knowing his footsteps

 Last night, as I lay in bed, I heard my daughter come in from her evening. When I heard the door, I listened. I knew the sound of the key on the door and her footsteps on the hardwood as she walked down the hall. I recognized it was her moving through the house.  As a parent, it allowed me to rest easy knowing she was home safe, but it also pricked my spirit. Do I recognize the Spirit of God as he speaks and moves in my house?

 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

1 Corinthians 6:19 KJV

Our body is the house or temple of the Lord. He lives in us. Do we attend to his stirring and listen to his voice? In my physical home, I know the voices of my family.  I am familiar with those who live here, move through my home, and recognize their voices when they speak. Their voices and their movements evoke responses from me. Those in my home are familiar to me because we are close together, we spend time together daily. I know them. Do we do the same with God? He is with us in our dwelling place. Do we recognize him and respond?

 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

John 10:27 KJV

We know his voice when we listen and become familiar with him. We will know when he speaks because we recognize his voice by spending time with him. He is in our dwelling place. He is right here with us. We should become familiar because of his closeness. We need to know him by attending to his presence.

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

James 4:8 KJV

We draw closer to him through experiencing his presence, being sensitive to his presence and reading and obeying his word. We become familiar to the presence of God.  

There is a line in in a song that says, "we wait for You, to walk into the room."  We wait on God, and listen for his footsteps. We recognize when his presence is moving and stirring  about just like we do with our family in the natural. Are we aware of his presence stirring and moving in us? Do we respond to that presence? Our response can be to shake off the stirring, ignore the stirring, or to listen and move when he says move. We can be overwhelmed in the presence of God and be refreshed by the presence of His Spirit. We can be stirred to prayer or to act on a prompting of the Spirit on someone's behalf. God's  Spirit moving in us should evoke a response with us. What joy and peace we miss out on when we do not take the time to listen for the footsteps God moving in our dwelling. He may need to speak encouragement,  or give us direction. He may need to give us a word to speak, or just want to speak his love toward us. We get so busy and caught up at times,  we may be missing out on his presence right in our own dwelling place. 

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

Isaiah 26:3 KJV

We need to keep our minds upon Christ and ready to respond to the voice of God. Like Samuel learned from Eli, he did not recognize God calling at first, but when he said, Yes, I am listening, God spoke many things to him. It was the beginning of a great ministry for Samuel. May we become sensitive to the stirring and voice of God in our dwelling.  May we know his footsteps coming into the room.

grace for me

 I don't know about you, but I am often very hard on myself.  I am my own worst critic.  I can sometimes be very self-critical and will say the worst things about myself.  I would never say these things to someone else, but I can say it to myself.  If I make a mistake, I may call myself names and even feel defeated.  My husband really does not like it when I do that. He has told me for years to stop doing that. I know I am not alone in this. God spoke to me this past week  about this. I can give grace to myself just because he already did gave it to me. He still giving grace.

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

2 Corinthians 12:9 KJV

We all have hang-ups and weaknesses. We all make mistakes. But God has extended mercy and grace for that reason. He knows who we are, after all, he created us. I can easily speak of God’s grace to someone else but forget that I need it too. Without his mercy and grace I would not be here. 

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 4:16 KJV

I came to Jesus, repented of my sins overwhelmed by his love, mercy, and grace. I have lived it and felt it. I try my best to extended the same to others that they might also experience the birth of salvation.  For it was by grace I was saved.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Ephesians 2:8 KJV

I see grace at work for others. I rejoice as grace and mercy changes lives from destruction to glory. Yet, I struggle to see myself as God sees me, under grace. I see my shortcomings and failures. I can often dwell on them and be overcome by them.  I often deflect complements and devalue my talents and gifts.  Is this what God really wants? Is this what the enemy wants to keep us from fulfilling the work God has for us? 

Yes, we must be humble, but the realization that we are a child of God brings a confidence in walking in His Spirit.  Without walking in the Spirit, we cannot move forward in the will of God. Dwelling on our weaknesses, rather than His strength will keep us broken and unable to work in the will of God. 

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 4:16 KJV

I need to realize that rather than belittling myself, I can come boldly to Him and find his grace is still sufficient for me. Rather than beating myself down, I can speak life and remind myself that God made me His child. I need to see myself as God sees me, in need of grace. Rather than allowing the enemy of our soul to attempt to derail the work that God has already done in me, I need to stand boldly in grace declaring the work of the Lord and move forward in what he has for me.  

But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

James 4:6 KJV

He gives grace to the humble and then gives even more grace.  Being humble is not being self destructive,  but it is understanding how much we need and rely on God for all things. It is recognizing his strength is what gets us through.  It is allowing him to work on us and through us for the purpose of the Kingdom. It is accepting that grace and mercy covers us and, we too, need mercy and grace. 

Free?

 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.  Romans 6:22

We have been made free from sin. When we are saved, we are set free! My question is, do we believe it? We are set apart for God's purpose and for the glorious day of heaven. We have God who has redeemed us and wants to use us.  Too many times, we allow our own self-doubt and fear to hold us down and keep us from doing what God has called us and set us apart to do. He put his Spirit in us to give us power to walk in the Spirit. He wants us to do His will. Fear keeps us from moving in the freedom he gave us.

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.  

2 Timothy 1:7 KJV

I knew a lady that every time I saw her, she would ask for prayers that God would forgive her. She didn't trust or believe that he could or would forgive her no matter how many times it was explained to her. We may accept forgiveness, be baptized and filled with the Spirit, but if we walk in doubt and fear we are denying his power. We need to move out of the fear and into the faith that God has planted in us.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

Romans 12:1‭-‬3 KJV

God is wanting our mind to be transformed and proving his will. We cannot do that if we have fear and doubt dominating our mind.  We need to place all our faith and trust in Him. It what he asks, our trust. With that trust comes peace of mind and trusting Him that becomes unwavering. 

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:7 KJV

The peace of God will keep our hearts and minds, even when what we see in the physical doesn't make sense. He  will be with his people. He does not disappoint us. Fear makes us think he does, but he does not disappoint.  We need to walk in this faith and in his Spirit.

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Galatians 5:25 KJV

Walking in the Spirit is seeing God as our Father, our Guide, our Protector,  our Savior,  our Friend, and on and on.  We can rely on him to walk before us, prepare the way, and the way of escape when needed. He is already working for our good. 

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28 KJV

We need to believe we have the freedom to walk in His Spirit and in the calling he placed in us. We cannot let fear and doubt continue to hinder His will and His work. We have access to the power of Almighty God. We have the King of kings on our side. What have we to fear?

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Psalm 27:1 KJV

We are free indeed and do not need to be entangled  with the past sins or any other thing that brings forth fear and separation from God. His work is done in us. 

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Galatians 5:1 KJV

The powers of this world are intent on destroying the Body of Christ, and keeping us from God. We need to stand in the liberty we have in Christ. We need to get hold of this and rise up against the enemy of our soul and say, 'No more!' We are not subject to his authority any longer, we are servants of the Most High, and His alone. We do not have to hide or worry over whether we are his. We know that His Spirit is in us, we have the authority to use it. It is high time God's people rise in the liberty and power of the Holy Spirit and take back what we have given up. No longer are we condemned, but we are free. Praise God we are set free!