Restored Relationships

What is the true purpose of your relationships? We often leverage connections with our friends, business associates, spouses, and children for our benefit only. John offered a different way, one that would allow the flow of the Holy Spirit into our relationships: “We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves god must also love his brother” (1 John 4:19-21).

Compartmentalizing God

Have you compartmentalized God? We often limit God to a particular worship style, in a specific building, during one hour, on a certain day of the week, or even a quiet time, a Bible study, or a small group. Then we take control of the other 167 hours of the week. Mankind has been doing this since the first sin. However, the spiritual was not fashioned for religion, but for relationships. God created a different design for His people, one that allowed the Holy Spirit to saturate all of our hearts all 168 hours a week:

Captive Thoughts

What dominates your thoughts? The apostle Paul wrote: “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). The problem is pretense that we can be god in our own lives. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God said, “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jeremiah 2:13). Clay holds water.

A heart of clay shows us that we must release the Holy Spirit in our minds. If we continue to rely on our own knowledge, we will watch as another cistern begins to crack as the Living Water escapes. “Taking captive every thought” means that we identify any destructive idea or image in our minds that flows from a licentious sand or legalistic stone cistern of pride. “Making it obedient to Christ” means that we surrender it to Him, experiencing His perspective, His mind, His wisdom. Identifying and surrendering destructive thoughts to the Restorer will transform our emotions that tend to follow our beliefs.

In order to release the water of the Holy Spirit in the clay chamber of your intellect, read the Bible everyday and allow the Word to permeate your thoughts. As you get into the Word, the Word will get into you. You will be empowered to take captive every thought and make it obedient to the Restorer as His Living Water transforms your mind.

For more, watch: Episode 20: Living Water

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Outlets

Don’t Forget God

Have you forgotten God? Read carefully what God said to His people through Moses: “Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God…You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today” (Deuteronomy 8:11, 17-18).

Today, remember God and surrender your heart to Him, including your financial decisions. He will make you new, again.

For more, watch:
Episode 27: God’s Ins, Outs, Ups, and Downs of Resources, Part 1
Episode 28: God’s Ins, Outs, Ups, and Downs of Resources, Part 2
Episode 29: God’s Ins, Outs, Ups, and Downs of Resources, Part 3
Episode 30: God’s Ins, Outs, Ups, and Downs of Resources, Part 4

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The Restorer’s Water: Social/Emotions

God said, “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jeremiah 2:13). A social cistern contains friends, business associates, spouses, and children to be leveraged for our benefit only.

John offered a different way, one that would allow the flow of the Holy Spirit to all of our relationships. It’s called love: “We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For any one who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:19-21). God calls us to the flow of self-sacrificial love.

Reclaim all your thirsty relationships for God with the quenching flow of the Living Water.

For more, watch The Restoration with Mitch Kruse, Episode 20: Living Water.

To share this devotional visit our archive.

The Restorer’s Water: Spiritual/Spirit

Do you limit God to a particular worship style, in a specific building, during one hour, on a certain day of the week, or even a quiet time, a Bible study, or a small group, while you take control of the other 167 hours of the week? If so, you’ve created a spiritual cistern. God said, “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jeremiah 2:13). A spiritual cistern compartmentalizes God.

A cistern was built to catch and store rainwater by covering a basin of stone with plaster. After years of use, the plaster would crack, causing the cistern to leak.

Mankind has been building spiritual cisterns since the first sin, but God desires the Holy Spirit to saturate all of our hearts all 168 hours a week. How would your week change if you reclaimed every moment as a spiritual one, constantly drinking from the flow of Living Water?

For more, watch The Restoration with Mitch Kruse, Episode 20: Living Water.

To share this devotional visit our email archive.

The Restorer’s Water: Mental/Intellect

God said, “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jeremiah 2:13). A mental cistern compartmentalizes God from our minds. We seek knowledge for knowledge’s sake apart from God, so we can make decisions apart from Him.

Thoughts become a very safe place for a Christian to sin, to lust for someone who is not our spouse or to desire a life we do not have. These will eventually affect our words and our steps. Consequently, we must release the Holy Spirit in our thoughts. Paul offered a solution to mental cisterns: “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Is your mind thirsty for God? Drink from the flow of the Living Water and memorize 2 Corinthians 10:5 today.

For more, watch The Restoration with Mitch Kruse, Episode 20: Living Water.

To share this devotional visit the email archive.

Closer to God with Dean Kruse