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GLIMPSES OF PAUL – 9

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PAUL – ALONE BUT NEVER ALONE

Another one of Paul’s great certainties was the presence of Christ in him. He knew that it was the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ representative on earth, who lived in him. He also knew that the Holy Spirit was Jesus’s “alter ego”, not in any schizophrenic kind of way but as His gift to the church, His own self in them.

Jesus promised, on the eve of His death, that He would send the Holy Spirit, after He had returned to the Father, who would be in them to teach and guide them through life. So close was He to Jesus, that Jesus called Him “another just like me” who would be in them forever.

The Holy Spirit’s presence him meant that he, Paul, was never alone. Even in the loneliness of imprisonment…long journeys in foot accompanied by loyal companions…difficult and dangerous situations he had to contend with…issues in the churches needing divine wisdom… he was essentially alone because his earthly friends were as weak vulnerable as he was.

Through all his tough times, including uncertainties, important decisions, even communication with the beloved churches he had established, he had a “paracletos”, a Helper so close and reliable that he was constantly comforted and assisted.

Paul was also aware of his dependence on the Spirit for every detail of his life as a Jesus-follower. Without the Holy Spirit, he had no power to overcome the pull of his flesh, or to obey the very Word of God he was writing in his letters. It was “Christ in him” that energised his spirit to persevere despite every obstacle. It was he, Paul, in Christ, that was the hope of his own victory over sin and death.

Paul knew the theory… Jesus died for him. He also knew the practice…he died with Jesus. The old Paul ceased to exist the moment he believed in Him. There was a powerful exchange in the spirit realm. He had taken on a new identity, a son of God, in a new realm, the kingdom of God, and his entire life was transformed. He had been delivered from the power and influence of the dominion of darkness and Spirit-empowered to live in the kingdom of light.

So, he wrote…

2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT
[17] “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

And so he experienced this new life…

Galatians 2:20 NLT
[20] “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

He urged believers, then, who still lived in a twilight zone of believing one thing and living another, to take on, in faith and action, this very real transformation.

Romans 6:3-4, 6-8, 10-11 NLT
[3]”… Have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? [4] For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives….
[6] We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. [7] For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. [8] And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him…
[10] When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. [11] So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.”

Just as Paul had learned, so we must learn to make the choices, based on the truth we believe, to put this faith into action.

Romans 6:11-13 NLT
[11]”So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. [12] Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. [13] Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.”

Paul could be who he was, and write what he wrote because the Holy Spirit was as real in him as Jesus was to His disciples on earth.

As with Paul, so with us and all who believe in Jesus for salvation. However, the initiative lies with us. We are the ones who develop the awareness of “Christ in us, the hope of glory,” and cultivate the closeness to the Spirit by acknowledging His presence in us and listening for His voice as we “walk” in this world.

Never alone…yes, but only as we choose to live in His presence and under His authority in every detail of life.

BLESSED WITH EVERY SPIRITUAL BLESSING – 1

Christian life, ,

Ephesians 1:3 NLT‬
[3] “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.”

Three little words, “has blessed us…” should change our perspective from what God wants us to do (according to the Old Covenant) into what God has already done (in the New Covenant).

In Paul’s magnificent letter to the Ephesian church, he explains, in detail, what God has done, through Jesus, to reverse the consequences of Adam’s rebellion.

Engaging His attributes as God – love, mercy, sovereignty, and power – He set in motion a process to undo what Adam did and to restore what He set out to do from the beginning.

God wanted a family of sons and daughters like Himself with whom He could fellowship. He also designed humans to rule in His kingdom, equipped with His authority to carry out His will on a redeemed earth as it is done in heaven.

We know that His plan went awry when Adam chose to side with the devil. However, God had already built in a way to overcome Satan and neutralise his power over humans before He set about preparing the earth for human habitation.

Paul assures his readers that, from God’s perspective, what He planned was already complete before He began the process.

‭Ephesians 1:4-5 NLT‬
[4] “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. [5] God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.”

Nothing took God by surprise. Nothing fazed Him when Adam went astray. Since God is omniscient, He knew the end from the beginning. His rescue plan was foolproof because He entrusted the outworking of His plan to His Son.

How desperately we need that assurance as we navigate a world dedicated, under Satan’s rule, to derail us and take us down with God’s enemy. Unfortunately for us, we still have a part of us that sides with the devil. He has a foothold through the evil desires, directed towards doing our own selfish stuff, that lurk within us.

God has designed it this way because life on this earth is our training ground for life with Him in eternity. We are on probation. We are apprentices, learning to rule over our wayward hearts before we can rule over His earth when we live with Him in glory.

However, we also have a powerful ally living in us, God’s own Spirit. He is dedicated to putting all the provisions of God’s rescue plan into effect so that most important of all His attributes, His “chesed” – His covenant love, (an untranslatable word in English), would be clearly seen, especially by the principalities and powers that oppose Him.

God wants us to know His power in us before He can use His power through us to do His will on earth around us.

For us, it means that the operative word in the New Covenant, “done!”, applies to us. This assures us that nothing can derail God’s mission. He has done what He set out to do and nothing can change that! We are already safely entrenched in Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, and living in His kingdom.

‭Colossians 1:13 NLT‬
[13] “For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son.”

There are several blessings that flow from our union with Jesus.

‭Ephesians 1:4-5 NLT‬
[4] Even before he made the world, God loved us and CHOSE us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. [5] God decided in advance to ADOPT us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
[7] He is so rich in kindness and grace that he PURCHASED OUR FREEDOM with the blood of his Son and FORGAVE our sins.

Chosen, adopted, freed, and forgiven! Can there be any greater blessings in a world controlled by fear, evil behaviour, and chaos than these? Can we be that secure in the midst of insecurity that nothing moves us? The answer is, “Definitely! For sure!” if we believe God’s Word.

Now let me come to the crux of my thought. If God has reassured us that everything He needed to do for us is done, why do we still pray for God to do what He has already done?

Much of our prayer is still coming from our confusion between Old and New Covenants. The value of the Old Covenant lies in the revelation of God’s holiness and the total inability of Israel (and all people) to measure up to His perfection.

‭Romans 3:23 NLT‬
[23″For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.“

This conclusion leaves us without a leg to stand on. Without God’s intervention, we are done! However, God DID step in. He Himself took care of the problem by taking our place in Jesus, the man, facing the Father’s wrath against sin, fully paying sin’s debt, and then transferring all the benefits of what He did for us, to us as a gift.

‭Romans 6:23 NLT‬
[23] “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So, what is left for us to do?

We keep complicating what God made simple. God requires only two responses to everything He accomplished for us in Jesus… believe in Jesus and love one another.

‭1 John 3:21-24 NLT‬
[21] “Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. [22] And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him. [23] And this is his commandment: We must BELIEVE in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and LOVE one another, just as he commanded us. [24] Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.“

Something amazing flows from this faith that does what God REQUIRES, praise, gratitude, thanksgiving, WORSHIP. Isn’t that what God wants from us above all else?

‭John 4:23-24 NLT‬
[23] But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. [24] For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

God isn’t looking for people who will invent new ways to worship Him, in music, dance, rituals, whatever foolish people think up. Again, He has only two criteria… spirit (heart, attitude, focus) and truth (based securely on what is written in His Word).

So, where does prayer fit in to God’s requirements? Again, God has made it simple.

‭2 Corinthians 1:20 NLT‬
[20] “For all of God’s promises HAVE BEEN fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory.”

This assurance also puts prayer squarely in the middle of God’s Word; do what God says!

For our daily physical, material, and financial needs, God has given us a promise…

‭Matthew 6:33 NLT‬
[33]”Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously (generously), and he will give you everything you need.”

When we live under God’s authority, always being generous in our attitude towards others, meeting needs when and where we can, God takes care of our needs without our having to ask.

So that takes care of much about which we focus on in prayer!

…and for our spiritual growth and development…

‭2 Peter 1:4 NLT‬
[4] “And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”

‭‭Hebrews 6:12 NIV‬
[12] “We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.”

Can you see, then, that prayer in the New Covenant is a confident “amen!” to all God’s promises because Jesus has already approved and fulfilled them all. This “amen” must always be accompanied by heartfelt expressions of gratitude and praise because whatever we need has already been granted.

‭1 John 5:14-15 NIV‬
[14] “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. [15] And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”

The Holy Spirit taught me years, ago, not to ask for a miracle but to ask for a word. Miracles are open-ended, according to God’s will which we don’t know for sure. When God gives us a word, we know He will honour His promise. So…

We can encapsulate our entire Christian experience in four words, DONE! THANK YOU! and AMEN! .

WHY DID JESUS COME? – 2

Christian life, ,

WHY DID JESUS COME? – 2

“God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them…” 2 Corinthians 5:19.

Jesus’ coming to reveal the Father was the first step in the process of restoring the broken relationship between God and His estranged family. Who would want to be in fellowship with an angry God? It was imperative that God come in person to show people what He is really like.

Bu that was only the beginning. There was a huge obstacle, called sin that blocked the way back to the Father. Sin is an unpayable debt, an unbridgeable chasm that separates us from Him, violates His perfection and prevents us from fellowship with Him. God is a just God and requires just payment for the debt we owe Him. He cannot brush sin aside and ignore the penalty He demands for transgressing His law. To cancel the debt required a perfect human sacrifice for which no one qualified except Jesus because He alone lived a perfectly sinless life as a human being and then willingly laid down His life in our place.

He rose from the dead to break death’s power over man, to prove that He was innocent and that the Father’s justice was satisfied. He was ready and qualified to carry out the next step in His assignment – to reconcile us to the Father. It is one thing to know that there are no more obstacles between us and the Father, but quite another to remain estranged from Him because we have not personally been reconciled to Him.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:19, that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, but the effectiveness of that reconciliation is only felt by one’s personal appropriation of what Jesus has done. It is tragic to know that millions of unbelieving people have never availed themselves of the right to fellowship with the Father through Jesus’ death for them because they don’t know or because they refuse to receive His gift!

When two parties are estranged because of offense, it is the offended person’s responsibility to forgive by cancelling the debt, and the offender’s responsibility to seek reconciliation based on the offer of forgiveness. God, in Jesus Christ, not only paid the debt Himself so that He can hold out the offer of forgiveness, but He also takes the next step by initiating the reconciliation that will restore us to full and unrestricted fellowship with the Father as His sons and daughters.

Although there is still another step in the process of restoring the human race to God’s original purpose, which will be explained in another article, up to this point we have seen that the obstacle of sin has been removed, the chasm bridged by God Himself through Jesus, and the way wide open for anyone who believes in Jesus, to return home and to be accepted and embraced as a son or daughter of God in His forever family.

THE BOOK OF ACTS – GOD INSIDE YOU

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CHAPTER 19

GOD INSIDE YOU

“Now it happened that while Apollos was away in Corinth, Paul made his way through the mountains, came to Ephesus and happened on some disciples there. The first thing he said was, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Did you take God into your mind only, or did you also embrace Him with your heart? Did He get inside you?'” Acts 19:1-2 (The Message).

First of all, it’s possible that these disciples were not part of the mainstream church in Ephesus. Paul had spent time there and would no doubt have thoroughly taught the believers the practicalities of their faith, including the person and work of the Holy Spirit. These people might have been the fruit of Apollos’ ministry or an isolated group who had been influenced by other believers in Ephesus but had not yet heard the whole story.

When Paul encountered them, the first question he asked was very significant. If they were unaware of the Holy Spirit’s existence and work in them, they would have lacked an awareness of God’s presence, which was basic to their experience of being “in Christ” and “Christ in them”. As recent converts from paganism, the idea of “God inside them” would have been completely foreign.

Paul did not want them to have the wrong idea that they had simply changed religions. This was not about mental assent to a new belief system. This was about something as radical as relocation into a new dimension of living in which Jesus ruled in the core of their beings through His personal representative, the Holy Spirit.

It was vital that they understood that they were “under new management”, and that they acknowledged and became increasingly aware of His presence in them so that they would recognise and respond to His voice. What was the point of a new religion? That would simply be exchanging one lie for another. To believe that Jesus is who He said He is meant a change of master, a transformation of character and disposition, and a new destiny and destination.

Why is it, then, that the Holy Spirit has become such a contentious and divisive issue in the church? Is this another one of Satan’s ploys to divide the church, and to cloud the truth with such irrelevancies that the most important thing is forgotten? Without the Holy Spirit’s inward, intimate work in us, we can only give mental assent to Jesus, and He becomes just another religious figure among many.

The Holy Spirit, according to Jesus, is the key to knowing Him. “‘…I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever — the Spirit of truth'” John 14:16 (NIV).

“‘All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.'” John 14:25-26 (NIV).

“‘I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking what is mine and making it known to you.'” John 16:12-14 (NIV).

Could Jesus have said it more plainly? Is the church not full of immature believers because Christian leaders have failed to do what Paul did — introduce them to the Holy Spirit? Instead of quarrelling about the “doctrine” of the Holy Spirit, how much better it would be for us to get to know Him personally and, by so doing, get to know Jesus!

The Holy Spirit is not some “thing” that we can divide up and choose what we like about Him and ignore or reject what we don’t like. He is God, the third Person of the Trinity who indwells us in the fullness of His person. When we acknowledge Him, it is His divine right to choose what He does with us, and He will always do good because He is God.