A Gift to the World Series – Walk in the Gift
The truth is Christmas isn’t a happy time for everyone. Some persons have suffered great loss and some feel inadequate. For others, it reminds them of a terrible situation and still for some it brings feelings of being unfortunate or in the group everyone calls the poor. When we have experiences as these, we can easily feel overlooked and not considered.
However, I want you to consider the Holy Gift of God – Jesus Christ. He was sent into the earth, and since His birth, He suffered great sorrow. His ministry to His own nation caused Him crucifixion.
Let’s pause for a moment and reflect on the situations which surrounded His death.
1. He was betrayed by one of His disciples that He had been loving and ministering to for 3 ½ years.
2. Upon His arrest, all His disciples fled – saving Peter, who tried to kill the guards – this showing that Peter had not accepted many of Jesus’ teachings
3. He was physically beaten and bruised, and during that time He was brutally betrayed and denied by His best friend Peter, who cursed in the process
4. His very nation ordered His death, even when the Romans saw no guile in Him.
5. He had to bear every sin in the world, that has ever been committed in that time, and would ever be committed in every person in the entire course of time, His flesh suffered the penalty for sin that was not His.
6. His Father, forsook Him, on the cross – He felt alone.
In all these situations, Jesus was able to say “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” How could He do that, with all that was going on? It is because Jesus had a special power – a Gift powerful enough to keep Him holy, and to preserve His soul from sin. That gift is the Holy Spirit.
_This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. – Gal 5:16_
When you walk in agreement with the Spirit, you will never sin – in fact it is impossible for you to walk in the Spirit and sin. The Spirit is the power of God over sin, and is the gift to the Church. We can now comprehend God’s mind, that all things that happen to us, are according to His will, even those things that cause us great sorrow. All these things are to develop righteous character, strength and patience in us, as we await the return of our Lord, and seek to be spotless in that time.
Despite the situations, God knows how to keep our hearts in perfect peace in the midst of grief. His Spirit is able to cause us to never feel hurt (which is selfish grief and mental anguish that arises from God performing His will in your life). This kind of feeling is evil. In the Spirit, you will always feel the emotions that God feels, and you will also be touched with the infirmities of others.
Guess what? If you have the Holy Ghost, you can walk the Spirit everyday of your life. Jesus is the Holy Gift of God! God gave the Gift not only in the manger, but He gave Him as the gift that would take away our sins. The gift that would be slain on the cross and be resurrected. Remember, this gift The gift that ascended into heaven and returned on the day of Pentacost in the form of the Holy Ghost. This is the same gift that lives in the heart of every born again believer. He is in our flesh and remains there – thus empowering us to live a life free from sin.
Walk in this gift and you will never fail our God.