“Holy Spirit of Promise”
By Bob Fuhrman
Copyright May 15, 2009
Written from a letter I wrote to a young man named Blake. He gave me his address and I wrote a letter to him which is re-edited for this MOTBN Message of the Week.
At a time in the recent past I was working in my front yard when a man pulled up in his pick-up truck. His name was Blake and he asked me for directions. He was a young man about 32 and we began a friendly conversation, as you would on a sunny afternoon to pass some time. I had the opportunity to asked Blake if he was from our local area and did he attend a church in our community. He informed me he was from a neighboring city and that he had just received Jesus Christ as his personal savior. Blake informed me he was attending a church in his community. He was a new believer in Christ and he asked me some questions concerning my experiences with Christ. Blake asked me how to know i.e. discern when God was present in his life through the Holy Spirit. How would he know if he was being lead by the Holy Spirit of Christ in his thoughts?. Blake asked me about the Thoughts of God and how to discern these. Were his thoughts indeed from God and His Holy Spirit?
This was now a time reversed for me. I thought of myself years ago. Now I was being given the opportunity to share my experience and learning in the gospel; as other men and women of faith had shared their Christian experience with me. These people were important in mentoring the growth of my Christian faith. Now I was a mentor to a new believer in the gospel of our salvation (Ephesians 1:13). This is what I was able to witness to Blake as having learned in my walk with Christ over the past 32 years. (In the words of Christ in the scriptures – “Learn” Gospel of John 6:45 NAS i.e. willing to learn, to grow in personal faith with God)
I told Blake about Psalm 139 and how God gave David this insight and how this psalm has given me discernment to live my life in each daily footstep. I said, “Blake, this is a learned discipline. With the Lord’s Holy Spirit this process becomes easier and more part of our character each day. If we are not as perfect as we feel we should be, just simply speak to God and ask Him to forgive you. Say to Him “Let us try again, I want to be with You”. I have learned from a lot of falling down and Jesus has always been my friend to lift me up again! God is a personal experience! A minister once preached in a sermon that I was in attendance; he said “recorded i.e. symbolically, in the personal “Tape Recorder within you.” —- I have learned that; —- The Memories of our Proven Experiences with the Thoughts of God in Relation to Our Prayers to Him —- i.e. these are our personal recordings in our “Faith Recorder”. You learn and you grow in this process of Faith.
It is not what the world thinks but, how you think about God and how you allow Him to Guide you in your daily walk! —- “Period!”
Psalm 139:17-18
How precious also are Thy thoughts to me, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they would out number the sand.
When I awake, I am still with thee
Blake, written below is how the Lord taught me to discern His Holy Spirit; “to test the spirits” (1 John 4:1) supported in God’s Scripture references Billets 1 through 3 below.
I was in prayer one evening many years ago, February 19, 1989. I was praying for and seeking God’s help for many people that I cared about. In the early morning hours, what David, the Psalmist, calls the “Night Watch” (Psalm 63:6 NAS), the Lord showed me the Spiritual Truth concerning Ephesians 5:8-13 below:
For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord: walk as children of light
(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth)
trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.
And do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them:
For it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.
But all things become visible when they are exposed to the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. (Ephesians 5:8-13 NAS)
God said to me as I asked Him, “Is this of You” and “Do I have a right to be here”? I am delineating this as my witness as to what God did for me this evening, February 19, 1989 as a witness for Him in Christ. He said to me “Yes you have a right to be here in the name of my Son Jesus Christ, at the Cross, and in His Blood you have right to be here.” The Lord began His answer to my prayer in His Holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:13 NAS).
Discerning the Thoughts of God
1. In the name of Jesus Christ (1 John 4: 1-3)
2. At the Cross (1 Corinthians 1:18) The Cross is the Power of God
3. In the Blood of Christ (1 John 5: 7-8) The Blood Bears Witness
Also (Ephesians 1:7 NAS) In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.
Then billets 4 through 5 are in God’s Word (Galatians 5:6) and (Ephesians 1:4) as I learned them from my bible studies —- Faith working through Love.
4. Through Faith (Galatians 5:6)
5. Working through Love (Galatians 5:6) Also (Ephesians 1:4 NAS) ….. In love.
Blake my advice to you is simply this, when you are praying i.e. speaking to God or, the Lord just quickens you with His Voice in your soul, or however He communicates with you, nothing is impossible with God; discern your guidance from the Holy Spirit with the above, as to the thoughts in your mind. Then to guide you further in your actions. Ask yourself can I walk in the Fruit of the Spirit, “Is this the Holy Spirit’s thoughts of God – Galatians 5:22-23 – or is this the spirit of the flesh Galatians 5:19-21? We as people, free individuals, 2 Corinthians 3:17, knowing Jesus Christ as our Savior, live by the Spirit and we walk in the Spirit of the Lord. (Galatians 5:25).
Then, Blake, we live each day by the Wisdom of Colossians 3:17. This I have found is the template to serve the common good. To do good for other people as God speaks to us, to do the best that we are able, as we seek the Lords counsel.
I have found happiness in this for me and my family, as I know you will, as the mentors of my faith in the gospel of our salvation have guided me with their precious counsel.
This answer of God’s magnificence to me for the common good for others continues to this day with www.messageoftruth.com Founded February 19, 2009.
Respectfully,
Bob Fuhrman
1 Corinthians 2:11-16
