The purpose of the Holy Spirit is
the entire renewal of our redeemed person; spirit, soul and body. He directs all
His working in us to the liberation of every faculty, and never, in any way
seeks to direct us as a “passive” being, even for good.
He works in us to enable us to choose His ways
instead of our ways. “Whom He calls He enables”.
He never, even for good, dulls us or renders us
incapable of free action or free will; otherwise He would nullify the very
purpose of Christ’s redemption on Calvary, and the purpose of creation in the
beginning.
Adam was created with the ability to choose to trust
Him or choose not to trust Him. He gave up that ability and because of that;
“There is none righteous, no, not one”.
God does not choose instead of us, we are not “holy robots” doing His will. He
does not choose for us.
He chose, in eternity, before time began, an eternal
inheritance for us but we can refuse to trust Him for it.
We do not “yield” passively to the “unknown bundle” or
to the “providence” of Gods unknown will.
That kind of behavior leads directly to an opening of
our mind to Satans evil, deceiving suggestions. He is the Prince of this world
and always will seize on the opportunity of passiveness on our part. He is the
father of lies and will lead us to believe we are “surrendering to Gods’ will”
even if we don’t know what it is!
God has given us a will, a deciding voice.
The purpose of Him sending His Spirit to us is to
restore our will to the ability to choose to trust Him! “…we have turned,
everyone, to his own way” God has made it possible for everyone who will
choose to do so, to turn to His way!
The one way that makes us like Him is, WE CAN CHOOSE TO
TRUST HIM OR CHOOSE NOT TO TRUST HIM. All other choices are by-choices of one
of those two choices.
The war is on right now in our spirit. The prize is our choice. We daily-
“choose you this day whom you will serve.”
We do not make one choice and then forever after rest
in that event. We take up our cross daily and follow, “choose to trust” Him.
Satan seeks to dull and posses us in our minds by
rendering our five senses inactive, trying to distract us from trusting
“faithing” what God has said to us.
Our 5 senses (sight-taste-touch-smell-hearing) generally relate to some kind of
behavior and when Satan has us concentrating on our behavior instead of what
Gods’ Word says, at that point Satan has us “turning to our own way”.
A spiritual person is one who lives in, and is governed
by, and understands, his spirit is co-operating with Gods’ Spirit by trust in
Gods’ Word.
A great experience accompanied by the entrance into the
plane of Gods’ Spirit does not make us spiritual.
We need to understand the difference between the working of Gods’ Spirit and our
reactions to It! When the wind blows and we see a tree shake, what we see is the
trees reaction to the wind blowing but we don’t see the wind itself blowing and
it’s the same with Gods’ Spirit, each persons reaction to Gods’ Spirit is
different.
A primary fact we each need to recognize is that
the Adamic race, of which we are part, is in utter ruin, we are dead in spirit.
We are un-inhabited by Gods’ Spirit. That’s what makes us dead. Satan rules the
world of the dead!
A second fact and the logical outcome of the
first is this;
Regeneration by the Holy Spirit and the indwelling of Gods’ Spirit does not
mean absolute sinlessness and present possession of a resurrected body freed by
the redemption of Calvary from the effects of the “fall” of Adam;--
It means every part of us not yet renewed is grounds for deceiving
spirits, doubts and lack of faith in Gods’ word because of our choices.
Since there is no such teaching as an absolute
sinlessness in this life nor the possession of a resurrected body attainable in
this life, the admittance of possible deception and the harassment of deceiving
spirits to our lives is a condition that demands choices. Choices based on what
God has given us in His Word, called, The Bible.
Even while our hearts and lives are being changed as we
are trusting, “faithing” His word, we live in this world where Satan is free to
attack.
Jesus said, “Satan cometh and findeth nothing in me”, we can’t say that.
It is the ignorance of our true condition, apart from
the new life God implanted in us, and our blind confidence of safety, without an
intelligent basis for our faith, that lays us open to being deceived by Satan
through our very certainty of being free from this deception.
In our path to freedom we must act intelligently. We
must know the truth, search for the truth, accept the truth and act on it and we
are set free.
It is an hour by hour, even moment by moment involvement.
It is deliberate, on purpose, conscious.
It is a choice we make initially when we accept Jesus
as Lord and a choice we keep on making each moment of our lives until He takes
us out of this life.
It doesn’t happen all at once, “Old things pass away and behold, all things
become new” That may be slightly out of context but it describes the Christian
faith walk with God perfectly.
The freedom of forgiveness, past-present-and future,
should not be thought of as “now I’m in, I’m safe!” It’s a starting place. The
battle is just starting; we now have the power of Gods Spirit enabling us to
choose His ways based on His word.
Satans powers are not affected by our “resolving or
determination”. We choose to stand on what God has said as opposed to what we
are facing in this life.
If we are sick, we trust His word that says “I am the Lord that healeth thee”,
If we are broke He says,” I am the Lord that provides” WE DON’T SIT DOWN AND DO
NOTHING! WE DO ALL WE CAN, BELIEVING HIS WORD AND TRUSTING THE OUTCOME TO HIM!
It is that faithing that God takes as we give it
to Him and He credits our account in heaven as though it were absolutely perfect
behavior, righteousness!
Jesus’ work on Calvary was complete. We are “not guilty”. We are those “whosever
will” who have accepted it.
In fact, it is applied in our lives, first, when
He did it, (already done) and second, when we act in faith on what His Word says
about the situation in which we find ourselves.
As we walk daily in the fellowship of His company, our
choice to choose to trust Him having been restored, the pull of the eternal
world waiting for us gets stronger but the pull of life because of Satan hangs
on like cancer.
We trust Gods word to be true, “I know in whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him..
……………………….David