Back to chapter 6
Study QuestionsIn my basic
Discipleship89
series, I cover what I consider to be the four most important concepts of
discipleship that are absolutely essential if a Christian is to go on into
maturity in his walk with Jesus. They are understanding our salvation in Jesus,
learning how to relate to Jesus for the answer to our needs as it relates to
daily time in the Word and weekly Church Fellowship, and how to properly relate
to and deal with sin in one’s life which is talked about in Chapters 7 and 8 of
this Section.
I have found in forty-three years of Evangelism
that a Christian stands or falls depending on his mature
understanding in one of these four areas. No matter what a
Christian’s problems may be, if he or she has an adequate
understanding of these four concepts of discipleship and daily puts
them into practice, he or she will come to the answer to any problem
he or she may have. He or she will also grow to maturity in Jesus
and have a stable Christian walk. I also find though that if a
Christian lacks understanding and practice in any one of these four
areas, they are having deep problems spiritually and in some cases
are at a complete standstill in their walk with Jesus.
I weekly go out on the field, just as I am
getting ready to do today, and share the Gospel with men. As I do
this I often meet people who are born again Christians but who are
no longer walking with Christ. They will say something like this:
I accepted Jesus five years ago, but I had
this sin problem I could not get victory over and decided I could
not live the Christian life and so gave it up.
They are right in that they are not able to live
the Christian life, in fact no Christian can in his own strength.
Jesus never intended the Christian to do so. What this believer’s
problems is, is not their sin problem, but ignorance about how to
experience Jesus’ love and forgiveness and how to draw upon Jesus
strength and might to live the Christian life on a daily basis.90
Several years ago Campus Crusade for Christ
celebrated their thirtieth anniversary. I received a letter from
them asking me to share with them and Dr Bill Bright, its founder,
what the single most important thing was I gained from this
ministry. Without hesitation I wrote back and said that it was Dr.
Bill Bright’s teaching on how to experience God’s love and
forgiveness on a daily basis.91 In forty-three
years of ministry, I have found that the single greatest stumbling
block to Christian maturity is not knowing how to experience Jesus’
love and forgiveness on a daily moment by moment basis. If
the new believer does not learn how to cope with and relate to
weakness and sin in his life in his relationship with Jesus on a
daily basis, this one problem alone will keep him from being able to
go on to anything else. This is because Satan will continually heap
unjustified condemnation onto that person until they give up walking
with Jesus in defeat. For this reason I consider this chapter,
which teaches a Christian how to cope with and experience Jesus’
forgiveness over their sins on a daily moment by moment basis, to be
the single most important principle of Discipleship a Christian can
learn. Learning how to deal with sin in one’s life is all
wrapped up in what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit,
so what we really want to deal with here is what it means to be
filled with the Holy Spirit and how to stay filled with the Holy
Spirit.
Jesus
Sanctifies
Us Through the Holy Spirit
Three Ways
By
Being Filled
with
The Holy Spirit
The Apostle Paul commands in
Ephesians 5:18
"And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be
FILLED with the Spirit."
BY
WALKING IN THE
SPIRIT
The Apostle Paul commands in
Galatians 5:16
"But I say, WALK by the Spirit, and you will not carry
out the desire of the flesh."
By
Being Baptized
In the
Holy Spirit
Jesus said in the Gospel of Luke and the book of
Acts,
Luke 24:49 "And
behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father UPON
you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with
power from on high."
Acts 1:8 "But you
shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come UPON
you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all
Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."92
Basically there are three
levels of maturity in the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives:
Being Filled
With, Walking,
and Being Baptized
in the Holy Spirit.
A Christian cannot really understand what it means to walk in the
Spirit until he first understands what it means to be filled with
the Holy Spirit. A Christian cannot understand the value of the
Baptism of the Holy
Spirit as related to ministry
outreach and release until he first understands what it means to be
filled with the Holy Spirit and what it means to walk in the Holy
Spirit.
Being filled with the Holy
Spirit is allowing Jesus to be Lord of
your life.
Walking in the Spirit
is allowing Jesus to be the source of your life in every detail and
in every respect.
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit
is allowing Jesus to be Salvation, Lord, and Source of life to
others through your life. As Jesus
Himself said,
John 14:6 "I am the way, and the
truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me."
This chapter is going to deal
mainly with the work of the Holy Spirit as related to
self-sanctification which is being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Walking in the Spirit also deals with self-sanctification, but there
are many different angles to what this means. These different angles
are dealt with extensively in my Advanced Textbook titled,
Relationship With
Jesus The
Key To
Effective Ministry.79
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is self-sanctification also, but it
is Jesus’ sanctification in our lives to make us vessels useful for
ministry outreach and release specifically. This is dealt with also
extensively in the Advanced Textbook.
Three
Kinds of People
Soulish Man Illustration
For the sake of our discussion here we will talk
about the soulish man who is not saved, who has no life or
relationship with God in his human spirit.
The
Soulish Man is a man without God. This does not mean
that he may not believe in God or may not be religious, but because
their is no communication or relationship between him and God
through his human spirit, his perception of the world and what he
thinks are God’s activities are completely motivated and controlled
through the reasoning of his thoughts, his soul.93 Paul
states about the soulish man,
Ephesians 4:17-18 "This I say
therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no
longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the
futility of their mind, being darkened in
their understanding, excluded from the life of God,
because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of
their heart."
If a soulish man were to call upon God, God would
not hear him because there is a barrier between him and God as a
result of his unforgiven sins.94 He has not appropriated
Jesus’ forgiveness through His death on the cross. He either does
not care or is trying to gain God’s forgiveness through his own
works.95
When a soulish man observes the activities of
God’s people motivated and controlled through the Holy Spirit, these
activities appear as foolishness to him. They appear as foolishness
for two reasons: First, because the things of the Spirit of God are
not earned but are freely given by God. The Apostle Paul states in
the first book of Corinthians and the book of Galatians,
1 Corinians 1:18 "For the word of the
cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are
being saved it is the power of God."
Galatians 3:5-6 "Does He then who
provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by
the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Even so Abraham
believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness."
The hardest person in the world to talk to about
the Gospel is a religious person. This is because he has spent his
life trying to gain God’s favor through his works determined through
the reasonings of his soul. Therefore his heart and mind, his soul,
is blinded to God’s free gift of salvation through Jesus. Paul, in
relating this fact to the soulish Jews, wrote in
Romans 10:2-3,
"For I bear them witness that they have a zeal
for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about
God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did
not subject themselves to the righteousness of God."
Second, the things of the
Spirit of God are foolishness to the
Soulish Man
because the things of God are discerned through man’s spirit in
union with the Holy Spirit.96 Because the soulish man is
dead spiritually and does not have the Spirit of Jesus dwelling in
him, thus has no link with God’s Spirit, he has no means of knowing
the activity of God in the present, nor does he have an inner
witness of the value of what Spiritual men are doing. As a result he
is guided by the prince of darkness, Satan, and without realizing it
even opposes the work of God thinking he is rendering service to
God.96
Discernment is a by-product of
being born from above through the Holy Spirit cultivated
through a deep knowledge of the Word of God and a daily surrender
and obedience to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.98 Jesus
said in John 3:5-8,
"Truly, truly, I say to you,
unless one receives birth131 of water and the Spirit, he
cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which receives birth131
from the flesh is flesh, and that which receives birth131
from the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You
must receive birth131 from above132.’ The wind
blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know
where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who
receives birth131 from the Spirit."
The
Soulish Man
cannot discern truth in a situation because when it comes to
relationship to self, man, and God, these are subjective issues;
that is, issues centered in man’s mind and heart, his soul, and in
his spirit. The Bible plainly says that only the Holy Spirit knows
the thoughts of man and the thoughts of God.99 Because
the soulish man has no means of communication with God through his
dead Human spirit, he can never know the true heart of a problem and
thus truly discern a situation.
When a
Soulish Man
reads the Bible, he receives condemnation because he is reading it
with his soulish mind. He is not able to see God’s love,
forgiveness, and plan for his life in the Scriptures because this
kind of understanding and discernment only comes through the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit through man’s regenerated human
spirit which he does not have.100 This is why Evangelism
is so important because a Christian does have the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit and is able to show God’s love and forgiveness in Jesus’
Word.
Life does not come through
reading the Bible alone. Life comes through entering into
relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus then causes the Bible to
become alive to us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit through
our human spirit as it is relevant to the need of the moment.101
Spiritual Man Illustration
About the
Spiritual Man Paul wrote,
1 Corinthians 2:15-16 "But he who is
motivated and controlled through his spirit118
discerns all things, yet he himself is discerned119
by no man. For who has known the mind of Adonai that he should
instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ."
The word in the Greek for spirit here is
pneumatikov"118 (pne
matikos). Pneumatikos means literally to be motivated and
controlled through one’s spirit. A
Spiritual Man
is a believer who is completely motivated and controlled by the Holy
Spirit through his human spirit. This is a person who is completely
surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ one-hundred-percent. He
is a person who by free will choice does not act or speak out
of the reasoning of his thoughts, his soul, but only out of the
initiative of Jesus Christ through his spirit.
The
Spiritual Man discerns the truth about all situations
and needs because he does not judge things as they appear outwardly.102
He goes to Jesus about all things through worship and praise in
Spirit and truth, and gains Jesus’ evaluation about all things
through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.96 He does this
because he is aware of the complexity of man’s constitution and his
complete and total dependence on Jesus for everything. He takes
Jesus’ admonition about being as a little child to enter into the
kingdom of God literally.103 He puts no trust in himself
or in man about anything, but only trusts in Jesus in the light of
His Word.104
Everything that he does, whether vocationally,
marriage wise, or ministry wise, is motivated out of the prayer,
Jesus, in what vocation, relationship with the
opposite sex, and ministry can I best glorify Your name, usher in
Your kingdom, and accomplish Your will on earth as it is in heaven,
and bring the most people, or people that you want me to, into a
saving knowledge of who You are?105
This is the attitude of his heart daily in all
that he does, says and pursues.
Because the
Spiritual Man does not act out of his own
initiative in anything that he pursues, whether spiritual,
practical, or ministerial pursuits, he succeeds in all he does,
meaning by the definition of success by God’s standards. This is
because Jesus promises His provision when we obey His personal
dictates to our lives through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.106
Some times when we are a success in the Lord’s eyes, we are a
failure in the worlds eyes. In the world’s eyes Jesus was a total
failure at the end of his life: His apostles deserted him and he
died alone on a cross a humiliating death. But was Jesus a failure?
Because the
Spiritual Man obeys Jesus through the ministry
of the Holy Spirit, he experiences the by-product of obedience which
is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
and self-control.107
The spiritual man is completely at rest in Jesus.
He is completely at rest because he never allows fear to be a
motivating factor in his life but trusts totally in Jesus’ promise:
"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." (John 14:18).106
Fleshly Man Illustration
About the
Fleshly Man
Paul wrote,
1
Corinthians 3:1-3 "And I, brethren, could not speak to
you as to men motivated and controlled through your spirit, but as
to men motivated and controlled through your flesh120,
as to babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for
you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not
yet able, for you are still motivated and controlled through the
flesh. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not
motivated and controlled through the flesh, and are you not walking
like mere men?"
The word in the Greek for
flesh here
is sarkikov"120 (sarkikos).
Sarkikos means literally to be motivated and controlled by
the appetites and desires of the body, the flesh. This is what the
Bible means by being fleshly. It means that not only is man’s dead
human spirit sunk down into submission to the soul, but even the
soul has yielded its sovereignty to the appetites and desires of the
body so that God declares of man in
Genesis 6:3 "My
Spirit shall not always strive121 with man; in their
erring he is flesh." A
Fleshly Man can be a believer as well as a
non-believer. For the sake of our discussion here, we will talk
about the fleshly believer who has a relationship with Jesus.
When we say
Fleshly Man, we are talking about a born-again
Christian who is motivated and controlled through his soul: his
intellect and feelings; and through his flesh: his appetites and
desires. By fleshly we mean self-dependence rather than Jesus
dependence. These are Christians who are trying to live the
Christian life out of their own strength and thoughts rather than
relying on Jesus’ strength and Holy Spirit guidance.108
Sometimes this is out of ignorance, sometimes out of self-will.
Christians who rely on their own strength and
thoughts live in frustration, confusion, and defeat. Their lives are
not really much different from the life of the fleshly unbeliever
except that they are more miserable because they are aware of what
they can have in Jesus. They are more miserable because they have
experienced God’s love, forgiveness and power over their sins and
plan for their lives.
In most cases they live defeated lives because,
first, they do not know how to appropriate and experience God’s love
and forgiveness on a daily basis in spite of daily momentary
defeats. No Christian walks in the Spirit perfectly twenty-four
hours a day; but if a Christian does not know how to immediately
appropriate God’s love and forgiveness when he becomes aware of sin
in his life, Satan can keep him in an attitude of defeat for months.
Once Satan has convinced a Christian in this position of how bad he
is and because of his ignorance about how to draw upon Jesus’ power
to overcome sin in his life, out of frustration he turns back to
relying on the power of his flesh to try and solve his problems.
The only problem with this, however, is that our
flesh is in bondage to sin. Therefore, when you rely on the power of
your flesh to overcome your problem, you stimulate the soul and
flesh. Since the soul and flesh are in bondage to sin already, to
stimulate them is to also strengthen their power to sin. The end
result is that for a moment the Christian seems to be making headway
only in the end to find himself more in bondage to the problem he
tried to overcome in his own strength in the first place. Concerning
this Paul tells us in Romans
8:6-7,
"For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the
mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, Because the mind set on
the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not
subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so."
Paul tells us plainly that the flesh cannot make
itself submit to God’s law. Trying to do so only empowers it to sin
all the more so that the apostle Paul cries out
Romans 7:24
"Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this
death?"
There is no one more miserable in the world than
a Christian who finds himself caught up in this kind of cycle of
trying to live the Christian life in the power of the flesh. It
destroys his freedom in Christ and his ability to experience the
fruit of the Holy Spirit in his life. The fleshly Christian finds
himself unable to really trust God. This is why he is frustrated and
striving. He is a very self-righteous person because the appearance
of spirituality in his life is self- produced, not Holy Spirit
attained. As a result he is intolerant of Christians who do not live
up to his self-made standards of spirituality and even looks
down upon them with a critical judgmental spirit.
The Christian life is a supernatural life. No
Christian can live it in the power of the flesh. This is why Paul
wrote in Ephesians 6:10, "Finally, be strong in Adonai, and in the
strength of His might." This is the secret to victorious Christian
living, learning how to draw upon Jesus’ strength and power to live
it. Appropriating Jesus’ strength and power is all wrapped up in
what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to walk in the
Holy Spirit and what it means to be Baptized with the Holy Spirit as
related to ministry outreach and release.
How to
Be Filled
with the
Holy Spirit
What basically does it mean to be filled with the
Holy Spirit? Does it mean that the Holy Spirit comes in doses, or is
this a figure of speech? When a person receives Jesus into His life
as Savior and Lord, he is at that moment filled with the Holy
Spirit. Being filled with the Holy Spirit, then, simply means
that Jesus is Lord of your life.
Maybe you have been a Christian for a while and
yet have never before understood the filling of the Holy Spirit
defined in this way. As a result you are not sure whether Jesus is
still Lord of your life or not. Your next obvious question would be,
How can I presently be sure that I am filled
with the Holy Spirit and that Jesus is presently Lord of my life?
If you are unaware of any unconfessed sin in your
life at present, the way you are filled with the Holy Spirit is
according to,
1. One, Paul’s command
in Ephesians 5:18:
"And do not get drunk with
wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit."
2. And two, according to
the Apostle John’s promise in the first Epistle of
John 5:14-15:
"And this is the confidence
which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according
to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in
whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we
have asked from Him."
The Apostle Paul in God’s Word commands us to be
filled with the Holy Spirit and the Apostle John in God’s Word
promises that whatever we ask God according to His will is ours
because He promises to answer any prayer according to His will. It
is God’s will that you be filled with the Holy Spirit, or that Jesus
is Lord of your life.
If you would like to reacknowledge the Lordship
of Jesus Christ over your life right now, and thus be filled with
the Holy Spirit, then pray the following prayer,
Jesus, I want You to be Lord of my life, so
right now by faith I ask you to fill me with Your Holy Spirit and
take over the control of my life. I now thank you by faith, Jesus,
that I am filled with your Holy Spirit and that you are presently
Lord of my life.
Accept this as a fact, not as a feeling. being
filled with the Holy Spirit is not based on how you feel but on the
trustworthiness of Jesus Himself and His Word. The Bible states, "It
is impossible for God to lie" (Heb 6:18). Jesus promised in His Word
that if we would ask Him anything according to His will that He
would do it. If you just prayed the above prayer, you are presently
filled with the Holy Spirit and Jesus is Lord of your life.
How to
Stay Filled
With the
Holy Spirit
How We Get Unfilled
How do we get unfilled with the Holy Spirit? The
Apostle Paul commands in the book of Ephesians,
"And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by
whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness
and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you,
along with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted,
forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you."
(Eph 4:30-32).
We become unfilled with the Holy Spirit when we
grieve the Holy Spirit. We grieve the Holy Spirit when we allow
unforgiveness, bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and slander to rule
in our hearts instead of forgiveness and edifying conversation. Paul
says in an earlier verse,
"Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth,
but only such a word as is good for edification according to the
need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear." (Eph
4:29).
We also become unfilled with the Holy Spirit when
we commit any act of immorality such as is outlined in 1 Corinthians
5:11, 6:9-10, Galatians 5:19-21, and other related Scriptures.
We also become unfilled with the Holy Spirit when
we disobey Jesus’ instructions and commands to us through the Holy
Spirit. The writer of Hebrews states,
"Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today
if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they
provoked Me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness.’" (Heb 3:7-8)
You might ask the question, How do I know for
certain when I am grieving the Holy Spirit and have retaken the
control of a certain area of my life? Grieving the Holy Spirit
through attitude or action is not a guessing game. Sometimes it is
obvious to us, whether Jesus makes it obvious to us through the
ministry of the Holy Spirit or not, such as when we make false
accusations against another. You know if you are telling the truth
about someone or not. Therefore, whether you are aware of it or not
by the Holy Spirit, you know when you have committed the sin of
slander. If you are mindfully aware of it, then whether you feel
convicted by the Holy Spirit or not the Bible says, "Therefore, to
one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it
is sin." (James 4:17). If you know you have knowingly sinned, then
you have grieved the Holy Spirit. When you sin, you grieve the Holy
Spirit.
Outside of known sin, Paul plainly says that we
are not qualified to judge ourselves.
"But to me it is a very small thing that I should
be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even
examine myself. I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am
not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord." (1
Cor 4:3-4).
Paul says here plainly that we are not qualified
to judge the rightness nor the wrongness of our actions. We are not
to play the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit came to
convict the world concerning sin, judgment and righteousness.109
This is what Paul is talking about in Galatians when he says, "It
was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing
firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." (Gal 5:1).
Jesus came to set us free of ourselves and
self-examination so that we would be free to enjoy Him and His plans
for our lives and so that we would look to Him and Him only to be
the judge of sin in our lives, outside of obvious sin.
As was said earlier, the Christian life is a
supernatural life. Only Jesus can live the Christian life, and only
Jesus can live it through us. Only Jesus can intimately. Since Jesus
created us and is Lord of our lives and since only Jesus knows what
His plans for our lives are, only Jesus can know for certain what is
truly sin in our lives against His Lordship and personal dictates to
our lives. We cannot nor can anybody else. This is what Paul means
when he says, "But he who is motivated and controlled through his
spirit discerns all things, yet he himself is discerned119
by no man." (1 Cor 2:15). We are discerned, or judged by no man
because only Jesus knows His individual Lordship over our lives.
Paul wrote,
"Therefore do not go on judging anything before
the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light
the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s
hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God." (1
Cor 4:5).
This does not mean men will not try to judge us
by appearance, but unless their judgment is motivated out of
relationship with Jesus (Jesus coming and revealing the heart of the
matter) backed by true investigation of the objective facts, their
judgment has no valid basis, because only Jesus truly knows the
motives of our hearts.110
Therefore, outside of obvious sin in our lives,
we are grieving the Holy Spirit when Jesus by the Spirit makes known
plainly to us that that is what we are doing.
Paul says in another passage, "But if we judged
ourselves rightly, we should not be judged" (1 Cor. 11:31). Paul is
not talking here about self-introspection to try and find any
unconfessed sin in our lives. He is, first, talking about dealing
with obvious sin, what we know is sin in our lives. Second, he is
talking about sin in our lives made known to us by Jesus through the
Holy Spirit as a result of our asking Jesus to make known to us any
sin in our lives before partaking of communion. Third, I believe it
is talking about wrongly judging others from appearance’s sake
before knowing all the facts and heart motivation behind others’
actions.111 Jesus said, "Do not judge lest you be judged
yourselves. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by
your standard of measure, it shall be measured to you." (Matt
7:1-2).
If we judge others wrongfully then Jesus says He
will judge us. Paul said that because of false judgment, "Many of
you are weak and sick, and a number sleep" (1 Cor 11:30). How many
of our brothers’ and sisters’ faith has been destroyed as a result
of our wrongly judging them, by our comparing them to ourselves and
by what we see only on the surface?112 Many good
Christians who needed our love and support have been weakened, made
sick, and even died spiritually as well as physically because of
our, many times unintentional, self- righteous, moralizing
condemnation of their lives without any true heart factual basis?
And how many times have we been hindered in our
own spiritual, mental, and physical development because of our wrong
slander of others? The writer of Proverbs states,
Proverbs 28:13
"He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who
confesses and forsakes them will find compassion."113
We judge ourselves and others
rightly when we look to Jesus and Jesus alone for His evaluation of
our lives and others when taken into consideration with objective
reality as well. Christianity is Jesus centeredness, not
self-centeredness. Self centeredness and other-centeredness leads
only to strife, self-condemnation, self-righteousness, intolerance
of others’ weaknesses, etcetera. Because Christianity is Jesus
centered, our confession of sin, aside from known sin, must be
motivated out of relationship with Jesus to be meaningful and have
healing virtue that will lead to life, because Jesus is Life.114
How We Get Refilled
When Jesus by the Holy Spirit
makes us aware of an attitude or action in our lives that is not
pleasing to Him, that is no longer surrendered to Him, He is doing
this so that we can surrender or resurrender that area of our lives
to Him.
One morning during my quiet
time the Lord renewed to me the reality if we are to be anything in
Him it must come out of relationship with Him. Jesus-stimulated by
the Holy Spirit, not self-stimulated through the flesh.
Self-stimulation leads to strife, self-righteousness, intolerance,
and lack of love for self and others.
Jesus wants our strength,
life, and change to come as a result of knowing and relating to Him.
Therefore, when He makes us aware of an area of our lives not
pleasing to Him or not healthy to ourselves or to others in attitude
or action, He is doing this so that we will recognize our need of
Him in that area of our lives and thus have more of Him in our
lives. He is doing it so we can turn our weaknesses into His
strengths.115 When Jesus shows us weaknesses or sin in
our lives, it is not to make us feel bad or be self- condemning, but
to show us our lack of Him, His power, and strength not ours, in
that area of our lives.
The thing to do when Jesus
manifests an area of weakness or sin in our lives is to thank Him
for illuminating that area of our lives so that we will recognize
more of our need of Him, and thus can have more of Jesus in our
lives and so that we will surrender that area of our lives to Him
enabling Him to manifest His strength to us in that area of weakness
or sin. The end result will be that Jesus will manifest more of
Himself to the world through us by His changing us by His power
through the Holy Spirit.
When we take a wrong response
over manifested sin or weakness through self-pity,
self-condemnation, or self-strife over the problem, we
unintentionally push Jesus even further away from ourselves in that
area and manifest more of ourselves and the flesh; and thus Jesus is
not manifested and glorified through the manifested weakness or sin
in our lives.
These kind of responses
manifest pride. Pride is simply saying, I do not need Jesus. I
can overcome in my own strength and power. It is saying,
Jesus, I would rather do it myself!
How do we allow Jesus to bring
healing in an area of sin and weakness in our lives and thus
manifest and glorify Jesus in our lives? We do it first through
confession of the sin in our lives. We agree with Jesus that that
attitude or action brought to our attention through the ministry of
the Holy Spirit is sin. Confession involves repentance. This means
turning away from the sin committed (Luke 17:1-4). We then by faith
thank Jesus for His forgiveness according to His promise in
1 John 1:9
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
When we say by faith
we mean that we accept the fact of Jesus’ forgiveness over our sins
confessed based on His promise in
1 John 1:9,
not on our feelings. Our feelings can change, but not the promises
of God’s Word. Your forgiveness is a fact because God’s Word
declares it, not because you feel it.
I want you to notice that
nothing is said about asking for forgiveness. God
automatically
forgives you at the moment of your confession; or, the moment you
confess your sin, God’s word says that you are automatically
forgiven. This is true whether
your sin was a small lie or something as gross as committing murder.
There is no sin so small or so big that it cannot be forgiven at the
moment of confession. Why is this true? Because the penalty for sin
is the same for telling a small lie or committing murder: Death! And
the solution for our sin is the same no matter how great or small:
Jesus dying on the cross in our place.
It is because of Jesus dying in our place that we
are automatically forgiven at the moment of our confession, no
matter how small or great our sin.
As was already stated,
experiencing Jesus’ forgiveness is not based on feelings. Many times
after we confess our sins to Jesus we may still feel guilty, but you
can be fully assured that this guilt is not coming from Jesus. It
may be coming from the devil or your flesh, but it is not coming
from Jesus. The only thing that is coming from Jesus is what is
consistent with His Word,
Psalm 103:12 "As
far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our
transgressions from us."
Psalm 103:13 "He
has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us
according to our iniquities."
Isaiah 43:25 "I,
even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own
sake; and I will not remember your sins."
Isaiah 44:22 "I
have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud, and your sins
like a heavy mist."
1 John 1:9 "If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
What do we do with false
feelings of guilt once our known sins are confessed? Simply ignore
them and thank Jesus that you are forgiven because His Word declares
it, not because you feel it.
The second step to being
refilled with the Holy Spirit is reappropriating Jesus Lordship over
that area or attitude according to one,
Paul’s command:
be filled with the Spirit. And, two,
John’s promise:
that if we ask Jesus to do anything according to His will, He hears
us and answers us. Here is a suggested way to pray:
Jesus, I confess to you
that I am a sinner and repent of my known sins. Thank You for
forgiving me according to Your Promise in 1 John 1:9. I now ask You
to refill me with Your Holy Spirit, to retake control of my life and
to continue to lead me into your will and plan for my life. By faith
thank You that it is done according to Your promise to answer any
prayer that is according to Your will, in Your name, Jesus, amen.
Again, as was said before,
this is not based on feelings, but on the trustworthiness of Jesus’
promises in His Word. The promises are that if we confess our sins
we are automatically forgiven (1 John 1:9) and if we ask Him to fill
us with His Spirit in that known area of our life, we can accept it
as being done because of His command (Eph 5:18) and promise (1 John
5:14-15) that He will do anything we ask Him to do that is according
to His will. It is Jesus’ will that you be filled with the Holy
Spirit.
If you practice the
principle of
staying
Filled with the Holy
Spirit every time a known sin is brought
to your attention by Jesus through the ministry of the Holy Spirit,
you will be able to experience Jesus’ love and plan for your life
and Jesus’ forgiveness on a continuous basis, twenty-four hours a
day.
The Apostle John wrote in
1 John 1:8
and Solomon wrote in
Ecclesiastes 7:20,
"If we say that we have no
sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
"Indeed, there is not a
righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never
sins." (Ecclesiastes 7:20).
You are a human being. Because
you are a human being, you are going to sin, but Jesus through this
principle of being filled with the Holy Spirit has provided us an
immediate way to deal with sin when we do, so we can continue to
experience His forgiveness until He comes back and gives us our new
bodies which will not sin.
As long as you are on this
side of heaven, you are going to fall into sin from time to time. If
you can accept that reality, you will be able to accept yourself.
Jesus wants you to face yourself realistically. He knows you are
going to sin from time to time. It is no surprise to Him when you
do. The sin you commit ten years from now, Jesus knew you were going
to commit ten years earlier when you received Him. He does not want
you to be bogged down with your failures. He just wants you to
confess them so you can continue to experience His forgiveness, be
filled with the Holy Spirit, and then give it to Him so He can
change you Himself so you will not keep falling into the same sin,
and so you can continue in His plan for your life. Basically Jesus
wants you to love yourself as you are no matter where you are
because He does. Jesus does love you as you are. You cannot surprise
Jesus with anything in your life. You are loved and accepted.
Accept it!116
How to have
Victory over Sin
How do we have victory over
sin? First, you need to understand that the Bible teaches us that
the flesh is in bondage to sin and that it never did obey God’s laws
and it never will. Paul wrote in the book of
Romans 7:14
"For we know that the Law is spiritual; but I am of flesh, sold into
bondage to sin."
Romans 8:6-8 "For
the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit
is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is
hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the
law of God, for it is not even able to do so; and those who are
in the flesh cannot please God."
Paul tells us in this passage
that no amount of will power on your part will stop your flesh from
sinning. This is because the flesh is in bondage to sin and thus
will sin when given the opportunity.
How then do we stop from
sinning? How do we have victory over sin? By controlling your
thought life. How do we control our thought life? Not by trying to
not think about something sinful. The moment you are idle, not
occupied with work or homework or something else, sinful thoughts
will start to flood into your mind and your flesh will sin. How then
do we control our thought life so we will not sin? Paul wrote in
Romans 13:14
"But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the
flesh in regard to its lusts." How do we do that? Paul gives us the
answer in Galatians
5:16 "But I say, walk by the Spirit,
and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh."
How do we know when we are
walking in the Holy Spirit or not? Paul wrote in
Ephesians 5:15-17,
"Therefore be careful how you
walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time,
because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand
what the will of Adonai is."
We prevent the flesh from
sinning and are walking in the Holy Spirit when we seek God’s will
in our daily use of time and than obey God by using our time
according to His will. Therefore when we are using our time
according to God’s will we are occupied and the flesh does not have
an opportunity to sin. This is what Paul means in
Galatians 5:16
when he says "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry
out the desire of the flesh." When you
are occupied with God’s will in your use of time you are
walking in the Holy Spirit.
When we are not using our time
according to God’s will, we are not walking in the Holy Spirit. In
fact, when we are not
using our time according to God’s will we are out of the Holy Spirit
all together and are
walking in the flesh.
Since the flesh is in bondage to sin and never did obey God’s laws,
when you are walking in the flesh you will sin and you are sinning.
You are sinning because Paul wrote in
Romans 14:23
"But He who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is
not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin." The only
time we are walking in faith is when what we are doing is initiated
by the Holy Spirit. Therefore to not seek God in your use of time
and then obey Him in that use of time is a sin in itself, because
"Whatever is not from faith is sin."
For example, if you have a
problem with lust, if you are not doing God’s will with your time,
you will use your time to lust after the flesh even if you do not
want to. Paul wrote,
Romans 7:19-24 "For
the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that
I do not wish. But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am
no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then
the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do
good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man.
But I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war
against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of
sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me
free from the body of this death?"
However, if you are occupying
Your time by focusing on and doing God’s will with your use of time,
you are preventing your flesh from being idle and thus gravitating
toward its object of lust which it will do if idle. Therefore, the
only solution to keeping your flesh from sinning is by filling up
your time and days with God’s will in your use of time, and by using
your free time to share the Gospel and by planning ahead your time
of relaxation, what you are going to do with it so that, that time
is occupied with that which edifies and builds you up, not down.
Paul wrote in
Philippians 4:8-9,
"Finally, brethren, whatever
is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any
excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind, dwell on
these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and
seen in me, practice these things; and the God of peace shall be
with you."
If you don’t plan what you are
going to do in your play time, you will be idle in that time and
Satan will fill it with that which will incite your flesh to sin.
If you are focused on using
your free time to share the Gospel, you will not be idle and your
flesh will not have the opportunity to sin, so plan some of your
free time to share the Gospel.
Second, you keep the flesh
from sinning by meditating on God’s word. David wrote in
Psalm 119:11
"I have hidden Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against
You." Study, meditate on and memorize God’s Word. The knowledge of
God’s word brings restraint against evil. When you consider doing
evil the Holy Spirit will bring to your mind the Word of God and it
will restrain you from doing evil.
Why do we today have drive by
shootings in schools? Because they are no longer teaching God’s word
and the ten commandments in schools, thus there is no restraint over
the evil of man’s heart. The end result is whatever the flesh wants
to do it will do.
Third, you keep the flesh from
sinning through fellowshipping with Holy Spirit filled Christians;
in other words by going to church and being a part of and involved
in that church. As we fellowship with one another we encourage one
another to do what is right.
Hebrews 10:24-25
states,
"And let us consider how to
stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own
assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one
another, and all the more, as you see the day drawing near."
Finally, you get victory over
sin by asking Jesus for His Holy Spirit grace, strength and power to
overcome the problems of your flesh. Jesus’ word commands us:
Ephesians 6:10
"Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might"
1 Chronicles 16:11
and Psalm 105:4
"Seek Yehovah and His strength; seek His face continually."
2 Thessalonians 3:3
"But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you
from the evil one."
Jesus tells us in His word to
draw upon His strength and power through the Holy Spirit to over
come sin in our lives. Pray like this:
Jesus, I confess to You
that I cannot overcome my problems in my own strength and power and
so by faith pray for Your grace, strength and power to overcome
these problems in my flesh. By faith thank You for the answer to
these prayers in Your name Jesus, Amen.
Whenever you find yourself
having conflict with a problem in your flesh, get down on your knees
and pray this prayer and ask Jesus for His Holy Spirit grace,
strength and power to overcome the problem in Your flesh.
The
Fruits
of
The Holy
Spirit
As you learn to walk in the
Spirit moment by moment through being filled with the Holy Spirit,
Jesus will begin developing the fruits of the Holy Spirit in your
life. The fruits of the Holy Spirit are
love,
joy,
peace,
patience,
kindness,
goodness,
faithfulness,
gentleness,
and self-control.107
These fruits are not developed
overnight. They come about as a result of our daily choosing
to walk in obedience to the personal individual dictates of Jesus to
our lives through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. They are
produced through our focusing on obedience to Jesus’ Lordship, not
through focusing on the fruits themselves. The fruit of the Holy
Spirit is not something you try to produce. It is the natural
by-product of abiding in the Vine.
Jesus is that Vine. Jesus said
in John 15:5
"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in
him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing." You
are abiding in the Vine, Jesus, when you are obeying His personal
dictates to your life through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Learning to be filled with the
Holy Spirit is Jesus’ first purpose in your life because it begins
the development of His character in your life. This then results in
the development of the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life which
results in your being a witness to the world of God’s love and
forgiveness with your life as well as your lips. Jesus said in
Matthew 5:16
"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see
your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven."
On to
chapter 8
Study Questions
Bibliography & Notes
Section 4 Chapters
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