What fruit does your family see? What fruit do your husbands, wives, and children see? We no longer can make excuses were not there, or we are not Jesus ,or we are not perfect, not if we are truly a Child of God? God has given the power of the Holy Spirit to live that new creation life in us if we can just truly believe God will do what we can never do, perfect us.
The Apostle Paul had to deal with the carnality and immaturity of the Saints of God often. He had to correct the church at Corinth and elsewhere. To the Galatian church he had a strong warning in chapter 3: 1-5
O you poor and silly and thoughtless and unreflecting and senseless Galatians! Who has fascinated or bewitched or cast a spell over you, unto whom—right before your very eyes—Jesus Christ (the Messiah) was openly and graphically set forth and portrayed as crucified?
2 Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the [Holy] Spirit as the result of obeying the Law and
doing its works, or was it by hearing [the message of the Gospel] and
believing [it]? [Was it from observing a law of rituals or from a
message of faith?]
3 Are you so foolish and so senseless and
so silly? Having begun [your new life spiritually] with the [Holy]
Spirit, are you now reaching perfection [by dependence] on the flesh?
4 Have you suffered so many things and experienced so much all for nothing (to no purpose)—if it really is to no purpose and in vain?
5 Then does He Who supplies you with His marvelous [Holy] Spirit and works powerfully and miraculously among you do so on [the grounds of your doing] what the Law demands, or because of your believing in and adhering to and trusting in and relying on the message that you heard?
Paul asks them who has bewitched you? Who has cast a spell over you? Why did he say that? Because they were exchanging the life of the Holy Spirit by trying to please God's by the works of the "religious flesh." They were putting their faith in "what they were doing for God in their own thoughts, reason and plans" instead of relying upon the Holy Spirit for every direction and thought.
Today Beloved's much of the church is doing the same thing, and individual believers are living more of the life of the "flesh" then the life "of the Holy Spirit." So our churches now look like "motivational centers and social service organization" instead of a place where the power and glory of God is truly seen in individuals and churches.
Yes we may be doing many great things "for God" in our cities and communities, but the problem is God may not even be in them? He said, "apart from Me, you can do nothing." When the Holy Spirits power and glory are seen, men are not! Men are not glorified. Ministries are not glorified. Churches are not glorified, only God is.
When a people depend upon the flesh to live the Christian life or a church does, then they often remain carnal and the fruit evident of their spiritual life is flesh and not spirit. They can feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and even operate in the gifts of the spirit, and still be fleshly carnal Christians.
How we live when we are not doing those things at home or in secret or alone is the measurement of spiritual growth? Are we still testy, angry, impatient in the grocery store, or car, or with our family? Are we still seeking the priorities of our own needs first above Gods?
How we live when we are not doing those things at home or in secret or alone is the measurement of spiritual growth? Are we still testy, angry, impatient in the grocery store, or car, or with our family? Are we still seeking the priorities of our own needs first above Gods?
1. However, brethren, I could not talk to you as to spiritual [men], but as to nonspiritual [men of the flesh, in whom the carnal nature predominates], as to mere infants [in the new life] in Christ [[a]unable to talk yet!]
2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not yet strong enough [to be ready for it]; but even yet you are not strong enough [to be ready for it],
3 For you are still [unspiritual, having the nature] of the flesh [under the control of ordinary impulses]. For as long as [there are] envying and jealousy and wrangling and factions among you, are you not unspiritual and of the flesh, behaving yourselves after a human standard and like mere (unchanged) men?
Beloved, it is quite clear what a life looks like not living under the power of the Holy Spirit and what a life looks like that does. He sent the Holy Spirit to us to shed the love of God abroad in our hearts.
How do we know if the Power of the Holy Spirit is controlling us: Galatians 5:19-26 testifies of good trees with good fruit, and bad trees with bad fruit:
19 Now the doings (practices) of the flesh are clear (obvious): they are immorality, impurity, indecency,
20 Idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger (ill temper), selfishness, divisions (dissensions), party spirit (factions, sects with peculiar opinions, heresies),
21 Envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you beforehand, just as I did previously, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] is love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (an even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness,
23 Gentleness (meekness, humility), self-control (self-restraint, continence). Against such things there is no law [[a]that can bring a charge].
24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus (the Messiah) have crucified the flesh (the godless human nature) with its passions and appetites and desires.
Please beloved, pay attention to the next verse on how the Christian life must be lived.
25 If we live by the [Holy] Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. [If by the Holy Spirit [b]we have our life in God, let us go forward [c]walking in line, our conduct controlled by the Spirit.]
Do you see it beloved, "If we live by the HOLY SPIRIT, and WALK BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, we have our LIFE IN GOD! Let us go forward walking in line, our CONDUCT,(our motives, plans, actions) CONTROLLED BY THE SPIRIT! That is what our lives must look like.
The opposite of this life is a life we life in the flesh, a life controlled by the desires of our sinful flesh and here our it's fruits:
26 Let us not become vainglorious and self-conceited, competitive and challenging and provoking and irritating to one another, envying and being jealous of one another.
Paul again writes to the Roman Christians in Romans chapter 8 of the contrast of the "life of the flesh verses the life of the Holy Spirit lived in a believer's life.
5 For those who are according to the flesh and are controlled by its unholy desires set their minds on and [d]pursue those things which gratify the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit and are controlled by the desires of the Spirit set their minds on and [e]seek those things which gratify the [Holy] Spirit.
6 Now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death [death that [f]comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter]. But the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is life and [soul] peace [both now and forever].
7 [That is] because the mind of the flesh [with its carnal thoughts and purposes] is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God’s Law; indeed it cannot.
8 So then those who are living the life of the flesh [catering to the appetites and impulses of their carnal nature] cannot please or satisfy God, or be acceptable to Him.
9 But you are not living the life of the flesh, you are living the life of the Spirit, if the [Holy] Spirit of God [really] dwells within you [directs and controls you]. But if anyone does not possess the [Holy] Spirit of Christ, he is none of His [he does not belong to Christ, is not truly a child of God].
10 But if Christ lives in you, [then although] your [natural] body is dead by reason of sin and guilt, the spirit is alive because of [the] righteousness [that He imputes to you].
11 And if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, [then] He Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also restore to life your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you.
12 So then, brethren, we are debtors, but not to the flesh [we are not obligated to our carnal nature], to live [a life ruled by the standards set up by the dictates] of the flesh.
13 For if you live according to [the dictates of] the flesh, you will surely die. But if through the power of the [Holy] Spirit you are [habitually] putting to death (making extinct, deadening) the [evil] deeds prompted by the body, you shall [really and genuinely] live forever.
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
The Power of the Holy Spirit:
What does the fruit of the power of the Holy Spirit as a real Christian life look life opposed to a "religious life"?
James writes about the difference? In the church of Jesus Christ, there were those who started their lives depending upon the Holy Spirit's power, and then were led astray in trying to work their salvation out in the power of the flesh or dependence upon their own abilities and not God's. When that happens what you read below is the life of that carnal Christian life:
James 5: 1-12
What leads to strife (discord and feuds) and how do conflicts (quarrels and fightings) originate among you? Do they not arise from your sensual desires that are ever warring in your bodily members?
2 You are jealous and covet [what others have] and your desires go unfulfilled; [so] you become murderers. [To hate is to murder as far as your hearts are concerned.] You burn with envy and anger and are not able to obtain [the gratification, the contentment, and the happiness that you seek], so you fight and war. You do not have, because you do not ask.
3 [Or] you do ask [God for them] and yet fail to receive, because you ask with wrong purpose and evil, selfish motives. Your intention is [when you get what you desire] to spend it in sensual pleasures.
4 You [are like] unfaithful wives [having illicit love affairs with the world and breaking your marriage vow to God]! Do you not know that being the world’s friend is being God’s enemy? So whoever chooses to be a friend of the world takes his stand as an enemy of God.
5 Or do you suppose that the Scripture is speaking to no purpose that says, The Spirit Whom He has caused to dwell in us yearns over us and He yearns for the Spirit [to be welcome] with a jealous love?
6 But He gives us more and more grace, power of the Holy Spirit, to meet this evil tendency and all others fully). That is why He says, God sets Himself against the proud and haughty, but gives grace [continually] to the lowly (those who are humble enough to receive it).
Beloved, so you see it? He gives more and more grace to live this Christian life in the POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT! Let's read the rest of what James writes:
7 So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you.
8 Come close to God and He will come close to you. [Recognize that you are] sinners, get your soiled hands clean; [realize that you have been disloyal] wavering individuals with divided interests, and purify your hearts [of your spiritual adultery].
9 [As you draw near to God] be deeply penitent and grieve, even weep [over your disloyalty]. Let your laughter be turned to grief and your mirth to dejection and heartfelt shame [for your sins].
10 Humble yourselves [feeling very insignificant] in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you [He will lift you up and make your lives significant].
11 [My] brethren, do not speak evil about or accuse one another. He that maligns a brother or judges his brother is maligning and criticizing the Law and judging the Law. But if you judge the Law, you are not a practicer of the Law but a censor and judge [of it].
12 One only is the Lawgiver and Judge Who is able to save and to destroy [the One Who has the absolute power of life and death]. [But you] who are you that [you presume to] pass judgment on your neighbor?
Beloved, are you tired of "trying to live a Christian life?" Have you come to conclude like Paul, Oh wretched and pitiable man that I am, who can save me from the Body of the shackles of death? Are you ready to say, Oh thank God He will, through Jesus Christ our Lord because He sent us the power of the Holy Spirit?
What should a Christian life truly look like if it is led and filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and how does that contrast with a "life lived in the flesh" religiously for God. There is only one standard with God and it is LOVE. His love working in us and through us. Let us read what John writes in His Epistle of 1 John.
I John 1-10:
5 And this is the message [the message of [g]promise] which we have heard from Him and now are reporting to you: God is Light, and there is no darkness in Him at all [[h]no, not in any way].
6 [So] if we say we are partakers together and enjoy fellowship with Him when we live and move and are walking about in darkness, we are [both] speaking falsely and do not live and practice the Truth [which the Gospel presents].
7 But if we [really] are living and walking in the Light, as He [Himself] is in the Light, we have [true, unbroken] fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses (removes) us from all sin and guilt [keeps us cleansed from sin in all its forms and manifestations].
8 If we say we have no sin [refusing to admit that we are sinners], we delude and lead ourselves astray, and the Truth [which the Gospel presents] is not in us [does not dwell in our hearts].
9 If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just (true to His own nature and promises) and will forgive our sins [dismiss our lawlessness] and [continuously] cleanse us from all unrighteousness [everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, thought, and action].
10 If we say (claim) we have not sinned, we contradict His Word and make Him out to be false and a liar, and His Word is not in us [the divine message of the Gospel is not in our hearts].
Do you see it? True Christianity lives and walks in light? What is light? Light is who God is, and God is love. Anything that is not His love in us and through us is darkness. Every angry word, every criticism or judgment we make about others, every evil thought or deed is darkness and there is not one ounce of light in strife, selfishness, self seeking, self-righteousness, or SELF PERIOD is DARKNESS.
The life of love is a life of "self surrender" to God first and to one another second. Love one another as I have loved you, Jesus taught us. It is love that lays it's rights down.
Darkness makes you demands your rights and justifies itself. Darkness expects others to do what pleases you. Darkness wants everyone to make your life easier. Darkness only sees your needs and never sees the needs of God or others. Darkness never esteems others better then themselves. Darkness offers conditional love never sacrificial love.
Beloveds, are we in the light of God's love and the power of the Holy Spirit or in darkness of a Christian life lived in the flesh, or worse are we BOTH! Are we lukewarm readied to be spewed out of God's mouth? Let us continue to read John's Epistle to us:
7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the message which you have heard [the [e]doctrine of salvation through Christ].
8 Yet I am writing you a new commandment, which is true (is realized) in Him and in you, because the darkness ([f]moral blindness) is clearing away and the true Light ([g]the revelation of God in Christ) is already shining.
9 Whoever says he is in the Light and [yet] hates his brother, born-again child of God is in darkness even until now.
10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the Light, and in It or in him there is no occasion for stumbling or cause for error or sin.
11 But he who hates (detests, despises) his brother in Christ] is in darkness and walking (living) in the dark; he is straying and does not perceive or know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
John continues His thoughts of what the walk of love in the power of the Holy Spirit is in chapter 3:
6 No one who abides in Him [who lives and remains in communion with and in obedience to Him—deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] commits (practices) sin. No one who [habitually] sins has either seen or known Him [recognized, perceived, or understood Him, or has had an experiential acquaintance with Him].
7 Boys (lads), let no one deceive and lead you astray. He who practices righteousness [who is upright, conforming to the divine will in purpose, thought, and action, living a consistently conscientious life] is righteous, even as He is righteous.
8 [But] he who commits sin [who practices evildoing] is of the devil [takes his character from the evil one], for the devil has sinned (violated the divine law) from the beginning. The reason the Son of God was made manifest (visible) was to undo (destroy, loosen, and dissolve) the works the devil [has done].
9 No one born (begotten) of God [deliberately, knowingly, and [h]habitually] practices sin, for God’s nature abides in him [His principle of life, the divine sperm, remains permanently within him]; and he cannot practice sinning because he is born (begotten) of God.
10 By this it is made clear who take their nature from God and are His children and who take their nature from the devil and are his children: no one who does not practice righteousness [who does not conform to God’s will in purpose, thought, and action] is of God; neither is anyone who does not love his brother (his fellow [i]believer in Christ).
Beloved this is the truth: The Holy Spirit has come to do this work:
The Powers of the Holy Spirit has come to us to "be" witnesses of God's Kingdom on Earth, not to do witnessing. We do witnessing now with our lives still filled with the flesh and not the full power of the Holy Spirit working in us.
We can love people in the flesh, care for them in the flesh. For when we do we are satisfied and feel good about ourselves, but God does not. For that work was done for our Glory and not God's glory.
With many in the church it is mixture it is for our Glory and God's glory but we can't discern the sin that we have reached up and touched the glory that belongs to God alone. Our motives our mixed with the world and with God.
This how we can live one way at home and another in church or doing "religious things" and still think we are OK with God working out our walk in the flesh instead of the Holy Spirit who began the good work in us. Are we to foolish Galatians?
John continues to show us the work and way of the Holy Spirit below:
11 For this is the message (the announcement) which you have heard from the first, that we should love one another,
12 [And] not be like Cain who [took his nature and got his motivation] from the evil one and slew his brother. And why did he slay him? Because his deeds (activities, works) were wicked and malicious and his brother’s were righteous (virtuous).
John goes further to instruct us and clarify what the fruit of the Holy Spirit looks like in a believer's life.
13 Do not be surprised and wonder, brethren, that the world detests and pursues you with hatred.
14 We know that we have passed over out of death into Life by the fact that we love the brethren (our fellow Christians). He who does not love abides (remains, is [j]held and kept continually) in [spiritual] death.
15 Anyone who hates (abominates, detests) his brother [in Christ] is [at heart] a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding ([k]persevering) within him.
16 By this we come to know (progressively to recognize, to perceive, to understand) the [essential] love: that He laid down His [own] life for us; and we ought to lay [our] lives down for [those who are our] brothers in Him].
17 But if anyone has this world’s goods (resources for sustaining life) and sees his brother and fellow believer in need, yet closes his heart of compassion against him, how can the love of God live and remain in him?
(Beloveds, we have faced this much when we ask for mission support to do the work of God, you would not believe the persecution we face. People say go get a job and take care of yourself. Why do you have to go doesn't God have Christians there that can do what you do?)
That is just one area? Is that what they did in Acts 2:42-26. Are there needs amongst us in the Body of Christ? Are we selling our homes and possessions and laying them at the Apostles feet to help all in need? Is that the love of God in the power of the Holy Spirit when we don't?
What about the love that is needed for the saints that are right around us? Is God's sacrificial love seen in us to those in need? Human love can do this, but the real love of God in the Holy Spirit, is that seen in us in the power and demonstration of the Holy Spirit?
John writes to us again to prove our faith in the power and love of the Holy Spirit below:
18 Little children, let us not love [merely] in theory or in speech, but in deed and in truth (in practice and in sincerity).
John writes to us more to us in His Epistle in Chapter 4: 6-8 for more evidence of the true Christian life:
6 We are [children] of God. Whoever is learning to know God [progressively to perceive, recognize, and understand God by observation and experience, and to [e]get an ever-clearer knowledge of Him] listens to us; and he who is not of God does not listen or pay attention to us. By this we know (recognize) the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error.
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is (springs) from God; and he who loves [his fellowmen] is begotten (born) of God and is coming [progressively] to know and understand God [to perceive and recognize and get a better and clearer knowledge of Him].
8 He who does not love has not become acquainted with God [does not and never did know Him], for God is love.
9 In this the love of God was made manifest (displayed) where we are concerned: in that God sent His Son, the only begotten or [f]unique [Son], into the world so that we might live through Him.
10 In this is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God loved us so [very much], we also ought to love one another.
12 No man has at any time [yet] seen God. But if we love one another, God abides (lives and remains) in us and His love (that love which is essentially His) is brought to completion (to its full maturity, runs its full course, is perfected) in us!
13 By this we come to know (perceive, recognize, and understand) that we abide (live and remain) in Him and He in us: because He has given (imparted) to us of His [Holy] Spirit.
Notice how a Christian life is to be lived in the last verse. Verse 13 BECAUSE HE HAS GIVEN TO US HIS HOLY SPIRIT.
Beloved's of the Lord, is this the life and fruit that is evident of the Holy Spirit's work in our lives? God has not changed his standard for holiness or how to bear fruit? We must abide continually in him as the branch must abide in the vine.
The Holy Spirit has been sent to us do what we can't do. GOD HAS GIVEN US THE HOLY SPIRIT! GOD HAS GIVEN US THE HOLY SPIRIT! GOD HAS GIVEN US THE HOLY SPIRIT!
This life and fruit you have read about can't be produced with one drop of human effort or power, it can only be lived in you and through you by the power of the Holy Spirit. He has come to do it.
We must simply believe it and accept it and ask Him to "will it in us" and then " to do it in us." Our job is to surrender, wait and seek the Lord every day with our whole hearts and trust Him to do the work in us.
We can only seek Him, trust Him, and allow Him to lead us and guide us every moment of the day and ask Him to teach us His ways. He will do it. We don't have to live that other life of compromise anymore. We just need to come out from amongst them and touch not the unclean thing, "the life of the flesh" and He will receive us.
Remember beloveds, it is not by might, nor by power, but by His Spirit says the Lord. Come Holy Spirit and fill us with a fresh fire and shed the love of God abroad in our hearts. Take over our lives and lead us into the Kingdom of God of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
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