The Daily Word of Righteousness

Living in the Fullness of the Spirit

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7,8)

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

There are only two ways a person can live. One is in the adamic nature. The other is in the Holy Spirit. Each thought we think, each word we speak, each deed we perform, is from either the adamic nature or the Spirit of God.

It is God's will that every saved person think, speak, and act in the Holy Spirit. We of the Church are a firstfruits of what one day will be true of every person on earth—on the present earth and also on the new earth.

We Christians find that each day we are challenged to turn away from our fallen nature and choose to behave in the Spirit of God.

The Holy Spirit Is God

We of the Pentecostal movement need to understand the Holy Spirit is God. We are baptized into the name of the Father, into the name of the Son, and into the name of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God along with the Father and the Son. Although He is an integral part of the one Godhead, we see that the Spirit is an individual Person in His own right, in the following passage:

Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. (Matthew 12:32)

We can be forgiven if we speak a word against the Lord Jesus, but if we speak against the Holy Spirit we will not be forgiven. I think this statement reveals clearly that the Holy Spirit is a Person in His own right.

In our Pentecostal services we stress speaking in tongues, and also a good feeling we may have from time to time accompanied by various actions as we may feel inclined. The tongues and the feelings constitute a large part of our understanding of the Holy Spirit.

I believe few believers speak in tongues more than this writer. I have been speaking in tongues for over fifty years and find this gift to be an invaluable aspect of the Christian experience, so valuable in fact that it is difficult to imagine what life would be like apart from frequent speaking in tongues.

Yet we must realize numerous believers speak in tongues at one moment and then slander their neighbor at the next moment. How can this be? It is because speaking in tongues is a gift we can exercise at will and is not an evidence that we are walking in the Spirit of God. People who are walking in the Spirit of God do not slander their neighbor!

As far as our feelings and actions during a fervent service, these may be the result of various spirits present at the meeting, and how we act out is the result of our own personality responding to how we feel.

We need to understand the Holy Spirit is God, not tongues, not prophecy, not a feeling. He may provide these but He is God, not manifestations.

To be continued.