"In him (Christ) you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit." (Eph. 1:13)
The normal Christian experience is that when a person responds to God's offer of eternal life through Christ by faith, God moves into that person's life as the Holy Spirit. By faith we understand that God is one God in three persons. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, are all the one and same God. So understand this. When a person becomes a believer, God comes to live in them. Their body becomes God's temple.
What was impossible through the entire Old Covenant becomes suddenly possible. No longer does someone simply adopt a religion and try and imitate the behavior that God desires. Every world religion offers that. Uniquely, becoming a Christian means that God moves into a person's life and gives them the ability to live the Christ life. Instead of imitation, suddenly the Holy Spirit is reproducing the character in Christ as long as we abide in Him (John 15:5)
Vs. 14 of Ephesians 1 speaks of the Holy Spirit as the guarantee of our ultimate deliverance in
eternal life. How do you know whether you are a Christian or not? It is not by the externals of things like baptism, or church membership, or doing anything. It is by the witness of God's Spirit in our heart. WOW!. Praise the Lord.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010
Fruit Happens
"Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh." Gal. 5:16
I do not mean to imply by titling this "Fruit Happens" that we are to be lazy or undisciplined. Paul describes two contrasting ways of life. One is a life that is lived by human effort that can at best produce the "works of the flesh". And we can read in this text what a nasty list that is. The other life is one that is lived surrendered to the Spirit of God working in us, so that He can produce His harvest of fruit. Paul tells us that these two lives are diametrically opposed to one another.
In John 14 as Jesus prepared the disciples for His departure, He told them He would send the Holy Spirit to live in them. Can you imagine? No longer would God simply be with them, He would live in them. Every Christian is indwellt by God's Spirit. If you are a believer, God lives in you. The more completely we manage to surrender to Him, the more He manifests His power to enable us to live the life that He created us for. So to use Paul's imagery, "Walk by the Spirit." Our responsibility is to stay vitally connected. If we stay connected, He will produce fruit that glorifies God in our lives.
I do not mean to imply by titling this "Fruit Happens" that we are to be lazy or undisciplined. Paul describes two contrasting ways of life. One is a life that is lived by human effort that can at best produce the "works of the flesh". And we can read in this text what a nasty list that is. The other life is one that is lived surrendered to the Spirit of God working in us, so that He can produce His harvest of fruit. Paul tells us that these two lives are diametrically opposed to one another.
In John 14 as Jesus prepared the disciples for His departure, He told them He would send the Holy Spirit to live in them. Can you imagine? No longer would God simply be with them, He would live in them. Every Christian is indwellt by God's Spirit. If you are a believer, God lives in you. The more completely we manage to surrender to Him, the more He manifests His power to enable us to live the life that He created us for. So to use Paul's imagery, "Walk by the Spirit." Our responsibility is to stay vitally connected. If we stay connected, He will produce fruit that glorifies God in our lives.
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