But seek first the
kingdom of God
and His
righteousness...
Matthew 6: 33a
... that they all may be one,
as You, Father, are
in Me,
and I in You; that
they also
may be one in Us,
that
the world may believe
that You
sent Me.
John 17:21
It is the
responsibility of an authentic Christian to first seek of the kingdom of God
and His righteousness. We seek this
righteousness of God so that we can be one with the Father and the Son. By our becoming one with God and Jesus
Christ and having His righteousness, the world is without excuse to say that
they do not know of God. We are the
witnesses of God to this world and we are to bring the Gospel to this world so
that those who have been given the free gift of faith will decide to seek His
righteousness and convert themselves to Jesus Christ who saves. This is what is being done in these blogs
that are examining those things that Paul wrote about to the Corinthian that
they were misusing and making a priority in their religiosity rather than their
converting to Jesus Christ. We must
look at the various doctrinal and theological positions of any church or any
denomination to see whether or not what is being taught or preached and understood
to be the truth is really the truth of God.
Is this not what we desire? Is
it not that we do not want to be misled when and led off into some false
teaching? So then, we will examine the
various doctrinal positions in the light of Scripture and then after having
come to scriptural knowledge we can decide the facts.
Over the
many years of meeting and talking with various Christians, some have asked me
this question: Have you received the Holy Spirit? What is really being said behind this question is, whether or not
I had received the baptism of the Spirit which is part and parcel of the
doctrinal position and experience of Charismatics, and Pentecostals. This brings up the question: "have I, so when did I receive the Holy Spirit?" What is the Bible's answer?
Let's look back in first Corinthians, chapter 6: 19 -- 20: "Or do you not know that your body is
the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you
are not your own? For you were bought
at a price; thereby more of my God in your body and in your spirit, which are
God's"). Paul makes it very clear
that they had received the Holy Spirit and even makes clear that Christians to
have reverted to carnality also had the Holy Spirit: "And I, brother and, could not speak to you as to spiritual
people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for on till now you
were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are
still carnal. For where there are in
the, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere
men" (1 Corinthians 3: 1 -- 3)?
Speaking to the Corinthians Paul made it clear that they were the temple
of God and had the Holy Spirit in them even though they were living a life of
carnality. Well then, this being so,
how could the Holy Spirit have been in them if they had not received Him? When did they receive him? The moment they were saved the Holy Spirit
came to live in them as He does for all authentic Christians: "He who believes in Me, as the
Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But this He spoke concerning the Spirit,
whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet
given, because Jesus was not yet glorified" (John numeral 7:38 -- 39). Obviously, you receive the Holy Spirit the
moment you were saved and it is those that is clearly outlined for us that are
believers and when they have placed their faith and belief in Jesus Christ the
Holy Spirit comes upon them, therefore, if you have believed upon the Savior
Jesus Christ then you have received the Holy Spirit. It is when you believed and not in some other time. The question is not whether or not you have
received the Holy Spirit; it is whether or not you have received the Lord Jesus
Christ: "But as many as received
Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believed
in His name" (John 1: 12).
This then, leads us to another question: "How do I know that the
Holy Spirit dwells within me?" For
the Corinthian Christians and for those who are of the persuasion of Pentecostalism
or being a Charismatic they give this answer: "'How do I know that
the Holy Spirit dwells within me?' Charismatic Renewal offers an answer to this
question--the baptism of the Holy Spirit, a powerful experience that convinces
the recipient that God is real" (Richard Quebedeaux, The New
Charismatics, original edition, page 2l itlaics mine).
And here is where many Christians fall into error because they put
more faith in their experience and by that experience they have come to believe
that what they are doing or saying is true. The fact of the Spirit's reception
and indwelling presence is not based on some subjective and questionable
experience. It is based upon the plain statements of the Word of God. Let us look at Scripture: "But you are not in the flesh but in
the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of
Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is
in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of
righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him
who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the
dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in
you" (Romans 8: 9 – 11).
Therefore, if you are a saved person, then you have the Holy
Spirit. How do you know? You know because God says that it is so: "That good thing which was committed
to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us" (2 Timothy 1: 14). Every child of God who has been bought by
the blood of Jesus of Jesus Christ is a Christian and is in Welt by the Holy
Spirit, therefore, there is no person who is justified by faith who has not
received the Spirit.
Praise
God! We do not have to wait for any
second indwelling of the Holy Spirit for He has given to us the moment our
faith is activated by means of the Word of God being preached to us, the Holy
Spirit. Therefore, let us seek after
His righteousness, His kingdom, and live as Jesus prayed, that we would be one with
Him and the Father.
The wisdom of the prudent is
to
understand his way,
but the folly of fools is deceit...
A true
witness delivers souls,
but a deceitful witness speaks lies.
Proverbs 14: 8; 25
Seek only God and His Son
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