Thanks for joining our bible study tonight where for almost two months now we've been talking about the Holy Spirit under the covering topic of living life under the New Covenant. The purpose of this series has been to point out that the New Covenant makes available to current-day believers a lot of ongoing benefits additional to salvation and eternal life that we're not taking full advantage of. The Bible says that the New Covenant is BETTER than the Old Covenant (Hebrews 7:22, 8:6) and part of the joy of being a New Covenant believer is the finding out of what's so much BETTER about it and how we can bring those additional benefits into our Christian lifestyle.
It starts with the fact that as adopted children of God we're to be Spirit led (Romans 8:14) and we're to experience that leading (receive direction and guidance) from within ourselves, an INTERNAL source (2 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19). He's no longer leading externally in the natural as a pillar of cloud or fire as He did for the Israelites in the wilderness (Exodus 13:21), rather now in the New Covenant He's leading us supernaturally by SPEAKING to us (believers) from within, close and PERSONAL. Moreover, the part of us that's spirit has been reborn and is now one with the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17) which makes us COMPLETE (Colossians 2:10) so that we can be reconciled to God (Romans 5:10-11) and BOLDLY draw near to His throne of GRACE (favor and empowerment) anytime we need help (Hebrews 4:16). Indeed, the Holy Spirit acting from within TESTIFIES (verifies) that we ARE children of God (Romans 8:16). The problem is, most Christians pretty much ignore the Holy Spirit which slows down the process of learning and using all those additional benefits the New Covenant makes available to us.
The Empowerment of Freedom
One of the most overlooked New Testament benefits is FREEDOM. At one time we were all SLAVES to sin and lawlessness living in the darkness that those things bring in. If they told us to do something we did it because we were led by those things, we were subject to them because we were their slaves. But the Bible says we who're born again in Christ have been set FREE from those things (Romans 6:18) so that we could become slaves to righteousness and receive eternal life (Romans 6:20-22). A paradox here is that by becoming slaves to righteousness we actually obtain FREEDOM. And I know this because the Bible says that in the PRESENCE of the Holy Spirit there's FREEDOM (2 Corinthians 3:17). There's LIBERTY in the Holy Spirit BECAUSE we have become SLAVES to righteousness.
Another way to say this is that true FREEDOM comes from God. Men cannot CREATE freedom but we do have the ability to reduce freedom and create slavery. Even when we're born again we can create "slavery" simply by ignoring the presence of the Holy Spirit or by establishing religious "principles, regulations and laws" that are contrary to the Word of God. Freedom is a GIFT from God and He only gives good things (James 1:17). By cutting off the presence of the Holy Spirit we reduce FREEDOM which by default creates slavery to unrighteousness. You can see this happening in our country as God is removed from the culture by Secularists: as God is removed, people lose personal freedoms and become DEPENDENT on other people; and the culture deteriorates on many levels and becomes less productive. Mankind DOES have the ability though to RESTORE God-given freedom it has taken away but restoration is always carried out reluctantly.
As we consider the gift of FREEDOM, I want to point out this week that the Holy Spirit is Himself the epitome of manifested FREEDOM in the sense that He doesn't seem to conform to human expectations and related box-building. We experience something He does and we put that in a box expecting Him to perform that event the same way in the future. But He does it a different way which upsets somebody's theology. It's easy to find all around the Body of Christ theologies with twisted understandings and interpretations because the Holy Spirit did something different after one of those manmade theologies had been developed and presented as immutable truth to a bunch of other people.
In relation to our ongoing bible study, we can see a lot of FREEDOM demonstrated in the things we discussed last week about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Keeping in mind that the Holy Spirit also wrote the Bible, sometimes He called it being FILLED with the Spirit and other times He said RECEIVING the Holy Spirit. Sometimes folks received the Holy Spirit simultaneous to being born again and sometimes there was a time between those two events. Sometimes there was laying on of hands involved and sometimes the Baptism occurred without the laying on of hands. And sometimes there was a specific Baptism of the Holy Spirit for an individual followed by multiple subsequent episodes of being FILLED WITH or FULL OF the Holy Spirit. Sometimes there was speaking of diverse tongues manifesting after the Baptism but not always.
The conclusion to reach from this is that the Holy Spirit does things however He wants to and it does NOT have to always be the same way. We can't put Him in a box even though we repeatedly try to and then create church groups around immutable theologies that DEMAND that it has to be one way or another. And that happens even though we can find conflicting scriptures in other places that have to be twisted or "reinterpreted" to maintain consistency. That's why my personal position has been that if I have to have another person "interpret" their immutable position for me because I can't see it clearly articulated in the Bible, I won't bring it into my belief structure until I can see it for myself. Their ideas may be absolute Truth for all I know; but until I can see it as Truth myself agreeing with the Word of God, I keep it outside where I can see it waiting for the Holy Spirit to speak to me about it.
Some Conclusions to Consider
In sum then, wouldn't it be way better to just "let" the Holy Spirit be the pure essence of FREEDOM and "release" Him to do things however He wants to? He's going to do that anyway whether it agrees with our theology or not and whether we like it or not. He's probably NOT going to always do things the same way and what He DOES do is often very personal, isolated and not for everybody. But perhaps we can come up with a few general conclusions to think about:
* Jesus told His disciples after they had been born again and "received" the Holy Spirit (John 20:22) that they would "receive" power when the Holy Spirit had "come upon" them (Acts 1:8). Therefore, in the absence of scriptures cutting off that power source, can we agree that the Holy Spirit is still the source of power for current-day Christian believers?
* As we discussed last week, the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost in Acts, Chapter 2 fulfilled Old Testament prophecy (Joel 2:8) which said among other things that the Outpouring would occur in the Last Days. Can we agree that we're still in those LAST Days? So far, the LAST DAYS are more than two thousand years old and still counting.
* Joel's prophecy also says that along with the Outpouring will come manifestations of prophecy, visions, dreams, wonders in the sky and signs on the earth. Since we're still in the Last Days and since there are no scriptures cancelling the Holy Spirit's manifestations, can we agree that that there could still be manifestations whenever He wants them? Try to take out of your consideration the theology that says that manifestations of the Holy Spirit were reserved only for the first century Apostles because that isn't what your Bible clearly and directly says. What it DOES say is that the manifestations would be poured out on ALL MANKIND during the last days (Acts 2:17-21) and that we'll be in the LAST days until Jesus returns (Acts 1:20).
* Finally, since the Holy Spirit is the source of power, can we also agree that it's in the interest of the believer to connect to that power source by whatever means is appropriate? If so, then what the believer needs to be doing is cultivating a relationship with Him and then communing with Him about how He wants to impart His power. Perhaps it's through prayer, or fasting or the laying on of hands or illumination from the written Word or by a combination of those things or by signs and wonders or through some new thing or through whatever He wants to do we've never thought of. All of those are scriptural ways to make the contact so why not let each believer get there by whatever means we each develop with the Holy Spirit? Why do we try to make people feel less Christian if they haven't followed the way we did it or if they didn't conform to our particular theology?
Above all, the essential thing is to have a vibrant ongoing relationship with the Holy Spirit that makes Him actively involved in our lives. The closer the relationship the more FREEDOM we'll experience, and the more FREEDOM we have the greater will be the manifestation of His POWER in every area of life. The believer is designed to operate in FREEDOM. It's a GIFT from God and that's where we do our best work. The more FREEDOM we have the easier it is to fulfill the plans and purposes of God, the easier it is to share the Gospel and make disciples. Come back next week and we'll take a closer look at what Scripture actually says about why we need POWER and what we've ALREADY been given for using that POWER to accomplish God's plans and purposes on the earth.
Thanks for joining our discussion tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night on March 13. In the meantime may the Lord bless you with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), pushing you to VICTORY in every area of life!
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Sinners' Prayer
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Jesus, I declare today with all my heart that I believe in you and I believe that God raised you from the dead. I acknowledge that my sins have been forgiven for all time and I ask you to come into my life today and be my Lord and Savior. Thank you for salvation and eternal life.
If you were sincere as you prayed, God has already come into your life and you're a new creation, a totally new species recreated in His image. Now ask the Lord to lead you to a good faith-based, bible-teaching church where you can be equipped to fulfill your potential in the Kingdom of God.
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Romans 10:9
2 Corinthians 5:17
Ephesians 2:8
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