What if all this were true?

Spiritual birth is even better than natural birth, for it contains eternal life. It cannot be undone.

Happiness in and with God comes from trusting that He loves us and that all He has said is true, and it comes from allowing His Love to overflow from us to others.

Trying leads to frustration.
Trusting leads to contentment.
What if you stopped believing your feelings?
What if you decided to trust what God said instead?

What the enemy says, or what Father says.
Which will you believe?

We can feel guilt when we grieve the Holy Spirit, but feeling guilt is not the same as being guilty. Father does not use guilt to motivate good behavior. He uses love.

The only question is whether we will choose to remain obstinately unwilling to be reconciled to God or choose to be reconciled and receive the forgiveness and Life He provides for everyone.

When we speak of being used by God, we are referring to Him being manifested or made more real to others through us as we live and move and exist in Him.

Over the long term, we cannot live our lives in a way inconsistent with who we believe ourselves to be. If we believe we are at war with ourselves, we will act like it. We will find ourselves in a constant battle to have better attitudes and actions. All our focus will be on fixing ourselves.

As long as you have your mind set on yourself, your attitudes, your actions, your perceived inability to have a feeling of settled faith in God, you will not experience the fullness of the abundant Life He has given you.

Saints, we were designed to live by faith in dependence on God. He is the source of the Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control for which our spirits yearn.

This verse recently gave me pause. The verse was John 16:27, which says, “the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father. (NASB 2020) I was surprised, stunned really, and a little frightened, at the word “because.”

It is not about the vessel. It's about His never-ending all-sufficient supply. It's about the power of God that you carry around in your unremarkable body. What treasure you bear. What blessing you bring.

You are not what you were. The change is profound, and it is real. Your life is no longer impermanent.

What Paul is doing here is helping us see the sort of conduct that best fits us as children of God. He's telling us what kind of behavior will result in the best outcomes for us.

You are so free that Paul had to address with the Corinthian church the idea that everything is permissible.