AbundantlyBlessed
04-02-2010, 09:59 PM
The following is from my pastor's sermon on March 7, 2010. It was one of the most powerful sermons on the Holy Spirit that I have heard, probably because God spoke to my heart in a personal way through this part of the sermon. I think Christians get really confused about the Holy Spirit. I think it is one of the spiritual concepts in the Bible that is hard to grasp, due to our limited ability to understand deep spiritual concepts this side of heaven. Before the Oswald Chambers quote, he stated that he struggles with perfectionism, one of my own personal struggles as well. Tears flowed down my cheeks as he read this...
Quote from Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest, January 28th:
Am I set on my own way for God? We are never free from this snare until we are brought into the experience of the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire. Obstinacy and self-will will always stab Jesus Christ. It may hurt no one else, but it wounds His Spirit. Whenever we are obstinate and self-willed and set upon our own ambitions, we are hurting Jesus. Every time we stand on our rights and insist that this is what we intend to do, we are persecuting Jesus. Whenever we stand on our dignity we systematically vex and grieve His Spirit; and when the knowledge comes home that it is Jesus Whom we have been persecuting all the time, it is the most crushing revelation there could be.
Is the word of God tremendously keen to me as I hand it on to you, or does my life give the lie to the things I profess to teach? I may teach sanctification and yet exhibit the spirit of Satan, the spirit that persecutes Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Jesus is conscious of one thing only - a perfect oneness with the Father, and He says, "Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." All I do ought to be founded on a perfect oneness with Him, not on a self-willed determination to be godly.
Summary: God sent his Holy Spirit to live in us to have a relationship with Him.
Summary: I spend most of my time trying to be godly and less of my time trying to be one with God.
Because it's easy when you make He an it and you redefine God in us as the power of God in us to get to the point of telling the Holy Spirit to follow us instead of us following Him.
For further study: Galatians 5:16-26, Ephesians 4
Quote from Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest, January 28th:
Am I set on my own way for God? We are never free from this snare until we are brought into the experience of the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire. Obstinacy and self-will will always stab Jesus Christ. It may hurt no one else, but it wounds His Spirit. Whenever we are obstinate and self-willed and set upon our own ambitions, we are hurting Jesus. Every time we stand on our rights and insist that this is what we intend to do, we are persecuting Jesus. Whenever we stand on our dignity we systematically vex and grieve His Spirit; and when the knowledge comes home that it is Jesus Whom we have been persecuting all the time, it is the most crushing revelation there could be.
Is the word of God tremendously keen to me as I hand it on to you, or does my life give the lie to the things I profess to teach? I may teach sanctification and yet exhibit the spirit of Satan, the spirit that persecutes Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Jesus is conscious of one thing only - a perfect oneness with the Father, and He says, "Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." All I do ought to be founded on a perfect oneness with Him, not on a self-willed determination to be godly.
Summary: God sent his Holy Spirit to live in us to have a relationship with Him.
Summary: I spend most of my time trying to be godly and less of my time trying to be one with God.
Because it's easy when you make He an it and you redefine God in us as the power of God in us to get to the point of telling the Holy Spirit to follow us instead of us following Him.
For further study: Galatians 5:16-26, Ephesians 4