How do we live the Christian Life? How do we walk holy and committed to Him? We must be filled with the Holy Spirit. We must know that Jesus is our friend. AND that as we allow Him to change us we, in fact, become His friend. This intimate friendship is the key to victory across all aspects of life.
This teaching is missing in the Church. We talk about Who, What, Why, When, Where… but we don’t talk about HOW to live the Christian life. The resources are there (examples: The Bible for sure, probably Thomas à Kempis, Fenelon, Brother Lawrence, C.H. Spurgeon, Oswald Chambers, Watchman Nee, C.S. Lewis, Ian Thomas, Gene Edwards and now even Chuck Swindoll, and Kevin Seacat), but we still seem to hold on to the lie that somehow we are under law once we become Christians. This is obviously heresy, but we insist (in our pride) in believing that we can live right FOR G_d. That, instead of allowing G_d to live His Life THROUGH us by His Holy Spirit.
Plus, i think that people who see spirit-filled Christians doing all these wonderful good works see it (from the outside) as legalism and bondage. Those who are abiding in Christ – living that Abundant Life in Him – must learn to actively share that they are the freest and happiest people on the planet. For example, that rolling out of bed at 3:25am to pray – if The Spirit has led them to do this – is, quite frankly, better than the best intimate moments with a spouse.
While keeping this in the context of “it is ALL about God” we do also need to tell people bluntly that we have found what they are looking for: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, and self-control. That, in Him, fear is non-existent, that pain is irrelevant, and joy is simply overflowing.
i think it is OK to sell the Spirit-filled life on the basis of its benefits – IF – the person understands the price of entry is absolutely everything surrendered to G_d for His purpose and glory. It’s just that we have to convince people that our “everything” is so insignificant, so as to be considered goofy in light of His Abundant Grace. That the exchanged life is just the best deal ever 🙂
Sorry… just started gushing some joy on you… did i splash too much on your shirt??? 🙂
In Him, we just go (how cool is that!)
In holding to Soli Scriptura when it comes to actual positions, this yields a very freeing flexibility when it comes to Theology (the human study of G_d). Therefore, i don’t care whether you call walking in the Spirit a step-function along my Reformed sanctification path, a second act of Grace, winning the Augustinian/Dispensational dualistic battle, holiness, perfection, entering into the Normal/Exchanged/Victorious/Adventurous/Abiding Room Christian life, Spirit-Filling, Spirit-Baptism or whatever… While, they are ALL important mythologies from which we can have insight into the mysteries of our intimate relationship with Him…. The baseline truth is that Jesus is OUR friend. And that, now somehow by allowing Him to work fully in our lives, we have become HIS friend.
So, we should not care what anybody calls it, let’s just keep hanging out with the Absolutely most Wonderful Being ever, and start telling everybody how Wonderful He is.
Better stop. im getting so happy, i might just pop! Have a great day beloved.
SDG,
scot
Great Resource on being filled with the Holy Spirit: abidingroom.com
