ONLY THE HOLY SPIRIT

ONLY THE HOLY SPIRIT

                “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out “Abba!  Father!” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.” Romans 8:14-17

                Only the Spirit of Christ can make us into the image of Christ. If Yeshua lived by the Holy Spirit, how can we do less? Bringing many sons to glory seems to be the general theme and focus of the New Covenant. All of creation waits in the balances. There is something that God is trying to do with the human race and we are slow to catch on. He is making sons and daughters of God and training us to rule and reign with Christ.

                If we want to understand what God is doing with us, we only need to look at Jesus. He is the example, the prototype of the New Man, the new creation. It is man in the image of God and filled with His very presence so that we once again function the way we were created to function.

                In this we have often made religion an end in itself rather than the means to an end. We worship the symbols and the traditions, often failing to look to their higher meaning.  If He is working to bring many sons to glory, then even as we serve Him in humility we must also maintain a vision of that higher calling as sons and daughters who reflect their Father’s image.

                David elevates our thinking when he asks the question:               

                “What is man that Thou dost take thought of him? And the son of man, that thou dost care for him: Yet Thou has made him a little lower than God (Or angels, the Elohim) and dost crown him with glory and majesty! Thou dost make him to rule over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet.” Psalms 8:4-6

                If we would for once catch this vision then we, like Paul would “forget what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, we would press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Phil.3:14

                Surely God’s plans for us are clearly out of our reach. No amount of struggling in the flesh would ever cause us to attain to that which God is calling us. This is why Paul says: “And may I be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.” Phil 3:9

                This is why Paul also understood that he must be conformed to Christ’s death before he could be conformed to His resurrection. Phil. 3:10, 11

                To be born again we must first die in Christ. We are born out of His death and into His resurrection. So the cross is much more than a symbol. It is the very means… it is the very passage way by which we leave the kingdom of this world and are born into the kingdom of God.

                Thus Paul could say in Gal. 2:19-21 “For through the Law I died to the Law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and delivered Himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”

                So often we think in the wrong terms. We say, I will join this church and I will just follow the rules and everything will be alright. But in this we miss the whole point of the Gospel. Jesus is calling us to enter into the realm of His Spirit and to learn how to operate in that Spirit rather than in our flesh. It is not just a matter of toeing the line and doing what the church, or even what the Bible says to do. It is a matter of living by the same Spirit that Jesus lived by and through Him being restored to what mankind was originally created to be.

                We also need to elevate our prayer to more than just mere mental level. We need to pray in the Spirit. Do we really think that we are clever enough to tell God what we need? We don’t even know what we should pray for, but the Holy Spirit intercedes for us praying through us according to God’s will. This is why Jude said: “But you, beloved, building up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” Jude 20.

                Should we not then seek with all of our hearts for the baptism of the Holy Spirit so that we can pray in the Spirit at all times? It is in the spiritual realm that our battles are won. It is in the spirit realm where Christ functions in us. You don’t often hear Him talking to your brain, but you do often hear Him speaking into your heart. It is in our spirit that we are transformed from glory to glory. It is in our born again spirit that Jesus dwells by His Holy Spirit transforming us into His image.

                Why then do people fear to speak about the Holy Spirit, or why do they hold Him at arm’s length. We should fear God rather than men. And if the Bible says that God is more eager to give us His Spirit than we parents are to give good gifts to our children; should we not then ask Him as our Abba Father?  We are entering into the time of the harvest and it is time to set aside dead human opinions and spiritless forms of worship.

                “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”2 Cor. 10:3-5

                We are in a spiritual battle and for this we need spiritual weapons. You know the old saying,        “Don’t take a knife to a gun fight.” Well… nowhere is this truer than in the spiritual war that we are now waging. We are fighting an enemy that we can’t even see half the time, over issues that we don’t understand unless the Spirit of God opens our eyes and gives us understanding.

                Every sign in the world today is pointing to the end of all things. There is a grand convergence of events taking place that are pushing us toward the harvest. And Just as Peter quoted Joel on the first day of Pentecost, I believe that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, in our day, will come amidst blood and fire and columns of smoke when the sun is turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord.

                There is no time left to simply play church anymore. We need to be alive and animated by the Holy Spirit for only He can work the works of God both in us and through us in these last days. Come on Remnant people.  Let’s enter into the fullness of the high calling of God, not by might nor by power but by His Spirit. I feel like my anointing is being renewed right now. Bonnie and I just passed through an experience that could have destroyed us, but instead the Holy Spirit is reviving us and setting us on a new course.

                God’s ways are not our ways. When we find ourselves in difficult situations we tend to pull back into the flesh. We try to figure it out… turn things around manually, when in fact we should be on our knees praying in the Spirit until the answer comes.

                God gave Joseph dreams and visions of a glorious future and yet everything after that seemed to be carrying him in the opposite direction. Thrown in a pit by his brothers, then sold to Ishmaelites, then traded to Midianites, then sold as a slave to Potiphar, then falsely accused of attempted rape and thrown into prison. Nothing was going right… and yet the visions came true as a result of his faithfulness during times of adversity. That which seemed to be the opposite of His destiny actually made his destiny possible.

                Do we really want to try to figure out our lives without the Holy Spirit? Today everyone likes to talk in glowing terms about the coming harvest, but very few want to talk about what we may have to go through to prepare both us and the world for that harvest. People don’t usually tend to look to God until they are flat on their backs. We rely on political solutions, or clever plans, or positive thinking, or blind faith. We tend to rely on everything but the Word of God and the Spirit of God.

                But if we are to be the Remnant people we claim to be, then we are going to have to choose our weapons wisely… and we need to try them and prove them now, for in the heat of battle it is too late.

                And we need to line our lives up with our beliefs, for the army of the Lord is in disarray. The ranks are broken and untrained… undisciplined and largely directionless. We need the Spirit of God for more than just a good feeling; we need Him as the Captain of the Lord of Hosts. We are the Joshua generation that will cross over into the Promised Land and we need to have our encounter with the Lord, to take off our shoes and to realize that we are standing on holy ground.

                We are also the Joseph generation and we need to learn how to be faithful in times of adversity. We need to see life as a training ground and not just a random series of meaningless events. God is using various events in our lives to train us. Are we learning or are we complaining?

                Oh Lord God, pour out your Holy Spirit upon us so that we can become the army of the Lord. We ask you right now for Your Holy Spirit. Do not allow us to grieve Him any longer with our complacency. Prepare us for your soon coming kingdom I pray. Make us spiritual warriors in the battles of the Lord. Amen.