission Health, available at Amazon.com.

[5]Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, rev. ed. (New York, NY: Collier Books, 1963), 47.

Ten Reasons We Can't Do Without the Holy Spirit

BY DAVE STEEL

In some Christian circles he may not be talked about as much as the other two members of the Trinity, but the Holy Spirit is active in and around us, being mentioned several hundred times throughout the Bible. Jesus once told his disciples not to go anywhere without the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5). Here are ten reasons we can’t do without him.

1.       The Spirit gives us life.

The Bible says it was the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. He’s the source of our life too.

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you (Rom. 8:11).

2.       The Spirit reassures us of God’s love.

. . . because sometimes you just need to be reminded that God’s got you.

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children (Rom. 8:16).

3.       The Spirit helps us in our weakness.

Have you ever felt so confused or powerless that you didn’t even know what to pray?

The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans (Rom. 8:26).

4.       The Spirit gives us wisdom and guidance.

It’s good to know where to go for wisdom anytime you need it.

We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives (Col. 1:9).

5.       The Spirit makes us better.

In light of what’s going on in your life right now, what character trait do you most need today? Chances are it’s on the list of what the Spirit wants to produce in you.   

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). 

6.       The Spirit transforms us.

What do you want to be when you “grow up”? What if you could be just like Jesus? That’s what the Spirit intends to do with you and me.

We all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18).

7.       The Spirit qualifies us for ministry.

When it comes to who gets picked for certain ministry opportunities, it’s about who you know. Only those who are full of the Spirit qualify for certain jobs.   

Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them (Acts 6:3).

8.       The Spirit equips us for ministry.

The Spirit not only qualifies us for ministry. He also equips us for ministry by endowing each believer with a special spiritual gift for serving the body of Christ.

There are different kinds of gifts but the same Spirit distributes them. . . . To each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good (1 Cor. 12:4, 7). 

9.       The Spirit empowers us to witness for Christ.

Even after spending three years with Jesus and seeing him after his resurrection, the original disciples still lacked the one thing they needed to effectively share the good news about their Savior. Jesus told them,

Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. . . . You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses (Acts 1:4, 8; cf. 4:31).

10.   The Spirit gives us courage.

What would you do with more courage? The Spirit is ready to provide it.

The Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power (1 Tim. 1:7).

This list of reasons why we can’t do without the Holy Spirit is far from exhaustive. But it reminds us of the Spirit’s essential role in enabling us to live the supernatural life Jesus is calling us into.

Of these ten reasons we can’t do without the Holy Spirit, which one speaks most urgently to you right now? Turn it into a prayer for the Spirit’s work to be done in you today.