WIthout the Holy Spirit. Only Dead Religion

  Imagine you are sitting in front of the television. You have the remote control next to you. Then the enemy sneaks in, takes the remote control and changes the channel. 

If you passively accept this, you no longer control your thoughts, because what you see before your eyes will direct and distract your thoughts.

What we see or read on the internet influences our thoughts. 

How can we know what is true and what is not?
How can we understand what is important and what is trivial?

The apostle Paul gives us an important instruction.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Rom 12:2 NIV

How can we purify our minds from the deceitful influences around us?
We must truly pray and hold fast to God's Word.

But there is another danger. We can turn away from worldliness, but then become narrow-minded and religious....

 for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 2 Corinthians 3:6 

Prayer and God's Word are our shield and weapons, and also our medicine.

But without the Holy Spirit, prayer is like a car without petrol.
Without the Holy Spirit, the Bible is a dry religious textbook.

In the same way, 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 NIV


But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, Jude 1:20 NIV

I often pray in tongues. To some, this seems like a charismatic aberration. 
But let me ask you a question. If you don't pray in tongues, how do you pray ‘in the Holy Spirit’? 

We can pray in a known language with a strong anointing and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In my experience, praying in tongues increases my ability to receive inspiration to pray in my own language with palpable blessing and power. Clearly, Paul did this.

For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. 
So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. 1 Co 14:14–15 NIV

The context of these verses clearly indicates that when Paul speaks of praying in the Spirit, he means praying in an unknown tongue.

If prayer in the Holy Spirit is not a reality in your life, you can ask God to lead you into a deeper experience of the Holy Spirit.

In the same way, 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 NIV

Overcoming Distractions

 God gives you and me important assignments and sometimes we don't fulfil them.

 Why is that?

I often allow distractions to hold me back. Do you too?

We are so easily distracted by electronic media.

Jesus is our role model. He always lived in communion with the Father. He never allowed himself to be distracted.

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? What I say to you I do not speak of my own accord: it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his works. Jn 14:10 NJB

If you love Jesus and follow Him, then God Himself lives in you.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—
the Spirit of truth. ... you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. Jn 14:16–17 NIV

The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, dwells in us, but we must be attentive.
We must be careful that we listen to Him, that we live in communion with Him, that we are not distracted by our visible environment.

We certainly want to follow Jesus, but in our thoughts we sometimes wander and then we do not listen to the voice of God as we would like.

But Paul exhorts us to train our minds, and we certainly want to do that because we don't want to be failures.

Do not conform yourselves to this world, but be transformed and renew your minds,
that you may prove and discern what is the will of God, what pleases him, what is good and perfect. Romans 12:2

It is so easy to be influenced by negative thoughts.
The internet and worldly media a full of negativity.
If you always eat unhealthy food, you can't be healthy.If you drink a lot of beer or wine several times a day, you can no longer think clearly.

This world is poisonous and we must defend our hearts against it.
We need to let God's word cleanse our hearts. but don’t let bible knowledge be an end in itself.

Jesus said to the Jewish scribes:

You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me,
yet you refuse to come to me to have life. Jn 5:39–40 NIV

Bible reading can be learning about God or getting to know God personally.

We need to build ourselves up daily in the Spirit. I thank God that he is so merciful with me and always wants to help me.

God has given me his Holy Spirit and I can pray in the Spirit. Speaking in tongues is not difficult at all and the Holy Spirit then prays with me.

But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,
keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Jude 20–21 NIV

Paul wrote:

I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 1 Cor 14:18 NIV

If we want to fulfil the tasks that God gives us, we must build ourselves up with God's help.

In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;

and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Rom 8:26–27 NASB95