And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:9-14
Knowledge of His will. Spiritual wisdom AND understanding. Bearing good fruit. Always increasing in the knowledge of God. Strengthened by the Holy Spirit with His power and might. Having endurance and patience WITH joy. Giving praise and thanks with gratefulness in your heart to the Father for what He has done, is doing, and will do for you. Forgiving others so that we too might receive forgiveness. This is a multifaceted tall order. Rather than just skimming quickly over it – take the time to break it down, dig, ponder, and ask the Holy Spirit to show you how you are to do, receive, activate, and walk all of this out in your daily life. Don’t wait for the Sunday sermon to give you three simple steps, but go directly to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to ‘feed you’ the “meat” of His direction for you.
The Spirit of God wants you to grow and mature beyond just a light acquaintance with Him. He wants you to know Him so well you won’t miss any of what He is saying to you. When in relationship for a long time (like our spouses) we KNOW when they are speaking even when our eyes are closed. We KNOW how they speak, the tone of their voice, intonation and inflection, and we can easily recognize their voice in a crowded noisy room. Do you know His voice that well? If He actually IS indwelling your body – shouldn’t you know His voice intimately and extremely well? What’s hindering you from that?
The evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in your life is His fruit. (Galatians 5:22-23) Mature spiritual fruit is the evidence of a deep intimate relationship with Him. How are you doing with patience? Are you able to endure with joy when things are certainly not going your way? Do you give the Father praise when you are persecuted unjustly? Do you rehearse His blessings with gratefulness towards the Father when you seem to be losing so much around you? Do you show love to the ‘unlovable’, bitter, disloyal, hypocritical, and betrayers? How did Jesus treat Judas? How is it possible to do those things? Not under your power that’s for sure. It must be BY the power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit who is dwelling within you.
What do the angels say? Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. Zechariah 4:6b
How many times do we try might and power to solve our problems? Rather than surrendering to His help and advice? One cannot be spiritually mature WITHOUT the Holy Spirit’s work in their lives. You can NOT do it. Although there are many examples of people around us trying to exactly do it that way. We have all tried our natural “wisdom” many times to solve an issue – and when failure continues to pop up – THEN we finally seek Him out. A spiritually mature person is ALWAYS ‘in touch’ with the Holy Spirit and listening for His will, advice, words, and direction, ready to carry them out obediently and quickly. In a spiritually mature person, the Spirit of God is ALWAYS the first they turn to … in EVERY matter of life.
Have you learned to feed yourself spiritual ‘food’ yet? Or do you still rely on someone else to feed you? Do you allow the Holy Spirit to be your ‘teacher’ and Source?