Devotional Song: Go to this link – Please take your time to see a video of a telling song performed by Marty Goetz, The Spirit of the Lord, reminding us how we, as Christians, must be sold out to God’s Spirit as born-again believers just as Jesus was totally surrendered to His Father.
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Highlight Passage: Joshua 14: 14… [Caleb was one who led an anointed life because he was a sold-out believer.] … [NKJV]
14 Hebron still belongs to the descendants of Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite because he wholeheartedly followed the LORD, the God of Israel.
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Highlight Passage: Joshua 14: 6-14… GO TO THIS LINK … [NLT] …
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Reference Passage #1: Romans 8: 13-14 … [NLT] … [Those who follow the Spirit rather than the flesh will experience victorious living.] …
13 For if you keep on following it, you will perish. But if through the power of the Holy Spirit you turn from it and its evil deeds, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
My Journal for Today: If you’re a Christian reading along with me today, I would expect you’re no different than I am to want to live a life marked by the victory over self describe by the Apostle Paul in Romans, Chapter 8, especially as I’ve marked that life by Verses 13-14 copied above. Well, it is in that passage I believe we find the way all believers can live the victorious Christian life as opposed to the impotent, death-marked, life of selfishness.
In the Old Testament, Joshua and Caleb were two of those victorious warriors for God who lived by and were anointed by God’s Spirit to live life for God rather than all the others who fell to selfish living. In today’s attached photo, you see Caleb and Joshua returning from their assignment by Moses to spy out the Promised Land; and they returned with excited, positive stories, encouraging Moses to lead the people into this land where they saw such fruitfulness. But the other 10 spies, in fear for self, saw nothing by potential danger and death.
And in today’s highlight passage from the OT, in Joshua, Chapter 14, copied & linked above, we read how God rewarded Caleb for his willingness to faithfully follow God, being anointed by God’s Spirit to live a fruitful life.
And therein, I believe, lies the application for me from this study today … that if I pursue life in the Spirit, God will anoint me with His grace-filled power, and I can expect to live as Paul promised in Romans 8. But if I live, mired in selfishness, greed, and fear, I can only expect to be rewarded only by the flesh, which always leads to death.
We choose!
My Prayer for Today … Lord, fill me with Your Spirit today that I may LIVE for You! … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online blog entitled Today God Is First [TGIF], authored by Os Hillman. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you’ll find a link to read Hillman’s TGIF blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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