Having discipline will be useless unless you have a goal in mind for who you want to become and a plan to get there.

So, what should our ultimate goal be as followers of Jesus?

In this episode, we discuss the greatest goal that anybody could ever set themselves: Loving God in every area of life.

Over the past few weeks we’ve been looking at how even though areas of our lives might be broken and cracked because of sin, the Holy Spirit renews and sanctifies us when we choose to follow Jesus. When it comes to the Holy Spirit’s renewal and growth, though, we have the responsibility to make sure that our lives are surrendered to Him otherwise we won’t experience that renewal. We also have to do our part in the process as well.

There are several practices that we can implement in our everyday lives that help us stay connected to God, focused on Him, instead of ourselves and on the path that the Holy Spirit has us on. These practices are what we in the spiritual formations world call spiritual disciplines. Before I talk about these practices, though, I want to spend this episode focused on a key principle that we need to understand that will help us remain focused on growth in every area of life.

GROWTH TAKES DISCIPLINE.

How many of you feel weak, powerless against your own negative emotions, or against your struggles in life? How many of you might be stuck in your spiritual journey? There’s an answer for you! In this episode, we explore the transformative power of the Holy Spirit and how it can set you free from the things you are struggling with in life. Let’s dive in!

Hi everyone and welcome back! I’m glad you’re with me today as we dive into what scripture says about who Jesus is and how to follow Him!

Over the last few episodes we’ve talked about a few ways that we can hear the Holy Spirit speak truth in our lives so that our spiritual lives can heal and be renewed from the effects of sin.

It’s important that we push through all of the distractions that keep us from hearing His voice and learn to listen to His voice in order to follow Him and become the people we are called to be!

However, there's another step that we have to take in order to follow Jesus and become the people He designed us to be! We have to learn to obey His voice!

The question is: can we obey the voice of God consistently without help? If we look at Scripture we see that the answer is a hard “NO” as much as we want to follow His voice and obey His commands perfectly we still have to deal with our corrupted nature!

We still have to learn how to overcome the struggles that are still part of our human existence such as fear, doubt, anger, hatred, lust, etc. Unfortunately, these are still part of us and the enemy will put us through temptations and trials that will test us and unfortunately, if we are weak in these areas we will always mess up!

THE HOLY SPIRIT

Fortunately though, God provides us with an answer. As we’ve discussed over the last few episodes Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to help us become the people we are called to be. He reveals the truth of our sin and the need for Jesus, helps us know the truth of who He is. He also begins the process of sanctification where He purifies our hearts and minds and helps us live the life He wants us to live.

So, how does He do this? Many of you might look at this and think, does this mean He magically transforms me into a better person and I'll become perfect?

The process of Sanctification

The short answer is no. Sanctification is a lifelong process that the Holy Spirit brings us through of becoming perfect and more like Jesus, but there is a requirement on our part.

All of us, even as followers of Jesus, will always struggle with something, some more than others. We have fears, doubts, insecurities, negative emotions, areas that we are weak in. We give into temptation quickly and are really easily distracted from the Holy Spirit’s voice. The important thing to remember in a life with Jesus is this: we still have the choice to follow Him or not. This means that as much as we’d like to be completely and wholly set free from our struggles and not have to endure the temptations and trials that we have to go through in this life, we have a choice to make. We can accept what He’s doing as He leads us through life or continue to stay in our struggle.

The Holy Spirit cannot speak into our lives or sanctify and renew us without us doing our parts and obeying His voice. We still have the choice to allow ourselves to submit to the Holy Spirit and allow ourselves to go through this process of sanctification every moment of every day.

OUR RESPONSIBILITIES

So what are our responsibilities in this process of sanctification?

* The first is to simply learn to hear His voice as He reveals the truth to us. The only way we can know if we need to be purified in a certain area is He reveals it to us as He speaks the truth to us. You won’t ever be set free if you don’t hear His voice speaking to you.

* Once you do hear the truth from Him, it’s your responsibility to then accept two things

* Accept that you need to change

* Accept that you need His help to be set free from it.

Sometimes we hold on to weaknesses simply because we’re comfortable in them or even enjoy them. Until we learn to accept these two things we cannot move forward and become free.

Once you accept these two things you can then surrender the struggle to Him, asking for forgiveness and asking Him to set you free from it.

This is the moment that the Holy Spirit can truly step in and begin the process of transforming you.

This is the most challenging step because it requires us to allow Him to begin to change us.

Many of us don’t like to change. We’re willing to settle for forgiveness and we ask Him to set us free but we’re not actually willing to endure the necessary pain and discomfort that change will always bring. Like I said, sometimes we’re comfortable in our weaknesses and struggles or we enjoy them too much.

So how can we allow Him to change us?

REPENTANCE

The requirement for allowing Him to change us is true repentance.

Now this word is a churchy word that you might have heard. It simply means having a mindset change that allows you to turn away from something completely and turn towards God. Repentance is different from saying you’re sorry and asking for forgiveness. It requires you to actually turn away from something completely. Sometimes we say we’re sorry, but then turn around and do it again because we don’t actually want to be free from it. I think of those Catholics who practice confession, confessing their wrongs over and over again. Those who practice confession without repentance never truly understand that there is more to repentance than just saying you’re sorry over and over again, but never changing or even feeling remorse for the wrongs that you’re doing. This isn’t true repentance and God will never honor these kinds of confessions. We see this in Scripture in 1 Samuel when Saul asked for forgiveness, but never truly repented. Because he wasn’t truly repentant messed up again later and lost the kingdom. David, on the other hand messed up constantly, but always asked for forgiveness, repented and moved forward in His life.

True repentance is being willing to change your mind about something to the point that you no longer want to do it again. Yes, we might mess up a few times before we get to this point, but with the Holy Spirit’s help we can get to this point where we’re truly repentant and turn completely from the thing that we’re struggling with.

SURRENDER

Another requirement that we have in order to truly change is to surrender our lives to the Holy Spirit and let Him renew our mind daily. I talked about this last week. But renewal takes surrender.

This is actually a verse in Scripture that is a great practice to implement into your daily life in order to find true freedom from your struggles. Paul challenges us in Romans 12:1-2 to

present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Even though we might change our mind about our struggle it doesn’t mean that our minds can’t be changed again. After all, we're easily deceived and easily distracted from following the Holy Spirit. We need to daily surrender our lives to God and allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds and hearts so that we can endure what life throws at us.

How do we do this, especially when we are going through hard times and suffering? By practicing seeking Him, being in His presence and listening to His voice! He renews us by filling us with His presence and everything that we find in it, peace, joy, love, etc. and He speaks truth to our hearts so that we can endure the trials of the day and not give into our weaknesses. We stay in His will, following Him well, remaining pure, when we are daily renewed by Him.

Another way we are renewed is by practicing community. James 5:13-16 says

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

Even in hard times if we remain focused on Him, surrendering our lives and allowing Him to renew us, He will help us to stay firm in Him.

So what are the results we should see in our lives if we do these 6 things?

Galatians 5 gives us a clear picture of what sanctification looks like as we do our part in this process. We looked a bit at this last week.

Paul tells us:

“I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

So if we allow ourselves to go through this purification process that the Holy Spirit leads us through we will see a few things start to change in our lives:

* Where before we might have given in to hatred, jealous, bitterness, wrath towards others we now are filled with God’s love

* Where before where fear, anxiety, doubt, ect might have controlled us we now are fill with God’s peace.

* Where before we might have been depressed, lonely, and sad all of the time we now are filled with God’s joy

* Where before we might have been impatient with people all of the time we are now filled with God’s patience

* Where before we might have been rude and mean to people because of our own need to feel good about ourselves or in control we now are filled with God’s kindness

* Where before we did evil things all of the time we are now filled with God’s goodness

* Where before we were inconsistent in follow Jesus and obeying Him we are now filled with His faithfulness

* Where before we were prideful and arrogant we are now filled with His gentleness and humility.

* Where before we might have given into our own passions and need for pleasure and entertainment we can now practice His self control.

This is what transformation and sanctification looks like. How many of you want to be like this? All it takes is practicing these 6 things and accepting the Holy Spirit’s transformation in your life. This is what it looks like to follow Jesus.

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This week so far, we’ve looked at how the Holy Spirit renews our spirit so that the areas of our lives that are cracked and broken because of sin can be restored and transformed.

There is an area of our lives that can’t be renewed and transformed as much as we’d like it too be, though: OUR PHYSICAL BODIES. As much as we’d like to experience the Holy Spirit’s renewal to the point where we can experience lasting, permanent health within our bodies and a reversal of the aging process so that we don’t have to experience death, the truth is, we can’t. Bodily aging, physical suffering, and death are still very much a reality for all of us. While some are healthier than others, we will always experience the reality of physical decline and eventual death.

However, there are a few things that are a part of a life with Jesus that we can hope for in this life and look forward to in the next.

God wants our lives to be cleansed from the effects of sin in each area of life: our emotions, our relationships, our physical bodies, spiritual lives, etc. He sends the Holy Spirit to renew us, allowing us to experience His presence and power in our lives as we choose to leave behind the patterns of the world to walk with Jesus and become more like Him.

Today we’re going to dive into how the Holy Spirit wants to renew and transform us in the area of our finances.

We are spiritual beings, created in the image of God when God breathed His His ruach breath or spirit, into us, giving us our own spirit. Our spirit is the essence of who we are, the emotions, personalities, character traits, thought process, etc. that give us our own unique identity.

The problem is once our spirit’s became corrupted by sin, the rest of our lives starts to show the results of that corruption, becoming cracked or utterly destroyed. The only way to regain wholeness is through a life with Jesus, allowing Him to transform and heal us through His Holy Spirit.

I mentioned last week how this corruption is especially noticeable in how we interact with others. We saw how sin causes relationships both with God and others to be cracked and even completely shattered. On the other hand we also saw that God wants us to learn how to be like Him through the story of the Prodigal Son. The only way for that to happen is if we allow Him to step in and heal us and our relationships and teach us how to have healthy interactions with others.

THE RENEWAL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

He can and will restore the broken relationships in our lives if we let Him.

Today, we’re going to take a look at a specific principle in Scripture to see how God can restore our relationships if we turn to Him. I’ve actually mentioned this principle in the other episodes as well.

When we submit our lives to Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes and makes our lives His dwelling place and begins the work of healing, cleansing, and transforming us so that we no longer have to be broken and corrupt. Paul calls this process “the renewing of our minds” in Romans 12:2. The Holy Spirit takes the corruption in our minds and hearts that causes brokenness, cleanses it from us and healing us from all its effects, and then teaches us stay pure and holy.

As we walk with Jesus, following the leading and the voice of the Holy Spirit, He helps us to walk the way He wants us to walk rather than following our corrupt human nature. Paul emphasizes this principle in Galatians 5 where he talks about the fruit of the flesh versus the fruit of the spirit. As we follow the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to renew, our character begins to be changed.

We are spiritual beings, created in the image of God when God breathed His His ruach breath or spirit, into us, giving us our own spirit. Our spirit is the essence of who we are, the emotions, personalities, character traits, thought process, etc. that give us our own unique identity.

The problem is once our spirit’s became corrupted by sin, the rest of our lives starts to show the results of that corruption, becoming cracked or utterly destroyed. The only way to regain wholeness is through a life with Jesus, allowing Him to transform and heal us through His Holy Spirit

Yesterday, we looked at how when we submit our lives to Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes and makes our lives His dwelling place and begins the work of healing, cleansing, and transforming us so that we no longer have to be broken and corrupt.

Today we’re going to look at how the Holy Spirit works in us in the area of our emotions help us to learn how to THRIVE in this specific area of life.

We are spiritual beings, created in the image of God when God breathed His His ruach breath or spirit, into us, giving us our own spirit. Our spirit is the essence of who we are, the emotions, personalities, character traits, thought process, etc. that give us our own unique identity.

As spiritual beings, we practice spirituality our whole lives, in everything that we do. Spirituality is the search to find ourselves, to discover a higher purpose, a deeper meaning of life, and a connection with creation and a creator.

The problem we see, though, is in how we approach finding meaning, purpose, and connection.

We cannot approach spirituality without God, Himself. We cannot find true, lasting meaning, purpose, and connection in anything other than the source of all meaning, purpose, and connection. He is the only perfect, all knowing, good, all powerful, and omnipresent being in existence. Trying to find meaning, purpose, and connection in anything other than Him will always result in failure and even destruction.

This means that we have to practice spirituality with God. We find lasting, true purpose, meaning, and connection in Him. This is the way He set it up from the beginning of time.

God created us in His image, breathing the breath of His spirit (ruach) into us so that we can also have our own unique spirit, the essence of who we are, and everything that goes along with it: emotions, personality, thoughts, character traits, etc.

The problem is once our spirit’s become corrupted by sin, the rest of our lives starts to show the results of that corruption, becoming cracked or utterly destroyed. The only way to regain wholeness is through a life with Jesus, allowing Him to transform and heal us.

The results of sin and suffering are particularly noticeable in one specific area of life: our physical bodies. Because of sin and death we now experience ageing and the body deterioration that comes along with it, we experience disease and chronic illnesses in our bodies, women experience pain in childbirth, etc.

God created us in His image, breathing the breath of His spirit (ruach) into us so that we can also have our own unique spirit, the essence of who we are, and everything that goes along with it: emotions, personality, thoughts, character traits, etc.

The problem is once our spirit’s become corrupted by sin, the rest of our lives starts to show the results of that corruption, becoming cracked or utterly destroyed. The only way to regain wholeness is through a life with Jesus, allowing Him to transform and heal us.

Sin not only corrupts our emotions and destroys our relationships, as I’ve talked about over the last few days, it also corrupts our desires, making us selfish and long for things that we shouldn’t have.

There is one desire in particular that Scripture says is the root of all kinds of evil: the love or extreme desire of money and/or material wealth. (1 Timothy 6:10)