Sonlight Devotional

Scripture reading: John 6:63

In John, chapter 6, Jesus Christ made a revelation to us. This revelation is far-reaching because we do not seem to understand what is happening when we are doing certain things.

In verse 63, Jesus said, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

Jesus said, “The words that I speak unto you are spirit, but not just spirit, they are also life.” In other words, there are words that are “spirit” but they are not “life.” Take your Bible, turn it in the converse, and you will begin to understand a lot of things that you did not understand before. You will notice that in everything you do, you are issuing out spirits; spirits are coming from you to another person.

I remember in my young days, I was addicted to violence and would get mad very easily. I would just want to do destruction. When I came to Jesus, and He delivered me, I was so glad because I thought that now all that madness was gone out of my soul. Little did I know that certain compartments in my soul still retained some of the old man.

At that time, I was working on a farm. One day, two men started to fight. I could not stand to see one person beating up on another who was helpless; I could not stand the “bully” spirit. This man knocked the other man down, then picked him up and knocked him down again and again. I rushed in and called, “Hey, you are going to kill him! Stop this!” Instead of obeying me, the man turned against me and began to shove against me. Suddenly, a spirit from that man came into me. In other words, I had a door open; I had a vacancy and he ministered the spirit of violence to me, which I had no desire or reason for. I was not vexed with anybody, I was not mad with anybody, but I began to manifest the same madness, the same shortness of breath. I began to manifest vexation without being vexed. Furthermore, what I did was worse, because I acted just like I would if I were out in the street again fighting. But now I was a Christian, I was preaching the word of God; yet all of a sudden, I used a tactic that came down from my street fighting days, a tactic that was from the other life. I got the man over my shoulder, ran with him, and slammed him down on the wall. I thought to myself, “Why am I doing this? I am not mad. I am not vexed with anybody.” I realized that a spirit of violence was ministered to me.

I tell you all this because God is doing something special for us. We all have vacancies in our lives, but God is closing them up by putting us into circumstances in which we can submit to the words of life.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, December 2002)

Thought for today: Jesus said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

Scripture reading: John 16:13

John 14:26, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

When we read in John, we realize that there is no reason for us to have false doctrines. You should be able to listen to the worst and most powerful preacher of falsehood and not be taken by him because your insides cannot accept his doctrine; you will vomit it up. This should be the condition of the children of God because the Holy Spirit is in us and He will reject the things that are not of Him; unless you especially want it and put Him aside to take it.

Where did Jesus say that the Holy Spirit was going to lead us? “He will lead you into all truth.” (John 16:13) Lord have mercy upon us! If the Holy Spirit came into us to lead us into all truth, then what is wrong with us? Why do so many people have the Holy Spirit but are not being led into truth? It is because they are all going after lies and errors.

Let us look at the following situation: Here is a human being having a desire inside of him – he wants to preach. It is a righteous desire, a good thing. He wants to bless others. He wants to see people lifted up and praising the Lord. But lo and behold, the desire to preach becomes number one in his life and God loses His place to the desire to preach. So who takes over? The man takes over, but let me tell you, a religious spirit will never allow him to be the boss. The religious spirit is going to take over because that is his territory. The man becomes a preacher, and a lot of people get blessed. But while he opens his mouth, one little piece of the religious spirit gets into it. If you continue to listen to him, you will find yourself more and more having the same desires. You might not want to preach, you might want to do something else, but it will all be a religious exercise.

Do you see the danger? Lift up your eyes. Look around. Where are the people growing in the Spirit? If the Holy Spirit came to lead us into all truth, we are going to get better and better for God every day, no matter how dumb we are, because the Holy Spirit is setting little traps here and there for us to go into truth. You may get your head bashed in and you may think something bad is happening, but it turns out to be the Holy Spirit Who has set a little trap for you to bring you the words of truth. We have to remember that the Holy Spirit is always working little things to get us into the truth.

(Excerpt from “Led of the Spirit”, Foundational Teachings #077)

Thought for today: The Holy Spirit came in order to lead us into all truth.