Nick’s Walk

As for me, being on the way, the Lord led me . . . —Genesis 24:27 As we discussed earlier, we know that we are His because we are different. We want different things. Our “consciences” are also different. They are more attuned to His will. We are more sensitive to His leading. We should be so one with God that we don’t need to ask continually for guidance.  His desire and direction for us becomes part of our being. A child’s life is normally obedient, until he chooses disobedience. But as soon as he chooses to disobey, an inherent inner conflict is produced. On the spiritual level, inner conflict is the warning of the Spirit of God. When He warns us in this way, we must stop at once and be renewed in the spirit of our mind to discern God’s will. As His child we also become more aware of the unfolding of His plan as we move through life. We can all see God in exceptional things, but it requires the growth of spiritual discipline to see God in every detail. Never believe that the so-called random events of life are anything less than God’s appointed […]

. . . the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me —Galatians 2:20   As Christians, we are new creations, with baggage. Much of the old man remains. Part of that remainder includes our moods, feelings, and emotions. These constitute our experience. We are used to relying on our experience. If I haven’t done, see or felt something, I tend to believe that it isn’t so. We must break out of our own little world of experience into abandoned devotion to Him. Think who the New Testament says Jesus Christ is, and then think of the despicable meagerness of the miserable faith we exhibit by saying, “I haven’t had this experience or that experience”! Think what faith in Jesus Christ claims and provides— He can present us faultless before the throne of God, inexpressibly pure, absolutely righteous, and profoundly justified. Stand in absolute adoring faith “in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God— and righteousness and sanctification and redemption . . .” (1 Corinthians 1:30). If our faith in Jesus seems insufficient to replace our “experience,” it is likely we are focusing on the “wrong” Jesus. We must continually focus and firmly place […]

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new —2 Corinthians 5:17 It is sad to consider that many believe that you can’t know if you are saved. Or worse, that you are never really saved. Some believe that you can know that you will go to heaven if you die today; but the same might not be true tomorrow, next week or next year.  But we can know, we can be sure. When we become His, things are different. The work of salvation means that in your real life things are dramatically changed. You no longer look at things in the same way. Your desires are new and the old things have lost their power to attract you. One of the tests for determining if the work of salvation in your life is genuine is— has God changed the things that really matter to you? If you still yearn for the old things, it is absurd to talk about being born from above— you are deceiving yourself. If you are born again, the Spirit of God makes the change very evident in your real life and […]

He said, ’Take now your son . . .’ —Genesis 22:2 The Power of Now.  If I could just forget about the past and stop worrying about the future. I could get to now. Now is the only thing we have, the only medium in which we can make a difference. The only reality of following Christ. The only time that really matters.  I also have to admit that I sometimes live by the axiom, “Why do it now when it could be done tomorrow.” God’s command is, “Take now,” not later. It is incredible how we debate! We know something is right, but we try to find excuses for not doing it immediately. If we are to climb to the height God reveals, it can never be done later— it must be done now. What are you doing now? What could you be doing now? What should you be doing now? Do it and be blessed. Nick

. . . fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ . . . —1 Thessalonians 3:2 I have 11 years of military experience where I learned computers when the industry was new. I am a law school honor graduate and have practiced law for nearly thirty years.  Yet my principal purpose these days seems to be as a babysitter. I also get to set up and run websites and prayer request systems and a daily blog, but seriously I’m principally a babysitter. So today’s Utmost is for me. After sanctification, it is difficult to state what your purpose in life is, because God has moved you into His purpose through the Holy Spirit. He is using you now for His purposes throughout the world as He used His Son for the purpose of our salvation. If you seek great things for yourself, thinking, “God has called me for this and for that,” you barricade God from using you. As long as you maintain your own personal interests and ambitions, you cannot be completely aligned or identified with God’s interests. This can only be accomplished by giving up all of your personal plans once and for all, and by allowing […]

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ . . . —Colossians 1:24 This verse has been the source of considerable confusion in the church. The problem comes with the phrase “lacking in the afflictions of Christ.” We are alerted by these words because we know that Christ’s death is complete as the basis for our redemption. He has done it all. But we also know there is suffering, before and after our new birth as a Christian. Paul here is referring to sufferings for the Church.  We know that all that we are as Christians arises from being in Christ. Paul considered it an honor which he rejoiced in to be considered worthy to suffer in some small way as Christ did. Paul’s suffering doesn’t add to the work done by Christ; but rather is evidence of the indwelling redeeming life of Christ. If we are His, we will do His will, walk the walk He calls us to and that will, inevitably lead to suffering.  What is lacking in Christ’s afflictions is our faith and trust in Him. When we trust Him for […]

We do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered —Romans 8:26 When we become children of God; we begin to move in the spiritual world. But it is a world with which we are not familiar. We tend to still think in the natural. Part of the work of the Holy Spirit is to teach us the ways of the spiritual and to intercede for us in matters we do not yet understand.  We realize that we are energized by the Holy Spirit for prayer; and we know what it is to pray in accordance with the Spirit; but we don’t often realize that the Holy Spirit Himself prays prayers in us which we cannot utter ourselves. When we are born again of God and are indwelt by the Spirit of God, He expresses for us the unutterable. “He,” the Holy Spirit in you, “makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:27). And God searches your heart, not to know what your conscious prayers are, but to find out what the prayer of the Holy Spirit is. […]

We know that all things work together for good to those who love God . . . —Romans 8:28 We sometimes judge how things are going taking the circumstances into count. We say things are okay “under the circumstances.” As a Christian, I should  never be “under the circumstances.” I am “in Christ” and above all the circumstances. The circumstances of a saint’s life are ordained of God. In the life of a saint there is no such thing as chance. God by His providence brings you into circumstances that you can’t understand at all, but the Spirit of God understands. God brings you to places, among people, and into certain conditions to accomplish a definite purpose through the intercession of the Spirit in you. All of your circumstances are in the hand of God, and therefore you don’t ever have to think they are unnatural or unique. I must use the circumstances in which I find myself and the people who surround me. I must keep my conscious life as a sacred place for the Holy Spirit. Then as I lift different ones to God through prayer, the Holy Spirit intercedes for them. I am blessed “under the […]