Claiming Our Inheritance

July 30, 2012August 20, 2016 Carolyn Moore

To access the power and fullness of the Holy Spirit is a choice. I think of it sort of like my computer. This little guy can do a lot. My computer can take stock of what’s in my pantry and formulate a meal for dinner. It can manage my finances, synchronize family calendars and keep track of my caloric intake. Everything I need to organize my life is in the twelve-by-fifteen inches of metal I call a computer.

So what do I use it for? Beyond surfing the net, I do little other than type words. For me, a computer is simply a glorified typewriter. All the potential goes unused for my lack of knowledge and interest in doing more.

I suspect many who believe in Jesus have that same brand of relationship with the Holy Spirit. For all the power and potential offered us at salvation, we settle for the spiritual equivalent of word processing. And maybe that’s because (like me with my computer) we just don’t know how this thing works.

Read the full post: http://seedbed.com/feed/claiming-our-inheritance

Marks of the Spirit-filtered Life

July 24, 2012 Carolyn Moore

Said George: “You know we are on a wrong track altogether. We must not think of the things we could do with, but only of the things that we can’t do without.” (Three Men in a Boat, To Say Nothing of the Dog by Jerome K. Jerome)

To understand Paul’s take on the Holy Spirit, we first need a lesson in filters. In your car, an air-intake system feeds the engine’s compressors. That system takes in both air and everything floating in it—pollen, bugs, dirt, everything. That’s why we need an air filter. It prevents all those fragments from clogging the engine.

What works for car engines works for spiritual engines, too. We also have an intake system, complete with filters that decide what we take in and what we filter out. For instance, if I believe in reincarnation, then my experience of the natural world will filter through that belief. Childhood wounds will filter adult conversations and relationships. Our filters determine what gets to our “engines.”

Read the full blog at www.seedbed.com or at this link: http://seedbed.com/feed/marks-of-the-spirit-filtered-life

The Rock, the Ripples and the River

July 16, 2012 Carolyn Moore 1 Comment

My second installment on the Spirit-led life posted on seedbed today. http://seedbed.com/feed/the-rock-the-ripples-and-the-river

“Sanctification is messy! In our community of faith, we are discovering that we get to control almost nothing in this process. We are being led places we didn’t think we wanted to go. We find ourselves building arks under sunny skies, trusting in what we don’t yet see.

“But sanctification is also joyful. As it turns out, I not only like that leader who has allowed the Holy Spirit more access to her life, I like her more. She is still doing great things among our people, but I’m noticing that now her activity comes from a different motivation, a more peaceful and impassioned place. She is slowly but surely being released from the tyranny of “shoulds” and “oughts” and there is a great joy in that release.

“Sanctification brings freedom. Freedom from “doing sickness.” Freedom from “pleasing others sickness.” Freedom from the need to air-brush our lives into some socially-accepted image. The Spirit-led life offers such freedom to live headlong into the values of God, to create ripples and flow in His river.”

The full article runs at www.seedbed.com

When God Moves

July 9, 2012 Carolyn Moore

I love Asbury Seminary’s new online resource, seedbed.com, not only because they are running a four-part series I wrote but also because they have a ton of resources for Wesleyan followers of Jesus, many of them free. Look them up. And while you’re there, I hope you’ll read what I’ve written on the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.

http://seedbed.com/feed/when-god-moves-we-move

“  Depending on the translation, the word for “tabernacle” can mean a place to meet or a place that moves. That tells us that from the very beginning there has always been a relationship between the presence of God and the journey of faith. It also teaches us that God never meant for his tabernacle to get stuck in one place. It was built to move when God moves, always in the direction of his promises. ” (from “When God Moves We Move.” Read the entire article at www.seedbed.com) 