God’s Laws for Life in Our Hearts

For those Christians who follow the church calendar we have recently celebrated Pentecost, the festival of fifty days. This is a significant time under both the Old and the New Covenant.

Seven weeks after the escape from Egypt of the Children of Israel, God gave them His laws and covenantal instructions in the Ten Commandments, written on tablets of stone. Seven weeks after Jesus celebrated the Passover, and then went through His death and resurrection, God sent the Holy Spirit to the disciples, to put the truth of His laws and instructions into their hearts.

This is exactly what Jeremiah had prophesied (Jeremiah 31:33), that God would write His laws on to the hearts of His people, under a New Covenant. God extended His promise of divine provision and protection beyond the children of Israel to all those willing to accept Jesus as King and Saviour. We now have God’s laws for life, both from the Bible and from the revelation that comes through the Spirit of truth. What is more, the supernatural gifting that comes through the Holy Spirit enables us to experience the dramatic changes in our lives that God intends for all His Kingdom people.

Without the empowering of the Holy Spirit, Christianity would only have been an empty religion of words. But, after Pentecost, the first disciples experienced a new boldness in sharing their faith, a new ability to heal damaged lives, a new awareness of the heart of God, a new discernment of the spiritual battle and a new ability to dialogue with God. We can have just the same opportunities today as we surrender our lives to King of kings.

Prayer: Father, thank You for the Holy Spirit who transforms the words of Scripture into powerful and life-changing reality for every follower of Jesus Christ. Today, we declare that we earnestly desire more of His gifting, in order to make the Body of Christ truly effective in this troubled world. Amen.