Try the lifestyle of a disciple for an hour: Deny yourself and your desires and try to be continually led and empowered by God’s Spirit. If you meditate on Jesus, you’ll begin to anticipate the presence of Jesus, and if you anticipate the presence of Jesus, you’ll begin to experience His reality.

True messengers of the living Jesus demonstrate the reality of His presence. They don’t just delineate doctrines about Him.

Let the present tense Jesus give you peace when you feel tense. The present tense Jesus can blast you past the pain of your past!

Religion often quenches spiritual expectations and replaces joyous anticipation with dull passivity. When systematized, institutionalized, and formalized Christianity is substituted for direct interaction with and obedience to the living, resurrected Jesus, Christians become a passive weekly audience instead of a powerful spiritual army that seeks to follow Him with all their heart. Perhaps it’s time to de-systematize, de-institutionalize, and de-formalize Christianity and be led by the Spirit instead!

It takes much less time to sit through a weekly religious routine than it does to daily interact with and obey Jesus who is unseen. I’ve been swept away by inner rivers of living water that continually invigorate my soul with passion and love for the living Jesus and with the fruit and gifts of His Spirit.

Expecting life to change while you stay stuck in a rut leads to much disappointment. Let Jesus raise your reasoning out of your favorite ruts and into His rivers.