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The Christian religion is the worship and service of Jesus Christ. It’s not Mary we worship, but her Son. We worship neither saints, angels, a law code, nor even God’s Spirit. It’s JESUS who is to be honored. The Bible is our guide. |
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VDR05-98 -- Walking In & Being
Filled With God's SPIRIT
By Brother Ray Downen
-- A Mission Outreach VIEWPOINT pamphlet --
-- And Viewpoint Brief Bible Study #95 --Someone has said, "What's important in the Christian life is not how high you can jump, but how straight you can walk once you've landed." That's certainly true in relationship to the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes I think that we've missed the whole reason that God told us to seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It wasn't so we could debate about how high we need to jump, but rather so we could learn how to walk straight in this “crooked” world.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the churches in Galatia about what it meant to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He characterized the life filled with the Holy Spirit as he wrote of the fruit of the Spirit. It may be that some don’t understand that those who HAVE received God’s Spirit are sure to produce in their lives these characteristics Paul says are “fruit” of the Spirit. He then says in Gal. 5:16, "But I say to you, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh."
He then reemphasizes this great need by saying, "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit" (Gal. 5:25). He knew that it was more important how we walked than how we talked. There was a great need not only to talk about the power of the Holy Spirit, but to live out a life under the control of the Holy Spirit.
It's been my experience that some Christians today are much better at talking about the fullness of the Holy Spirit than we are at walking daily in the power of the Holy Spirit. We must learn to walk by the Spirit.
When Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus, he contrasted being filled with the Holy Spirit with getting drunk. A brother testifies, “I'm not proud of the fact that before I became a Christian, I had been drunk on several occasions. One of the first things that happened when I drank too much was that it affected the manner in which I walked. I couldn't walk straight no matter how hard I tried.”
Those who are “drunk with wine” walk straight with difficulty. We who are filled with the Spirit of God are upright and sure, for we seek to let nothing interfere with God’s control of what we say and do. We seek to be led by GOD’s Spirit.
The only way He walks is the straight and narrow way. He walks the way of holiness and purity. He walks the road of integrity. When we are controlled by the Holy Spirit, then we, too, will walk in the way of holiness, purity, and integrity.
There are many who begin well in the Christian life, but do not finish well. Often it's because they have not learned to draw from the living waters so freely offered by God to all who thirst.
We are invited to walk with God in purity and holiness. Why would anyone who seeks eternal life WITH God choose to live otherwise on this earth?
Being filled with God’s Spirit is not just seeking an ecstatic experience of feeling. Instead, it’s seeking to welcome GOD into our hearts and lives so that we will become LIKE God. Then, every day and in every way, our walk can be with GOD, regardless of the circumstances which come our way in life.
We must not think that our walk with God is always in sanctuaries where the world is kept outside. Should we not note that Jesus built a church out of people rather than any other material. God lives in the world rather than in cathedrals.
To bury ourselves in “holy” places out of contact with those God seeks to learn to love Him is a misunderstanding on our part of what we have been called to do!
Jesus spent little time in the Jewish temple. Yet, at that time, the temple was God’s chief residence. But the Lord made no pilgrimages to the “holy place” when important decisions were to be made. At times He sought solace for prayer, in order to avoid distractions and competing calls. But if He felt that God was to be found only in “sanctuaries,” we have no record of the fact.
When we submit ourselves wholly to Jesus as Lord, then we are “filled with His Spirit.” And HE walks with us wherever we are, and whatever we find ourselves saying and doing. This is a glorious experience even though it’s by way of carrying a cross upon which our SELF has been crucified.
Available Tracts ~ SEND For useful small brochures with which you can invite others to salvation, and can help others think about salvation’s Way. All Viewpoint tracts are freely available upon request. Your gift to help in the ministry of preparing and making available such teaching aids is invited to Mission Outreach at P O Box 1065, Joplin MO 64802-1065. Suggested to cover costs are $5.00/100 tracts.
