Discernment

Philippians 1:9-11
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ - to the glory and praise of God.
We are on our last week of homework on the Bible Study - Faithful Abundant True - Deeper Still
It has been so good - and as always God has given me just the Word I needed at this time in my life. Last night we watched the video of Beth Moore and she was speaking on learning to discern when our "gut feeling" is from the Holy Spirit or from our flesh. What stuck me so strong last night was the explanation of the Israelites telling Moses, you go and listen to God and then just come tell us what to do - give us the rules. "Old Covenant" - the 10 commandments - and then she said But, we are no longer under the old covenant - we are living under the "New Covenant" and it requires that each individual live by the Spirit - Galatians 5:25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. We have the gift of the Holy Spirit living in us - and with that kind of contact their is intimacy, Relationship - we cannot expect just to sit back and be spoon fed, we have to dig into God's Word, pray to Him constantly, be aware that He is with us at all times (not just on Sunday & Wednesdays). This is a big deal for me - I made the mistake of raising Cort & Brennon on rules, I want to teach Treg and to continue to encourage Cort & Bren to have a relationship with our precious Savior. How beautiful it is the thought of us keeping "in step" with the Spirit! Ok - I have also been reading Francine Rivers book and the Shofar Blew - oh it's soooo good! When I read a book that is a good one, I become a part of the book - I have a hard time coming back to the real world - separating the two! I know I am a little wacky - anywhoo...I finished it last night and wow! I just love how God works things together - the Epilogue fit perfectly with the Bible study video we watched - here is a section out of the book: Today, the Holy Spirit and God's Word, the Bible, call out to us in much the same way as the shofar: God's voice warns us, alerts us to danger, calls us to action or to times of rest, and most important, calls us to accountability. In And the Shofar Blew, we read about different ways people think they are hearing God's voice - sometimes authentic, sometimes counterfeit - as in a "still, small voice"; other times, in a resounding blast. The questions begging to be asked are : Are we listening? Are we attentive to God's voice? How will we respond?
Wow - I love God so much!
My heart is still lifting up those in need of prayer - in my devo I read this:
Prayer matters. It's not just words in the air. The Spirit of God released through our prayers and the prayers of others is enough to turn cowards into conquerors, chaos into calm, cries into comfort.