Spirit #14 – Your Confession is Your Reality

Workings of the Holy Spirit

courtesy: Dean Williams 2012

Churches that manifest spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12:8-10), appear to manifest fear as well:

• A Christian woman attends a large church that manifests the gifts of the Spirit. However, she visited our smaller church for help. When we listened to her, we noticed that her confession was always about “satan this” or the “devil that”. She had a lot of fear.

• On a different day, I passed by a group of boys from a nearby Christian middle school. They were talking about pvp (player vs. player) games. The subject of choosing computer names came up. One boy—probably not more than 13 years old—told the group: “Yeah, if you wanna scare Christians, just make 666 or demon part of your name!” They laughed.

Our churches are infected with fear. Yet, isn’t it odd that mature church members are clueless to what adolescent school boys are alert to?

So get a clue. If you’re hitting bumps in the road, do you often confess that the devil is hindering you? Why give him so much power over your life? All a humble Christian has to do is “resist” him and he’ll run (James 4:7)!

Or, if you’ve been too busy chasing after spiritual gifts that you haven’t made time to bring forth spiritual fruit (Gal. 5:22-23), then fear will be your new best friend.

So get another clue. Spiritual fruit—especially love—assure us of our continued connection to Christ Jesus (John 15:2-17). That connection helps us confess that Jesus within us is greater “than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

All relationships take work. So, if you’ve managed to lose your connection to the Vine, what else can your confession contain but “he that is in the world”?

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Scriptures are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version, Cambridge 1769. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Spirit #13 – After the Holy Spirit, the Fall Out

Workings of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit appeared as tongues of fire upon the few frightened believers hiding in an upper room. Afterward, they poured out into the streets—full of courage and joy—and preached the gospel for the first time since Jesus’ death and resurrection (Acts 2).

Thus begins the spiritual journey of three types of born-again, spirit-filled Christians:

The first type seems to have lost all ability to think reasonably. These bark up trees, crawl on all fours in the church aisle, or slap other Christians—while claiming these behaviors are from God. Please…

The second type are barren Christians eager to manifest all of the power gifts of the Spirit, yet, bring none of the Spirit’s fruit to the family of man, the family of God, or even their own families. Tsk…

The third type loves God and others from the heart—with tough love. God anoints their heart since that is where all actions originate. Thus, they manifest the anointing through 1) what they say; 2) what they do; 3) what they see; 4) what they smell; and/or 5) what they hear. Until they familiarize themselves with their consecration, they too will offend. It’s just part of our walk of ignorance. Sigh…

The bottom line is to keep love, keep faith, and keep going. Until we “get it”, maybe those who we’ve offended along the way, will forgive us and—dare we hope?—befriend us again.

After all, if even for one season, we’re all destined to walk alone.

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Scriptures are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version, Cambridge 1769. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Spirit #12 – Glorify God in Your Body

Workings of the Holy Spirit

There are two ways our bodies can glorify (*#1392 dŏxazō, esteem or honor) God. The first is through suffering or death:

Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify (dŏxazō, esteem) God on this behalf (1 Peter 4:16); or

Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify (dŏxazō, honor) God (John 21:19 NIV);

The second is by pursuing a lifestyle that comes up to God’s standards (Eph. 4:22 - 32). Afterwards, our bodies become a living sacrifice that glorifies (dŏxazō, esteems) God—and in return, God glorifies (dŏxazō, esteems) us:

…your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost…therefore glorify (dŏxazō, esteem) God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s (1 Cor. 6:19, 20);

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son…And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified (dŏxazō, honored). What, then…? If God is for us, who can be against us? (Rom. 8:29-31 NIV)

Jesus is the express image of God. After we conform to the Son’s likeness, we become the express image of Jesus—not in his deity—but in his character!

Thanks to the ministry of the Spirit, and the work by the Spirit of the Lord, our transfiguration is made possible from glory (dŏxa, very apparent honor, dignity) to glory (dŏxa, very apparent honor, dignity) (2 Cor. 3:18).

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Scriptures are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version, Cambridge 1769. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scriptures marked “NIV” are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

* Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible.

Spirit #11 – The Freedom of the Spirit

Workings of the Holy Spirit

Kaneohe Bay 2013

 If Christians had Jesus’ meek and humble heart, then we wouldn’t miss out on opportunities of faith, which the Spirit provides in time of lack.

For instance, our pastor wanted to marry a godly woman. But she wasn’t convinced that marriage was God’s plan for her. She had been independent, traveled extensively, and ministered to the churches. As Christ was all she needed, she had no faith that marriage to this man was God’s will.

However, she sought counsel from a handful of humble church members, whose godly walk and lifestyle she knew. She was quite shocked to discover that God had already instilled faith in them that marriage was God’s plan for her. Since they were mature Christians, they gave her the freedom of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17 NIV) to decide for herself. To their surprise, she took their faith as her own, and committed to marriage with the pastor.

A week later, however, she was still struggling with God’s revealed will. Her heart had not caught up to her commitment. She called the leader of this small group and requested prayer. Not more than five minutes passed, when she called back. The prayer worked. Her heart suddenly loved this man! (They’ve been happily married for over ten+ years now.)

Maturity gives place for the liberty of the Spirit so that no one is “forced” to fulfill a prophecy, a revelation, or a word from God. Quite frankly, if you’re being forced, the power behind it is demonic.

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Scriptures marked “NIV” are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Spirit #10 – The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error

Workings of the Holy Spirit

Are we deaf to God’s truth? The descendants of Abraham were. They believed lineage alone supported their claim that God was their father (John 8:37-41 NIV). Yet, Jesus knew better and challenged their long-held beliefs:

Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear [akŏuō, understand] what I say. You belong to your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies…If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? He who belongs to God hears [akŏuō, understands] what God says. The reason you do not hear [akŏuō, understand] is that you do not belong to God (John 8:43-47 NIV).

Jesus’ claim got their blood boiling, didn’t it! Even so, the apostle John wrote the same way to Christians:

We are of God. He who knows [ginōskō, feels, perceives, or understands] God hears [akŏuō, understands] us; he who is not of God does not hear [akŏuō, understand] us. By this we know [ginōskō, feel, perceive, understand] the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error (1 John 4:6 NKJV).

Do Christians hear [akŏuō, understand]?

The Spirit of truth and the spirit of error need not be discerned. Instead, they are known [ginōskō, felt, perceived, or understood] by how we react to God’s truth!

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Scriptures marked “NIV” are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.