Spiritual leadership is not something to be taken lightly and is not for everyone. God gifts spiritually mature men in this area and then calls them to serve Him and His Kingdom through the local church. Elders should not be selected based of their business knowledge, or their large bank account, or their social status, but should be chosen because God has gifted and called them for a time such as this. Peter is a great example for us to consider when looking at leaders in the church and he provides some of the best instruction on how a spiritual leader should shepherd the flock.

On the evening that He was betrayed to be crucified, Jesus commanded His disciples to love one another, saying that by the love we show to one another within our fellowships all the world will know that we are His disciples. The love Jesus commands us to offer one another can sometimes be difficult. We need to offer our brothers and sisters in Christ the fullest measure of grace we possibly can by the power of God’s Spirit within our hearts. Nevertheless, sometimes the love we need to show must be tough love. When our fellow Christ followers stray from the paths of righteousness, we need to admonish them and allow God to use our words and support to guide them out of sin and back into right fellowship with God. More importantly, we need to humble our own hearts to allow God to use our fellow believers to help us in the same way. In this our fellowships are enabled to press forward in service of God’s kingdom together.

It’s safe to say that no one is immune to moments of fear, or doubt, or frustration, or weariness, or fatigue. When Jesus was arrested and eventually crucified on the cross, His followers fell apart and briefly struggled with His departure from their lives. They were frightened, discouraged, defeated, confused, demoralized, and perhaps even depressed. In a word, their world had just crashed in on them and they were left with empty tanks. At this point, they were running on “E”. Fortunately, Jesus’ appearance some three days later rejuvenated them and began the process of filling their tanks back up.

Easter is not about peeps, colored eggs, or some cute little over dressed bunny. Instead, Easter is all about the risen Savior. The resurrection of Jesus brings us hope, forgiveness, redemption, and an eternal guarantee. If you belong to Jesus, you don’t have to fear anything! What’s the worst thing that could happen to you? You could die, and then you get to go to heaven! Jesus brings us life, eternal life, life to the fullest, life that begins the moment we believe and continues into all eternity. Do you have that assurance? Do you know that you know you belong to God?

Palm Sunday is a great time to be reminded about Jesus Christ and His role in our salvation. It’s also a great time to be reminded that Jesus will come again one day soon. The King is Coming! He is the Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for sinners, who triumphed over death through an empty tomb, and who now reigns in glory as the King of heaven and earth. Will you open your heart and let the King come in?

There is nothing more special than to know and feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is when we willingly obey the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives that God can use us for the purposes of His Kingdom. Our role includes a full commitment to trusting His ways over our ways. When we do this, then and only then will we produce and experience the harvesting of His fruits in our lives. We will continually taste love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, and those around us will see Jesus Christ on full display.

So far in our series on The Holy Spirit, we have discovered that He is fully God and He is fulfillment of yet another promise from God to us. The fulfillment of that promise means that every true believer receives the gift of The Holy Spirit at their moment of conversion. Once the Holy Spirit enters the mind and heart of the true believer, God’s seal of ownership, which is The Holy Spirit, is placed upon that person, and that person then becomes a permanently adopted son or daughter. And now that we know the foundational basics concerning the Holy Spirit in reference to the life of a believer, we need to consider the impact of The Holy Spirit on our lives. In other words, what is the role of The Holy Spirit in my life?

We are blessed with a unique relationship with God’s Spirit. He is fully God and is an additional gift we receive at the moment of our genuine conversion. The Bible informs us that He, The Holy Spirit, comes to dwell in our hearts. He arrives and takes up a permanent residence with us and serves as our helper and guide as we walk through this world as followers of Jesus Christ. Considering the many challenges, we face; a helper is definitely needed. The Holy Spirit moves into our lives, and once He moves in, He’s not moving out! Praise God, He’s here to stay!

Why do you think it is we fail to understand the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives? How is it that our helper, our comforter, our source for truth, our connection to Jesus, is so overlooked? Perhaps, it’s because we fail to embrace the gift, or we just simply do not want Him in charge of our life. Who is the third person of the Trinity and why is He important? The truth is, most Christians are fine with trusting in God the Father and allowing Jesus the Son to be their Savior, but most Christians have no idea what to think or what to do with the Holy Spirit.

Christians need to hear the Good News just as much as unbelievers do. We need to remind ourselves daily of the salvation we have in Christ, remembering what our Savior sacrificed in order for us to possess eternal life. Consequently, we need to preach the Gospel to ourselves in daily preparation for meeting the challenge to preach it to the lost we encounter in our day-to-day lives.