DAY 33 - Lordship: Who Is The Owner Of Your Soul

Today’s Reading: Matthew 12

(Please read Matthew 12: 1 – 50 and listen to what the Lord Jesus Christ would like to tell you before reading my Spiritual Journal below. If you would like to learn a simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please read my “Count Down 5” from this blog.)

Please click the links below to Matthew 12:
NIV: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2012&version=NIV
Message: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2012&version=MSG

“When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there.” Matthew12:44 - 45

This morning Jesus told me lots of things through Matthew and most of the messages I have never thought before or read in a commentary:

1. The Fruit of Christ-likeness (Matthew 12: 18 – 21)
Jesus used the first Servant Song of Isaiah(Isaiah 42: 1 – 4) to declare a prophecy was to be fulfilled and to show us what is the fruit of Christ-likeness. The key word is “I will put my Spirit on him”. Even Jesus as a 100% fully God and 100% fully human needed the Holy Spirit to be in Him and not just with Him(John 14: 17). When the Holy Spirit is on you, then everything changed. You will have a new relationship with God to be His chosen servant, the one He loves and delights. And there will be fruits coming out of your life that you will be able to proclaim God’s standard to even in a national level. Your life will not be in quarrel, comparison to others or a self-promotion of yourselves. You will be a loving and caring servant of God to bring healing, comfort and victory and that you will be respected by many.


This is very similar to the check list of whether you live by the Holy Spirit and that if you do then the fruit(singular number)will appears in you life such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control(Galatians 5: 22 – 23).

Well, maybe we can make a check list according to Isaiah, Jesus and Paul to make sure you know that the Holy Spirit is in you. Or like when we leave, we’ll arm the house with security system. And if the alarm company calls you that your alarm has been triggered, then you need to go home to have a check. Anything happened contrary to this list should triggered your “spiritual alarm” and that you should ask the Holy Spirit to reveal your sin for that is His job to do so according to what Jesus said as in John 16: 8.

2. Blasphemy against the Spirit – Nothing to repent(Matthew 12: 31 – 32)
I did not know for many years what Jesus means regarding blasphemy against the Spirit until 2002. A dear friend came to me telling me that he was living contrary to the teaching of the Bible. I asked him, “Have you asked Jesus whether living like this is right?” He said, “Yes, but Jesus has not answered yet.” Then I asked, “Have you asked other things and He answered?” He said, “Yes, Jesus answered but not this one. Well, no problem, in a few months time our Synod will decide on this and when the Synod passed the motion, then it means Jesus say YES and I will be OK that time. I have been in pain for so long!” I was in great pain looking at his face for Jesus told me at that time, “When someone does not allow the Holy Spirit to work, then he has nothing to repent and that is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit for there will be no forgiving happened. When a Church say YES to sin, then it is not a church anymore. ” Living a life in the Spirit or without the Spirit is just so simple.

3. Lordship: Who’s the owner of your soul (Matthew 12: 39 – 45)
Just to look at the picture. Tt seems fine that an evil spirit comes out of a man and then he swept clean and put in order his house. But when we read it carefully, there is a key word that is so, so important: the house unoccupied. That means we cannot be the occupied owner of our house for that is a spiritual status of our soul. It is either evil spirits occupying or Jesus as our Savior and Lord of our lives! No more, no less! If you find your spiritual check list is not OK as of this moment when you are reading, then you should allow the Holy Spirit to do His work on you and to REPENT! Only by repentance and forgiveness from Jesus can we return to the loving relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ that He is our Lord, your Lord!

4. A Family Tie of Listen and Obey(Matthew 12: 46 – 50)
Jesus starts at Matthew 12 with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as the only key to Christ-likeness. Then He points out that a life which does not allow the Holy Spirit to work is a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Then He gives us a vivid picture of an unoccupied house waiting for any evil spirit to come in to take ownership of that soul to warn us. He then concluded with the importance of listening and obeying God as the only way to be sure you are in the relationship as in the family tie of Jesus. With a daily 'listen and obey' lifestyle, then you can be filled by the Holy Spirit and He can live in you and Jesus will truly be the owner of your soul, the Lord of your life.



Dear Holy Spirit,

Come Holy Spirit,

Psalm 51 (The Message)

1-3Generous in love—God, give grace! Huge in mercy—wipe out my bad record.
Scrub away my guilt,
soak out my sins in your laundry.
I know how bad I've been;
my sins are staring me down.

4-6 You're the One I've violated, and you've seen
it all, seen the full extent of my evil.
You have all the facts before you;
whatever you decide about me is fair.
I've been out of step with you for a long time,
in the wrong since before I was born.
What you're after is truth from the inside out.
Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.

7-15 Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean,
scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life.
Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,
set these once-broken bones to dancing.
Don't look too close for blemishes,
give me a clean bill of health.
God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Don't throw me out with the trash,
or fail to breathe holiness in me.
Bring me back from gray exile,
put a fresh wind in my sails!
Give me a job teaching rebels your ways
so the lost can find their way home.
Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God,
and I'll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.
Unbutton my lips, dear God;
I'll let loose with your praise.

16-17 Going through the motions doesn't please you,
a flawless performance is nothing to you.
I learned God-worship
when my pride was shattered.
Heart-shattered lives ready for love
don't for a moment escape God's notice.

18-19 Make Zion the place you delight in,
repair Jerusalem's broken-down walls.
Then you'll get real worship from us,
acts of worship small and large,
Including all the bulls
they can heave onto your altar

In Jesus Name I pray. Amen.

Please go to the link below for the pictures of my Installation last Sunday at Richmond Emmaneul Church( http://www.emmanuelvoice.org/ ):
http://www.duckducksnap.com/bishop_silas_ng_installation/index.html