The last article was about “Top Notch Living” which was about having one main comprehensive resolution for this coming year, and that is to be filled with and led by the Holy Spirit. If we get this first peg in the right hole, all the rest of our life will fall into good and proper order. With this, through the finished work of Jesus Christ, we can tap in to all the goodness of God that is in place for our benefit and for the benefit of others. That was for the question “what”, now the question is, “how” can I be filled with and led by the Holy Spirit?
Proverbs 3:6 says if we will “acknowledge” or accept and recognize God in all our ways, he will direct our path. Jesus said if we hunger and thirst after righteousness, we will be filled (Matthew 5:6). If we pursue all that God has for us with no resistance to him, we will be filled. By believing that God is good and has good things for us according to the promises of his Word, we are free to receive what he gives the way he gives it. With this faith operating, we will yield to God’s working in our life trusting him to fill and guide us in the life he has for us. The early disciples followed this pattern after Jesus went back into heaven and they began being filled with the Spirit with supernatural evidence in their lives on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1 & 2). Then throughout the book of Acts, which is the history of the very beginning of the church, we read how both groups and individuals were filled with and led by the Holy Spirit. They experienced supernatural languages, boldness in sharing the gospel, healings, miracles, and signs and wonders with whole towns and regions being influenced by the resurrected Jesus Christ. They were truly experiencing “top notch living” in a wonderful way. They also experienced persecution from the religious status quo, which always comes with the territory if we are going to press in to all the good things of God. As they believed God’s Word and yielded themselves to the moving of God in their lives, they saw the goodness, power and works of God in their own personal lives and in the lives of those around them.
It’s a personal pursuit. God meets us where we are with life-changing, delivering power through the work and name of Jesus. With that he sets our feet on a new path in which we can be filled with and led by the Holy Spirit enabling us to live in the goodness and presence of God on a daily basis. That is top notch living for the coming year and in all years beyond.
