Tuesday evening, July 15th ,1987 was a very powerful, important, and unforgettable night. I was at Nazarene Youth Congress in Washington DC with 4 thousand Teens from The United States and Canada. Dr. Steven Manley was preaching about sanctification. Some call it the second work of grace or entire sanctification or being sanctified holy. That was the night I was sanctified. It was an extremely powerful experience. It was the beginning of my understanding the power of the Holy Spirit at work in me. It also happened to be my 16th birthday. This July will be 38 years.
Dr. Steven Manley never knew me, but God used Him through the power of The Holy Spirit to speak into my life for a whole week at NYC. He journeyed to heaven recently and the angels rejoice. Thank you, Dr. Manley. I will never forget you or your impact on my life. I’ll see it through, I promise!
He leadeth me, O blessed thought!
O words with heav’nly comfort fraught!
Whate’er I do, where’er I be
Still ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me.
He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
By His own hand He leadeth me;
His faithful foll’wer I would be,
For by His hand He leadeth me.
Lord, I would place my hand in Thine,
Nor ever murmur nor repine;
Content, whatever lot I see,
Since ’tis my God that leadeth me.
This morning as I was getting ready for work, the song, “He Leadeth Me”, came to mind. We sang this old hymn when I was a kid at the little white church in Lexington, Ohio.
My heart leaps with joy as The Holy Spirit gently reminded how He is guiding me with His eye. With my hand firmly gripping His, I am content knowing He is The One who leads. He has good plans, and He will go before me making crooked paths straight.
The gentle, sweet peace of The Holy Spirit is the refreshing I need and the rest I enjoy. I’ve never been perfect, but my sincere desire has always been to be faithful. I want to serve My Savior with passion, joy and intense conviction.
And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So, they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. Then they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.” And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.” And the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. Exodus 14:10-15
As I continue to think about the freedom that comes when we let go and move forward, my mind goes back once again to the children of Isreal before they cross The Red Sea. They had 2 choices:
They could stand still & keep complaining, questioning, blaming, and living in fear, or
They could Go forward like Moses instructed them to do.
Are you at a “Red Sea” of life? Maybe you have a choice to make? You can continue to complain, question, and blame, or you can go forward. If the children of Isreal had stood still, they would have died. If Moses would have continued crying to God instead of walking in obedience, He would have died, too.
Simple obedience caused a major miracle
Is God calling you to go forward? You can never leave the past behind if you refuse to move forward. What amazing miracle is ahead if you simply move forward?
“Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old.Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:18-19
Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” Whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left. Isaiah 30:21
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. Psalm 32;8
The Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying: ‘You have dwelt long enough at this mountain.’ Deuteronomy 1:6
Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you. Proverbs 4:25
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1
For we walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7
On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, (1)He asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, (2)“Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. Luke 5:1-11
Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” Whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left. Isaiah 30:21
“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, (reaching forward) I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 3:13-14
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter (Author & Finisher) of our faith.” – Hebrews 12:1-2
“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” – Colossians 3:13
Release– to relieve from something that confines, burdens, or oppresses; dismiss; Relinquish; let go of;
The act or an instance of liberating or freeing (as from restraint)
*** The Holy Spirit showed me this, then I listened to a sermon that talked about this same thing.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh rather, SERVE one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “LOVE your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want….
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
