The Christian Power System

Colossians 2:18-19

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This morning, we direct your attention to the mind of Christ, in Colossians 2:18-19, and our subject is "The Error of Angelic Worship," segment number eight.

On Palm Sunday 32 A.D., the Lord Jesus Christ made His final appeal to the nation of Israel, to recognize and to receive Him as the Messiah Savior, promised to the Jews by the Old Testament prophets. In Zechariah 9:9, we read, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your King is coming to you. He is just, and endowed with salvation – humble, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey."

Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem

This prediction of the final identifying mark of the Messiah Savior, Who would be sent by God to fulfill all of the covenant promises to Israel, and to make Israel the leading nation of the world, ruling over all nations through their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, was confirmed in Matthew 21:1-11: "And when they had approached Jerusalem, and had come to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, 'Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall should say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and immediately, he will send them.'

"This took place – that what was spoken through the Prophet (Whom we have just read to you) might be fulfilled. Say to the daughter, 'Behold, the King is coming to you, gentle and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the fall of a beast of burden.' And the disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them, and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid on them their garments on which He sat. And most of the multitudes spread their garments in the road. Others were cutting branches from the trees, and spreading them in the road. And the multitude going before Him, and those who followed after Him were crying, saying, 'Hosanna to the Sn of David. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest' (which means, 'Lord, save us). And when he had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, Who is this? And the multitude were saying, 'This is the Prophet Jesus of Nazareth in Galilee.'"

So, indeed, just as Zechariah had predicted, the final item of proof, with all the ministry of the three years that Jesus had been with them, was fulfilling this identifying mark: "Here is the true Messiah of God."

However, Jesus knew, even with all the adulation that surrounded him that day, He knew how shallow was the public acclamation of Him, and that the Jewish leaders, even at that moment, had rejected Him and His mission, and planned to kill Him.

Jesus Wept

We have this recorded for us in Luke 22:1-2: "Now the feast of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, was approaching, and the chief priest and the scribes were seeking how they might put Him (Jesus) to death, but they were afraid of the people." Later on, we have the record of how Jesus wept over Jerusalem, and over this people. Wonderful promises had been made to this nation. The covenants had reiterated this nation's future with God – unconditional covenants. They would be eternal. Finally, God sent His Son to fulfill all those promises, and He was rejected. By coming to visit some relatives, for whom you have esteem, and want to do some good, and they slam the door in your face.

So, Jesus, a little later, contemplating the reception He had received, and how shallow it was, and what was immediately ahead for Him, in Luke 19:37- XX , has this poignant observation: "And as He was now approaching near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice, for all the miracles which they had seen, saying, "Blessed is the King Who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees in the multitude said to Him, 'Teacher rebuked your disciples.' He said to them, 'I tell you if these become silent, the stones will cry out.' And when He approached and saw the city, He wept over it, saying, 'If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace. But now they've been hidden from your eyes, for the day shall come upon you, when your enemies will throw up a bank against you, and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and will level you to the ground. And your children within you, and they will not leave you, one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation."

So, the tears ran down the cheeks of the Lord Jesus Christ as He grieved over what He knew was now to be the destiny of the people of Israel for having rejected Him. Their day of visitation (the visit of the Messiah) had arrived. And instead of receiving Him with open arms, they rejected Him. Jesus said, "Just a few years down the road, everything that you take such great pride in – the city of Jerusalem, and your temple is all going to be brought down." In 70 A.D., the Roman armies, under Titus, came in, and they leveled the place. And everything, again, on Bible predictions (predicted prophecy) came true. And the Lord Jesus Christ was rejected.

Crucify Him

He had been received that Sunday with such great joy. By Wednesday of that week, the people were shouting out, "Crucify Him. Crucify Him. They had listened to their false teachers, the rabbis; and, the blind leading the blind.

In Matthew 27:22-25, "Pilate said to them, 'Then what shall I do with Jesus, who is called Christ?' And they all said, 'Let Him be crucified.' and he said, 'Why? What evil has He done?' But they kept shouting all the more, saying, 'Let Him be crucified.' And when Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water, and washed his hands in front of the multitudes, saying, 'I am innocent of this man's blood. See to that yourselves.' And all the people answered and said, 'His blood be on us, and on our children.' And God in Heaven said, 'So be it.'"

Today, the destructive effect of the blood of this crucified Savior is upon the Jewish people. They are facing the hour of their greatest turmoil. They're facing the hour of their greatest suffering. And all the world's nations, as the Bible has predicted, are coming together to battle over this little strip of land, and over this small nation of Israel, who has brought this grief upon themselves, because they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. With that official rejection on that Palm Sunday, the end came for Israel and her leaders.

490 Years

483 Years

After the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a new body of believers, made up of Jews and gentiles, called the church, was formed by God the Holy Spirit, beginning on the day of Pentecost, with its own grace way of life, totally unrelated to the Mosaic Law – church, the body of Christ. To the Christians of the church dispensation was given a prize – a permanent treasure of spiritual relationships with God – a spiritual power system totally unknown in the Mosaic Law, and totally unknown as a part of the way of life of Israel. What a great and wonderful privilege, to be living in that age of the church.

Paul, in our study of Colossians 2:18, warns the Christians not to permit some misguided, legalistic teacher to rob them of their church age prize – their way of life, by convincing them to live under the Mosaic Law way of life again in the Old Testament. Paul says, "Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize." And it is a command: "Don't let anybody rob you of the power system of spiritual living." You don't have to walk around discouraged. You don't have to walk around dragging. You don't have to walk around defeated. You don't have to walk around as a slave to your sin nature. You cannot live other peoples' lives for them. Everybody is his own priest, and you cannot even live the lives of other Christians. They will make their choices. They will bear the consequences. And they will enter into eternity based upon those choices.

This would be such a loss of the Christian's grace-age prize in Christ, if they were to go back to the Mosaic legalistic system. This would incapacitate the Christian, to be able to walk by means of the Holy Spirit, and to be able to have God doing right for you, and through you. That's what the Jew wished somebody could do. All he had was his own self-determination and effort. The sin nature brought him down. Without the power of the Spirit of God, we cannot produce divine good works, and thus to merit rewards at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

The Christian Power System

This tragic mistake of trying to bring the Mosaic Law into the church age experience is with us to this very day. The devil was victorious in the Protestant Reformation – that the reformers did not understand the difference between Israel and the church. And they thought that the church became the new Israel. The Mosaic Law had no spiritual power to enable the Jew to do the right thing. Christianity does have this power in the doctrines of the church age – the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit, so that the Christian can do what is right.

In 2 Timothy 1:14, Paul advises (admonishes): "Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasure which has been entrusted to you." And you must be careful not to take that lightly. This treasure of yours to be able to live a godly life is one thing that Satan wants to deny you of just as quickly as he can. This is one thing he does not want you to understand – that you can live a life of victory over sin, and that you can take the hard times, and you take it in stride. You do all things to the Lord's glory, and you learn what it is to be above the lust patterns of the sin nature. And you learn to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ with the esprit de corps that only grace living can provide you with.

"Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasure which has been entrusted to you." The last treasure we now look at this morning is found in 1 Peter 1:13-16. The Christian is called to live a supernatural lifestyle. He is called to live a life that only God can live. Is that crazy or what? No, it is the way of the church-age. This is part of your great prize for having accepted Christ as Savior. You have the great prize (the great treasure) of being able to live a life that on the human plane is impossible: God in us; and, Christ in us – the hope of glory.

1 Peter 1:13 says, "Therefore, gird your minds for action. Keep sober in spirit. Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ (the rapture). As obedient children do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance. But like the Holy One Who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior, because it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.'"

In this passage, we are called to reflect the holiness of God in our daily lives – internally and externally. Such a thought would have been outrageous to the Jew. He could not imagine anybody suggesting such a thing – that you could walk through your life exactly the way Jesus Christ would have walked through it, and that your mind would function just exactly the way His mind would function. He always acted in His humanity. He acted because He was under the power system of the Holy Spirit, and that same power system, in the knowledge of the Word of God, is available to us.

Gird Your Loins

So, 1 Peter 1:13 says, "Therefore, gird your minds." This means to prepare your mind for action. You prepare your mind for action by knowing church-age Bible doctrine– that you may have the mind of God, and you know how the church-age power system functions. You know about sin. You know about the inner circle of temporal fellowship. You know about stepping aside with sin. You know about confession, and being brought back in. You know about feeding your soul upon the Word of God. That's why you came this morning. And you would be treated ill, and with great indignity if you could not walk out of this service and say, "I understand something more about the way God thinks, and I understand something more about how I am to conduct myself. I have mental preparation."

General George Patton said: "Battles are won in the mind, not on the field." They're won in the preparation of the minds of the soldiers. They have the mind of victory, and they have minds which have been prepared for the battle which is before them, and they are ready. In a conference one time, with British officers, things were now on a high roll in Germany, and General Patton was planning what he was going to do next. And one of the generals said, "Well, I would think, Patton, after what you have done, you'd pull back and regroup." And General Patton said, "Not me. I don't like paying for the same real estate twice." And the British officers said, "Well, the men might need to be rested so they'll be ready and willing to go." And Patton says, "They'll go because I tell them to go."

Now, that is grace power. That is a mental attitude – being ready to go, and ready to meet the enemy. And that can only come, for a Christian, through the knowledge of the Word of God. Christians who go into spiritual combat have to have tough-minded, divine viewpoint, frame of reference in the face of Satan's lies. You have to know your enemy and you have to know how to meet him on the field of spiritual combat. You have to know the deceits that he's going to throw up. And you have to know that God your father is always with you, and He will never let you down. He's right there at the front of the battle with you. Spiritual battles are won or lost in the mind. When you start focusing your eyes on yourself, you're going to go down. When you focus your eyes on Christ, I don't care what the tragedy is, and I don't care what the hard time is – you will rise above it, and you will win. That's called "esprit de corps" of the grace way of life.

Keep Sober in Spirit

Secondly, verse 13 says, "Keep sober in spirit. This means to be free from emotional domination of the soul. You don't go into battle with a lot of rah-rah hoopla, when your mind has not been prepared, and your skills have not been honed for spiritual combat. If you do try going in with a lot of rah-rah hoopla, you will be brought down. You do not defeat with emotions. Yet, that is the focus in Christendom today. In service-after-service, gathering-after-gathering – people talk about gathering for a worship and praise service. It's a codeword. Right away, I know there's going to be a lot of jumping and jiving, and clapping hands, and singing monotonous songs which do not have any melody, and no biblical message – but simply repetitive.

If you look in the Dallas Morning News from last Thursday, they have a special church page, and there it is – churches being advertised in display ads. But there we are on the church page. And when they put it in, I said, "Now, you don't put us under 'non-denominational.'" That's where all the kookies are: "You put us under 'Bible churches.'" So, there we were. We were under Bible churches last Thursday. We're the biggest ad on the page, which shows that we obviously are the biggest operation, and we're telling people" Come and have a good time. Come and meet the friendliest people on earth." I couldn't even say that. For some of you, that would never be true. But you can see all the things you can say to play the emotions. No, I just put it up there and said, "The trained; the serving; and, the rewarded. Come join us." Somebody's going to read that, and the Spirit of God is going to trigger a bell. And we have a little line in there: "We explain the Bible verse-by-verse every Sunday.

One of our people called my attention to the fact that we might want to say something about the music. Services now have to have the regular service, that the old folks go to, and then they have the contemporary service, that the jumping and jiving folks would go to, such as Bob Short would go to. And they are really big. The drums are beating, and the music is monotonous, and non-melodic and repetitive. And I am going to do that. I'm going to make the picture of the gym a little smaller, and we'll put a phrase in there, I haven't quite worked it out yet, but it will be something like, "Congregational singing of the great biblical-oriented hymns of the Christian faith" – something like that. But I do want to get across to these people that we worship in spirit and in truth. We don't try to con you that you're doing that with your emotions.

So, Paul says, "Keep sober. Be free of this emotional domination of the soul. Instead, be controlled by the divine viewpoint of the Holy Spirit, within – not by the old system, without, with all of its lies.

Fix your Hope on the Grace of Jesus Christ

Then the next phrase, in verse 13, says, "Fix your hopes completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ:" Fix your hope on the fullness of grace to be bestowed on the Christian, at the return of Christ at the rapture, when our ultimate salvation will kick in, and we shall be like Christ." That's where grace is carrying us to. It is carrying us to the ultimate fulfillment of being brought into the presence of Jesus Christ. And we are going to be caught up to meet Him in the air. Then here on earth, God will reach down, and He'll hit the pendulum of the prophetic clock of Israel. It will start ticking off those last terrible seven years of Israel's 490-year history, and the result will be the worst time of terror and disaster the world has ever seen. And it will be the greatest suffering that Israel has ever experienced. It will be a time of terror like they have never known before. And we thought it was pretty bad under Hitler.

This time is coming, and we Christians need to be focused on that. You are going to check out, folks. You're not immortal. And when you go, that's going to be the end. All the records will be complete, and you can live your life as an airhead. Or you can say, "I have a life, and I have an investment of eternity. I can't do everything, but what I can do, I will do. I'm going to see how much I can live in the world. I'm not going to see how much I can spend my time accumulating. But I am going to put my life in, with my spiritual gifts day-by-day, in what God has called me to do – my mission. So, that ultimate salvation is what's ahead of us.

So, living a godly life now is what he's calling us to do, in view of what we're going to become at the rapture. 1 John 3:2 does the same thing. It says, "Beloved, now we are children of God. And it has not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that when He (Christ) appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is." Verse 3: "Therefore, everyone who has this hope (to be transformed into the very image of Christ spiritually, with absolute righteousness) fixed on Him, purifies himself, just as He (Christ) is pure."

So, we're called upon to live a supernatural lifestyle of holiness. First of all, we are to be getting our minds prepared for action with the Word of God. Secondly, we are to be having a sober spirit, where the mind directs us, under the leading of the Holy Spirit, in what we do with our lives, and people do not lead us around like some cattle beast with a ring in its nose, by playing on our emotions. And third, that our hope is fixed, not on this world, or the things of this world, but that this is just the means for us to fulfill that mission to which we've been called, and our hope is in Jesus Christ.

Do not be Conformed in Ignorant Lusts

Then verse 14: "As will be in children, do not be conformed in your former lusts, which were yours in your ignorance." Do not be conformed to the sin nature lust patterns. That's the spiritual ignorance of the world. Christians are to be characterized, not by the way they lived in their unsaved days, when they are ignorant of God, because in those days they are full of themselves, and they were full of religion.

The apostle Paul reiterates this same concept in Romans 12:2. Paul says, "Do not be conformed," and the Greek word there means "external conformation: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed." And this Greek word means "internal change" or "spiritual change:" "But be transformed by the renewing of your mind." How do you renew your mind spiritually? With the doctrines of the church-age: "That you may prove what is the will of God – that which is good, and acceptable, and perfect" (mature).

Ephesians 2:3: "Among them, we too all formerly lived (the unsaved):" "Among those unsaved, we all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh, and of the mind, and were by nature, children of wrath, even as the rest." But Paul says, "No more. Now we are to choose to obey God the Father – not to obey Satan."

Be Holy

Then Peter says, in verse 15: "But like the Holy One (Christ) Who called you, be holy yourselves also, in all your behavior:" "Be holy, like the Holy Spirit Who called you (to spiritual regeneration as children of God):" "But like the Holy One who called you, be yourselves holy," in your what? Your behavior." Of course, it grieves us when we see some young person among us have a behavior that's on the level of the world, and that has a behavior of the shallowness and the cheapness of the world system of living your life as if you were some kind of a dog sniffing another dog.

What is going on with Christians who live like that? Well, you have a will, and you bear the consequences of your choice: "But like the Holy Spirit, Who called you (like the Savior Who called you) be holy yourself in all your behavior," from your mental behavior to your external behavior. The Christian's personal behavior is to be Christlike. This is done through the power of the Holy Spirit, and the guidance of biblical morality. That's the lifestyle – the pattern of Christ.

When a Christian sins, which he will, and he steps out of the inner circle of temporal fellowship, he repents; confesses his guilt to the Father; and, he moves out again in temporal fellowship as per 1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanses us from all unrighteousness." He will do it every time. He's just – He covered it by the death of Christ on the cross. And He will cleanse us from the unrighteousness of sins that we may have been guilty of, that we're not aware of.

Then, finally in 1 Peter 1:16, here's the summary of what all this is about, and what he's been leading up to: "Because it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy. A Christian is to live the godly standard which reflects the absolute righteousness of God his father, and which was so magnificently portrayed in the humanity of Jesus Christ – not by Christ with His deity, but by the humanity of Jesus Christ. Here's what a human being, with a knowledge of doctrine, and a positive evolution toward that truth, and the power of the Holy Spirit, can become. This is our way of life.

Now, you can choose it, or you can think that the world has something to offer, Now, this same standard of godliness – God doesn't change the standard. The same standard was imposed upon Israel. It was required of the Jews. But they could not achieve this by any sincerity of desire, nor by any capacity. But they were required to live in the same way that we Christians are called upon to live, reflecting our family heritage in this family of God.

In Leviticus 11:44-45, this principle is laid out to the people of Israel: God says, "For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. And you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth. For I am the Lord Who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God. Thus you shall be holy, for I am holy. How holy; righteous; and, good are we Christians expected to be? As holy as the standard of our God. Can you do that? Not in a million years. Can God do it for you? He certainly can, and He is eager to do it.

In Leviticus 19:2, the Jews were told: "Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel. Say to them, 'You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God am holy.

So, this was a magnificent standard, and it was demanded of Israel. We come to the New Testament, the church-age, and one of the parts of our prizes (our treasure in Christ) is the capacity to live the holy lifestyle. The Old Testament saint had no special superhuman power to live godly lives. All they had was trying the best they could with their self-control. And they failed. The Christian has the power of the Holy Spirit to live the holy life of Christ through Him. Human efforts can never please God. And all these people who were still trying to hang on to elements of the Mosaic Law – they should be pitied. They think that, by their human efforts, and by their human doing, they can please God.

In Romans 7:18, the apostle Paul says, "For I know that nothing good dwells in me (that is, in my flesh – my sin nature). For the wishing is present with me, but the doing of good is not. Paul says, "Oh, I'd like to do what is right, but I find myself doing what the sin nature wants me to do. That lust pattern of the sin nature comes through, and that's what I'm doing. And I don't want to do that. And I make a new resolution. And I'm not going to do that anymore. And I make a few good steps, and bingo!. The sin nature kicks my feet out from under me again, and once more I'm flat on my face." "For I know that nothing good dwells in me (that is, in my flesh). For the wishing is present in me. But the doing of the good is not."

In Romans 8:8-9, Paul says, "And those who are in the flesh cannot please God" – Those who are under the domination of the word "flesh," indicating the sin nature. "However, you (you Christians) are not enslaved to the flesh, but in the Spirit." You are enslaved to the Holy Spirit, unless you push Him aside, and the flesh comes back in, to be dominant: "If indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, He does not belong to Him. Without the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, you're not even a Christian.

We are not under the Law, but under Grace

Now, the Christians under is not under the Law, but he is under grace. Romans 6:14 makes that clear: "For sin (singular – the sin nature) shall not be master over you. For you're not under the Law, but you are under grace."

Walk by means of the Holy Spirit

So, what do we tell these people who are trying to impose the Mosaic Law system upon believers? We can explain it, but it's very hard for people to understand the prize of grace. Unless someone has walked you through, and shown you what magnificent position you hold in the royal family of God, you will not understand this. We, because we're under grace, are called to walk by means of the Holy Spirit – the knowledge of church-age doctrine, and staying in temporal fellowship by obedience. And when we step out of line, we exercise: repentance; and, confession to the Father, going on. Galatians 5:16: "But I say, 'Walk by the Spirit, and you'll not carry out the desires of the flesh."

So, when you do those terrible things; when you reject the lines of authority; or, when a life will not follow the lines of guidance of her husband, especially if he's a spiritual man, she's walking by means the sin nature, and the sin nature is directed by Satan. When a husband will not care for his family, and will not guide them in the knowledge of righteous living, then he is walking by means of the flesh, not by means of the Holy Spirit. When a young person thumbs his nose at his parents, and their guidance, and their authority, and their instruction, he's not walking by means of the mind of Christ that the Holy Spirit gives. He's walking by means of his sin nature that Satan gives. And you should understand that that's what is taking place, and whether that is the game that you want to play.

The Word "Not"

Does Galatians 5:16 say, "But I say walk by the Spirit, and you will possibly carry out the desire of the flesh." No." "But you will, most of the time, hopefully, not carry out the desires of the flesh." No. But now what does it say? "Not" – is that significant word here? You better understand this word. Galatians 5:16: "I say, on the authority given to me, as an apostle," Paul says, "if you walk by the Holy Spirit." I'd like to get one of these young guys up here, and tie one of his legs behind him, and tell him to take a step. He'll move forward, and if that other leg doesn't come out, he will go right on his face. Walking means that you're depending upon. You don't even stop to think. When you get up and walk out of here, you don't even think: "Now I have this one, and this one: left one; right one; left one; and, right one. And you know that if that right when isn't there, you're going to go over. It's a scary thing when that happens. It's very scary.

When I had the broken leg for a while, Robert Nichols came and made a ramp down from one room into the bedroom, because it's a different level. And I would go on a walker down there, back and forth. And then the leg had the external part taken off, and it was a regular cast, and I could go up and down steps. So, they came and took out that ramp. One night, I turned the lights off, and I'm on the walker. I know the way in the dark. And I walked and I forgot that they took the ramp out. The slant is no longer there. So, I hit one foot, and to put the other foot out, and there's nothing but air. Now, I know that air hits me at 14.7 pounds per square inch. But it's not enough, folks. Man, I joined the circus. I had a walker in one hand, and the other hand was reaching out and grabbing the side of the door, and I managed to grab it. And now I'm out there, hanging in the air.

Well, I said, "Lenora, do you want to come in here?" That was frightening. Finally, I get a leg, that's ready to go on its last stage of breaking, and I want to see if it's still strong enough not to break again.

Walking by means the Spirit means that if you don't take the right step in the Spirit of God, and the principles of godliness, and the principles of the Word of God, you're going to fall. You cannot walk as a Christian on your own. The sin nature is like a broken leg. It's not going to be there to support you. This says, "But if you walk in dependence and the trust of the Holy Spirit, you will not fall. The Greek language has this word "me." That is one negative. It is a negative with qualification. It is a negative that says to a girl, "Will you go out with me? I admire you. So, I'd like to go out, and have a date." And she said, "Me, now." But she is saying, "Go ahead and coax me." "Me" is not definitive. There's another word that says, "ou." That is another negative, and it means: "Get lost:" "Will you go out with me?" And if she says, "No" ("ou"), that means, "Don't even ask me again. Just get lost." This one is very definite. Now, in the Greek language, if you want to say, "Absolutely, no-way, unconditionally) the Holy Spirit puts the two together, and it's "ou me." And "ou me" means that there is no question about it.

So, it's nice to know that if you walk in dependence upon grace-age doctrine, and the leading of the Holy Spirit within you, you will not carry out the desires of the sin nature. There is no way. When you stop walking in dependence on Him, that's when you're exposed, and that's when Satan can get to you.

So, the filling of the Holy Spirit is the great way of living the supernatural holy life. The Holy Spirit desires to feel or to control the Christian (Ephesians 5:18). This feeling is secured to confession of known sins (1 John 1:9). This enables us to function under the grace system of perception – learning things by means of divine instruction, and producing spiritual maturity in the Christian (2 Corinthians 12:10, Acts 1:8, Acts 4:31, Acts 13:4, and Acts 16:6). All of our service, those verses tell us, are the divine good production of the product of the Holy Spirit in us. He does it through us. And the filling of the Holy Spirit is a ground of prayer (Ephesians 6:18). When you pray under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Father says, "I will answer that. That is truly under the authority of My Son's Name. And witnessing (Acts 1:8) – the reason you're going to hand out those brochures, is because you're in fellowship with God the Father and the Spirit of God moves you, and say, "Give it to this person," and you respond. Without that capacity you won't be that open to do that – you won't be eager to do that.

Finally, we close with our means of glorifying Christ, because we are filled with the Holy Spirit. John 16:13-15: "But when He, the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will give messages from God," which is recorded in Scripture, including things that are future.

Verse 14 says, "He shall glorify Me, for He shall take of mine, and shall disclose it to you." He will glorify Christ by disclosing the things of Christ to you.

Verse 15: "All things that the Father has are mine. Therefore, I said that He takes of mine, and would disclose it to you." Do you want to have knowledge about what to do with your life? Then get in fellowship, and maintain your status of filling of the Spirit, and all of heaven's resources (the greatest computer line of information in the universe, is at your disposal. And the result is that you will be able to live the supernatural lifestyle that is expected – yea indeed, commanded of us, as members of the royal family of God.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1995

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