Where Are You Willing to Go For Spiritual Strengthing?

2 Corinthians 5:5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee (ESV)

    God has not left his creation fallen. Although we suffer the consequences of our rebellion, God is still the same God, never changing in his character or attributes. God has provided us a way out, the only way, his Son Jesus Christ. And in that way out, he has assured us with the guarantee of his Holy Spirit. “In him (Christ) you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory” (Eph 1:12-13).This word guarantee can also be translated down payment. Although at this time we cannot receive the full payment, or our heavenly dwelling, we have received the Holy Spirit as a down payment. A gesture that God has not left us, but has imparted to us a guarantee, that we might live in the faith that he is faithful to carry out all of his promises.
    I think of a homeowner and the process within of purchasing a home. Usually there is a down payment given to the lender, who then entrusts you with the home under the agreement that the buyer is to then faithfully pay off the remaining debt. I don’t know if this is backwards, but we can think of God in this situation as the buyer. Who has given us a down payment of his indwelling Spirit, as a sign of commitment, faithfulness and a hope to the lender that one day he will pour out the fullness of our eternal dwelling. I think of the time we accept Christ as our down payment from God, when we are sealed with the indwelling Spirit. But from there we receive installments, or payments until the final payment is received. This time in-between is what would call walking out your faith. As a believer one day we will receive the final reward, but our time spent until then is in our hands. God has given us responsibility in his sovereignty, and we must act in a manner worthy to calling which he has placed before us.
    So lets talk about the payments, you might choose monthly, some may prefer weekly payments or maybe you want to live “according to the riches of his glory”, and choose to receive daily payments, the choice is yours. The amount we receive in-between the down payment and the final purchase is unlimited. God is eternal, he is one buyer who is not limited by the confines of man, for he is our Creator and owner of all within. God is waiting to give, “if you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Luke 11:13). We are told to “ask and it will be given” (Luke 11:9), what will be given? The Holy Spirit will be given. Then you might wonder, we were already given the Holy Spirit, right? That is right we are given the Holy Spirit upon acceptance of Christ. But we see there is a continual empowerment, or as Eph 5:18 says to be “filled”, in the progressive tense, thus a continual filling [Please refer to my chain reference of the Holy Spirit].
    We are to daily ask for an empowerment of the Holy Spirit, although he is always dwelling within, we can fall back into our fleshly nature. Just as the disciples in (John 21:1-3), went back to what they knew and they were fruitless, yet they had the indwelling Spirit. Jesus had not yet presented the idea of the baptism of the Spirit, (Acts 1:4-5). Which shortly after the baptism we see the fruits of this empowerment (Acts 2:14-41) compared to the fruits of the indwelling Spirit.
    So it comes down to this, we can choose to live the comfortable life, asking God for his empowerment every Sunday at church, or maybe its once a month, or maybe its on Easter and Christmas. God is simply waiting for his children to ask. But this requires a death to self, it can be uncomfortable at times, we may suffer, we may receive persecution, but consider it blessed. Don’t settle for the down payment, when there is an unlimited source willing to pay you daily until the final purchase. Pay me how you ask?
    “For this reason I bow my knees before the father, from whom every family in heaven an on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:14-19). Paul understood through the Spirit of God we have the ability to understand the fullness of God. So Paul prayed for this spiritual strengthening, he did not stop upon receiving the Spirit. He daily asked, knocked and sought to be filled with all understanding. The Lord did not withhold in the life of Paul, he daily saw the fullness of God at work in his life. I take this as great insight into the spiritual life of Paul. In my opinion, prayer is one of the hardest aspects of the Christian faith, and is commonly non existent in some walks. But Paul, the author of most of the New Testament, impacted the Christian faith greatly, in his time and for all time to come. He was a man who would fall to his knees for a spiritual strengthening, one that he knew could only be obtained through prayer.

Application:
Today I will pray for spiritual strengthening as I go throughout my day.