To Live by the Spirit

"So I say,live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature." Gal. 5:16

Three in One:
God is three in one--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There are several imperfect analogies which help to explain the triune nature of God. For example, water is made up of three parts (two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen), yet remains one in substance. Water can take on the form of ice, liquid or vapor, yet it's still water. You may be a daughter, a wife, and a mother, yet you're still you. Each of these analogies help us to glimpse God's triune nature in some tiny way,still each of these examples is pitifully limited. The best we can do is recognize that our one God is Father,Son,and Spirit.
The same God who willed, spoke, and energized the universe into being directs all His care and distinctive direction to your precious life. He continues to direct you through these same methods: the Father first wills,the Son speaks the Father's will to you through His Word,and the Holy Spirit supplies the power for you to obey.
Have you been feeling a little insignificant lately? Unimportant? How's this for a change in perspective? The entire Godhead is intimately involved in your daily life using the same power and glory with which He commanded creation into being. He must find you rather significant!

An Eternal Guarantee:
"Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us,set His seal of ownership on us,and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come." 2 Cor. 1:21-22

John 16:7-11 tells us that the Spirit acts as our Counselor.
Titus 3:5 tells us the Spirit saved us.
1Cor. 12:13 says that "we were all babtized by one Spirit."
1Cor. 6:19-20 calls our body the "temple of the Holy Spirit."
Ephesians 4:30 tells us that our behaviors can grieve the Spirit.

Led by the Spirit:
"Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited,provoking and envying each other." Gal.5:25-26

1Cor.12:1-11,28-31 describes the Spirit meeting the needs of the church and indivu=idual believers through spiritual gifts.
I would encourage you to study the gifts and pray and ask The Spirit to show you your gifts. It is essential to know so that you can use them to build up the church. Ask, He will lead you.

Flesh vs. Spirit:
"For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want." Gal.5:17

We are constantly in battle bwtween the flesh and the Spirit. But for our sake we can hold onto 1John 4:4 "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."
He that is in us is the key to overcoming :he that is in the world," all that is "of the world," and all that is of the flesh.

Spiritually Mature:
1.The Natural Man:
Romans 8:9 says, "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ." The unsaved man or woman cannot discern the spiritual things of God. Those without Christ are spiritually dead (Eph 2:1, alienated from the Spirit of God.

2. The Carnal Man:
1 Cor.3:1-3 says, "Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly-mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealosly and quarreling among you, are you not worldy? Are you not acting like mere men?"

The worldly or carnal men Paul addresses in these verses are positively saved. Paul defines the worldly man in 3:1:they are "mere infants in christ." they act very much like someone who does not have the Spirit of Christ, who is not born again...they act like "mere men."
This sobering truth should caution our tendencies to judge the state of someone else's salvation.

3. The Soiritual Man:
1 Cor. 2:15 says, "The spiritual man makes judgements about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgement."

The spiritual man is the person in which the mind of christ is activated! He or she is a person who delights in the meat of God and not just the milk. Her mind is open to those things which, "no eye has seen, nor ear has heard, no mind has concieved." She lives and thinks in a capacity far beyond that of "mere man." Why? Because she "lives in the Spirit"!

If we are going to live in as a spiritual man, it will result from a deliberate, conscious surrender to the Holy Spirit of God.

My prayer is that we all choose to live by the spirit...it is life changing...which can change the world!

until next week,
brandy