Overtaken by Holy Spirit

When was the last time you were absolutely overwhelmed and taken over by the Holy Spirit of Jesus? How were you impacted and changed? The very Spirit of the Resurrected, Glorified, and Enthroned Jesus lives inside of every believer!

Can we walk by the Holy Spirit moment by moment; even while we are being affected beyond personal failures, present struggles/losses, cultural norms, reason, intellect, orthodoxy, or traditions? Yes; a resounding yes must answer this question beyond any thread of doubt or question in our daily journey in Christ Jesus’ faith.

Holy Spirit leads and guides us into all truth, and then he instructs and teaches us how to walk in that truth. What’s more he comforts us in all the distress and pain of living in this world. There is not much He doesn’t do for us every moment of our faith journey!

We cannot and will not make it in this world system and earth suit (flesh) apart from a moment by moment intimate exchange with Holy Spirit! As I emphatically present these strong words, I must confess that I too am learning to walk each day in the grace and divine love that covers my discarding, distractions, and even grieving or quenching the magnificent gift of Holy Spirit in my walk with Jesus!

Allow scripture to lead you into being overtaken and filled by Him. “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 For the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you through Christ Jesus from the power of sin that leads to death. 3 The Law of Moses could not save us, because of our sinful nature. But God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours, except that ours are sinful. God destroyed sin's control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 He did this so that the requirement of the law would be fully accomplished for us who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit. 5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 If your sinful nature controls your mind, there is death. But if the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is life and peace. 7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's laws, and it never will. 8 That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. 9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them are not Christians at all.) 10 Since Christ lives within you, even though your body will die because of sin, your spirit is alive because you have been made right with God. 11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as he raised Christ from the dead, he will give life to your mortal body by this same Spirit living within you. 12 So, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation whatsoever to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13 For if you keep on following it, you will perish. But if through the power of the Holy Spirit you turn from it and its evil deeds, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15 So you should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God's very own children, adopted into his family -- calling him "Father, dear Father." 16 For his Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God's children.” (Rom.1: 1-16, NLT) Please tell me, what doesn’t he do for us?

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh.” (Gal. 5:16, WEB) “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” (Gal. 5:25 ESV) Could it get any simpler? Walking by the Spirit is the pathway to the Calvary secured Grace of dwelling in Jesus and he in us.

Even our big brother Jesus was conceived by Holy Spirit overtaking his mother Mary!

“The birth of Jesus took place like this. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. Before they came to the marriage bed, Joseph discovered she was pregnant. It was (by being) overtaken by Holy Spirit, but he didn't know that.” (Matt. 1: 18, Msg, parenthesis added)

This is the irrational season
When love blooms bright and wild.
Had Mary been filled with reason,
There'd have been no room for the child.
-Madeleine L'Engle

 “By the power of the Holy Spirit, he was appointed to be the mighty Son of God because he rose from the dead. He is Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 1:4, NIRV) Paul was quick to instruct the believers in Rome (and everywhere else he journeyed by Holy Spirit’s leading and guiding) that the power of Holy Spirit was always in the life, and resurrection of Jesus! “And He loves to give us everything pertaining to life and Godliness! That includes the very same power that raised Him from the dead.

”Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17, NKJV) It is the awesome love of Jesus that shares with His followers the very same enlightenment and empowerment He has in all things. Overcoming victory is His; thus it is ours as well! His love trumps anything else you could possibly imagine in this world and the ages to come!

“And hope will never let us down. God has poured his love into our hearts. He did it through the Holy Spirit, whom he has given to us.” (Rom. 5:5, NIRV) Holy Spirit continuously pours Father’s love into our hearts! I would be crazy, delusional, and stupid to not embrace this love via Holy Spirit at all times and experiences! The world is in dire straits when or because I/we do not daily offer this marvelous gift of Holy Spirit! Our very lives must continuously slosh onto all we come in contact with.

Hope only comes to the world by the reality of our light and saltiness! We must show them the light and satiation of our saltiness via Holy Spirit! They will not see the grandeur of Jesus apart from the work of Holy Spirit! The following scriptures provide a glimpse into the breath-taking comfort, leading, guidance, instruction and sobering privilege that is ours because of the matchless gift of Holy Spirit! Let me remind you of the awesome ways he works in and through us!

“But your sinful nature does not control you. The Holy Spirit controls you. The Spirit of God lives in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Christ.” (Rom. 8:9, NIRV)

“For if (any of us) you keep on following (the lies of the world, religion and our own flesh), (we) you will perish. But if through the power of the Holy Spirit you turn from it and its evil deeds, you will live.” (Rom. 8:13 NLT, parentheses added)

“You didn't receive a spirit that makes you a slave to fear once again. Instead you received the Holy Spirit, who makes you God's child. By the Spirit's power we call God ""Abba."" "Abba" means Father. “(Rom. 8:15, NIRV)

“For his Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God's children.” (Rom. 8:16, NLT)

“And even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us.” (Rom. 8:23 NLT)

“And the Holy Spirit helps us in our distress. For we don't even know what we should pray for, nor how we should pray. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.” (Rom. 8:26, NLT)

“He who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit's mind, because he makes intercession for the holy ones according to God.” (Rom. 8:27 HNV)

Finally, let’s consider this revelatory truth offered by A. W. Tozer. Warning! It might rock your world!

“Everywhere among conservatives we find persons who are Bible-taught but not Spirit-taught. They conceive truth to be something which they can grasp with the mind. If a man holds to the fundamentals of the Christian faith, he is thought to possess divine truth. But it does not follow. There is no truth apart from the Spirit. The most brilliant intellect may be imbecilic when confronted with the mysteries of God. For a man to understand revealed truth requires an act of God equal to the original act which inspired the text. ... "Now we have received, not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things which are freely given us of God.”

An unblessed soul filled with the letter of truth may actually be worse off than a pagan kneeling before a fetish. We are saved only when our intellects are indwelt by the loving fire that came at Pentecost. For the Holy Spirit is not a luxury, not something added now and again to produce a deluxe type of Christian once in a generation. No. He is for every child of God a vital necessity, and that He fills and indwells His people is more than a languid hope. It is rather an inescapable imperative.
Now the Bible teaches that there is something in God which is like emotion. ... God has said certain things about Himself, and these furnish all the grounds we require. “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing” (Zeph. 3:17). This is but one verse among thousands which serve to form our rational picture of what God is like, and tell us plainly that God feels something like our love, like our joy, and what He feels makes Him act very much as we would in a similar situation; He rejoices over His loved ones with joy and singing.
Here is emotion on as high a plain as it can ever be seen, emotion flowing out of the heart of God Himself. Feeling, then, is not the degenerate son of unbelief that is often painted by some of our Bible teachers. Our ability to feel is one of the marks of our divine origin. We need not be ashamed of either tears or laughter.
The Christian stoic who has crushed his feelings is only two-thirds of a man; an important third part has been repudiated. Holy feeling had an important place in the life of our Lord. “For the joy that was set before Him” He endured the cross and despised its shame. He pictured Himself crying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.”
The work of the Holy Spirit is, among other things, to rescue the redeemed man’s emotions, to restring his harp and open again the wells of sacred joy which have been stopped up by sin.”
Aiden Wilson Tozer (April 21, 1897–May 12, 1963) was an American Christian pastor, preacher, author, magazine editor and spiritual mentor.
Reprinted from God's Pursuit of Man by A.W. Tozer, copyright © 1950, 1978 by Lowell Tozer. Previously titled The Divine Conquest and The Pursuit of Man. Used by permission of WingSpread Publishers, a division of Zur Ltd.
Much more could be revealed and embraced considering Holy Spirit’s major part in our walk as followers of Jesus! Will you daily, intentionally, open the door of your heart to the magnificent Spirit of God? Do not relegate Him (Holy Spirit) to a “bit” part in the unfolding of your life in Jesus. The cry of my heart is that “we be filled and keep on being filled with Holy Spirit.”
Filled by Holy Spirit, Ron Ross
http://youtu.be/VVy1V0EdNj8