Tag: Holy Spirit

Sermon Songs: The Spirit (Ephesians Version)

On By BrianIn Sermon Songs

The Spirit seals and guarantees
Our wondrous salvation
The way to God the Spirit frees
That we to God might run
By Him we are God’s dwelling place
The Temple of our Lord
God’s truth He reveals to our race
Take up His Holy Word

The Spirit strengthens each of us
Surrounds us with God’s love
Unites God’s people in Jesus
To serve our God above
So let us live humbly as one
From sins that grieve Him flee
Follow His lead as Christ has done
Live each day prayerfully

© 2025 Brian J. Mikul

(Sing to tune of “We Sing the Greatness of Our God”)

Enabled to Love

On By BrianIn PASSION Reflections

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
– I John 4:7-8 (ESV)

How are we able to love one another?  Do we strive to muster up the willpower on our own.  No, that will never work – at least not for long.  Rather, we must be enabled to love. 

Love is from God.  He enables us to love.  How? 

First, because He is love.  God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in a perfect loving relationship for all of eternity.  Love is what characterizes our Triune God.  It is who He is.  And because God is love, He is the source of love.  Love comes from Him.  But how does this love come to us and enable us? 

That brings us to the second point – we have been born of God; that is, born of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells within us, connecting us to God.  The Spirit of love connects us to the God of love so that we might love.

A power outlet has power available to run an appliance, but we must plug the appliance into the outlet for the power to run the appliance.  God has all the love needed to enable us to love, but we must be plugged into God in order to love.  And we are!  And so we are without excuse.

You and I are enabled to love by the Holy Spirit living within us, connecting us to the God of love.  May we make use of His enabling.  Let us love one another.

Saturday Strands

On By BrianIn Saturday Strands

Loose strands for our growth:

The Awakening We Need: Why the Reformed Pray for Revival – Ray Ortlund (DG)
“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” May Psalm 85:6 grab our hearts and never let us go!

Is the ‘Silent Treatment’ a Godly Approach to Conflict? – Joe Carter (TGC)
Passive-aggressive tactics are ungodly because they promote division over unity, reflect anger rather than understanding, and withhold forgiveness and love in an effort to gain control.

How (and How Not) to Fight Sin – J. Garrett Kell (Crossway)
Fighting sin is spiritual warfare, and warfare requires a battle plan. If left to our own devices, we would have little success against our unseen enemy. Thankfully, God’s word supplies wisdom to assist us in eluding the evil one’s snares.

Rome Is Not Our Home: Live Counterculturally During Election Season – Pete Nicholas (TGC)
Charity is an underemphasized Christian virtue today, and to be charitable requires eschewing suspicion, cynicism, and laziness. It means good conversation and prayerful reflection to inhabit another’s point of view.

Flashback: The Spirit’s Fruit
And the gentle Spirit works in our lives to make us a gentle people in the image of our Triune God. The gentle Spirit works in our lives to make us gentle in situations where we otherwise couldn’t on our own. The Spirit works to replace our tendency towards harshness, loudness, and quarrelsomeness with a Spirit-led gentleness.

The Spirit’s Fruit

On By BrianIn Virtue of Gentleness

GentlenessOfGod

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness (meekness), self-control. – Galatians 5:22-23a ESV (KJV)

If the these nine qualities are fruit of Spirit, then Spirit must possess these nine qualities, including gentleness.  The Spirit is gentle, like the Father and the Son.

And the gentle Spirit works in our lives to make us a gentle people in the image of our Triune God.  The gentle Spirit works in our lives to make us gentle in situations where we otherwise couldn’t on our own.  The Spirit works to replace our tendency towards harshness, loudness, and quarrelsomeness with a Spirit-led gentleness.

Where in your life do you need to see the Spirit work the fruit of gentleness?

In what ways are you opposing the Spirit’s work of gentleness in your life?

How do you need to better cooperate with the Spirit’s work of gentleness?

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

How to Commune with Christ on a Crazy Day – David Mathis (Crossway)

Do Not Grieve the Holy Spirit – Tim Challies

Hobbies to the Glory of God – Tim Challies

Yes Christian, You Need the Church– Josh Buice (DBG)

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day with your local church worshiping our glorious and gracious God!

Pentecost Sunday

On By BrianIn Holidays

Tomorrow is Pentecost Sunday – the day we remember the coming of the Spirit.  Where would we be without the Spirit?

  • It is the Spirit who applies Christ’s salvation to us (I Corinthians 6:11, Titus 3:5-7).
  • It is the Spirit who helps and teaches us (John 14:26).
  • It is the Spirit who intercedes for us (Romans 8:26).
  • It is the Spirit who sanctifies us – making us holy and producing in us the “fruit of the Spirit” (I Peter 1:2, Galatians 5:22-23)
  • It is the Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance (Ephesians 1:13-14).

We have so many reasons to celebrate the coming of the Spirit!

For more on this, consider: A Pentecost to Celebrate – Ryan Griffith (Desiring God)

Passion Points

On By BrianIn Idolatry, PASSION Points1 Comment

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

Christ Is All – Charles Spurgeon (via Trevin Wax)
This is our soul’s grandest desire, that Jesus’ name be lifted high,
and His throne be set up among the people, to the praise of the glory of His grace.

The Gospel of the Holy Spirit – Trevin Wax
Too many evangelicals see the good news that we are saved from sin and from God’s wrath and stop there. We forget that we are saved for a relationship with God (to know Him and love Him) and for His mission (His redeeming work to seek and save the lost). And it’s the Holy Spirit that enables that relationship and empowers us for mission.

What Sanctification Is and Is Not – J. C. Ryle (via Tim Challies)
An inward spiritual work which the Lord Jesus Christ works in a man by the Holy Ghost, when He calls him to be a true believer.

The Church and Idolatry – Jared Wilson (via Ligonier Ministries)
On Sundays, our sanctuaries fill with people seeking worship, and not one person comes in set to neutral. We must take great care, then, not to assume that even in our religious environments, where we put the Scriptures under so many noses, that it is Jesus the exalted Christ who is being worshiped.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day truly worshipping our great God!

Acts Articles – Spirit 02

On By BrianIn Book of Acts

In Acts 2:1-21, we see Jesus send the Spirit to the 120 disciples.  It is Pentecost, 50 days after Passover, and all the disciples are together. 

Suddenly there is the sound of a mighty wind, and what appears to be fire sits above each one.  We often see wind and fire when God comes down in the Old Testament, suggesting that we should see this event as a theophany.  God has come down among his people. 

They are all filled with the Holy Spirit and begin speaking in other tongues.  Crowds begin to gather, and the disciples spill out of the house.  Jews from all over the Roman Empire are there, and they hear the disciples speaking in their tongues, and they are amazed.  Peter gets up and begins to explain what is happening from the book of Joel. 

From his explanation, we can glean at least three reasons that the coming of the Spirit is important for us today:

  • New Relationship – God has poured out his Spirit on all of the disciples (v17, 18).  Not just a few receive the Spirit as in the Old Testament, but all of his people.  God now dwells with us.  Jesus is with us through his Spirit.  We can always enjoy a relationship with God because the Spirit dwells in us. 
  • New Purpose – The disciples were waiting for the Spirit so they could go and be Jesus’ witnesses (1:8).  Now that the Spirit has come, that is exactly what they are doing – they are being witnesses to Jesus Christ.  And so the Spirit empowers us to fulfill this new purpose – to share the good news with others.
  • New Era – The Spirit’s coming is directly related to the last days (v17) before the Day of the Lord (v20).  Since the coming of the Spirit, we are living in the last days awaiting the return of Jesus.  He is coming, and we need to be ready.