Chapter 9, Part 11

Live In The Spirit

“Then I will give them one heart and I will put a new
spirit within them and take the stony heart out of
their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh.”
Ezekiel 11:19

God says in order to serve Him we will need a new heart and a new spirit. Our old heart has been turned to stone by our own sinfulness and the cruelty of the world, as well as our spirits. Our old spirits are incapable of following and worshiping God. They are corrupted by our sinful nature inherited from Adam. They do not seek the things of God, but the things of the world. That old spirit can never lead us to God it leads us to sin. The Scriptures say we must test all spirits, for not all spirits are of God.[1] There are many evil and false spirits in the world, sent out to mislead us away from God. Therefore, before we begin to live in the spirit we must make sure the spirit we are living in is the Spirit of God.

So how do we know what spirit is leading us? Or how do we test the spirits? The Word says, “by this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.” Therefore, any spirit that preaches the Word incarnate is of God and any spirit that preaches the world is of the world. Many Christians are being led astray by the enemy using the spirit of the world. They preach the riches of this world over the righteousness of God. You can witness this in the fact that many believe that the ends justifies the means. If a false testimony or witness brings in converts then it is acceptable. Not that they would condone dishonesty per se; but if it furthers the call it is ok. They would rather blame those who expose such false testimony than to rebuke the ones who have given this false testimony. When we become truly born again how we do things becomes as important, if not more important as what we do. They have their “sacred cows”, they ignore the sin and focus on the messenger. Forget the fact some sin has occurred, for them the ends justifies the means. In the Kingdom of God, the means is the end. Our Lord taught us it is not what you do, it is how and why you do it.[2] He never used dishonesty to further His teachings why should we?

“I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall
not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”
Galatians 5:16

The apostle Paul says the way to overcome the sins of the flesh is to live in the Spirit. How do we live in the Spirit? First, we have to have the Spirit. We receive the Spirit when we surrender our lives to God. When we confess the Lord with our mouths and believe in our hearts He was raised from the dead we shall be saved.[3] At that time we are given the baptism of the Holy Spirit.[4][5] Therefore, faith is the key to our unleashing His power. I walk in the Spirit by faith. I no longer rely on my logic, on the wisdom of the world, or on what the people on television say. I put my faith in the Living God and Him only. I seek Him in all my decision-making. This has been what God has desired from the beginning, if Adam and Eve had sought direction from the Father, we would probably not be here today. Nevertheless, they relied on their own thinking and we see how that worked out. We should allow that Spirit to Guide us. If we do He will lead us into all righteousness and away from sin. With all the people that have been baptized why, is the fornication epidemic still raging? The key to “walking” in the Sprit is faith; we have no power because we have no faith. The Lord said, “if you have the faith the size of a mustard seed, you can move mountains.

“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our
spirit that we are children of God”
Romans 8:16

God’s Spirit will touch our spirit and let us know that we are His. God sends out His Spirit for the purpose of guiding us. It is called the “Spirit of truth”.[6] He is to lead us into the truth. The truth is that we are the children of God, we are royalty. We are given the power to overcome the world and the sins of this world, even fornication. Let the Spirit of God transform you from a child of darkness into a child of light. Living in the Spirit is not something we do overnight. It is a matter of changing not only how we think and believe, but how we live. We are no longer to live for ourselves but for the Father. Our personal selfish desires no longer rule over us. We are no longer slaves to our passions and foolish pleasures but slaves to righteousness.[7] The Spirit, if allowed will compel us to follow righteousness. Throughout the scriptures the Spirit is spoken of as compelling whom God chooses to righteousness. It will compel us if we get out of the way and surrender to the Spirit of God. The Word says we are children of light, we need to walk as such.[8]

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[1] 1 John 4:1

[2] Matthew 6:16

[3] Romans 10:9

[4] Acts 1:5

[5] Matthew 17:21

[6] John 15:26

[7] Romans 6:18

[8] Ephesians 5:8

Chapter 8 Part 5

“God who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord
of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.”
Acts 17:24

So where does God dwell? If God does not dwell in temples or churches of stone, He must dwell somewhere. Does God need a building to dwell in?

“To them God willed to make known what are the riches
of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles! Which
is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
1 Corinthians 1:27

If I am not mistaken it says that God dwells in you and in me. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit lives in each and every one of us who have truly surrendered to God.[1] Therefore if I am the temple of the Holy Spirit and a part of God does live within me, why do I need the Church to justify me? The scriptures say that to us is given the mystery. So up until that time no one else knew that Christ lived in us. So what do we do with this precious knowledge? Does the modern church preach this knowledge? Unfortunately, many do not! Many are afraid that the Word of God is too dangerous for mere lay people to have without the guidance of the Church. Besides, who would fill all those mega churches? Who would pay for all those television personalities? In addition, of course we have all those private jets and limousines that need to be paid for. This is not how the early Church was created. In the beginning true believers met in their homes and shared what they had among each other. Do not think that I am advocating not attending church, for that would be the other side of the same coin. The Bible teaches us that we should not neglect coming together to worship and pray, but more importantly to exhort and encourage one another.[2] Imagine how different our lives would be as well as the lives of our children if we met like that today. You and your pastor would have a relationship like Christ with His followers. He would know you and your children and could truly minister to you in a very personal way. Remember the Kingdom of God is about relationships.

I may claim a relationship with Halle Berry, but if I have never spoken with her, never met her, or never spent anytime with her what kind of a relationship do I have? Do we even have a relationship? This is not a relationship; this is stalking! This is the type of relationship many of us have with our church and with God. We attend but we do not know anyone more than superficially. We do not talk to anyone or no one knows what struggles we are going through. God has a place for everyone, pray to God that He may lead you to the place He wants you to be. For some it will be to leave your current place of comfort and go someplace else. Be sensitive to His Spirit, it may be to help out a group of struggling believers to grow. I do not know what God has planned for you, but I pray that you are open-minded to what He is saying and where He is leading you.

“But Peter and John answered and said to them, ‘Whether it is right
in the sight of God, to listen to you more than to God, you judge’,
For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”
Acts 4:19,20

We are called to simply preach what God has shown us and spoken to us through His Word. Instead there are many preachers who are preaching the world. They take isolated verses of scripture and interpret them to fit their worldly view of things. I have heard preachers read one verse and preach on it for an hour. I realize that the Word of God is profound, but I am not sure that each verse requires such an in-depth dissertation. The Bible much like any other book when taken out of context can be used to rationalize any number of behaviors. Many times this has occurred in our history, you have had men who have used the Bible to justify their desire to enslave their brothers or to say that some humans are more human than others. That is like the proposition that some tigers are more tigery than others, how preposterous would that be? Who would take any biologist seriously that made a claim like that? In my opinion if more of our preachers would stick to preaching the Word of God and not this “easy gospel” many of our sinful epidemics would not be epidemics at all.

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[1] Acts 2:38

[2] 1 Timothy

Chapter 3 Part 1 Why Is Fornication So Bad?

“Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does
is outside the body, but he who commits sexual
immorality sins against his own body.”
1 Corinthians 6:18

According to the bible fornication causes us to sin against ourselves, against our own bodies. It opens our bodies to the very nature of sin. It allows demons to use our bodies against themselves. It also brings the contamination of sin into our bodies; sexual sin opens our bodies up to the disease of sin like nothing else. It causes us to view our bodies with contempt, instead of the temples of God that they were created to be. When we are going against our own bodies this can only breed contempt. We are at war with ourselves. My own body is being used against me, against my will. The bible says that a house divided against itself will not stand. How can I stand for God when my body is divided against itself? The bible goes on to say that our bodies are no longer our own, they have been purchased for a price. They now belong to God. Of course in truth they were always God’s. My body houses the Holy Spirit of God.

“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.”
1 Corinthians 6:19

The apostle Paul goes on to state that our bodies are members of Christ and shall we join the members of Christ with a harlot? Certainly not! Are we to unite the Spirit of God to perversion? God forbid! Fornication reduces my status as a person in my own mind. I lose respect for myself, my body, and the other person when I fornicate. You profane the temple of the Holy Spirit. Your body becomes a toll against itself. Many times I have awaken in the morning laying next to someone I didn’t even know and felt perverted. What do I say to this person I do not know? It all felt so awkward on a deep spiritual level. Yet we just shared the most intimate moment two people can share according to God. There is something wrong here, my thinking is not right. We have taken something good and honorable and have turned it into something cheap and tawdry. There is no love without commitment. Without love, the sex act is just a common act between two beasts in the field. However, even the beasts of the field take care of their offspring. Animals after procreating, at least raise their young. Are our young any less important? God thinks not.

Let’s look at the cost of fornication on our people and society.
1) Loss of innocence and purity
2) Violation of God’s law
3) Illegitimate children
4) Guilt
5) Sexual diseases
6) Lack of respect
7) Deterioration of society
8) Violence
9) Loss of usefulness to God
10) Anger of the children

1) Loss of innocence and purity

“To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled
and unbelieving nothing is pure, but even their minds and
a conscience are defiled.”
Titus 1:15

It is God’s plan that we come to our marriages pure in body and heart. In God’s healthy plan of marriage and relationships being pure is highly valued. According to the bible, any woman who married and was found not to be a virgin would be stoned. The woman is the vessel by which life comes into this world. How are things brought into this world? They are borne into it. In order for Jesus to be fully human, He had to be borne into this world, thus the need for Mary. Therefore, it is for all things. A woman’s body is one of her most precious gifts. Only a woman in natural sexual activity is penetrated, this gives the woman a very different perspective on the sexual act. For a man the act of sex is external due to his organs and thus his attitude towards sex reflects that. A woman due to her physical organs is usually more conservative concerning sexual matters than men. Women usually require an emotional connection for sexual activity. Because of the emotional nature of the sex act to a woman, it tends to have more meaning. Women tend to have more of an attachment to their partner than men do. I remember every female virgin I ever “deflowered” had a deeply emotional attachment unlike any other of the women I was with. In some cases, that attachment may even persist to this day. Losing that purity and innocence can have a lifetime effect for not only the woman, but also the man. We live in a society that only promotes the pleasure of sex without the commitment of love and marriage. Our moral standards have been compromised.