DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (Part 2)
The Holy Spirit is the agent of salvation, convicting us of guilt, revealing the truth about Jesus, giving us new birth, and incorporating us into the body of Christ. “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” John 16:7-11
The Holy Spirit is the agent of sanctification. Sanctification is the process by which we are made holy. The Gk word “hagiasmos” means to make holy, to consecrate, to separate from the world, and to be set apart from sin in order that we may have intimate fellowship with God and serve Him gladly. The following concerns sanctification:At conversion, believers are in dwelt by the Holy Spirit and come under His sanctifying influence. As He lives in us, He sanctifies us, cleanses, leads, and motivates us into holy lives, delivering us from sin’s bondage. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.” Romans 8:2-5
Through the sanctification process, the Spirit tells us we are God’s children and because we are His children, we shall not fear whatever this world throws our way nor any tactic of the enemy. Not all our God’s children. In a creative sense, all humans are His creation; but only those born again of the Holy Spirit are God’s children. As a child of the Almighty, whom shall I fear? And if you still fear, then why?“For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” Romans 8:15-17
Sanctification leads us to worship Jesus as our King and Lord. The Spirit helps us worship the Lord, in our prayer lives, and intercedes for us as we cry out to God. “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” Rom 8:26-27
Sanctification is a move away from sin into righteousness. The Holy Spirit produces Christlike graces of character that glorify Christ. It is important to understand that the Spirit will glorify/honor Jesus as Lord. He will not glorify man or man’s work. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”Galatians 5:22-25 I will define these fruits in more depth in another daily. Many define these incorrectly. For example, “goodness” (Gk agathósunē) has to do with a zeal for the truth and righteousness and a hatred of evil. It can be expressed multiple ways- in acts of kindness or in a sharp rebuke or correction of evil/sin. Sanctification includes a teaching/training process.
The Spirit is our divine Teacher, guiding us into all truth, disclosing Jesus to us and guiding us into close fellowship and oneness with the Lord. He continually imparts God’s love to us and gives us joy, comfort and help. “But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” I Corinthians 2:9-16 “And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit,”
I Thessalonians 1:6 ““If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:15-18 #runyourrace
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