What is the ultimate spiritual condition where the believer will experience God's abundant life to the fullest?

PART 6 RICHES BEYOND MEASURE

CHAPTER 6

What Is the Ultimate Spiritual Condition, Where the Believer Will Experience God’s Abundant Life to the Fullest?

So, you have decided to attend a Spirit-filled church on a regular basis. You have decided to take notes of the various teachings you are learning about whom God has made you to be. You have hid some of these truths in your heart along with reflecting upon them. You have made a decision to confess to God the Father known mental, verbal, or overt sins, and along with such to confess whatsoever has been committed against someone else. Furthermore, you have followed up confession with recovery; learning about God’s perspective in an area of weakness, appropriating it for yourself through memorization, and meditating upon it throughout the day. Now, you have arrived at a very special place in your walk with God, which is called the filling of the Spirit.

What is the filling of the Spirit?

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18)

There were some believers that were being continually controlled by the consumption of wine. The only way to address this behavior was for the believer to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit. To be filled with the Spirit means that that the believer is controlled by one of the members of the trinity, this being the Holy Spirit. This idea is of the Holy Spirit filling (furnishing; supplying) the believer with himself is another way of saying that when this spiritual condition occurs, we will experience His presence (a divine joy; a divine peace) in our own life, and as a result we will manifest these spiritual qualities of character to others. This is where our walk with God gets really exciting. No longer are we void of God’s presence. And to top it all off, there is so much more to the ministry of the Holy Spirit that He will make us aware of.

When we are filled with the Spirit, what else will He make us aware of?

Let us also walk in the Spirit

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25)

The apostle Paul is instructing the Galatian believers saying that in view of the fact that the new divine life resident in their beings, was supplied by the Spirit38, let us also walk in the Spirit.

What does it mean to walk in the Spirit?

It’s another way of saying that he desired for them to be filled with the Spirit, so that they would conduct themselves under the guidance, impulses, and energy of that life.39 Along with experiencing the fruit of His divine love and peace, He will actively interact with us. When we pray for direction in some area, there are times when He will declare the answer to us in His way and at the appropriate time. As we grow spiritually, and begin to become aware of the spiritual gift or gifts that has been given or distributed to us by Him, we will learn to become more sensitive to is promptings as to when to exercise them. When we are falsely accused of something, we can pray to Him for a means of vindication, which He could provide for us in His manner. And even in the midst of an intense situation, when we are caught up in alarming thoughts and feelings, we can pray to Him for a verse of comfort, of which He can recall to our mind.

I hope what has been said here has resonated with you. Remember, religion tries to get us to please God by what we do. Christianity is God coming inside us to indwell and us getting to know Him in a personal way by making the varied decisions that we have presented to you in this study. Some of you might be thinking, how do I know what you have been talking about is true ? You might have never heard of these kinds of suggestions before. You might be thinking, could this study be just a bunch of malarkey? I’ll leave you my response to these kind of thoughts in the closing section.

It’s Not Malarkey

So, you might believe that what I have said pertaining to experiencing God’s abundant life could be just malarkey. How can what I have said be proven to you? Initially, at least, I hope you considered what I have said as being possibly true . On what basis, on the basis of the Word of God? Do you believe that God’s Word supports what has been stated in this study?

As far as the Word of God goes, consider these verses as they pertain to it concerning experiencing God’s abundant life.

Putting on the new man, whom we have now become at salvation

And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: (Colossians 3:10)

We are to put on the person who we now are in Christ, in whom a new character in course is being formed by means of knowledge (knowing our self in the light of God) so that we (in our soul) reflects, like a mirror, the wisdom, righteousness, and goodness40 of God.               

Putting off the old man or person whom we used to be

Ephesians 4:22-25

That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; (Ephesians 4:22-23)

We are to put off (like the metaphor of taking off clothes) the former manner of life of the old man (the person whom we used to be) whose former habits were the result of being dominated by the totally depraved nature, the lusts of which were excited by deceit, i.e. by deceitful influences seducing to sin, and instead, choose to be renewed in your mind, i.e. to be spiritually transformed, to take on a new mind. This renewal of the mind, this spiritual transformation takes place when we put on the word of God.  In other words, we are made new in the attitude of our mind, when we appropriate God’s perspective.

Addressing sin in my heart

Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. (Psalms 119:11)

As we hide (memorize; store up) God’s word in our heart, committing sin in our mental attitude and subsequently in our behavior will lessen.

1 John 2:5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.

The other basis for considering whether what I have said is true is the witness of God the Holy Spirit. If we, believers, keep on keeping God’s word (all that He has made known to us as His will in regard to our conduct), then the love of God will be produced in us by the Holy Spirit, and will be manifested by us toward others. How will you know, when this spiritual reality of operating in God’s love has already taken place? It already has, if you keep on keeping God’s word.  

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

One more thing you might ask. Aren’t we supposed to perform good works? Shouldn’t this be what our Christian life should focus on? Initially, no. This is what most churches talk about. Do this, do that, show God’s love to others. Unfortunately, under this type of operation there is little or no awareness of addressing sin by means of confession, and if there is, recovery simply means to just try and behave better. There is also little or no teaching on the renewal of the mind (reflecting upon God’s perspective as declared by the word) and thus no filling (control) of the Spirit. Therefore, the good works that are performed are made in the power of the sin nature with self-motivation instead of the filling of the Spirit with divine motivation.

…God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:3b-4)

Remember this, God wants to be intimately involved in our works, so that He can evidence not only His qualities of character working in and through us, but also so that He is able to express His miraculous power through the manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit so that unbelievers will become witnesses of His divine working, and respond favorable, when the Gospel of Christ is presented.

God Bless You!

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Endnotes

38Weust.

39Weust.

40Calvin's Commentaries Pc Study Bible version 5, 2006, 16 Dec. 2016 ˂http://www.biblesoft.com>.