All-Round Helper

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. – John 14:26 ESV

After His Resurrection, Yeshua went back to Heaven. But before He did, He left His promise to send the Holy Spirit to His followers. The Spirit lives in our hearts and is God’s presence with us every moment. The Spirit is our Helper, guiding us into wise decisions.

By His grace and because of the promise, the Spirit is now every believer's helper. He comes alongside you to comfort, empower, encourage, help, and sustain you. The Spirit's helping ministry includes bringing comfort first to your own heart, and then to others through you. He fills you with the fruit of what it means to live for Yeshua, which are the fruit of the Spirit.

He challenges us to be obedient to God’s commandments. When we are troubled and simply can’t find the words to pray, the Spirit prays for you. He guards and guarantees your salvation. The Spirit also gives us what we need to do the work God gives you to do. He helps us understand God. The Spirit is alive within you helping you grow and learn how to serve God.

I don’t know what I would do without the Holy Spirit. I have made Him my Best Friend. Many people just see the Holy Spirit as a Helper just for spiritual things. With those limitations, they miss out on a special relationship. He's my Helper on the job with challenges, retaining my studies at school, counsels me with relationship misunderstandings, advises me with my monthly expenses and budget…and so much more. The scripture says, “He will teach you ALL things”…and All means ALL!

The Spirit-filled life is not a special, deluxe edition of Christianity. It is part and parcel of the total plan of God for His people. – A.W. Tozer

Renewed Mind = Transformation

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. - Romans 12:2

When one comes to Yeshua or accept Him as their Savior, scripture says they are become new. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17. One of the most important areas of a believer’s life that must become new is, the mind.

Our scripture reference says, be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. When we are in Christ, a transformation should take place. The old things in our life must change and become new. Our behavior and customs must change. It cannot remain the same. You may ask, but how do we change? Change takes place first in the mind. The mind must be renewed. How is the mind renewed? The mind is renewed when we take heed to the word of God.

Transformation does not take place overnight. It’s an ongoing process. Same for the renewing of the mind. As the mind is renewed, you will be transformed. As I previously stated, renewing of the mind and transformation takes place by the word of God. It is not sufficient to just read the word of God, but we must apply it to our lives, daily. With the help of the Holy Spirit, change will take place in us.

Renewed mind and transformation are an essential part in the maturity process of every believer. We no longer see things, or behave like the world. We begin to see life from God’s perspective. When the mind is renewed, we experience transformation also in every area of our lives. The whole idea of a renewed mind is to have the mind of Christ and to be transformed into God’s image and likeness.

When the mind is renewed and transformation takes place, then and only then will we learn to know God’s will for us. His will, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Let’s submit to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives so that our minds will be renewed, we will then be transformed and come into the knowledge of God’s good, pleasing and perfect will for our lives.

Curse or Worship? You Choose!

Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, - Job 1:20 KJV

Throughout our life, there will be good times, bad times and sad times. We cannot avoid these times because they are a part of life. The book of Ecclesiastes tells us there is a time for everything under the sun. To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: Ecclesiastes 3:1

As children of God, we are not exempt from hardships, sufferings and Satan attacks. When you look at the life of Job, we see that Job experienced all of that. Scripture tells us that Job was a righteous man, blameless – a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil. Job had everything anyone could ever want. Then one day, his whole world changed. He lost all that he had except his wife.

When Job received the news of his loss, scripture tells us, Job did not question God, Job did not curse God, but instead worshipped God. What?! Who does that? Those who know their God; those who have put their trust in God. Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped. Job said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord – Job 1:21.

In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly, Job 1:22. There is an old saying, when it rains it pours. There were even more tests that Job would face. His body was inflicted with sickness and not only that, the one whom he expected to be a support to him, gave him some really bad advice. His wife said to him, Are you still trying to be godly when God has done all this to you? Curse him and die - Job 2:9 TLB. We should not be quick to judge Job’s wife. While we may not say, curse God and die, there are those of us when we faced hardship, we questioned God and some even turn away from God.

Here, yet again, Job maintained his integrity. You are speaking nonsense like some depraved (foolish) woman. Are we to accept the good that comes from God, but not accept the bad? Throughout all of this, Job did not sin with his mouth; he would not curse God as the Accuser predicted – Job 2:10 VOICE. I do not know for you, but when I meditate on what Job went through and his response, it causes me to examine myself. When things are not going my way or there are loss of things or people in my life, what would my response be. Would I like Job worship God or would I curse with my mouth and sin against God?

My question to us, are we committed to God because of who He is or because of what we can receive from Him? Loss is never easy, but one thing we need to make sure of, is that our heart is in the right place and that God is number one in our lives. We need to ensure that we are committed to God, no matter what. In the good times, worship Him and even more so, when we face hard times, let’s get on our face and worship God.