{"id":3290,"date":"2014-06-14T12:59:00","date_gmt":"2014-06-14T12:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/?p=3290"},"modified":"2014-06-14T12:59:00","modified_gmt":"2014-06-14T12:59:00","slug":"the-moon-and-the-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/?p=3290","title":{"rendered":"The Moon and the Stars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last night as I headed to bed, I noticed how big and bright the moon was. I don\u2019t follow the phases of the moon, so I don\u2019t know if it was full. If it wasn\u2019t, it was pretty close.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Moon2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-3291 \" style=\"border: 3px solid #000000; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;\" src=\"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Moon2-276x300.jpg\" alt=\"Moon2\" width=\"231\" height=\"251\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Moon2-276x300.jpg 276w, https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Moon2.jpg 437w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 231px) 100vw, 231px\" \/><\/a>I took a couple pictures of the moon, even zoomed in with the camera on my phone. The result shocked me! The stars, which were invisible to the naked eye suddenly, became clear. What I couldn\u2019t see, the lens on my camera not only saw them, but showed them to me!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As a believer of Jesus, I have God\u2019s Spirit within me to help me see what I don\u2019t normally see. I\u2019m able to see through spiritual eyes, God\u2019s eyes, that which is happening around me. It may be a nudge from the Holy Spirit to stop and visit with someone, only to find out that things are not going as well as projected. It could be God\u2019s Spirit alerting me to a false teaching. Or it simply could be showing compassion to someone who might otherwise have been overlooked.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Jesus shared a couple of benefits of the Holy Spirit in His teachings from John 14. This is what He said. <em>\u201cI will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever\u2014the Spirit of truth.\u201d<\/em> (John 14:16-17 \u2013 NIV)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>From this passage we see the Holy Spirit has been given to us to lead us in wisdom to make decisions or to know what\u2019s happening in a situation. But we also see that we find truth in God\u2019s Spirit. He must be our compass for truth. Jesus talks more about this in John 16:13.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In John 16:8 (NIV), Jesus mentions that the Spirit came to <em>\u201cconvict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.\u201d <\/em>God\u2019s Spirit convicts me of my sin. As I become more in tune with God\u2019s message and His Spirit, I come to see areas of my life that are not in line with His commands. But as Romans 8:26 tells us, the Holy Spirit will help us when we are weak.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We also see that the Holy Spirit is with us to teach us and to remind us of what we\u2019ve learned. <em>\u201cThe Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.\u201d<\/em> (John 14:26 \u2013 NIV) God\u2019s Spirit leads, guides, and directs us into all truth and He will help us to recall such truth. So thankful for this role of the Holy Spirit!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>When I don\u2019t know what or how to pray for a situation, God\u2019s Spirit is at work. He is sharing my heart and thoughts with God. He intercedes for me in a way I don\u2019t understand. Romans 8:26-27 tells us about this relationship the Spirit has with God. What a blessing to know that even in my weakness, God\u2019s Spirit is strong.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>These are just a few ways that God\u2019s Spirit opens my spiritual eyes to what I can\u2019t see with my physical eyes. And here\u2019s some good news. God\u2019s Spirit is available to all believers of Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It doesn\u2019t matter who you are, what your station in life might be, or if you\u2019re considered a saint or sinner. If you have accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, the Holy Spirit is within you. He is at work within you. His spiritual eyes are available to you.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I must say that I\u2019ve not been as accepting to the Holy Spirit\u2019s leading in the past. I\u2019ve ignored some the prompting. I\u2019ve misread a few messages. I\u2019ve turned my back on the guidelines. But when I decided to really make this relationship with Jesus work, the eyes of my heart were then able to see all that was going on around and within me. God\u2019s Spirit really was and is my Helper.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If you don\u2019t know Jesus as the One who is able to do remarkable things in your life, please talk to someone about giving your life to Him. It could be here in this forum or with someone else, but I encourage you to make that decision.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The moon was beautiful last night, but the beauty of God\u2019s Spirit far surpasses anything in nature. How blessed we are to call Him Friend.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Grace and peace be yours in abundance,<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Donna<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last night as I headed to bed, I noticed how big and bright the moon was. I don\u2019t follow the phases of the moon, so I don\u2019t know if it was full. If it wasn\u2019t, it was pretty close. &nbsp; I took a couple pictures of the moon, even zoomed in with the camera on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_s2mail":"yes","_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,22,12,13,20,15,11,29,17,14],"tags":[2509,120,1831,1186,1378,1379,2508,2512,456,2511,2507,274,2510],"class_list":["post-3290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asking-god","category-believing-god","category-discovering-god","category-finding-god","category-hearing-god","category-knowing-god","category-loving-god","category-magnifying-god","category-obeying-god","category-seeking-god","tag-conviction","tag-counselor","tag-gods-spirit","tag-john-1416-17","tag-john-1426","tag-john-1613","tag-john-168","tag-remind","tag-romans-826-27","tag-teach","tag-the-moon-and-the-stars","tag-truth","tag-weakness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3290"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3292,"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3290\/revisions\/3292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}