Where Is Your Life?

Posted on January 27, 2015 by
Several days ago, I introduced the ACTS of Prayer, meaning Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. ACTS is a form of praying that I have been following for several years. To be honest, I don’t know when or how I picked this up, but it was only recently that I recognized I was doing it.
For me, the most prominent aspect, the Adoration, is how much I have grown to love, and, in fact, adore, my Lord. Of course, it began when I first gave my life to him. But over the years He has done such amazing things to demonstrate His love for me, but also how He works with His creation.
I have described, how as a new believer, I began to see “light” emitting from people. I would enter the church I attended and would see some folks “glowing.” For some, the glow was similar to a living room lamp; others were much brighter. I noticed that the light radiating from some was so blinding; I could barely look straight at it. As if I was staring at the Sun!
I also observed that some did not radiate any light, Others appeared as darkness. I can’t describe it too precisely, other than to say that their “darkness” seemed to have substance and hid the person.
You have to understand that when this was happening, I naïvely thought that everyone saw this. I was new to the work of the Holy Spirit. I had no idea what the Spirit of God could or would do. So I, of course, thought this was common. I was very fortunate that I did not have anyone telling me that the Holy Spirit does not do those kinds of things. I say, “fortunate,” because many well-intentioned believers, hinder the Holy Spirit’s work. We hear someone giving an amazing testimony of a new and unique work, but because we never heard such a thing before, it must not be true. I have heard many testimonies of the  Holy Spirit doing some fascinating things, things that I never heard of, or can find evidence of in the Scriptures to verify. I remember one sister claimed that she could “smell” believers. Sure, it sounded odd, but, you know, she never missed it. Can I find Scripture to support such a thing? Yep! Look at II Corinthians 2:14-16:
But thanks be to God, who in the Messiah constantly leads us in a triumphal procession and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of what it means to know him! For to God, we are the aroma of the Messiah, both among those being saved and among those being lost. To the latter, we are the smell of death leading only to more death, but to the former, we are the sweet smell of life leading to more life.
Yes, I realize that Paul was speaking figuratively, but I bet the scent of a Christian can indeed be a spiritually reality. Hey! I just remember reading about this. Did you realize that if you eat meat, you smell differently than, say, a vegetarian? That’s right. In an interesting study, men were put on a vegetarian diet, and other followed a meat-eating diet. Then samples of their body odor were given to women to sniff. The women rated the body odor for its “pleasantness, attractiveness, masculinity, and intensity.” What they found is that the men on the vegetarian diet consistently had their body odor rated better (as in less stinky).
Why does meat make you stinky?  The theory is that toxins from meat get secreted along with sweat.  The toxins may stink by themselves, but they also attract bacteria that feed on them and produce smelly byproducts.
So, if that is possible, the Holy Spirit may give a devoted disciple of the Lord the ability to “smell” the aroma of Life! Regarding my experience of observing light emitting from people, I turned over to Exodus 34:29-35:
When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, he did not realize that his face was sending out rays of light as a result of his talking with Adonai. When Aaron and the people of Isra’el saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to approach him. But Moses called to them; then Aaron and all the community leaders came back to him, and Moses spoke to them. Afterward, all the people of Isra’el came near, and he passed on to them all the orders that Adonai had told him on Mount Sinai.
Once Moses finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. But when he went in before Adonai, he would take the veil off until he came out; then, when he came out, he would tell the people of Isra’el what he was ordered to do. But when the people of Isra’el saw Moses’s face,  his face shone, and he would put the veil back over his face until he went in again to speak with Adonai.
After a few weeks of seeing people radiate light, for the first time, I believe, I learned to discern the voice of the Lord. I heard, “Notice their countenance.” You see, the whole time I was being fascinated with people radiating light, the Lord was teaching me how to discern a person’s relationship to Him! In other words, I was amazed, and He we instructing me.
During His instruction, I learned to notice how people carried themselves; I developed an ability to look into their eyes and see either the pain or the Glory!. The most wonderful part of all this training is that this discernment has stayed with me all these years later
I could go on (and have previously, in these Morning Messages) describe many wonderful experiences and signs He has used to teach me how His Kingdom functions. But with each experience, I saw into the heart and mind of my Father. As Paul explained, “He made us alive together with Christ. (It is God’s kindness that saved you). God has brought us back to life together with Christ Yeshua and has given us a position in heaven with him. He did this out of his generosity to us in order to show his extremely rich kindness in the world to come.”
Under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, my love and adoration began to grow and flourish. I was lead to read this in the fourth chapter of Ephesians:
Let me say this, then, speaking for the Lord: Live no longer as the unsaved do, for they are blinded and confused. Their closed hearts are full of darkness; they are far away from the life of God because they have shut their minds against him, and they cannot understand his ways. They don’t care anymore about right and wrong and have given themselves over to impure ways. They stop at nothing, being driven by their evil minds and reckless lusts.
Well, that ain’t very positive, is it? Evidently Paul never read Dale Carnegie’s book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” It just seems to be a bad advertising approach. I mean, wow! Should we really be pointing out our sin? Won’t telling someone that they are “blinded and confused,” and that their “closed hearts are full of darkness,” hurt their feelings? Of course I am being sarcastic, because, yes, we need to point it out.
If you have really heard his voice and learned from him the truths concerning himself, then throw off your old evil nature — the old you that was a partner in your evil ways—rotten through and through, full of lust and sham.
Now your attitudes and thoughts must all be constantly changing for the better. Yes, you must be a new and different person, holy and good. Clothe yourself with this new nature.
For me, I see a heart for constant renewal! I see a longing for continual newness with our relationship with our Father and the Holy Spirit. In fact, I will declare it today: your life should be an example of constant, never-deviating renewal. Romans 6:4 says, “Your old sin-loving nature was buried with him by baptism when he died;. When God the Father, with glorious power, brought him back to life again, you were given his wonderful new life to enjoy.”
Our Father wants you and me to live in constant “newness of life.” Our faith should never become stagnant or stale. We should be continually shouting, “Excelsior!” Onward, Upward!
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